Short Subjectives April 04 2007

OPENING THURSDAY

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THE REAPING (R) A former Christian missionary (Hilary Swank) becomes a world-renowned expert in disproving religious phenomena, only to be baffled by biblical plagues in a small Louisiana town in this thriller directed by Stephen Hopkins (The Life and Death of Peter Sellers).

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Opening Friday

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ARE WE DONE YET? (PG) 2 stars. In this modern interpretation of the 1948 post-war classic, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, family man Nick Persons (Ice Cube) moves from a city apartment to a drool-worthy country mansion but finds himself and his house wrapped around the finger of an outlandish local contractor (a genuinely uproarious John C. McGinley). The laughs are few and far between — mostly courtesy of McGinley — though Ice Cube’s scowl and introverted, impacted emotions come in handy in expressing homeowner building angst. — Felicia Feaster

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FIRST SNOW (R) 3 stars. See review.

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GRINDHOUSE (R) See review.

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THE HOAX (R) 4 stars. See review.

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MAFIOSO (1962) (NR) 4 stars. See review.

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TEARS OF THE BLACK TIGER (NR) 3 stars. See review.

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Duly Noted

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THE PSA PROJECT The PSA Project challenged filmmakers to cold call an Atlanta-based nonprofit organization, work with them to create a 30- or 60-second broadcastable Public Service Announcement, create full sound design and/or original music, and donate the finished product to the organization. The screening features shorts from Raymond Carr for The Center for Puppetry Arts, Kathy Skinner for Kate’s Club, Vinnie Murphey & Sister Smith for Out of Hand Theater, Maxwell Guberman for Citizens for Progressive Transit, Amy Jackson and Mark Burch for PAWS Atlanta, Tim Habegar for The Teen Ensemble at New Street Arts, JD Taylor for Georgia River Network and John Pruner for Moving in the Spirit. April 6-7, 10 p.m., PushPush Theater, 121 New St. 404-377-332. www.pushpushtheater.com.

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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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STEVE REICH MUSIC AND FILM FESTIVAL Program features three 1960s films with soundtracks composed or directly inspired by Reich. Robert Nelson’s Plastic Haircut (1963) is a dada-inspired San Francisco romp that features Reich’s earliest existing tape-collage piece. Nelson’s bitingly satirical Oh Dem Watermelons (1965) features a memorable tape-collage score by Reich. Out of circulation for decades, these films were recently rediscovered and preserved by the Academy Film Archive and will be shown in new prints. Gunvor Nelson’s My Name Is Oona (1969), a portrait of the filmmaker’s young daughter, uses sound material recorded by Reich and inspired by his tape-loop compositions. April 8, 8 p.m. Eyedrum, Suite 8, 290 MLK Jr. Drive. $7. 404-522-0655. www.eyedrum.org.

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STREET OF SHAME (1956) Although director Kenji Mizoguchi is known in the West mainly for period dramas such as Ugetsu Monogatari (1953), he also made a number of films dealing with contemporary social problems. This, his final film, provides a sympathetic portrait of women working in a Tokyo brothel. April 11, 8 p.m., Emory University, White Hall 205, Dowman Drive. 404-727-6761. www.filmstudies.emory.edu.

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Continuing

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300 (R) 4 stars. In 480 B.C., 300 Spartan warriors stand against an army of hundreds of thousands in an ultraviolent action epic that makes the Hercules and Conan movies look like flailing slap-fights. Like Sin City, it’s based on a macho graphic novel by Frank Miller and all the backgrounds are computer-generated; unlike Sin City, the painterly images don’t overwhelm the emotional investment of such actors as Gerard Butler and Lena Headey as Sparta’s king and queen. If it plays like the biggest Army recruiting commercial ever made (particularly given that the bad guys are Iranians — I mean, Persians), 300 nevertheless conquers its own overwrought tendencies to offer a thrilling, larger-than-life spectacle. — Curt Holman

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AMAZING GRACE (PG) 3 stars. Director Michael Apted (49 Up) examines the attempts of British reformers in Parliament led by William Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffudd) to end the Empire’s slave trade toward the end of the 18th century. While Apted’s own attempts to quicken the film’s extended storyline spanning nearly two decades by using flashbacks falls a bit short, the compelling subject matter and Gruffudd’s earnest performance are engaging enough. Veteran British actors Albert Finney and Michael Gambon lend a capable hand in supporting roles, with Finney playing a repentant slave-ship captain who eventually penned the famous gospel song of the movie’s title. — David Lee Simmons

