Comedy Rated R
"…an irate rant masquerading as a cute family project."
Dignity is the last thing you would expect to find here, yet that is the defining quality of this vehicle for Steve Carell, in which he plays a nerd whose buddies make it their mission to have him deflowered. In between the raunchy male talk and disastrous dates, he stumbles into a tentative romance with
If you have a high tolerance for wisecracks about condoms or crucifixes (there’s actually more of the latter), then this slight sex comedy might grow on you. Josh Hartnett plays a ladies man who makes a vow of chastity for Lent. If he and Shannyn Sossamon, as his potential soul mate, have an ingratiating chemistry,
“…would grow wearying if it didn’t also have such a wicked sense of humor.”
Thriller Rated R
“Larsson has whipped up something unique – Agatha Christie with techno Goths – yet this is unremarkable. If anything, the mixing of elements feels clumsy.
Romantic Comedy Rated PG-13
This Diane Lane vehicle, in which she plays a divorced woman whose nosy family pushes her into the world of online dating, offers enough doses of real life to elevate it above your average romantic-comedy fantasy. With strong support from John Cusack, Dermot Mulroney and Elizabeth Perkins, this is a pleasant enough romantic-comedy bubble, able
Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo is a living, breathing example of the comedy principle discussed in The Aristocrats. That documentary reveals obscenity can be funny in the right hands – it features nearly 100 comedians telling the same crude joke – but in the wrong hands it’s simply obscene. Suffice it to say Rob Schneider, who
Documentary Rated PG
A large-format film chronicling the 2001 X Games in Philadelphia. Produced by ESPN, which also is behind the X Games, this a promotional piece as much as a documentary, but the movie offers an enthralling glimpse into the extreme-sports subculture nonetheless. As riders careen nearly 100 feet in the air and then flip over and
Drama Rated R
Two snipers – a Russian (Jude Law) and a Nazi (Ed Harris) – square off during the World War II battle of Stalingrad, leading to expertly staged action sequences, as well as a mournful acknowledgment of what it means to lie in wait and take a life.
Occasionally interesting, but mostly a paint-by-numbers biography of American artist Jackson Pollock. Star Ed Harris, who also directed and produced, has moments of emotional power, but he never sews them together into a complete and revealing portrait of the man.