Opening Friday ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE (PG-13) Cate Blanchett reprises her Oscar-nominated role as Queen Elizabeth I in director Shekhar Kapur s sequel to his 1998. Here the virgin queen encounter such royal headaches as Mary, Queen of Scots (Samantha Morton) and the Spanish Armada. THE FINAL SEASON (PG) Based on the true story of a small-town baseball team facing dismal odds for its championship game.
Its new coach (Sean Astin) must convince himself and the team of their chances to overcome the challenges. David Evans ( The Sandlot ) directs. LUST, CAUTION See review .
MICHAEL CLAYTON 4 stars (R) See review . TYLER PERRY S WHY DID I GET MARRIED? (PG-13) Tyler Perry ( Diary of a Mad Black Woman ) brings his theatrical production to the big screen where he stars alongside Janet Jackson and Jill Scott.
The film explores the difficulties of modern relationships through the stories of eight married college friends. WE OWN THE NIGHT See review . Duly Noted OUT ON FILM (NR) See review .
THIS IS SPINAL TAP (1984) Rob Reiner s classic mockumentary about Spinal Tap, the world s loudest band on their fateful tour. $12. 8 p.
m. Mon., Oct.
15. 14th Street Playhouse, 173 14th St. 404-733-4738.
www.14thstplayhouse.org .
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, Fri.
at Plaza Theatre, and Sat. at Peachtree Cinema Games, Norcross. Continuing 3:10 TO YUMA 4 stars (R) Christian Bale plays a tough but indebted rancher hired out to help escort a ruthless, charismatic outlaw (Russell Crowe) to the prison train that gives the film its title.
After such revisionist Westerns as Unforgiven and HBO s Deadwood, director James Mangold ( Walk the Line ) offers a pleasingly old-fashioned oater full of horses, six-guns, rugged landscapes and even more rugged actors. Crowe has the plum part, but Bale doesn t let him steal the movie. -- Curt Holman A MAN NAMED PEARL 3 stars (NR) Scott Galloway and Brent Pierson direct a marvelously charming feel-good documentary via the life and work of Pearl Fryer, a self-taught topiary sculptor in small-town South Carolina who turns his struggling community into a tourist attraction.
Fryer s work ethic, wry humor and soft-spoken spirituality make him an inspirational figure among friends and neighbors as well as, presumably, the filmmakers themselves, and though the documentary breaks no stylistic ground, it features a string of charming anecdotes without overlooking the Deep South s trouble spots. -- Holman ACROSS THE UNIVERSE 3 stars (PG-13) A handful of young Americans and one Liverpudlian sing Beatles songs amid the tumult of the 1960s in this trippy musical from director Julie Taymor ( Titus , Frida ). The trope of naming characters after Beatles songs, such as central lovers Jude (Jim Sturgess) and Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), can be ridiculously heavy-handed, but the film s gorgeous visuals, appealing musical numbers and unstated Iraq war subtext keep it from being a baby boomer wallow in nostalgia.
-- Holman ANTONIA (PG-13) On the outskirts of S o Paulo, Brazil, four girls struggle against poverty, racism and sexism to fulfill their dream of becoming rap musicians. BALLS OF FURY (PG-13) In the underground world of ping-pong, a former professional phenom (Dan Fogler) is the government s only hope of bringing down the tournament organizer in Robert Ben Garant s comedy. THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM 3 stars (PG-13) In the third Bourne movie, amnesiac superspy Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) crosses the globe to reclaim his memory and outwit his former CIA spy masters (including David Strathairn).
Paul Greengrass also directed the trilogy s previous entry and again masterfully employs shaky camera work and soundtrack percussion to raise the audience s pulse rate; he could make doing laundry unbearably exciting. Nevertheless, given the identical plots (and impassive acting from Julia Stiles) in all three, it s no wonder that Jason Bourne can t remember anything. -- Holman THE BRAVE ONE 3 stars (R) In many ways, this is a classic right-wing vigilante film tweaked with a vengeful lady in the lead.
Neil Jordan s tale of a radio DJ (Jodie Foster) who decides to take revenge for her fianc s murder is an odd choice in a time when misplaced acts of aggression seem legion. But Foster s soulful, guilt-plagued performance, wonderfully complemented by Terrence Howard as the NYC detective who both understands and condemns her rage, do much to distinguish what in other hands might be a simplistic action-movie plot.-- Felicia Feaster DEATH SENTENCE (R) Kevin Bacon stars in James Wan s action drama about a father sworn to kill each member of the gang that murdered his son.
