New Releases
BEE SEASON For the sake of variety, we need more spirituality in the movies, which is why the very existence of Bee Season is a blessing even if its haphazardness makes it something of a curse. Based on the novel by Myla Goldberg, it centers on 9-year-old Eliza Naumann (excellent Flora Cross), whose lack of a defining skill initially makes her the odd person out in a gifted family that includes her college professor dad Saul (Richard Gere), her scientist mom Miriam (Juliette Binoche) and her musically inclined teenage brother Aaron (Max Minghella). But Eliza discovers she has a remarkable talent for spelling words, a skill that soon takes her through the ranks of the nation's bees. Yet Saul thinks there's more to Eliza's aptitude than meets the eye: Deeply immersed in religious studies, he suspects his daughter might be a modern-day mystic able to connect directly with God through language. As he devotes all his energy to her spiritual education, he fails to notice his son's burgeoning interest in a bubbly Hare Krishna (Kate Bosworth) or his wife's increasingly bizarre behavior. Binoche valiantly struggles to carry her unwieldy subplot, so clumsily presented that it repeatedly threatens to sink the entire project. Yet the efforts of the other characters to navigate their own spiritual waters remain compelling, even if it leads to a finale that isn't powerful as much as it's puzzling. Rating: ** 1/2
YOURS, MINE AND OURS A descent into the pits of hell disguised as a motion picture, Yours, Mine and Ours is the sort of broad, insincere schmaltz that moviegoers seem to eat up at this time of year (see: Cheaper By the Dozen in 2003 and Christmas With the Kranks in 2004). A widower (Dennis Quaid) with eight kids bumps into his former high school sweetheart, now a widow (Rene Russo) with 10 children. On a whim, they decide to get married, but managing a household comprised of 18 minors proves to be a formidable challenge, especially since each parent's brood seems incapable of getting along with the other group. The 1968 original is hardly a classic, yet with its mature handling of the romance between Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball, as well as the inclusion of some memorable skits (Lucy unwittingly getting liquored up by Fonda's mischievous sons; doctor Tom Bosley paying a nocturnal visit), it's never less than pleasant. This new version jettisons all semblance of wit for the sake of one noisy, overwrought sequence after another. Most of these brats are annoying and some even unpleasant (of course, all abruptly turn into perfect angels in time for the climax), though it must be noted that Quaid and Russo labor mightily to inject a measure of professionalism into this dud penned by the team of Ron Burch and David Kidd (no strangers to one-star affairs, they also wrote Inspector Gadget and the Freddie Prinze Jr. debacle Head Over Heels). But how many times must we watch Quaid take a pratfall, or witness somebody getting doused with paint, or (the surest sign of desperation) be subjected to incessant reaction shots from the family's pet pig? Somebody please kill this before it breeds again! Rating: *
Current Releases
CHICKEN LITTLE With its hand-drawn animation division boarded up and its partnership with Pixar in flames, Walt Disney Pictures has taken the next step by creating its own fully computer-animated movie. Yet if Chicken Little represents the future of Disney animation, then the sky is indeed falling: This is as far removed from such old-school classics as Pinocchio and Beauty and the Beast as chicken gizzards are from roast duck. The story is serviceable, centering on a diminutive bird (voiced by Zach Braff) whose warnings about an alien invasion are ignored by the other animals. And to be fair, the film has its moments, most of them courtesy of a character known as Fish Out of Water (basically an animated Harpo Marx). But the central thrust -- a standard "underdog wins the day" slog that on a dime turns into War of the Worlds -- is the same sort of hollow experience that has all but drained the traditional 'toon tale of its potency over the past decade-plus. Rating: **