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AVENUE MONTAIGNE (PG-13) 3 stars. A frothy but entertaining Gallic drama about how the other half lives, Daniéle Thompson’s sorta Cinderella story has a beautiful gamine (Cécile de France) taking a job at a chic cafe in the wealthy Avenue Montaigne district of Paris whose unhappy rich inhabitants she watches contemplating life changes. A pianist (Albert Dupontel) wants to give up his career, an art collector (Claude Brasseur) is auctioning off the fruits of his lifelong hobby and a soap opera actress (Valérie Lemercier) contemplates gladly trading her fame and riches to play Simone de Beauvoir on the big screen. If your expectations are low, the film is a diverting, pretty distraction. — Feaster

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BLACK SNAKE MOAN HIIII (R) Director Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow) returns to his favorite romantic triangle: a soulful black man, a white slut and the music that unites them. Samuel L. Jackson is a blues-playing farmer with a broken heart who decides he can heal the town slut (Christina Ricci) of her wanton ways (brought on by childhood sexual abuse) by chaining her to a radiator in her underwear. Both too stupid and too intent on the final-hour redemption of its cartoonish characters to qualify as camp, this lame homage to ’70s drive-in movies and Southern gothic feels more like the scenario for a Dixie-themed blue movie. — Felicia Feaster

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BLADES OF GLORY (PG-13) 3 stars. Two figure skaters, played by fey Jon Heder and swaggering Will Ferrell, attempt to put aside their bitter rivalry and become the first man-on-man ice-skating team. Will Ferrell’s typical comedies let the funny outfits do half the work, but Blades of Glory improves on the formula with stranger, snappier dialogue (“Get out of my face!” “I’ll get inside your face!”), a wonderfully bizarre vision of professional skating and an ability to tweak gay panic without resorting to actual homophobia. Ferrell and Heder make amusing foils, and the film gives “Arrested Development” fans a treat by reuniting Will Arnett and Amy Poehler as a psychotically competitive brother-sister figure skating team. -- Holman

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COLOR ME KUBRICK (NR) 3 stars. Director Stanley Kubrick’s former assistant director Brian Cook and personal assistant Anthony Frewin directed and wrote this diverting bit of comic nuttiness about the real-life con man Alan Conway who copped free meals and sex with gay men while masquerading as Kubrick during the late Nineties. A tad on the rambling side, the principal reason to see this farcical treatment of a Six Degrees of Separation scenario is John Malkovich who is utterly daffy as Conway. — Feaster

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THE DEAD GIRL (R) 3 stars. A gothic murder story told from a woman’s point of view, the five vignettes in Karen Moncrieff’s (Blue Car) grim indie follow people whose lives are touched before and after the brutal murder of a prostitute. Alt-cinema heavyweights like Mary Beth Hurt, Marcia Gay Harden and Toni Collette along with Moncrieff’s thoughtful examination of a strain of violence in women’s lives give this dark drama some emotional weight that excuses some of her melodramatic heavy-handedness. -- Feaster

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DEAD SILENCE (R) A newlywed (Ryan Kwanten) investigates the death of his wife after they moved to a haunted small town in this thriller directed by James Wan.

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FIREHOUSE DOG (PG) The world’s most famous — and Hollywood’s most pampered — pooch is separated from his owner and ends up as the mascot of a hapless fire station. There, he helps a 12-year-old boy (Josh Hutcherson) and his father, a veteran fire chief, turn the station into the city’s finest. Directed by Todd Holland.

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GHOST RIDER (PG-13) 2 stars. Is it possible that writer/director Mark Steven Johnson had never even read a Ghost Rider comic book before making the big-screen version? The original Johnny Blaze wasn’t a joke-a-second character; he was more somber, as one would expect from a biker who sold his soul to the devil (to save a loved one’s life) and then found himself living under a curse that transformed him into a flaming-skull creature whenever in the presence of evil. Of course, when you hire Nicolas Cage to star in your movie, it’s safe to assume that camp was what was intended all along. On the plus side, the special effects are pretty cool, and it was inspired to cast Peter Fonda as Mephistopheles (Easy Rider, meet Ghost Rider). Otherwise, this is yet another comic-book adaptation that goes up in flames before our very eyes. — Brunson

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THE HILLS HAVE EYES 2 (R) What started with the Carter family clearly didn’t end with the Carter family in the sequel to the remake directed by Martin Weisz. Co-stars Michael McMillan and Jessica Stroup.

