Movie Clips

AP photo
Jack Black grooves with the kids in 'The School of Rock,' now showing at West Sound theaters.

AP photo Jack Black grooves with the kids in "The School of Rock," now showing at West Sound theaters.

<strong>'AMERICAN SPLENDOR'</strong> -- Paul Giamatti plays comic-book writer Harvey Pekar in this splendid film, which repeatedly offers up the real Pekar for comparison. Pekar is a constant presence, with directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini bouncing questions off him, documentary-style, before cutting back to Giamatti acting out scenes from Pekar's life. This film, winner of the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize, is a celebration of everyday, glamour-allergic people like Pekar and his similarly no-nonsense girlfriend (played by Hope Davis). R (language). 1:41. <strong>*** 1/2</strong>

<strong>Showing: Rose Theatre (Port Townsend)</strong>

<strong>'BEYOND BORDERS' </strong>-- Angelina Jolie and Clive Owen star in this conscience-tweaking tale of a socialite and a hardened relief-worker who carry on an intermittent romance in several global hot spots. But there's a problem: Compared to the natives' struggles to survive in Northern Africa, Cambodia and Chechnya, the problems of these two lovers don't amount to a hill of beans. Why doesn't the movie focus on the people in these regions instead? R (language, war-related violence). <em><strong>See review, page 20.</strong></em> 2:07. <strong>**</strong>

<strong>Showing: Kitsap, Poulsbo, South Sound</strong>

<strong>'GOOD BOY!'</strong> -- A boy (Liam Aiken) who earns money by walking the neighborhood dogs has been begging his parents (Molly Shannon and Kevin Nealon) for one of his own. But when he's finally allowed to take one home from the shelter, he discovers that his pet is really an emissary from an all-dog planet who has been sent to evaluate how dogs on Earth are ruling things. Matthew Broderick provides the voice of Hubble, the visiting space dog. PG (some mild, crude humor). 1:28. <strong>***</strong>

<strong>Showing: Kitsap, Gig Harbor</strong>

<strong>'HOUSE OF THE DEAD'</strong> -- A group of college co-eds visit the Isla del Muerte (Island of the Dead), where centuries earlier, a Spanish priest was banished for creating a death-cheating serum. With Jurgen Prochnow, Clint Howard and Ellie Cornell. Directed by Uwe Boll. R (pervasive strong violence/gore, language and some nudity.) No time or rating available.

<strong>Showing: Kitsap</strong>

<strong>'INTOLERABLE CRUELTY'</strong> -- How many Hollywood comedies these days are fit for adult consumption? Not many, but this one from the Coen Brothers is an exception. It's the tale of a twisted love affair between a Beverly Hills divorce lawyer (George Clooney) and a conniving divorcee (Catherine Zeta-Jones). The lines crackle, the sexuality snaps, and we're plunged headfirst into a world of sumptuous surfaces and subversive wit. With Geoffrey Rush, Cedric the Entertainer and Billy Bob Thornton. PG-13 (sexual content, language and brief violence). 1:40. <strong>*** 1/2</strong>

<strong>Showing: Bainbridge, Poulsbo, South Sound</strong>

<strong>'KILL BILL, VOL. 1'</strong> -- No one combines violence and humor, dialogue and action, music and pictures the way Quentin Tarantino does. An assassin known as the Bride (Uma Thurman) is attacked and left for dead on her wedding day. She awakens from a four-year coma and seeks revenge upon her five attackers, one by one. R (strong bloody violence, language, some sexual content). 1:33. <strong>***</strong>

<strong>Showing: Poulsbo, Silverdale, South Sound</strong>

<strong>'LOST IN TRANSLATION'</strong> -- Director Sofia Coppola follows her impressive debut, "The Virgin Suicides," with another film that plunges viewers into unsettling dream worlds. The setting here is a gleaming, bustling Tokyo, where a jaded, aging actor (Bill Murray) and a photographer's wife (Scarlett Johansson) strike up a friendship while isolated in a hotel. The movie conforms to almost none of the existing stereotypes regarding stories about an older man and younger woman. R (some sexual content). 1:45. <strong>*** 1/2</strong>

