Film Clips for 5/26/06

OPENING:

Brick (R) Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Nora Zehetner, Noah Fleiss, Matt O’Leary, Noah Segan. Winner of the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, writer/director Rian Johnson takes the spirit of hard-boiled noir mysteries somewhere new — modern-day Southern California. Student Brendan Frye (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mysterious Skin) is smarter than everyone else, but he’s happy to be an outsider until his ex-girlfriend Emily (Emilie de Ravin) vanishes. That’s when Brendan enlists the help of The Brain (Matt O’Leary) and non-student The Pin (Lukas Haas) in what soon becomes a dangerous investigation into the truth about what happened to Emily. 119 minutes. At Landmark’s Keystone Art Cinema.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston (PG-13) Daniel Johnston, Louis Black, Bill Johnston, Mabel Johnston, Jeff Tartakov. Daniel Johnston is a perfect example of brilliance and madness going hand in hand. A genius artist/singer/songwriter suffering from manic depression and delusions of grandeur, Johnston’s life is full of wild fluctuations, numerous downward spirals and periodic respites. Writer/director Jeff Feuerzeig’s moving and at times quite hilarious documentary follows Johnston from his early recordings and drawings in his family’s basement to his stint on MTV and his ongoing battle with manic depression, which becomes more and more evident in his creative output. Winner of the Documentary Directing Award at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. 109 minutes. At Landmark’s Keystone Art Cinema.

Over the Hedge (PG) Bruce Willis, Garry Shandling, Steve Carell, Wanda Sykes, William Shatner. Funny, cute, ordinary cartoon. RJ the raccoon (Willis) has one week to replace the cache of junk food he stole from Vincent the bear (Nolte) or else. To get the job done, he cons a group of other animals to help him snag goodies from the humans living in the suburbs. The computer-animated comedy from Dreamworks features none of the magic of films like Toy Story, Finding Nemo or The Incredibles, but compared to recent offerings like Chicken Little or The Wild, it looks pretty good. If that sounds like I’m damning the movie with faint praise, well, thanks for noticing. 84 minutes. —EJO

See No Evil (R) Glen Jacobs, Michael J. Pagan, Tiffany Lamb, Penny McNamee, Craig Horner. A group of youths from a juvenile corrections facility are assigned to renovate an old hotel over the weekend and end up being terrorized by a crazed serial killer who dwells on the upper floors. 84 minutes.

Water (PG-13) Lisa Ray, Seema Biswas, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Waheeda Rehman, John Abraham, Sarala. Against the backdrop of Mahatma Gandhi’s rise to power in 1938 Colonial India, child bride Chuyia (Sarala) is widowed and sent to an ashram, where bereaved Hindus must live in penitence. One of her many new companions is Kalyani (Ray), who is forced to work as a prostitute for the ashram ruler. When Kalyani unexpectedly falls in love with an idealist law graduate (Abraham), the lives of every woman in the ashram are forever changed. The final installment of the controversial “elements” trilogy written and directed by Deepa Mehta (Fire, Earth). 114 minutes. At Landmark’s Keystone Art Cinema.

X-Men: The Last Stand (PG-13) Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, Anna Paquin, Kelsey Grammer. I opened my review of the last X-Men movie by saying, “As The Empire Strikes Back is to Star Wars, so is X2: X-Men United to X-Men.” After watching X-Men: The Last Stand, I now add: And X3 pretty much falls into place as the Return of the Jedi of the series. It tries too hard. The movie is so overstuffed that it must short shrift plotlines, ideas and characters. The score comes on too strong and some of the dialogue sounds like an outsider’s idea of how comic book characters should talk. It lacks finesse and it draws much of its power from the strength and momentum of the first two films. I could go on. But the bottom line is that, regardless of its problems, I had a great time. X3 is fast-moving, exciting and occasionally shocking. I laughed, I cried (well, almost) and, afterwards, I let out a sigh of relief because new series director Brett Radner didn’t wreck the series. 104 minutes. —EJO

Limited Run:

Tony Takatani (NR) Issey Ogata, Rie Miyazawa, Takahumi Shinohara, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Yumi Endo. Due to his Western name, Tony was shunned by other kids and spent a solitary childhood. Though gifted as an artist, his drawings lacked feeling, so as an adult, he carved a career as a technical illustrator. Then, in middle age, Tony suddenly falls for a pretty young woman, Eiko Konuma, who visits him one day on business. Eiko is like an angel in Tony’s daily existence, and for the first time in his life, he feels connected to the outside world. However, Eiko does have one fault: She’s a clothing shopaholic. Confusion also begins to develop when it appears that Eiko has a double. 75 minutes. At Key Cinemas Beech Grove for one week only.

