300 (R, 117 minutes) Much like his previous work, Sin City, Frank Miller’s stylish comic book 300 comes to life on the big screen. This faithful (nearly panel-for-panel) adaptation arrives courtesy of up-and-comer Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead). This violent, highly visual adventure tale tells the story of the battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. where 300 bedraggled Spartans beat back the entire Persian army. Gerard Butler (The Phantom of the Opera) and Dominic West (“The Wire”) star. Playing at Regal Seminole Square Cinema 4
Amazing Grace (PG, 111 minutes) Ioan Gruffudd is William Wilburforce, an 18th-century British do-gooder who championed the abolitionist cause in British Parliament. This well-cast, workmanlike costume drama is invaluable as an educational piece and, as entertainment, falls somewhere between lecture and sermon. Playing at Regal Downtown Mall 6
Breach (PG-13, 110 minutes) Based on a true story, this real-life espionage thriller finds a young FBI recruit (Ryan Phillippe) drafted to spy on his boss (Chris Cooper), a longtime agent who seems to be selling secrets to the Soviet Union. Director Billy Ray (Shattered Glass) resists the temptation to turn this into too much of a Hollywood action thriller, instead relying on his solid cast (also including Laura Linney, Kathleen Quinlan, Dennis Haysbert and Bruce Davison) for acting fireworks. Playing at Carmike Cinema 6
Bridge to Terabithia (PG, 95 minutes) Katherine Paterson’s Newberry Award-winning children’s book (filmed once before in 1985) comes to life as a big-budget feature film. Thankfully, the smart script remains faithful to Paterson’s original story. Josh Hutcherson (Zathura) plays Jesse, a poor middle school kid who’s ignored at home and bullied at school. He finds his one true friend in fellow outsider Leslie (AnnaSophia Robb, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). He’s an aspiring artist, she loves telling stories. Together, they retreat into their own little fantasy world. Although the commercials make this look like a third-rate
Chronicles of Narnia, it isn’t. The fantasies these kids have are never real (they take up barely 10 minutes of screen time), and the film’s only major misstep is rendering them in such detailed CGI. This is no whimsical fantasy, but a well thought-out coming-of-age tale, not so far removed from Stand By Me or My Girl. Playing at Regal Seminole Square Cinema 4
Dead Silence (R, 90 minutes) From James Wan, the writer/director of Saw, comes this old-fashioned but entertaining ghost story. A widower (Ryan Kwanten, “Summerland”) returns to his small hometown to solve his wife’s murder. Wouldn’t you know it, the ghost of a crazy female ventriloquist is haunting the place, using her possessed puppets to hunt down and cut out the tongues of any victims unfortunate enough to scream in fright. I hate it when that happens. The film isn’t as gory as Saw, but it’s got some decent jump-out-of-your-seat moments. Playing at Carmike Cinema 6
Ghost Rider (PG-13, 114 minutes) Nicolas Cage finally gets around to starring in a full-fledged superhero movie. Here, he plays minor Marvel character Johnny Blaze, a motorcycle stunt man who makes a deal with the devil and is transformed into a hellblazing vigilante. Don’t get too excited, fanboys; it’s from the same writer/director who gave us Elektra, Daredevil and Grumpier Old Men. Playing at Regal Seminole Square Cinema 4
The Hills Have Eyes 2 (NR) Alexandra Aja’s 2006 remake of Wes Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes had its moments, so it’s not too surprising to see a gruesome sequel. Unfortunately, Aja has bugged out for greener territories. By way of compensation, Craven is back aboard as screenwriter (along with son Jonathan Craven). Perhaps he’s trying to make up for his 1985 bomb, The Hills Have Eyes Part II (a certified all-time stinker). This time around, a group of National Guard trainees find themselves attacked by vicious desert-dwelling mutants. Coming Friday; check local listings
I Think I Love My Wife (R, 94 minutes) In a somewhat belated remake of Eric Rohmer’s classic 1972 film, Chloe in the Afternoon, writer/director/star Chris Rock plays a slightly unhappily married man who finds his morals tested after he’s visited by the ex-mistress of an old friend. Certainly a more mature effort on the part of folks who gave us Pootie Tang. Playing at Regal Downtown Mall 6
The Last Mimzy (PG, 94 minutes) In this bizarrely misguided New Age kiddie flick, two youngsters discover a magical toybox from the future. Inside are a bunch of weird devices and a telepathic stuffed rabbit (the titular Mimzy). Soon, the kids start exhibiting all sorts of techno-mystical, quantum mathematical superpowers (levitation, teleportation, the ability to speak with spiders). The film borrows its entire plot structure from E.T. the Extraterrestrial, but is far creepier than it is cute. Perfect for 8-year-olds who loved What the Bleep Do We Know!?, though. Coming Friday; check local listings
The Lives of Others (R, 137 minutes) This Academy Award winner from Germany takes us back to the days of the Berlin Wall. In East Germany, a by-the-books secret police officer named Captain Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe, the GDR’s answer to Stanley Tucci) is ordered to spy on a seemingly loyal Communist Party playwright and his actress girlfriend. The good captain fills the couple’s apartment with listening devices and starts prying into their private lives. As the investigation wears on, Wiesler becomes increasingly absorbed in the happy couple’s daily drama—which only serves to highlight how empty the policeman’s life really is. Ultimately, the quiet, observational film transcends its thriller-like setting and finds a universal message about the purely human need to connect with one another. Playing at Vinegar Hill Theatre
