Short Subjectives August 02 2006

Opening Friday

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· AMERICAN BLACKOUT 4 stars When Georgia is on America’s mind, it’s often because of our embarrassing scandals: runaway brides, crane sitters and evolution deniers. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney is evidence that the state isn’t just a kook factory, but still breeds some powerful spokespeople for political truth and justice to counter all the “Entertainment Tonight” boondoggle. The controversial U.S. representative who has made fighting election irregularities and the Bush administration her mission is at the center of director Ian Inaba’s documentary American Blackout, which contends that America’s fundamental doctrine of one man, one vote suffered some depressing challenges in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, where efforts were made to suppress traditionally Democrat-voting African-Americans. — Felicia Feaster

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· BARNYARD (PG) In what sounds like a feature-film version of a “Far Side” gag, cows and other farm animals behave like human beings when no one’s looking. The question is, since cows are female, why are they being voiced by male actors like Kevin James of “The King of Queens”?

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· CAVITE 2 stars (NR) See review.

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· THE DESCENT 3 stars (R) See review.

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· LADY VENGEANCE 4 stars (R) See review.

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· THE NIGHT LISTENER 2 stars (R) See review.

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· TALLADEGA NIGHTS: THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY 3 stars (PG-13) See review.

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Opening Wednesday

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· WORLD TRADE CENTER (PG-13) Following United 93 comes another fact-based docudrama about the Sept. 11 attacks, this time focusing on the plight of two New York Port Authority officers (played by Nicolas Cage and Michael Pena) trapped in the rubble of the two towers. Oliver Stone of Platoon and JFK directs, but don’t expect leftist politics to be front and center.

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Duly Noted

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· INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (1989) 3 stars (PG-13) The Indiana Jones trilogy slows to a halt as Indy (Harrison Ford) rescues his bookish dad (Sean Connery) from Nazi no-goodniks. The prologue with River Phoenix’s young Indiana Jones racing around a circus train proves more fun than the rest of the film, but you can’t deny the matinee-idol charisma of Ford and Connery. Through Aug. 24. Cinefest, GSU University Center, Suite 211, 66 Courtland St. $5 ($3 until 5 p.m.). 404-651-3565. www2.gsu.edu/~wwwcft/. — Curt Holman

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· PRIDE & PREJUDICE 3 stars (PG) Director Joe Wright and screenwriter Deborah Moggach have done an exemplary job of making us care all over again about the plight of the Bennet sisters, whose busybody mom (Brenda Blethyn) sets about finding them suitable husbands against the backdrop of 19th-century England. The oldest daughter, Jane (Rosamund Pike), immediately lands a suitor, but the independent Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) finds herself embroiled in a grudge match with the brooding Mr. Darcy (Matthew MacFadyen). Coca-Cola Summer Film Festival. Sun., Aug. 6, 7 p.m. Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. $7. 404-881-2100. www.foxtheatre.org. — Matt Brunson

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· THE PROPOSITION 3 stars (R) The Australian Outback provides a stark backdrop for this dark Western from Down Under. Guy Pearce’s young outlaw must track down his murderous older brother (Danny Huston) to save the life of a naive younger sibling arrested by a brutal lawman (Ray Winstone). Following a stark, explosive introduction, this persistently violent film turns strangely passive, muting the power of its imagery. Through Aug. 11. Cinefest, GSU University Center, Suite 211, 66 Courtland St. $5 ($3 until 5 p.m.). 404-651-3565. www2.gsu.edu/~wwwcft/. — Holman

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· 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. It’s all fun and games until Meat Loaf gets killed. Dress as your favorite character and participate in this musical on acid. Midnight Fri. at Lefont Plaza Theatre and Sat. at Peachtree Cinema & Games, Norcross.

