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Here are selected minireviews of films in theaters, listed alphabetically. Ratings range from zero to four stars.
“Akeelah and the Bee”
FAMILY DRAMA|*** 1/2|PG|Yes, it’s another spelling bee movie, and yes, it follows a predictable formula about an underprivileged, under-rated child coming from nowhere to earn unlikely triumphs. But it’s futile to resist, as Keke Palmer is consistently wonderful as young Akeelah, and her genuine smarts and desire overcome a lot of cliches written in by writer-director Doug Atchison. A great family film for your movie nights. (Michael Booth)|
112 minutes
“American Dreamz”
SATIRE|****|PG-13|From Paul Weitz, who brought us the smart comedies “About a Boy” and “In Good Company,” a more political bent: Dennis Quaid plays a president who doesn’t read the newspaper and has ignored years of bad news. His chief of staff, Willem Dafoe, tries to get him back into the populist eye by making him a judge on an “Idol”-style show called “American Dreamz,” hosted by the slippery Hugh Grant. Weitz swings at big targets and hits most of them in a delightful satire that reaches that rare state of being utterly cynical and unabashedly hopeful at the same time. (Booth)|108 minutes
“An American Haunting”
FRIGHT FEST|** 1/2|PG-13|The spirits make way too much noise in “An American Haunting,” a supernatural tale whose overbearing clamor is redeemed to a large extent by engaging performances and fine 19th-century period detail. It’s hard to stay frightened when the film quickly establishes a pattern that another boom, bellow or hyper-kinetic instance of poltergeist activity is just around the corner. The film is aided by the divine presence of Sissy Spacek and Donald Sutherland as parents whose family is haunted and Rachel Hurd-Wood as their daughter, the focus of the phantom’s wrath. Spacek and Sutherland play Lucy and John Bell, heads of the Red River, Tenn., family whose unexplained haunting has fascinated ghost-hunters for almost 200 years. The Bell haunting was the only documented case in American history in which a spirit caused a person’s death. (David Germain, Associated Press)
|82 minutes
“Friends With Money”
COMEDY OF MANNERS|** 1/2|R |Almost any of the great Victorian novels could have been titled “Friends With Money,” so it’s not a bad idea to update the concept of friendly envy to modern-day Southern California. Jennifer Aniston has tried many jobs but ended up as a housecleaner, while her wealthier friends pursue careers, marriages and parenthood. It almost works, but there’s no one here to like and root for. The Victorians knew enough to supply a brave heroine or a nasty villain who made us care about the ending. (Booth)|88 minutes
“Hard Candy”
PSYCHO|** 1/2|R|Destined to play midnight showings at art houses for years to come, this graphic revenge flick is almost too disturbing to be redeeming, yet just redeeming enough to avoid condemnation. Plucky Hayley (Ellen Page) is a 14-year-old nymphet who picks up an older guy on the Internet and seems ready to fall into his sexual trap. Until she gets to his (Patrick Wilson) house and reveals her mission: She wants revenge for a missing girl she believes he photographed, raped and killed. The claustrophobic nature of the house setting makes everyone want to scream in fear and agony. As tough, skilled Hayley, Page is a terrible angel of vengeance to behold. (Booth)|99 minutes
“Hoot”
FAMILY|** 1/2|PG|To give a hoot as well as be a hoot was the aim of the latest family flick from Walden Media. And while this tale about three kids trying to protect some burrowing owls on a plot of land earmarked for a new pancake house has heart, subtlety turns out to be endangered. Director Wil Shriner, who adapted Carl Hiaasen’s children’s novel, goes broad when “Hoot’s” two thorniest subjects – the environment and bullying – call for finesse. Logan Lerman plays Roy, the new kid in Coconut Cove, Fla., who befriends rebels Beatrice and Mullet Fingers. Luke Wilson and Tim Blake Nelson also star. (Kennedy)|90 minutes
“Ice Age: The Meltdown”
ANIMATED COMEDY|***|PG|The long-awaited sequel to “Ice Age,” which was a box-office hit and mixed an appealing array of animation styles. This time, the ice is going away, but don’t expect too many deep references to global warming. Ray Romano, Denis Leary and John Leguizamo reprise their voice roles, joined by Queen Latifah as a love interest for the big woolly mammoth Manny (Romano). (Booth)|90 minutes
“Kinky Boots”