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I THINK I LOVE MY WIFE (R) 2 stars. A bland comic remake of French director Eric Rohmer’s Chloe in the Afternoon starring, written and directed by Chris Rock about a Manhattan banker with a perfect home life in the suburbs, children and a pretty wife who nevertheless lusts for a sexpot (Kerry Washington) who tempts him away from home and hearth. Nothing new in the marital angst genre in this unsatisfying, mostly unfunny, oddly bitter translation of Rock’s standup comedy to film. -- Feaster

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IMAX THEATER Deep Sea (NR) Get an up-close-and-personal look at sea turtles, giant octopi and other strange and colorful marine life in this visit to the ocean floor. Greece: Secrets of the Past (NR) This documentary explores the archeological secrets of Ancient Greece and features the Parthenon in its original glory as well as the volcanic eruption that buried the island of Santorini. (Both films end April 13.) Fernbank Museum of Natural History IMAX Theater, 767 Clifton Road. 404-929-6300. www.fernbank.edu.

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THE LAST MIMZY (PG) Directed by Robert Shaye and based on Lewis Padgett’s sci-fi short story, Mimzy tells the story of two children who discover a mysterious box containing strange devices they think are toys. The “toys” begin to teach the children extraordinary things, and soon the family learns the “toys” are part high-tech electronics, part organic and contain important secret messages about the future.

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THE LOOKOUT (R) Directed by Scott Frank (Academy Award-nominated screenwriter for Out of Sight), The Lookout follows Chris Pratt (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a once-promising high school athlete who becomes mentally impaired after a tragic accident. After finding work as a janitor, Chris becomes part of a heist at a bank that employs him. The film also stars Jeff Daniels (The Squid and the Whale) and Isla Fisher (Wedding Crashers).

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MEET THE ROBINSONS (G) A schoolboy inventor travels to the future and meets a lovably eccentric family. This computer-animated family flick is based on A Day With Wilbur Robinson by William Joyce, whose playfully retro children’s books inspired the kid’s shows “Rolie Polie Olie” and “George Shrinks,” not to mention the cool designs of Robots.

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MUSIC AND LYRICS (PG-13) 3 stars. A has-been 1980s pop star (Hugh Grant) gets a chance to jump-start his career if he can write a new song, so he enlists a quirky amateur (Drew Barrymore) to come up with the words. After a shaky start, Music and Lyrics turns into a surprisingly smart and pleasant romantic comedy that persistently avoids the genre’s cliched complications. Grant proves reliably amusing and Barrymore has never been more charming, and their relationship credibly unfolds against a backdrop of the forced intimacy of a creative partnership, as well as the strains of the music industry’s pressure to artistic compromise. — Holman

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THE NAMESAKE (PG-13) 2 stars. Mira Nair’s (Monsoon Wedding) latest foray into cross-cultural ennui is a bit of a disappointment. When her adaptation of Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel is focused on recent newlyweds Ashima (Tabu) and Ashoke (Irfan Khan) as they make the difficult immigrant’s journey from bright, warm Calcutta to grim Queens in the ’70s the film succeeds beautifully. But when Nair’s attention turns to their dour teenage hatchling Gogol (Kal Penn) is this epic family drama of cultural collision between the old world and the new, the film loses some energy. Gogol’s bratty angst just doesn’t carry the emotional gravitas of his parents’ loneliness and yearning and every time the attention is on the younger generation’s problems the film suffers. — Feaster

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NORBIT 2 stars. There’s a reason makeup artist Rick Baker owns six Academy Awards, and it can be seen in his latest collaboration with Eddie Murphy. Baker (The Nutty Professor) had a hand in the designs Murphy dons in his latest comedy, and as usual, his efforts elicit gasps of admiration. Also worthy of (guarded) praise is Murphy himself, who once again is able to create a deft comic persona. That would be the title character, a mild-mannered nerd who ends up marrying a frightening, 300-pound behemoth named Rasputia (also Murphy). Like the geek Murphy played in Bowfinger, Norbit is a likable man whose rotten luck and sweet demeanor earn our sympathies. What doesn’t engender goodwill is the rest of the film, which is mean-spirited to its core. — Brunson

