Due to the ever-changing nature of the movie biz, showtimes as they appear in any and all newspapers should always be double-checked with the theaters before setting off for a night at the flicks.
Designates items highlighted in this week's issue.
Click here for movie theaters and showtimes
OPENS FRIDAY
The Celestine Prophecy
James Redfield's book hits the big screen-replete with ancient scrolls, mysterious mumbo jumbo and ominous intimations of the future. "As to claims that the book provides a path to enlightenment, I'm an agnostic. But I can swear on a stack of ancient scrolls that the movie plays like 90-odd minutes of purgatory from which you feel you may never escape," said one reviewer at the time of the film's release.
UA DeVargas, PG, 99 min.
Click
Adam Sandler headlines as Michael Newman, a workaholic architect/family man who wishes for a "universal
remote" to make his hectic life easier. Enter Christopher Walken, a mad-scientist employee of Bed Bath and Beyond who supplies Michael with a remote control that
does everything from fast-forwarding through marital strife to putting the whole world on pause. While initially the answer to his prayers, the universal remote situation gets a bit out of hand, as Michael realizes that, in spite of being able to freeze frame a passing jogger's sports bra, he's also missing the best parts of life. For Sandler devotees, this film reunites the actor with his
Waterboy
and
Wedding Singer
director Frank Coraci. With Kate Beckinsale as Michael's suburban housewife.
Dreamcatcher, UA DeVargas, UA North, PG-13, 97 min.
Down in The Valley
See
.
CCA, R, 125 min.
SHORT RUNS
Auntie Mayhem
Felony Mayhem (Moe Bertran) and her cohorts assemble a motley assortment of gay and transgendered teens in her home, after discovering that the teen who mugged her is actually a runaway who was kicked out of the house for being gay. Adapted from the off-off-Broadway play by David Pumo, nominated for a Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation theater award in 2004. Humorous without being sappy, an examination of gay and transgender runaways that avoids being didactic.
Santa Fe Film Center, R, 90 min.
The Big Buy: Tom DeLay's Stolen Congress
"By the time we finish this poker game," Tom DeLay said in 1994, "there may not be a federal government left! Which would suit me just fine." This documentary, from Brave New Films, also behind
Outfoxed
and
WalMart: The High Cost of Low Price
, shines a spotlight on the former House Majority Leader, forced to resign not only that position but also his seat in Congress amid various good-old-boy scandals. The story has the potential to provide an orgy of head-nodding and outrage among the local lefty populace.
CCA, NR, 76 min.
Callas Forever
Franco Zeffirelli crafted this loving biopic, which takes place during the last days of uber-soprano Maria Callas. Known for being crammed full of gorgeous music, Zefferelli's film was nominated for a Goya Award. Features Fanny Ardant and Jeremy Irons. Another in a series of Opera-related films that will be screened over the summer.
Santa Fe Film Center, PG-13, 111 min.
Duma
Followers of St. Francis, rejoice in this gorgeously filmed story of a wide-eyed cheetah and the boy who loves him. White South African Xan (Alex Michaeletos) adopts an orphaned cub where it enjoys living high on the hog on the Kenyan family farm-but when they must relocate to Jo'burg, Duma must be returned to the wild. On their journey, Xan and Duma encounter a young African man, Ripkuna (the magnificent Eamonn Walker), and after some prickly initial interactions, the two form a bond which-like Xan's with Duma-winds up far exceeding ordinary expectations of friendship.
CCA, PG, 100 min.
Fairy Odd Parents: Fairy Idol
An Emmy-award winning animated series from Nickelodeon, following the adventures of latchkey kid Timmy, and his helpers from beyond. Features the voice of Norm McDonald. Another Kids First! Film Club event, free for children.
Santa Fe Film Center, G, 80 min.
Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing & Charm School
Strange how times have changed for Robert Carlyle, ever since his turn as psychotic Begbie in
Trainspotting
; the roles he's landed since then have tended much more toward the
sweet side, if still often darkly funny: the alcoholic dad in
Angela's Ashes
, a romantic lead in
Carla's Song
and
The Full Monty
-and of course quirky Beeb detective
Hamish Macbeth
. Carlyle continues with the pure evaporated
cane sugar, so far rarely redolent of sucralose, as a man broken-hearted by the death of his wife. A chance encounter with John Goodman leads him circuitously to the school of the title (overseen by Mary Steenburgen)-and to a fresh start, his transformation attended by fellow dance and charm students Marisa Tomei, Donnie Wahlberg and Sean Astin (don't you lose him, Samwise Gamgee!).
The Screen, PG-13, 103 min.
The Maya
An exploration of Mayan mysteries through the dances of Javier Alarcon and his dance company from Cancun, the film sheds light on a host of Mayan cultural arcana as well as giving voice to the Mayan people of today. Director/producer Fannee Hilander will be in attendance.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 75 min.
The Seeker
Evan Somers, struggling screenwriter, former teacher and 45-year old dreamer, sets off on a motorcycle road trip to find himself. This ain't no Robert Persig journey, however: Somers is a quadriplegic, seeking answers from the medical establishment on the hope of a cure for spinal cord injuries. Along the way, Somers encounters Christopher Reeve and ends up at the annual motorcycle-fest in Sturgis, SD, riding a specially modified hog and where he is warmly welcomed as a hero.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 91 min.
