The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008), PG-13, 112 mins.

Rick and Evelyn O’Connell are back for another mummified adventure, this time sharing the same last name and failing at a half-hearted attempt to settle down to a quiet life in the English countryside. It doesn’t take a lot of convincing to get them to get involved in an assignment to deliver a priceless artifact to China, where their son Alex is secretly excavating an ancient tomb.

The tomb that he is excavating is the real-life tomb of Emperor Qin (never opened to this day), which lies near the Chinese city of Xi’an, next to the buried army of thousands of life-sized terra-cotta warriors (also very real). Needless to say, the artifact being delivered turns out to be more than meets the eye, and soon a curse is unleashed which brings the despotic Dragon Emperor back to life, and it’s up to Rick and Evelyn to stop him from uniting China under his brutal rule.

There is an interesting juxtaposition of the time period of the film with real events in China at that time. Less than two years after the movie takes place, Mao Tse-tung - who quite likely is personally responsible for more deaths than any single person who has ever lived in the history of mankind (more than 70 million) - proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China and united China for 27 years under his own brutal rule.

Of course, none of this comes through in the movie, but it’s interesting nonetheless. The movie’s packed with special effects, too little Jet Li, and too much of Brendan Fraser’s trademark bad acting. But at least it was better than Journey to the Center of the Earth…

Mamma Mia! (2008), PG-13, 108 mins.

The enormously popular Mamma Mia is the story of a young woman named Sophie who, just before getting married herself, learns that any one of three men might possibly be her father. Without telling her mother, she invites all three men to her wedding.

The ABBA-fueled chaos that follows is a remarkably charming and entertaining romantic comedy. Meryl Streep rushes headlong into an inspired performance as Donna, Sophie’s mother, fully enjoying the show just as much as we are. Pierce Brosnan is nearly as good, and just the fact that he makes it so easy for us to see him as anything other than James Bond is an achievement in itself.

For those of us old enough to remember the days when ABBA was at their peak (I’m not one of those unfortunately), the movie will be a wonderful trip down memory lane. For the rest of us, whether or not you consider yourself an ABBA fan, Mamma Mia has an impressive ability to bring out the party spirit in all of us. Enjoy!

Traitor (2008), PG-13, 114 mins.

Traitor is a unique spy thriller that doesn’t exactly cover a lot of new ground in the spy-thriller vein, but is still very impressive in how it introduces a series of major existential questions without presuming to have all the answers, and also approaches some of the most sensitive political issues of our time without itself coming off as a political film.

Don Cheadle plays the part of Samir Horn, a devout American Muslim with a complicated past living in Yemen and making an unenviable but honest living but unfortunately showing up repeatedly on the FBI’s radar for being potentially involved in a series of terrorist bombings.

Guy Pearce is Roy Clayton, an FBI agent heading up an investigation into Horn’s possible connection to the bombings, when some terrorists break out of prison and bring Horn with them. Clayon links Horn to the bombing of an American consulate in southern France and must capture him before he strikes his next target, while Horn himself struggles with being labeled a terrorist and his inability to prove himself innocent.

Horn is an intricately designed character with much more depth than is common in modern films, and almost single-handedly makes the movie worth watching. It’s a complex and contradictory film, but makes for a powerful and moving exploration of some of the most important issues in the current political climate. It’s not all fun and games, but may be one of the most thought-provoking films to have come along in quite some time.

Note: Traitor will be released on December 19th.

The House Bunny (2008), PG-13, 97 mins.

Anna Faris’ latest film reveals to the public that she still has no interest in performing in movies that have a single, echoing thought in their head. The House Bunny almost cancels itself out just by the kind of movie it is. It’s an immature, adolescent sex-comedy that’s rated PG-13, so it can’t even have any nudity, which is about 90% of what it’s own target audience is looking for.

But the built-in contradictions don’t stop there. The whole story is about an exiled Playboy Bunny who takes it upon herself to help a group of social outcasts make their classmates respect them for who they are by turning them into a bunch of slutty frat party favors.

How’s that again? At any rate, it’s sad that someone as beautiful and clearly talented as Anna Faris keeps acting in such astonishingly stupid sex comedies like this and the Scary Movies, which are, believe it or not, leaps and bounds worse than The House Bunny.

When Hollywood farts, out comes something like this. I recommend you check out Mamma Mia or Traitor, or just watch The Dark Knight again!

Note: The House Bunny will be released on December 19th.

Last week was not a big week in DVDs, but this week there is a little more to choose from. In a conspicuous marketing coincidence, the theatrical release of the disappointing Al Pacino/Robert DeNiro thriller Righteous Kill is accompanied by the DVD release of last year’s disappointing Al Pacino thriller 88 Minutes, both of which were directed by Jon Avnet, who I am starting to think might be well advised to try a different genre. The Wachowski Brothers have adapted an old tv cartoon and Mike Meyers has teamed up again with Mini-Me for another 90-minutes of disappointment. George Clooney heads up this week’s new releases with Leatherheads, along with the Sex and the City movie and another comedy from the star of Shaun of the Dead.

LEATHERHEADS (2008), Comedy/Drama/Romance/Sport, PG-13, 114 mins.

George Clooney is back in the director’s chair for this sports comedy about the football scene of the 1920s, where college teams got all the fame and glory while the pro football players were all but ignored. Clooney stars as a veteran grunt trying to build up pro football into something big, and he recruits Carter Rutherford (John Krasinski), a war hero and college star to help him.

Renee Zellweger stars as a reporter who comes into the picture snooping around for a good story, but ends up becoming the center of the romantic subplot of the movie, which involves a love triangle that complicates the job of earning sports fans.

The movie didn’t find much of an audience when it was released in theaters in April but was not poorly received. Sports/Clooney fans are sure to be pleased.

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SEX AND THE CITY (2008), Comedy/Drama/Romance, R, 148 mins.

