originally published July 16, 2008

21

(PG-13) Based on the true life story of some card-counting MIT kids that bilked some Las Vegas casinos for millions, 21 is a crowd pleasing slice of instantly forgettable entertainment. 21 isn’t a bad story, but it deals some clichéd cards.

BEE MOVIE

(PG) Steadily buzzing with amusement, Bee Movie shouldn’t disappoint fans of Jerry Seinfeld. He particularizes the minutiae of bee life as Barry B. Benson (v. Seinfeld) leaves the hive for the human world where he sues the honey industry on behalf of bees everywhere.

BEFORE THE RAINS

(PG-13) Before the Rains visits few destinations to which past Merchant Ivory productions have not traveled, but A Room with a View and Howard’s End were not meant to be risk-takers, stylistic or narrative; the longtime producer and director team adapted beautiful literature into beautiful films. While Before the Rains is merely inspired by Brit lit concerning India and the Empire (Cathy Rabin molded an Israeli film into this veiled Somerset Maugham-ish melodrama), director Santosh Sivan’s English language debut entices with the lush, exotic, cinematic spice of India. The affair between an English planter, Henry Moores (current “Law & Order” D.A. Linus Roache), and his Indian maid, Sajani (Nandita Das), ends badly, and the aftermath draws an idealistic young man, T.K. Neelan (Rahul Bose), into a struggle between his traditional village roots and his desire for a Westernized future. A post-colonial tale of Britain’s corruption of their Crown Jewel, Before the Rains provides nothing new for Merchant Ivory vets, but something else would have been a disappointment.

THE BIG LEBOWSKI

(R) 1998. Filmmaking siblings Ethan and Joel Coen (Fargo) veer into bizarre comic territory with this quirky and well-made "mistaken identity" flick.

COLLEGE ROAD TRIP

(G) Martin Lawrence is Chief James Porter, the overprotective policeman father who decides to accompany - and mortify - his daughter, high school senior Rachel (Raven-Symoné), on a cross-country trip to pick a college.

THE DARK KNIGHT

(PG-13) This gigantic film is the behemoth of summer. Christian Bale returns as Batman, who must face his arch-nemesis, The Joker (Heath Ledger in his last finished performance), in director/cowriter Christopher Nolan’s sequel. Batman Begins’s major players - Police Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), butler Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine), Wayne Enterprises executive Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) - return, but Gotham’s got a new hottie (Katie Holmes has been replaced by Maggie Gyllenhaal) and a new DA, Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). People have speculated that Ledger’s death might generate more box office, but this film was going to be HUGE no matter what.

DARIUS GOES WEST: THE ROLL OF HIS LIFE

(NR) 2007. Ciné celebrates Darius Goes West Day with screenings of the popular local film and never-before-seen footage. Fifteen-year-old Clarke Central student Darius Weems, confined to a wheelchair by Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, had never left Athens until some local college students, including director Logan Smalley, took the Clarke Central student on a cross-country trip. If you've already see it, see it again. The cast and crew will be present for a Q&A. The never-before-seen extra footage will be screened separately on Saturday.

DOOMSDAY

(R) Doomsday will appeal to cult film devotees over casual filmgoers, but those like yours truly will fall dizzily head over hills in mad love with The Descent director Neil Marshall’s action/horror/sci-fi mash note to John Carpenter. Flaws and all, Doomsday doesn’t disappoint the genre faithful constantly seeking new cult films to canonize.

GET SMART

(PG-13) "Get Smart," the television hit that ran from 1965 to 1970, was Mel Brooks' and Buck Henry's answer to James Bond. In 2008, a year that will see a new 007 come November, Steve Carell comfortably steps into the shoephone of the late, irreplaceable Don Adams in an inoffensive, slightly boring big-screen adaptation, the series' second (1980's The Nude Bomb). The new Get Smart enjoys some of the best TV-to-big screen casting in some time. With the perfect cast in place, all Get Smart needed was a good pair of writers. I hear Brooks and Henry are still alive; even at over 80 and almost 80, the duo would be better than the hacks that wrote Failure to Launch. Get Smart isn't stupid, but it misses by that much.

HANCOCK

(PG-13) Hancock is no Man of Steel. This apathetic, alcoholic super-antihero is constructed from something far more cinematically invulnerable. Hancock is made of Will Smith, Hollywood’s most bankable superstar. For Hancock, saving the day typically involves millions of dollars worth of property damage, some drunken curses, and ungrateful rescuees. Unsuccessful at saving the world through corporate America, PR Man, Ray Embrey, (Jason Bateman) assists Hancock in an image makeover, encouraging him to go to jail, be polite, and wear a bespoke uniform. At an hour and a half - much longer and Hancock’s true weakness (inadequate plot) would have been exposed - this superhero action-comedy doesn’t overstay its welcome. Hancock is brisk and ultimately entertaining, but as send-ups of the superhero genre go, the flick just made me wistful for a big screen “Greatest American Hero.”