NOW SHOWING
An Inconvenient Truth
Al Gore in all of his earnest glory, post-Presidential hopes, touring the country and exhorting anyone who will listen to take global warming seriously. Gore's screen persona turns out to be "disarming, funny and animated," according to The Philadelphia Inquirer, and that goes a long way toward sustaining the hour and a half litany of urgency and unfolding environmental catastrophe (see
).
UA DeVargas, PG, 95 min.
The Break-Up
Vince Vaughn is funny. Sure, it's in that chauvinistic, frat-boy kind of way, but he manages to make that role, which he's played time and again, both lovable and fairly inoffensive. Despite a script that plays up many rom-com clichés, Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston make the audience genuinely care and dismisses those, "really, she went from Brad Pitt to this frumpy guy?" thoughts. The two work well together, trading insults and injury in a movie that will be forgotten in a few months, but still a great movie for a make-up date with your honey. (Patricia Sauthoff)
Dreamcatcher, UA South, PG-13, 106 min.
Cars
Pixar strikes again with this animated feature garnering generally positive reviews. Voice work by Owen Wilson, Paul Newman and Bonnie Hunt has heightened the buzz. The LA Times, joining a chorus of applause, raves "what's surprising about this supremely engaging film is the source of its curb appeal: It has heart."
Dreamcatcher, UA DeVargas, UA South G, 116 min
The Da Vinci Code
Tom Hanks stars as Harvard "symbologist" Robert Langdon in this fairly entertaining adaptation of Dan Brown's not in the least entertaining novel. Naturally, during a Paris booksigning, Langdon's asked by the gendarmerie to assist with a murder case. Enter cryptologist Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou), the victim's granddaughter. All this abruptly leads to a clandestine midnight tour of the Louvre and Langdon's and Neveu's flight from Paris; frantically intercut scenes suggest that the Catholic order Opus Dei are tasking a monastic albino hitman Silas (Paul Bettany), who murders his way across France. While much of what's amusing may be unintentionally so (including the dialogue: "I have to get to a library-fast!"), director Ron Howard keeps things moving quickly enough so that you can't really dwell on the idiocies.
UA DeVargas, UA North, PG-13, 149 min.
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
The third
Fast and the Furious
installment, this outing illuminates the little-known world of underground Tokyo drift racing. With none of the original cast and a new director, Justin Lin, (
Better Luck Tomorrow
)
Tokyo Drift
features fast cars, scantily clad girls, new rivalries and the neon glow of Tokyo at night. Lucas Black stars as the troubled Shaun Boswell, who travels across the Pacific to avoid a jail sentence. For those who can't wait for the Friday release, never fear-two versions of the video game are already available. With Bow Wow, Nathalie Kelley, and Brian Tee.
Dreamcatcher, UA South, PG-13, 90 min.
Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties
Critical acclaim must not do it for Bill Murray. On the heels of the highly lauded
Lost in Translation
, and
more recently,
Broken Flowers
, Murray follows up with
Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties
, reprising his role as the voice of the computer-generated overweight feline himself. Director Tim Hill (who brought us 1999's endearing
Muppets From Space
) is new to the series, in which Garfield, canine pal Odie and owner Jon hop across the pond to England, where they battle evil Lord Dargis (Billy Connolly), who wants to turn a historic castle into a resort. Ironically enough, the message of this film seems to be: Resist commodification and commercialization. With Breckin Meyer and Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Dreamcatcher, UA North, PG, 80 min.
Keeping Up With the Steins
Mixed reviews greeted this bar mitzvah comedy featuring Jeremy Pliven. In particular, the arch satire of West LA consumerism promises one kind of comedy, but the story is overly diluted by one of those "heartwarming" and "inspiring" endings.
UA DeVargas, PG-13, 90 min.
The Lake House
Speed costars Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock reunite in this story of two lonely professionals, a doctor, Kate (Bullock) and an architect, Alex (Reeves) who fall in love the old-fashioned way, through a courtship of letters. Based on the Korean film
Il Mare
, the twist here is that Kate and Alex are separated by time: Alex lives in a house in 2004 that Kate will inhabit in 2006. By exchanging daily letters through their shared mailbox, the two get to know one another, and eventually, realize their inconvenient separation. Meant to be a subtle drama with numerous references to "the light" and literal glass houses,
The Lake House
is shot on Chicago's North shore. As film reviewer James Berardinelli advises, "Don't think too hard-you'll spoil the mood." With Christopher Plummer as Alex's mad-genius architect father.
Dreamcatcher, PG, 85 min.