I have a small confession to make - Sex and the City is just not my thing. I don’t think I ever saw a single frame of a single episode of the tv show, and at a whopping two and a half hours, I am pretty sure I’m never going to see a single frame of this prodigious screen adaptation. But for the rest of you, here’s what you need to know -

After moving in together in an impossibly beautiful New York apartment, Carrie Bradshaw and Mr. Big make a rather arbitrary decision to get married. The wedding itself proves to be anything but a hasty affair–the guest list quickly blooms from 75 to 200 guests, and Carrie’s simple, label-less wedding gown gives way to an enormous creation that makes her look like a gigantic cream puff. An upcoming photo spread in Vogue puts the event–which will take place at the New York Public Library–squarely in the public eye. Meanwhile, Carrie’s girlfriends–Samantha, the sexpot; Charlotte, the sweet naïf; and Miranda, the rigid perfectionist–could not be happier. At least, they couldn’t be happier for Carrie. Charlotte still has the unrealized hope of getting pregnant. Samantha is finding a loving, committed relationship more grueling than she could have imagined. Miranda unwittingly lets her own unhappiness–created when Steve admits to cheating on her just once–spoil Carrie’s. After a heated encounter with Steve, she happens to spot Mr. Big and tells him he’s crazy to get married. She’s really only thinking of her own marriage. But her angry remark gets Mr. Big to thinking.

DECEPTION (2008), Drama/Romance/Thriller, R, 90 mins.

Ewan McGregor stars as an accountant enticed into an underground sex club and then later implicated in a heist and a woman’s disappearance. The movie is not hurting for star power, with McGregor starring opposite Hugh Jackman, but unfortunately, it does nothing new for the genre, mostly rehashing the tired themes of the seedy late-night thrillers that my mom used to never let me watch when I was a kid but did anyway. I was fascinated at the time because women were always running around in their underwear, but now it’s clear to me that this is going on so much because there’s not much else to the movie. It’s essentially another one of the type of thriller where smart people are doing unbelievably stupid things, and screwing up their lives in the process. We’re meant to be entertained by how far they go in creating problems for themselves and digging deeper while trying to escape from the holes in which they now find themselves, but no luck. The movie is just as stale and generic as this poster.

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RUN FATBOY RUN (2007), Comedy/Romance, PG-13, 100 mins.

Simon Pegg, of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz fame, is directed by David Schwimmer in his directing debut in Run Fatboy Run. Pegg palys Dennis Doyle, a slacker who tries to win back the respect of his fiance five years after leaving her standing at the altar pregnant. He discovers that she’s really his one true love when he finds out that she’s dating someone else, someone more responsible and respectable than himself, so he vows to prove to her that he is the one for her.

She doesn’t believe him, because of his tendency to start things and never finish them, so he sets out to prove himself to her, by starting something that he intends to finish. That thing, however, is a Nike River-run in London, in which her obnoxious new man (Hank Azaria), a skilled and practiced runner, is also participating.

I had high expectations for the movie because Shaun of the Dead was so good, but it’s essentially the exact same character as he was in that movie, a loser struggling to get his girlfriend back, without zombies or Nick Frost, both of which are significant losses. Cute date movie, but not the best work from anyone involved.

88 MINUTES (2008), Action/Crime/Thriller, R, 108 mins (not what you thought, but good guess, though).

Al Pacino plays Jack Gramm, a forensic psychiatrist who receives a threat that he has 88 minutes to live, saddling him with the task of analyzing a murder in advance. Complicating matters is the fact that he is also a college professor (like me!) with disgruntled students, he recently helped put a man on death row whose execution is approaching, he has a jilted lover holding a grudge (after a one night stand), and there is a copycat killer on the loose perpetuating the murderous modus operandi of the man Gramm has put behind bars. Needless to say, he’s gonna have his hands full to find out who it is that’s threatening his life.

I’m reminded of that Johnny Depp movie Nick of Time, remember that one? Depp plays this guy named Gene Watson who is in LA with his daughter to go to his wife’s funeral. His daughter is kidnapped and he is given a person’s itinerary and a note explaining that if he doesn’t kill that person within 75 minutes his daughter is going to be killed. What makes it more interesting is that it’s shot in real time, which could have been a good gimmick for 88 Minutes as well.

THE LOVE GURU (2008), Comedy, PG-13, 87 mins.

An American is raised by gurus in an ashram in India, until he finally returns to his home country to seek fame and fortune in the world of self-help and spirituality. His first task is to settle a marital dispute between a star professional hockey player Darren Roanoke and his estranged wife, who has begun dating L.A. Kings star Jaques Grande (Justin Timberlake). This new relationship creates havoc in Roanoke’s professional life, to the dismay of the team’s owner, Jane Bullard (Jessica Alba) and Roanoke’s coach, Coach Cherkov (Verne “Mini-me” Troyer). Oh, and if you don’t get the joke of the coach’s name, try reading it out loud.

The previews look like there are some laugh out loud moments, but I still can’t shake the feeling that the movie is the product of a lot of disjointed ideas that were swept up and tossed en masse into the same movie, making them fit in whatever way possible. It’s a sad follow-up to his success as Austin Powers…

MADE OF HONOR (2008), Comedy/Romance,

Tom and Hannah have been platonic friends for ten years, Tom dating haphazardly and Hannah always looking for her true love but thus far without success. Eventually Tom begins to see Hannah in a way that he never had before, and just as he begins to think that they would be good together, she gets engaged to someone else.

In a true illustration of how close and genuinely platonic their relationship has been, she asks him to be her maid of honor, and he reluctantly agrees, mostly just so he can try to stop the wedding from the inside and woo her himself.

If the plot sounds vaguely familiar the most likely reason is because you’ve probably seen this exact story a dozen times before. But enjoy! It does make a good date movie, after all. If you’re into this stuff, I recommend The Wedding Planner, My Best Friend’s Wedding, The Bachelor (my favorite), Runaway Bride, 27 Dresses (note: don’t watch 27 Dresses. It sucked. Trust me), Maid in Manhattan, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

SPEED RACER (2008), Action/Family/Sport, PG, 135 mins (!!).

