NO HEADLINE
| MOVIE | WHAT IT’S ABOUT | DETAILS | TIMES AND LOCATIONS |
Opening: Matchbox Twenty Concert | “A Night in the Life of matchbox twenty” | Running time: 1:38 Rating: Not Rated | NorthTown Mall: 7:30 on Monday. |
Continuing: 13 Going on 30 | Wishing that she were older, a girl goes to sleep one day at age 13 and wakes up … as 30-year-old Jennifer Garner! There’s not much about this teen fantasy that’s original, from the switching bodies theme to the notion that second chances can help us learn the lessons we missed the first time around. Yet the difference is, one, the fact that director Gary Winick (working from a group-written script) is able to have a sad and happy ending at once; two, the fact that the central role is played by Garner. Most known for her action role in the ongoing television series “Alias,” Garner has already proven that she can do roundhouse kicks. And here she proves that she can make us laugh. Forget “Daredevil,” the film that she co-starred with Ben Affleck (a sure career killer). This is the real Garner, a 21st century Julia Roberts. | Running time: 1:38 Rating: PG-13 (sexual content, brief drug references). | NorthTown Mall: 11:55 a.m., 2:15, 4:35, 6:55, 9:25. Spokane Valley Mall: 11:45 a.m., 2:10, 4:35, 7:05, 9:15, 9:35. River City Cinemas: noon, 2, 4, 6, 8. Showboat: 4:15, 6:50, 9:15. |
50 First Dates | You know what to expect from an Adam Sandler movie: thin plot, a little romance, lots of bathroom jokes, Sandler’s brand of physical comedy and Rob Schneider. What “50 First Dates” also has is Drew Barrymore. First teamed in 1998’s “The Wedding Singer,” Sandler and Barrymore have a kind of screen chemistry that is based more on the feeling of mutual like rather than on any sense of sexuality. And this is good, considering the notion of romance in a Sandler film is about as mature as the jokes, which are written for 12-year-old sensibilities. Sandler plays an aquarium veterinarian living in Hawaii who, to avoid commitment, makes it a point to love-and-leave tourists. Then he falls for a “local,” Lucy (Barrymore), who suffers from a brain injury that affects her short-term memory. So, irony alert, he finds himself having to court her anew every day. The concept is set up early on, so that the large part of the movie centers on the romance, which balances out the usual ration of sex-, culture-, gender- and gay-themed jokes that Sandler thrives on. At the center, though, is Barrymore, whose career as a comedienne took off with “Never Been Kissed” and hasn’t yet peaked. Even with a bat in her hands she never loses her femininity, and she keeps the film’s meld of romance and comedy on track. | Running time: 1:36 Rating: PG-13 (sexual situations, crude humor, profanity, cartoon violence) | Garland: 7:35. |
| Adrenaline Rush: The Science of Risk | Writer-director Marc Fafard uses the IMAX camera to explore sports such as base-jumping affect the human physiology. | Running time: :40 Rating: Not Rated (thrilling action scenes). | Imax (Riverfront Park): 1:50, 4:45. |
| Breaking All the Rules | Quincy Watson (Jamie Foxx) decides to turn apples to applesauce after being dumped by his fiancée (Bianca Lawson), and writes a best-selling book about breaking up. – Tom Bowers, The Spokesman-Review. | Running time: 1:25 Rating: PG-13 (sexual material/humor and language). | Newport: 3:25, 5:25, 7:25, 9:25. Spokane Valley Mall: 11:40 a.m., 1:55, 4:45, 7:20, 9:25, 9:45. |
Ella Enchanted | “Shrek” wasn’t the first movie to make fun of fairy tales. It was merely one of the best. “Ella Enchanted” tries to work in the same way, blending medieval with modern references (serf-driven escalators, Medieval Teen magazine, etc.), and doing another variation on the old Cinderella story. Anne Hathaway plays Ella of Frell, a young woman burdened with the “gift” of obedience. When mom dies and dad remarries, she finds herself at the mercy of her stepmother (Joanna Lumley) and stepsisters. Then she meets the future king, Prince Charmant (“Char” to his many female fans), and things go brightly … until Char’s evil uncle (Cary Elwes) throws a scepter into the works. There’s not much here that’s objectionable, which is the good news for parents looking for something sterile for their kids to see. And Hathaway (“The Princess Diaries”) is sweetly sexy, though the quickly maturing star isn’t going to be able to play teen roles much longer. The bad news is that not much is original. Bring on “Shrek 2.” | Running time: 1:35 Rating: PG (some crude humor and language | Newport: 2:55, 5, 7:05, 9:10. |
