*** Cabin Fever -- A spirited, low-budget horror film. It's a "young people in a remote cabin" kind of thing, and there's something very wrong with the water: Drink it and you're kaput. (ES) Rated R
** Cold Creek Manor -- In this unscary, yawnsome thriller, Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone are a Manhattan couple who decide upstate New York will be a better, safer place to raise their kids. Small town craziness ensues. (RP) Rated: R
Coral Reef Adventure -- Think of it as a way to explore all 1,300 miles of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, but without the danger of those pesky shark attacks. With a strong conservation message throughout, viewers get the sense of swimming along with some of the world's top self-described "fish nerds" in search of new species. Not rated
** Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star -- This comedy about a once-big child star (David Spade) who's now floundering as an adult has a great beginning and a top-notch ending (during the credits). (ES) Rated PG-13
* Duplex -- Broad, slapdash black comedy finds Brooklyn yuppies Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore at the mercies of their upstairs tenant, an old woman who drives them bats. Dreams of murder ensue. Throw Mama from the Brownstone, anyone? Aside from top-notch sneeze-spray and vomit gags, it's really tedious. Directed by Danny DeVito (RP) Rated: PG-13
** The Fighting Temptations -- Filled with extraordinary musical scenes, most of them of the gospel persuasion, this is an otherwise very ordinary story about a scheming New York ad exec (Cuba Gooding Jr.) who returns to his small-town roots for a funeral and is offered gobs of money if he can turn the tired old church choir into winners in a competition. But the plentiful music is great. (ES) Rated PG-13
*** Freaky Friday -- Fans of the original 1976 film (Jodie Foster, Barbara Harris) or the 1995 TV remake (Shelley Long, Gaby Hoffman) will be surprised at how fresh it still is this time around. Jamie Lee Curtis -- in one of her best roles -- and Lindsay Lohan (The Parent Trap) are the bickering Mom and daughter who wake up to find they've switched bodies. So Mom has to go to school, and young Anna checks in at Mom's therapy practice. Funny situations, some slapstick and a message about parents and kids understanding each other. Sweet and a little wild. (ES) Rated PG
*** Hangman's Curse -- Seems something's amiss at Rogers High School -- yes, our Rogers High School -- and the cops can't figure it out. Who ya gonna call? Call the Veritas Team, stars of two novels by Kellogg, Idaho's Frank Peretti. The Veritas Team is a family affair, reminiscent of the Spy Kids series, with Mom (Mel Harris, thirtysomething) and Dad (David Keith, An Officer and a Gentleman) lurking around school. With no violence or swearing, Curse is designed to fill a niche among younger moviegoers for good, clean fun -- and it delivers, even if the too-sappy epilogue doesn't measure up to what's come before. Rated: PG-13 (Ted S. McGregor Jr.)
*** Lewis & amp; Clark -- The IMAX folks have packed a lot into this vivid account of the two adventurers' travels across the American wilderness. Narrator Jeff Bridges does pretty much all the speaking, while actors play out the scenes. And those scenes are played out in breathtakingly beautiful settings, spellbinding on the giant screen. (ES) Unrated
**** Lost in Translation -- Bill Murray is a middle-aged actor in Tokyo to film a whiskey commercial for $2 million. Scarlett Johansson is a newly-married twenty-something in town with her celebrity photographer husband. Both of them, searching for themselves, find each other (and the intensity of Japan), in director Sofia Coppola's second film. It's hilarious and romantic, and between the dreamy pacing and the minimalist perfection of the dialogue, Murray and Johansson give two of the year's best performances. (Marty Demarest) Rated: R
Luther -- Joseph Fiennes definitely sexes up Protestant history by taking on the role of Martin Luther, who, in the 16th century, dared question the teachings and leadership of the Catholic church and whose writings eventually helped bring about the Protestant Reformation. Rated: PG-13