Speed Racer has come along from that strangely animated old television cartoon that I never really got interested in. This live action adaptation is directed by the Wachowski Brothers, directors of the Matrix trilogy (and the underrated 1996 sex thriller Bound), and produced by legendary Hollywood producer Joel Silver, whose list of production credits is far too long to do justice to here. He has been involved in everything from 80s classics like Commando, Weird Science, and Predator to the whole Lethal Weapon series and the Matrix films.

The story seems a bit of a backdrop to the novelty of the film itself, but it’s about a young kid named Speed Racer who grows into the sport and ultimately finds himself in a moral position to save the integrity of the sport itself from becoming a cheap game wheeled by corporate interests who fix rig races for profit. Speed lost his older brother Rex to racing, and along the way he gets support from the rest of his family as he battles the corporate interests eager to get rid of his meddling with their wheeling and dealing as well as his opponents on the track.

YOUNG AT HEART (2007), Musical Documentary, PG, 109 mins.

Young at Heart tells the story of the Young at Heart Chorus, a choir of chaotic senior citizens who must battle various health problems and aging issues in order to prepare for a show that will include performances of songs by groups ranging from James Brown to Coldplay.

Their tireless musical coach leads the group through a series of charming and hilarious reheasals, showing us a whole new side of making music. They are more watchable than you would expect because they are a highly experienced team of singers, but the documentary focuses on the new challenges of learning new songs, many of which are made for a much, much younger generation.

It’s an inspiring story about life and music and their affects on each other, and culminates in a heartwarming finale that will leave you cheering. See this one.

“FRIDAY THE 13TH” (series, 1987-1990), 60 min/episode.

Related quite literally deliberately to the classic slasher film series, the “Friday the 13th” television series aired for three years from 1987-1990 and had nothing whatsoever to do with with the movies. In fact, Frankie Mancuso deliberately named the series “Friday the 13th” for no other reason than to call attention to it and make it stick out from the rest of the new shows coming out in 1987.

Each episode tells a different story about a young man and woman who have inherited a mysterious antiques dealership from their uncle, who had made a pact with the Devil to sell cursed antiques. The show tells of their adventures in trying to recover the already purchased antiques from customers before they can do any harm.

At first glance this seems like a safe one to avoid, but I’ve heard nothing but good things about it. The show has tons of fans, so may be worth checking out at least a few episodes. Season 1 is released this week…

Short list of new DVDs this week, but despite immediate impressions they all seem to be pretty interesting in their own way. Tina Fey, Jackie Chan and Jet Li head up the list of new releases this week, but there’s a new Indian film that looks far more fascinating than anything we usually see these days. And I might add that Special Editions of The Big Lebowski and Cool Hand Luke are also out.  Here are the rest of the details -

BABY MAMA (2008), Romantic Comedy, PG-13, 99 mins.

Baby Mama is an immediate turn-off to me at first glance, although I’m not sure exactly why. It could be that I’m just not into baby comedies anymore, if I ever was. But it should be noted that this is a Saturday Night Live comedy with an outstanding cast, including Tina Fey, Amy Poehler (with the Big Gulp), Sigourney Weaver, Greg Kinnear, and Steve Martin (who we also have to thank for Traitor).

Fey plays Kate Holbrook, a professional woman who has for years neglected her personal life in pursuit of a successful career. Now, at age 37, she suddenly determines herself to have a baby, only to discover that she has an infinitely small possibility of conceiving. Undaunted, she embarks on a mission to find the kookiest blonde imaginable to be her surrogate mother.

Middle-aged, ultra-organized Kate begins an intense self-preparation program for motherhood, reading books about pregnancy and infant care, preparing her home for a new baby, and researching quality schools in her area. Angie (Poehler), however, soon shows up without a place to live, and in classic sit-com mode, the movie combines the super-successful with the super-unsuccessful, and their competing methods of preparing for a baby create all manner of havoc.

Don’t expect a cognitive workout, but it’s actually a pretty heartwarming family comedy.

THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM (2008), Action/Adventure/Comedy/Romance, PG-13, 113 mins.

The long-awaited pairing of Jackie Chan and Jet Li, China’s most prominent ass-kicking movie stars, arrives this week on DVD with The Forbidden Kingdom. I’m going to go ahead and admit that at the time of this writing I have yet to see the movie, but I have to say that the premise gives me a deep feeling of unease at the future of the international kung-fu movie scene.

Jet Li plays the part of The Monkey King, while Jackie Chan plays an old pawn shop owner in Chinatown. One day an American teenager who is obsessed with Chinese martial arts cinema is in the pawn shop and discovers the legendary weapon of the Monkey King which soon sends him to ancient China where he teams up with some Chinese warriors from old lore on a mission to rescue the imprisoned king.

I have heard good things about the movie, but I also know that one of the most effective ways to ridicule any topic, genre, idea, or culture is to add cinematic versions of American teenagers. That just never goes well. Nevertheless, Jackie Chan has been pretty reliable with the cool combinations of action and comedy, and teaming up with Jet Li is reason enough by itself to check it out.

THE FALL (2006), Adventure/Drama/Fantasy, R, 113 mins.

This is going to be my recommendation for the week. It’s the story of Hollywood stuntman in 1920s Los Angeles who lands himself in the hospital while trying to perform a stunt to impress his girlfriend. While in the hospital, he becomes severely depressed and suicidal after his girlfriend leaves her, and he befriends his bedridden roommate, a young girl named Alexandria.

He entertains and enchants Alexandria with vivid, heroic stories about five people uniting to fight a common enemy, setting the stage for fact and fiction to blend together in the drug-ridden hospital environment. He has real affection for Alexandria, but is also gaining her friendship for the purpose of using her to get extra morphine so he can commit suicide.

