admin @ Sun, 2006-09-24 08:00
A dysfunctional family in rural England needs help, and it comes in the form of a new housekeeper (Maggie Smith) who has a secret dark side. Rowan Atkinson, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Patrick Swayze also star.
In this animated feature, a 900-pound domesticated grizzly bear (voiced by Martin Lawrence) gets stuck in the woods as hunting season is about to begin.
A down-on-his-luck meter reader (Jon Heder) enrolls in a confidence-building class and soon finds himself competing with his instructor (Billy Bob Thornton) for a woman.
Master filmmaker André Téchiné's exquisitely filmed story about unrequited love is a brilliant extended meditation on our faith in love's power to redeem us. It follows French engineer Antoine (Gérard Depardieu), who has spent 30 lonely years pining for his only love, Cécile (Catherine Deneuve), to Tangiers, where she lives with her husband, to claim her. 1 hr. 38 (adult themes, sexuality, nudity) - T.D.
Set in an otherworldly corner of northern Brazil, where dunes and tides randomly reconfigure the landscape, this multigenerational tale of love and loss, roots and restlessness centers on a mother and daughter - and then that daughter and her grown child. Like the place they live, the relationships, too, shift and change. A tour de force. 1 hr. 55 (sex, adult themes) - S.R.
Edward Norton stars as a master magician in late-19th-century Vienna whose sublime trickery gets him in trouble with a dastardly royal. A wonderful anachronism of a movie, with its clip-clopping horses, gas-lit lanterns, and Hollywood stars (Paul Giamatti, Jessica Biel) elocuting in quasi-Euro accents. 1 hr. 49 (violence, adult themes) - S.R.
Easily one of the best computer-animated features to come out of Hollywood in a while, this creepy-crawly, freak-show yarn is also one of the weirdest. Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg oversaw the project about a house that swallows passers-by and the three young friends who try to do something about it. With the voices of Maggie Gyllenhaal, Steve Buscemi, Kathleen Turner and others. 1 hr. 31 (scares, adult language, themes) - S.R.
Anguished and heartfelt, Oliver Stone's film about real-life Port Authority officers trapped in the rubble on 9/11 is a hushed prayer of deliverance - for the officers, for their wives and families, and for the nation. 2 hrs. 9 (intense sequences of devastation and grief) - C.R.
Sean Penn waves his arms and wears his hair wild as the Huey P. Long-like country-bumpkin-turned-governor in this laughably ill-advised, whoppingly miscast adaptation of the Robert Penn Warren novel (and of 1949 Oscar-winning picture). Jude Law, Kate Winslet, James Gandolfini and Anthony Hopkins, struggling with their accents and their characters' motivation, costar. Writer-director Steven Zaillian is the perp. 2 hrs. (violence, profanity, adult themes) - S.R.
Brian De Palma's adaptation of James Ellroy's noir novel about the real-life 1947 murder of an aspiring starlet has an incendiary mood and style to burn. Too bad the performances are all wet. With Josh Hartnett and Aaron Eckhardt as the cops on the case, Scarlett Johansson as the blonde both love, and Hilary Swank as the brazenly kinky brunette who may have known the murder victim. 2 hrs. 01 (violence, surgical candor, sexual candor and brief nudity) - C.R.
Young Americans enlist in the French air corps before the U.S. threw itself into the first World War, hoping to learn to fly, combat tyranny, and maybe meet a pretty mademoiselle or two. Harmlessly romantic, with vintage air machines and computer-generated aerial battles. James Franco, Jean Reno and Jennifer Decker star. 2 hrs. 19 (violence, adult themes) - S.R.
Up-from-under tale starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as the L.A. probation officer who turns around the lives of juvenile delinquents by building teamwork and self-esteem skills on the football field. 2 hrs. 08 (domestic and gang violence, profanity) - C.R.
Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O and the lost boys are back with a fresh batch of dangerously self-destructive stunts. Like the original, it's sometimes funny and sometimes gross. 1 hr. 35 (crude and dangerous stunts, sexual content, nudity, profanity) - D.H.
Jet Li, the dazzler best known for his fleet footwork in Hero, caps the kung fu chapter of his movie career with this appealing biography of Chinese martial-arts legend Huo Yuanjia. In Mandarin with English subtitles. 1 hr. 43 (one intense martial-arts sequence) - C.R.
(Academy of Music) The national tour premieres in Philadelphia (transferring from London), including some great songs: "Georgia on My Mind," "Hit the Road Jack," "You Don't Know Me," "What'd I Say," and "Bye Bye Love." Runs Tuesday through Oct. 1.
(McCarter) Two mysterious men disturb the dreary calm in a seaside boardinghouse in the early Harold Pinter play. The famous Pinter silences are missing, weakening this production of this fascinating play. Through Oct. 15. - T.Z.
(Prince) The history of hip-hop is told through the story of a boy who travels from Trinidad to Philadelphia; choreography by local Clyde Evans Jr. Through Oct. 1.
(People's Light) A new translation of Molière's mordant comedy about a hypochondriac, skyrocketing medical costs, and a marriageable daughter. More high colonics than high farce. Through Oct. 22. - T.Z.
(Lantern) Three compelling performances enhance the power of Athol Fugard's play about a South African teenager and his changing relationship to two servants he's known through his life. At St. Stephen's Theater, through Oct. 8. - H.S.
(Society Hill Playhouse) Four excellent performers make this light musical approach to the change of life very entertaining theater. Open-ended. - D.J.K.
(Walnut) An inspired production bolsters this lighter-than-air musical rendition of The Front Page, giving the show a quantum boost from its so-so script and music. Through Oct. 22. - H.S.
Charming. Adventures of the inquisitive monkey painted in crayon-box colors for the under-6 set. Voices by Will Ferrell and Drew Barrymore. 1 hr. 17 (nothing unsuitable for children) - C.R.
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