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Superman Returns
Action.Adventure Warner Home Video PG-13
If Richard Donner's 1978 feature film "Superman: The Movie" made us believe a man could fly, Bryan Singer's 2006 follow-up, "Superman Returns", lets us remember that a superhero movie can make our spirits soar. Superman (played by newcomer Brandon Routh) comes back to Earth after a futile five-year search for his destroyed home planet of Krypton. As alter ego Clark Kent, he's eager to return to his job at the Daily Planet and to see Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth). Lois, however, has moved on: she now has a fiancé (James Marsden), a son (Tristan Leabu), and a Pulitzer Prize for her article entitled "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." On top of this emotional curveball, his old archrival Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) is plotting the biggest land grab in history.
Singer, who made a strong impression among comic-book fans for his work on the X-Men franchise and directed Spacey in "The Usual Suspects", brings both a fresh eye and a sense of respect to the world's oldest superhero. He borrows John Williams's great theme music and Marlon Brando's voice as Jor-El, and the story (penned by Singer's "X-Men" collaborators Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris) is a sort-of-sequel to the first two films in the franchise (choosing to ignore that the third and fourth movies ever happened). The humorous and romantic elements give the movie a heart, Singer's art-deco Metropolis is often breathtaking, and the special effects are elegant and spectacular, particularly an early airplane-disaster set-piece. Of the cast, Routh is excellent as the dual Superman/Clark, Spacey is both droll and vicious as Luthor, and Parker Posey gets the best lines as Luthor's moll Kitty. But at 23, Bosworth seems too young for the five-years-past-grizzled Lois. It's nice to see Noel Neill, Jack Larson (both from the classic "Adventures of Superman" TV series), and Eva Marie-Saint on the screen as well. Superman Returns is one of those projects that was in development for seemingly forever, but it was worth the wait -- it's the most enjoyable superhero movie since "Spider-Man 2" and "The Incredibles". "--David Horiuchi"

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Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Comedy Sony Pictures PG-13

Sweet baby Jesus, we thank you for blessing Will Ferrell and Adam McKay with the talent to create a NASCAR comedy as hilarious as "Talladega Nights". The so-called ""Ballad of Ricky Bobby"" is hardly flawless in fact it's not always firing on all cylinders but with comedy star Ferrell and director McKay still hot from the success of their previous comedy hit "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy", most of this 108-minute spoof of oval-track racing is so knee-slappin' funny that you can't help but surrender to the stupidity.



































Obviously, Ferrell's the shining star, and his portrayal of lead-footed pit-crew-member-turned-#1 NASCAR champion Ricky "I Wanna Go Fast" Bobby (how can you not love that name?) is spot-on perfect, righteously spoofing the entirety of NASCAR culture without insulting its oft-ridiculed roots in redneck bootlegging of a bygone era. You could even argue that Talladega Nights is truer to NASCAR than Tom Cruise's "Days of Thunder", and it's certainly more entertaining, especially when you add John C. Reilly as Ricky's life-long pal, teammate, and eventual rival Cal Naughton, Jr. (together they're nicknamed "Shake 'n Bake"), and Sacha Baron Cohen (from "Da Ali G Show" and "Borat") as gay French "Formula Un" driver-turned NASCAR rival Jean Girrard, to a stellar cast including Molly Shannon, Greg Germann, Amy Adams and Michael Clarke Duncan.













Sure, it's mostly a showcase for Ferrell's loud, over-the-top antics and nonsensical non sequiturs (like cameo appearances by Elvis Costello and Mos Def), but with Ferrell behind the wheel, "Talladega Nights" rolls into victory lane with fuel to spare, and there's one final bit of comedy (with a tip of the hat to William Faulkner) for those who sit through the credits. --"Jeff Shannon"














Stills from "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby"(click for larger image)

















