At The Movies
Opening
The Benchwarmers
The latest from producer Adam Sandler features Rob Schneider, David Spade and Jon Heder as grown-up dweebs who join a Little League team of geeky kids to held take down the champs, made up of neighborhood bullies. (PG-13)
Lucky Number Slevin
1/2
Part mistaken-identity thriller, part flimflam game, this film stars Josh Hartnett as Slevin, a sap caught in the middle of a mob war being plotted by a paire of New York's rival crime bosses (Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley). Slevin is also under constant surveillance by a relentless detective (Stanley Tucci) and an infamous assassin (Bruce Willis). Lucy Liu is the perkily resourceful love interest who helps Hartnett play both sides against the middle. Review on Page 21. (R)
Neil Young: Heart of Gold
Filmmaker Jonathan Demme's latest musical documentary focuses on highlights from a two-night stint by the veteran rocker at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, performing music from his earliest years up to his latest album "Prairie Wind." Review on Thursday's Entertainment page. (PG)
Phat Girlz
A smart-mouthed, size-plus, aspiring fashion designer (Mo'Nique) tries to find love and acceptance in a world full of "hot-bodied" babes. (PG-13)
Take the Lead
1/2
Antonio Banderas stars as a former professional ballroom dancer who volunteers at a New York public school to teach dance, even though the hip-hop instincts of his students clash, at first, with his methods. Review on Page 22. (PG-13)
Now Playing
PG Parental guidance suggested.
Aquamarine
1/2
Two friends try to help a mermaid capture the heart of a hunky lifeguard at their neighborhood beach club. Heartfelt but clunky, this mermaid-out-of-water story offers enough female-positive messages to make it worthwhile viewing for 'tween girls.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Based on C.S. Lewis' classic fantasy novel, the story follows four siblings in World War II England who enter the world of Narnia through a magical wardrobe. There they join a noble and mystical ruler, the lion Aslan, in fighting the evil White Witch, Jadis. The visual overload is impressive, Tilda Swinton is positively insane as the witch, and the young actors give winsome performances.
Glory Road
1/2
The true story of the underdog Texas Western college basketball team, with history's first all-black starting lineup, and their surprising championship win in the 1966 NCAA tournament. Though the performances are understated, the inspirational story is amped up unecessarily with an overbearing score, hyperactive camerawork and jumpy edits that obscure the action at crucial spots.
Ice Age: The Meltdown
1/2
The cheery animated sequel might as well come with another subtitle: "Featuring Scrat!" The fanged little goof constantly upstages the top-billed talent with his manic antics to secure his precious acorn. The movie is right on par with the 2002 original: brisk, pleasant and loaded with slapstick that should keep young children giggling, though repetitive enough that parents at times may feel they're sitting through the first "Ice Age" all over again.
The Shaggy Dog
Another remake, this time of the 1959 Disney classic. A top-secret serum turns a high-powered district attorney (Tim Allen) into a pooch. Before he can become human again, he must stop the evil forces behind the serum. This is a well-intentioned but forgettable mutt without any new tricks, the gags harmlessly predictable.
PG-13 Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate from children under age 13.
Annapolis
A dream comes true for a young man from the wrong side of the tracks when he is accepted into the Naval Academy. But once there, he's not sure he measures up against the best and the brightest. Starring James Franco, the movie is pretty to look at, but heavy and boring.
ATL
This is the classic example of a music video director (Chris Robinson) making the leap to feature films and emphasizing style over substance. He could've made more of his Atlanta-based coming-of-age story, and its complex issues of race, class, money and identity. Rapper Tip "T.I." Harris makes his film debut.
Big Momma's House 2
1/2
Martin Lawrence goes back undercover in his disguise as a plus-size granny, this time to be a nanny for the three kids of a suspected killer. You get just about every fat joke ever made in the movie, and the plot doesn't hold much interest. But if you're a fan of Lawrence's manic comedy, this is for you.
