Short Subjectives October 17 2007

Opening Friday

30 DAYS OF NIGHT (R) When the sun doesn’t rise for more than 30 consecutive days and nights, vampires feed on the inhabitants of an isolated Alaskan town. David Slade (Hard Candy) directs.

THE COMEBACKS (PG-13) In Tom Brady’s (The Hot Chick) spoof on classic sports films Rocky, Field of Dreams and the like, unlucky coach Champ Fields (David Koechner) is hired to coach a talentless and deranged college football team.

THE DARJEELING LIMITED 3 stars (R) See review.

FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO (NR) See review.

GONE BABY GONE 3 stars (R) See review.

LARS AND THE REAL GIRL (PG-13) Ryan Gosling stars as Lars, a lonely introvert who falls in love with a life-size doll to the dismay of his brother and sister-in-law. Craig Gillespie (Mr. Woodcock) directs.

THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS IN 3-D (1993) (PG) The delightful stop-motion animation musical from Tim Burton and director Henry Selick sees the skeletal lord of Halloweentown get Christmas fever, with near-disastrous results. Look for tweaks in the animation to play up the film’s re-release in digital 3-D.

RENDITION 2 stars (R) See review.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (PG) Christian Slater plays Moses — did you ever expect to hear that combination of words? — in this computer-animated retelling of the Biblical story, featuring such other celebrity voices as Ben Kingsley, Alfred Molina and Elliott Gould as God. No, really.

THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE 2 stars (R) See review.

Duly Noted

A HARD DAY’S NIGHT (1964) Richard Lester’s Oscar-nominated film about a ‘typical’ day in the life of the Beatles returns to the big screen. $12. 8 p.m. Tues., Oct. 23. 14th Street Playhouse, 173 14th St. 404-733-4738. www.14thstplayhouse.org.

ALICE’S HOUSE (Brazil, 2007) Director Chico Teixeira’s film explores the absurdities, tragedies and comedies of everyday life. $5. 8 p.m. Fri., Oct. 19. High Museum, 1280 Peachtree St. 404-733-4400. www.high.org.

DOCUSPAIN: THE MIRACLE OF CANDEAL (Spain, 2005) A celebration of Latin music, Fernando Trueba’s film tells the story of how music transforms a gritty Brazilian neighborhood. $5. 8 p.m. Thurs., Oct. 18. High Museum, 1280 Peachtree St. 404-733-4400. www.high.org.

THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) (R) The cult classic of cult classics, the musical horror spoof follows an all-American couple (Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick) to the castle of Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry), a drag queen/mad scientist from another galaxy. Midnight, Fri. at Plaza Theatre, and Sat. at Peachtree Cinema & Games, Norcross.

Continuing

3:10 TO YUMA 4 stars (R) Christian Bale plays a tough but indebted rancher hired out to help escort a ruthless, charismatic outlaw (Russell Crowe) to the prison train that gives the film its title. After such revisionist Westerns as Unforgiven and HBO’s “Deadwood,” director James Mangold (Walk the Line) offers a pleasingly old-fashioned oater full of horses, six-guns, rugged landscapes and even more rugged actors. Crowe has the plum part, but Bale doesn’t let him steal the movie. — Curt Holman

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE 3 stars (PG-13) A handful of young Americans and one Liverpudlian sing Beatles songs amid the tumult of the 1960s in this trippy musical from director Julie Taymor (Titus, Frida). The trope of naming characters after Beatles songs, such as central lovers Jude (Jim Sturgess) and Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), can be ridiculously heavy-handed, but the film’s gorgeous visuals, appealing musical numbers and unstated Iraq war subtext keep it from being a baby boomer wallow in nostalgia. — Holman

THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD (R) Brad Pitt won Best Actor honors at this year’s Venice Film Festival in his potrayal of the legendary robber of the American West, although by all accounts Casey Affleck steals the film as resentful wannabe Robert Ford.

THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM 3 stars (PG-13) In the third Bourne movie, amnesiac superspy Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) crosses the globe to reclaim his memory and outwit his former CIA spy masters (including David Strathairn). Paul Greengrass also directed the trilogy’s previous entry and again masterfully employs shaky camera work and soundtrack percussion to raise the audience’s pulse rate; he could make doing laundry unbearably exciting. Nevertheless, given the identical plots (and impassive acting from Julia Stiles) in all three, it’s no wonder Bourne can’t remember anything. — Holman

THE BRAVE ONE 3 stars (R) In many ways, this is a classic right-wing vigilante film tweaked with a vengeful lady in the lead. Neil Jordan’s tale of a radio DJ (Jodie Foster) who decides to take revenge for her fiancé’s murder is an odd choice in a time when misplaced acts of aggression seem legion. But Foster’s soulful, guilt-plagued performance, wonderfully complemented by Terrence Howard as the NYC detective who both understands and condemns her rage, do much to distinguish what in other hands might be a simplistic action-movie plot.-- Felicia Feaster

DEEP WATER 4 stars (PG) Louise Ormond and Jerry Rothwell direct a gripping documentary about an ill-fated round-the-world sailing race from 1968. Deep Water primarily focuses on the dire straits of Donald Crowhurst, an ill-prepared sailor whose reckless decisions put him in increasingly difficult dilemmas. With stranger-than-fiction twists at the end, Deep Water joins such recent documentaries as Touching the Void and Grizzly Man that remind us that it’s not safe to fool with Mother Nature. -- Holman

EASTERN PROMISES 3 stars (R) Viggo Mortensen is astounding as a Russian gangster whose path crosses with an innocent midwife (Naomi Watts) searching London for answers about a dead Russian prostitute and her newborn baby. Despite some strong performances (Vincent Cassel for one), this is a disappointing follow-up to David Cronenberg’s searing A History of Violence. Relying too heavily on gangster-film clichés and veering from his distinctively gruesome vision makes this far from the director’s strongest film. -- Feaster

ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE (PG-13) Cate Blanchett reprises her Oscar-nominated role as Queen Elizabeth I in director Shekhar Kapur’s sequel, which finds the virgin queen encountering such royal headaches as Mary Stuart and the Spanish Armada.

FEAST OF LOVE 2 stars (R) Robert Benton (Places in the Heart) ensemble piece stars Greg Kinnear, Morgan Freeman and Jane Alexander among many others. Love and loss are set around a Portland coffee shop in this adaptation of Charles Baxter’s novel that feels like angsty drama aimed at the kind of people who buy their music at Starbucks. Painfully earnest and decidedly superficial, this dreary damp handkerchief of a movie offers more tortured hand-wringing than true thoughtfulness. — Feaster

FEEL THE NOISE (PG-13) Produced by Jennifer Lopez, R&B singer Omarion Grandberry stars as aspiring Harlem rapper Rob, whose mother sends him to Puerto Rico to live with the father he’s never met. Rob’s discovery of reggaeton influences his rap dreams as, along with his half-brother (Victor Rasuk) and a dancer named C.C. (Zulay Henao), he struggles to become a reggaeton star. Alejandro Chomski (Hoy y Mañana) directs.

THE FINAL SEASON (PG) Based on the true story of a small-town baseball team facing dismal odds for its championship game, a new coach must convince himself and the team of their chances to overcome the challenges. David Evans (The Sandlot) directs.

THE GAME PLAN (PG) Andy Fickman (She’s the Man) directs this story about superstar quarterback Joe Kingman (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) who must end his bachelor ways following the discovery of a daughter he never knew he had. Kyra Sedgwick stars as Joe’s tough-talking agent.

GOOD LUCK CHUCK (R) Dane Cook stars as a successful dentist doomed to bad luck in love because of a childhood hex. When he meets Cam (Jessica Alba), an accident-prone penguin specialist, he is determined to break his curse.

HAIRSPRAY 4 stars(PG) Yes, it lacks the funky soul sounds of John Waters’ original 1988 film of race and tail-shaking in 1962 Baltimore. But director and choreographer Adam Shankman clearly understands the value of keeping things moving in this rousing, infectiously toe-tapping film version of the Broadway musical. Shankman retains Waters’ smart-aleck, golly-gee-for-grime spirit and manages to distract from the relative horror of John Travolta (in the Divine role) in a female skin suit. Nikki Blonsky is sassy as the chubby, dance-crazy, integrationist teenager Tracy Turnblad, but it’s Christopher Walken as her joshing dad who often steals the show. -- Feaster

THE HEARTBREAK KID (R) The Farrelly brothers’ latest film finds single and indecisive Eddie (Ben Stiller) pressured into proposing marriage to the sexy Lila after dating for one week. On their honeymoon he meets the true woman of his dreams and strives to win her over while dealing with his increasingly awful new wife.