| Envy | Watching this movie is like sitting down for a meal made of gourmet ingredients that was cooked into flavorless mush. It has a strong cast — starring Ben Stiller and Jack Black — a fine director in “Rain Man” Oscar winner Barry Levinson and a producing credit from “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Seinfeld” co-creator Larry David (who reportedly worked on the script but had his name removed). Somewhere along the way, these talented individuals failed to connect. “Envy” crawls to its finish through a minefield of poor taste and comedic misfires. Black plays an inventor who creates an aerosol spray called “Va-POO-rize” that makes dog feces disappear. He becomes a multijillionaire and Stiller, as his longtime best friend, is angry and vengeful over his buddy’s success. — Anthony Breznican, AP | Running time: 1:39 Rating: PG-13 (language, sexual/crude humor) | Newport: 3:45, 8:50. |
| Hidalgo | Viggo Mortensen goes from ruling Middle-earth to racing across the Middle East in a movie that’s so retro, it’s almost quaint _ especially compared to the nouveau, computer-generated spectacle of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. You’d think Mortensen would be tired of riding a horse by now _ and sore _ but he’s back in the saddle again, this time playing a real guy, cowboy Frank T. Hopkins. A famed long-distance rider, Hopkins competed with his mustang, Hidalgo, in a 3,000-mile race across the Arabian desert in 1890. His story has resulted in a big, beautiful film that could have come out 40 years ago. . – Christy Lemire, AP. | Running time: 2:16 Rating: PG-13 (adventure violence, some mild innuendo) | Newport: 3:30, 6:15, 9. |
Home On the Range | About what you would expect from a Disney production, this is a decent example of a dying art: cell animation (blended with computer-generated images). It has a simple story line featuring good versus evil, and familiar voices playing individually eccentric characters. The story here is the attempt of a trio of cows (Roseanne, Judi Dench, Jennifer Tilly) to save their ranch from foreclosure. Their plan: catch the rustler Alameda Slim (Randy Quaid). An arrogant horse named Buck (Cuba Gooding Jr.) comes into the picture, as do a gaggle of other animals. It’s all done by the number, with the ends neatly tied up by movie’s end. And that’s the problem: There’s not one moment of freshness. Kids may not notice, but parents likely will. | Running time: 1:26 Rating: PG (mild rude humor) | Newport: 2:35, 4:30. |
| The Human Body | By following the lives of four people, this IMAX documentary takes us into the inner workings of anatomy. | Running time: :43 Rated: Not Rated | Imax (Riverfront Park): 12:55, 5:40. |
Kill Bill Vol. 2 | While well short of the masterpiece some critics are calling it, this second half of what last fall was being hailed as “Quentin Tarantino’s 4th Film” is a distinct improvement on the first. Here we have The Bride (Uma Thurman) in her continuing quest to avenge herself on those who, at the order of Bill (David Carradine), murdered everyone in what would have been her wedding party. And with a few detours, what “Vol. 2” demonstrates best is Tarantino’s vast knowledge of martial-arts films, his uncanny ability to find the best music to suit certain scenes and his unerring ear for entertaining dialogue. Most directors go slow at first, giving the audience time to get used to the characters and setting. Not Tarantino. His “Vol. 1” is a theme-park ride of violence. Thus “Vol. 2” provides the back story that the first half glosses over. That, however, points to the project’s greatest flaw: It should never have been split in two. As it is, it makes for an interesting, if not completely successful and quite possibly cynical, experiment in marketing. | Running time: 2:26 Rating: R (violence, language, brief drug use). | Newport: 6:20, 9:05. |
Laws of Attraction | Whoa, baby, an adult comedy! What in the infantalization of America is Hollywood thinking? Not of its typical teen audience, for sure, because this pairing of Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore features not one exploding car, fired weapon or homicide investigation. All we have is Brosnan and Moore as divorce attorneys on opposite sides of the courtroom representing their clients while fending off the spark of romance that is obvious to everyone but … well, her at least. The story comes to a climax when a rock star (Michael Sheen) gets sued for divorce by his wife (Parker Posey), and our heroes end up drunk and together in a Scottish castle. It ain’t Tracy and Hepburn, but that may be it’s greatest strength. There’s chemistry here enough, not to mention (sshhhh!) m-a-t-u-r-e themes. | Running time: 1:27 Rating: PG-13 (sexual situations, profanity) | Newport: 6:45. Showboat: 5 |