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Team America - World Police
Comedy Paramount Unrated
An elite U.S. counter-terrorism squad loses a member while decimating half of Paris in the reckless pursuit of Middle Eastern maniacs; a Broadway actor with a traumatic childhood secret is naturally hired to replace him. Oh--and they're all marionettes. "South Park" maestros Trey Parker and Matt Stone (along with co-writer Pam Brady) came up with this shameless satire of pea-brained Hollywood action flicks and even smaller-minded global politics, so don't expect subtlety or even a hint of good taste. "Team America" is soon on the trail of North Korea's evil Kim Jong Il, who treats us to a tender song about his loneliness before ensnaring Alec Baldwin and the rest of the oblivious Film Actors Guild (F.A.G. for short) in a plot to blow up every major city on the planet. Just as the mindless squad cheerfully demolishes everything in sight, so do director Parker and company. Throwing punches Left, Right, and in-between, the movie's politics leave no turn un-stoned; there's even time to bludgeon the musical "Rent". It's offensive, irresponsible comic anarchy seemingly made by sniggering little boys. "Painfully funny" sniggering little boys."--Steve Wiecking"

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - The Movie
Action.Adventure New Line Home Video PG
You can chalk it up to good timing and a heavy dose of video-game synergy, but this 1990 hit remains the box-office champ of independent films, with a total gross of $135 million. Of course the Turtles began as a phenomenally successful Nintendo video game, so it was a given that the movie would be a hit with its target audience of rabid young video addicts. This is what comic books fans call "the origin story," in which we learn how a foursome of small turtles were mutated by a green radioactive goo and turned into human-sized turtle crime fighters. Their large rodent mentor, Splinter, teaches them to master the martial arts. They're also gifted pop musicians, by the way (think of them as amphibious Spice Guys), so they can rock the house while they're cracking a crime wave with the help of their cute friend and television reporter April O'Neil (Judith Hoag). The script is terrible, of course, but countless millions of children don't seem to care, as long as the Turtles keep ordering pizza and dispensing their wisecracking brand of justice. "--Jeff Shannon"

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny
Comedy New Line Home Video R
You don't have to be a munchie-loving stoner or an aspiring rock god to enjoy "Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny", but it helps. A dozen years after they introduced their mock-rock power duo on the Los Angeles club scene, Jack Black and Kyle Gass finally got the movie showcase (a partial spinoff from the D's short-lived HBO series) their fans had been waiting for, and it's a rockin' romp with plenty of crude laughs that will hit home for anyone who's ever played air guitar to Meat Loaf's "Bat out of Hell." It's a "Beavis and Butt-head"-like origin story, recalling the legend (ahem) of how JB (Black) and KG (Gass) met, bonded over bong-hits and rock-operatic guitar licks, then set out (on a tip from a crazed guitar-store clerk played by Ben Stiller) to find the mythic pick of destiny, used by all guitar gods and said to be fashioned from the tooth of Satan. Their quest includes a variety of well-cast cameos (including Tim Robbins, Meat Loaf, and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl as Satan himself), and there's plenty of flatulence, drug humor, at least one hilarious fantasy sequence, and outrageous sight gags too numerous to mention. Suffice it to say, it's about 90 minutes of lowbrow indulgence, and some of the jokes fall flat, but if you're a headbanger at heart, you'll know what "Tenacious D" is riffing on, and the sweet licks (also available on the soundtrack CD) will sound that much sweeter. If you're not ready to RAWK, this potential cult favorite may not be for you... but give it try anyway. It may not be better than "Citizen Kane", but if you're properly stoked, it comes close to rock & roll heaven. "--Jeff Shannon"

Thank You for Smoking
Comedy 20th Century Fox R
As the saying goes, Aaron Eckhart was born to play Nick Naylor, the 30-something "voice of Big Tobacco" in this brazen satire of corporate profits and what lobbyists will do to protect them. Right from the opening, Eckhart is in spin mode, turning the tables on a popular talk show when he states health officials want a young teen stricken by cancer to die more than big tobacco does, since the boy would be a martyr to them, but only a single lost customer to the industry. Audiences gasp, panelists guffaw, and the kid happily shakes Nick's hand. The Academy of Tobacco Studies has a colorful array of folks surrounding Nick, including his cantankerous boss (J.K. Simmons) and the Colonel (Robert Duvall), tobacco's undisputed leader. His closet friends are lobbyists for guns (David Koechner) and alcohol (Maria Bello) who discuss their odd businesses over regular lunches, but when a cutie-pie reporter (Katie Holmes) swings into Nick's life, things begin to unravel. Based on Christopher Buckley's even more outlandish novel, "Thank You for Smoking" is a bright light for the filmgoer tired of gutless films formulated by committee, and first-time filmmaker Jason Reitman has expertly cast the film, which includes deft turns by William H. Macy and Sam Elliot. Nick's son, a throwaway in the novel, becomes a major influence here in Nick's development and a key student of Naylorisms such as, "If you argue correctly, then you're never wrong," though a father and son trip to Hollywood to visit an uber agent (Rob Lowe at his most suave) demonstrates how the inclusion of the son both helps and hurts the film. Book fans will miss the wicked plot turn, but the final result is a sharp and smart comedy deserving of a long, savory drag. "--Doug Thomas"