THE HUNTING PARTY 2 stars (R) Richard Shepard blasted onto the scene with his snarky hitman black comedy The Matador, but his follow-up film comes off as more of a whimper. Richard Gere, Terrence Howard and Jesse Eisenberg are journalists in postwar Bosnia on a mission to capture an elusive Bosnian war criminal. Shepard’s grasp at snarky, Esquire-meets-Hunter S. Thompson absurdity never gets off the ground and the decision to make comic hay out of a postwar landscape can come off as very bad taste. — Feaster

IMAX THEATER The Alps Follow John Harlin III in MacGillivray Freeman’s visually breathtaking documentary as he attempts to climb the same summit that proved fatal to his father 40 years ago.

IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH 3 stars (R) Writer/director Paul Haggis follows his Oscar-winning Crash (not to mention his script for Million Dollar Baby) with a sober, serious-minded inquiry into the Iraq war and its effect on America’s soldiers. Tommy Lee Jones embodies mournful stoicism as a veteran searching for his AWOL son near a Southern army base, with Charlize Theron playing a small-town detective assisting him on the case. The film feels a little too proud of its unglamorous visuals and deliberate pace, but builds to powerful, unnerving implications about the toll the war takes from the young men who wage it. ­-- Holman

INTO THE WILD 4 stars (R) Emile Hirsch stars as affluent Emory University grad Chris McCandless, who died at age 24 after dropping off the grid to live on his own in the Alaskan wilderness. A surprising amount of transcendence and hopefulness infuses the normally dour Sean Penn’s fourth directorial effort about McCandless’ physical and interior journey based on Jon Krakauer’s nonfiction account. Marked by nods to ’60s and ’70s cinema, Penn’s film also has relevance to our own times as growing eco- and global-awareness have made more and more people take a McCandless look at the bad path “civilization” is on. — Feaster

THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB (PG-13) A group of friends meets to discuss the works of Jane Austen and discovers their romantic lives imitate the stories in the novels. Robin Swicod (The Red Coat) directs.

THE KINGDOM (R) In this Middle-East-meets-West thriller, FBI Special Agent Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx) leads an elite team (Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman) in a criminal investigation in hostile Saudi Arabia. Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) directs.

LUST, CAUTION 3 stars (NC-17) Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) proves yet again, if there is a film genre, he will tackle it. A mix of classic Hollywood melodrama and saucy Japanese pink film, Lee’s wartime romance and spy thriller set in a 1940s Shanghai under Japanese occupation is rich with detail and a notable performance by newcomer Tang Wei as a spy in love with a collaborator (Wong Kar-wai leading man Tony Leung). But despite the luxurious atmosphere, Lee’s film never entirely satisfies in explaining its lovers’ behavior and motivations. — Feaster

MICHAEL CLAYTON 4 stars (R) George Clooney puts a haunted pall over his trademark charisma as the title role of this conspiracy thriller, a big law firm’s “fixer” who discovers the conscience he didn’t know he had. First-time director Tony Gilroy effectively evokes the paranoid films of the 1970s by creating a plausible sense of big-city dread, embodied in Tilda Swinton’s superb portrayal of a female executive wracked with guilt at her monstrous decisions. The instigating plot about an agribusiness cover-up isn’t very memorable, but Michael Clayton makes the most of is moral ambiguity without feeling merely vague. ­-- Holman

../gyrobase/Content?oid=oid:291092 3 stars (G) A silly throwback to the physical pratfalls of Keaton and Jacques Tati, this fluffy tale of semiretarded Brit Mr. Bean vacationing in the South of France is a nice break from the usual scatological kid movies. A campy cameo by Willem Dafoe as a pretentious American director in Cannes only ups the escapist fun. -- Feaster

RANDY AND THE MOB 3 stars (PG) In this indie screwball comedy, Oscar-winning writer/director Ray McKinnon plays a would-be wheeler-dealer and his more successful gay brother in a small Georgia town. Not all of the slapstick gags and plot contrivances work, but Walton Goggins (The Shield) offers a hilariously quirky turn as an idiot-savant wiseguy. Throughout, McKinnon shows the same eye for the charm and complex realities of the contemporary South that he brought to his previous films Chrystal and the brilliant Oscar-winning short “The Accountant.” ­-- Holman

RESIDENT EVIL: EXTINCTION (R) Milla Jovovich returns in the third and final installment of this video-game series as Alice, determined to eliminate the virus that threatens to make every human being undead.