Failure to Launch
Matthew McConaughey plays a 30-something slacker who still lives with his parents. They hire a professional motivator (Sarah Jessica Parker) to lure him out of the nest. The movie has something of a TV sitcom-y shine to it as it gets started, but it contains some surprises, such as quirky and appealing characters played by its talented cast, sly and hilarious dialogue, and slapstick magic realism.
She's the Man
This movie takes a little bit of "Bend It Like Beckham" and a lot of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" and twists them into a cross-dressing teen farce with occasional forays onto the soccer field. Amanda Bynes pretends to be just one of the guys in this energetic but unspectacular comedy. While she's no Lindsay Lohan, she has a natural spunkiness that serves her and the film well.
Stay Alive
Frankie Muniz and Samaire Armstrong are part of a group of teens who play a mysterious online video game -- and suddenly find themselves being murdered the same ways as their game characters. This is a cheesy, unintentionally funny and, worst of all, not at all scary movie.
When a Stranger Calls
This slick remake of the 1979 horror-thriller is about a teenage baby sitter (Camilla Belle) who is terrorized by a stranger's phone calls. The story takes place in such a breathtakingly designed modern mansion that it's actually a distraction to the unscary plot.
The World's Fastest Indian
Anthony Hopkins stars in the true story of a New Zealand man who, at age 68, took his classic 1920 motorcycle to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah to try to break the world speed record. Hopkins has a ball with the role, playing a complete ingenious joy of a man with nothing left to lose.
R Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
Ask the Dust
Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek star in this drama about a young man, castigated back at his Colorado home for his Italian heritage, who moves to 1930s Los Angeles to become a novelist, where he then becomes obsessed with a Mexican barmaid. This movie has been in the works for three-plus decades, ever since writer-director Robert Towne read the 1939 novel while researching "Chinatown." He earns points for perseverance but seems to have lost sight of the story's core ideas and contemporary relevance along the way.
Basic Instinct 2
1/2
Sharon Stone reprises her career-making role of Catherine Tramell. This time, the best-selling crime novelist is brought in by a Scotland Yard detective following the mysterious death of a sports star. The sequel to 1992's overheated sex thriller shows plenty of skin and erotic exercise, but little else to arouse viewers either physically or intellectually. And Stone seems campy and shrill instead of fun and alluring this time 'round.
Brokeback Mountain
1/2
Oscar-winning director Ang Lee's epic love story between a ranch hand and a rodeo cowboy should be seen not for its hot-button topicality, but simply because it's a good movie, with a staggeringly fine performance by Heath Ledger. His portrayal of Ennis Del Mar is both ennobled and shamed by feeling for Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) he doesn't possess words to describe. Ledger turns the classic iconography of the Western male into protective clothing.
Caché (Hidden)
Writer/director Michael Haneke delivers a masterpiece of unsettlement. The comfortable lives of a bourgeois Parisian couple (Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche) and their adolescent son starts spiraling out of control when an anonymous videotape turns up on their doorstep, showing their house under surveillance from across the street. It's a creepy psychological thriller that commands the audience's attention throughout.
Find Me Guilty
1/2
Action star Vin Diesel goes pasty and paunchy to star in veteran director Sidney Lumet's comic drama about the true-life story of Jackie Dinorsio, a member of New Jersey's Lucchese family who turned his defense in a mammoth federal trial into a circus, working the room like a Borscht Belt comedian. The shtick, however, becomes predictable.
Freedomland
1/2
A working-class woman blames a black man for kidnapping her child, but a police detective doubts the truth of her story. The impending investigation ignites long-simmering racial tensions. Despite director Joe Roth being over his head, his cast handle their characters well, particularly Julianne Moore, who gives a full and realized portrait of the downtrodden single mother.