There's Something About Mary
Comedy 20th Century Fox R
Ted (Ben Stiller) is still in love with his high school prom date, Mary (Cameron Diaz), even though it's been years after the humiliating incident that cut their date short. Ted hires Pat, a private detective (Matt Dillon) to track her down, but Pat ends up falling in love with her too, starting a battle for Mary's heart.

Three Kings
Action.Adventure Warner Home Video R
A confident hybrid of "M*A*S*H", "Treasure of the Sierra Madre", and "Dr. Strangelove", "Three Kings" is one of the most seriously funny war movies ever made. Improving the premise of "Kelly's Heroes" with scathing intelligence, it explores the odd connection between war and consumerism in the age of Humvees and cellular phones. Writer-director David O. Russell's third film (after "Spanking the Monkey" and "Flirting with Disaster"), it's a no-holds-barred portrait of personal conscience in the volatile arena of politics, played out by one of the most gifted filmmakers to emerge in the 1990s.
George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, and Spike Jonze (director of "Being John Malkovich") play a quartet of U.S. soldiers who, disillusioned by Operation Desert Storm, decide to steal $23 million in gold hijacked from Kuwait by Saddam Hussein's army. Getting the bullion out of an Iraqi stronghold is easy; keeping it is a potentially lethal proposition. By the end of their mercenary mission, the Americans can no longer ignore wartime atrocities (and neither can we--the film is boldly unflinching), and conscience demands their aid to Iraqi rebels abandoned by President George Bush's fickle wartime policy. This is serious stuff indeed, but Russell infuses "Three Kings" with a keen sense of the absurd, and the entire film is an exercise in breathtaking visual ingenuity. Despite a conventional ending that's mildly disappointing for such a brashly original film, "Three Kings" conveys the brutal madness of war while making you laugh out loud at the insanity. "--Jeff Shannon"

Time Bandits
Comedy Anchor Bay Entertainment PG
From a script cowritten with his fellow Monty Python veteran Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam pulled out all the stops on his prodigious imagination for this comedy-fantasy from 1981. Film critic Pauline Kael was right when she wrote, "This may be one of those rare pictures that suffers from a surfeit of good ideas," because there's not enough plot to keep pace with the sheer inventiveness of Gilliam's filmmaking. That hasn't stopped Time Bandits from becoming a classic, of sorts, attracting a cult following as a semi-reunion of the Python gang (with Palin and John Cleese making splendid appearances) and a rousing adventure of near-epic proportions. It's about a kid named Kevin (Craig Warnock) who joins a band of mischievous dwarves on a jaunt through various eras and epochs. They've stolen a map to holes in the space-time continuum that belongs to the Supreme Being (suitably played by Sir Ralph Richardson), and as Kevin survives a variety of heroic adventures, including an encounter with King Agamemnon (Sean Connery), an Evil Genius (David Warner) pursues the coveted map using his nefarious magical powers. As a warm-up for Gilliam's later, even more ambitious fantasies, Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, this is a dazzling dose of cinematic whimsy, and Gilliam doesn't compromise the darkness of his tale with an artificially upbeat ending. There's as much menace in Time Bandits as there is an awesome sense of wonder, and that gives the movie an extra kick of timeless appeal. --Jeff Shannon