L'Enfant
Brothers and Palme d'Or winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardennes demonstrate with each film their singular ability to project an unforgiving working-class and immigrant Belgium with Dogme-like veracity (
La promesse, Rosetta
). Their latest draws mixed reviews (New Yorker francophile Anthony Lane offers, "There is something willed and implausible…beginning with the first non-crying, non-hungry infant in human history") but the Dardennes have a knack for extracting stunning performances from their leads, in this case Jérémie Renier and Déborah François as Bruno and Sonia, a pair of (very) young lovers in trouble-not only unwantedly pregnant but already struggling to survive on Sonia's unemployment and Bruno's petty theft. Unexpectedly, the birth of infant Jimmy offers an economic opportunity, albeit a morally problematic one.
CCA, R, 100 min.
Mission: Impossible III
Lost
director JJ Abrams does everything in his power to keep you from remembering that it's the Sofa-Leaper Himself playing Ethan Hunt-from
M:I-3
's nerve-wracking opening sequence in which a bound and bruised Hunt negotiates frantically with gun-wielding villain Philip Seymour Hoffman. Alas, Abrams also wants us to see Ethan's "sensitive side," so he makes other choices like…cutting from this sequence straight to an engagement party for Ethan and his bride Julia (Michelle Monaghan). Hunt's summoned out of his mushy love-nest retirement to bring down Hoffman, a doer of international evil deeds, in the course of which there are helicopters to blow up, buildings off which to base-jump, a crack team of IMF experts to assemble (Ving Rhames, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Maggie Q) and contrived plot lines to pursue.
UA North, PG-13, 126 min.
Nacho Libre
Napoleon Dynamite
writer-director Jared Hess is back, with this film about a cook at a Mexican orphanage, Ignacio (Jack Black), who spends his off hours as a
luche libre
wrestler called Nacho (think face masks, red tights) in order to earn extra cash for the kids. If
Napoleon
is any indication,
Nacho Libre
will leave us with quotable catch phrases and plastic Jack Black paraphernalia sold at gas stations well into next year.
Nacho Libre
is written by Mike White, the man behind
The Good Girl
and another Jack Black film,
School of Rock
. Expect lots of body slams and sweeping Oaxacan vistas.
Dreamcatcher, UA North, PG, 100 min.
The Omen
More proof that there is seemingly no end to the strange attempts of Hollywood to catch some box office in the midst of a precipitous industry collapse. The original film was stunning, even shocking for many audience members way way way back when it was released. The New York Times says of this version: "Unrelentingly dull, morose and the opposite of entertaining."
DreamCatcher, UA South, R, 110 min.
Over the Hedge
Only black-sheep cousin DreamWorks, with its countercultural sense of humor, could get behind a story as subtly left-of-center as this one: RJ (Bruce Willis) is a fast-talking raccoon on the make, looking to score a large quantity of junk food so he can pay off an ursine leg-breaker (Nick Nolte). In the interest of saving his hide, he enlists an eclectic "family" of animals stymied by the new hedge enveloping their former forest home, now a tiny enclave of park surrounded by the identical tract-housing of suburbia. The family's cautious leader, turtle Vern (Garry Shandling), has returned from a preliminary investigation with horrific reports of the "freaking pink primates!" on the other side. RJ must convince the group that there's Oreos and Pringles to be had, and they'd better brave the 'burbs to store enough calories for the winter. Like many of cinema's con men, however, RJ finds himself wondering whether selling out his adorable new friends is worth it. And we take his point: Steve Carell as an overcaffeinated squirrel is particularly cute, whether stammering incoherently, "But I like a cookie!" or (in one priceless sequence) experiencing the world as slowed-down due to his own untrammeled velocity.
UA South, PG, 96 min.
A Prairie Home Companion
Robert Altman's newest, with a screenplay by Garrison Keillor, imagines what would happen if the small radio station producing "Prairie Home Companion" were purchased by a major media outlet. The film follows a fictional cast and crew as they prepare for their last broadcast. Features the usual Altman stellar cast including Kevin Kline, Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones, Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin.
The Screen, PG-13, 105 min.
The Russian Dolls
Audrey Tatou and Romain Duris star in what was a smash hit in France by Cedric Klapisch (
L'Auberge Espagnole
). The main character, Xavier, a writer of soap operas, travels from London to St. Petersburg, learning lessons about lust, romance and the art of writing. "A mini-trip to Europe (with) the texture of a novel...Sublime and magical," wrote Kylie Smith of The New York Post.
CCA, NR, 125 min.
Water
Deepa Mehta faced the destruction of this film's sets and threats against her life, just maybe a sign that our notions of the oppression of women being a quaint thing of the past are a tad too rose-colored. The final film in Mehta's trilogy, this installment depicts the plight of widows in India in the '30s, combining a razor-sharp social and political agenda with stunning cinematography.
UA DeVargas, PG-13, 117 min.
X-Men: The Last Stand
Ushering in the summer's really big blow-'em-up whoopie movies is
The Last Stand
. The gang's all here: Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin and the rest of the mutants must defend their kind even more fiercely now that a "cure" for their aberrancies has been found, and humans seem increasingly disposed to rid the world of these weird people who can set things ablaze and fly around and what have you. Adding to the fun is Magneto (Ian McKellan, hamming it up with gusto) who seems desirous of giving mutants everywhere an even worse rap than the one they've already managed to snag.
DreamCatcher, UA DeVargas, UA North, PG-13, 104 min.
