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By Inlander Staff


25th Hour -- Spike Lee's newest joint has Edward Norton as a New York drug dealer getting ready to do seven years in the hoosegow. On his last day and night of freedom, he's seen drinking with his two best pals (Barry Pepper, Philip Seymour Hoffman), each with issues of their own; sharing some meaningful time with his dad (Brian Cox); and trying to figure out whether it was his girlfriend (Rosario Dawson) who turned him in. (ES) Rated: R





About Schmidt -- Jack Nicholson delivers a different-than-usual tour-de-force in this seriocomic road movie about a just-retired and just-widowed fellow who tries to make his aloof daughter see that she's marrying the wrong guy -- and getting the wrong in-laws to boot. (ES) Rated: R





A Guy Thing -- The world could always use another cautionary tale about bachelor parties. This time it's Jason Lee as the groom-to-be, who has just woken up next to Julia Stiles (incidentally, not his intended). Rated: PG-13





Catch Me If You Can -- Spielberg lightens up considerably from recent films in this comedy (with a serious undertone about broken families) inspired by the real-life adventures of teenage con man extraordinaire Frank Abagnale (Leonardo DiCaprio). Chased for years by a no-nonsense FBI man (Tom Hanks), his life probably wasn't as carefree as the film presents it. But this is one good romp, with terrific support from Christopher Walken and Nathalie Baye as his parents. The opening credits are very cool. (ES) Rated PG-13





Chicago -- Everyone's calling it this year's Moulin Rouge, except instead of one femme fatale/dance hall girl, there are two. Catherine Zeta-Jones plays Velma Kelley, who gains instant notoreity (and jail time) for shooting her philandering husband. Renee Zellweger is an up-and-coming starlet who, secretly hoping for similar fame, tries a similar tactic on her abusive boyfriend. Richard Gere is the celebrity-chasing lawyer who tries to represent them both. Rated: PG-13





Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind -- Anyone who watched The Gong Show (or The Dating Game or The Newlywed Game) needs to see this bio-pic on the life and odd times of their creator, Chuck Barris. As wonderfully played by Sam Rockwell, he's nervous, shy, full of himself, brilliant in a strange way, and maybe even quite dangerous. The film, based on his book, suggests that Barris did game shows as his day gig, and killed for the CIA during his down town. Terrifically acted (by Drew Barrymore and George Clooney, who also directed). (ES) Rated: R





Darkness Falls -- The premise lies somewhere between The Blair Witch Project and The Ring: a regional folk legend about a dead woman wreaks havoc with those living in the here and now. In the tiny seaside town of Darkness Falls a century-and-a-half ago, children bring their baby teeth to a kind neighbor woman who rewards them with a gold coin (consider it the first incarnation of the Tooth Fairy). But when two children go missing, the woman is blamed and hanged for her alleged crime. Fast forward to the present, sometimes with fatal consequences. Rated: PG-13





Die Another Day -- The James Bond pictures always seem from another time. What's freshest about this installment is that Pierce Brosnan is given the chance to draw on the darker side of his personality, and the game voluptuousness of Halle Berry as his partner in smirk, Jinx. (RP) Rated: PG-13





Far From Heaven -- Director Todd Haynes, who has brilliantly deconstructed our cultural past with Barbie dolls (Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story), supervises a cast of real-life dolls in this 1950s-style film. Julianne Moore plays a housewife who establishes a controversial friendship with her black gardener when her gay husband (Dennis Quaid, in an intelligently pained performance) begins to come out of the closet. The colors vibrate and the dialogue is perfectly clich & eacute;d as Haynes lovingly rings every melodramatic bell without ever striking a false note. A brilliant and sincere meditation on tolerance and the American upper-middle class. (Marty Demarest)





Gangs of New York -- Martin Scorsese and innumerable conspirators have struggled for almost three decades to produce Gangs of New York, and yet it is a terrible movie. Leonardo DiCaprio is a puffy cipher as a young man with vengeance on his mind; Daniel Day-Lewis offers epic hamming as the villain. (RP) Rated: R





Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets -- Director Chris Columbus returns, and he has loosened up, keeping in more of the second book's dark edge. So amid the terrific visual effects and the story of Harry and pals searching out a possibly deadly secret at school, there's a solid sense of menace and some truly frightening stuff. (ES) Rated PG





The Hours -- The supposedly unfilmable novel by Michael Cunningham becomes a mesmerizing, almost intoxicating movie that tells the stories of one real and two fictional women -- Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman), Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) and Clarissa Vaughan (Meryl Streep) -- and how they're tied together over the decades by Woolf's book Mrs. Dalloway. All three are emotionally troubled, possibly due to the men in their lives. An elegant film, featuring one of Kidman's best performances. (ES) Rated PG-13





Just Married -- Even though there's no discernable chemistry between them (either as characters or actors), the rich cute girl (Brittany Murphy) and the working class cute guy (Ashton Kutcher) decide to get hitched practically upon meeting one another. Kutcher yells too much and is kind of a jerk, and Murphy giggles too much and is too sweet. (ES) Rated: PG-13





Kangaroo Jack -- Kangaroo Jack's brain weighs less than a hard-boiled egg, and yet he's still capable of stealing $100,000 from two hapless New Yorkers. The New Yorkers are a musician (Anthony Anderson) and his best friend (Jerry O'Connell). Rated: PG





The Lion King -- The ultra-smash Disney hit from 1994 now gets the IMAX treatment, making it bigger, but not necessarily better. The lion cub Simba witnesses the terrifying death of his father, then is convinced by an evil uncle to run away from home without taking the throne that's rightfully his. (ES) Rated G





Maid in Manhattan -- Lopez is a chambermaid at a ritzy New York hotel, and a series of contrivances lead her into romance with dryly patrician politician Ralph Fiennes. Lopez is charming; Fiennes is surprisingly at ease on romantic comedy turf, and the entire film twinkles. (RP) Rated: PG-13





My Big Fat Greek Wedding -- This is the slobbo American version of Four Weddings and a Funeral, getting no marks for subtlety but laughs from those of us who can laugh at the idea of an obnoxious ethnic family getting into the marital spirit. (RP) RATED: PG





National Security -- Steve Zahn (Happy, Texas) plays a down-on-his luck ex-LAPD officer who's reduced to working as a security guard. Even worse, his new partner (Martin Lawrence) is the same guy he was falsely accused of beating years ago during a traffic stop. Rated: PG-13





Star Trek: Nemesis -- Yet another reason to long for the good old days of Kirk, Spock and Bones, as well as the early days of the Next Generation. This film just never takes off, with a muddled story about Captain Picard having been cloned and his younger clone coming to get him and his ship and Earth. This one goes where it's gone before. (ES) Rated PG-13





The Two Towers -- This magnificent sequel to last year's magnificent original welcomes back most of the same characters (including a new, improved version of Gandalf), and features many new ones, with the CGI creation of the hideous, piteous and chilling Gollum standing out. This one is darker and more violent than the first, with a more intense and epic approach to the battle scenes. (ES) Rated PG-13





Two Weeks Notice -- Hugh Grant plays the sort of charming, shallow cad he's become so adept at, this time as a billionaire who happily lets his lawyer (Sandra Bullock) handle all the troublesome little details, legal or otherwise. Rated: PG-13





The Wild Thornberrys Movie -- Young Eliza (magically able to converse with animals) has a ball with her adventuresome parents in Africa. Strong environmentalist message. (ES) Rated PG





& lt;i & Capsule reviews are written by Ed Symkus (ES) and Ray Pride (RP), unless otherwise noted. & lt;/i &





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