| Selected December Releases |
December 4
"American Outlaws"
This Western is a modern take on the legend of Jesse James. After the end of the American Civil War, Jesse James (Colin Farrell) and his brother Frank (Gabriel Macht), along with Cole Younger (Scott Caan) and his brothers Jim (Gregory Smith) and Bob (Will McCormack), find their hometown of Liberty, Missouri, to be deeply troubled: A greedy railroad tycoon is forcing local farmers to sell their land at absurdly low prices. The James brothers and the Younger brothers fight the railroad by forming the James-Younger gang, and they soon become famous for their daring robberies. But the railroad hires Pinkerton (Timothy Dalton) and his men to go after the outlaws, and it’s not long before the James-Younger gang finds itself wracked with internal dissension.
"Ghosts of Mars"
Co-written and directed by John Carpenter, "Ghosts of Mars" is a science-fiction film that takes place in 2176 on the Red Planet, which has been colonized by several hundred thousand people. The story centers around a small group of police officers who travel to a mining outpost to pick up a dangerous prisoner (Ice Cube). When the police officers, including Lt. Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge), arrive at the outpost, they find that most of the residents have been possessed by some ancient Martian spirits that have turned them into a mob of mindless killers. This leads to some impressive action sequences, during which the police form an unlikely alliance with some hardened criminals to battle the murderous ghost-creatures.
"Pearl Harbor"
Set during World War II, "Pearl Harbor" mixes action with drama, but is much more successful at the former than at the latter. Two U.S. Army Air Corps pilots, Rafe McCawley (Ben Affleck) and Danny Walker (Josh Hartnett), who have been friends since childhood, both find themselves in love with Navy nurse Evelyn Johnson (Kate Beckinsale). But when Japan attacks Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, all their lives are changed forever. The movie features some great combat sequences, including 40 minutes of harrowing footage depicting the Pearl Harbor attack, but the characters never really come alive and the film offers very little historical insight. "Pearl Harbor" was a blockbuster in its theatrical release, but on the Rotten Tomatoes Web site the movie received three negative reviews for every positive one.
"Summer Catch"
This movie is a Freddie Prinze Jr. vehicle that centers around affairs of the heart and baseball. Prinze plays Ryan Dunne, a young man who helps his father earn a modest living on Cape Cod by taking care of lawns, a line of work heavily dependent on the wealthy who summer in the area. Ryan is also a hard-throwing pitcher who plays local baseball and hopes to attract the attention of major league scouts. But things don’t go smoothly for Ryan and his teammates, and his life gets even more complicated when he becomes romantically involved with Tenley Parrish (Jessica Biel), a wealthy young woman who is vacationing on the Cape. Ninety-two percent of the critics on Rotten Tomatoes found "Summer Catch" to be rotten, but Freddie Prinze Jr. fans probably won’t care.
DECEMBER 11
"Hedwig and the Angry Inch"
This low-budget screen adaptation of an Off Broadway rock musical seems to already be something of a cult favorite. The main character Hedwig (John Cameron Mitchell) is on tour with her band, playing venues like restaurants. Her tour shadows that of her former boyfriend Tommy Gnosis (Michael Pitt), who has stolen her songs and performs them before arena crowds. But we learn in flashback that Hedwig was once a gay young East German man who underwent a sex change operation so she could marry a U.S. serviceman and come to America with him. Unfortunately the operation was botched and a vestige of the male sex organ was left, leading to problems. This high-energy movie is mainly about music and comedy, yet it manages to raise serious issues that resonate with contemporary audiences.
"Jurassic Park III"
This is the third in a series of action-adventure movies about a theme park where ferocious prehistoric creatures terrorize contemporary humans, and Sam Neill returns as paleontologist Alan Grant. When a boy disappears while parasailing, his divorced parents (William H. Macy and Tea Leoni) trick Dr. Grant into helping them try to find and rescue him. As Grant and the parents search the island where the boy vanished, they struggle to survive the attacks of the genetically engineered beasts, including velociraptors, pteranodons, and spinosauruses, who live there. This movie is centered around action sequences set in a strange, dinosaur-dominated world, but it’s sometimes funny, and there’s even a little romance thrown in for good measure.
"Rush Hour 2"
Starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, this action comedy is a sequel to the 1998 film "Rush Hour." Once again, Chan plays Lee, a Hong Kong police inspector, and Tucker plays Carter, a fast-talking L.A. police detective. This time around Carter goes on vacation to Hong Kong where he reunites with Lee, and they work together on a new case involving international counterfeiting. Their investigation eventually leads Lee and Carter back to the United States, and along the way they encounter two attractive women played by Zhang Ziyi and Roselyn Sanchez. But the plot of the movie is just a device around which to hang martial-arts sequences featuring Jackie Chan and jokes cracked by Chris Tucker.
