Now Playing

by Inlander Staff


Are We There Yet? -- Are We There Yet? fulfills every low expectation that its target audience will bring to the cinema. Nick (Ice Cube) plays a 35-year-old case of arrested development who makes the mistake of playing foot servant to Suzanne (Nia Long). Rated: PG





The Aviator -- Scorsese, DiCaprio, Hughes -- as in Howard -- are director, star and subject of this splendid look at three busy decades in the life of the industrialist, filmmaker and airplane nut. The script gives plenty of leeway for DiCaprio to show his acting chops. (ES) Rated PG-13





Because of Winn-Dixie -- There's a formula at work in this lonely-girl-and-her-dog movie, and it's sho'nuff gonna lead to a reconciliation. Winn-Dixie is predictable and sentimental, but that doesn't completely invalidate the value of Wayne Wang's movie, which emphasizes themes of healing, community and hope. While Winn-Dixie will be suitably heartwarming for an older crowd, the preteen and younger crowd will mostly like the talking cockatoo and the burping dog. (Michael Bowen) Rated: PG





The Boogeyman -- Guess who's coming out of the closet? We don't know his name, but all the little kids like to sing "When you see him count to five, hope that you will stay alive." Barry Watson plays a troubled young man who returns to his childhood home to confront his demons -- both real and imagined. Rated: PG-13





Clockwork Orange -- Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film adaptation of the Anthony Burgess novel, A Clockwork Orange, is a grotesque, shockingly violent and fascinating commentary on morality and the meaning of free will set in a dehumanized future society where teenage gangs terrorize urban Brits with seeming impunity. Malcolm McDowell's portrayal of nasty gang-leader Alex is chillingly effective. After he gets nabbed by the coppers for a grisly murder and sent to prison, Alex agrees to undergo experimental aversion therapy in exchange for an early release. But all is not sweetness and light for little Alex once on the outside. Playing at the Garland on Friday and Saturday nights at Midnight. (Mike Corrigan) Rated: R





Coach Carter -- Based on the real-life coach who made in headlines in 1999 for benching his entire undefeated basketball team, Coach Carter uses Samuel L. Jackson and some Pulp Fiction-worthy speechifyin' to drive home the importance of school. Rated: PG-13





Constantine -- Keanu Reeves tries to break out of the Matrix mold with mixed results: He's as wooden as ever, but he gets to toss off some great one-liners. To solve a mystery in the purgatory of L.A., he has to go to Hell for answers. With shades of Wings of Desire and Chinatown. Better than Van Helsing but not as good as Hellboy. Rated R (Cole Smithey)





Finding Neverland -- A dramatic, yet kind of whimsical look at how J.M. Barrie (Johnny Depp) was inspired to write the play Peter Pan -- by meeting a widow (Kate Winslet) with four young boys who definitely could use a father figure. (ES) Rated PG





Hide and Seek -- Widower Robert DeNiro gets a little concerned when his daughter (Dakota Fanning) starts talking about an invisible friend. Is it a little girl's way of dealing with the death of her mother, or could it be that the invisible friend is something far more sinister? Rated: R





Hitch -- Breezy romantic comedy gets a big boost here with Will Smith as the title character, a "date coach" for unsure men, and Kevin James (The King of Queens) as one of those men, who is shooting for the sky with a beautiful heiress (Amber Valletta). But the coach isn't having much luck with the ladies, and when his eyes pop over gossip columnist Eva Mendes, things get complicated. (ES) Rated PG-13





Hotel Rwanda -- This scrappy, powerful and shocking film, recounting the horrific civil unrest in Rwanda a decade ago, has echoes of current events (in Sudan) that cannot be ignored. Don Cheadle, as the real life hotelier (Paul Rusesabagina) who saved literally thousands, carries the film on his slim shoulders with ease and turns in the finest performance of his career. (Marc Savlov) Rated: PG-13





The Incredibles -- This is a major departure from Finding Nemo in that all the characters are humans. One of them, Mr. Incredible is a former superhero who was forced to retire and is now in insurance, but misses his old life. (ES) Rated PG





In Good Company -- Generation clash is right up front in this tale of corporate downsizing, resulting in a veteran magazine adman (Dennis Quaid) getting a new eager-beaver boss (Topher Grace) who is half his age. (ES) Rated PG-13





Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events -- A Series of Unfortunate Events is at once bleak, sinister, comic and, above all, weirdly beautiful. Imaginary author Lemony Snicket's tale of three orphans pitted against their evil relative, Count Olaf, resonates with real peril. While the plot does sometimes get lost in slow pacing and Jim Carrey will overact, the three children playing the young Baudelaires inhabit their parts with a genuine charm. Not for younger kids. (Sheri Boggs) Rated: PG





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. Unrated





Meet the Fockers -- In Meet the Parents, Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro) asks, "What sort of people name their son Gay M. Focker?" In this sequel, he finds out. In fact, the kind of people are Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand, and the Byrnes are off to meet the Fockers before their daughter marries Gay forever. Rated: PG-13





Million Dollar Baby -- Clint Eastwood plays the crusty old boxing trainer, Hilary Swank is his enthusiastic young charge and Morgan Freeman is the wise observer. Swank's spunky Maggie must convince Eastwood's Frankie to become her teacher. She's really good, with great desire to match her moves. Eastwood's film traces her comet-like rise. (ES) Rated PG-13





Ocean's Twelve -- George Clooney, Brad Pitt and all the rest are back in a rousing follow-up to Ocean's Eleven that turns out to be a much looser romp. It's one of those rarities: a sequel better than the original. (ES) Rated PG-13





The Phantom Of The Opera -- The Andrew Lloyd Webber sensation gets a rousing cinematic treatment. It's hard to figure which will be more popular -- the bombastic score, or the story of the masked man (Gerard Butler) who falls for the chorus girl (Emmy Rossum). (ES) Rated PG-13





Pooh's Heffalump Movie -- Originally slated to be straight-to-video, Pooh's Heffalump Movie pulls a big bait-and-switch: Disney advertises the menacing mastodons of Pooh's golden era, but the film delivers just another cutesy character. The film eventually offers up a sufficiently value-forming message, but it's hard not to feel like Disney is simply cashing in on one of its few remaining franchises. RATED: G (Ted McGregor)





Racing Stripes -- Every animal on the farm can talk, including a pelican named Goose, and they're all smarter than the people. But the plot of this live-action film hinges on a young zebra (voice of Frankie Muniz) who thinks he's a racehorse, and, of course, ends up in a major race. (ES) Rated PG





Sideways -- Miles (Paul Giamatti) and Jack (Thomas Haden Church) are two pals who go on a West Coast wine-tasting tour, just before Jack is to get married and Miles is to find out if his novel is being published. They both meet women on the road (Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh), and the film jumps back and forth between vibrant comedy and emotional distress. (ES) Rated R





Son of the Mask -- Tim Avery (Jamie Kennedy) is a failed cartoonist, working in a brightly colored playhouse run by a scowling Steven Wright, whose wife (Traylor Howard) whines for a child. Predictably, the little bundle of joy is conceived after Tim's been at a party wearing the Mask of Loki (from a certain Jim Carrey movie of the '90s). A five-minute opening scene with a braying Ben Stein sets up the plot in truly annoying fashion. (RP) Rated: PG





The Wedding Date -- Kat (Debra Messing) is a girl in trouble, and we don't mean in the diapers-and-surprise way. Nope, trouble is a sister's wedding where your ex is a groomsman. Kat does what any sensible woman in such a predicament would do -- she hires the best damn male escort in all of Manhattan. Rated: PG-13





Publication date: 2/24/04