originally published December 20, 2006

APOCALYPTO

(R) Crafting an ultra-violent period drama in a dead language with no bankable stars may not have been the sanest cinematic choice for recovery from drunken anti-Semitism. Mel Gibson, attempting to jab relevantly and pointedly at our society, recreates Mayan civilization at its most Romanly decadent. Heads roll as the Mayan leaders beg their gods for relief from drought, famine and plague. The vibrant fever dream, incubated in the sun-stroked brain of Oscar winner Gibson, viscerally frightens and awes once captured tribesman Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood) reaches the massive stone city. But when Jaguar Paw traipses back into the forest, Apocalypto becomes one long footrace landmarked by dangerous jungle clichés (snake, waterfall, quicksand, etc.). I could care less about Gibson’s personal demons so long as he posts a viable artistic vision, but all he’s done with Apocalypto is class up gore for the black-tie set. (Beechwood, Carmike)

BLACK CHRISTMAS

(R) A remake of Bob Clark's Canadian low-budget slasher/ horror classic about sorority girls terrorized during Christmas break. Glen Morgan (Final Destination) brings in the hotties (Michelle Trachtenburg, Lacey Chabert, Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and amps up the violence (and you know there's nudity) for the prized R rating. Opens Monday, 12/25 (Carmike)

BLOOD DIAMOND

(R) Blood Diamond, an action movie with a conscience directed by Edward Zwick (Glory, The Last Samurai), intervenes in the civil war fought between the government and the RUF in Sierra Leone. Diamond smuggler Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) and fisherman Solomon (Djimon Hounsou), journalist Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly) in tow, struggle across the war-torn country in search of a huge diamond. Rescuing Diamond from its over-didacticism are its soulful, human leads. Leo is having a stellar year. He’s sure to snag an Oscar nod for either this or The Departed. Connelly is radiant in her distressed jungle mode, and Hounsou never allows his dedicated papa to flatline from virtue. Diamond’s hopes to curtail the trafficking of conflict diamonds overreach, but this engaging, topical action film reinvigorates the genre. (Beechwood); Ends Sunday, 12/24 (Carmike)

BORAT

(R) Armed to the teeth with uncomfortable malapropisms and anti-Semitism, Kazakhstan television personality Borat Sagdiyev (Sacha Baron Cohen) travels across the United States, unmasking inner bigotry wherever he goes. With Borat, Cohen isn’t laughing with the us, he’s laughing at the us, a distinction too fine for an America as stupid as the one he exposes to make. Starts Friday (Georgia Square 5)

CASINO ROYALE

(PG-13) How well does new 007 Daniel Craig wear the famed tux? Pretty damn well. Chronicling Bond’s first assignment as a Double O, Casino Royale charts very highly, and so does its new Bond. Every fight in Casino Royale includes the most vicious fisticuffs ever seen in a Bond film. The physicality of the free-running stunts is exhaustingly exciting. I don’t know where the Bond franchise is headed, but I do know nobody’s done it better than Casino Royale and Daniel Craig in a long, long time. (Beechwood); Ends Thursday (Highway 17 Theatres); Ends Sunday, 12/24 (Carmike)

CHARLOTTE'S WEB

(PG) See Movie Pick. (Beechwood, Carmike)

DÉJÀ VU

(PG-13) This sci-fi/ action/ romance is never as tricky as it thinks it is, but it’s not a bad way to spend an evening, either. ATF agent Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington) joins a top secret government task force, led by Val Kilmer, to stop the explosion he’s currently investigating from ever happening. The flick tries to blow some scientific mumbo-jumbo up the audience’s collective ass, but it’s too boring and complicated. Ignore the science, enjoy the action. Ends Thursday (Carmike)

EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH

(PG-13) The cinematic coming out party for insanely popular standup comic Dane Cook (he’s funny but he’s not that funny) does its job with surprising sweetness and a decent little ensemble. Love and hard work are blooming at the Super Club when slacker box boy Zack (Cook) falls for new cashier Amy (Jessica Simpson). (Georgia Square 5)

ERAGON

(PG) See Flick Skinny. I can’t remember watching a movie so disrespectful of its source material. Christopher Paolini may have started writing Eragon, a pastiche of every hero’s journey he’d ever taken, when he was 15, but the final work is a vibrant bit of sword, sorcery and flying dragons. Eragon (Edward Speleers, a clunky Heath Ledger-type), an orphaned farm boy, discovers he’s destined for greatness as the last Dragon Rider, prophesied to save his homeland, Alagaesia, from evil King Galbatorix (a thankfully minimal John “High Camp” Malkovich). Learning the ways of the Rider from Brom (a miscast Jeremy Irons - he’d have made a better Galbatorix), Eragon treks to join the rebel Varden while chased by the king’s henchman, Durza (a silly-looking Robert Carlyle). What was innocent awe on paper is hokey on celluloid. The kingdom Paolini so lavishly surveyed with such excruciating detail that he often left the plot flatfooted is laid one-dimensional by visual effects guru Stefen Fangmeier, in his directorial debut. Paolini’s colorful, descriptive voice is jettisoned for an action-driven language that lacks anything epic. Talk your kid out of watching this drivel. Read the book. (Beechwood, Carmike)