"The Score"
Robert De Niro, Marlon Brando, Edward Norton, and Angela Bassett star in this well-crafted crime drama. Nick (De Niro) is a thief who is yearning for retirement when he is approached by longtime friend Max (Brando) to steal a fantastically valuable old scepter. The scepter has been impounded in the high-security Montreal Customs House, but Max has an inside contact in the person of Jackie (Norton), who works there as a janitor. When Nick’s girlfriend Diane (Bassett) says she’ll marry him if he gives up crime, he decides to steal the scepter and make it his last criminal job. The movie then follows the meticulous planning and carrying out of the heist, during which some unexpected complications arise.
DECEMBER 18
"The Center of the World"
Directed by Wayne Wang, "The Center of the World" is an English-language art house drama that features lots of nudity and sexual content. Richard (Peter Sarsgaard) is a young computer entrepreneur whose company is about to go public, making him extremely wealthy. In his loneliness, Richard offers a stripper named Florence (Molly Parker) $10,000 to spend a weekend with him in Las Vegas. She accepts, but only under conditions that she imposes, which include no penetration, no kissing on the mouth, and no talking about feelings. Richard and Florence go to Las Vegas, where she eventually relaxes some of the originally specified conditions. But the film’s main focus is on the feelings of these two characters as their unusual encounter develops.
"Moulin Rouge"
Starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, "Moulin Rouge" is a dazzling musical set in 1899, but the musical numbers are mostly popular songs from the 1970s and 1980s. Moulin Rouge is the famous Paris nightclub, and Satine (Kidman) is a star dancer there. McGregor portrays Christian, an aspiring young writer who falls madly in love with Satine. Other key characters are Toulouse-Lautrec (John Leguizamo), the Moulin Rouge’s impresario Zidler (Jim Broadbent), and the wealthy Duke of Worcester (Richard Roxburgh). Directed by Baz Luhrmann, "Moulin Rouge" is a visually stunning spectacle that is awash in brilliant color, a whirlwind of energy, and a romantic fantasy filled with sound and motion.
"The Princess Diaries"
This light comedy is about an awkward 15-year-old San Francisco girl named Mia (Anne Hathaway) who is transformed into a self-assured young woman fit to be a European princess. When the movie opens, Mia lives with her single mom and attends high school, where she yearns to be the girlfriend of the popular Josh. Then Mia learns that she has a grandmother named Clarisse (Julie Andrews), who is queen of a tiny country named Genovia. Queen Clarisse travels to San Francisco, where she meets Mia and tells her that she must claim her birthright as the Princess of Genovia or the country will fall into evil hands. As Mia undergoes a makeover, she must decide whether to remain an ordinary American girl or accept the responsibility of becoming a European princess.
"Scary Movie 2"
This sequel to the 2000 film "Scary Movie" is a gross-out comedy that spoofs horror movies. Reprising their roles in the earlier film are the Wayans brothers (Shawn, Marlon, and Keenen Ivory, who also directs), Regina Hall, and Anna Faris. This time around Shawn and Marlon play college students who are part of a group that spends a night in the haunted Hell House, where all manner of supernatural events occur. What little plot there is in "Scary Movie 2" is present merely to serve as a clothesline on which to hang a series of comic vignettes similar to those seen on TV shows like "Saturday Night Live" or the Wayans’ "In Living Color." James Woods makes a brief appearance in "Scary Movie 2" as a priest in a funny parody of "The Exorcist."
DECEMBER 26
"Evolution"
In this sci-fi comedy, David Duchovny and Orlando Jones play a pair of Arizona community college science teachers named Ira Kane and Harry Block. When a meteor crashes near the college, Kane and Block investigate and soon figure out that the primordial-looking ooze at the crash site contains tiny living organisms that must be extraterrestrial. Then within only a few days time, these organisms evolve into amphibians, reptiles, and primates. As government officials grapple with the problem of containing the alien creatures, the community college teachers come up with an ingenious approach that involves the use of a commonplace substance that can be purchased in any drugstore.
"Two Can Play That Game"
Starring Vivica A. Fox and Morris Chestnut, this lightweight romantic comedy about the battle of the sexes is set in the world of young African American professionals. Shante (Fox), an advertising executive, thinks she knows how to handle her lawyer boyfriend Keith (Chestnut), but her theories are tested when he turns up in a club with an attractive woman named Conny (Gabrielle Union). Shante embarks on an elaborate 10-day program to bring Keith back in line, but he turns out to be more difficult to manipulate than she expects, partly because he is being advised by his friend Tony (Anthony Anderson). Also, Conny has her own designs on Keith, and as the days pass, the contest of wills between Shante and Keith continues to escalate.
