Short Subjectives July 02 2008

OPENING WEDNESDAY

HANCOCK (PG-13) See review.

KIT KITTREDGE: AN AMERICAN GIRL (G) Little Miss Sunshine’s Abigail Breslin stars in this big-screen venture from the überpopular American Girl line of dolls and merchandise. The plot follows Kit and her friends as they investigate a mystery in Cincinnati circa the Great Depression, sort of like “The Little Rascals.”

OPENIING FRIDAY

THE ANIMATION SHOW 4 (NR) See review.

GONZO: THE LIFE AND WORK OF DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON (R) See review.

DULY NOTED

CINEMAMA!!! This film series shows films every Thursday night and includes popcorn, pillows and drinks. Free. 8 p.m. New Street Gallery, 2800 Washington St., Avondale Estates. cinemama.org.

CLASS OF NUKE ‘EM HIGH (1986) (R) Warren and Chrissy, students at a high school next to a nuclear power plant, must defend themselves from their cannibalistic mutant love child in this classic gore fest. Tues., July 8. Plaza Theatre. www.plazaatlanta.com.

THE LION MOUNTAINS: A JOURNEY THROUGH SIERRA LEONE (2006) (NR) A documentary look at life in Sierra Leone and how the British Empire adversely affected the naturally rich nation. Free. 6 p.m. APEX Museum, 135 Auburn Ave. www.sankofaspirit.com.

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, Fridays at Plaza Theatre, and Saturdays at Peachtree Cinema & Games, Norcross.

SUPER MEGA SUMMER CINE SCIENCE FICTION FEST (NR) Georgia State University’s Cinefest presents a three-week festival of science fiction movies that run the gamut from genre classics to vintage cheese, with Forbidden Planet and the silent Metropolis qualifying as the former and Logan’s Run and Ed Wood’s Plan 9 from Outer Space fitting with the latter. Through July 3. Free-$5. Georgia State University, 66 Courtland St., Suite 240. www.myspace.com/cinefest.

CONTINUING

21 (PG-13) Based on the best-selling nonfiction book Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, by Ben Mezrich, 21 tells the story of ambitious students who become card experts. Starring Kevin Spacey, Laurence Fishburne and Kate Bosworth.

88 MINUTES (R) Al Pacino stars as a forensic psychiatrist and college professor who has 88 minutes to solve his own murder before it happens.

BABY MAMA 2 stars (PG-13) “30 Rock” creator Tina Fey plays a variation of her small-screen alter ego as an unmarried successful executive who hires an uncouth surrogate (Amy Poehler) to have her child. Former “Saturday Night Live” co-anchors, Fey and Poehler make an appealing comedic duo, but the film never rises above the thudding level of a female “Odd Couple” dynamic of slob vs. snob, while writer/director Michael McCullers shows no understanding of real-world fertility issues. -- Curt Holman

BIGGER, STRONGER, FASTER* 3 stars (PG-13) America’s obsession with the extreme comes under an entertaining and thought-provoking microscope manned by director Christopher Bell. Himself a man of size, Bell uses his two brothers’ steroid use as a microcosm for a national problem — though detractors might find his ultimate conclusions frustrating and ambiguous. — David Lee Simmons

THE CHILDREN OF HUANG SHI (R) Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Radha Mitchell and Chow Yun-Fat star in this film about 1930s war-torn China.

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN 2 stars (PG) Thirteen hundred years after they ruled Narnia, the Pevensie siblings (Georgia Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley and Anna Popplewell) return to the magical realm to help rightful Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) overthrow a tyrant. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe featured a greater sense of wonder, better special effects and stronger supporting performances (Peter Dinklage proves the sole saving grace here). Caspian builds to some lavish sword-and-sorcery eye candy in its second half, but takes a long, joyless slog to get there. -- Holman