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Continuing

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· THE ANT BULLY 4 stars A Watermelon Man for the primary-school set, this delightful animated film illustrates that the high moral standards we teach in our kiddie films are not the ones we honor in the adult world. A bullied kid takes out his aggression on a front yard ant pile until he is magically shrunken down to ant size and forced to learn how the other half lives. In a female-centric colony governed by a smart, insightful Queen Ant (the voice of Meryl Streep), Lucas Nickle (Zach Tyler) finds an ant community founded on cooperation in opposition to his human world of warring individualism run amok. With enough bathroom humor to please children and some real integrity in its right-vs.-might message, the film pleases on many fronts. — Feaster

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· CARS 4 stars (G) In an alternate America populated by talking, thinking automobiles, a racing rookie (voiced by Owen Wilson) gets waylaid in a dying Route 66 tourist trap and gradually learns to appreciate small-town values. The predictable plot keeps Cars from competing in the class of such computer-animated masterpieces as Finding Nemo, but Pixar’s seventh cartoon feature benefits from gorgeous visuals, breezy comedic timing and genuine affection for the roadside attractions and car culture of yesteryear. — Holman

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· CLERKS II 2 stars (R) The beloved Quick-Stop that Dante Hicks (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson) worked in for the last decade burns down and the two clerks are forced to find new meaningless jobs. Entering the fast-food service industry, they have plenty of time to screw with customers and create sticky situations (pun intended) that complicate the lives of everyone involved. Although it has its moments, Clerks II is to a satisfying sequel what working at Mooby’s is to having a good job. — Noah Gardenswartz

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· CLICK 2 stars (PG-13) Venturing into the “Beyond” section of Bed, Bath & Beyond, harried Michael Newman (Adam Sandler) stumbles upon an eccentric employee (Christopher Walken) who gives him a universal remote with the power to control his life. For the first hour, this clever concept leads to some genuine laughs but more often gets buried under the sort of adolescent humor that long ago became the actor’s calling card. — Brunson

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· THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 3 stars (PG-13) For a time, this film is as much fun as flipping through a glossy mag, full of attitude, supermodels and big-city bitchiness. Anne Hathaway plays the recent grad and aspiring journalist who gets a job at the high fashion Runway magazine where she is tortured by boss-from-hell Meryl Streep, whose wondrously snarky performance steals the show. But director David Frankel can’t leave well enough alone. Burdened by mainstream convention, his film quickly unspools into a tiresome bottom-of-the-barrel teen film instructing us that fashion is shallow and meaningless and we were silly girls to believe otherwise. — Feaster

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· IMAX THEATER Amazon (NR) This documentary traces the Amazon River from its source in the Andes Mountains to the Amazon river basin and captures the beauty of its diverse wildlife. Through Aug. 18. Dolphins (NR): Pierce Brosnan narrates this slick look at dolphins and the bathing-suited scientists who study them. Fernbank Museum of Natural History IMAX Theater, 767 Clifton Road. 404-929-6300. www.fernbank.edu.

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· AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH 4 stars (PG) Former Vice President Al Gore lays out the scientific underpinnings of global warming to devastating effect. Essentially a filmed lecture interspersed with biographical material, Davis Guggenheim’s documentary contains some narrative limitations but otherwise presents a profoundly disturbing portrait of an impending global catastrophe, delivered by Gore with unexpected humor and passion. — Holman

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· JOHN TUCKER MUST DIE (PG-13) Three high school girls fall for the same guy, discover that he’s been cheating on them and exact revenge. Sort of like My Super Ex-Girlfriend, only there’s three of them and they don’t have superpowers. Director Betty Thomas also helmed The Brady Bunch Movie, Private Parts and the Dr. Doolittle remake.

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· THE LADY IN THE WATER H (PG-13) Spooky auteur M. Night Shyamalan may alienate even his core audience of New Agey thrill-seekers with this convoluted bedtime story about a lumpen Philadelphia apartment house maintenance man (Paul Giamatti) who enlists his tenants to save a stray water nymph (Bryce Dallas Howard) seeking refuge in his pool to escape the ferocious wolf-creatures who want to prevent her from returning to the “Blue World.” As tortuous to watch as it is to explain, trust me. — Feaster

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· LEONARD COHEN: I’M YOUR MAN (PG-13) This documentary tribute to the life and music of gravelly voiced singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen (who wrote such songs as “Everybody Knows”) features appearances by U2, Rufus Wainwright, Nick Cave and others.