Titan A.E.
Science Fiction Twentieth Century Fox Home Video PG
A visual knockout, Titan A.E. is an ambitious animated feature that combines traditional animations, computer-generated imagery, and special effects in the service of a science fiction adventure plotted with narrative conventions familiar from Star Wars and Star Trek. Credit directors Don Bluth (An American Tail, The Secret of NIMH, Anastasia) and Gary Goldman with crafting a vivid, convincing look to this deep space saga, which conjures some stunning images. A tense opening sequence climaxing in the destruction of Earth, a watery planet where delicate but deadly hydrogen trees float, joyriding in a starship while pursued by playful "space angels," and a nerve-wracking journey through a lethal maze of massive ice crystals each qualify as mesmerizing sequences in any film context. What's visually stunning proves intermittently stunted on the narrative front, however. Orphaned when the evil Drej atomize Earth, protagonist Cale (voiced by Matt Damon) must journey across space to unlock the mystery of his late father's final project, the Titan spacecraft, in a test of faith and filial identity that echoes Star Wars. The Titan itself ultimately poses a cosmic potential familiar to admirers of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Comical sidekicks (Nathan Lane, Janeane Garofalo, John Leguizamo), a sultry love interest (Drew Barrymore), and a roguish mentor (Bill Pullman) all verge on the generic, narrowly redeemed by dialogue from a writing team including Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon. It's likely that Titan's target audience of young males prompted the filmmakers to walk a tightrope between softer family features and more violent, hard-edged anime. Titan's brief bloodshed and coy nudity stop short of PG-13 terrain, though younger viewers might be unsettled by the violence. Young teens will find the proceedings tamer than the video games and anime fantasies that have influenced it. --Sam Sutherland

The Tooth Fairy
Horror Anchor Bay NR
Put A Tooth Under Your Pillow And Let The Bloodbath Begin Northern California, 1949: In the woods outside of a small town, a hideous witch lured children to her crumbling home where she stole their teeth, butchered their bodies, and cursed their souls to wander the earth forever. Decades later the house has been converted into a quaint country inn, but an untold evil remains: The witch's slumber has been disturbed, and her vengeful spirit seeks the violent slaughter of all who stay there. And for one eleven-year-old girl with a loose molar and an active imagination, the ultimate horror begins with a visit from THE TOOTH FAIRY. Chandra West (WHITE NOISE), Lochlyn Munro (FREDDY VS. JASON) and P.J. Soles (HALLOWEEN, THE DEVIL'S REJECTS) star in this grisly shocker written by Stephen J. Cannell that rips open the dark side of a not-so-innocent childhood legend.

The Transporter
Action.Adventure 20th Century Fox PG-13
Move over, Vin Diesel, because "The Transporter", Hong Kong action veteran Corey Yuen's English-language directorial debut, is revving up to steal your thunder. As the "other" top-billed action star to emerge in 2002, British hunk Jason Statham--previously seen in "Snatch", "Ghosts of Mars", and "The One"--plays a hard-driving courier for well-heeled underworld clients. He follows simple rules: (1) Stick to the deal; (2) Don't ask names; and (3) Don't look in the packages he transports. All's well until he violates rule 3, discovering a Chinese beauty (Qi Shu) in the trunk of his tricked-out BMW, and foiling a deadly plot to smuggle Chinese slaves through the port of Marseilles. The first hour is ass-kickin' fun, and the stuntwork is impressive throughout, even as the plot degenerates into a predictable series of bone-breaking showdowns. Statham boasts an appealing combination of brains "and" brawn, suggesting the suave versatility of a promising career. Coproduced by action auteur Luc Besson and filmed on dazzling French locations, "The Transporter" is an action fan's delight. "--Jeff Shannon"