Definitely a weird premise, but I’ve also noticed that weird premises are generally where the most interesting movies come from. Stories based on stories within stories allow for the most memorable and fascinating experiences, and Indian director Tarsem Singh’s The Fall presents a story that allows a total break from reality and an entrance into a complete fantasy world, reminding me of some classics like The Princess Bride, The Neverending Story, Labyrinth, and even The Cell. See this one.

THE PROMOTION (2008), R, 85 Mins.

Seann William Scott and John C. Reilly play Doug and Richard, a couple of regular guys eagerly seeking the same grocery store management job in The Promotion, which is a much more subtle comedy than you might expect from them. I’m glad to see a comedy come along that doesn’t rely on toilet humor and doesn’t star a lot of cardboard characters but real people, even though both of the main stars may be best known for playing cardboard caricatures.

Both have real families and real problems, real needs to get the job managing a new supermarket and, best of all, they like each other. It’s two guys in a healthy competition with each other, there are no bad guys. Both are trying to get ahead in the cut-throat business world, but neither feels comfortable with the back-stabbing and betrayal that such progress so often requires. This takes a bit away from a winner-take-all conclusion but for a better story like this, that seems like a worthwhile sacrifice.

MARRIED LIFE (2007), Crime/Drama/Romance, PG-13, 90 mins.

A 1940’s-set drama about a man with a truly twisted sense of moral logic. Rather than put his wife through the humiliation of a divorce because of his own adultery, he instead plots to kill her. Harry and Pat have what their friends call a “good marriage,” but he has fallen out of love with her and into love with a younger woman. Richard, played by Pierce Brosnan, is Harry’s best friend, and manages to fall for the same woman, leaving him with the difficult choice of marrying the first woman he has ever considered tying the knot with (he compares marriage to getting the flu) and betraying his best friend, or letting her go and allowing Harry to go through with his dark plan.

Harry’s stark determination is more than a little disturbing, not the least reason for which is because he tests out his murderous scheme in advance by trying it out on the dog. The destruction of innocence around him tells us a lot about Harry, and it reveals the movie as more of a character-driven drama than a film noir or thriller. It’s an interesting exploration of a major part of our modern social culture and poses the important question of how much you really know the person who sleeps next to you. If nothing else, be suspicious of mysterious pet deaths!

THEN SHE FOUND ME (2008), Comedy/Drama/Romance, R, 100 mins.

Then She Found Me has a plot that makes me think of a screenwriter with a lot of ideas trying to squeeze as many of them into the same movie as possible. A New York schoolteacher’s life is turned upside down as, in quick succession, her husband leaves her, her adoptive mother dies, and her biological mother shows up in her life and tries to begin a relationship with her, at the same time as she is beginning a romantic relationship with the father of one of her students.

But despite having a thick and seemingly interesting plot, the movie was a bit of a critical failure, so beware. Helen Hunt stars and directs, and the movie also boasts a surprisingly long list of good actors, including Matthew Broderick, Bette Midler and Colin Firth. It’s a tearjerker to say the least, and the plot thickening seems endless. Bette Midler plays the biological mother, who chooses this difficult time to reintroduce herself into April’s (Hunt) life, and an intense session of “goodbye sex” with her husband on his way out the door results in an unplanned pregnancy which introduces all manner of new problems into her quickly transforming life.

REPRISE (2008), Drama, R, 105 mins.

Joachim Trier’s Reprise is an engaging exploration of the transition between the hopeful and dream-filled time of youth and the crash into reality as adulthood begins with shocking speed. The movie starts off with 20-year-olds Phillip and Erik mailing off their debut novels and dreaming of exciting careers as cult authors, and deals with the issues that they encounter when one becomes somewhat successful but suffers a nervous breakdown, while the other has a harder time selling his novel and has to balance his determination and drive to succeed with the fact that his role model is deteriorating before his eyes.

This is writer/director Trier’s third film, and it won several national awards in his native Norway.

It’s a strange mix of new movies out on DVD this week, but for the most part, it seems pretty clear which ones are worth seeing and which are going to put you to sleep. There are many more politically charged movies out this week than usual, but a good mix of other stuff, too. I recommend Son of Rambow and Chicago 10.  See the rest at your own risk!

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS (2008), Romance/Comedy, PG-13, 99 mins.

Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz star in this romantic comedy as a couple who got married during a wild night in Vegas. Thankfully the movie understands how tired that premise is, so it attempts to complicate matters by intertwining their fates around a multi-million dollar jackpot that prevents them from just annulling the marriage quickly and quietly like Britney Spears did. Required by the courts to continue their marriage for at least six months, they each set about on a mission to make the other so desperate to get out of the marriage that they will request a separation, which includes forfeiture of the prize money. Cameron’s character is a determined career woman, while Kutcher eases through a performance as a perpetual goof-off. ‘Til death do us part, indeed!

But don’t try this at home kids. Your odds of winning millions in Vegas and accidentally marrying Cameron Diaz in the same night remain slim…

REDBELT (2008), Action/Drama, R, 99 mins.

A peaceful martial arts master is manipulated into participating in a highly commercialized ultimate fighting championship by a group of actors and fight promoters, changing his path in life completely. Tim Allen has a lot to prove in this turn from his traditional comedy fare.  Here, he stars as an action movie star with an intensely dysfunctional marriage.

Faced with no options but to get in the ring and fight, the jujitsu master may be in for the fight of his life. It sounds like a typical martial arts movie, but writer/director David Mamet also gave us The Untouchable, Ronin, Heist, and a great many others, so it’s reasonable to expect more.

SON OF RAMBOW (2008), Comedy/Drama, PG-13, 96 mins. “Make Believe. Not War.”

