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MONDAY February 23, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels February 5, 2004 Movies Along Came Polly Yet another movie - following "There's Something About Mary," "Meet the Parents" and "Duplex" - in which Ben Stiller is humiliated and injured in countless ways, and has every imaginable bodily fluid spew from him or spilled on him. Here, he gets carried away on another wave of gross-out gags, all of them desperately straining for laughs, few of them truly earning any. He plays an uptight risk assessor who falls for a childhood friend, the free-spirited Polly (Jennifer Aniston). The episodic jokes from writer-director John Hamburg (who also wrote "Meet the Parents") quickly feel repetitive. But the supporting cast, including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bryan Brown and Alec Baldwin, is stellar. Rated PG-13 for sexual content, language, crude humor and some drug references. 90 min. HH Big Bounce Owen Wilson usually makes any movie better, simply by showing up and being Owen Wilson. But in this adaptation of an early Elmore Leonard crime novel, his easygoing likability is actually a liability; he lacks the edge needed to match the cadence of Leonard's dialogue. Also, the book's location has been moved from Michigan to Hawaii, so the trademark low-down-dirty-thief element of Leonard's work seems out of place in paradise. As the femme fatale mastermind of a plot to steal $200,000, Sara Foster is suitably sexy but simply has no there there. Meanwhile, actors who know what they're doing (Bebe Neuwirth, Charlie Sheen, Gary Sinise) are squandered, but Morgan Freeman maintains his usual stately presence. Rated PG-13 for sexual content and nudity, violence and language. 88 min. HI Big Fish If Fellini had directed "Forrest Gump," the result would be "Big Fish," a larger-than-life tale about a man who tells larger-than-life tales. "Big Fish" was directed by Tim Burton, himself a master of spinning spectacular stories. But like Edward Bloom, the film's protagonist (played in flashbacks as a young man by Ewan McGregor and in the present as an adult by Albert Finney), Burton tends to get carried away with himself. Ultimately the actors become secondary to the elaborate mythology in which they're immersed, which can detract from moments that are supposed to buzz with emotion. Burton seems more interested in piling on the weirdness -- but, hey at least the weirdness is imaginative. Rated PG-13 for a fight scene, some images of nudity and a suggestive reference. 125 min. HHH Butterfly Effect Very few movies have made me want to get up from my seat and leave the theater. This is one of them. And it's not even Ashton Kutcher's fault, though he's an easy target - the "Dude, Where's My Car?" dude asking to be taken seriously in a dramatic role. He plays a college student who goes back in time in hopes of reversing his wretched childhood. What he finds there is gratuitously disgusting: child molestation and brutal animal abuse, for starters, which we're forced to watch repeatedly as he struggles with his memories. (Kutcher himself, in case you're wondering, isn't bad.) Amy Smart plays the childhood girlfriend he tries to save, and Melora Walters plays his beleaguered mother. Rated R for violence, sexual content, language and brief drug use. 113 min. H Calendar Girls In the tradition of "The Full Monty," about British steel workers who bare their bits, comes this film based on a true story about late middle-aged British women who do everything BUT the so-called Full Monty. That is, they want to strip down for a charity calendar, but don't want anyone to see anything ... uh, specific. The nudity idea is concocted by Chris, the brash member of a stuffy women's club, who is tired of annual charity calendars that feature flowers and bridges. Chris is played by Helen Mirren, who at 58 is still very purr-worthy. A lot of the comedy comes from the older women fretting about how much to reveal, but most of the gags are relatively tame. Sweet and charming, but maybe too tasteful for its own good. Rated PG-13 for nudity, some language and drug-related material. 108 min. HHI Girl with a Pearl Earing Not that one intends any slight against a generally accomplished cast - featuring shooting star Scarlett Johansson - but it's the look and attention to detail that truly set the movie apart. And that's appropriate to a story about the mysterious way painters achieve something of beauty. Here, the artist is Johannes Vermeer, and in Peter Webber's film we get the possible back story to one of his best-known paintings. Cinematographer Eduardo Serra offers a visual rendering of the Dutch town of Delft in the 17th century that has a shimmering quality worthy of Vermeer himself. So ravishing is the film to look at - an achievement shared by production designer Ben van Os and costume designer Dien van Straalen - that its surface threatens to overwhelm its substance. Rated PG-13 for some sexual content. 