originally published May 23, 2007

28 WEEKS LATER

(R) Naturally, the finest zombie movie since Dawn of the Dead demands the finest sequel since Dawn of the Dead. An innovator of a horror sequel, Weeks continues the old story - England is ravaged and nearly depopulated by the Rage virus - by telling a new one. the U.S. Army is repopulating London when a new outbreak occurs. On the run from the infected and a trigger-happy military, two children, the carriers of the only known potential cure, must stay alive as they cross London in car, on foot, and most frighteningly, through a darkened Tube lit only by a night vision scope. Weeks loses nothing in transitioning from Days’ Danny Boyle to new director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, whose film kicks into high apocalyptic gear and never slows down. Weeks captures the cowardice of survival, the heroism of martyrdom and a devastating snapshot of the global zombie threat. Less hopeful than Days, 28 Weeks Later has me doubting if the planet will be any better 28 Months Later or 28 Years Later. Such pessimism doesn’t preclude my desire to see more of what Danny Boyle’s original apocalypse hath wrought. (Beechwood, Carmike)

300

(R) The titular 300 are the hulked out citizen-soldiers led by King Leonidas (Gerard Butler), who smash and grab glory from defeat at the arrowheads of the million-man Persian army. Stunning to behold, 300 not only claims itself king of the stylistic mountain, it carves its own mountain from solid stone as director Zack Snyder painstakingly renders Frank Miller’s graphic novel bold panels in three dimensions. Starts Friday (Georgia Square 5)

ARE WE DONE YET?

(PG) This sequel to Are We There Yet? has a slightly more solid construction than the 2005 surprise smash, no thanks to all-attitude, no-charisma star Ice Cube. Kid-hater turned lovable thug Nick Persons (Ice Cube), his pregnant wife Suzanne (Nia Long), and their two tweens, Lindsay and Kevin (Aleisha Allen and Philip Bolden) decide to move to the country, biting off more than they can chew with the fixer-upper from Hell. Starts Friday (Georgia Square 5)

BLACK BOOK

(R) 2006. Once upon a time, Paul Verhoeven was one of my favorite directors. His trilogy of ultraviolent, futuristic satires - Robocop, Total Recall, Starship Troopers - practically defined my childhood through college years. (Sad, I know.) The Dutch filmmaker returns from the nowhere of Hollow Man with this highly acclaimed thriller (it was shortlisted for the Academy’s Best Foreign Language Film award) set during World War II. A Dutch Jewish girl (Carice von Houten)joins the resistance to find out who betrayed her family to the Nazis. Harking back to his sexualized Basic Instinct days, Verhoeven supposedly gets the graphic most out of star van Houten. Starts Friday (Ciné)

BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA

(PG) To combat the school bullies, Jess (Josh Hutcherson) and new girl Leslie (AnnaSophia Robb), forge an idyllic childhood friendship by creating a kingdom across the river running behind their homes. The film brings their fantastical creatures to life with well-crafted CGI and the power of the audience’s own imagination. (Georgia Square 5)

BUG

(R) Oscar-winning director William Friedkin returns to the horror of The Exorcist with this adaptation of Tracy Letts’ stage play (Letts also wrote the screenplay). Gulf War vet Peter (Michael Shannon, Pearl Harbor and Lucky You) and lonely Agnes (Ashley Judd) hole up in a seedy motel room they believe to be infested by bugs. The buzz has been steadily building, but in horror’s present state, this unique, psychological freakout is going to get squashed by Pirates 3. With Harry Connick Jr. Opens Friday (Beechwood, Carmike)

DELTA FARCE

(PG-13) If you like your comedy blue - collar, that is - you’ll enjoy this offensive romp through Mexico with Larry the Cable Guy (has he ever worn sleeves?) and Bill “Here’s your sign” Engvall. While Delta Farce is not the nadir of current comedy (this flick is far too insignificant), it’s far too bad to simply be forgotten; it must be expurgated through massive amounts of lye and steel wool. After landing in Mexico, not Iraq, three dumb amigos (Larry, Bill and an insufferable alien life form called D.J. Qualls) attempt to rid a small Mexican village of evil warlord Carlos Santana (“not the singer,” the film repeatedly, erroneously declares). Apparently, we’re far enough along in the war on terror and in Iraq that they’ve become funny, pusillanimous punch lines for the dimwitted. America can take solace in the fact that the idiotic Delta Farce will bomb, but after making megahits of the equally moronic Norbit and Wild Hogs, the American movie-going masses must live with the knowledge that the regional standup comics may not have won, but the ignorance and bad taste of Hollywood superstars have. Ends Thursday (Beechwood, Carmike)

DISTURBIA

(PG-13) Disturbia is far from a grade-A side of cinematic beef, but holding no high aspirations for itself, this teenybopper flick knocks off Rear Window with B-movie gusto. Under house arrest, underage antihero Kale (Shia LeBeouf) gets so bored he learns that the loner next-door (David Morse) is a serial killer. (Carmike)

THE EX

(PG-13) Poorly titled (the film really isn’t about the ex) and weakly resolved (the pic set up a completely different dramatic denouement), The Ex is still nowhere near as odious as most of today’s comedies. When Tom Riley (manic puppy dog Zach Braff) loses yet another job, he must finally take his father-in-law (Charles Grodin) up on his job offer so as to provide for his wife Sofia (Amanda Peet) and new baby. But Tom didn’t count on being mentored by Sofia’s old cheerleading partner/ flame, the sociopathic, paraplegic Chip Sanders (Jason Bateman). Too bad the Weinsteins didn’t put more marketing muscle behind the film. Small-screen MVPs Braff and Bateman deserve more big-screen love. This is a virtual class reunion of beloved low-end comics and actors: Josh Charles! Paul Rudd! Romany Malco! Fred Armisen! Amy Poehler! Donal Logue! Amy Adams! You can’t believe some of them showed up, while you can’t account for how happy you are to see the rest. It’s no big-screen “Scrubs” and certainly no “Arrested Development,” but this Ex deserves better. Maybe it will have more luck on DVD, or better yet, Comedy Central. Ends Thursday (Beechwood)

FAMILIA

(NR) 2005. Writer-director Louise Archambault’s debut feature about mothers and daughters garnered eight Genie Award nominations (the Genie is Canada’s main national film award), winning one. After leaving her boyfriend, aerobics instructor Mimi (Sylvie Moreau) goes to live with childhood friend Janine (Macha Grenon), who, like Mimi, is struggling to separate herself from her past and her parents. The Toronto International Film Festival honored Archambault with the prize for Best Canadian First Feature Film. Part of the ACC Library’s iFilms series. Shows Thursday, 5/24 (ACC Library)

FAY GRIM

(R) 2006. Indie auteur Hal Hartley sequelizes his 10-year-old, Palme d’Or nominee Henry Fool with this spy picture about the eponymous heroine (Parker Posey) who is coerced by a CIA agent (Jeff Goldblum) to retrieve the national security-endangering notebooks lost by her fugitive ex-husband, Henry Fool (Thomas Jay Ryan). Hartley fans are always happy about a new film, but one wonders if summer is the best time to release this artistic action film. Alternating with prequel, Henry Fool. Ends Thursday (Ciné)

FIREHOUSE DOG

(PG) When a stunt goes awry, animal superstar Rexxx finds himself walking the streets of Toronto until firefighter’s kid Shane (Josh Hutcherson) takes him home. The plot involving a rundown firehouse could be the backbone of the best firefighting movie since Backdraft, were it not for the kiddie flick plot. Firehouse Dog is filled with silly, harmless homages, some over a kiddie audience’s head and some right up their alley. (Georgia Square 5)

GEORGIA RULE

(R) Garry Marshall (the director who glamorized prostitution in Pretty Woman) has his myopic comedic sights set on child molestation, and he’s taking three talented actresses (Lindsay Lohan, Jane Fonda and Felicity Huffman) down with him. Though not a black comedy, Georgia Rule tries to milk laughs from some sick shit. Out-of-control teen Rachel (Lohan) is taken by her exasperated mother Lily (Huffman) to spend the summer with her strict grandmother (Fonda) in Mormon country. Rachel gradually gets better and all three generations of the women in her family must face painful, long-buried secrets. Georgia Rule even had me fooled. I thought it was a sweet little family dramedy. Why else draw comparisons to Marshall’s G-rated modern fairy tale, The Princess Diaries? (Wow, the producers of Georgia Rule have some balls; I wonder how many mother-daughter combos left a Mother’s Day screening wondering if they’d actually seen the right movie.) The repellent Georgia Rule is to Fonda what Because I Said So was to Diane Keaton, but at least Ted Turner’s ex didn’t have to fake an orgasm. And without a massive cinematic intervention/ reinvention on par with Drew Barrymore’s, that giant snorting sound you hear is Lohan’s career, disappearing like so much coke in the bathroom of a posh L.A. nightspot. (Beechwood, Carmike)

HENRY FOOL

(R) 1997. Winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s award for Best Screenplay and a nominee for the Palme d’Or, Hal Hartley’s Henry Fool is about shy garbage collector Simon Grim (James Urbaniak), who must care for his promiscuous sister Fay (Parker Posey) and their mother. Then a smooth-talking drifter, Henry Fool (Thomas Jay Ryan), who is working on a world-changing “confession,” comes to live with the Grims, and Simon is soon working on the “great American poem.” Alternating with sequel, Fay Grim. Ends Thursday (Ciné)

THE HILLS HAVE EYES II

(R) Wes Craven’s HHEII about mutants in the desert starts out nasty enough, but within 15 minutes of the arrival of a squad of whiny National Guard trainees, I was already praying for their gory deaths. HHEII is all about boring death selection and rote plotting. Ends Thursday (Georgia Square 5)

HOT FUZZ

(R) Whereas Shaun of the Dead lovingly riffed on zombie movies, Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s newest feature takes aim at buddy cop/ renegade cop flicks. The best cop in London, Nicholas Angel (Pegg), is transferred to the quiet, crimeless, accident-prone hamlet of Sandford. The joy of Fuzz is watching writers/ admitted (some would say committed) movie fans Wright and Pegg poke loving fun at genres whose tropes they know by heart. Wright, Pegg and Frost never let us see them sweat as they laboriously craft gags so deep you’d think they were serious filmmakers. And they are when it comes to making an audience laugh. They’re serious as a proverbial heart attack. (Beechwood)