Son of Rambow at first glance looks like a goofy children’s movie, but don’t be fooled. It’s set in England during one summer in the early 80s, and tells the story about friendship and the difficulties of growing up. Told through the eyes of Will, the eldest son of a Plymoth Brethren family that forbids him any contact with such “worldlies” as music and TV, until he becomes involved with Lee Carter, a young man at his school who makes home movies. Carter shows Will Rambo: First Blood, and having never seen a movie, Will is understandably blown away. He quickly agrees to be a stuntman in Carter’s next movie, leading to a reckless adventure through the world of amateur filmmaking and sudden popularity.

I’m always curious about movies that explore the possibilities of filmmaking, and this is one of the purest forms. Filmmaking changes Will’s life completely, and the adventures and difficulties that he and Carter have together make for a fascinating story and a pretty wild ride. See this one.

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS OSAMA BIN LADEN? (2008), Documentary, PG-13, 93 mins.

Morgan Spurlock burst into the filmmaking world with a bang back in 2004 with the spectacular documentary Super Size Me, and after various other projects (including the sporadically interesting television series “30 Days”), he has now returned to the documentary world with the almost unnoticed Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden?

Spurlocks left-leaning political tendencies have peeked through in his films before (you remember the scene in Super Size Me where he shows a young boy a picture of George W. Bush and asks him who it is, and the boy says, “Jesus?” “No,” Spurlock replies, “but it’s a good guess!”), but now it seems he has pulled out all the stops.

I think we realize that the quest to locate and capture bin Laden has been largely a failure, but I’m not sure it should be Morgan Spurlock, who has not a lick of military or intelligence experience, who should be making a movie about his own personal search for the man. That’s highly politicized entertainment that can’t really go anywhere.

CHICAGO 10 (2007), Documentary/Animation, R, 110 mins.

This animated documentary uses an unconventional approach to tell the story of eight anti-war protesters who were put on trial for conspiracy following the 1968 Democratic National Convention. It’s a moving story about young Americans demanding to be heard by their next president and being greeted with tear gas, night sticks, and prison in response. Reminds me of the Chinese goverment’s reaction to the students’ protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Scary to think that that stuff has happened here too…

In the current, highly polarized political climate, it’s interesting to see something that took place 40 years ago in Chicago in front of a live audience of 50 million that also completely divided the country in two. The story is told using a bold style of animation, extraordinary archive footage, and an intense selection of revolutionary music. See this one, too!

AUGUST (2008), Drama, R, 88 mins.

Taking place in the final month before America was changed forever, August tells the story of two brothers running an online business called Landshark on Wall Street together and struggling to keep it afloat. Like Enron, there is never really much of an explanation of what Landshark is or what they do, it just exists as a plot point and then disappears when it needs to.

The film is unfortunately predictable and the juxtaposition with September 11th turns out to be meaningless, as it has nothing to do with the character change in the movie. It’s about a superficial man trying to cope with a failed company, not trying to realign himself with social realities around him, as you might expect from a film advertised through the very title as taking place just before a national tragedy.

POSTAL (2007), Action/Comedy/Thriller, R, 100 mins.

Here’s a pretty clear warning for you, Postal is written and directed by Uwe Boll, who is widely (and justifiably) considered to be the worst director alive. Personally, I would go a step further and say possibly the worst director who ever lived. IMDB.com lists what might be his two most famous movies, House of the Dead and Alone in the Dark, among the 100 worst movies of all time. You remember those, right? I do. My eyes still hurt from House of the Dead, which, like Postal, is made from a video game.

That being said, it would be a safe and wise assumption that Postal is a great movie to avoid at all costs. If you’re not convinced yet, check this out- it’s about an unemployed regular guy who decides to heist an amusement park, only to discover that the Taliban are planning the same heist. Now he has to “take on” terrorists as well as political figures.

But in the movie’s defense, there’s gotta be a good drinking game in there somwhere.

“TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES” (Seasons 1 and 2)

Made by the creators of Terminator 3 and taking place after Terminator 2, “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” shows the Connors once again being tormented by Skynet agents from the future. They realize that the nightmarish future hasn’t been prevented even after Miles Dyson sacrificed his life and his life’s work by destroying the T-800 Model 101 Terminator in the second movie, so they continue on their efforts to prevent the founding of Skynet.

The cast is a little confusing, despite being a little too neat. There’s Cameron Phillips, a young woman with a hazy past that’s also linked to the future, Derek Reese, a Tech-Com soldier from the future (with a familiar name) whose past is connected to the Connors, and James Ellison, an FBI agent from the future assigned to capture the Connors until he has a bad experience with one of the machines himself.

Good science fiction presents an image of the future in order to comment on the present, so it’s interesting that the “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” is a story about a small group of people trying to stop the creation of a program that will bring about the end of all mankind, which starts with an alliance between the United States Military and the gigantic Cyberdyne Corporation…

Starring Lena Headey, Thomas Dekker, Summer Glau, and Richard T. Jones

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PROM NIGHT (2008) Horror/Thriller, R, 88 mins.

The original Prom Night is a bland and unoriginal slasher film, first released in 1980 and starring Jamie Lee Curtis, who was a horror superstar at that time after her starring role in John Carpenter’s wildly successful Halloween in 1978. The 2008 Prom Night is not a sequel or a remake, it’s not even really a cash-in on a successful old movie, it’s a cash-in on a hopeful public recognition of an old horror movie, along with the hopes that no one will remember how uninteresting the original already was.

It’s a bad sign that the new one is PG-13, because it’s a slasher movie and anytime you have a slasher movie that’s PG-13, it’s because the’yre hoping to attract the junior high school crowd, and that’s just never a good thing for a scary movie to do.

The story is about a girl named Donna who, along with her friends, is pursued by a sadistic killer on her prom night. That’s about it. Maybe just watch Halloween or Carrie again…

Starring a bunch of no-name actors
Director: Nelson McCormick
Screenplay: J.S. Cardone

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MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY (2008), Romantic Comedy, PG-13, 92 mins.