99 min. HHHI House of Sand and Fog Like a human chemistry experiment, this drama documents the explosive mixture of pride and desperation. Jennifer Connelly plays a down-on-her-luck cleaning woman, evicted from her home because of a county tax mistake and her own negligence. Ben Kingsley is the other half of this formula, a stern former Iranian Air Force colonel who buys her bungalow at auction for a quarter of its worth. Neither wants to compromise, and the scenes between the two Oscar-winners are filled with loathing and compassion for both sides. First-time feature director Vadim Perelman and co-screenwriter Shawn Lawrence Otto impressively adapt Andre Dubus III's Oprah-endorsed novel, making this story of small-time failed humanity seem epic in scale, a metaphor for any conflict - global or personal. Rated R for violence and disturbing images, language and a scene of sexuality. 126 min. HHH In America Jim Sheridan proves as deft an interpreter of his own life as he has been of others' on such real-life tales as "My Left Foot" and "In the Name of the Father." Borrowing from his own family's experiences and collaborating with daughters Naomi and Kirsten on the screenplay, director Sheridan has fashioned a movie bathed in heart, humor and childlike grace. "In America" quietly yet powerfully traces the trials and joys of an Irish couple (Samantha Morton and Paddy Considine) and their two young daughters coping with grief and struggling for a toehold after immigrating to New York City. Sisters Sarah and Emma Bolger play the daughters with artlessly exuberant authenticity. Rated PG-13 for some sexuality, drug references, brief violence and language. 103 min. HHHI Mystic River 5 Golden Globe Nominations including Best Drama, Director, Screenplay, Actor and Supporting Actor. Three childhood friends whose relationship ended after a tragic accident are reunited 25 years later by a murder investigation. Directed by Clint Eastwood. With Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Laurence Fishburne, Kevin Bacon, Marcia Gay Harden, Laura Linney. Rated R for language and violence. 138 min. Perfect Score This is the scheme that would have landed "The Breakfast Club" kids in detention. It involves six students instead of five, and they represent a more ethnically diverse cross-section of campus. But their forced bonding - and the inevitable catharsis and enlightenment that result - are the same as in the 1985 John Hughes teen classic. The "Score" kids have nothing in common when they band together to break into a testing center and steal the SAT, but one at a time they end up confronting long-standing dreams, fears and resentments. It would all seem standard if not for the presence of Scarlett Johansson. Leonardo Nam, a sort of Asian Jack Black, gets the best lines and has a look of constant mischief in his eyes that makes him totally unpredictable. Rater PG-13 for language, sexual content and some drug references. 93 min. HH Miracle The story of the astonishing U.S. Olympic hockey victory over Russia in 1980. With Kurt Russell, Eddie Cahill, Patricia Clarkson. Rated PG for language and some rough sports action. 136 min. Barbershop 2 Gina, a stylist at the beauty shop next door, tries to cut in on Calvin's business, while Calvin continues to try to keep his father's shop and traditions alive. With Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer, Queen Latifah. Rated PG-13 for language, sexual material and brief drug references. 106 min. Catch that Kid A youngster, with the help of two friends, intends to rob the state-of-the-art bank where her mother works in order to acquire the cash needed for a costly operation to save her father. With Kristen Stewart, Jennifer Beals, Sam Robards, James LeGros. PG for some language, thematic elements and rude humor. 92 min. Monster Academy Award Nominee, Best Actress. Drama about the life of Aileen Carol Wuornos, a highway prostitute who was exectured for killing seven men in the state of Florida in the 1980's. With Charlize Theron, Christina Ricci, Bruce Dern, Lee Tergesen, Annie Corley, Pruitt Taylor Vince Rated R for strong violence and sexual content, and for pervasive language. 111 min. 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