CINEMA
At The Movies
Opening
The Ant Bully
After a 10-year-old boy terrorizes an ant hill in his yard, the tiny insects use a magic potion to shrink him to their size and make him live in their colony. Julia Roberts, Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep and Paul Giamatti head the voice cast for this animated film. Review on Page 23. (PG)
John Tucker Must Die
When three popular girls from different cliques discover they've all been dating the school stud, they band together to seek revenge. Despite the jerk's charm and ever-growing popularity, the girls scheme to soil his reputation and break his heart, with the help of a new girl in town. Review on Page 22. (PG-13)
Miami Vice
Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx star in director Michael Mann's updated version of his popular action-crime TV series of the 1980s. Review on Page 10. (R)
Scoop
Woody Allen's latest film is about an American student (Scarlett Johansson) who, with the help of a recently deceased journalist (Ian McShane), pursues an English nobleman (Hugh Jackman) who may be "the Tarot Card Killer." Review on Friday's Entertainment page. (PG-13)
Now Playing
G - General audiences.
Cars
1/2
Director John Lasseter and his Pixar animation team's latest feature is about a hotshot rookie race car (voiced by Owen Wilson) who learns about life in the slow lane when he finds himself unexpectedly detoured to the sleepy town of Radiator Springs.
Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties
1/2
On a trip to England, the beloved comic strip fat cat (voiced by Bill Murray) is mistaken for another tabby who inherited a castle.
Over the Hedge
A group of woodland animals visit the strange new world of suburbia with the prompting of an opportunistic raccoon (voiced by Bruce Willis). For kids only.
The Wild
The computer-animated film is about a New York City zoo lion (voiced by Keifer Sutherland) who enlists his animal friends to search for his cub, who was mistakenly shipped to the wild.
PG - Parental guidance suggested.
Akeelah and the Bee
1/2
The innate talent of an 11-year-old inner-city girl makes her a surprise contender for the national spelling bee. Keke Palmer steps into a lead role with poise, panache, a headstrong spirit.
Goal!: The Dream Begins
An illegal Mexican immigrant living in Los Angeles travels to England to try to make the Newcastle United soccer club. Impressive action sequences are the highlight, as this run-of-the-mill story invokes every known sports movie cliché.
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.
An Inconvenient Truth
A documentary about former Vice President Al Gore's touring multimedia talk about the moral challenge of global warming. The film's not so much about Gore but mainly on his presentation on the alarming effect of carbon-dioxide emissions on the world's climate, a talk he's given many times over the last few years.
Monster House
A group of kids suspect a creepy old house is really alive and dangerous. Can they save their neighborhood in time? This movie features the same blend of motion-capture and CG animation previously used in co-producer Robert Zemeckis' "The Polar Express," and has lots of fun to deliver. It makes for a great, scary film for youngsters.
RV
1/2
Robin Williams stars as a dad who rents a recreational vehicle to take his family on vacation. Lame jokes and sight gags are repeated so often you feel you're driving in circles.
PG-13 - Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate from children under age 13.
The Benchwarmers
1/2
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.
Click
Adam Sandler's latest comedy overflows with the juvenile hijinks that initially made him a star and ventures into the serious adult territory of his later, more thoughtful films. He stars as a harried architect who stumbles upon a universal remote that allows him to perform TiVo-like functions on his life.
The Da Vinci Code
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.
The Devil Wears Prada
1/2
More college drab than haute couture, a hapless young woman (Anne Hathaway) becomes the assistant to a demanding editor (Meryl Streep) who oversees the fashion bible of New York. Like the hottest new fashion trend, the movie is initially irresistible -- fun, flirty, spirited and sexy. But then it drags the audience down through a love triangle plotline that gets too complicated and heavy.
Keeping Up With the Steins
A highly entertaining, not-so-kosher comedy about a high-powered, if dysfunctional, Jewish family in Hollywood and a boy who ends up using his bar mitzvah for the unlikely purpose of actually becoming a man and reconciling his elders.
Lady in the Water
A mystical water nymph lives under the swimming pool of a drab apartment complex. It's an intriguing premise, yet the mythology director M. Night Shyamalan builds around his main characters is forced, pretentious and outright silly at times. Strong performances by Paul Giamatti as the complex's melancholy manager, Bryce Dallas Howard as the nymph and a plucky supporting cast of amiable weirdos makes the fantasy occasionally palatable -- but just barely.