FACING THE GIANTS

(PG) Sherwood Baptist Church media minister Alex Kendrick directed, cowrote, co-produced, edited, composed the pompous score, and stars as head football coach Grant Taylor, who turns to the Lord to conquer the “giants of fear and failure.” Giants looks and sounds as homemade as it is. (Georgia Square 5)

A GOOD YEAR

(PG-13) The latest vintage from Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe coats the palate with forced, disingenuous sweetness that masks its sour grapes. Max Skinner (Russell Crowe) believes greed to be very good. You can practically see the cartoon dollar signs in Max’s eyes after he learns his Uncle Henry (Albert Finney) has left him his vineyard. Ends Thursday (Georgia Square 5)

THE GOOD SHEPHERD

(R) Robert De Niro directs a hugely talented cast in this chronicle of the birth of the C.I.A. The experiences of Edward Wilson (Matt Damon), who sacrificed his home life and his ideals to keep this country safe during the Cold War, The Good Shepherd has picked up some serious awards buzz. Written by Eric Roth (Forrest Gump). Opens Friday (Beechwood, Carmike)

HAPPY FEET

(PG) Mumble the penguin (voiced by Elijah Wood) takes an eye-popping, breathtaking journey from dropped egg to societal savior. Happy Feet taps out a fresh rhythm to which you can dance when it’s not delivering pat lessons on religious intolerance and environmental destruction. Not until the Amigos appear, led by the infectious Ramon (Robin Williams), does this cold film thaw somewhat. Thinking visually, the musically gifted Happy Feet fails to act narratively. (Beechwood, Carmike)

THE HOLIDAY

(PG-13) Writer-director Nancy Meyers, the designer of chic romantic comedies What Women Want and Something’s Gotta Give, comes down the cinematic chimney with just about the best present a gal could hope for on a cold winter’s night. Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, Kate Winslet and Jack Black discover that ideal movie love while clad in expensive duds and romping through gorgeous homes. The very appeal of Meyers’ film is the unattainable life it presents to us common folk. To swoon over colossal unblemished complexions as they search for their unblemished soulmate is what we want. Bonus points if we get to laugh before - or until - the crying jag, and The Holiday is sincerely funny. Not the most gifted dramatic actress, Diaz’s rangy physicality compensates for her over-emoting. Winslet shines as always, and Law rediscovers his irascible charm. Meyers may need to trim the fat, but her Holiday reminds us Hollywood still has some romantic magic left. (Beechwood, Carmike)

THE ILLUSIONIST

(PG-13) Edward Norton stars as Eisenheim, the magic man who, while performing in turn-of-the-century Vienna, makes an enemy of Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell), whose intended (Jessica Biel) is the magician’s one true love. Writer-director Neil Burger soaks the audience in mysterious wonder, a sleight of hand that quickly vanishes once the magical show is over. (Georgia Square 5)

THE NATIVITY STORY

(PG) I’m not ruining anything by telling you this retelling of the most famous story ever told holds no surprises. Mary (Keisha Castle-Hughes, who is actually pregnant and unmarried) is told by Gabriel (Alexander Siddig) that she’s having God’s kid. Then, she and Joseph (Oscar Isaac) travel to Bethlehem where there’s a manger and some swaddling clothes. Besides the glorious cinematography of Elliot Davis, I found very little wonder in the third film from Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen, Lords of Dogtown). (Carmike)

A NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM

(PG) Ben Stiller takes a night watchman gig in a museum where the displays come to life at night. Direction from Shawn Levy (The Pink Panther) and scenarios from screenwriters Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant (Taxi, The Pacifier) have me sadly thinking we might already have laughed our loudest at the preview. With Carla Gugino, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, Ricky Gervais, Mickey Rooney, Dick Van Dyke and Robin Williams as Teddy Roosevelt. Opens Friday (Beechwood, Carmike, Highway 17 Theatres)

OPEN SEASON

(PG) As the voice of Elliot, an obnoxious mule deer exiled from his herd, Ashton Kutcher goofs around the woods for an hour and a half. Unappealing voicework and animation as alluring as a strip mine mar Sony Pictures Animation’s first full-length feature. (Georgia Square 5)