DECEMBER BOYS (PG-13) Expanding his acting talents beyond the role of Harry Potter, Daniel Radcliffe plays his first non-Hogwarts role in this coming-of-age story set in Australia. DEDICATION (R) In Justin Theroux s directorial debut, a children s book author with emotional issues (Billy Crudup) attempts to shed ghosts of the past when he is forced to work with a new and beautiful illustrator (Mandy Moore) following the death of his creative collaborator. Co-stars Tom Wilkinson.
DEEP WATER 4 stars (PG) Louise Ormond and Jerry Rothwell direct a gripping documentary about an ill-fated, round-the-world sailing race from 1968. The film focuses on the dire straits of Donald Crowhurst, an ill-prepared sailor whose reckless decisions put him in increasingly difficult dilemmas. With stranger-than-fiction twists at the end, Deep Water joins such recent documentaries as Touching the Void and Grizzly Man to remind us that it s not safe to fool with Mother Nature.
-- Holman EASTERN PROMISES 3 stars (R) Viggo Mortensen is astounding as a Russian gangster whose path crosses with an innocent midwife (Naomi Watts) searching London for answers about a dead Russian prostitute and her newborn baby. Despite strong performances (Vincent Cassel for one), the film is a disappointing follow-up to David Cronenberg s searing A History of Violence , relying too heavily on gangster-film clich s and veering from his distinctively gruesome vision. -- Feaster FEAST OF LOVE 2 stars (R) Robert Benton ( Places in the Heart ) ensemble piece stars Greg Kinnear, Morgan Freeman and Jane Alexander among many others.
Love and loss are set around a Portland coffee shop in this adaptation of Charles Baxter s novel that feels like angsty drama aimed at the kind of people who buy their music at Starbucks. Painfully earnest and decidedly superficial, this dreary damp handkerchief of a movie offers more tortured hand-wringing than true thoughtfulness. -- Feaster FEEL THE NOISE ( PG-13) Produced by Jennifer Lopez, R B singer Omarion Grandberry stars as aspiring Harlem rapper Rob, whose mother sends him to Puerto Rico to live with the father he s never met.
Rob s discovery of reggaeton influences his rap dreams as, along with his half-brother (Victor Rasuk) and a dancer named C.C. (Zulay Henao), he struggles to become a reggaeton star.
Alejandro Chomski ( Hoy y Ma ana ) directs. FIERCE PEOPLE 2 stars (R) An unfocused, (thankfully) fictional, pseudo-anthropological journey through New Jersey that attempts to draw parallels between cannibal tribes and the country-club crowd. Who are the real savages?
Better question: How were Donald Sutherland, Diane Lane and Chris Evans conned into this Deliverance -of-the-North project? The film assures that out of the bad comes good. Regarding Fierce People , I m still waiting for the good.
-- Allison C. Keene THE GAME PLAN (PG) Andy Fickman (She s the Man) directs this story about superstar quarterback Joe Kingman (Dwayne The Rock Johnson) who must end his bachelor ways following the discovery of a daughter he never knew he had. Kyra Sedgwick stars as Joe s tough-talking agent.
GOOD LUCK CHUCK (R) Dane Cook stars as a successful dentist doomed to bad luck in love because of a childhood hex. When he meets Cam (Jessica Alba), an accident-prone penguin specialist, he is determined to break his curse. HAIRSPRAY 4 stars (PG) Yes, it lacks the funky soul sounds of John Waters original 1988 film of race and tail-shaking in 1962 Baltimore.
But director and choreographer Adam Shankman clearly understands the value of keeping things moving in this rousing, infectiously toe-tapping film version of the Broadway musical. Shankman retains Waters smart-aleck, golly-gee-for-grime spirit and manages to distract from the relative horror of John Travolta (in the Divine role) in a female skin suit. Nikki Blonsky is sassy as the chubby, dance-crazy, integrationist teenager Tracy Turnblad, but it s Christopher Walken as her joshing dad who often steals the show.