RUSH HOUR 3 HIIII (PG-13) After an attempted assassination of the Chinese ambassador, the LAPD’S Chris Tucker and Chinese cop Jackie Chan bicker all the way to Paris. Fast-talking Tucker and fast-moving Chan make such a natural comic team that it’s a shame three-time director Brett Ratner never built them a vehicle with witty jokes or racial insight. All three films are pretty crummy, interrupting the loud comedy and louder action with some still decent stunt work from Chan (now 53 years old), but even the funny outtakes during the closing credits seem calculated. -- Holman

THE SEEKER: THE DARK IS RISING (NR) Based on author Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising series, Will Stanton (Alexander Ludwig) learns he is the last of a group of immortal warriors dedicated to fighting evil forces.

SHOOT ‘EM UP Clive Owen (Children of Men) must fight to protect himself and the newborn child he just delivered from the gunmen trying to kill them.

THE SIMPSONS MOVIE 3 stars (PG-13) In the long-awaited film version of television’s longest-running comedy, the Simpsons flee to Alaska when Homer (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) accidentally causes an environmental catastrophe. The movie offers far more laughs than you’d get from four current episodes of the once-brilliant show, yet the plot (involving a giant dome) turns out to be as lame and contrived as any present-day story line. The movie makes you laugh nonstop but miss the show in its heyday simultaneously. — Holman

SUPERBAD 4 stars (R) Jonah Hill and Michael Cera make a classic comedy duo as two nebbischy high schoolers trying to buy beer and score with girls before they go off to separate colleges. Although Superbad pays homage to the horny teen comedies of the 1980s, it’s far funnier, warmer and better acted than any of them (except possibly Fast Times at Ridgemont High). — Holman

SYDNEY WHITE (PG-13) Amanda Bynes plays a tomboy college freshman who joins forces with a group of dorky outcasts to wage war against the campus elite.

TRADE 2 stars (R) Based on a New York Times Magazine article about the global slave trade where women and girls from abroad are kidnapped into sexual slavery, this film is creepy and dire in all the wrong ways. German director Marco Kreuzpaintner juxtaposes the progress of a 13- year-old Mexican girl (Paulina Gaitan) abducted from Mexico City to “sell” in New Jersey with that of her brother (Cesar Ramos) desperate to find her who is helped by a cop (Kevin Kline) looking for his own daughter. Their often comically presented road trip as they chase down the about-to-be-sacrified virgin is especially repugnant. — Feaster

TYLER PERRY’S WHY DID I GET MARRIED? (PG-13) Tyler Perry (Diary of a Mad Black Woman) brings his theatrical production to the big screen where he stars alongside Janet Jackson and Jill Scott. The film explores the difficulties of modern relationships through the stories of eight married college friends.

VANAJA 3 stars (NR) The adolescent daughter (Mamatha Bhukya) of an Indian fisherman encounters obstacles to her dream of becoming a traditional Kuchipudi dancer. Indian director Rajnesh Domalpali provides a fine showcase for the art form as well as two terrific performances from Bhukya and Urmila Dammannagari as a former dancer turned imperious land-owner, although the increasingly petty human conflicts never prove as compelling as the dancer numbers.-- Holman

WE OWN THE NIGHT HIIII (R) James Gray (The Yards) has unwisely chosen to return to material that seems beyond his reach in this story of a good cop brother (Mark Wahlberg) and a coke-head bad brother (Joaquin Phoenix) who battle for their daddy’s (Robert Duvall) approval and the soul of 1988 New York. Gray does nothing to revitalize the genre of New York crime pictures and his handling of character, plot and even the most basic period details is equally sloppy. — Feaster