THE HAPPENING

(R) The Happening sheds the pounds of pretention Shyamalan’s films have been gaining and harnesses the power of corny dialogue and silly acting to nostalgically travel back to the sci-fi silliness of the 1950s while playing in the backyard of those pissed off nature movies that so intrigued the '70s. Mark Wahlberg goofs it up as a science teacher stumbling through the Pennsylvania backwoods in the hope of outrunning some unnamable, inescapable, fatal affliction, and lo and behold, The Man Who Would Be Auteur proves he can have fun - with himself, his characters and the audience. Hints of a misanthropic Walden and War of the Worlds mingle with some seriously R-rated, non-gory scares in a rare horror movie for adults.

HAROLD & KUMAR ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY

(R) Due to more selfish stupidity on Kumar’s part (smoking pot on an airplane), the duo end up in Guantanamo from which they promptly escape. Writing/directing team Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg tackle bigger issues than getting to White Castle in this sequel, but the “South Park”-ian task of mixing juvenile humor and politically astute commentary is beyond their meager talent for devising amusing, marijuana-driven scenarios.

HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY

(PG-13) See Movie Pick.

HOPE, SEEDS, AND CONCRETE

(NR) 2006. This 14-minute documentary illustrates the benefits of locally grown produce and other sustainable agricultural solutions, even in urban areas. Part of Taste Your PLACE, www.localplace.org.

HOUSE OF HOPE

(NR) This collection of music videos and political tomfoolery by Larry Acquaviva, KMA Films and Scratchy Records gets its premiere showing at the Georgia Theatre Friday evening July 18, preceding the WILX performance. These videos are lush with flowingly edited urban montages and country scenes, much of them recognizable from around here and worth seeing just for the strong visual effects, not to mention the spare, supportive musical accompaniment. The Revival will play before the screening. See July 18 Live Music for details.

THE INCREDIBLE HULK

(PG-13) Unlike any other comic book movie, Ang Lee composed his film using panels like an actual comic book. Nonetheless, Marvel Studios’ second effort (Hulk, 2003) looks a little green next to the nearly perfect Iron Man, a superhero film to rival the genre’s masterpiece, Spider-Man 2. But you know what? The three X-Men movies and Spider-Man 1 and 3 look poorly next to Iron Man, and The Incredible Hulk is easily on par with those solid Marvel movies.

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL

(PG-13) Crystal Skull is a cinematic rollercoaster ride that only Steven Spielberg and George Lucas could build, delivering the most constant amusement of the year.

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH

(PG) See Flick Skinny. The last time we journeyed to the center of the Earth on the big screen, we were joined by James Mason and Pat Boone. The new, extra-dimensional Journey stars Brendan Fraser, who has hollowed out quite a career playing beefy, floppy-haired adventurers, and while he is no Mason, he's a better travel companion than pop crooner Boone. Fraser goofs around as tectonic physicist Trevor Anderson, who takes his 13-year-old nephew, Sean (the always welcome Josh Hutcherson, Zathura and Bridge to Terabithia), on a search for the mythical lost world underneath the earth's crust. 3D may not make Journey a better movie, but it does make the jovial action more entertaining.

KIT KITTREDGE: AN AMERICAN GIRL

(G) Parents could do worse to their kids - and their selves - at the multiplex this summer than this Depression-era, Abigail Breslin-starring charmer. Ten-year-old Kit Kittredge (Abigail Breslin) wants to be a reporter, but after the Great Depression takes away her father (Chris O’Donnell) and turns her home into a boarding house, Kit’s dreams take a backseat to the reality of mortgages and foreclosure. Awkward, cute child actors (Mr. Magorium’s Zach Mills is a rare find), stagy old pros (Stanley Tucci, Jane Krakowski and Wallace Shawn are excellent), and a couple of surprises guarantee the whole family will leave the precocious Kit Kittredge pleasantly content.

KUNG FU PANDA

(PG) Jack Black fans may not be too pleased with Kung Fu Panda, but I was. JB keeps himself pretty well in check as the out-of-shape panda, Po, who comes off like “Lost”’s Hurley, a lovable couch potato thrust into an unlikely hero’s role when his wildest dreams come true. Dreamworks, the home of Shrek, may just be milking the family film cash cow again, but the awesomeness of Kung Fu Panda ensures that you will not care.

THE LAND BEFORE TIME

(G) 1988. Former Disney animator Don Bluth and executive producers George Lucas and Steven Spielberg scored another hit with this cartoon about five dinosaurs in search of the legendary Great Valley. This satisfying non-Disney cartoon has spawned twelve sequels and counting. The Special Needs Library presents this family friendly movie featuring a non-intrusive track for visually impaired viewers.

