|
|
|
|
FEBRUARY 21 - FEBRUARY
27,
2006 |
|
|
|
 |
DEATH IN GAZA (dir: James Miller, Not Rated) – It’s a bummer when you’re making a documentary trying to highlight the non-stop violence in Gaza and you get shot to death by Israeli soldiers. That’s a bummer, dude. |
 |
DOMINO (dir: Tony Scott, R) – Next week you get to watch Keira Knightley all decked out in pretty dresses and spouting flowery dialogue in PRIDE & PREJUDICE, but until then you get to watch her as a tattooed, trash-talking bounty hunter. |
|
|
|
 |
DORIAN BLUES (dir: Tennyson Bardwell, Not Rated) – In this goofy coming-of-age/coming-out comedy, a high school outcast heads for NYU but finds he doesn’t fit in there either. |
 |
FAMILY PORTRAITS: A TRILOGY OF AMERICA (dir: Douglas Buck, Not Rated) – Filmmaking psychopaths Abel Ferrara (BAD LIEUTENANT) and Gaspar Noe (IRREVERSIBLE) call this anthology of short films “truly disturbing” and “desperate and cruel.” |
|
|
|
 |
LEFT OF THE DIAL (dir: Patrick Farrelly / Kate O'Callaghan, Not Rated R) – This documentary charts the rise, fall and rise of Air America, the liberal radio network that aimed to break the conservative stronghold of talk radio. |
 |
THE MEMORY OF A KILLER (dir: Erik Van
Looy, R) – An aging Belgian assassin refuses to kill a little girl and soon finds himself with a bounty on his head. As well as the onset of Alzheimer’s. |
|
|
|
 |
NAKED WORLD (dir: Arlene Donnelly Nelson, Not Rated) – Spencer Tunick is a photographer who specializes in getting large groups of people to pose nude in public places. In this follow up to NAKED STATES, one of the dullest documentaries ever made, he takes his shtick around the world, getting people from Australia to Russia to disrobe. |
 |
*NORTH COUNTRY (dir: Niki
Caro, R) – Charlize Theron de-glams again for this true-life tale of a woman who decided that misogynistic phrases written on the wall in excrement are not conducive to a productive workplace. An outstanding cast including Sissy
Spacek, Frances McDormand, Sean Bean and Woody Harrelson all star in this gripping story of the first sexual harassment class action lawsuit in American history. |
|
|
|
 |
THE PRINCE AND ME 2 (dir: Catherine
Cyran, PG) – Sadly, Julia Stiles opted out of this sequel to her charming romantic comedy. Happily, that means I don’t have to look at her creepy alien face. |
 |
PUBLIC ENEMY (dir:
Woo-Suk Kang, Not Rated) – A Korean blockbuster mixing slapstick laughs with cop movie thrills, PUBLIC ENEMY pits a Dirty Harry-style detective against a serial killer in a sinister raincoat. |
|
|
|
 |
RENT (dir: Chris Columbus, PG-13) – It’s an HIV positive LA BOHEME for a bunch of kids living the wild life in New York in the 1980’s. And by living the wild life, I mean bursting into song for no discernible reason. |
 |
THE SEAT FILLER (dir: Nick Castle, PG-13) – Proving Beyonce is not the only member of Destiny’s Child with acting chops, Kelly Rowland stars in this romantic comedy as a young woman being romanced, under false pretenses, by a pop superstar. |
|
|
|
 |
SEPARATE LIES (dir: Julian
Fellowes, R) – Tom Wilkinson, Emily Watson and Rupert Everett star as a romantic triangle in this classy British thriller with a few tricks up its sleeve. |
 |
THE SIMIAN LINE (dir: Linda
Yellen, R) – Over the course of a year, three couples face the ups and downs of their bland bourgeois existences. If you ever wanted to see Cindy Crawford and William Hurt in a movie together, your time has come. |
|
|
|
 |
THE TAKE (dir: Avi Lewis, Not Rated) – This documentary takes a look at what happens when laid-off Argentinean factory workers seize the factory, claiming it’s “expropriation” for wages they are owed. |
 |
TORREMOLINOS 73 (dir: Pablo Berger, Not Rated) – Javier Camara and Candela Pena, two of Pedro Almodovar’s favorite actors, star as a married couple in 1970’s Spain who unwittingly become involved in making sex films. |
|
|
|
 |
TWIST OF FAITH (dir: Kirby Dick, Not Rated) – Being sexually abused by a priest is lame. The Catholic church then covering up the abuse and refusing to acknowledge their part in it is also lame. In this new film by acclaimed documentarian Kirby Dick, a Toledo firefighter tries to right the wrongs of the past. |
 |
ULTIMATE AVENGERS (dir: Bryan Hitch / Mark Millar , PG-13) – Captain America, Thor, The Hulk, Iron Man, the Wasp and Giant Man band together in this gritty animated adaptation of Marvel’s comic reinvention of classic superheroes. Wait, who are the Wasp and Giant Man? They sound like pretty B-list superheroes to me. |
|
|
|
 |
^THE WEATHER MAN (dir: Gore
Verbinski, R) – Nicolas Cage is upset that his estranged wife won’t take him back, his kids are like strangers to him and people keep throwing drinks at him when the weather turns out lousy. Mining the same world weary detachment that Billy Bob Thornton has made a career of, this is a classic role for Mr. Cage, with a smart script thrown in for good measure. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
*
= Greg's pick of the week
^ = Bart's pick of the week
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