Transporter 2
Action.Adventure 20th Century Fox PG-13
"Transporter 2" knows what its audience wants and--like its title character--it delivers. This is a movie that has not only a fight choreographer but also a car stunt choreographer; a movie in which a female assassin wears nothing but a bra and panties because, presumably, additional clothing would be too cumbersome; a movie in which crashing through a concrete wall in order to leap over a four-lane street will not even rumple the hood of the hero's car; a movie in which a drunken supermodel, after her advances are chastely and gently rebuffed by the hero, says "Thanks for the respect--that's what I needed most"; a movie, in short, for those who liked the first "Transporter" but found it too subdued and character-driven. Jason Statham ("The Italian Job") reprises his role as Frank Martin, a perhaps overly diligent chauffer who will break bones if his duty is impeded. The sheer glee with which "Transporter 2" casts aside logic, probability, and the laws of physics is infectious. If the sequence in which Frank flips his car upside-down in order to detach the bomb attached to his undercarriage doesn't reduce you to intoxicated giggles, well...you're watching the wrong movie. "Transporter 2" is utterly shameless, unstoppably ridiculous, and completely enjoyable. Also featuring Amber Valetta ("Hitch"), Jason Flemyng ("Snatch"), and Matthew Modine. "--Bret Fetzer"

Trigun - Complete Boxed Set
Anime.Action Pioneer Video NR
Who and what is Vash the Stampede, a.k.a. "The Humanoid Typhoon"? To bounty hunters, he's an outlaw with 60,000,000,000 Double Dollars on his head. To Meryl Stryfe and Millie Thompson of the Bernardelli Insurance Society, he's a walking disaster area who's cost the company a fortune. To "otaku", he's one of the most popular characters in anime. Based on Yasuhiro Nightow's "manga", this comic adventure takes place in the distant future on a desert planet that looks like the American Old West. Vash wanders from town to town, unsuccessfully pursuing peace, doughnuts, and "the mayfly known as love." Meryl and Millie follow him, trying to minimize the destruction, but Vash's only real friend is the gun-totin' preacher Nicholas Wolfwood. Despite their grudging affection, Wolfwood articulates the other characters' thoughts when he tells Vash, "When you're around, things always seem to get worse!"
Anime heroes tend to be either cold-blooded warriors who kill for honor (the "Gundam Wing" pilots) or unlikely nerds who grow into the role of warrior when it's thrust upon them (Shinji Ikari in "Evangelion"). Sometimes comic and kooky, sometimes gentle and earnest, Vash reveres life and agonizes over the bloodshed he inadvertently causes. He'd rather eat than demonstrate his amazing marksmanship: he doesn't fire a shot until the fifth episode, although one of his arms is actually a gun. Voice actor Johnny Yong Bosh articulates both Vash's suffering and adolescent exuberance whenever he sees a pretty girl with exceptional panache. The runaway popularity of "Trigun" seems to have surprised the filmmakers. Although no plans have been announced for additional animation, a new "manga" series has appeared, "Trigun Maximum". It seems unlikely that the artists would prematurely end the adventures of a figure with so much potential--and so many fans. "--Charles Solomon"

Ultraviolet
SciFi.Fantasy Sony Pictures Unrated
As an overdose of eye candy, "Ultraviolet" can be marginally recommended as the second-half of a double-feature with "Aeon Flux". Both films are disposable adolescent fantasies featuring a butt-kicking babe (in this case, the svelte and sexy Milla Jovovich) in a dystopian future, and both specialize in the kind of barely-coherent, video-game storytelling that's constantly overwhelmed by an over-abundance of low-budget CGI. Director Kurt Wimmer fared much better with his earlier film "Equilibrium", but he's trying for a lively comic-book vibe here (beginning with "Hulk"-like opening credits) with a digitally enhanced, "Tron"-like color palette. It largely suits this late-21st century story of a "blood war" between the ultra-violent Violet (Jovovich), member of a vampire-like group of resistance fighters infected with a man-made virus called the Hemophage, and the human Vice Cardinal Daxus (Nick Chinlund), who's determined to eliminate Violet's kind once and for all. Wimmer takes all of this way too seriously, crafting a plot involving Violet's rescue of a human clone boy (Cameron Bright) that's intended as an homage to John Cassevetes' 1980 drama "Gloria", but Wimmer's good intentions are mostly lost in a repetitive series of chaotically choreographed fight scenes, mostly involving the tight-bodied Jovovich wiping out dozens of armor-clad enemies. It's all too numbingly hectic to qualify as a satisfying movie, but sci-fi buffs should give it a look anyway, if only to see how locations in Shanghai and Hong Kong contribute to the film's futuristic design."--Jeff Shannon"



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