-- Feaster HALLOWEEN (R) Musician and writer/director of the latest Halloween chapter, Rob Zombie promises new thrills as he revisits Michael Myers horror story that began in 1978. THE HEARTBREAK KID (R) The Farrelly brothers latest film finds single and indecisive Eddie (Ben Stiller) pressured into proposing marriage to the sexy Lila after dating for one week. On their honeymoon he meets the true woman of his dreams and strives to win her over while dealing with his increasingly awful new wife.
THE HUNTING PARTY 2 stars (R) Richard Shepard blasted onto the scene with his snarky hitman black comedy The Matador, but his follow-up film comes off as more of a whimper. Richard Gere, Terrence Howard and Jesse Eisenberg are journalists in postwar Bosnia on a mission to capture an elusive Bosnian war criminal. Shepard s grasp at snarky, Esquire -meets-Hunter S.
Thompson absurdity never gets off the ground and the decision to make comic hay out of a postwar landscape can come off as very bad taste. -- Feaster IMAX THEATER The Alps Follow John Harlin III in MacGillivray Freeman s visually breathtaking documentary as he attempts to climb the same summit that proved fatal to his father 40 years ago. Coral Reef Adventure IMAX cameras travel farther than ever before to capture underwater images of the Pacific Ocean s beautiful coral reefs for this documentary.
Fernbank Museum of Natural History IMAX Theater, 767 Clifton Road. 404-929-6300. www.
fernbank.edu . IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH 3 stars (R) Writer-director Paul Haggis follows his Oscar-winning Crash (not to mention his script for Million Dollar Baby with a sober, serious-minded inquiry into the Iraq War and its effect on America s soldiers.
Tommy Lee Jones embodies mournful stoicism as a veteran searching for his AWOL son near a Southern army base, with Charlize Theron playing a small-town detective assisting him on the case. The film feels a little too proud of its unglamorous visuals and deliberate pace, but builds to powerful, unnerving implications about the toll the war takes from the young men who wage it. -- Holman INTO THE WILD 4 stars (R) Emile Hirsch stars as affluent Emory University grad Chris McCandless, who died at age 24 after dropping off the grid to live on his own in the Alaskan wilderness.
A surprising amount of transcendence and hopefulness infuses the normally dour Sean Penn s fourth directorial effort about McCandless physical and interior journey based on Jon Krakauer s nonfiction account. Marked by nods to 60s and 70s cinema, Penn s film also has relevance to our own times as growing eco- and global-awareness have made more and more people take a McCandless look at the bad path civilization is on. -- Feaster THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB (PG-13) A group of friends meets to discuss the works of Jane Austen and discovers their romantic lives imitate the stories in the novels.
Robin Swicod ( The Red Coat ) directs; co-stars Maria Bello and Emily Blunt. THE KINGDOM (R) In this Middle-East-meets-West thriller, FBI Special Agent Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx) leads an elite team (Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman) in a criminal investigation in hostile Saudi Arabia. Peter Berg ( Friday Night Lights ) directs.
KING OF CALIFORNIA 2 stars (PG-13) Michael Douglas is surprisingly endearing as the recently sprung nut who s come home from the bug house to torment his 16-year-old daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) with his scheme to uncover buried treasure in Southern California. But Douglas sadness-inflected performance is the only thing genuine about this schematic indie that puts a chipper gloss on mental illness. -- Feaster THE KING OF KONG: A FISTFUL OF QUARTERS (PG-13) Seth Gordon s documentary chronicles the rising and falling of scoring records on the classic video arcade game Donkey Kong as two men -- Gamer of the Century Billy Mitchell and family man and teacher Steve Wiebe -- battle for the 2007 Guinness World Record.
LADRON QUE ROBA A LADRON (PG-13) Produced in Spanish, Joe Menendez s action-heist movie brings the diverse Latin American culture to the fore as it chronicles a team of underdog thieves setting out to rob a big-time crook. MR. BEAN S HOLIDAY 3 stars (G) A silly throwback to the physical pratfalls of Buster Keaton and Jacques Tati, director Steve Bendelack s fluffy tale of the very British Mr.
Bean vacationing in the South of France is a nice break from the usual scatological kid movies. A campy cameo by Willem Dafoe as a pretentious American director in Cannes only ups the escapist fun. -- Feaster MR.
WOODCOCK (PG-13) Seann William Scott stars as John Farley, a self-help author motivated by years of humiliation at the hands of his gym teacher, Mr. Woodcock (Billy Bob Thornton). When he returns home, John finds his mother (Susan Sarandon) dating the arch-nemesis gym teacher.
