The Monitor Movie Guide



++++ Excellent

+++1/2 Very Good

Recommended: Could you pass a US citizenship test?

+++ Good

++ 1/2 Average

++ Fair

+1/2 Poor

+ Worst

New Releases


Director: Vincenzo Natali. With Nicole deBoer, Nicky Guadagni, David Hewlett, Andrew Miller, Julian Richings, Wayne Robson, Maurice Dean Wint. (90 min.)

++ Surreal fantasy about a group of strangers who find themselves trapped in a mysterious structure where all the rooms are cube-shaped cages, many of them booby-trapped with deadly dangers. The characters are stereotypes and the psychology is simplistic, but the movie builds an effective sense of claustrophobic menace that thriller fans may enjoy.


Director: John Dahl. With Matt Damon, Edward Norton, Gretchen Moll, John Malkovich, John Turturro, Martin Landau, Famke Janssen. (120 min.)

++ The hero is an on-and-off law student with a passion for poker, and an honest streak that keeps him from cheating even when he's desperate for money to pay off dangerous debtors. The acting is solid, but the story builds less drama and suspense than its high-stakes subject might lead you to expect.


Director: Mark Steven Johnson. With Ian Michael Smith, Joseph Mazzello, Ashley Judd, Oliver Platt, David Strathairn, Dana Ivey, Jan Hooks. (110 min.)

+++ The hero is a very small boy who's convinced his "abnormal" physique is proof of God's particular interest in him, and feels he'll fulfill some special purpose as soon as he can figure out what it's supposed to be. The movie is lively, funny, and endearing until melodramatics and sentimentality take over in the last few scenes.

+++ Tear-jerker, intriguing, literary.

Sex/Nudity: Several adolescent references to female anatomy. Violence: None. Profanity: 19 expressions, usually mild. Drugs: 5 scenes with smoking.


Director: Orson Welles. With Orson Welles, Janet Leigh, Charlton Heston, Marlene Dietrich, Dennis Weaver, Joseph Cotten, Zsa Zsa Gabor. (108 min.)

++++ This explosive 1958 crime drama was altered by its studio to make it more conventional, but now a team of experts has restored it to Welles's own specifications, making it more clear and coherent - if not more exciting and original - than in its previous version. Welles gives one of his boldest performances as a crooked American cop, ably supported by Heston as the Mexican policeman who ferrets out his nasty secrets.


Director: Robert Towne. With Billy Crudup, Donald Sutherland, Monica Potter, Judith Ivey, Dean Norris. (116 min.)

+++ The story of Olympic runner Steve Prefontaine, focusing on his feisty individuality and his relationship with a crusty old coach who ends up learning a lesson or two from his student. The athletic scenes are so lively and the main performances are so magnetic that even moviegoers who resist sports-centered pictures may be won over. But while Towne's screenplay carries the worthwhile message that competition is better than conquest, it fails to go a step further and teach that cooperation is best of all.

Currently in Release




++ Style without substance, disjointed, surreal.













+++ Energetic, romantic, well danced.


54 (R)


DUD Myers plays the late Steve Rubell, Studio 54's real-life co-owner in the 1970s, who turns an innocent young man, Shane O'Shea (Phillippe), into a desirable young stud. It's been reported that first-time feature director Christopher toned the film down for Miramax, but he watered it down so much that he forgot to include a plot, lively disco music and dancing, or believable characters. And what about the groovy '70s fashion? That's missing too. Contains strong language, heavy drug use, and sex and nudity. By Lisa Leigh Parney

++ Graphic, weak plot, not for kids.





+++ Romantic, Bront-esque, period drama.

Sex/Nudity: 4 brief sex scenes, 2 include partial nudity. Violence: None. Profanity: 9 mild expressions. Drugs: 8 instances of social drinking. .




+++ Warm, funny, refreshing.









Director: Brad Anderson. With Hope Davis, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Alan Gelfant, Jos Zuiga, Lyn Vaus, Robert Klein, Victor Argo, Arnie Reisman. (94 min.)







++1/2 Offbeat, lightweight, humorous.





+ Uninspired, melodramatic, good sound track.

Sex/Nudity: 2 fully nude love scenes, one highly suggestive scene. Violence: 4 scenes of physical fighting. Profanity: 82 expressions. Drugs: 2 hallucinogen scenes, 1 scene of heroin use.



++ Six young urbanites turn their personal relationships into a complicated web of friendship, romance, deception, and betrayal, which LaBute appears to believe is normal behavior for the Generation X crowd. The results have a grim fascination, but as with his earlier "In the Company of Men," the movie is a lot nastier than necessary to make its cautionary points.



(In stores Sept. 15)








Director: Stephen Sommers. With Trent Williams, Famke Janssen, Anthony Heald. (110 min.)

+ Assorted adventurers battle sea monsters in the briny deep.

++ Alien-esque, good sense of humor, scary.



Director: Spike Lee. With Denzel Washington, Ray Allen, John Turturro, Lonette McKee. (128 min.)


+++ Gritty, lurid, ambitious.



Director: Jonathan Darby. With Jessica Lange, Gwyneth Paltrow, Johnathon Schaech, Nina Foch. (98 min.)

+ A woman inflicts unconscionable cruelty on her pregnant daughter-in-law attempting to keep her son on the beautiful Virginia farm.

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