Music and Lyrics (PG-13, 96 minutes) Cute without being cloying, this genial romantic comedy features Hugh Grant as a washed-up ‘80s pop star who hooks up with a daffy amateur writer (Drew Barrymore) to pen a new tune for the world’s most popular teen starlet. Eventually, the two find time to fall in love; but the film is mostly about artistic integrity, selling out and the fickle world of the music biz. Grant and Barrymore are both adorable in their own way, the music is quite catchy and the script never drowns itself in sap. Playing at Regal Downtown Mall 6
Norbit (PG-13, 102 minutes) Yes, it’s another excuse to put Eddie Murphy in a fat suit. But Murphy at least gives it his acting all in this very broad comedy/romance about a mild-mannered dork (the titular Norbit) who is engaged to a monstrous (in more ways than one) woman (also played by Murphy). When our submissive hero meets the girl of his dreams (Thandie Newton), he schemes to lose his gigantic girlfriend. Hijinks ensue. Playing at Carmike Cinema 6
The Number 23 (R, 95 minutes) Jim Carrey goes briefly serious for this clever thriller about an ordinary family man who becomes obsessed with a mystery novel that appears to be based on his real life—except for the fact that it ends in a murder that has yet to happen. Is our boy going slowly nuts, or does he have a date with destiny? It’s sort of a darker (though still slightly humorous) version of Stranger Than Fiction, complete with an alternative “comic noir” storyline in which Carrey is a tough-talking detective. Playing at Carmike Cinema 6
Pan’s Labyrinth (R, 117 minutes) From Mexican director Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Blade II, The Devil’s Backbone, Cronos) comes this intelligent, phantasmagorical fantasy about a young girl who travels with her pregnant mother to post-war Spain. Hoping to avoid the grim reality of Franco’s fascist repression, our heroine escapes into a fantasy world of her own creation. In time, the two worlds—one stylized and beautiful, one bloody and brutal—begin to meld. Despite certain Alice in Wonderland connections, this dark, disturbing fantasy is not a kids’ film. Playing at Regal Downtown Mall 6
Premonition (PG-13, 110 minutes) Sandra Bullock follows up her alternate timeline romance, The Lake House, with an alternate timeline thriller. Sandy plays a suburban housewife who wakes up one day to find out her husband (Rosie O’Donnell’s man-crush Julian McMahon) is dead. She wakes up the next day to find out he’s alive. Is she having premonitions of his imminent death or is she somehow randomly traveling through time for reasons largely unexplained? It takes Bullock’s character most of the movie to figure out what viewers will have latched onto in the first 10 minutes. The film is one huge plot hole, and Bullock seems bored by it all. Playing at Regal Downtown Mall 6
Pride (PG, 104 minutes) Looks like basketball and football are a bit burned out as topics for inspirational sports dramas. In this one, Terrence Howard (Hustle & Flow) plays a swimmer-turned-janitor who uses tough love to coach a ragtag inner city swim team to victory. The film trots out every possible inspirational sports movie cliché it can think of. But at least it focuses on the red-hot, super-exciting sport of swimming. Coming Friday; check local listings
Reign Over Me (R, 124 minutes) Adam Sandler stars in this tearjerking drama (Warning! Warning! Warning!) about a New York man who lost his entire family in the September 11 attacks. He’s crazy depressed and looks like Bob Dylan on a bender, at least until he runs into an old college roommate (Don Cheadle), who helps him recover. An intense mental drama about friendship, loss and overwhelming grief—pretty much the exact words you think of when Adam Sandler comes to mind. Coming Friday; check local listings
Shooter (R, 120 minutes) Mark Wahlberg stars as an expert marksman who gets lured out of retirement after learning of a plot to assassinate the president. Anybody wanna lay odds that he’s being double-crossed and will soon be framed for the assassination attempt?…Didn’t think so. The plot is standard issue, but there’s plenty of music video-style action thanks to director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Tears of the Sun, King Arthur). Coming Friday; check local listings
The Ultimate Gift (PG, 114 minutes) From busy beaver distributors FoxFaith comes another Truly Moving Picture. Instead of leaving his spoiled grandson Jason (Drew Fuller, “Charmed”) a bunch of money, rich dead dude James Garner bequeaths a series of “tasks” in his will, each designed to impart a crash course in Life (working at a cattle ranch, living as a homeless man, giving away money). Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) shows up as a cutesy-poo cancer patient who explains how God hand-paints all the pretty butterflies in the world. In the end our protagonist learns…wait for it…money doesn’t equal happiness! The film means well, but its naive concept of good and bad and its blatantly obvious moralizing are appropriate only for audiences who read “Love Is…” every day in the newspaper. Playing at Carmike Cinema 6
TMNT (PG, 90 minutes) The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are back! And this time, they’re in CGI! With their old nemesis Shredder gone, the Turtles have grown apart, but must reunite to battle an evil industrialist and his army of ancient monsters. Old-schoolers can rest assured, this one sticks fairly close to the original toon. Impressive guest voices belong to Sarah Michelle Gellar, Chris Evans, Zhang Ziyi, Patrick Stewart, Kevin Smith and Laurence Fishburne. Coming Friday; check local listings
Wild Hogs (PG-13, 99 minutes) Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy (really, Bill?) go middle-aged crazy as a gang of suburban biker wannabes who hit the road looking for adventure and wind up running afoul of a violent Southwestern motorcycle gang called the Del Fuegos. Hijinks ensue. Playing at Carmike Cinema 6
Zodiac (R, 160 minutes) David Fincher, no stranger to serial killers (having directed 1995’s Se7en), tackles the true, unsolved case of the Zodiac killer. Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards and Robert Downey Jr. star in this ensemble look into the police investigation that got close, but not close enough to the figure who terrorized San Francisco with a string of random killings in the ’60s and ’70s. Playing at Regal Downtown Mall 6
