CINEMA
At the Movies
Opening
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
H1/2
A young American street racer, living in Japan, gets caught up in the underworld world of drift racing. Trouble ensues when he falls for the girlfriend of the Drift King, a local champ with Yakuza ties. (PG-13)
Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties
H1/2
On a trip to England, the beloved comic strip fat cat (voiced by Bill Murray) is mistaken for another tabby who inherited a castle. But a nefarious count is determined to do away with Garfield, so he can turn the castle into a resort. (PG)
An Inconvenient Truth
HHH
A documentary about former Vice President Al Gore's touring multimedia talk about the moral challenge of global warming. (PG)
The Lake House
H1/2
Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves star in this remake of a South Korean film about a doctor who trades love letters with one of her home's previous owners -- and discover that they are living two years apart of each other. (PG)
Nacho Libre
Jack Black plays a Mexican cook who moonlights on the masked Lucha Libre wrestling circuit to funnel his prize money to needy orphans. It's co-produced and written by Mike White ("School of Rock") and directed by Jared Hess of "Napoleon Dynamite" fame. (PG)
Now Playing
G - General audiences.
Cars
HH1/2
Director John Lasseter and his Pixar animation team's latest feature is about a hotshot rookie race car who learns about life in the slow lane when he finds himself unexpectedly detoured to the sleepy town of Radiator Springs. Kids will love the color and pace.
PG - Parental guidance suggested.
Ice Age: The Meltdown
HH1/2
The cheery animated sequel might as well come with another subtitle: "Featuring Scrat!" The fanged little goof upstages the top-billed talent with his antics to secure his precious acorn. The movie is on par with the 2002 original: brisk, pleasant and loaded with slapstick that keeps children giggling, though parents may feel they're sitting through the first "Ice Age" all over again.
Over the Hedge
HH
Based on the comic strip seen in the Sunday Star-Bulletin, woodland animals visit the new world of suburbia upon the prompting of an opportunistic raccoon. This one's a mildly amusing, if hackneyed, movie. For kids only.
The Shaggy Dog
HH
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.
PG-13 - Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate from children under age 13.
The Benchwarmers
HH1/2
This baseball buffoonery comedy packs more pop than you'd expect from a film made up of former "Saturday Night Live" second-stringers (Rob Schneider, David Spade, Jon Lovitz, plus Jon Heder from "Napoleon Dynamite"). Three grown-up dweebs form a barnstorming team seeking to lay the smackdown on full-rostered youth squads.
The Break-Up
HH
Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn play a Chicago couple who call it quits but refuse to move out of their jointly owned condo. This anti-romantic comedy is pretty much a remake of "The War of the Roses," only watered down.
The Da Vinci Code
HH
Based on the best-selling novel, the murder of a curator at the Louvre reveals a sinister plot to uncover a secret that has been protected since the days of Christ. Tom Hanks stars as the symbologist out to solve the murder and co-stars Audrey Tautou, Ian McKellan and Paul Bettany. Ron Howard's adaptation, while handsomely produced and decorated with a few good performances from McKellan and Bettany, just comes off as wordy and slow.
Failure to Launch
HHH
Matthew McConaughey plays a thirty-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 a TV sitcom-y shine to it when it starts, but then it reveals its surprises: quirky, appealing characters played by a talented cast, sly dialogue, and slapstick magic.
Just My Luck
HH1/2
Lindsay Lohan plays a young career woman, lucky in life, who exchanges a kiss -- and fortunes -- with a hapless stranger. It's a thin premise stretched paper thin into a feature film, but it targets its tween audience perfectly.
Mission: Impossible III
HH
Tom Cruise's superspy series continues, this time helmed by "Lost" co-creator J.J. Abrams. Cruise's Ethan Hunt goes against an international weapons and information dealer (Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman) who places his girlfriend (Michelle Monaghan) in peril. It's basically a rote replay of some of Cruise's best-known hits.
Phat Girlz
HHH
A smart-mouthed, size-plus, aspiring fashion designer (Mo'Nique) tries to find love and acceptance in a world full of "hot-bodied" babes. This is a disarming, delightful vehicle for its star and executive producer. It's a touching demand for the empowerment of the big-boned woman who's disenfranchised by society.
