A lfie
Jude Law is the titular philanderer in
this stylish yet unnecessary remake of the
1966 classic starring Michael Caine. Gor
geous shots of New York City and Susan
Sarandon can’t hide the fact that the film is
rather dated and ultimately pointless. Hey,
Jude certainly provides lots of eye candy, hut
those are just empty calories.
—Jim Radosta
<£^> B irth
I needed a shower after watching this creepy
snoozer starring Nicole Kidman as a widow
whose husband comes back from the dead in
the txxly of a 10-year-old boy. The two of them
wind up naked together in a bathtub, if that
gives you any idea of the perv factor displayed
by director Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast). I
haven’t felt this dirty since I saw Powder.
-JR
<g>
T he G rudge
Cheap frights abound in Takeshi Shimuzu’s
solid remake of his fabulously freaky Japanese
thriller Ju-On. This time around, Americans
abroad in Japan are unfortunate enough to set
foot in a troubled house where a man killed his
wife, his son and himself. Anyone who enters the
house faces the merciless wrath of the murder vic
tims. A lackluster Sarah Michelle Cellar (Ms.
Buffy herself) heads an otherwise strong cast.
— Stephen Blair
T he I ncredibles
What’s in gonna be, Jude?
Fixar takes animation to the next level of
jaw-dropping awesomeness with yet another
highly marketable movie aimed at both kids and
their parents. The premise: Mr. Incredible and
his family (Elastigirl, Violet Girl and Dash
Dash) are repressed
superheroes, stuffing
their fantastical pow
ers away to please the
rest of the world. Sarah
Vowell pulls off a particu
larly hilarious voice-over as the
insecure daughter with a closet of black
clothes and an even blacker mood.
—Con Taratoot
popped
what's flopped,
a theater near you.
<&<£&<&<£&<&> S ideways
A blocked writer (Paul Giamatti) and a
washed-up actor who’s about to get married
(Thomas Haden Church) take a life-changing
road trip through California’s wine country and
hcx)k up with a couple of women (Virginia
Madsen and Sandra Oh, both outstanding and
underrated actresses) along the way. Witty,
hilarious and poignant. Like a gcxxJ pinot,
writer/director Alexander Payne (Citizen Ruth,
Election, About Schmidt) just keeps getting bet
ter with age.
-JR
< ^ <£><&><§> U ndertow
David Gordon Green ( All the Real Girls)
serves up this sweaty, tense thriller about a
mral Georgia clan that g(K»s to hell in a hand
basket. John (Dermot Mulroney) lives a simple
life with his two sons until his scumbag brother
Deel (Josh Lucas) shows up to claim the family
fortune at any cost. The entire cast is excellent,
bottom of the bag
(C§>
only ^ you’re really hungry
<g>
<g>, good effort, pass the salt
mmmm, tasty!
<g> <(& < & > £ & < & > 8et ihe big tub o’ com
but Jamie Bell of Billy Elliot fame stands out as
John’s volatile son Chris.
— SB
A V ery L ong E ngagement
Amélie director Jean-Pierre Jeunet reunites
with actress Audrey Tautou to tell another
magical, sexy, imaginative story— this time
about a young woman’s obsessive search for her
fiancé, who went missing in action during
World War I. Jodie Foster pops in for an
impressive cameo to show off her French fluen
cy, but even her captivating presence couldn’t
keep me from wondering when this
Very Long movie would arrive at its
inevitable conclusion.
-JR
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