(Julianne Moore), in 1950s Los Angeles, and the modern New Yorker, Clarissa (Meryl Streep), frantic about preparing a par ty for her AIDS-dying former lover, the writer Richard (Ed Harris). The stories link. The conception is all of a piece, organically imagined. It sends out tendrils of dark feeling about life and dying, ar t and love and transience. Cast: Meryl Streep, Ed Harris, Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, Stephen Dillane, Miranda Richardson, Jef f Daniels, Claire Danes. Running time: 1 hr., 54 mins. (Elliot t) ★★1/2
How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days (PG-13) —
Mat thew McConaughey plays a ladies’ man who has trouble set tling down. He accepts a bet from two friends — to win, he just has to stay in a relationship more than 10 days. The girl he happens to pick, however, has entered into a bet with her friends: that she can lose a guy in 10 days. Cast: Kate Hudson, Mat thew McConaughey, Adam Goldberg. Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie (G) — The animated group of vegetables that stars in the "Veggie Tales" car toons comes to the big screen in "Jonah." A van of singing veggies breaks down in front of a strange seafood joint inhabited by a lazy bunch of pirates who proceed to spin the tale of Jonah and the whale for the impressionable young vegetables. Cast: Phil Vischer, