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 and Carmike Cinema 6
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
Are We Done Yet? (PG, 92 minutes) Clearly Ice Cube isn’t, cranking out a sequel to his 2005 family hit Are We There Yet? This time around, filmmakers “borrow” basically the entire script to 1948’s Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, sending Mr. Cube out to the suburbs with his brood to perform endless slapstick repairs on a ramshackle house. Oh well. It beats Barbershop 3 or The Friday after the Friday After Next Friday. Coming Wednesday; check local listings
Blades of Glory (PG-13, 93 minutes) The names Will Ferrell (Talladega Nights, Anchorman) and Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite, The Benchwarmers) don’t exactly guarantee intellectual social satire, but they do promise pure, stupid fun. This sporting comedy finds the comedic duo cast as a pair of rival Olympic ice skaters who get permanently banned from the sport thanks to their on-ice fisticuffs. A loophole, however, allows them back in the game—but only if they compete in couples skating. Comedians Will Arnett, Amy Poehler and Rob Corddry are skaters Sasha Cohen, Peggy Fleming and Scott Hamilton. Playing at Regal Downtown Mall 6
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
Firehouse Dog (PG, 111 minutes) Rexxx, Hollywood’s top canine actor, gets lost while on location and is adopted by a shabby, small-town firehouse. There, our hairy protagonist learns some sort of lesson about…I don’t know, not being a spoiled rich dog. This live-action kiddie film is just the sort of thing to keep the youngsters quiet inbetween Air Bud releases. Coming Wednesday, check local listings
Grindhouse (R, 185 minuts) Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez team up to create this double-feature tribute to the days of junky grindhouse horror films. Tarantino directs a killer car chase film starring Kurt Russell, while Rodriguez gives us an over-the-top zombie film with Rose McGowen. The films do their best to re-create the ramshackle exploitation vibe of the mid-’70s—right down to the damaged film stock and missing scenes. Plus, there are even trailers for other “fake” films. A grand old time! Coming Friday; check local listings
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. Playing at Regal Seminole Square Cinema 4
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
The Lookout (R, 98 minutes) Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a janitor at a small-town bank who, as a high school student, caused a car accident that killed three people and left him without any short-term memory. When he’s targeted to be the patsy for a would-be bank robber, the film becomes a neo-noir companion to films like Memento. It’s a good wallow in pulp fiction territory. Playing at Regal Downtown Mall 6 Playing at Regal Downtown Mall 6
Meet the Robinsons (G, 102 minutes) Disney presents this colorful but convoluted non-Pixar-based CGI film. In it, a kid inventor is whisked away to the future by a mysterious stranger in a time machine. The plot—something about multiple generations of good and evil, a talking dinosaur and a hat with a mind of its own—seems unnecessarily complicated. Kids with ADD will probably be fine with all the frantic action, but adults are likely to find it a loud and unfocussed mix of Back to the Future and “The Jetsons.” Playing at Regal Seminole Square Cinema 4
The Namesake (PG-13, 122 minutes) Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding, Vanity Fair) directs this multigenerational drama/comedy about an American-born son of East Indian immigrants who tries to shake off his parents’ too-traditional ways. Kal Penn (Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle) stars as our sullen protagonist, stuck between two worlds. Like the novel it’s based on (by Jhumpa Lahiri), the film wisely paints its pictures in small, intimate strokes. In English, Bengali and Hindi with English subtitles. 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 ou
t 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. Playing at Regal Downtown Mall 6
The Reaping (R, 96 minutes) A former Christian missionary (Hilary Swank) who now specializes in debunking claims of the supernatural finds herself in a small Southern town seemingly beset by the ten Biblical plagues—you know, frogs, blood, locusts, all that stuff we saw in Exorcist II: The Heratic. Clearly, the most horrifying film about the miracle of God since Patricia Arquette was touched by Christ in Stigmata. Coming Thursday; 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. Playing at Carmike Cinema 6
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). 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. Playing at Carmike Cinema 6
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