Poseidon
HH
A groaning giant of a film, it delivers disaster on an epic scale and absurdity in abundance. The action remake, about a cruise ship capsized by a freak wave, is bigger, louder and cheesier than its 1972 predecessor. There are some serious pyrotechnics on display, but the acting and dialogue are pure camp.
A Prairie Home Companion
HHH
Veteran director Robert Altman applies his masterfully ironic and curmudgeonly eye to a whimsy-filled fantasy about the last night of Garrison Keillor's venerable radio variety show. It blends real people behind the show with fictional characters who part of the "Prairie Home" universe, and even weaves in a trippy supernatural element. The result is an ambling, rambling folksy yarn that nicely captures the radio-show-that-time-forgot spirit of Keillor's music and comedy revue.
Stay Alive
H
Frankie Muniz and Samaire Armstrong are part of a group of teens who play an online video game and find themselves being murdered the same ways as their game characters. This is an unintentionally funny and, worst of all, not at all scary movie.
Water
HHH
This poignant import directed by Deepa Mehta reflects on the plight of Indian women who, according to Hindu custom, are not allowed to remarry after their husbands die. They are abandoned by their families to dwell in squalor in ashrams, where some of them are sold into prostitution. Set in the late 1930s, the story centers on three widows. Mehta tells their stories with metaphors, using water to signify death, division and rebirth.
X-Men: The Last Stand
HH
Change is at the core of the third installment, with director Brett Ratner taking over for Bryan Singer. When a cure for the genetic aberrations that grant the mutants their powers is discovered, the team must decide if they want to become normal humans. The nuance and complexity of character that made the first two "X-Men" movies compelling are gone; spectacle trumps substance.
R - Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
Lucky Number Slevin
HH1/2
Part mistaken-identity thriller, part flimflam game, this film stars Josh Hartnett as a sap caught in the middle of a mob war between New York's rival crime bosses (Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley). It's an engaging crime romp, and its convolutions will keep the audience guessing.
The Omen
HH
An exceedingly faithful remake of the 1976 horror classic. An American diplomat and his wife discover that their adopted boy, Damien, may be the long-prophesized Antichrist. The movie is so similar to the original that the audience knows what's coming. And because it adheres so closely, it only serves as a reminder of the superiority of Richard Donner's original.
Silent Hill
HH
Yet another video game adaptation, this one features a woman looking for her missing daughter in an abandoned town inhabited by strange creatures.
Typhoon
HH
A big-budget Korean drama has an embittered man bent on destroying the Korean peninsula with the help of stolen nuclear missile guidance kits. Despite all of the needed elements of a good action flick, the movie lacks the needed energy to transcend its mediocrity.
United 93
HHH
A real-time drama about the fourth plane hijacked on 9/11. The story of the passengers who fought back is told with devastating realism, stirring up a fresh sense of horror and erasing five years' distance from the attacks. British writer-director Paul Greengrass ("The Bourne Supremacy") handles volatile material with tact, his detail-laced screenplay based on interviews with family members and reports from the 9/11 commission.
V for Vendetta
HH1/2
Natalie Portman stars as a young woman enlisted by a masked revolutionary to help fight against a totalitarian government. The saga scores well enough in the first hour, but loses focus midway through, the tone shifting from silly but smart to just silly.
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):
Academy Award Nominated Short Films
At 1, 4 and 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
American Gun
At 1 and 4 p.m. Sunday, 7:30 p.m. June 19, and 1 and 7:30 p.m. June 20 and 21.
Three Times (Zui hao de shi guang)
At 1 and 7:30 p.m. June 22.
MOVIE MUSEUM
3566 Harding Ave.; $5, $4 members; reservations recommended due to limited seating (735-8771):
I Know Where I'm Going!
At 2, 4, 6 and 8 p.m. Friday.
The World's Fastest Indian
At 12:30, 3, 5:30 and 8 p.m. Saturday.
Hopscotch
At 2, 4, 6 and 8 p.m. Sunday.
The Revolt of Mamie Stover
At 12:30, 3, 5:30 and 8 p.m. June 19.
Double Indemnity
At 2, 4, 6 and 8 p.m. June 22.
UHM CINEMA SERIES: BEYOND OIL
Spalding Hall Auditorium, University of Hawaii at Manoa; $5 general and $3 UH students/faculty:
The End of Suburbia
At 5 p.m. Sunday.