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Here are selected minireviews of films in theaters, listed alphabetically. Ratings range from zero to four stars.
“Apocalypto”
ACTION/PERIOD DRAMA|* 1/2|R|Who knew there were so many different ways to die? Mel Gibson explores them all, in gruesome detail, in this re-creation of tribal and Mayan civilization just before the Spanish arrived in Central America. A warrior’s tribe is captured for human sacrifice, but he escapes and battles his pursuers as he tries to get back to his hidden family. There is no doubt Gibson knows how to put together a heart-
pounding action film, but the killing is so relentless that sitting through it becomes a matter of will rather than enjoyment. (Michael Booth)|128 minutes
“Black Christmas”
SLASHER/HORROR|**|R|For fans of old school horror, “Black Christmas” is a gore-filled present wrapped with a blood red bow. Based on a 1974 slasher thriller, the movie strands hot girls in a sorority house during a pre-holiday snowstorm. One by one the girls are picked off in inventive ways while the others make the stupidest possible decisions to ensure that they will be next. Here the movie elaborates on the story of the killer, Billy (Robert Mann), unloved since birth and locked in the attic by his crazy mother (Karin Konoval). Given a telescope for Christmas, the kid spies on happy families. Mom only visits the boy when Billy’s stepfather nods off during sex. (John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press)|84 minutes
“Blood Diamond”
MUSCULAR MESSAGE MOVIE|***|R
|This movie about Africa’s illicit and brutal diamond trade is not a perfect gem, but it is an involving Hollywood treatment of a serious topic: the horrors of a civil war financed by “conflict diamonds.” It’s 1999, and Leonardo DiCaprio’s gem-smuggling, arms-dealing character tells Jennifer Connelly’s American journalist at a bar in Sierra Leone, “In America it’s bling-bling. Here it’s bling-bang.” Djimon Hounsou brings moral ballast as a father searching for his son, conscripted by rebel forces. The movie’s most haunting images are those of boys being turned into remorseless, rampaging soldiers. Director Edward Zwick has become heir to “message movie” great Stanley Kramer. DiCaprio and Hounsou’s characters feel like an update of the two in Kramer’s “The Defiant Ones.” Only these men are bound not by chains but by a colonial past. (Lisa Kennedy)|138 minutes
“Casino Royale”
JAMES BOND RETURNS|***|PG-13
|His name is Craig, ahem, Daniel Craig. And as promised, in director Martin Campbell’s movie based on the Ian Fleming novel that introduced the Brit agent, his Bond is a rougher bit of business than all but one of the 007s that came before him. Craig survived the slings and arrows of many a fan to inhabit this role – and dig in he does in this satisfying, globe-trotting story about a high-stakes game of Texas hold ’em played against terror-funding creep Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelson). Eva Green plays Vesper Lynd, the accountant sent to keep an eye on the Treasury’s sizable stake. A chilly killer, Bond hasn’t a prayer where Vesper’s concerned. But you’d be a dope to imagine a happily-ever-after romp. After a particularly hard go of it, a bartender ask Bond if he wants his martini shaken or stirred. “Do I look like I give a damn?” he says. We don’t care that “Casino Royale” isn’t a brand new cocktail. We care only that it’s a very tasty one. (Kennedy)|125 minutes
“Charlotte’s Web”
CLASSIC PIG’S TALE|** 1/2|G|You’re not likely to walk out of the live-action version of E.B. White’s classic marveling “Some movie.” Though there are enough moments in director Gary Winick’s G-rated film to keep the kids smiling. Dakota Fanning plays Fern Arable, the farmgirl who saves a runty piglet from the ax. Julia Roberts provides the voice of Charlotte, the computer-generated gray spider who continues the task. But it’s Dominic Scott Kay as the stuffy-nosed, impossibly dear voice of Wilbur that keeps you smiling. (Kennedy)|84 minutes
“Children of Men”
FUTURIST DRAMA|***|R|When African refugee Kee tells her protector that her pregnancy was a virgin one, Theo (Clive Owen) stops in his tracks. In 2027, it’s enough that Kee is the first pregnant woman in a world gone infertile more than 18 years earlier. This too? Kee may be joking. But “Children of Men” director Alfonso Cuarón is definitely winking. After all, the gifted filmmaker’s stunningly crafted tale of sacrifice, mayhem and miracles suggests there is more than one way to tell a nativity story. Like many a dystopian film (“Fahrenheit 451” comes to mind), “Children of Men” is permeated with sorrow and anger. It’s thoughtful but willfully anti-sentimental. Thank goodness then for Michael Caine’s turn as Jasper, Theo’s dearest friend. Oh his humanity. (Kennedy)|114 minutes
“Dreamgirls”