A Year Without Love (NR) Juan Minujin, Mimi Ardu, Javier van de Couter, Carlos Echevarria. Pablo is a young Argentinean gay man searching for love in this film from director Anahi Berneri. Sadly, the AIDS-stricken Pablo has only a limited time in which to find a partner and, as his search gets underway, he meets some strange and shady characters who inhabit the after-dark Buenos Aires gay scene. 95 minutes. At Key Cinemas Beech Grove for one week only.

First Run:

Akeelah and the Bee (PG) Laurence Fishburne, Angela Bassett, Keke Palmer, Jeff Marlow, Sara Niemietz. Precocious 11-year-old Akeelah Anderson (Palmer) and her brother live in a poor Los Angeles neighborhood with their world-weary mother, Tanya (Bassett). Akeelah has a gift for spelling and is urged to set the National Spelling Bee as her goal. Will there be hardships? Will the cute little girl realize her dream? Of course you know everything that is going to happen in this elaborate after-school special, but it really doesn’t matter. As films like Hoosiers have shown, even the most clichéd story can work with the right people behind it. Palmer is good enough to hold her own with Fishburne and Bassett. Contrived, but sweet and inspirational nonetheless. 112 minutes. —EJO

An American Haunting (PG-13) Donald Sutherland, Sissy Spacek, Rachel Hurd-Wood, James D’Arcy, Matthew Marsh. This is the kind of ghost story that will make you sleep with the lights on. The film is based on a documented haunting in Tennessee from 1817 to 1821 that centered on the Bell family, known as the Bell Witch Haunting. However, the movie offers its own angle. Not only do we see the Bell family (particularly young Betsy) tormented by unseen forces, but also the screenplay posits a reason for the haunting. Instead of dwelling on imagery to psyche you out, the filmmakers let the story do its job. Spooky stuff. 91 minutes. —Lisa Gauthier

Art School Confidential (R) Max Minghella, Sophia Myles, John Malkovich, Jim Broadbent. The latest from writer Daniel Clowes (Ghost World) and director Terry Zwigoff (Crumb, Ghost World, Bad Santa) is a tepid satire set in an art school. Naïve freshman Jerome (Minghella) tries to make his mark — and get laid — with little success. Along the way, we learn that many people connected with art are primarily in it for the money, especially the art students. Shocking, isn’t it? We also learn that all too often, gimmicky art gets more attention and praise than sincere, well-done traditional fare. Shocking! The movie also includes a subplot about a serial killer. This allows the filmmakers to try to build to an absurdist climax that underlines the cynicism coursing through the production. Art School Confidential is entertaining for a while, then tiring and finally just tedious. 102 minutes. —EJO

The Da Vinci Code (PG-13) Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Alfred Molina, Ian McKellen, Jean Reno, Paul Bettany. On the surface, The Da Vinci Code is a chase film. Tom Hanks plays a scholar on the run with a mysterious French accomplice (the enchanting Audrey Tautou), avoiding dark and menacing forces that Hanks must understand in order to survive. There is potential here for a cinematic cocktail but director Ron Howard and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman apparently believe they need to load the story with Dan Brown’s alternative version of Christian history. This means that nothing happens in the film without a lot of explaining, including historical re-creations of scenes from crusades to witch hunts. At times it feels as if the movie stops for messages from the History Channel. 149 minutes. —David Hoppe

Deep Sea 3D (G) Narrated by Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet. A corker, one of the best IMAX movies ever. Filmed over the course of a year, the production introduces viewers to an absolutely incredible array of undersea creatures. Remember the first time you saw the cantina scene in the original Star Wars? Welcome to the underwater version, only the life forms here are even weirder than the freaky denizens of that sci-fi gin joint. What you will see here is far more alien than anything George Lucas ever cooked up. And, thanks to some very effective 3D photography, these alien entities appear to be floating about as close to your face as this newspaper is right now. 40 minutes. At the IMAX Theater in the State Museum. —EJO

Friends With Money (R) Jennifer Aniston, Catherine Keener, Frances McDormand, Joan Cusack. This enjoyably low-key film doesn’t have much of a plot. The impressively cast film, written and directed by Nicole Holofcener (Lovely and Amazing), visits a group of female friends in Los Angeles. Three of them are married and well-to-do, while the fourth isn’t. Three of them are unhappy to varying degrees, while the fourth seems relatively content. Holofcener’s screenplay doesn’t build to a climax; it just chugs along for a while, then stops. But it works, thanks to the great cast and the way Holofcener creates a sense of intimacy that allows us to become invested in the characters, even when they aren’t particularly likeable. 88 minutes. —EJO