<strong>Showing: Poulsbo, Grand Cinema (Tacoma), Rose Theatre (Port Townsend</strong>

<strong>'THE MAGDALENE SISTERS</strong>' -- Director Peter Mullan's fierce, brilliant film follows three women (played by Anne-Marie Duff, Nora-Jane Noone and Dorothy Duffy) sent in the mid-'60s to the convent laundries of The Magdalene Asylums, operated by the Irish Catholic Church until 1996. These were essentially prisons in which the girls were exploited, humiliated and sometimes beaten and sexually abused. Mullan tells this story beautifully, and his cast is wonderful (particularly Geraldine McEwan as vicious Sister Bridget). This movie holds you rapt with both anger and admiration. R (violence/cruelty, nudity, language and sexual content). 1:59. <strong>****</strong>

<strong>Showing: Grand Cinema (Port Townsend)</strong>

<strong>'MYSTIC RIVER'</strong> -- Three 11-year-old Boston boys are pulled into an awful act of transgression, and 25 years later, an even more terrible crime reunites them. Clint Eastwood directs this powerful film, which is based on a novel by Dennis Lehane. One of the best American movies of the year, this is a gripping murder mystery and a realistic drama about a community in the throes of change, teetering on moral disintegration. R (language, violence, sexual themes). 2:17. <strong>****</strong>

<strong>Showing: Kitsap, Lynwood Theatre (Bainbridge), Poulsbo, South Sound</strong>

<strong>'OUT OF TIME'</strong> -- Denzel Washington stars as a small-town police chief who becomes the prime suspect in a double murder, scrambling to cover up the clues while he hunts down the real culprits. Carl Franklin directs with such slick bombast that it sucks most of the tension from the story. PG-13 (sexual content, violence and some language.) 1:45. <strong>**</strong>

<strong>Showing: Kitsap</strong>

<strong>'PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN'</strong> -- Johnny Depp may not be all that believable as a lusty privateer, yet he gives this expensive but shallow project just the sly wink it needs. Playing a salty British sea dog who has his ship stolen by a mutinous first mate (Geoffrey Rush) and his crew of cursed skeletons, Depp suggests a slightly woozy con artist. PG-13 (action adventure/violence). 2:15. <strong>** 1/2</strong>

<strong>Showing: Charleston, Plaza Twin</strong>

<strong>'RADIO' </strong>-- After a high school football team brutalizes a handicapped boy (Cuba Gooding Jr.), the head coach (Ed Harris) takes the young man under his wing and makes him the team's unofficial manager/mascot -- but not everyone in town is happy about it. Gooding's understated performance as the title character underlines how maladroit Sean Penn's portrayal of a mentally challenged father in "I Am Sam" was. However, the pacing fizzes mid-film while director Michael Tollin searches for a story arc. <em><strong>See review, page 21. </strong></em>PG (mild language and thematic elements). 1:46. <strong>**</strong>

<strong>'RUNAWAY JURY'</strong> -- This well-acted, well-made John Grisham adaptation plays more like a caper film than a legal thriller, as a ruthless jury consultant (Gene Hackman) and a more-or-less honest prosecutor (Dustin Hoffman) engage in a tug-of-war while a juror (John Cusack) and his strong-willed female friend (Rachel Weisz) yank at the rope. Director Gary Fleder and his able cast deliver a brisk, entertaining story that, despite straining credulity at times, earns a positive verdict. PG-13 (violence, language, thematic elements). 2:07. <strong>***</strong>

<strong>Showing: Bainbridge, Poulsbo, Silverdale, South Sound</strong>

<strong>'THE RUNDOWN'</strong> -- Pro wrestler The Rock (real name: Dwayne Johnson), star of the ridiculous but commercially successful "The Scorpion King," returns to the big screen as a "retrieval expert" who must chase down a rich crook's errant son (Seann William Scott) in the Brazilian rain forest. Along the way he clashes with a sultry rebel leader (Rosario Dawson) and a vicious gold-mine king (Christopher Walken). PG-13 (adventure violence and some crude dialogue). 1:44. <strong>***</strong>

