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of horror sequels. It lives in the past,
rehashing moments from previous
flicks as opposed to creating new ones.
Frankly, the 90-minute movie bores for
long stretches of its flabby middle.
SCROOGED (PG-13) Bill Murray
stars as a bitter TV executive in Richard
Donner's 1988 update of Charles
Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES (PG-
13) The filmed adaptation of Sue Monk
Kidd's popular novel is laudable if
not astounding. Lily Owens (Conyers
native Dakota Fanning,) and her
caregiver. Rosaleen Daise (Academy
Award winner Jennifer Hudson), run
away from Lily's abusive father, T.
Ray (Paul Bettany), and take refuge at
the pink utopia of the honey-making
Boatwright sisters—August (Queen
Latifah). June (Alicia Keys), and May
(Sophie Okonedo. Hotel Rwanda). But
Lily's past and the racist reality of the
Deep South circa 1964 intrudes in
the Boatwright's paradise. The perfor
mances, especially those of Fanning
and Latifah, are outstanding save for
the atrocious, fake accents.
SOUL MEN (R) Bernie Mac deserved
better. In one of his final roles, the
hilarious Mac sings, dances, and
sasses as Floyd Henderson, one half
of the Real Deal, a popular soul group
from back in the day. After former band
leader. Marcus Hooks (John Legend,
briefly), dies. Henderson and his
estranged partner, felon Lewis Hinds
(Samuel L. Jackson), reunite for a
tribute show at the Apollo Theater, but
the road trip from L.A. to New York
takes some legal and familial detours
in Memphis and Tulsa. Whenever the
film relies solely on the charisma of
its two leads rather than its two-cent,
hackneyed script (from the writers of
that abysmal Quentin Tarantino vehicle.
Destiny Turns onthe Radio), Soul Men
find its rhythm. The song and dance
numbers, performed admirably by Mac
and Jackson, are another highlight.
However, the blues set in during the
several scripted potholes littering this
foul-mouthed, buddy road comedy. The
sophomoric geriatric antics wear thin,
though Mac bears it all with his jester's
grin. Jackson phones in a bit of his
character's constant rage. These angry
old men are good for some laughs, but
they've got no soul. The elegiac credits
are a nice final touch.
TRAITOR (PG-13) A former Special
Forces operative, Samir Horn (Don
Cheadle), has infiltrated the network of
an uber-terrorist, Nathir (Raad Rawi,
The Kingdom). However, only an intel
ligence contractor. Carter (Jeff Daniels),
knows Samir's really a good guy. The
strong-willed, level-headed FBI Special
Agent, Roy Clayton (Guy Pearce), in
charge of finding out what Nathir plans
to do next hasn’t a clue about Samir's
real agenda. When the ingenious
plan to undermine American trust in
Greyhound is revealed, Samir has to
reconcile keeping his cover with killing
innocent civilians. Kinetically shot like
every post-fiw/meactioner, Traitor
can't quite decide if it's straight-up
action or more Syriana potboiler, and
ends up in limbo between both.
TROPIC THUNDER (R) A group of
actors—an action star (Ben Stiller),
a comedian (Jack Black), and an
award winning thespian in blackface
(Robert Downey Jr.)—are shooting
a war movie when the director (Steve
Coogan) gets the bright idea to drop
them in the jungle and shoot the
film guerrilla-style. Stiller, directing
his first film since 2001’s Zoolander,
returns to the Hollywood parodies at
which he excelled on his unfortunately
short-lived, eponymously titled Fox
show. Starring, written, produced,
and directed by a lot of funny guys
who know how FUBAR big budget
Hollywood action movies starring
giant egos can go, Tropic Thunder is
brilliantly stupid, gorgeously shot, and
one of the year’s funniest movies.
WALL*E (PG) Leave it to Finding
Nemo writer/director Andrew Stanton
to rocket Pixar back to the animated
heavens. With WALL^E. a deeply
human story with only minimal human
interaction and maximum entertain
ment value, Pixar again pulls off their
most stunning feat, making the rare
creation of an animated masterpiece
look so easy.
THE WOMEN (PG-13) Four
women—Ihe curly-haired, lovable
Mary (Meg Ryan); older career woman,
Sylvia (Annette Bening); mother of four
Edie (Debra Messing); and Ihe African-
American lesbian Alex (Jada Pinkett
Smith)—live, love, lose and learn in
the Big Apple. Sounds familiar, doesn't
it? The Women is a less chic “Sex and
the City" without any men. The themes
and concerns of these Women and the
gals of "SATC" are so similar that some
central plot points are identical; the
script for The Women was hammered
out during the six season run of HBO's
phenomenon so some overlap was
bound to occur.
ZACKANO MIRI MAKE A PORNO
(R) Zack and Miri Make a Porno is
exactly as smutty and as funny as its
title—and the View Askew brand—
implies. Lifelong friends, Zack (Seth
Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks),
are in big-time debt. To stave olf
homelessness. Zack. Miri and a cast
and crew of their friends and an array
of local losers (Craig Robinson. Jason
“Jay" Mewes, porn star Katie Morgan,
former porn star Traci Lords, and even
Randall Graves himself, Jeff Anderson)
decide to make a porno. An unfunny
opening offensive implies Zack and
Miri might be little more than Clerks in
a coffee shop, but the more you hang
out with Rogen, Banks, Robinson (so
good on “The Office," just as valuable
here), et al, the funnier this new flick
gets.
Drew Wheeler
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