THE LOVE GURU

(PG-13) Six years have passed since Mike Myers acted in a comedy he wrote, but as The Love Guru reminds, the man who gave the world Wayne Campbell and Dr. Evil is still a hell of a funny guy so long as you can laugh at barn-broad characters, smartly sophomoric wordplay and silly visual gaggery. Though born in America, Guru Pitka (Myers) grew up in India under the tutelage of a cross-eyed guru (Ben Kingsley). Wishing to become the next Deepak Chopra (a good friend of Myers), Pitka takes his acronyms, bumper sticker advice and self-help books, to Canada to solve the romantic woes of hockey star Darren Roanoke (Romany Malco), whose wife, Prudence (Meagan Good), has taken up with rival goalie Jacque “The Coq” Grande (Justin Timberlake). Pitka is a funnier, more talented character than the popular, one-note Powers. The guru sings, dances and plays sitar versions of “9 to 5” and “Space Cowboy.” The Love Guru may not be his best work, but it at least earns a passing mark.

MADE OF HONOR

(PG-13) Formula and predictability are kind of the hallmarks of romantic comedy. Made of Honor cannily plays on the feminine ideal that the love of a good woman can change the most caddish man, while indulging in juvenile visual sex gags and a demonstrable lack of subtlety. The romcom is also distressingly unfunny, which is the biggest deal breaker of all.

MAMMA MIA!

(PG-13) Wanting her father, whose identity she does not know, to walk her down the aisle, a bride-to-be, Sophia (Amanda Seyfried, “Veronica Mars” and “Big Love”), invites the three major men (Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgård) from her mother’s (Meryl Streep) past to the service. Why everyone’s singing and dancing along to ABBA’s greatest hits is beyond me. With the three women behind the stage smash - producer Judy Craymer, writer Catherine Johnson and director Phyllida Lloyd - on board, maybe Mamma Mia!’s jump to the big screen will be a smooth one.

MEET DAVE

(PG) The dual role of a human-shaped spaceship and its tiny captain requires Murphy to tap his near limitless reserves of mimicry, but his unpleasant off-screen persona oozes through. Dave's attempts to act human appear mean-spirited, as if the spaceship were. Wasting the charming Elizabeth Banks (The 40-Year-Old Virgin) and featuring festering gay and African-American stereotypes, Meet Dave should be Murphy's second Razzie frontrunner. Not even the kids will want to Meet Dave.

MONGOL

(R) Director/cowriter Sergei Bodrov (Nomad) recounts the early life of Genghis Khan, who rose from slavery to conquer much of the known world, including Russia in 1206. Kazakhstan’s official submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar wound up on the short list, meaning the Academy thought it better than 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and Persepolis. We’ll see about that. Winner of two Asian Film Awards, two Golden Eagle Awards, and six Nikas including Best Film and Best Director.

THE MUMMY'S CURSE

(NR) Screening of the 1944 movie with Lon Chaney Jr. An additional documentary, Mummy Dearest: A Horror Tradition Unearthed, will follow.

NANNY MCPHEE

(PG) Nanny McPhee (Emma Thompson) appears at the door of undertaker Cedric Brown (Colin Firth), a widower with seven out-of-control children. In adapting the Nurse Matilda books of Christianna Brand, Thompson imbues the fairy tale world, the 19th century of Dickens in Technicolor, with a leavening morbidity. She tosses off subversive gags about cannibalism and incest without a glimmer of impropriety. Nanny McPhee might make decent filmic childcare, but its top-drawer talent should cast a more charming spell.

THE PROMOTION

(R) Two assistant managers at a local grocery, Doug (Seann William Scott) and Richard (John C. Reilly), duel for the manager position at the fancy new store slated to open across town. The writer of The Pursuit of Happyness and The Weather Man, Steve Conrad, is making his directing debut with this SXSW hit, a new candidate for summer's surprise indie. With Jenna Fischer, Bobby Cannavale, Gil Bellows ("Ally McBeal"), Rick Gonzalez and "SNL"'s Fred Armisen.

SHREK THE THIRD

(PG) After the death of King Harold, Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers) and friends strike out in search of a new king. Meanwhile, Fiona (Cameron Diaz) must deal with Prince Charming. Shrek the Third is the weakest of the franchise’s three films.