DERAILED The inaugural feature from The Weinstein Company recalls the formation of TriStar Pictures back in the 80s, when the quality of its initial slate was so dreadful that one critic suggested the company should change its name to OneStar. Certainly, Derailed is deserving of whatever critical scorn is tossed its way, whether it's in the form of a solitary star, a down-turned thumb or even an extended middle finger. The film stars Clive Owen and Jennifer Aniston as unhappily married business drones whose attempt at an affair gets interrupted by a French thug (Vincent Cassel) with blackmail on his mind. Armed with only a plot synopsis, I (like many others) figured out the major plot twist even before stepping into the theater, yet this movie is so fundamentally brain-dead on so many levels that predictability turns out to be the least of its problems. Rating: *
DOOM Stating that Doom is probably the best of the numerous flicks based on a video game ranks as the feeblest praise imaginable. It's akin to noting that benign genital herpes is the best sexually transmitted disease to acquire, or that strawberry is the best tasting Schnapps flavor. Still, in a sub-sub-genre that has subjected us to the likes of Super Mario Bros. and Resident Evil, we'll take our favors where we can get them. Doom rips off Aliens at every turn (at least its makers steal from the best), as a group of military grunts find themselves combating vicious creatures at a manned outpost in outer space. For a good while, director Andrzej Bartkowiak actually attempts to make a real movie rather than just a video game simulation, but eventually the movie runs out of creative steam and turns increasingly daffy. Rating: **
GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN' Rapper 50 Cent may have set the music world on fire, but as a movie star, he's as relevant as a dead mic. His starring vehicle, about a drug dealer trying to make it as a rap star, is yet one more uninspired crime pic that liberally borrows from all the violent "dis dis bang bang" titles that preceded it. Yet the movie it most resembles -- coincidentally, given the proximity of the release dates -- is this past summer's Hustle & Flow (in which a pimp tried to make it as a rapper). It's fascinating to place both films side by side and see how one succeeds while the other doesn't. With its rich characterizations and pungent atmosphere, Hustle flows. Get Rich Or Die Tryin', with its frayed theatrics and stiff performance by 50 Cent, isn't worth a plugged nickel. Rating: * 1/2
JARHEAD In adapting Anthony Swofford's book about Marines bored by their experience during the Gulf War, director Sam Mendes and scripter William Broyles Jr. have made a movie that isn't exactly a war movie or an anti-war movie; if anything, it's the pioneer in the new genre of the semi-war movie. Jarhead is about warriors without a war, men who have been primed to kill and are then denied that opportunity. Mendes and his actors (led by Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard and Jamie Foxx) do an admirable job of punching across this frustration, and our sympathies are with these characters even if we don't exactly endorse the reasons for their mental morass. Jarhead does its best to remain apolitical, yet the very nature of the piece insures that correlations can be made to the current debacle in the Middle East. Mendes may have been reluctant to offend the war hawks, but history can't afford a similar luxury: It's too busy repeating itself to balk. Rating: ***
KISS KISS, BANG BANG Scripter Shane Black, best known for penning Lethal Weapon, makes his directorial debut with this fast and furious yarn that isn't a buddy/action movie as much as a send-up of a buddy/action movie. Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer are both in top form, respectively playing a none-too-bright thief who gets mistaken for an actor and the gay private eye assigned to prepare him for his screen test. The murder-mystery plot becomes needlessly complicated and doesn't hang together all that well, resulting in a tendency for the picture to move forward in fits and starts. But for the most part, this is sharp entertainment, as numerous Hollywood cliches are gleefully turned inside out. As scathing indictments of Tinseltown go, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang may not be The Player, but it's a player nonetheless. Rating: ***
