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COACH CARTER This works the usual underdog cliches fairly well as it
tells the true story of Ken Carter (Samuel L. Jackson), a high school basketball
coach in California who manages to turn a team that won only four games during
its previous season into a statewide powerhouse. But at the height of their
success, Carter elects to bench the entire team once he discovers that most
of his players are performing poorly in their classes. Carter's selfless actions
against a failed education system register even when the movie surrounding him
turns on itself: All pertinent points are made after a full two hours, but the
picture drags on for another 20 minutes simply so viewers can be treated to
a climactic Big Game. Ultimately, Coach Carter's sincerity gets trumped
by its savvy at milking the sports formula for all it's worth. 
1/2
ELEKTRA Talk about a house of flying daggers: The multiplex is filled
with them once Marvel's blade-wielding superheroine springs into action in this
spin-off of 2003's Daredevil (in which she appeared as the sightless
superhero's romantic interest). But while this lady in red often kicks it into
high gear, the movie itself rarely moves beyond a stroll. The story finds the
assassin-for-hire (Jennifer Garner) balking when her latest assignment requires
her to kill a single dad (Goran Visnjic) and his teenage daughter (Kirsten Prout,
whose annoying performance does the film no favors). Elektra elects to protect
them instead, which in turn pits her against an evil organization known as The
Hand. Inexplicably, no one ever deadpans, "Talk to The Hand," but then again,
a sense of humor is noticeably missing throughout. 1/2
HOTEL RWANDA Set in 1994 Rwanda, this powerful film takes place during
the 100-day period when nearly one million of that country's Tutsis were slaughtered
by the Hutu extremists. Clearly, Hotel Rwanda is about international
indifference and liberal ineffectualness, and the movie reverberates with such
topical force (Sudan, anyone?) that the ink is still drying on its condemnation
of a planet that operates with blinders firmly attached. Yet for all its indignant
ire, the movie is more than anything a humanist saga, and it's in this area
where it draws its greatest power. Don Cheadle exudes quiet authority as Paul
Rusesabagina, the Hutu hotel manager who risked everything to save over a thousand
Tutsi civilians from falling under the machete. 1/2
HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS Zhang Yimou recently stated that it's always
been his dream to direct martial arts films. Having now helmed Hero and
House of Flying Daggers, let's hope he's gotten it out of his system.
Yimou directed the best foreign-language film of the 1990s - Raise the Red
Lantern - and was also responsible for other titles that explored Chinese
history in all its facets. This overrated new film pales by comparison, exuding
a been-there-done-that vibe on the heels of (among others) Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon and Hero. But if nothing else, Daggers is gorgeous
to behold, and that alone almost carries the picture over the hump: Its rainbow
visions are probably vibrant enough to even register with the color-blind. Daggers
is appealing eye candy, but here's hoping that Yimou goes back to making movies
that can rattle a nation to its core. 1/2
IN GOOD COMPANY In Good Company works as well as it does because
its central character, Dan Foreman, is a paragon of uncompromised ideals, and
because Dennis Quaid plays him so perfectly that we can't help but line up behind
this guy and cheer him on. Dan symbolizes not the larger-than-life morality
found in superhero or gladiator yarns nor the bogus morality exhibited in pieces
of hypocrisy like Christmas With the Kranks; instead, it's the everyday
type to which we can all aspire, as decent people trying to make the right choices
concerning family and career. The storyline, which finds ad executive Dan forced
to report to a corporate golden boy (Topher Grace) half his age, rarely strays
far from convention, but it's hard to dislike a picture that goes out of its
way to champion integrity in America.
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