DR. SEUSS’ HORTON HEARS A WHO! 4 stars (G) In this CGI adaptation of the Dr. Seuss classic, a kindly elephant (voiced by Jim Carrey) protects microscopic Whoville from hostile nay-sayers led by Carol Burnett’s Sour Kangaroo. Horton cleverly doubles the narrative by making the Whoville mayor (Steve Carell) another lonely believer, and generally retains the heart of the book and slapstick worthy of old Bugs Bunny cartoons. It’s as if the filmmakers knew exactly how big a desecration was Carrey’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and did exactly the opposite. -- Holman

THE FALL 2 stars (R) The Fall takes place “Once upon a time” at a Los Angeles hospital around 1915, and follows the relationship of two injured patients. One-named director Tarsem presents so many exotic settings, bold compositions and hyper-realistic colors that the movie could provide a breathtaking series of glossy still photographs. The Fall confirms that the director has the eye of a genius but lacks the heart of a truly satisfying cinematic storyteller. — Holman

THE FOOT FIST WAY (R) The ultra-low-budget comedy, filmed in 19 days, follows the story of Tae Kwon Do instructor Fred Simmons and the trials he faces both at work and at home.

FORBIDDEN KINGDOM (PG-13) Obsessed with kung fu classics, American teenager Jason (Michael Angarano) discovers an ancient Chinese staff and finds himself transported back in time. Jason must return the staff to its rightful owner, the Monkey King. Also starring Jet Li, Yi Fei Liu and Jackie Chan.

FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL 3 stars (R) When TV star Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell) dumps her longtime boyfriend (Jason Segel, who wrote the script), he goes to a Hawaiian resort — only to find Sarah already there with her new lover, a fatuous rock star (scene-stealing Russell Brand). Of the seemingly countless comedies produced by Judd Apatow (and featuring supporting roles from the likes of Paul Rudd and Jonah Hill), this overlong but endearing one has enough raunchy laughs to belong in the company of such films as Knocked Up and Superbad. -- Holman

A FOUR LETTER WORD (NR) Luke, a playboy working as a clerk in a Chelsea sex shop, falls for a macho hustler.

GET SMART 2 stars (PG-13) In this adaptation of the 1960s sitcom, eager espionage analyst Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) is paired with gorgeous Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) to track down Russian nuclear material. With supporting players including Alan Arkin as the slow-burning chief, the spy spoof features smart casting but can’t decide whether Carell’s role should be likably naïve or a bumbling, overbearing know-it-all like Don Adams in the original show. Get Smart’s fat jokes and lumbering stunt scenes evoke the lame action-comedies of the 1980s, and topical gags about subjects like airport profiling were funnier in Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. — Holman

THE HAPPENING 2 stars (R) An unexplained toxic event causes people to commit suicide en masse, beginning in Central Park and spreading throughout the Northeast. The question is, what happened to Sixth Sense writer/director M. Night Shyamalan? He presents a few eerie sequences in this unsatisfying “Twilight Zone”-type horror tale with heavy-handed riffs on 9/11 and environmentalism. Alas, he seems to have completely lost the ability to write or direct human beings we can care about and misuses such actors as Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel. — Holman

HAROLD & KUMAR ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY 3 stars (R) Having gone to White Castle in 2004, cannabis aficionados Harold Lee and Kumar Patel (John Cho and Kal Penn) are mistaken for terrorists, shipped to Guantanamo Bay and take a zany trek across the American South. The film pushes its R rating in every conceivable area in the name of rude humor, but also aims to defuse modern-day tensions over profiling and prejudice by taking stereotypes and turning them upside down. Rob Corddry overplays his role as a dim, bigoted Homeland Security representative, but otherwise the film shows affection for its characters and its country, despite the bad habits of either. -- Holman

THE INCREDIBLE HULK 3 stars (PG-13) In this snappy do-over sequel to Ang Lee’s sluggish, overthought Hulk in 2003, fugitive scientist Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) seeks a cure for the anger-management condition that turns him into raging green giant. Transporter 2 director Louis Leterrier not only sets a fast pace and crafts plenty of CGI mayhem, he and the cast (including Liv Tyler, Tim Roth and William Hurt) find the soap-operatic heart of the story. All comic book movies should be at least this good. — Holman