MUSICAL|***|PG-13|Is it as fabulous as it could have been? Not quite. Still, writer-director Bill Condon’s adaptation of the beloved Broadway hit about the rise and rivalries of an R&B girl group is candy. As Deena Jones, Beyoncé Knowles never finds what roils beneath her character’s crossover facade. (Too bad, given the woman who replaces the original lead of the Dreamettes is based on Diana Ross.) The double-edged complexity of Jamie Foxx’s car salesman-turned-music impresario also goes underexposed. But Jennifer Hudson’s breakout performance as Effie White sends “Dreamgirls” soaring. And Eddie Murphy has fun and gives it, playing a wild soul man. (Kennedy)|125 minutes
“Eragon”
FANTASY|**|PG for fantasy violence and some frightening images|A faithful adaptation of the book that few middle-school boys will find disappointing, this medieval fantasy fills in all the paint by numbers without adding a lot of spirit. Eragon (Ed Speleers) is an adolescent in a time when good villagers are tormented by the evil king’s soldiers; he stumbles across a dragon’s egg, only to discover he’s part of a prophesy where the famed and noble dragon riders will fly again to free the oppressed. Much sword-fighting, mentoring, deep-woods chasing and school-of-hard-knocks teaching ensues, under the auspices of Brom (Jeremy Irons). Fans of Christopher Paolini’s novel should be satisfied. (Booth)|102 minutes
“Freedom Writers”
CLASSROOM INSPIRATIONAL|***
|PG-13|A rookie teacher from the right side of the tracks takes on a classroom of urban toughs. Haven’t we been in this homeroom before? Well, yes – and no. Doubters in the truth and power of the classroom inspirational take a lesson from director Richard LaGravenese’s adaptation of the story of California high school teacher Erin Gruwell and her Freedom Writers. Hilary Swank stars as the hopeful, dorky, inventive woman who taught and learned from her class of warehoused, predominantly minority students at Long Beach’s Wilson High School. Like its teacher, “Freedom Writers” struts its trust in empathy and knowledge. Like its bristling students, the film is willing to shove us a bit. (Kennedy)|123 minutes
“The Good Shepherd”
DRAMA|*** 1/2|R|Robert De Niro as director and Eric Roth as screenwriter create a personal history of the CIA, where secrets and lies inexorably corrode both the ship of state and the vessel of family. Matt Damon stars as the fictitious Edward Wilson, recruited out of Yale to help found the CIA in the wake of World War II. Roth finds the perfect balance between well-intentioned patriotism and ruthless government policy, slowly pulling Damon deeper and deeper into circumstances he can’t control. While a bit too long and offering three or four endings where one should do, this is a serious movie with a tremendous cast. (Booth)|165 minutes
“Happily N’Ever After”
ANIMATED FAIRY TALE|**|PG|A soulless, bland and cynical update of the classic “Cinderella” story that isn’t half as funny or hip as it seems to think it is. (Misha Davenport, Chicago Sun Times)
|87 minutes
“Happy Feet”
MUSICAL TOON|***|PG|It’s the lockstep of the penguins versus the soft- shoe of an outcast in “Happy Feet,” the hard-to-resist animated musical about Mumble, an emperor penguin who can’t carry the mating song, but can tap dance like the amazing Savion Glover. Elijiah Wood provides the voice of adolescent Mumble. Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman play his flustered folks. Director and co-writer George Miller – the man who brought us Mad Max but also Babe “the talking pig” – uses this tale of Mumble’s difference and his gift to craft a sweet, if incomplete, lesson about conformity, individuality and community. Robin William outdoes himself giving voice to both Ramon, one of the slang-tossing Adelie Amigos and the “preach it penquin, preach it” Lovelace. (Kennedy)|96 minutes
“The Holiday”
ROMANTIC COMEDY|***|PG-13
|Like the gooiest, sweetest cup of eggnog, “The Holiday” doesn’t have a whole lot of nutritional value, and you’ll probably hate yourself afterward for giving in to it, but it is rich and yummy and irresistible. Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet star as bright, talented women simultaneously suffering from man troubles who swap homes for the holidays through a website to get away from it all. Diaz’s Amanda Woods, whose company creates movie trailers (a very clever job to give a character), ends up in a cozy cottage outside London after discovering that her longtime live-in boyfriend (Edward Burns) has cheated on her. Winslet, as London Daily Telegraph wedding columnist Iris Simpkins, finds herself luxuriating in a modern L.A. mansion after the colleague with whom she’s had an on-again, off-again romance (Rufus Sewell) announces his engagement to another woman. (Lemire, Associated Press)|91 minutes
“Little Children”
COMEDY/DRAMA|*** 1/2|R|Oddly toned comedy/drama about suburban adultery and child-molester panic feels unsatisfying while you watch – but I’ll bet you talk about it more than any other film this year. (Bob Strauss, L.A. Daily News)|130 minutes
“Night at the Museum”