Hoot (PG) Logan Lerman, Cody Linley, Dean Collins, Brie Larson, Luke Wilson. Wilson stars as a bumbling small-town cop trying to nab a group of teen-age vandals sabotaging a Florida construction project. But the kids have an environmental agenda for saving an endangered owl species so their series of criminal acts is forgiven in the end. The plot is trite, the acting is embarrassingly cartoonish, the characters are flat as pancakes and the resolution is both predictable and preposterous. In the end, Hoot begs the question: Who thinks these movies are good for kids? Seriously, who? 90 minutes. —Laura McPhee

Ice Age: The Meltdown (PG) Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Dennis Leary, Queen Latifah. As far as sub-Pixar computer-generated cartoon features go, this is a perfectly serviceable little sequel. The filmmakers work in a steady stream of gags and some of them are quite funny. At the screening I attended, the kids seemed to enjoy themselves and the adults didn’t fidget much. But there is no story to speak of, just a series of episodes about three prehistoric animal buddies and their new acquaintances. Thankfully, Scrat, the twitching, bug-eyed acorn-pursuing hybrid of a rat and a squirrel from the first film, makes a welcome return here in riotous Looney Tunes-inspired vignettes spaced throughout the movie. 90 minutes. —EJO

Inside Man (R) Denzel Washington, Christopher Plummer, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Willem Dafoe, Chiwetel Ejiofor. Spike Lee’s new movie about a bank robbery is an utterly forgettable retread full of great actors doing very little with very little. Dafoe is in it and he does nothing! Yet, people seem to love this flash-filled film. Maybe it’s because the story, written by a first-time screenwriter, has the advantage of being more original than a remake of the Pink Panther. —Jim Walker

Just My Luck (PG-13) Lindsay Lohan, Chris Pine, Samaire Armstrong, Carlos Ponce, Bree Turner, Faizon Love. Ashley (Lohan) is a young professional just out of college. She also happens to be the luckiest woman in the world, who has lived a super-charmed life and has always taken her good luck for granted. When she kisses a handsome stranger (Pine) at a costume party, Ashley accidentally swaps her good fortune for his horribly bad luck, and her charmed life turns into a living hell. 103 minutes.

Kinky Boots (PG-13) Linda Bassett, Josh Cole, Gwenllian Davies, Joel Edgerton, Chiwetel Ejiofor. From the makers of Calendar Girls. Charlie Price (Edgerton) faces the impending shutdown of the shoe factory his family has owned for generations. Just when he feels that all is lost, he has a chance encounter with Lola (Ejiofor), a flamboyant transvestite cabaret star. Lola’s desire for stylish, kinky boots for herself and her colleagues provides hope for the factory and its employees. Director Julian Jarrold explores what happens when two outcast dreamers finally figure out how to stand up for themselves … in thigh-high leather stilettos. Based on a true story. 106 minutes. At Landmark’s Keystone Art Cinema.

Mission Impossible III (PG-13) Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Keri Russell, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bahar Soomekh, Laurence Fishburne, Billy Crudup. The third installment of the action franchise, directed by J.J. Abrams (Lost, Alias), is packed with jazzy stunts and close-ups of steely-eyed Tom Cruise, who reprises his role as secret agent Ethan Hunt. Actually, that may be an overstatement, as it implies there is a character that must be recreated. Actually, Cruise just does what he usually does. Philip Seymour Hoffman contributes a creepy, but one-note performance as the bad guy. OK for what it is, but there is nothing here you haven’t seen before. 126 minutes. —EJO

Poseidon (PG-13) Kurt Russell, Josh Lucas, Emmy Rossum, Jacinda Barrett, Richard Dreyfuss. Cheese-fest, folks. Start the death pool early to get the most out of this flick. A loose re-make of The Poseidon Adventure from the 1970s, this version has none of the staying power of the original. Special effects start out strong, but kind of peter away as the movie wears on. Granted, there are a couple of scenes that will have you on the edge of your seat, but after a while, it becomes impossible to suspend disbelief any longer without incurring serious damage to your psyche. Take it as an opportunity to laugh with your friends on the way home. 99 minutes. —Lisa Gauthier

Roving Mars (G) A giant-screen IMAX visualization of an amazing story that is still going on. On the surface of the planet Mars right now — right this very second — there are two manmade robotic vehicles capable of navigating the rocky surface. Powered by solar panels, they explore the red planet, sending information back to eager scientists on Earth. Steve Squyres, lead science investigator at the NASA/Jet Propulsion laboratory, provides commentary for the 40-minute Disney film, recounting the fascinating story of the building, launching, landing and tasks of the space rovers Spirit and Opportunity. The film uses extensive computer animation to present the travels of the separately-launched rovers. Especially fascinating are segments depicting the separation stages following the launches and the complicated — and quite cool — landing procedures. 40 minutes. At the IMAX Theater in the Indiana State Museum through June 8. —EJO

