February 17, 2006
Capsules by Michael Sragow and Chris Kaltenbach. Full reviews at baltimoresun.com/movies.
Annapolis -- wasn't shot in Annapolis and doesn't have an original thought in its head. James Franco is Jake Huard, son of a neglectful, working-class father. Determined not to spend his life in a factory, Jake gets an appointment to the Naval Academy. Those who have seen An Officer and a Gentleman know the rest of the plot. Once there, Jake faces nearly insurmountable odds, most the result of his uncanny ability to do the wrong thing at the wrong time. Then come the brigade boxing matches, through which he can prove his mettle and fitness to serve. (C.K.) PG-13 108 minutes C
Ballets Russes -- rouses the adrenaline surge rock fans associate with "battles of the bands" when it details the competition that ensued after clashing personalities, intent on reviving Sergei Diaghilev's famous troupe, split into the "Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo" and "Original Ballet Russe." Moviemakers Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine achieve an epic tapestry of artists expanding boundaries of their chosen form. (M.S.) Unrated 118 minutes A+
The Boys of Baraka -- provides eloquent and infuriating testimony to the failures of the Baltimore City public school system. But the two-year program it's based on - sending a score of 12- and 13-year-old African-American boys to a boarding school named Baraka, in Kenya - remains a sign of hope, even after the program disintegrates. And the movie is a sign of hope, too. It's unceasingly involving and entertaining. (M.S.) Unrated 84 minutes A
Brokeback Mountain -- stars Heath Ledger as the ranch-hand lover of rodeo-man Jake Gyllenhaal. After their first summer of love, they take wives and start families, but reconnect after four years. Soon they're going on "fishing trips" and comparing notes on lives of quiet desperation. The result is as close to a still life as you can get with live characters. (M.S.) R 134 minutes C
Capote -- is a bleakly funny, profoundly unsettling depiction of Truman Capote as a young literary lion on the scent of his "nonfiction novel" about a Kansas murder. As Capote bonds with killer Perry Smith, actor Philip Seymour Hoffman takes the writer from tenderness to brute manipulation. He creates the odyssey of a man who achieves a self-knowledge that defeats instead of strengthens him. (M.S.) R 114 minutes A+
Casanova -- stars Heath Ledger as a fictionalized version of the 18th- century lothario; here he tumbles for the feminist Francesca (Sienna Miller). The clever script involves a multitude of masquerades. But director Lasse Hallstrom's grace keeps subplots from registering as "complications." They're more like sumptuous chutes and ladders that turn the canalworks of Venice into a romantic slip 'n' slide. (M.S.) R 111 minutes A-
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe -- plummets into an imaginative landscape as large as all creation. As it moves from the Battle of Britain to a war between good and evil in the parallel world of Narnia, this film has everything a first-rate fantasy should have, including sweep, color and clarity. But it's also downright ennobling. It reminds us of the true meaning of "sacrifice." (M.S.) PG 140 minutes A
Curious George -- gives the fabled Man in the Yellow Hat a name (Ted), but otherwise all is as it should be in this winsome big-screen adaptation of H.A. and Margret Rey's tales of a mischievous monkey and his innocent adventures. The story is about Ted's search in Africa for a giant idol that will save his museum from bankruptcy and the little monkey who follows him home. Like the books from which it springs, Curious George is safe and tame, utterly without guile or malicious intent. Some adults may find the film unbearably simplistic, or its pace burdensomely slow. But it would be a shame if movie audiences have become so hyper-adrenalized that they can't appreciate a charmer like this one. (C.K.) G 87 minutes B
Final Destination 3 -- continues the movie franchise in which some teen and a group of his or her friends somehow cheat death, only to discover soon thereafter that the Grim Reaper doesn't like taking no for an answer. As the movie progresses, the teens meet their ends in grisly, increasingly intricate ways. Granted, there's a certain perverse fun in trying to outguess a movie like this. But this is the third trip to the same cinematic trough, and it's hard to believe even hard-core fans aren't getting a little tired of the repetition. (C.K.) R 90 minutes C
Firewall -- offers competently doctored formula: Grade B pap with a violent mickey in it. As a computer security V.P. for a bank, battling a master thief who locks down his family, Harrison Ford has the reliability and the plain and simple charm of the old Timex watch: he takes a licking and keeps on ticking. (M.S.) PG-13 106 minutes B-