**** Matchstick Men -- Great performances from Sam Rockwell and Nicolas Cage as a grifter and his veteran mentor partner. Rockwell's Frank is laid back and loose as a goose, while Cage's Roy suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder and struggles with suddenly finding out that he has a 14-year-old daughter (Alison Lohman, terrific) who moves in and wants to join the operation. (ES) Rated PG-13
** Once Upon a Time in Mexico -- Directed by Robert Rodriguez. After two successful Spy Kids sequels, the grown-up Rodriguez remains a child at heart, indulging in all manner of explosions, blood spatters, cynical repartee and some old-fashioned R-rated trash talk. The blow-'em-ups get repetitive. With a game cast, including Antonio Banderas, Johnny Depp and a silent (if butt-kicking) Salma Hayek. (RP) Rated: R
*** Open Range -- Robert Duvall stars and Kevin Costner directs and costars in this old-fashioned, bare-bones Western about free-grazers (cattlemen) who stop by the wrong town looking for supplies. Bad men run the place, and don't want any freeloaders around. (ES) Rated: R
*** Pirates of the Caribbean -- Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush vie for the scenery-chewing award in this rousing, adventurous, comical and slightly scary tale of the ghostly ship, the Black Pearl, with its crew of very strange mates. Captain and pillaging crew are searching for a piece of gold that will lift a curse. Depp is the inept hero pirate, Orlando Bloom is the hero blacksmith, Rush is the villain, Keira Knightley is the sassy lass. (ES) Rated PG-13
Pulse -- Back by popular demand, Pulse: The Movie (winner of the first annual IMAX Film Festival "Best of the Fest" Award) would seem to be a large format rip-off of the whole Stomp phenomenon, except that it is in fact a Stomp "odyssey," filmed in Africa, Asia, Europe, South America and the American Southwest. In addition to the usual sounds generated by brooms, trash cans, old metal sinks and PVC pipe, Pulse captures the ancient song and dance traditions of the world's peoples. Not Rated
*** The Rundown -- Decent, bantering Midnight Run-like bounty hunter comedy stars The Rock, Seann William Scott and one crazy Christopher Walken, hacking and griping their way through the Amazon. Directed by Peter Berg, also starring Rosario Dawson. (RP) Rated: PG-13
*** Seabiscuit -- A horse is not a horse, of course, of course. Seabiscuit was a washed-up loser when he was discovered by trainer Tom Smith (Chris Cooper) in the mid-1930s. When "Team Seabiscuit" came together - Smith, owner Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges) and jockey Red Pollard (Tobey Maguire) -- a national folk hero came into being. Gary Ross's (Pleasantville) film looks at these characters, points out their many foibles, intertwines their lives and adds a grand dose of excitement. (ES) Rated: PG-13
** Secondhand Lions -- Michael Caine and Robert Duvall are the crusty, shotgun-wielding, probably wealthy uncles to whom mom (Kyra Sedgwick) delivers young Walter (Haley Joel Osment) for the summer so she can "go to school." The uncles don't want him, and he doesn't want to be there, but -- guess what? -- they bond! (ES) Rated PG
** Top Speed -- Plenty of dizzying excitement is in store in the new IMAX film that focuses on a trio of athletes and one car designer who want to go faster and faster, and then go even faster. The large-screen format is terrific when these folks are zipping along the track or riding through wide-open spaces. But the gist of the film -- why attaining top speed is so important to them -- is never adequately discussed. (ES) Unrated
* Under the Tuscan Sun -- The popular Frances Mayes book about life, food and home improvement in Italy becomes an overly sappy exercise in making plots up to make the non-story seem interesting. Diane Lane is quite good as the divorcee who's sent to Tuscany to jumpstart her life and ends up in a series of deliriously happy circumstances. Even with a few emotional hassles, the film is relentlessly upbeat. It gets to the point where everyone is so damn nice, you almost wish for something to go wrong. (ES) Rated: PG-13
** Underworld -- One thing to be said for this vampire-werewolf-art-school hybrid is that director Len Wiseman has the cockiness, if not the know-how, to thrust viewers immediately into a semi-comprehensible world and hit the ground running, weaving and ducking from gales of gunfire. Its retro-futurist look may be the most festering-looking bigger-budget movie since Michael Radford's 1984. Snickery sadism reigns, and this movie has little time for charm. (RP) Rated: R
Whale rider -- It's been getting rave reviews all over, and finally this winner of the audience award at this year's Sundance Festival is here. Pai (Keisha Castle Hughes) feels destined to become the next chief of her New Zealand tribe, in spite of the facts that she's only 11 and that her tribe follows the patriarchal old tradition of choosing only males as leaders. As a huge gathering of whales masses off the rocky coast of New Zealand, Pai's grandfather desperately searches for a suitable (and male) candidate for the chiefhood. Rated: PG-13
**** Don't Miss It *** Worth $8 ** Wait For The Video * Save Your Money
& lt;i & Capsule reviews are written by Ed Symkus (ES) and Ray Pride (RP), unless otherwise noted. & lt;/i &
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Publication date: 10/02/03
