Opening Films

by Inlander Staff & r & Voices in Wartime -- This feature-length 2005 documentary is both timely and devastating as it delves into the experience of war and its effects on soldiers, civilians and society through powerful images and the words of poets, both famous (including Homer, Dickinson, Hughes, Whitman and Shoda Shinoe from Hiroshima) and unknown (a Vietnam vet, poets in Baghdad, a poet whose family experienced the war in Biafra). The film also examines how poetry and war have been intertwined since the very beginning of human history -- from ancient Babylon and the fields of Troy to the great conflicts of the 20th century and the current war in Iraq. At the Met Cinema on July 22-28 at 5:30 pm and 8 pm. (MC)





March of the Penguins -- Actor Morgan Freeman narrates the American version of this joint U.S./ French project documenting the astounding life cycle of the hardy and determined Emperor Penguin of the South Arctic. Though the tagline anthropomorphizes the poor penguins to a silly degree ("In the harshest place on Earth, love finds a way"), this rare look at the annual journey of the penguins as they march single-file hundreds of miles across the frozen wastes of the Antarctic to and from their traditional breeding grounds has the ring of something mesmerizing. (MC) Rated: G





Hustle & amp; Flow -- What's a pimp to do when he realizes that even though he's livin' large and in charge, his life is on a one-way track to nowhere? Well, go "legit" of course -- and follow your buddy into the lucrative rap music game. What could have been a horrible clich & eacute;-and-stereotype-ridden failure in fact attracted a lot of attention from film critics at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival for its smarts, humor and inventive camera work (for which cinematographer Amy Vincent won an award). Stars Terrence Dashon Howard as the pimpy protagonist DJay and Ludacris as Skinny Black, da boy from da hood who made good. (MC) Rated: R





Bad News Bears -- I love Billy Bob Thornton in just about everything, but this one has me wondering: Is nothing sacred? Is there no cherished childhood memory Hollywood won't exhume and mutilate? The original Bad News Bears (1976) was one of the first comedies I ever loved, so I can only hope they don't give it the Starksy & amp; Hutch treatment the second time around. Fortunately, they have Richard Linklater (School of Rock) directing, so maybe they won't turn it into an exercise in how many fart jokes and baseball-to-the-crotch shots they can fit into 90 minutes. (TM) Rated: PG-13





The Devil's Rejects -- Baby, Otis, Captain Spaulding and the rest of the greasy, gruesome Firefly family wander through the set of Bonanza, meet up with a team of ruthless bounty hunters and have themselves an awesome gorefest (what one critic called "one of the most depraved and terrifying showdowns in cinematic history"). But then, what else did you expect from director Rob Zombie? (JS) Rated: R





The Island -- Bad things always seem to happen on islands. Certainly in movies set on islands with "island" in the title. This sci-fi/thriller is no exception. Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson star in this one -- which sounds like a cross between Logan's Run and The Matrix -- set in the near future where humans are cloned, kept docile within a quasi-utopian existence, then harvested for parts when their donor counterparts feel the need. As you can imagine, the clones don't think much of this arrangement. (MC) Rated: PG-13





The Perfect Man -- Dude. This is, like, retribution for all of you mid-30s Heather Locklear haters out there. For once, Locklear plays the desperately single mom of Hilary Duff -- and not only is she desperate, but she bakes cakes for a living. (Not sexy.) Duff tries her darnedest to hook her mom up with Chris Noth (Mr. Big of Sex and the City), but learns some real lessons about love. We give Duff a decade or so, and she'll be playing that frumpy, cake-bakin' mom. And Locklear will be, like, ancient. Rated: PG