Roger Ebert of the Sun Times
05/09/2008
Redbelt / *** (R)
By Roger Ebert
David Mamet's "Redbelt" assembles all the elements for a great Mamet film, but they're still spread out on the shop floor. It never really pulls itself together into the convincing, focused drama it promises, yet it kept me involved right up until the final scenes, which piled on developments almost recklessly. So gifted is Mamet as a writer and director that he can fascinate us even when he's pulling rabbits out of an empty hat.
More Info
|
05/09/2008
Son of Rambow / *** (PG-13)
"Son of Rambow" (PG-13, 96 minutes). Two 11-year-olds in 1980s England are inspired by a pirated copy of "First Blood" to make their own home video portrait of Rambo. Will (Bill Milner) performs death-defying stunts, Lee (Will Poulter) mans the video camera, and they're inspired by the arrival of a misfit French exchange student (Jules Sitruk). Meanwhile, there's trouble at home; Will's family belongs to a strict religious sect, and his mom has collected a suitor who covets the role of his father. A gentle fantasy, where even the (considerable) violence is softened. Never quite in focus, but sweet enough, and the young actors have charm. Rating: Three stars.
More Info
|
05/09/2008
America the Beautiful / *** (R)
By Roger Ebert
The documentary "America the Beautiful" is not shrill or alarmist, nor does it strain to shock us. Darryl Roberts, its director and narrator, speaks mostly in a pleasant, low-key voice. But the film is pulsing with barely suppressed rage, and by the end, I shared it. It's about a culture "saturated with the perfect," in which women are taught to seek an impossible physical ideal, and men to worship it.
More Info
|
05/08/2008
Speed Racer / *1/2 (PG)
By Jim Emerson, editor
Evil is not a primary color. That is the point of the Wachowski brothers' video-arcade treatment of "Speed Racer," insofar as one can be determined. Blue, you can trust. Red and yellow, black and white -- they're all decent visible wavelengths. It's purple you have to watch out for.
More Info
|
05/08/2008
Great Movie: Johnny Guitar (1954)
By Roger Ebert
Nicholas Ray's "Johnny Guitar" (1954) is surely one of the most blatant psychosexual melodramas ever to disguise itself in that most commodious of genres, the Western. Consider: No money was lavished on the production. The action centers on a two-story saloon "outside town," but we never even see "town," except for a bank facade and interior set. So sparse are the settings that although the central character (Joan Crawford) plays the tavern owner and goes through a spectacular costume charge, we never see her boudoir -- she only appears on a balcony above the main floor, having presumably emerged from the sacred inner temple.
More Info
|
05/08/2008
Movie Answer Man: Pimples like us
Q. In real life, teenagers have acne. How come Hollywood expects us to believe that teenage actors and actresses without acne are realistic? And of course, teenagers in films also are often played by actors in their 20s who have perfect haircuts and expensive clothes, two other things that the majority of real-life teenagers don't usually have, do they? I think of Tom Cruise in "Risky Business," for example.
Nelson Kane, Charlottesville, Va.
A. The movies have historically idealized the look of characters, and movie stars in general look much better (or worse) than the rest of us. True, if you get a teenager with acne in the movies, it's usually in a cutaway designed to get a quick laugh. Although I can't remember acne, Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera) of "Juno" looked more realistic in general than most movie teenagers, and that certainly includes his wardrobe.
More Info
|
|
Movies In Theaters
05/08/2008
Speed Racer
( Release: May. 9, 2008 Rated: PG - for sequences of action, some violence and language Avg. Score: 2.5/5
Details | Tickets | Trailers | Photos | Reviews
) —
Based on the classic children's cartoon, Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) is a young hotshot race-car driver who has a good support team behind him, including his mom (Susan Sarandon), dad (John Goodman) and girlfriend, Trixie (Christina Ricci). With his powerful race-winning Mach 5 vehicle, Speed angers a ruthless mogul (Roger Allam) who is out to control the world of professional racing by "fixing" the competitions. Teaming up with the mysterious Racer X (Matthew Fox), Speed attempts to win the Crucible cross-country rally and keep the sport he loves honest.
More Info
|
05/08/2008
What Happens in Vegas
( Release: May. 9, 2008 Rated: PG-13 - for some sexual and crude content, and language,including a drug reference Avg. Score: 2.5/5
Details | Tickets | Trailers | Photos | Reviews
) —
Two random strangers (Cameron Diaz, Ashton Kutcher) wake up in a Vegas hotel room and discover that they got married to each other during a night of drunken debauchery. They also learn that one of them won a huge jackpot while playing slots with the other's quarter. They must then spend the entire day retracing their steps to figure out who owns the lucky coin and who actually owns the jackpot.