Amy Adams and Francis MacDormand star in this London comedy about a penniless nanny named Miss Pettigrew who accepts a position out of desperation as a social secretary for a young woman so different from her that it’s almost amazing that this was made into a movie and not a sitcom

McDormand delivers a charming and enchanting performance, and I’ve heard that after you watch the movie you will feel as bright and clean as a newly minted penny. A strong cast and intelligent script make this a sophisticated and heartfelt comedy, and it gives a fun look at the complicated social structure of 1930s London.

Starring: Frances McDormand, Amy Adams, Lee Pace, Ciaran Hinds, Tom Payne, Mark Strong, Shirley Henderson
Director: Bharat Nalluri
Screenplay: David Magee and Simon Beaufoy, based on the novel by Winifred Watson

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STREET KINGS (2008), Crime Thriller, R, 109 mins.

Keanu Reeves stars as a veteran LAPD officer struggling to deal with the death of his wife, when he is implicated in the execution of a fellow officer. In order to prove his innocence, he has to go up against the entire police ideology that he has respected and followed for his entire career, bringing into question the loyalties of everyone around him.

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, Hugh Laurie, Chris Evans
Director: David Ayer
Screenplay: James Ellroy and Kurt Wimmer and Jamie Moss

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THE LIFE BEFORE HER EYES (2008), Drama/Thriller, R, 90 mins.

Based on the best-selling novel by Laura Kasischke, The Life Before Her Eyes is about a suburban wife and mother who begins the question the perfectness of her life on the 15th anniversary of the death of her best friend, who was killing in a high school shooting.

It’s an interesting analysis of how high school affects us later in life, particularly traumatic experiences. Diana, the lead character, remembers the increasing strains on the relationship between her and her best friend in the days leading up to the shooting, causing her to reexamine and doubt her marrriage and disrupt her seemingly perfect life.

The film cleverly intercuts between Diana’s unravelling married life and the approach of the fateful day in high school, and along the way a deeper mystery slowly begins to emerge.

Starring: Uma Thurman, Evan Rachel Wood, Eva Amurri, Gabrielle Brennan, Brett Cullen
Director: Vadim Perelman
Screenplay: Emil Stern, based on the novel by Laura Kasischke

THE SCORPION KING 2: RISE OF A WARRIOR (2008), Action, PG-13, probably 90 mins or so.

It’s revealing that this is a sequel to a spin-off of a successful franchise (that was itself already heading downhill). The Scorpion King 2 is like the distant third cousin of a good movie, related not even in name to something that was any good. The story is about a young kid named Mathayus who witnesses his father’s death at the hands of some king in an ancient world, Afterwards, get this, his quest for vengeance turns him into the most feared warrior of the ancient world. I’ve been pissed off before, but I guess never enough to transform me into anything. Oh well. I’ll tell you this though, my anger from watching this movie instantly transformed my copy of it into the most fearsome flying disc on my street…

Starring: Randy Couture, Michael Copon, and Simon Quarterman, and a lot of other clearly struggling actors
Director: Russell Mulcah
Written by: Stephen Sommers and Jonathan Hales

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HANNAH MONTANA/MILEY CYRUS: THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS (2008), Concert video, 90mins.

It’s revealing that Miley Cyrus needs a gimmick like 3D to get her concert video to sell. And that’s not all. The video is 74 minutes long, but the much-trumpeted 2-DISC EXTENDED EDITION includes a whopping extra 16 minutes. Wow. Surely an overwhelmingly grateful public will mob the video stores.

Miley Cyrus’s personal life is pretty popular amidst the Hollywood gossip columns, and if any of you have any interest whatsoever about her professional life (or if some of you aren’t sure if she actually has a professional life or not), this video is for you. The rest of you can just keep checking hollywire, we’ll give you the good stuff…
Starring Miley Cyrus and a bunch of struggling musicians/actors.
Director: Bruce Hendricks

I had never heard of Dead Man’s Bounty when I saw it at the DVD store a few weeks ago, and I thought I had stumbled upon an unrecognized gem, since it had Val Kilmer in it in a truly unique role. Sadly, it wasn’t more than ten or fifteen minutes into the movie that I realized that this thing is a disaster of epic proportions. The first clue you will see of how genuinely awful this movie is comes near the beginning, when you have a bunch of dirtbags in an old saloon laughing like a bunch of hyenas in a scene that goes on about five times too long. It’s unbelievable how bad it is. And sadly, it doesn’t get any better.

Val Kilmer is featured prominently on the movie’s cover box, maybe to trick you into thinking that he has a role in the film, but unfortunately his bizarre role as a dead man is overlooked in favor of focusing on a bunch of half-wit crooks and the most inept conceptualization of a unique town sheriff that I’ve ever seen in a movie. He’s played by Boguslaw Linda, who is unable to or uninterested in covering his Polish accent, immediately making it impossible that the movie is meant to take place in the American old west.

Does Poland have this type of frontier past? I don’t know. My knowledge of Polish history is not my strong point, but I can tell you this, The Sheriff, as he is known in the movie, is the worst representation of law enforcement that I can ever remember seeing in a movie. He is introduced in a truly ridiculous scene where he is wearing some kind of blindfold and a roomful of men take turns punching him in the face. Before they start hitting him, he explains that they can each hit him once, and then, after the first round, they will each hit him again, and if he can identify who is throwing the punches, they lose. What the hell is this? I am completely at a loss to explain why a scene like this would ever be put into any movie.

Throughout the movie, the Sheriff continues to appear more and more beaten and bruised and drunk and battered, until ultimately he does nothing but show up occasionally, stumbling on screen and mumbling “not…without…the law…” You see, there is a lot of talk and preparation for a hanging, the details of which are as meaningless as the rest of the movie.

It takes place, by the way, in a town that consists of nothing more than two ramshackle wooden buildings facing each other across a flattened bit of dirt that is more of a path than a road. My understanding is that it is a part of Poland that is supposed to look acceptably enough like the American southwest, where none of the characters, except maybe the dead guy, could possibly have come from.