SPACE CHIMPS

(G) The grandson of the first chimp astronaut (chimponaut?), Ham III (the voice of Andy Samberg), and his two buddies, Lt. Luna (v. Cheryl Hines) and Titan (v. Patrick Warburton), are sent into space where they must rid a faraway planet of its nefarious ruler, Zartog (v. Jeff Daniels). Produced by Barry Sonnenfeld (Men in Black), Space Chimps also features the voices of Stanley Tucci, Kristin Chenoweth, Kenan Thompson, Carlos Alazraqui (“Reno 911!”) and Jane Lynch (The 40-Year-Old Virgin).

THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES

(PG) The Spiderwick Chronicles is based on a series of bestselling books by Terry DiTerlizzi and Holly Black about the Grace siblings who discover a fantastical world existing unseen within our own after they move into the creepy old house that belonged to their great granduncle, Arthur Spiderwick (David Strathairn).

SPEED RACER

(PG) Speed Racer, the first film written and directed by the incredibly talented Wachowski Brothers since The Matrix trilogy ended, needed to pick an audience, or better yet, appeal to a broader one. The eye-gasm of candy-colored, Tron-inspired racing environments are blistering original, but I wasn’t sure what I was watching half of the time. Off the track, the Wachowskis brake their seemingly game actors with too earnest, weirdly serious dialogue about the art of racing. The mix of low octane plot movement and high octane racing never clicks. No, Speed Racer, no.

THE STRANGERS

(R) The Strangers - a shotgun blast of genuine domestic terror, delivered to the gut, then the chest, and finally the face - is the scariest film I’ve seen in years and, quite possibly, the most frightening film I’ve ever seen in a theater. The Strangers lacks a lick of the fun irony of the post-Scream horror genre and has been cleansed of the malicious good humor of Hostel as well as the overstimulation of Saw. First-time writer/director Bryan Bertino pulls no punches, and he knows how - and where - to land them most effectively. The Strangers is not a fun horror movie, but it is a cathartic one.

TASTE OF CHERRY

(NR) 1997. Ta'm e Guilass chronicles the last day in the life of Mr. Badii, a suicidal old man seeking an assistant to bury him once the act is finished. Structured like the biblical parable of “The Good Samaritan,” Mr. Badii must ask several people from differing walks of life prior to finding a willing accomplice. Iranian writer/director Abbas Kiarostami won a share of Cannes’ Golden Palm for his contemplative, poignant film.

THE TINGLER

(NR) 1959. Vincent Price plays a pathologist who discovers a spinal parasite which can kill the host unless it is destroyed by screaming. After a botched operation on his friend's mute wife, he unwittingly releases "the tingler" onto the public at large. Mayhem ensues...

WALL•E

(PG) For 700 years, WALL•E, or Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class, has been cleaning an earth left filthy by its population of massive over-consumers. Once part of a fleet of robotic garbage men, WALL•E now labors alone, his only friend a resilient cockroach. WALL•E is the most human, inhuman character Disney has animated since Pinocchio. He says little, and that minimal vocalization - provided by Ben Burtt - singularly strengthens the film’s Jacques Tati-an, silent-era playfulness. Then one day, a ship lands and launches EVE, a temperamental robotic beauty that captures WALL•E’s heart. After a begrudging, one-sided courtship, EVE returns to her spaceship, doggedly followed by WALL•E, thus beginning the most exciting, romantic adventure in the universe. Leave it to Finding Nemo writer/director Andrew Stanton to rocket Pixar back to the animated heavens. With WALL•E, a deeply human story with only minimal human interaction and maximum entertainment value, Pixar again pulls off their most stunning feat, making the rare creation of an animated masterpiece look so easy.

WANTED

(R) Action fans are delivered from the drudgery of the common stunt by the comic book-inspired, Harry Potter-meets-Fight Club fantasy of anti-hero, Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy). Wesley leaves the evil and boring vagary of cubicle life for the magical world of bullet-curving assassin-dom when the Fraternity, a thousand-year-old guild led by Sloan (Morgan Freeman, playing fast and loose with his saintly mentorship) and marketed by the beautiful Fox (Angelina Jolie), comes to call. The trailers may play up Jolie, McAvoy and Freeman, but the real star of Wanted is director Timur Bekmambetov. All the promise of over-the-top violence and playful subversion of physics showcased in his Russian films, Night Watch and Day Watch (star Konstantin Khabensky makes a brief appearance), is present. Bekmambetov is a foreign filmmaking rock star waiting to explode in America, and his breakthrough picture possesses all the loud, brash theatrics to ensure his success.

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS...

(PG-13) How funny you find Vegas will depend greatly on how well you tolerate selfishness in others and how entertaining/cute you find the two mismatched stars. Kutcher spends much of the film being nauseatingly obnoxious (and this after he’d started to grow on me). Diaz shows little of her own comic spark. Corddry supplies a few insufficient, idiotic laughs. Like the ads say, What Happens in Vegas... should stay in Vegas.

Drew Wheeler