<strong>Showing: Kitsap</strong>

<strong>'SCARY MOVIE 3'</strong> -- Director/producer David Zucker ("Airplane!") pokes fun at "The Ring," "Signs" and "8 Mile," among other flicks, in the latest installment of this movie-spoof series. There's enough here to keep us mildly interested, but the laughs are so few and far between, it might be time to stick a fork in the franchise. With Queen Latifah, Charlie Sheen, Leslie Nielsen, Pamela Anderson, Eddie Griffin. <em><strong>See review, page 21. </strong></em>PG-13 (pervasive crude and sexual humor, language, comic violence and drug references). 1:30. <strong>** </strong>

<strong>Showing: Bainbridge, Kitsap, Poulsbo, Redwood, South Sound</strong>

<strong>'THE SCHOOL OF ROCK'</strong> -- If ever a movie deserved to be a colossal, demographic-busting hit, it's this nearly miraculous comedy about a prep-school rock band. Joyous and exuberant, it has just the right mix of structure and spontaneity, sweetness and subversion. Mike White's script is perfectly suited to the talents of star Jack Black, whose chubby body roils and twists in constant homage to history's greatest rockers. As Dewey Finn, Black shares his passion for rock with a group of overachieving fifth-graders after he cons his way into a substitute teacher's job. The movie applies formula so gently that Dewey's inspiration of the kids is genuinely touching, and the kids' climactic gig is a rocking triumph. PG-13 (some rude humor and drug references.) 108 minutes. <strong>*** 1/2</strong>

<strong>Showing: Bainbridge, Gig Harbor, Kitsap, Poulsbo, South Sound</strong>

<strong>'SECONDHAND LIONS'</strong> -- A timid 14-year-old boy (Haley Joel Osment) with a selfish mother (Kyra Sedgwick) is sent to spend the summer with his rich uncles (Robert Duvall and Michael Caine), who went missing for 40 years but have returned to Texas. These grumpy old men change the boy's life, and the boy gives them a reason to live. A bang-up cast can't save this ineffective, unconvincing family drama. PG (thematic material, language and action violence). 1:47. <strong>* 1/2</strong>.

<strong>Showing: Kitsap, Plaza Twins</strong>

<strong>'STEP INTO LIQUID'</strong> -- The film is just what it sounds like: an enticing invitation to get your feet wet in the world of surfing, to experience the beauty and feel the rush of this most addictive of pastimes. Dana Brown, the film's writer, director and editor, is the son of Bruce Brown, who introduced the world to "The Endless Summer" in 1966. Unrated, but suitable for young teen audience. 1:28.


<strong>'THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE'</strong> -- There's enough fright and carnage in this remake of writer/director Tobe Hooper's low-budget 1974 masterpiece to effectively revitalize the "Chainsaw" franchise. Jessica Biel stars as one of several teens on their way to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert in Dallas. The terror mounts when they stumble upon a backwoods family of cannibalistic murderers who prefer a chainsaw to the traditional knife-and-fork culinary preparations. R (strong horror violence/gore, language and drug content). 1:38. <strong>***</strong>


<strong>'UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN'</strong> -- Fans of Frances Mayes' best-selling memoir may be shocked when they see how far this adaptation has strayed from the source material. Writer-director Audrey Wells obviously felt she needed a stronger narrative hook than the book provides, so she's fashioned it as a chick flick, grafting on a generic looking-for-love plot. The always-fetching Diane Lane keeps you rooting for her character, but the movie skimps on what made the book so popular: the delights of relaxing, sightseeing, gardening and cooking in Tuscany. PG-13 (sexual content, language). 1:53. <strong>**</strong>

<strong>Showing: South Sound</strong>


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