The Hills Have Eyes
A remake of Wes Craven's 1977 cult flick about a family stalked by a group of mutant killers. The script by director Alexandre Aja and Gregory Levasseur makes this remake more like a GOP pro-gun platform plank than a mindless horror thriller, and Aja aims to splatter, impale and eviscerate as many people as possible for as long as he thinks viewers can stand it.
Inside Man
1/2
A tough detective matches wits with a clever bank robber as a dangerous cat-and-mouse game unfolds during a perfectly planned bank robbery. A power broker with hidden agenda emerges to inject even more instability into an already volatile situation. This latest "joint" from director Spike Lee is consistently engaging and boasts fine performances from stars Denzel Washington, Clive Owen and especially Jodie Foster, her best in years.
Slither
Residents of a small town are terrorized by an alien plague in the form of bloodthirsty slugs, whose bite transforms people into zombies and all forms of mutant monsters. Director James Gunn recycles parts of different horror movies to make a whole new one with lots of goo, lots of gore and quite a few intentional laughs. It's a B-movie delight.
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Actor Tommy Lee Jones directs this moralistic and non-linear tale of a Texan taking the corpse of his Mexican best friend across the border south to bury him, accompanied by the patrolman that killed the man. Barry Pepper, January Jones and Melissa Leo co-star.
Transamerica
Felicity Huffman plays a pre-operative male-to-female transsexual who takes a cross-country road trip with her estranged teenage son. Huffman shows astounding range and grace in playing a battered soul, bruised by the conflict between inner longings and societal expectations. Her character is alternately detestable, empathetic, charming, cruel and disarming. The film is accessible and fun, while also deep and affecting.
V for Vendetta
1/2
Natalie Portman stars as a young British woman enlisted by a masked revolutionary to help fight against the totalitarian government in this thriller set in the near future. The saga scores well enough in its first hour, but loses focus midway through, the tone shifting from silly but smart to just silly. The Wachowski brothers wrote the screenplay based on Alan Moore's graphic novel, and the result lands somewhere between the neo-noir freshness of their original "The Matrix" and the indecipherable bombast of the two sequels.
Art House | Revival
The Doris Duke Theatre, Honolulu Academy Of Arts
900 S. Beretania St.; $7 general; $6 seniors, students and military; $5 Academy members (532-8768):
Heroic Grace II: The Chinese Martial Arts Film Retrospective:
Clans of Intrigue (Chu Liuxiang)
At 7:30 p.m. Thursday.
Dirty Ho (Lan Tou Hou)
At 7:30 p.m. Friday.
The Boxer From Shantung (Ma Yongzhen)
At 4 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
King Boxer (Tianxia Diyi Quan)
At 4 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday.
My Young Auntie (Zhangbei)
At 7:30 p.m. April 11.
The Jade Tiger (Bai Yu Lachu)
At 7:30 p.m. April 12.
The Magic Blade (Tianya Mingyue Dao)
At 7:30 p.m. April 13.
Occupation: Dreamland
Review on Page 23. (NR) At 1 and 4 p.m. Friday; 1 p.m. Saturday, and April 11 and 12.
We Jam Econo -- The Story of the Minutemen
At 1 p.m. April 13.
MOVIE MUSEUM
3566 Harding Ave.; $5, $4 members; reservations recommended due to limited seating (735-8771):
Crash (director's cut)
At 12:30, 3, 5:30 and 8 p.m. Friday and April 10.
The Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family (Todake no Kyodai)
At 2, 4, 6 and 8 p.m. Saturday.
Proof
At 2, 4, 6 and 8 p.m. Sunday.
Dear Frankie
At 1, 6 and 8 p.m. April 13.
"THE HEALING WORLD" FILM SERIES
Spalding Hall Auditorium, University of Hawaii-Manoa,; $5 general and $3 UH students, faculty and staff (223-0130):
The Tiger's Apprentice / Between Two Worlds: The Hmong Shaman in America
At 5 p.m. Sunday.
Powerful Medicine / Amchis: The Forgotten Healers of the Himalayas
At 7 p.m. April 13.