THE GREAT DEBATERS
"Glory Road" set in the hard-knocks world of
college debating rather than on the
basketball court, this fact-based movie
conveys a message that's impossible to
dispute. In 1935, a dedicated professor
(Washington) leads the team from an
all-black college in Texas to victory over
Harvard, despite the romantic tribulations
of his student rhetoricians and other
distractions. Washington's second
directorial effort is long-winded yet
benefits from a stark depiction of
injustice. It would be even more persuasive
if not every resolution debated had a racial
angle and if the oratorical skills were
allowed to inspire without the aid of so
many Hollywood embellishments. (PG-13) FAIR
DRAMA Dir-Denzel Washington Lead-Denzel
Washington RT-123 mins.
MAD MONEY
Three women steal Greenbacks destined for
the shredder in a heist comedy that argues
crime does pay. Working menial jobs at the
Federal Reserve branch in Kansas City, the
pilferers -- Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah,
and Katie Holmes -- use gender, race and
class discrimination to justify lining their
pockets. Money makes the world go 'round
and, apparently, multiple montages set to
obvious pop songs are the lifeblood of
frothy mainstream movies. Holmes stands-out
on the female side of the ledger, while Ted
Danson excels while voicing scruples as
Keaton's husband. The crime may be
victimless but any profit this film makes
won't be. (PG-13) FAIR COMEDY Dir-Callie
Khouri Lead-Diane Keaton RT-104 mins.
UNTRACEABLE
Regardless of its title, it's easy to trace
the influences of this derivative serial
killer thriller. An FBI agent (Lane) in the
Cyber Crimes division is tasked with
catching a fiend who broadcasts his victims'
demises on the Internet, and makes the rate
of their death correlate to the number of
people visiting his website. The film grazes
up against some interesting ideas about our
voyeuristic interest in tragedy and the
chilly disconnect one feels from online
material. Yet these topics are ultimately
buried beneath rote set pieces and
techno-babble, which Lane spouts with more
conviction than is warranted by the mildly
diverting, instantly forgettable B-movie.
(R) FAIR THRILLER Dir-Gregory Hoblit
Lead-Diane Lane RT-96 mins.
YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH
Francis Ford Coppola dramatizes Mircea
Eliade's Mittleuropean novella about the
twinned pursuits of knowledge and desire.
Possessing visual if not narrative lucidity,
it unspools like an opus written by Thomas
Mann or Milan Kundera then injected with
south-Asian mysticism. In 1938, an elderly
Romanian professor (adequately limned by
Roth) is struck by lightening. He gains
extraordinary powers, plus a doppelganger
and delusions of being able to satisfy
romantic longings and complete his life's
work -- developing a unified theory of
language. Though not for everyone, the
ambitious film has many lovely qualities,
including those lent by co-star Alexandra
Maria Lara. (R) FAIR DRAMA Dir-Francis Ford
Coppola Lead-Tim Roth RT-126 mins.
TOP FIVE DVD RENTALS -
27
DRESSES
At its best, this picture has the tart,
flirtatious energy of a screwball comedy
from the 1930s. At its worst, it's a
predictable chick flick with the frilly
sexual politics of a Doris Day-Rock Hudson
vehicle -- despite having been written and
directed by two women. June, a perennial
bridesmaid obsessed with weddings and their
trappings, plans the nuptials of her younger
sister (Malin Akerman) and her boss (Edward
Burns), whom she secretly adores. The
statuesque Heigl gets upstaged by the
fashions as well as by James Marsden,
playing a cynical journalist covering the
marriage beat, and Judy Greer limning her
oversexed best friend. (PG-13) FAIR
ROMANTIC-COMEDY Dir-Anne Fletcher
Lead-Katherine Heigl RT-107 mins.
THE GOLDEN COMPASS
The glossy screen version of book one will
leave fans of Philip Pullman's "His Dark
Materials" trilogy unsatisfied yet hopeful,
neophytes intrigued but far from captivated.
Teeming with exposition about animal
daemons, parallel worlds, dust and
authoritarianism, the generic fantasy
follows tomboy Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue
Richards) north to frozen climes in search
of kidnapped children. The action builds to
nothing more than a polar bear smack down
and an anti-climactic set-up for the next
installment. Nicole Kidman makes for a
ravishing villainess, yet it remains to be
seen if anything meaningful can be squeezed
from an ice sculpture and if Lyra's
spunkiness translates into soulfulness. (PG)
FAIR ACTION-FANTASY Dir-Chris Weitz
Lead-Nicole Kidman RT-114 mins.
CLOVERFIELD
This is the monster movie remade for the
21st-century, post-9/11 world. Collapsing
buildings blowing out huge gusts of dust.
Dazed and dirty people wandering in the
streets helplessly. Some people said the
things we saw on 9/11 looked like a movie.
Here's a movie that looks like 9/11. A giant
"thing" is rampaging through Manhattan in a
frenzy of killing and destruction, but how
we view it -- entirely through the lens of
camcorder -- is intimate and believable.
Reeves has crafted the perfect hoax, one
frustrating -- in a good,
keep-you-in-suspense way -- and tantalizing,
if not always in a pleasant way. (PG-13)
GREAT HORROR Dir-Matt Reeves Lead-Michael
Stahl-David RT-84 mins.
JUNO
Despite all the verbal pyrotechnics and
well-chosen music, the quiet moments in this
teen pregnancy dramedy are the best. Ellen
Page may never find a role superior to the
whip-smart sixteen-year-old Minnesotan who
chooses to give the baby fathered by her
buddy (Michael Certa) to childless yuppies
(Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner). Juno is
too flip for her own good, yet she and the
movie are saved by their fundamental
decency. Diablo Cody's script offers an
idealized portrait of America's youth as
simultaneously shrewd and sappy, wicked and
precious. It's hard to contradict when
presented in such a hilariously humane,
albeit showy package. (PG-13) GOOD
COMEDY-DRAMA Dir-Jason Reitman Lead-Ellen
Page RT-91 mins.
CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR
"You're a very easy man to like,
Congressman." Ditto this fact-based comedy
about the hard-partying Texas representative
(Hanks) who -- together with a CIA agent
(Philip Seymour Hoffman) and a conservative
fundraiser (Julia Roberts) -- covertly
supplied arms to Afghanistan after the
Soviets invaded in the early 1980s. The
movie doesn't know quite where to go with
its blend of Nicholsonian farce and writer
Aaron Sorkin's trademark sarcastic political
commentary. Reveling in private peccadilloes
while urging a pragmatic foreign policy, it
implies American civil servants could
benefit from less self-seriousness and more
drinking and womanizing. Being licentious
and wonkish at the same time is a fun trick.
(R) GOOD COMEDY Dir-Mike Nichols Lead-Tom
Hanks RT-97 mins.
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