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL 3 stars (PG-13) The latest Indy flick embraces the franchise’s nostalgia for itself, but the sentimental streak seems justifiable given the 19-year interim between chapters. It isn’t exactly a fresh film adventure — an automotive chase through the jungle feels like an undisguised retread of Raiders of the Lost Ark’s truck chase. But Crystal Skull comes across not as lazy, but laid-back, as though the filmmakers have too much confidence to panic about trying to top the earlier films, or compete with their younger selves. -- Holman

IRON MAN 4 stars (PG-13) After being kidnapped in Afghanistan, industrialist Tony Stark (an exceptional Robert Downey Jr.) uses a flying metal suit to right the wrongs of his company’s munitions wing. Marvel Studios builds a better superhero movie by taking such radical innovations as smart writing, rich acting and a recognizable, real-world setting. Enjoying spectacular special effects without relying on them, Iron Man feels more like an American James Bond film than a wannabe Batman or Spider-Man franchise. -- Holman

JELLYFISH 4 stars (NR) Israeli author Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen co-directed this often-enchanting little slice of magic realism about three disaffected women struggling to find their groove in Tel Aviv. Jellyfish practically sails on aquatic metaphors, creating a funny yet poignant image of lives drifting out of control. — Simmons

KUNG FU PANDA 4 stars (PG) In fairy-tale, talking-animal China, a fat panda named Po (voiced by Jack Black) is improbably chosen to be the all-powerful “Dragon Warrior.” The studio that gave us the Shrek movies downplays the pop references and body-function humor for a satisfying CGI action/comedy that features a splendid visual design and surprisingly exciting fight scenes, including a chopstick fight between Po and his diminutive teacher (voiced by Dustin Hoffman). — Holman

THE LOVE GURU (PG-13) Raised by Indian gurus, American “love guru” Pitka (Mike Myers) must reunite a star hockey player with his wife and impress the team’s owner (Jessica Alba).

MONGOL 4 stars (R) Russian director Sergei Bodrov traces the rise of Temudgin (Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano), better known to history as Genghis Khan, in this sweeping, exciting period piece nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. Not a particularly complex story (it slightly resembles the plot of Conan the Barbarian), Mongol presents the kind of old-school, epic cinema virtues you almost never get to see any more, including starkly beautiful scenery and panoramic battle scenes with hundreds of actors and horses. As he pursues his beloved wife Boorte (Khulan Chuluun) Temudgin displays progressive attitudes toward love and law that make him a Mongol ahead of his time, as well as an ass kicker with a sword. — Holman

OSS 117: CAIRO, NEST OF SPIES 4 stars (NR) Imagine if the Austin Powers movies were actually good. This French spy spoof set in 1955 superbly satirizes the espionage flicks of the early 1960s as superspy OSS 117 (a brilliantly smarmy Jean Dujardin) blunders around Cairo and significantly worsens the West’s relationship with Arab countries. In addition to being a cheerful, breezy parody of Sean Connery-era James Bond, the film offers some sly commentary about post-9/11 geopolitics. — Holman

SAVAGE GRACE 2 stars (NR) Julianne Moore delivers a fierce, focused performance as Barbara Daly Baekeland, the erratic, socially conscious wife of the heir to the Bakelite plastics fortune. Tom Kalin’s docudrama spans three decades of Barbara’s jet-set lifestyle with her icy husband (Stephen Dillane) and troubled son (Eddie Redmayne), culminating with a scandalous crime. The taboo-violating scenes prove unsurprisingly compelling and Moore commands the screen, but the film loses focus whenever the camera moves away from her. — Holman

SEX AND THE CITY 2 stars (R) The long-awaited and much-anticipated reunion of Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), Samantha (Kim Cattrall) and Charlotte (Kristen Davis) feels too little, too late. After nearly two-and-a-half hours of fashion, complaining and subplots that seem to go nowhere fast, the things that made the show fun don’t seem quite so endearing on the big screen. — Simmons