Little Man
Brothers Marlon and Shawn Wayans follow up "White Chicks" with this screwball comedy about a short-statured criminal who poses as an adopted baby to recover a stolen diamond from an unsuspecting couple. While big on gross-out humor and slapsticky sight gags that appeal to the lowest common denominator, the movie is small on genuinely clever laughs.
Mission: Impossible III
Tom Cruise's superspy series continues, this time helmed by "Lost" co-creator J.J. Abrams. Cruise's character Ethan Hunt goes against a dangerous international weapons and information dealer who places his girlfriend in peril.
My Super Ex-Girlfriend
1/2
Veteran comedy director Ivan Reitman is back with a tale of an architect (Luke Wilson) who breaks up with his clingy girlfriend (Uma Thurman), only to find out she's a superhero out for payback. It's a silly film with so-so CGI effects. The main selling point is the delightful self-effacing quality of Thurman's performance, making her character appealing no matter how erratic and destructive her behavior.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom reprise their roles in the swashbuckling sequel to the immensely popular 2003 movie. This time, Capt. Jack Sparrow discovers he owes a bloody debt to the legendary Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) of the ghostly Flying Dutchman.
Poseidon
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.
A Prairie Home Companion
Veteran director Robert Altman applies his masterfully ironic and curmudgeonly eye to a whimsy-filled fantasy about the last night of Garrison Kellior's venerable radio variety show. The result is an ambling, rambling folksy yarn that nicely captures the radio-show-that-time-forgot spirit of Kellior's music and comedy revue.
Scary Movie 4
1/2
The latest sequel has sporadic flashes of comic greatness, but is separated by draggy repetitive sketches that make this movie feel longer than it should. It's basically a cross between parodies of "The Grudge" and "War of the Worlds."
Stick it
It's a retread of 2000's "Bring It On," only with gymnastics in place of cheerleading. While the movie trots out a cornucopia of sports-movie clichés, it's watchable for the performance of Missy Peregrym as the rebellious lead character.
Superman Returns
1/2
The Man of Steel returns to Metropolis after a five-year absence, as he begins his life on Earth again as his alter ego Clark Kent, all the while trying to restart his romance with Lois Lane and doing battle with his arch-nemesis Lex Luthor. This thrilling summer blockbuster lives up to the hype. It's reverential to the source material, yet a unique film all its own.
X-Men: The Last Stand
Change is at the core of the third "X-Men" movie, 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 embattled team must choose between remaining as they are or become normal human beings.
You, Me and Dupree
1/2
Wedding crasher Owen Wilson does more light-hearted loitering in this movie, playing a barfly who overstays his welcome sleeping on a newlywed buddy's couch.
R - Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
Clerks II
1/2
Director Kevin Smith checks back in with the slackers from his indie breakout film to find out what they're up to a dozen years later. Even though the movie goes disastrously awry in the third act, when the insults are flowing and the graphic banter is crackling, "Clerks II" frequently achieves a rhythm that's hilariously infectious.
Friends with Money
Writer-director Nicole Holofcener returns with another female-centric feature. It's the story of a quartet of longtime friends from tony West Los Angeles.
A Scanner Darkly
Philip K. Dick's grim novel of drug addiction set in the near future is made into a babbling, often incomprehensible sci-fi tale by Richard Linklater, using the wobbly rotoscoping animation technique he last used in "Waking Life."
See No Evil
Wrestling star Kane plays a giant-sized serial killer who hunts down and kills, in gory detail, the delinquent teens who invade his hotel hideout.
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):
Strangers with Candy
(R) At 1, 4 and 7:30 p.m. Friday and Sunday; 7:30 p.m. July 31; and 1 and 7:30 p.m. Aug. 1 to 3.
MOVIE MUSEUM
3566 Harding Ave.; $5, $4 members; reservations recommended due to limited seating (735-8771):
The Black Book / I Wake Up Screaming
At 12:30, 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. ("Book") and 2, 5 and 8 p.m. ("Screaming") Friday and Sunday.
Border Incident / Seven Men From Now
At 12:30, 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. ("Border") and 2, 5 and 8 p.m. ("Seven") Saturday.
Nora Prentiss
At 2, 4, 6 and 8 p.m. July 31.
V for Vendetta
At 12:30, 3, 5:30 and 8 p.m. Aug 3.
UHM CINEMA SERIES: BEYOND OIL
Spalding Hall Auditorium, University of Hawaii at Manoa; $5 general and $3 UH students/faculty:
Hard Coal
At 5 p.m. Sunday.