ACTION COMEDY|***|PG|It may seem a stretch to say a movie about mastodons and dinosaur skeletons marauding through Central Park has a gentle soul, but this film wins points for not going over the top at every chance. Ben Stiller plays a divorced dad who takes a museum security job to keep custody of his son; he soon learns a mummy’s curse brings all the museum exhibitions to life overnight. Dick Van Dyke has mischief up his sleeve, and meanwhile the feuding exhibits are driving Stiller batty. Some restrained lessons about the importance of history, and sticking to a tough job, help mellow the zany proceedings. It’s a good family movie to sit through if those happy penguin feet are driving you batty yourself. (Booth)|104 minutes
“Notes on a Scandal”
DRAMA|****|R|A nasty little British drama that hits all the right sour notes, based on Zoe Heller’s novel about a public school teacher (Cate Blanchett, more fetching than ever) who starts a sexual relationship with one of her young students. An aging “battle ax” of a teacher, played by the terrifying Judi Dench, seems to want to help, and lets Blanchett confide in her, but Dench has, you might say, issues of her own. Who covets whom and who is covering up the worst secrets builds into a riveting psycho-thriller, impeccably acted by Blanchett, Dench and Bill Nighy. (Booth)
|100 minutes
“The Painted Veil”
PERIOD ROMANCE|** 1/2|PG-13|”Contempt in the Time of Cholera” could be another title for director John Curran’s adaptation of M. Somerset Maugham’s 1925 novel. When wife Kitty cheats on him, bacteriologist Walter Fane (Edward Norton) takes her from Shanghai to the Chinese outback as an epidemic rages. Suggestive of vintage adventure romances and literature that wasn’t particulary savvy about the lives of ethnic others, “The Painted Veil” has the appeal of a hothouse orchid. It’s lovely to look at. With Naomi Watts and Norton as the simmering couple, it’s well-acted. It is also somewhat precious. A student of Chinese history, Norton hoped to bring that nation into the foreground. But shooting on location and weaving in historical facts hasn’t diluted the material’s colonial odor or pulled the Chinese from the background. It’s just embroidered that background with finer details. (Kennedy)|125 minutes
“Perfume: The Story
of a Murderer”
PUNGENT DRAMA|***|R|It’s tempting to overstate the similarities between cinema and Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, the central character in Tom Tykwer’s beautifully realized version of Patrick Suskind’s best seller. Like the scent savant, cinema does not have its own odor. And like Grenouille, “Perfume” takes an odd turn and becomes darker for it. Amorally creepy might be the quickest way to describe this tale about a man who kills women for their scent. British stage actor Ben Whishaw stars. Dustin Hoffman makes an appearance as his mentor. And Alan Rickman plays a nobleman bent on protecting his only daughter from becoming Grenouille’s most prized essence. Neither hero nor antihero, Grenouille is meant to vex. Once he begins pursuing his calling with a craftman’s ardor, the movie begins to have a disquieting odor. So don’t be suprised if you leave the theater with your head spinning because of a cloying, confounding plume. (Kennedy)|105 minutes
“The Pursuit of Happyness”
UPLIFT DRAMA|***|PG-13|Will Smith digs deep and mines jagged moments as Chris Gardner, a devoted father whose plunge into homelessness coincides with the opportunity he’s dreamt of: a competitive (non-paying) internship at Dean Witter. Many will cheer Gardner storming the corporate ramparts. But it’s the other places Gardner and his 5-year-old son Chris (Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s son Jaden Christopher Syre Smith in a charming debut) take us – the shelters, the church services, the public spaces made private for economic circumstance – that make this journey so heart-provoking. (Kennedy)|117 minutes
“Rocky Balboa”
SEQUEL|** 1/2|PG|Stallone steps in the ring for one last round, this time trying to admit he’s aged a little. Rocky is restless in retirement, running his fancy restaurant and spending a lot of time at Adrian’s grave (died young, yo). ESPN pits the younger Rocky against current champion Mason “The Line” Dixon in a computer game, and the match piques the interest of promoters. Rocky has to fight again, to exorcise his demons and exercise his stiff knees. While the movie is slow and a long walk down memory lane, there’s no denying Rocky is one of the great American characters on film, and Stallone plays him well. (Booth)|96 minutes
GIANT SCREEN
IMAX Film Festival
-MARCH 15|Choose from six films voted as the best of IMAX. Winners include “Everest,” “Shackleton’s Antarctic Adventure,” “Seasons,” “Africa the Seren-
geti,” “Blue Planet” and “Dolphins.” Dates, times vary|Denver Museum of Nature & Science, 2001 Colorado Blvd., 303-
322-7009, dmns.org
Wildlife Experience
IWERKS: The museum presents “Beavers” and “Dolphins” on its 45-by-60-
foot screen|$4.95-$7.95; free 2 and under|10035 S. Peoria St., 720-488-3300, wildlifeexperience.org|PARKER