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NOTES ON A SCANDAL (R) 4 stars. From Patrick Marber’s script and Zoe Heller’s novel, Richard Eye’s film begins as an engrossing thriller about the parasitic relationship between a beautiful, bourgeois inner-city London schoolteacher (Cate Blanchett) and the older dominatrix schoolmarm (Judi Dench) who develops an unhealthy fascination with her colleague’s indiscretions and supple flesh. But its initially thrilling knee-deep cynicism soon mutates into a blatantly misogynist, homophobic portrait of Dench’s hellbent crone, a turnaround which makes it into a very guilty pleasure indeed. — Feaster

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PAN’S LABYRINTH (R) 4 stars. Mexican director Guillermo del Toro’s gothic fairy tale concerns a little girl (Ivana Baquero) who escapes the violence of the adult world in prolonged fantasies of descent into a magical underworld overseen by an enormous talking faun, Pan. Del Toro (Hellboy), supported by an excellent cast of female actresses, delivers an achingly beautiful parable about the willful desire of children to imagine an alternative reality. — Feaster

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PREMONITION (PG-13) 3 stars. Sandra Bullock plays a housewife who begins doubting her sanity after his husband’s death when she experiences her days out of sequence. Reminiscent of the premises of both Memento and Groundhog Day, director Mennan Yapo’s supernatural thriller intrigues the audience with Bill Kelly’s reasonably clever script instead of horror-house jolts. — Holman

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PRIDE (PG) Sunu Gonera’s fact-based film follows inner-city Philadelphia swim coach Jim Ellis’ (Terrence Howard) fight to build a swim team in one of Philly’s toughest neighborhoods in the 1970s. Driven by his love of competitive swimming, Ellis refurbishes an abandoned recreational pool with the help of its custodian Elston (Bernie Mac). Recruiting teens from the streets, Jim struggles to transform a motley team of novices into capable swimmers — all in time for the upcoming state championships.

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REIGN OVER ME (R) 2 stars. Don Cheadle plays a bored, disrespected dentist who learns to enjoy life again when he renews his friendship with his college roommate (Adam Sandler), who’s become an immature, unstable recluse following his family’s death on Sept. 11. As in Punch-Drunk Love, Sandler proves he can convey a stillness on screen that serves him well as a dramatic actor, and he’s well-paired with Cheadle’s sympathetic, understated performance. While writer-director Mike Binder (The Upside of Anger) brings some unexpected complexity to the situation, a subplot about an obsessed patient (Saffron Burroughs) trivializes mental illness, while the use of pop songs to provide emotional texture proves particularly heavy-handed. — Holman

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SHOOTER (R) 2 stars. Playing a sniper with a testosterone-dripping name of Bob Lee Swagger, Mark Wahlberg follows up his Best Supporting Actor nomination for The Departed with a dumber “political” action film. His covert military sniper gets coaxed from retirement to avert an assassination, only to be framed and become the target of a national manhunt. The script convincingly portrays the nuts-and-bolts details of marksmanship, and Training Day director Antoine Fuqua can stage a competent action scene, but the film relies on so many clichés that you can cherry-pick your pet peeves (like a Southern school teacher apparently unable to speak proper English), and the film’s “patriotic” philosophy seems to boil down to vengeful anarchy. ­-- Holman

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TMNT (PG) After the defeat of their old archenemy Shredder, the Turtles have grown apart as a family. Struggling to keep them together, their rat sensei Splinter becomes worried when strange things begin to brew in New York City. Directed by Kevin Munroe; voice cast includes Kevin Smith and Sarah Michelle Gellar.

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WILD HOGS (PG-13) 1 star. Simple-minded comedy has the audacity to reference Deliverance in one scene, yet the only folks who’ll be squealing like a pig are the ones who fork over 10 bucks, only to find themselves royally screwed after enduring its inanities. Four Cincinnati bunglers (John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy), decide to embark on a midlife-crisis road trip to the West Coast. The “gay panic” humor is so rampant that it’s reasonable to wonder if cast and crew wrapped each shooting day by beating up a homosexual off-screen. — Brunson

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ZODIAC (R) 4 stars. As if refuting his own overly stylish, dramatically thin serial killer film Se7en, director David Fincher focuses on the institutional weaknesses and moral ambiguities in his procedural thriller about the pursuit of California’s notorious “Zodiac” murderer. Mark Ruffalo’s police inspector wrestles with the challenges of building a case, while Jake Gyllenhaal’s newspaper cartoonist becomes increasingly obsessed when the killer remains at large for years. Fincher doesn’t stint on disturbing, visceral crime scenes, but also makes Zodiac one of the rare serial killer films that, instead of almost glorifying mass murderers as supervillains, weighs in with insights as to how such criminals seize the public and private imagination. — Holman