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· LITTLE MAN 2 stars (PG-13) When an unsuspecting couple (Shawn Wayans and Kerry Washington) end up in possession of a stolen diamond, criminal dwarf Calvin Sims (Marlon Wayans) disguises himself as a baby to retrieve the priceless bauble. A robustly performed sequence involving a rectal thermometer is amusing, but the rest is slapdash and bare, despite Marlon’s Herculean efforts to turn Calvin into a notable comic creation. — Brunson

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· LOWER CITY H (R) This sex-filled love triangle from first-time director Sérgio Machado about two childhood friends (Lázaro Ramos and Wagner Moura) vying for the affections of a Brazilian hooker (Alice Braga) aims for gritty ambiance and passion as an escape from its characters’ impoverished misery. But its canned story line, shoddy writing, paper-thin characters and implausible incidents defy us to care for the threesome or see the film as anything more than a lot of sweaty rutting. — Feaster

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· MIAMI VICE 2 stars (R) Former “Miami Vice” executive producer Michael Mann helped create the look of the sun-drenched, 1980s-defining cop show, but directs the gloomy big-screen version like he’s trying to live it down. Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx play Crockett and Tubbs, detectives who go under cover as drug smugglers to find an FBI mole in an international drug cartel. Don’t bother trying to follow the plot, since Mann seems much more interested in the intriguing details of high-tech, globe-trotting drug-busting than crafting a coherent story. Despite the crispness of individual scenes, Farrell’s and Foxx’s low-key performances and the familiar plot make you long for the sight of pastel designer suits. — Holman

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· MONSTER HOUSE 2 stars (PG) Three sleuthing middle-schoolers suspect that the spooky house across the street possesses supernatural powers and a ravenous appetite for unsuspecting visitors. The haunted house looks great and the kid-characters play well with each other, but Monster House feels like a deliberate throwback to the 1980s’ shrill, silly suburban adventures like The Goonies. Take that as an endorsement or a warning. — Holman

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· THE MOSTLY UNFABULOUS SOCIAL LIFE OF ETHAN GREEN 2 stars (NR) Based on Eric Orner’s comic strip, this gay romantic comedy suffers from glib storytelling and a whiny, shallow title character. Daniel Letterle’s Ethan Green juggles numerous hunky boyfriends (including a recently out baseball player and a pushy, smug 19-year-old), but the humor plays as heavy-handed and obvious. Best are the thruway gags about contemporary gay lifestyles (“That’s so hot — a gay man without a cell phone!”) and Joel Brooks’ and Richard Riehle’s surprisingly understated portrayals as the Hat Sisters — middle-aged, mustached drag queens with sky-high bonnets and radical politics. — Holman

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· MY SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND (PG-13) Luke Wilson plays a regular guy who breaks up with his girlfriend (Uma Thurman), only to discover that she happens to be a super-powered crime fighter who doesn’t take rejection well. Co-starring Eddie Izzard and “The Office’s” Rainn Wilson.

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· PEACEFUL WARRIOR (PG-13) Scott Mechlowicz plays a young gymnast who finds inner peace amid high-stakes competitions, thanks to the sage advice of Nick Nolte.