THE LEGEND OF ZORRO Set approximately nine years after The Mask of Zorro, this sequel finds Don Alejandro de la Vega (Antonio Banderas) having trouble shedding his day job as Zorro in order to spend more time with his lovely wife Elena (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and rambunctious young son Joaquin (Adrian Alonso). External pressures force the couple to split, with Alejandro drowning himself in booze and Elena taking up with a Frenchman (Rufus Sewell) who's clearly up to no good. The presence of Anthony Hopkins (who played the original, aging Zorro in the first film) is sorely missed, but Banderas and Zeta-Jones remain a sexy and spirited screen couple. Their fiery passion, combined with some solid action scenes, results in an undemanding good time. Rating: ***
LOGGERHEADS Jumping between various North Carolina locations, this drama from Monroe native Tim Kirkman follows a trio of interconnected stories. At Kure Beach, an HIV-positive drifter (Kip Pardue) camps out on the beach so he can study the area's loggerhead turtles. In Eden, a minister's wife (Tess Harper) misses the son she and her husband (Chris Sarandon) shunned once they had learned he was gay. And in Asheville, a perpetually distraught woman (Bonnie Hunt) decides to search for the child she long ago gave up for adoption. The deliberate pace is sure to make some viewers squirm, but I was struck by how quickly Kirkman was able to make me care about these aching individuals. All of the performances are noteworthy, though I was especially drawn to Hunt's change-of-pace turn as a woman who seems incapable of forming a smile on her face. Rating: ***
PRIDE & PREJUDICE In adapting Jane Austen's literary staple, 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). Romanticists who fell hard for Colin Firth's Darcy in the 1995 BBC miniseries may or may not warm to MacFadyen (who's fine in the role), but there's no quibbling over Knightley's intuitive, note-perfect work as Elizabeth. Kudos, also, to Roman Osin's endlessly inventive camerawork, the sort not usually found in period pieces of this nature. Rating: ***
PRIME Meryl Streep underplays the role of the kvetchy Jewish mom, a therapist who's distraught when she learns that her 23-year-old son (Bryan Greenberg) is dating her patient, a 37-year-old divorcee (Uma Thurman). The stakes might seem greater if Greenberg's character were stepping out with a woman played by, say, 70-year-old Judi Dench, but after a shaky start that promises a rehash of Monster-In-Law (please, God, no), the movie finds its rhythm not so much in the expected spats between the lovers but in the genuine bond between the conflicted therapist and the damaged flower placed in her care. Streep and Thurman invest their characters with a great deal of passion, though Greenberg is only so-so as the young stud. Rating: **1/2
SHOPGIRL Claire Danes, stripped of anything resembling a personality, plays a Saks glove counter flunkie who's so man-hungry that she drapes herself all over an obnoxious slacker (Jason Schwartzman) whose idea of safe sex is to wrap a Ziploc baggie around his pecker before intercourse. When it appears that this relationship won't go anywhere, she next succumbs to the advances of a wealthy older gentleman (Steve Martin) who can buy her lots of pretty things but can't commit emotionally. Shopgirl is based on Martin's novella of the same name, and although he wrote it a couple of years before Lost In Translation came around, it's obvious that director Anand Tucker wants to capture the same air of melancholy and romantic yearning that distinguished Sofia Coppola's exemplary film. Alas, the only thing lost in translation here is the point of this aimless, airless dud. Rating: * 1/2
ZATHURA Like Jumanji, this is based on a children's picture book by Chris Van Allsburg. Despite both involving a magical board game, this film differs in that it's set in outer space, showcases better visual effects, and replaces Jumanji's Robin Williams with a manic, defective robot (on second thought, that last point might not qualify as a difference). Imaginative without being particularly exciting, Zathura will appeal immensely to young viewers while causing adults to be the ones to occasionally fidget in their seats. Grown-ups, however, will be the ones who benefit from the script's funniest quip, a throwaway line involving the indie flick Thirteen. Rating: ** 1/2
OPENS WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23:
BEE SEASON: Richard Gere, Juliette Binoche.
THE ICE HARVEST: John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton.
IN THE MIX: Usher, Emmanuelle Chriqui.
JUST FRIENDS: Ryan Reynolds, Amy Smart.
RENT: Taye Diggs, Rosario Dawson.
YOURS, MINE AND OURS: Dennis Quaid, Rene Russo.