More Info
|
05/08/2008
The Fall
( Release: May. 9, 2008 Rated: R - for some violent images Avg. Score: 2.5/5
Details | Tickets | Trailers | Photos | Reviews
) —
In Los Angeles in the 1920s, a young girl named Alexandria (Catinca Untaru) rests in a hospital while recovering from a nasty fall. She quickly makes friends with Roy Walker (Lee Pace) who entertains her with a wild fantasy tale that has Charles Darwin (Leo Bill) and a team of fighters going up against an evil prince.
More Info
|
05/08/2008
Surfwise
( Release: May. 9, 2008 Rated: R - for language and some sexual material Avg. Score: 2.5/5
Details | Tickets | Trailers | Photos | Reviews
) —
Meet Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz, a doctor who had a successful practice then left it all behind in the 1960s to travel to Israel to introduce that country to the art of surfing. Living in a tiny motor home, Doc raised nine children by homeschooling them in the ways of the world. This documentary tells their very real — and very strange — story.
More Info
|
05/08/2008
Noise
( Release: May. 9, 2008 Rated: Not Rated Avg. Score: 3.13/5
Details | Tickets | Trailers | Photos | Reviews
) —
David Owen (Tim Robbins) loves living in NYC. However, he's slowly being driven insane by the constant barrage of sounds. Dubbing himself the "Rectifier," David goes out to reduce the amount of urban noise. First he goes after idiots who ignore their car alarms, but he slowly works his way up to the city's biggest offender: the mayor (William Hurt).
More Info
|
05/08/2008
The Tracey Fragments
( Release: May. 9, 2008 Rated: Not Rated Avg. Score: 3.75/5
Details | Tickets | Trailers | Photos | Reviews
) —
Tracey Berkowitz (Ellen Page) has a problem: She's stuck on a bus during a horrific blizzard with only a thin curtain wrapped around her naked body to keep her warm. Worse still: She's desperate to find her missing brother, whom she thinks she's hypnotized.
More Info
|
05/08/2008
The Babysitters
( Release: May. 9, 2008 Rated: R - for disturbing strong sexual content, language and some drug use - involving teens Avg. Score: 1.25/5
Details | Tickets | Trailers | Photos | Reviews
) —
Shirley Lyner (Katherine Waterston) is a high school student who makes some good money babysitting for various parents in her town. When one of her clients, Mr. Beltran (John Leguizamo), kisses her while giving her a ride home one night. He also gives her a little extra money along with her regular earnings. Eventually, Shirley finds herself pimping out her teenage friends to other dads who need a "babysitter," but as her business becomes increasingly popular, it also comes violently crashing down around her.
More Info
|
05/08/2008
Frontier(s)
( Release: May. 9, 2008 Rated: Unrated
Details | Tickets | Photos | Reviews
) —
After a heist job goes incredibly wrong, a quartet of crooks run from the police and hide out at a dingy hotel in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately, however, the hotel is run by a family of neo-Nazi cannibals who are thrilled that such a scrumptious feast has landed at their establishment.
More Info
|
05/08/2008
Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead
( Release: May. 9, 2008 Rated: Not Rated Avg. Score: 3.75/5
Details | Tickets | Photos | Reviews
) —
Feeling nostalgic, Arbie (Jason Yachanin) decides to visit the spot of his first romantic encounter: the Ancient Tromahawk Tribe Indian Burial Ground. However, when he shows up, the burial ground is gone and has been replaced by an American Chicken Bunker fast-food restaurant. Meanwhile, his old girlfriend Wendy (Kate Graham) has become a corporate-hating lesbian. To get back at her, Arbie gets a job at the Chicken Bunker where he starts to notice bizarre happenings, including a series of gruesome deaths.
More Info
|
05/08/2008
A Previous Engagement
( Release: May. 9, 2008 Rated: Not Rated Avg. Score: 2.5/5
Details | Tickets | Trailers | Photos | Reviews
) —
Julia Reynolds (Juliet Stevenson) convinces her husband Jack (Daniel Stern) to go on a vacation with her to the Mediterranean island of Malta. However, her motives for going on the trip is less than pure. Twenty-five years previously, she promised her first love, Alex (Tcheky Karyo), that she would meet him there. When the former lovers are reunited, Jack searches for a romance of his own and begins dating and dancing with an ex-chorus girl (Valerie Mahaffey).
More Info
|
|
