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 WEDNESDAY
Superman Returns
See
.
DreamCatcher, UA DeVargas, UA South, PG, 157 min.
OPENS FRIDAY
The Devil Wears Prada
Anna Hathaway
reprises her
Princess Diaries
ugly duckling persona in this film, based on the book of the same name, which chronicles the experiences of an assistant to the former editor of Vogue.
Meryl Streep co-stars as the devil herself, Miranda Priestly, the editor of the fictional magazine Runway. Directed by David Frankel, who moonlighted as a director for the popular HBO series
Sex and the City
, this film is a glamorous look inside the New York fashion scene, which most of us are too dowdy to even dream about entering-a glimpse that is resplendent with sexy clothes and peppy music montages. With Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt.
UA DeVargas, PG-13, 106 min.
District B-13
Luc Besson helped to pen the screenplay for this French action sci-fi comedy directed by Pierre Morel. Set in the Paris ghettos of 2010, a cop and an ex-thug try to defuse a neutron bomb.
The Screen, R, 85 min.
Sketches of Frank Gehry
See
.
CCA, PG-13, 83 min.
SHORT RUNS
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.
Day Break
"A harrowing tour de force with the power to transform its audience," according to the Toronto Film Festival. The NM Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty sponsors this screening and panel discussion. The film follows the life of Mansour, condemned to death, waiting in Tehran's century-old prison for the family of the man he murdered to show up; they hold the key to his fate. Director Hamid Rahmanian's first feature film (see
).
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 84 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.
High Ambitions in the Himalayas
This documentary chronicles the ascent of the 27,000-foot peak Cho Oyu by filmmaker Curt Dowdy and Australian climber John Taske, who was part of the disastrous 1996 Everest expedition of Jon Krakauer's
Into Thin Air
. Intimate and personal, the film examines the journey of each climber as they encounter adversity and hardship on the way to the summit. Accompanying the film are two other shorts:
Nettles Stung Red
and
Islamic Journey
, both directed by women, about a nettle cultivator, and an autobiographical account of an American Jewish woman traveling in Islamic nations. On Friday and Saturday night, filmmakers from all three films will be appearing at the Santa Fe Film Center for discussion.
Santa Fe Film Center, NR, 75 min.
Like Mike 2: Streetball
Fourteen-year-old Jerome Jenkins, Jr., lives alone with his father and dreams of becoming a streetball star. Enter one pair of magic high tops, which Jerome finds in his garage, mysteriously inscribed with the initials "MJ," which, as any basketball fan knows, is a golden sequence. One bolt of lightning later, Jerome becomes the best streetball player on the block. Suddenly in possession of mad skills, via special effects, Jerome
goes on to compete with players far older and more experienced. However, he experiences conflict as he continues to win not by virtue of his own playing, but by a pair of charmed sneakers. With Jascha Washington as Jerome and Michael Beach as Jerome's dad. Another installment in the Kids First! Film Club series, free for kids.
Santa Fe Film Center, PG, 96 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 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 Pirsig 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.
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)0
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
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.
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.
Down in The Valley
Quirky character-driven indie starts off with charm but takes the plunge into heavy-handed symbolism, overly focused on "The Myth of the West." Elegantly shot by cinematographer Enrique Chediak, the film is a looker. But it takes itself altogether too seriously, even when dealing in giggle-eliciting cliches. With Edward Norton, Evan Rachel Wood and Bruce Dern. Written and directed by David Jacobsen.
CCA, R, 125 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. 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.
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, UA North, PG, 85 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.
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 North, PG, 96 min.
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.
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.
Waist-Deep
The tag line for this film says it all: Bonnie and Clyde-On the Flip Side. In this modern day take on the concept of male-female bank-robbing duo, the streets of Los Angeles serve as the backdrop for gunfights, rappers moonlighting as actors, and lots of smoking rubber. Tyrese stars as O2, a bad guy gone good, who is forced back into crime when his son is kidnapped and he needs to come up with $100,000 in 24 hours. Seeing few other options, O2 enlists his girl Coco (Megan Wood) as a partner in crime, and together, the two take on banks and convenience stores in a race against the clock to save O2's son. With Shawn Parr, Henry Hunter Hall (as himself) and rapper The Game.
UA South, R, 97 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.
