Now Playing

by Inlander Staff & r & & r & Akeelah and the Bee -- That Larry Fishburne -- boy, can he act. Here he plays mentor to a Crenshaw youth with a gift for stringing letters together in the way that creates language. Full of accessible tropes, it's at once an underdog story, a rags-to-riches story and a spelling bee story. And that's the most universal story of all. Rated PG





American Haunting -- In the early 1800s, John Bell died of what the state of Tennessee called "Spirits," making him the only person U.S. history to have been killed, in the eyes of a state government, by a ghost. The event, supposedly, was incredibly well documented at the time and has been revamped here, for the PG-13 tween horror set. It's scary the way we mistreat history. Rated PG-13





The Benchwarmers -- Rob Schneider and David Spade play nerds while Jared Hess revisits his Napoleon Dynamite character (a-frickin-gain). The three team up to teach geeks how to stand up to jocks on and, presumably, off the baseball diamond. Douche-baggery that undermines the sanctity of our national game ensues. Rated PG-13





Forces of Nature -- Showcasing the awesome spectacle of earthquakes, volcanoes, and severe storms as we follow scientists on their quests to understand how these natural disasters are triggered. Narrated by Kevin Bacon! Unrated





Friends With Money -- Four longtime pals -- played by Catherine Keener, Joan Cusack, Frances McDormand (who all live very comfortable lives) and Jennifer Aniston (who ekes by as a house cleaner) -- regularly meet to chat and complain. The well-off ones have husbands, while the broke one has as much trouble with men as with money. This is a look at strengths and weaknesses in relationships, and the powerful bond of friendship. Serious matters, often treated with nicely placed humor. (ES) Rated R





Greece: Secrets of the Past -- Continuing their long tradition of making learning fun, the folks at IMAX bring us Greece, wherein you get to "see how the island of Santorini was formed and how the island's volcanic eruption, one of the biggest explosions in Earth's history, occurred. Follow a team of archeologists piecing together the puzzles of ancient history and learn how the field of archeology has progressed. Travel to Athens and see how computer graphic imaging can restore the Parthenon to its original glory. Trace some of our modern society's customs -- democracy, medicine, athletics and theatre back to their roots in the Golden Age of Greece." Unrated





Hoot -- "If they build that pancake place, those owls are toast!" comes the plaintive cry of countless do-gooding kids. This is apparently based on the true story of some youngsters who fought the law (and big pancake-making business) to save some birds. Lessons will be learned. Rated PG





Ice Age: The Meltdown -- The mammoth, the saber-tooth and the sloth gain sidekicks and a kind of pro-unconventional family, anti-global warming message this time around, but it doesn't work. Aside from being crude, this sequel lacks a genuine antagonist or any real character development. As the movie's marketing campaign tacitly admits, the best part about Meltdown is that silly squirrel Scrat. Rated PG





Inside Man -- Spike Lee regains much of the ground he lost over his last few films. This is a terrific heist movie, with plenty of angles we haven't seen before. Clive Owen has planned the perfect bank job (or something), Denzel Washington is the cool and calm detective trying to stop things before they go too far, and Jodie Foster is the mysterious and powerful woman who can miraculously make the impossible happen ... with discretion. (ES) Rated R





Lucky Number Sleven -- Looks like a lot of those potboiler assassins-and-mob-bosses-with-innocent-people-in-the-middle, forced-to-do-extraordinary-things types of movies, except there's a palpably subversive bent to this slick thriller, suggesting it doesn't take itself too seriously. Stylized action and in-jokes ensue. Rated R





Mission Impossible: III -- From its failed-experiment opening sequence to its sharp dialogue, exotic locations and pure spectacle, this high-test action picture brilliantly weaves around a classic Hitchcockian MacGuffin. Tom Cruise excels like an all-star athlete in executing the bulk of the film's impressive stunts while surrounded by a stellar ensemble cast. Writer/director J.J. Abrams achieves something of a minor masterpiece with a postmodern sense of humor and hypnotic infatuation with maintaining multiple layers of emotional and physical suspense in nearly every scene. (CS) Rated PG-13





Mozart and the Whale & r & Containing the seeds of a good film but lacking the contextual soil within which such things sprout, here's a tale of a little-understood form of autism and the interpersonal strife it can cause. If you know about Asperger's, this film will make sense and will probably touch you. If you don't -- well, good luck. (LB)





RV -- "We watch TV in four separate rooms and IM each other when it's time to eat," says despondent dad Robin Williams. The solution to familial fragmentation, in his mind, is a long-ass RV trip. Lessons will be learned, cars will be rolled. Rated PG





Scary Movie 4 & r & Scream had the decency to stop at three films, but then, the Scary Movie franchise had the good sense to stop aping Scream after only two. The fourth film, now, mimics the third, lampooning films (War of the Worlds, The Village) with current-ish events (the president freezing on 9/11, Tom Cruise on Oprah) for what's sure to be light-hearted mediocrity. Rated PG-13





Sentinel -- Is that Jack Bauer? On the big screen? Yeah ... we think it's -- no, wait, it's just Keifer Sutherland cashing in on his 24 role. Sutherland plays some sort of federal law-bringer who is charged with finding a man who is plotting to kill the president. He follows the clues straight to -- wait for it -- his boss, the sexily innocent-looking geezer Michael Douglas. Rated PG-13





Silent Hill -- It's based on a videogame, but it looks like it's got higher production value than your average console-to-silver-screen port. Plus, it's directed by a French dude, Christophe Gans, with at least one good horrorish film under his belt (Brotherhood of the Wolf). Though full of cutting-edge effects, this is really an age-old story: woman loses daughter, woman searches for daughter -- and instead finds the heart of all evil. Rated R.





Stick It -- "Every day I break the law ... of gravity!" says bad girl gymnast Hailey Graham, who hates those activist judges and their creative "punishments." After a little run-in with the Five-Oh, the former beam-balancer is ordered by a judge to re-enter the gymnastics academy she deserted a year earlier. Bring-It-On-demonium ensues. Rated PG-13





Take the Lead -- Here's another doctored-up Hollywood version of an "inspired by a true story" movie. In this one, Antonio Banderas, all cool and calm and smooth, gives us his take on New York ballroom instructor Pierre Dulaine, who apparently turned a bunch of troublemaking high schoolers into experts on their feet -- after they added hip-hop to the beat. Clich & eacute;-ridden and not the least bit believable. (ES) Rated PG-13





Thank You For Smoking & r & Aaron Eckhart plays a tobacco spokesman with a gift for what Plato called sophistry. He takes the talking points of Big Tobacco and turns them into air-tight arguments: "The number one killer in America is cholesterol ... and here comes Senator Finistirre who is clogging the nation's arteries with Vermont Cheddar Cheese." Directed by Ivan Reitman's son, this film is (if you haven't noticed) a satire. Rated R





United 93 -- British writer-director Paul Greengrass pulls no punches in his hypothesis of what happened aboard the terrorist-hijacked plane that went down in a field in Pennsylvania on 9/11. This is a harrowing film, played out in real time (a la 24) that takes place inside the doomed plane as well as in air-traffic control centers that were trying to make sense of what was going on. Full of heroism, anger and sadness. (ES) Rated R