MOLI RE 3 stars In this exceedingly fluffy, clever-by-half comedy Romain Duris plays the famous French playwright of The Misanthrope and Tartuffe . Director Laurent Tirard s goofy speculative comedy follows in the tradition of Shakespeare in Love by hypothesizing about what Moliere was up to in 1644, the year historians lost track of his whereabouts. In the increasingly silly story Moliere spends time with a family of aristocrats and uses his experiences to temper his farce with tragedy.
-- Feaster RANDY AND THE MOB 3 stars (PG) In this indie screwball comedy, Oscar-winning writer/director Ray McKinnon plays a would-be wheeler-dealer and his more successful gay brother in a small Georgia town. Not all of the slapstick gags and plot contrivances work, but Walton Goggins ( The Shield ) offers a hilariously quirky turn as an idiot-savant wiseguy. McKinnon shows the same eye for the charm and complex realities of the contemporary South that he brought to his previous films Chrystal and the brilliant Oscar-winning short The Accountant.
-- Holman RESIDENT EVIL: EXTINCTION (R) Milla Jovovich returns in the third and final installment of this video-game series as Alice, determined to eliminate the virus that threatens to make every human being undead. Co-stars Ashanti. RUSH HOUR 3 1 stars (PG-13) After an attempted assassination of the Chinese ambassador, the LAPD S Chris Tucker and Chinese cop Jackie Chan bicker all the way to Paris.
Fast-talking Tucker and fast-moving Chan make such a natural comic team that it s a shame three-time director Brett Ratner never built them a vehicle with witty jokes or racial insight. Even the funny outtakes during the closing credits seem calculated. -- Holman THE SEEKER: THE DARK IS RISING (NR) Based on author Susan Cooper s The Dark Is Rising series, Will Stanton (Alexander Ludwig) learns he is the last of a group of immortal warriors dedicated to fighting evil forces.
Co-stars Christopher Eccleston. SHOOT EM UP Clive Owen ( Children of Men ) must fight to protect himself and the newborn child he just delivered from the gunmen trying to kill them. SILK (R) Michael Pitt ( Last Days ) stars as a silkworm trader, who, while on a mission to Japan, falls passionately in love with a local baron s concubine in director Fran ois Girard s drama.
THE SIMPSONS MOVIE 3 stars (PG-13) In the long-awaited film version of television s longest-running comedy, the Simpsons flee to Alaska when Homer (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) accidentally causes an environmental catastrophe. The movie offers far more laughs than you d get from four current episodes of the once-brilliant show, yet the plot (involving a giant dome) turns out to be as lame and contrived as any present-day story line. The movie makes you laugh nonstop but miss the show in its heyday simultaneously.
-- Holman SUPERBAD 4 stars (R) Jonah Hill and Michael Cera make a classic comedy duo as two nebbischy high schoolers trying to buy beer and score with girls before they go off to separate colleges. Although Superbad pays homage to the horny teen comedies of the 1980s, it s far funnier, warmer and better acted than any of them (except possibly Fast Times at Ridgemont High ). -- Holman SYDNEY WHITE (PG-13) Amanda Bynes plays a tomboy college freshman who joins forces with a group of dorky outcasts to wage war against the campus elite.
T RADE 2 stars (R) Based on a magazine article about the global slave trade where women and girls from abroad are kidnapped into sexual slavery, this film is creepy and dire in all the wrong ways. German director Marco Kreuzpaintner juxtaposes the progress of a 13- year-old Mexican girl (Paulina Gaitan) abducted from Mexico City to sell in New Jersey with that of her brother (Cesar Ramos) desperate to find her who is helped by a cop (Kevin Kline) looking for his own daughter. Their often comically presented road trip as they chase down the about-to-be-sacrified virgin is especially repugnant.
-- Feaster VANAJA 3 stars (NR) The adolescent daughter (Mamatha Bhukya) of an Indian fisherman encounters obstacles to her dream of becoming a traditional Kuchipudi dancer. Indian director Rajnesh Domalpali provides a fine showcase for the art form as well as two terrific performances from Bhukya and Urmila Dammannagari as a former dancer turned imperious land-owner, although the increasingly petty human conflicts never prove as compelling as the dancer numbers.
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