SPEED RACER 2 stars (PG) Competitive driver Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) and his jumping hot rod, “the powerful Mach 5,” clash with corporate conspirators in this aggressively fake, CGI-heavy adaptation of the cult anime TV series from the late 1960s. Hirsch, John Goodman, Christina Ricci and Susan Sarandon struggle to put soul into the trippy but incoherent and lifeless proceedings. The Wachowski Brothers, creators of the Matrix trilogy, spent a fortune just to give audiences a splitting headache. -- Holman

THE STRANGERS (R) While spending a romantic evening in a remote suburban home, a couple (Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman) is targeted by masked strangers.

THE SINGING REVOLUTION 3 stars (NR) Estonia’s decades-long struggle for independence is almost literally set to music in this moving documentary by the husband-and-wife team of James Tusty and Maureen Castle Tusty. Narrated with appropriate gravitas by actress Linda Hunt, the film sometimes overstates the impact of the country’s deep musical culture on its fight for freedom, but above all else makes for a compelling slide of world history. — Simmons

THE VISITOR 3 stars (PG-13) Writer/director Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent) continues his examination of people who have lost their rhythm in life with a story about a college professor (“Six Feet Under’s” Richard Jenkins) snapped out of his funk when he becomes involved with two charming illegal immigrants (Haaz Sleiman, Danai Guirira). McCarthy’s minor ambitions are almost to the point of ephemeral, but his character observations, and the space he provides for his small ensemble, result in a charming story about human connection. Jenkins’ work in particular is so subtle he all but allows the foreigners (including Hiam Abbass as Sleiman’s Syrian mother) to steal the show. -- Simmons

WALL-E 4 stars (G) WALL-E, a lonely, trash-compacting machine that might be the last entity on Earth, pursues his love for a sleek, feminine robot to the titanic starship that contains the human race. Finding Nemo director Andrew Stanton crafts a story with the intelligence and heart that’s the trademark of Pixar Studios (creators of the Toy Story movies), as well as the stunning images and visionary ideas of the best science fiction. Some audiences may be put off by the film’s sharp-edged satire of consumer culture, but WALL-E, like its robotic namesake, should last another 700 years. — Holman

WANTED 2 stars (R) A miserable young accountant (Atonement’s James McAvoy) discovers that his long-lost father belonged to an ancient “Fraternity” of assassins with magic hitman powers. Nightwatch director Timur Bekmambetov overdoses on flash in an effort to outmuscle The Matrix without capturing the other film’s ingenious sci-fi rules or its sparks of wit. The film features enough outlandish money shots to make it a hit (Angelina Jolie’s sexuality qualifies as its own special effect), but Wanted’s insolent attitude caters to just the kind of white-collar douchebags the film pretends to make fun of. — Holman

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS 1 star (PG-13) Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher play mismatched New Yorkers who get drunk, hook up and win a fortune in Vegas, but a cranky judge sentences them to “six months hard marriage” before they can break up and split the winnings. It’s hard to tell whether the contrived, nonsensical plotting is worse than the two-bit dialogue (Lake Bell and Rob Corddry as their respective best pals are particularly unfunny) in a comedy that plays like The War of the Roses for morons. You feel bad for Diaz, whose charms shine through despite lugging Kutcher’s dead weight. Stay in Vegas — please. -- Holman

YOU DON’T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN (PG-13) Zohan (Adam Sandler), an Israeli commando, fakes his own death to follow his dream of being a hairdresser.

YOUNG@HEART 3 stars (NR) Director Stephen Walker offers a funny and uplifting documentary about the Young@Heart chorus, a group of New England senior citizens with a penchant for puckish covers of punk rock and other incongruous hits. Faux music video segments come too close to mocking the elderly charmers, and Walker’s incessant, tell-don’t-show narration nearly botches what should be a can’t-miss subject for a nonfiction film. Walker nevertheless offers unforgettable portraits of feisty octogenarians who set an inspiring example of how to face the end of life with spirit and dignity. -- Holman