THE PRESTIGE

(PG-13) Feuding magicians make for terribly intriguing drama in Christopher Nolan’s follow-up to Batman Begins. After his wife dies on-stage in the harrowing Water Escape trick, Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) blames rival magician Albert “The Professor” Borden (Christian Bale) and begins a personal/ professional rivalry that can only end in blood. Structurally, Nolan’s twisty tale of vengeance and its illusory curative properties is bloody confusing. Its split chronology can be tougher to follow than Memento’s backward timeline, yet the magical tit-for-tat is novel and anti-heroic. Jackman magnetizes Robert with his perfect plastered showman’s grin and its polar opposite, a steely obsession with settling a score. Starts Friday (Georgia Square 5)

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

(PG-13) We need a demoralizing message movie like Happyness every so often to keep us on our moral toes. Devoted father and salesman Chris Gardner (Will Smith) finds himself homeless due to bad investments and stupid decisions. But with pluck, moxie and a little luck, he lands on his feet after the greedy rich men of Dean Witter graciously offer Chris a job after he makes them oodles of money during an unpaid internship. The problem with the well-made Happyness is, if you’re not careful, you’ll swallow the shit it’s shoveling. Director Gabriele Muccino and cinematographer Phedon Papamichael (Sideways) have shot a lovely film, and preternaturally likable Golden Globe nominee Smith tugs at the heartstrings like a puppetmaster while interacting with his real-life son, Jaden. But in adapting the real Chris Gardner’s life, Steven Conrad (The Weather Man) sickeningly reifies most Americans’ belief that the plight of the homeless can be eradicated through hard work. Also, how lazy is a film that proves how “smart” its protagonist is by showing him solve a Rubik’s Cube? (Beechwood, Carmike, Highway 17 Theatres)

THE QUEEN

(PG-13) Portraying her second Elizabeth in a year, Helen Mirren brings all her graceful control and ice-cold radiance to a Royal Majesty bungling the sudden death of constant thorn in her crown, Princess Diana. Written by Peter Morgan (The Last King of Scotland) with a deftly light comic touch that detracts nothing from its dark gravity, The Queen posits what transpired in the private chambers of the monarchy. Frears and Morgan pack a four-hour miniseries of complexity into 97 minutes, yet the film remains crisp and clear as a beautiful winter’s day. The Queen’s most pleasant surprise is its sense of humor. Ends Thursday (Beechwood)

ROCKY BALBOA

(PG) Sylvester Stallone brings his greatest creation back to the big screen. After the horrendous Rocky V, Rocky Balboa has a lot to make up for. Rocky (Stallone) returns to the ring to challenge heavyweight champion Mason “The Line” Dixon (former light heavyweight champ Antonio Tarver, making his feature film debut). As with Rockys II, III & IV, Sly is writing and directing. Taking over from Stallone’s son, Sage, Milo Ventimiglia (“Gilmore Girls,” “Heroes”) plays Rocky Jr. Burt Young returns as Rocky’s numbnuts brother-in-law, Paulie. (Beechwood, Highway 17 Theatres); Opens Friday (Carmike)

THE SANTA CLAUSE 3: THE ESCAPE CLAUSE

(G) If you’re looking to get your holly jollies early, your cinematic sleigh has arrived. SC3 may use every elfin pun imaginable as Jack Frost (Martin Short) challenges the reign of Santa/ Scott Calvin (Tim Allen), but nothing about the high-concept, low-imagination flick is terrible. SC3 is just an old-fashioned family holiday film. (Carmike)

UNACCOMPANIED MINORS

(PG) When a group of kids - the oddball, the nerd (Tyler James Williams of “Everybody Hates Chris”), the princess and the tough girl - are stranded in an airport for Christmas, they naturally run around committing various acts of violent slapstick to the resident uncompromising adult (Lewis Black) and his dopey sidekick (a bloated Wilmer Valderrama) in order to make the best of a bad holiday. Based on the real-life holiday experience of “This American Life” contributor Susan Barton, Minors has a talented and hip television pedigree. Not much - humor, plot, sentiment - in Minors appeals to adults, but this standard Christmas story is strangely joyous and not as noxious as Deck the Halls. Ends Thursday (Beechwood, Carmike)

WE ARE MARSHALL

(PG) The most devastating disaster in college sports history occurred on Nov. 14, 1970, when the plane carrying the Marshall University football team crashed, killing the players, coaches, and assorted alumni and friends on board. We Are Marshall focuses on the aftermath as Coach Jack Lengyel (Matthew McConaughey) attempts to rebuild the decimated program. 2006 has seen lots of football movies, but Marshall could be the champion if Charlie’s Angels director McG can handle the more serious fare. We Are Marshall was partly filmed in Atlanta. With Matthew Fox, Anthony Mackie, David Strathairn, and Ian McShane (“Deadwood”). Opens Friday (Beechwood, Carmike)