| Lewis & Clark: Great Journey West | This new big-screen IMAX movie condenses the three-year Lewis and Clark expedition into 42 minutes, but what the film does, it does beautifully. Historical fact takes precedence in the National Geographic production; while actors play the members of the party, thankfully they mostly keep their mouths shut as Jeff Bridges narrates the bulk of the story. Director Bruce Neibaur does an exceptional job of capturing the glory and scope of the West, making us feel as if we are part of the expedition, seeing this vast country for the first time. - Jim Kershner, The Spokesman-Review. | Running time: :42 Rating: Not Rated (general audiences) | Imax (Riverfront Park): noon. |
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | A fitting end to one of the most impressive film trilogies ever made, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” is receiving accolades from far and wide. And director Peter Jackson certainly deserves being honored, though what he should get is credit for having directed all three films and having been as true as possible to its source: the half-century-old saga written by J.R.R. Tolkien. As a stand-alone film, “The Return of the King” suffers from too many characters, too many story lines and too many similar names (Sauron-Sauromon, Arwen- Eowyn, etc.) for the uninitiated to make much sense of. For those who have prepared by seeing the “extended” versions of the first two, this finale is everything it needs to be: sweeping, majestic and as profound as fantasy can be. | Running time: 3:21 Rated: PG-13(intense battle sequences, frightening images) | Garland: 3:45. |
Man on Fire | Denzel Washington could read the phone book and pull off an interesting performance. Problem is, acting in this Tony Scott movie must have been more like trying to perform while inhaling fumes from a burning phone book. One of the more imaginatively visual filmmakers ever to stand behind a motion picture camera, Scott shoots this adaptation of A.J. Quinnell’s suspense novel as if he were mixing film stock in a food processor. And that’s good, because Scott’s efforts, overdone as they are, are far more interesting than the story itself. Washington plays John Creasy, a former Marine with a death-wish drinking problem who is hired to protect the daughter (Dakota Fanning) of a Mexico City entrepreneur (Marc Anthony). Pretty soon, taken with the little girl’s affections, Creasy has once again begun to smell the azaleas. But then she gets kidnapped, he takes a few pistol rounds to the body during the abduction and, all too quickly, he returns to what he knows best: dealing out death. His targets are, he says, anyone involved in the crime. | Running time: 2:26 Rated: R (intense battle sequences, frightening images) | NorthTown Mall: 12:10, 3:15, 7:40. Spokane Valley Mall: 12:05, 4:05, 7:55. Showboat: 7:45. |
Mean Girls | Not a whole lot of good movie comedy has come from “Saturday Night Live,” but this Tina Fey-written film is an exception. It borrows bits and pieces from other, perhaps better, films such as “Heathers,” but there’s enough here to make you laugh once every three and a half minutes minutes or so. Lindsay Lohan stars as the new girl in school who, of course, is automatically adopted by the outsiders. When she attracts the attention of the Plastics, a trio of “popular” girls led by the evil Regina (Rachel McAdams), she agrees to spy on them and report back. Soon enough, however, the lines between pretense and reality get blurred, and she ends up learning a harsh lesson. It’s all pretty standard, but Fey (who plays a math teacher) adds in enough “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” moments to make it all entertaining enough. | Running time: 1:30 Rating: PG-13 (sexual innuendo, profanity) | NorthTown Mall: 11:50 a.m., 2:10, 4:45, 7:10, 9:35. Spokane Valley Mall: 11:35 a.m., 2:05, 4:40, 7:25, 9:10, 9:55. Coeur d’Alene Cinemas: noon, 2:10, 4:15, 7:15, 9:20. River City Cinemas: 1:10, 3:10, 5:10, 7:10, 9:10. |
| Nascar 2D: The Imax Experience | Big-time NASCAR racing comes to the BIG screen. | Running time: :40 Rating: PG (crash scenes) | Imax (Riverfront Park): 2:45, 3:50, 6:40, 7:45, 8:50. |
| New York Minute | A Type A student (Ashley Olsen) tries to qualify for an overseas college program while her offbeat sister (Mary-Kate Olsen) tries to meet her favorite rock band, and weird things happen. | Running time: 1:31 Rating: PG (mild sensuality, thematic elements) | Newport: 3, 5:05, 7:10, 9:15. Spokane Valley Mall: 11:20 a.m., 1:45, 4:20, 9:05. |
The Passion of the Christ 1/2 | Those who, like Mel Gibson, live their lives according to the Bible are likely to find everything they want, and need, in this version of the final 12 hours in the life of Jesus Christ. Taking his plot from the New Testament gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Gibson augments things with his own, for want of a better word, imagination. (No one ever wrote anything about children literally bedeviling Judas or a crow pecking at the eyes of the “bad” thief.) The result is a beautifully filmed, decently acted and exceedingly violent film that is likely to leave many viewers reeling with images of skin being flayed off of Jesus’ body. It’s also likely to leave those who don’t subscribe to Christian fundamentalism a bit confused about the message of Jesus’ life, which was as much about doing compassionate deeds as it was about suffering. | Running time: 2:06 Rating: R (sequences of graphic violence) | Newport: 3:40, 6:25, 8:55. |
| Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed | No dog puns needed here. No exclamations of “Jinkies!” or “Zoinks!” or even the easiest (and most appropriate): “Ruh-roh!” Just a few listless keystrokes and weary sigh of resignation that this is what continues to pass for family entertainment in Hollywood. The world doesn’t need a second scoop of Scooby and the gang any more than it needed the first, but here it is — and it is as it was. Neither film has managed to recapture the trippy, laid-back vibe of the original cartoonThe actors (Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Linda Cardellini and Matthew Lillard) look and sound sufficiently like the mystery-solving kids from the cartoon. Astonishingly, the computer-generated Scooby still looks fake. — Christy Lemire, AP. | Running time: 1:31 Rating: PG (scary action, rude humor, language) | Newport: 3:10, 5:10, 7:20, 9:20. |
| Shrek 2 | Freshly-wed ogre couple Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz), and Shrek (Mike Myers) are invited to Fiona’s parents’ house for dinner, with Donkey (Eddie Murphy) in tow. Fiona’s father, King Harold (John Cleese), and Fairy Godmother (Jennifer Saunders) enlist Puss-In-Boots (Antonio Banderas), an ogre-killing feline, to take Shrek out of the picture so Fiona can marry Prince Charming (Rupert Everett). – Tom Bowers, The Spokesman-Review. | Running time: 1:45 Rating: PG (some rude humor, a brief substance reference and some suggestive content) | NorthTown Mall: 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m., noon, 12:20, 1:30, 2, 2:30, 3, 4, 4:30, 5, 5:30, 6:30, 7:05, 7:30, 8:05, 9, 9, 9:30, 9:30, 10, 10:30. River Park Square: noon, 12:30, 1:30, 2, 2:30, 3, 4, 4:30, 5, 5:30, 6:30, 7, 7:30, 8, 9, 9:30, 9:55, 10:30. Spokane Valley Mall: 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m., noon, 1:30, 2, 2:30, 4, 4:30, 5, 6:30, 7, 7:30, 9, 9, 9:30, 9:30, 10. Coeur d’Alene Cinemas: 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:15, 1:30, 2, 2:30, 4, 4:30, 5, 6:30, 7, 7:30, 9, 9:20, 10. River City Cinemas: 11:30 a.m., 12:30, 1:30, 2:30, 3:30, 4:30, 5:30, 6:30, 7:30, 8:30, 9:30. |
Taking Lives | Taking its lead from David Fincher’s suspense thriller “Seven,” this D.J. Caruso movie apes that superior film’s atmosphere, characterization and socipathy in telling the story of a serial killer and the FBI profiler on his trail. Angelina Jolie plays Illeana, the profiler who gets into the spirit of things by – what else? – lying down in a grave. Her Sherlock Holmes-like observations on soil aside, she is at a loss to catch Martin Asher (Paul Dano as a young man) until a personable gallery owner named Costa (Ethan Hawke) becomes a material witness. Then things get really strange, though never really unpredictable. Caruso, working from a script adapted from Michael Pye’s novel, takes the story in so many directions, and throws in so many suspects and false leads, that the end, when it comes, just doesn’t seem all that interesting. | Running time: 1:40 Rating: R (strong violence, disturbing images, language, some sexuality) | Garland: 9:45. |
| Troy | After the Trojan Prince Paris (Orlando Bloom) runs off with Helen (Diane Kruger), wife of the Greek King Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson), the king and his brother, Agamemnon (Brian Cox), launch 1,000 ships to wage war on Troy. Brad Pitt plays the Greek warrior Achilles, and Eric Bana plays Paris’ brother Hector. – Tom Bowers, The Spokesman-Review. | Running time: 2:43 Rating: R (graphic violence and some sexuality/nudity). | NorthTown Mall: 12:05, 12:30, 1, 3:30, 4:05, 4:25, 7, 7:35, 8, 9:15, 10:25. Spokane Valley Mall: 10:30 a.m., 11:05 a.m., 2:20, 2:40, 6:35, 6:55, 8, 10:10, 10:30. River City Cinemas: 11 a.m., 2:10, 5:15, 8:20. Showboat: 4, 4:30, 7, 7:30, 8. |
| Van Helsing | Famed vampire hunter Dr. Gabriel Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman) heads to Europe to hunt down Count Dracula, the Wolfman and Frankenstein’s Monster. | Running time: 2:05 Rating: PG-13 (nonstop creature action violence, frightening images, sensuality). | NorthTown Mall: 12:15, 12:45, 3:10, 4:15, 6:35, 7:15, 9:40, 9:45, 10:10. Spokane Valley Mall: 11:10 a.m., 11:50 a.m., 2:35, 4:10, 6:40, 7:10, 9:40, 10:15. Coeur d’Alene Cinemas: 1, 4:10, 6:50, 9:35. River City Cinemas: 11:30 a.m., 2:35, 5:45, 8:45. |