RV (PG) Robin Williams, Jeff Daniels, Cheryl Hines, Kristin Chenoweth. At first glance, a light comedy about a family man trying to break out of the rat race and bond with his wife and kids. The Monro Family hits the road in an RV so Dad (Williams) can preserve his job and his family’s lifestyle. With lots of physical comedy, poop jokes, precarious run-ins with feral animals and high/low culture clashes, RV is a gag reel with a moral about family togetherness. Upon closer inspection, it’s a commentary on the end of convenience. 98 minutes. —AL

Scary Movie 4 (PG-13) Anna Faris, Regina Hall, Craig Bierko, Leslie Nielsen, Bill Pullman, Chris Elliott. The best thing about Scary Movie 4 is that it is really short at about an hour and 15 minutes. Its jokes are in poor taste way too often — making light of injured children — and its send-ups aren’t very sharp (sometimes it seems like the filmmakers barely watched the movies they are parodying). Some great talent — like Bill Pullman and Chris Elliott — is wasted here. With only a couple of scenes that work, this movie barely competes with a regular episode of Mad TV or Saturday Night Live. —Jim Walker

The Sentinel (PG-13) Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland, Eva Longoria, Kim Basinger, Martin Donovan. Thriller. A secret service agent (Douglas) is having an affair with the first lady. When another agent assigned to the White House is murdered, the agent becomes a suspect in what may be a plot to assassinate the president. 108 minutes.

Silent Hill (R) Radha Mitchell, Sean Bean, Laurie Holden, Deborah Kara Unger, Kim Coates. The eerie and deserted ghost town of Silent Hill draws a young mother (Mitchell) desperate to find a cure for her only child’s illness. Unable to accept the doctor’s diagnosis that her daughter should be permanently institutionalized for psychiatric care, Rose flees with her child, heading for the abandoned town in search of answers — and ignoring the protests of her husband. It’s soon clear this place is unlike anywhere she’s ever been. It’s smothered by fog, inhabited by a variety of strange beings and periodically overcome by a living “darkness” that literally transforms everything it touches. As Rose begins to learn the history of the strange town, she realizes that her daughter is just a pawn in a larger game. 120 minutes.

Stick It (PG-13) Jeff Bridges, Missy Peregrym, Vanessa Lengies, Tarah Paige. Haley Graham (Peregrym) is a rebellious 17-year-old who is forced to return to the regimented world of gymnastics after a run-in with the law. A judge sentences Haley to her ultimate nightmare: attending an elite gymnastics academy run by legendary hard-nosed coach Burt Vickerman (Bridges). Haley’s rebellious spirit and quick-witted banter shakes things up at the strict school. She discovers an unexpected ally in the form of her new coach and learns respect is a two-way street. Ah, but what about the big match? 105 minutes.

Thank You for Smoking (R) Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello, Cameron Bright, Adam Brody, Sam Elliott, Katie Holmes, David Koechner, Rob Lowe, William H. Macy. Smart, snappy R-rated comedies that aren’t about overgrown frat boys trying to get laid do not come along very often, so please take note of Thank You for Smoking, an exceptional satire for grown-ups. Based on the novel by Christopher Buckley, the story of Nick Naylor (Eckhart), a charismatic lobbyist for the tobacco industry, is focused and very funny. Eckhart is wonderful as a master of the art of persuasion who truly loves his work. “The beauty of an argument is that if you argue correctly, you’re never wrong,” he tells his son, and he almost makes us believe him. 92 minutes. —EJO

United 93 (R) David Rasche, Ben Sliney, JJ Johnson, David Alan Basche, Cheyenne Jackson. The third feature about the hijacked plane that crashed in the Pennsylvania countryside on Sept. 11, 2001, following two well-done TV productions. Writer-director Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday) brings a bigger budget and a slightly more immediate feel to his theatrical recreation. The most interesting thing about his approach is what he leaves out. The two earlier productions devoted time to the passengers that made phone calls and the people they called, but Greengrass does not offer even a glimpse of the recipients of the calls. Moreover, he mostly avoids even identifying the passengers by name. The focus is on the group rather than the individuals — everybody matters the same. We watch as a group of strangers come to realize that they are aboard a suicide flight and that they have to do something. Regardless of the occasional reality tweak, United 93 succeeds as a gripping recreating of one nightmarish part of what is probably the worst day in American history. 111 minutes. —EJO

The Wild (G) Voices of Kiefer Sutherland, James Belushi, Greg Berg, Don Cherry, Greg Cipes. Computer-animated comedy-adventure from Disney (NOT Disney/Pixar, just Disney) that sounds a lot like a cross between Madagascar and Finding Nemo. When a lion cub (Cipes) is mistakenly boxed up and shipped from the New York Zoo to the wild, his father (Sutherland) and assorted animal buddies break out to rescue him. Janeane Garafalo, William Shatner and Eddie Izzard also provide voices. 85 minutes.