LABOR COMEDY IN DRAG|**|PG-13|Don’t let the title toss you. The accent on this charmer about shoe-factory owner Charlie (Joel Edgerton), who finds a muse of economic recovery in drag queen Lola rests on bootcraft more than kinks. Although inspired by the saga of a century-old factory in England that remade itself by making footwear for a very different clientele, “Kinky Boots” is a fable made for a time workplace angst. The tenderness granted the working stiff and Charlie’s wish to do right by his employees gives the movie hard-to-ignore heart. And Chiwetel Ejiofor as Lola/Simon gives Julian Jarrold’s first feature film backbone and soul. (Kennedy)|106 minutes
“Lucky Number Slevin”
NEO-NOIR|***|R|First there’s the cast: Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley, Bruce Willis. And those are just the heavyweight heavies in “Lucky Number Slevin,” directed by Peter McGuigan. Then there’s Jason Smilovic’s agile, dialogue-rich script about a guy who finds himself between two feuding mobsters. A case of mistaken identity (or is it?), has Slevin (Josh Hartnett) set to do some bloodletting just to stay alive. There are so many players in this shell game of a flick a person can get paranoid. That’s the idea. We can only hope that the one thing fatal about Lucy Liu’s likable femme is that she’s a coroner. (Kennedy)|110 minutes
“Mission: Impossible III”
ACTION|*** 1/2|PG-13|Maybe they can’t quite humanize Tom Cruise, but they’ve made a good effort to humanize his signature character, Ethan Hunt, for the best of the three “MI” movies. Hunt has a new marriage and a desire to settle down a bit, thwarted by Philip Seymour Hoffman’s attempts to unleash a doomsday machine. Three terrific action sequences and a welcome sense of humor help propel “MI:III” to the top of the spring/summer action heap. (Booth)|125 minutes
“La Mujer di mi Hermano”
DRAMA|**|R|A Latin American box-office hit, “La Mujer de mi Hermano” (“My Brother’s Wife”) has a gloss meant to push against the muck of its characters’ emotions. Ignacio (Christian Meier) and Gonzalo Edwards are the scions of a deceased factory owner. Pent-up Ignacio runs the family business. Wild-haired Gonza (Manolo Cardona) paints, trysts, and paints some more. Telenovela star Bárbara Mori plays Zoë, Ignacio’s wife. The title alerts you to what’s going to happen. If only the characters’ struggles with a catalog of contemporary issues – adoption, infertility, abortion, homosexuality – won our sympathy. Instead first-time Peruvian director Ricardo de Montreuil and novelist-screenwriter Jaime Bayly have delivered a stylish soap opera that casts cultural dramas as melodrama. (Kennedy)|93 minutes
“The Notorious Bettie Page”
BIOPIC|***|R |Director Mary Harron has a taste for the shadowier terrain of pop culture. Now the director of “I Shot Andy Warhol” and “American Psycho” along with co-writer Guinevere Turner bring ’50s pinup girl extraordinaire Bettie Page to life. Almost. Gretchen Mol does a grand disappearing act beneath Page’s dark hair and trademark bangs. Astute – even frisky fun – “The Notorious Bettie Page” never shakes being enamored of the mystery of Page. It’s not what is shown in the film that lingers. It’s what isn’t revealed in Harron’s teasing, pleasing film that leaves us wanting more. (Kennedy)|94 minutes
“RV”
FAMILY COMEDY|** 1/2|PG |Proof that a movie about a family driving an RV across country can feel almost as stifling as actually driving an RV across the country. Robin Williams tries to liven up this family comedy, and it has a few laughs, but the loser-dad jokes get old quickly. And we saw enough RV sewage in “Meet the Fockers,” didn’t we? (Booth)|90 minutes
“The Sentinel”
POLITICAL THRILLER|**|PG-13|When President Reagan was shot, Secret Service agent Pete Garrison took a bullet. Now, years later, he protects the first lady, not the worst detail to pull given that she’s played by Kim Basinger. When a plot surfaces to kill the president, Pete has a source. He also has a secret that makes him a suspect. Kiefer Sutherland plays former friend-now nemesis David Breckinridge. Garrison is meant to be a complicated hero, flawed and honorable. Yet Michael Douglas’ talent for finessing that kind of ambiguity is wasted by a by-the-numbers script and Clark Johnson’s overheated directing. (Kennedy)|105 minutes
“Stick It”