NORBIT

(PG-13) Nice guy Norbit (Eddie Murphy) is married to Rasputia (Murphy again), a large woman as hideous on the outside as she is within. It’s sad to see Murphy slumming again. Ends Thursday (Georgia Square 5)

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END

(PG-13) The end of the most shocking blockbuster franchise of all-time (it’s based on a amusement park ride, for crying out loud!) looms on the horizon as Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) and Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) team up to save Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) from the Kraken. Still directed by Gore Verbinski, one wonders just how big Pirates 3 is going to be? Will Spider-Man 3’s record fall a mere three weeks later? With Bill Nighy, Chow Yun-Fat and that long-rumored cameo from Keith Richards as Captain Jack’s pappy. Special showings Thursday evening, 5/24; opens Friday (Beechwood, Carmike)

PREMONITION

(PG-13) When the world of Linda Hanson (Sandra Bullock) collapses upon the accidental death of her husband Jim (Julian McMahon), the housewife breaks from reality and starts experiencing that fateful week out of order. I’m buying everything Bullock’s selling, be it crazy, tough, or just flat-out heartbroken, and neither the obligatory, inscrutably pseudo-revelatory ending nor the detour into Christianity can douse Bullock’s surefire performance. (Georgia Square 5)

THE REAPING

(R) I have lost my faith in occult horror films. The Reaping wastes a decent idea - a small Lovecraftian town in the bayou experiences the 10 biblical plagues - that could have made for a nice, buzzy, low-budget horror flick. Instead, we get a name actress with no following, a talentless director (Stephen Hopkins), and David Morrissey looking and sounding like a Louisiana-born Liam Neeson. (Georgia Square 5)

THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP

(R) 2006. A strange film from one of the world’s leading auteurs, The Science of Sleep finds Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, many a Björk video) working from his own trippy script - as opposed to a tight Charlie Kaufman head trip - a change which makes little creative difference and less logical sense. Budding artist/ inventor Stéphane (Gael García Bernal) is having trouble distinguishing between his waking life and dreams, a state that wreaks delirious havoc when he falls in love with his new neighbor, Stephanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg). Never quite coming together, but doing so in beautiful, entertaining, cutting-edge style, The Science of Sleep offers further, unnecessary, incontrovertible proof that Gondry is the most innovative director working in almost-mainstream cinema today. Starts Friday (Ciné)

SHREK THE THIRD

(PG) See Movie Pick and Flick Skinny.(Beechwood, Carmike, Highway 17 Theatres)

SKETCHES OF FRANK GEHRY

(PG-13) 2005. Oscar winning director Sydney Pollack (Out of Africa, The Interpreter) looks at the life of the renowned designer of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. The friendship between Pollack and his subject warms this intimate, intelligent documentary. Ends Thursday (Ciné)

SPIDER-MAN 3

(PG-13) In his third adventure, Spidey (Tobey Maguire) must out-duel fan favorite Venom (Topher Grace), the Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), and himself, as Marvel’s most popular hero has swapped his red and blue underwear for a black costume/ alien symbiote. However, the greatest battle facing your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is within the franchise itself. The bloated Spider-Man 3 packs on far too many pounds of fatty story. Three villains (all underused and underdeveloped), another crisis in comicdom’s preeminent love affair (with Kirsten Dunst as the flame-haired Mary Jane), more vengeful Harry Osborn (James Franco), and an offensive origin addendum add up to an irrational number, far too big for one film, finale or not. Still, a chunky Spider-Man 3 sprints where bony-ass comic book adaptations like Ghost Rider limp. (Beechwood, Carmike, Highway 17 Theatres)

TMNT

(PG) As perfectly as writer-director Kevin Munroe captures the four distinct personalities of the turtles, why does he prove such a bad judge of villainy? Leaving Shredder out makes the Turtles’ latest adventure instantly forgettable. (Georgia Square 5)

WAITRESS

(PG-13) One of Sundance’s buzziest opens with a tragic sense of the bittersweet. Writer-director Adrienne Shelly, crowned the first "It" Girl of 1990s independent cinema thanks to Hal Hartley, was on the verge of stardom with this Baker’s chocolate sweet tale about an unhappily married, pregnant piemaker, Jenna (Keri Russell), who meets the doc of her dreams (should-be-a-star Nathan Fillion). Unfortunately, Shelly died late last year before her Waitress could be served to a hopefully pleased audience. With Jeremy Sisto, Cheryl Hines, and Andy Griffith. Opens Friday (Beechwood)

YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN

(PG) 1974. To take a cue from Igor (the indomitable Marty Feldman), it’s not “too late” to see Mel Brooks’ classic monster movie parody before the musical hits Broadway. Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) returns to the family castle and resurrects the family Monster (Peter Boyle) with monstrously hilarious results. Wilder and Brooks were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. With Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Teri Garr and Gene Hackman. Shows Monday, 5/28 (Flicker)

Drew Wheeler