I have heard that Val Kilmer accepted the role because he was intrigued by his unique role, and also by director Uklanski’s minimal use of dialogue in favor of a reliance on cleverly timed juxtaposition of images in unique visual montages.

Yeah, whatever.

Seems to me that Kilimer was unable to overcome what must have been the truly satisfying feeling that he must have gotten when he was offered the role. Personally, I would really feel that I had reached quite some level of success if someone approached me and offered me probably a few hundred thousand dollars to come and lay still for a while. I like to think that he didn’t even read the script for this mess, because if he did I am at a total loss to understand why he accepted the role.

At any rate, the movie opens with a man bringing in the corpse of a man, played by Kilmer, seeking the reward. Soon he finds himself embroiled in a ludicrous love story involving the town prostitute, the alcoholic Sheriff, and lots of mayhem involving a series of stupid, stupid characters.

I would tell you that Val Kilmer has been in worse movies that this one, but I just can't imagine that being true...

There is also a extensive and preposterous lack of understanding of American rituals. In one scene, a man cuts a cherry tomato in half and squishes the halves into Kilmer’s eyes (for what reason, I can’t imagine), and then later, a man makes a short speech over Kilmer’s corpse, in which he explains that he was “one of the finest men we ever had,” and then he proceeds to lop his head off with a shovel. What the HELL??

Not convinced yet? Here are some more reasons not to watch it. In one scene the Sheriff appears to be covered with ash, except for the perfectly clean areas around his eyes and what can only possibly be described as bright red lipstick. A man gets a head wound that drenches his head and body in blood. In a daze, he cauterizes it with gunpowder. Smart. Near the end, the Sheriff appears to have a broken arm. Sitting at the bar, he puts a rope around his neck and connects it to his injured arm, and uses his good arm to pull on the rope, lifting his shaking beer glass in his bad arm to his mouth, rather than using his good arm to drink. Also smart.

Why doesn’t he just use his good arm, you ask? I have no idea. That, like everything else in the movie, makes no sense whatsoever, like the title. Summer Love? Is this for real? I suggest that you avoid this thing at all costs.

SMART PEOPLE (2008), Drama, R, 95 mins.

Heading up the new DVDs of the week is the directorial debut of Noam Murro, who presents a mainstream Indie film (and yes, there is such a thing), with an outstanding cast for the genre, including Thomas Haden Church, Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, and of course, Ellen Page of the charming but overrated Juno.

Murro takes the safe route and provides us with an unadventurous cookie-cutter redemption tale. Dennis Quaid plays Lawrence Wetherhold, an intolerable intellectual who suffers a brain injury and suddenly finds himself at the mercy of other people. Unfortunately, Lawrence is the only character who undergoes any change, all of the other characters exist to give the film color and to help him along the path of self-improvement.

It’s a simple character drama and is entertaining enough, but leaves you with a feeling that it could have been much better had they fleshed out the secondary characters a little more.

Cast: Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church, Ellen Page, Ashton Holmes
Director: Noam Murro
Screenplay: Mark Jude Poirier

THE FELON (2008), Drama, R, 104 mins.

In direct-to-video fare if I’ve ever seen any, Val Kilmer and Stephen Dorff star in an action drama about a loving family man with a bright future and happy home who is forced to commit a terrible crime to protect his home and family and is then sentenced to a maximum security prison.

If this sounds familiar at all it’s because you’ve probably already seen this story about a hundred times. I still see Dorff as Deacon Frost from Blade, although he has been pretty busy since then, starring in films like Cecil B. Demented, Feardotcom, Cold Creek Manor, Alone In The Dark, and the hugely disappointing World Trade Center.

As for Val Kilmer, I’m still trying to get over his spectacularly bad 2006 film Dead Man’s Bounty. Holy crap.

Starring: Val Kilmer, Stephen Dorff, and Harold Perrineau
Written and Directed by Ric Roman Waugh

ART OF WAR: THE BETRAYAL (2008), Action/Thriller, R, 103 mins.

Wesley Snipes’ Art of War was an unremarkable action film in which Snipes plays a man who is framed as an assassin and, wouldn’t you know it, has to prove his innocence on his own with no help from the police and never knowing who he can trust. It was not well received when it was released in 2000, but I maintain that it was enjoyable because the premise is believably presented and it doesn’t pretend to be anything more than it is.

Enter the direct-to-video sequel, where Snipes plays the same character, emerging from exile to to vindicate the murder of his former mentor. He soon finds himself surrounded by corruption and, you guessed it, betrayal, and discovers that he has been set up as more people turn up dead.

It’s suspicious that Snipes has recently been in trouble with the IRS, which may have something to do with why he agreed to do this movie. I’ll put it lightly and just say that this is not his best work.

Starring: Wesley Snipes and a whole mess of people you’ve never heard of.

Director: Josef Ruznak

Written by: Jason Bourque and Keith Shaw
THE ORANGE THIEF (2008), Comedy, 84 mins.

Surely we’ve all been tempted by those orchards overflowing with oranges begging to be picked, especially those of us in southern California, but here is a story about a guy who steals them for a living, but also for a bit of an outlaw thrill. Soon enough his lifestyle on the outer edge of society lands him in jail where his life takes an unexpected turn when a cellmate makes him a bizarre offer.

It’s a clever comedy in the vein of Jim Jarmusch, but also gives the feeling of trying to make a feature length film out of a half hour of good comedy.

Starring: a lot of Italian people

Directors: Vinnie Angel and Boogie Dean

Written by: Vinnie Angel and Boogie Dean

Pickings seems slim this week, mostly just a foreign WWII film, a kid’s movie featuring that girl from Little Miss Sunshine, and two documentaries, one about an 88-year-old musician and one about the distant wonders of China. But don’t be fooled just because you don’t see anything fun and exciting like Harold and Kumar. Except for a slightly too childish entry, there is some pretty good stuff out this week.