GIRL-POWER SPORTS COMEDY|***|PG-13|If star Missy Peregrym and writer-director Jessica Bendinger have their way, John Tesh’s sticky fingers will be pried once and for all from the heart of women’s gymnastics. Ridiculously playful and smart (aleck), “Stick It” reminds us that those pixies on the beam, the bars, the mat and the vault aren’t made of dust but of steely sinew. Peregrym plays rebel Haley Graham who’s forced to attend Vickerman’s Gymnastics Academy. Vanessa Lengies and Nikki Soodoo are agile fun as Haley’s teammates Joanne and Wei Wei. Jeff Bridges plays coach Vickerman. Bendinger has figured out a way to salute female competition and unity with attitude. And time and again, this sisterhood of the spandex leotards nails it. (Kennedy)|95 minutes
“Take the Lead”
DRAMA|** 1/2|PG-13|Running almost completely on the charm of Antonio Banderas, this latest version of urban dancing competitions follows on the success of the documentary “Mad Hot Ballroom.” Teacher comes to beleaguered school, proposes formal dancing as a way to motivate kids; kids scoff, try it, change their lives. A predictable formula, executed in mediocre spirit. (Booth)|108 minutes
“Thank You for Smoking”
SATIRE|** 1/2|R|Christopher Buckley’s hilarious sendup of American contradictions loses some bite in the translation to film. Aaron Eckhart plays Nick Naylor, the world’s smoothest talker, and well he should be, as he’s the chief spokesman for the tobacco industry. The movie promises to explore the mixed morality of doing your job well in defense of the indefensible, but winds up delivering shallower comments on politics and family. The comic pacing and editing are atrocious, damaging otherwise respectable material. (Booth)|92 minutes
“United 93”
DRAMA|***|R|There’s something presumptuous in the arguments that say American need “United 93” so we’ll never forget the events of 9-11. After all, writer-director Paul Greengrass’ well-done, retrained film gets much of its emotional traction from the fact we haven’t forgotten but remember all to well the towers, the Pentagon, the cellphone calls, the story of a flight’s end in a Pennsylvania field. In depicting – often with a real-time veracity – Flight 93’s passengers and crew coming to terms with what was happening that morning the film suggest what we all hope is true: that faced with evil and our own deaths, we will act. (Kennedy)|110 minutes
“Water”
DRAMA|***|PG-13|”Water” reveals the traditional plight of widows in India. Set in British colonial India in 1938, it is as beautiful as it is harrowing, its idyllic setting beside the sacred Ganges River contrasting with the widows’ oppressive existence as outcasts. At begins with little girl sitting in the prow of a boat ferrying a sick middle-aged man to a doctor in a small Indian city. Once ashore, the man dies, leaving the girl, Chuyia ,as his 8-year-old widow. Her parents, with much pain, swiftly deposit her in an ashram for widows, never to see her again. The distraught child’s head is shaved, and she is clad in the white cotton sari that is to be her lifelong uniform. (Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times) |117 minutes
GIANT SCREEN
“The Human Body”
IMAX: A look at the everyday functions that keep us alive, through May 25|$8, $6 ages 3-12 and 65-plus|Denver Museum of Nature & Science, 2001 Colorado Blvd., 303-322-7009, dmns.org
“Mystic India: An Incredible Journey of Inspiration”
IMAX: The film begins in 1792 and follows an 11-year-old who left his home to begin a journey of spiritual awakening. It’s the true story of the boy’s seven-
year trip covering 8,000 miles|$8, $6 ages 3-12 and 65-plus|Denver Museum of Nature & Science, 2001 Colorado Blvd., 303-322-7009, dmns.org
“Wired to Win: Surviving
the Tour de France”
IMAX: The true story of two elite cyclists, Australian Baden Cooke and French teammate Jimmy Casper, as they compete in the legendary race.|$8, $6 ages 3-12 and 65-plus|Denver Museum of Nature & Science, 2001 Colorado Blvd., 303-322-7009, dmns.org
Wildlife Experience
IWERKS: The museum presents “Dolphins,” on its 45-by-60-foot screen through February 2007.|$4.95-$7.95, free 2 and under|10035 S. Peoria St., 720-
488-3300, wildlifeexperience.org|PARKER
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
Denver Art Museum Spring 2006 Film Series
TU|The film series offers a collection of American gangster films from the 1930s. The series wraps up this week with “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967). Films begin at 7 p.m., box office opens at 4 p.m. $7-$8 per film|Starz FilmCenter at the Tivoli, Ninth Street and Auraria Parkway, 303-820-3456, denverartmuseum.org
Silver Spoon Festival
SA|The seventh annual student film festival offers a variety of films with brief comments after each film by the filmmaker, 7 p.m. Tickets are $5. Free seminars are offered 3-5 p.m.|Rialto Theater, 228 E. Fourth St., 970-962-2120 |LOVELAND