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· PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST 3 stars (PG-13) Like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is to Raiders of the Lost Ark, this follow-up to the unexpectedly clever Curse of the Black Pearl waters down the wit of its predecessor with labored slapstick and spectacle. The middle section, featuring the satanic, half-human Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) and the freaky crew of the Flying Dutchman, features such chilling intensity and artful, infernal special effects, it provides the tide that carries this leaky vessel to port, despite the weaknesses of its script and Johnny Depp’s likeable but already familiar performance as slurring, sashaying Captain Jack Sparrow. — Holman

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· A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION 2 stars (PG-13) Renowned director Robert Altman offers a film version of Garrison Keillor’s long-running radio show. An array of stars parade across the screen, from Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin as crooning sisters, to Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly as dirty-minded cowboys (and Lindsay Lohan thrown in for some teen bait). But Altman, undoubtedly encumbered by a creaky Keillor script that interweaves a film noir element with the imagined demise under the wrecking bar of the “Prairie” show, has a hard time translating its homespun, quirky Americana so dependent on the imaginative space of radio to the literalism of film. — Feaster

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· A SCANNER DARKLY 3 stars (R) Richard Linklater’s animated adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s autobiographical dystopian 1977 novel of California drug addicts is sci-fi meets Slacker. Keanu Reeves plays an undercover cop trying to penetrate a group of “Substance D” addicts, but gradually loses his own identity in the throes of addiction and deep cover. — Feaster

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· SCOOP 2 stars (PG-13) We thought Woody Allen had regained his footing with the nasty thriller Match Point, but the regrettable stodgy comic is back in this essential regurgitation of the Match Point premise with comedy-thriller packaging. Scarlett Johansson is again a promiscuous American abroad in London who hooks up with a handsome aristocrat (Hugh Jackman) who may also be a serial killer. A madly flailing, quipping Allen is the American magician who helps Sondra Pransky (Johansson) solve the murder mystery but endlessly irritates with his same old schtick every step of the way. — Feaster

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· SHADOWBOXER (R) Cuba Gooding Jr. and Helen Mirren promise to be an unusual screen pair as two trained assassins who chose to redeem themselves when hired to bump off the pregnant wife of a mob boss. The debut film from Lee Daniels, producer of Monster’s Ball and The Woodsman.

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· STRANGERS WITH CANDY 2 stars (NR) In this movie version of Comedy Central’s cult-fave sitcom, middle-aged former sex worker and drug addict Jerri Blank (co-creator Amy Sedaris) re-enrolls in high school to get her life back on track. The most blank thing about the film will be the expression on its audiences’ faces, fans and the uninitiated alike. — Holman

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· SUPERMAN RETURNS 3 stars (PG-13) After five years in outer space, Superman (Brandon Routh) returns to Earth to discover that Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) has a son and Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) has a new world-conquering scheme. Bryan Singer, director of the first X-Men movies, spins the film as a nearly obsessive sequel to Christopher Reeve’s initial outings as the Man of Steel — which makes it all the more obvious that Routh, despite his wholesome farm boy qualities, is an amiable blank compared to Reeve’s witty portrayal. The film features spectacular action set-pieces and some delicious villainy by Spacey, but never really gets inside Superman’s head. — Holman

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· WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? 3 stars (PG) Chris Paine’s documentary chronicles the introduction — and subsequent suppression — of battery-powered, exhaust-free cars over the past decade in the Southwest. The first half’s chronological recap proves a bit shaky and frankly, reeks of celebrity concern. When the film systematically goes through the “suspects” in the murder of the electric car, it makes a compelling case against short-sighted consumers, meddlesome oil interests and half-hearted auto industry planning. When GM recalls the popular EV-1s and destroys them, despite the presence of customers willing to by them, the documentary confirms any environmentalist’s worst conspiracy theories. — Holman

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· YOU, ME AND DUPREE H (PG-13) Inflicting pain — both on its characters and hapless audiences — seems to be the play of the day as far as this cesspool of a movie is concerned. Owen Wilson plays Dupree, a slacker who’s invited to stay with his best friend Carl (Matt Dillon) and Carl’s new wife, Molly (Kate Hudson). A black-comedy specialist like Danny DeVito might have wrung wicked laughs out of this material, but the amateurs in charge here fail to leaven the unpleasantness with any compensating humor. — Brunson