THE COUNTERFEITERS (2008), Drama/War/Foreign (Austria)

Cast: Karl Markovics, August Diehl, Devid Striesow, Martin Brambach, August Zirner
Director: Stefan Ruzowitzky
Screenplay: Stefan Ruzowitzky, based on the autobiographical account by Adolf Burger

I’ve noticed a strange contradiction in the response that new WWII films generally get. You always hear people complaining about ANOTHER holocaust movie, ANOTHER WWII movie, but I’ve never seen a bad one. Life Is Beautiful, The Pianist, Downfall, Saving Private Ryan, what’s to complain about? Even Jakob the Liar was good. These movies are almost uniformly outstanding, so I say keep them coming. And The Counterfeiters is no exception.

Based on a true story, The Counterfeiters is about the largest counterfeiting operation in history, in which Jews corroborated with Nazis in the midst of the concentration camp era. Superintendent Friedrich Herzog arrests a Jew by the name of Salomon Sorowitsch, but soon forces him and another small group of men to produce fake American and British currency, for the purpose of accelerating inflation and wrecking those two economies.

An ambitious scheme to say the least, so Salomon and his colleagues are given luxury barracks and special treatment for their work. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal, given the alternative, but they are also faced with a paralyzing moral dilemma, because their work strengthens their enemy and prolongs the suffering of their fellow prisoners. Reminds me of the difficult choice that Tony and Sheriff also had to make in Return to Paradise.

You may also remember The Counterfeiters as the Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language film. It’s worth all the reading!

NIM’S ISLAND (2008), Family Adventure, PG, 96 mins.

Cast: Abigail Bresline, Jodie Foster, Gerard Butler

Director: Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin

Screenplay: Joseph Kwong & Paula Mazur and Mark Levin & Jennifer Flackett, based on the novel Nim’s Island by Wendy Orr

Abigail Breslin made her feature film debut in M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs in 2002 at age 6, but of course she is now best known as the show stopper from Little Miss Sunshine. In Nim’s Island, a package-wrapped kiddie’s movie if I’ve ever seen one, she plays the part of Nim, a little girl living on a desert island with her scientist father. Their daily life resembles upper middle class life, except for the location. Their home is powered by wind and the sun, but they have e-mail, so they’re not exactly cast aways.

Nim spends a good portion of her time reading adventure novels about the fictional explorer Alex Rover, until one day her father goes missing. Having gotten in contact with Alexandra Rover (Jodie Foster), who contacted them out of interest in the father’s expeditions, Nim manages to coax Alexandra to overcome her fear of leaving the house (ironic, isn’t it?) and begin a journey to the island to help her.

Nim is left to defend the island on her own in a situation which opens the door to all kinds of Home Alone jokes that I promised myself I wouldn’t give in to, although that’s definitely an apt comparison. Remember in Home Alone how you rooted for little Kevin to kick the crap out of the burglars, but they never really seemed to be a serious threat? That’s about the same thing that’s going on here. There’s no real sense of any danger, but younger kids will probably enjoy Nim’s sudden lack of parental guidance and the ensuing adventures.

Also, Gerard Butler, who you know as King Leonidas from 300, plays the part of her missing father. Not much else is going on here, but I expect bigger and better things from Abigail…

PETE SEEGER: THE POWER OF SONG (2008), Musical Documentary, PG, 93 mins.

Featuring Pete Seeger, Toshi Seeger, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Natalie Maines, Tom Paxton, David Dunaway, Bess Lomax Hawes, Joan Baez, Ronnie Gilbert, Jerry Silverman, Henry Foner, Eric Weissberg, Arlo Guthrie, Peter Yarrow, Mary Travers, Julian Bond, Tommy Smothers and Bonnie Raitt.

Director: Jim Brown

88-year-old Pete Seeger has had a long and illustrious and controversial career. He wrote and popularized some of the most influential American songs that have shaped who we are today, but was blacklisted during the McCarthy era. Called before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Seeger refused to name other Communist Party members and he and his band, The Weavers, were immediately removed from the radio waves.

Through a remarkable array of historical footage, this documentary tells the story of his life and its effect on some of our most loved and respected musicians, as well as the lessons that he’s learned from his experiences. Seeger is an astonishing American in the vein of famous upstarts like Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain, and he shows us that patriotism may mean something completely different than we may have thought. Definitely worth a look for anyone proud to be American, or at least looking for reason to be…

WILD CHINA (2008) Documentary series, 60 min.

Narrator: Bernard Hill

To get your travelling fix, today is released this UK television miniseries that features some of the most picturesque scenery to be found in China, and just in time for the Olympics! Each episode presents a startlingly different landscape than the last and is centered around a real historical figure, including places like the ancient Han kingdom, the Mongol steppes, the Silk Road and the Tibetan Plateau.

Ancient structures and modern power poles in the Tibetan Plateau.

Prominently featured, by the way, is some scenery from the old city of Xi’an in central China, the home of the terra cotta warriors, a famous buried army of life-sized soldiers that was lost for so long (well over 2,000 years) that they became almost an urban legend, a bed-time story that had long since lost it’s believability, until a farmer stumbled upon the soldiers in 1974 while digging a well. Can you imagine??

They are still being excavated, believe it or not, but so far they have revealed almost 800 full-sized horses, 130 chariots and, get this, 8,000 soldiers, not a single one under 6 feet in height and every one with individual facial features. They have been dated to about 210 B.C., and it is believed that the majority remain to be excavated.

And these are, as you know, the soldiers that are featured in The Mummy 3: The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. The “dragon emperor” is Emperor Qin, who had the soldiers made.

The excavated terra cotta warriors, now on public display just outside Xi'an.

A group of black-faced spoonbills taking flight. In the background you can see the high-rise apartment buildings where many modern upper class Chinese citizens live today.

Your faithful film reviewer on a trip to Xi'an in central China, researching the new Mummy movie, which features the very same warriors standing behind me. You're welcome!