American Wedding
Rated R
2 stars
Starring Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Eugene Levy
Directed by Jesse Dylan
Having dated through college Jim and Michelle are ready to take
the next step into marriage. The promise of a storybook wedding is
compromised when Stifler invites himself to participate as a
groomsman and sets his eye on Michelle’s younger sister.
American Wedding
Rated R
2 stars
Starring Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Eugene Levy
Directed by Jesse Dylan
Having dated through college Jim and Michelle are ready to take the next step into marriage. The promise of a storybook wedding is compromised when Stifler invites himself to participate as a groomsman and sets his eye on Michelle’s younger sister.
While Pie was a hilariously pleasant surprise, Wedding serves up something a little too familiar. Sappy expositions of love and growing up punctuate a steady stream of Farrely Brothers’ style gross-out jokes. That being said, the movie is not without its moments, mostly with Stifler’s character at the center of them.
Gigli
Rated PG-13
1 star
Directed By Martin Brest
Starring Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez
L.A. mob underling Larry Gigli is sent to kidnap the “mentally deficient” brother of a federal prosecutor. A beautiful lesbian hitman is sent to supervise him causing an unlikely romantic situation.
Ben and J-Lo do the Sean and Madonna thing in this cumbersome comedy/drama/gangster/love story. Gigli’s absurdities (Why does L.A.-raised Larry have an East Coast accent? Exactly what kind of hyper functioning autism is the brother stricken with? Why is Christopher Walken in this?) are its only enjoyable features. Otherwise it’s a self conscious hodgepodge that ends up being too dull to actually hate.
Johnny English
PG-13
2 stars
Directed By Peter Howitt
Starring Rowan Atkinson, Natalie Imbruglia
After unwittingly engineering the deaths of all of Britain’s top spies, lowly assistant Johnny English is the only member of MI7 left to foil an evil Frenchman’s plan to steal the crown jewels and have himself crowned King of England.
Mercifully short of the godawful slapstick mugging that characterizes “Mr. Bean,” English also fails to give Atkinson the chance to show off the sly delivery he perfected in BBC’s Black Adder. Although very few knees will get slapped in the course of this film, viewers should find themselves consistently chuckling. Wait for it to come out on cable.
Bad Boys II
R
2 stars
Directed By Michael Bay
Starring Will Smith, Martin Lawrence
Rated R
Smith and Lawrence reprise their 1995 roles as Mike and Marcus, special drug enforcement officers based in Miami. As they battle a Cuban drug lord, they discover that Marcus’ sister, an undercover DEA agent, is in danger.
The easy charm and excellent chemistry between Smith and Lawrence could easily have carried a two-hour film and made it very entertaining. However, at two-and-a-half hours, director Bay tries our patience and our stomachs with gratuitous violence and endless chase scenes. The last half hour also contains uncomfortable right wing overtones involving an invasion of Cuba by our erstwhile heroes.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
PG-13
3 stars
Directed by Gore Verbinski
Starring Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom
Pirate captain Jack Sparrow steals a ship in hopes of catching the pirate crew that stole his own ship, The Black Pearl. However, a horrible curse has befallen his former crew, turning them into undead creatures in search of a means of reversing their fate.
Johnny Depp is fun to watch as the pirate captain, and his scenes opposite Geoffrey Rush are among some of the best in the movie. The special effects might be too frightening for small children, but Pirates should be lots of fun for everyone else.
Finding Nemo
4 stars
G
Starring Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres
Marlin, a skittish clown fish, loses his entire family in an unfortunate underwater incident save his son, Nemo. When a scuba diving dentist takes Nemo home to his office fish tank, Marlin sets off to rescue him.
Pixar hits another one out of the park. The vastness of the ocean provides ample opportunities for Pixar’s CG artists to play. The ample eye-candy serves to support, not distract from, the clever story and charming characters.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
PG-13
3 stars
Directed By Stephen Norrington
Starring Sean Connery, Peta Wilson
Alan Quartermain, Minna Harker, The Invisible Man, Dorian Gray, Dr. Jekyll, Captain Nemo and Tom Sawyer are recruited by a mysterious man to combat the forces of The Phantom, who wishes to start a world war as a means to profit from his next generation of modern weapons.
The comic book adaptation gets a Victorian treatment. Fans not vehemently attached to Alan Moore’s source material should enjoy League’s gothic scenery, reminiscent of ‘Batman.’ Although frequently guilty of overexposition, League ties a variety of classic literary heroes together in an entertaining manner.
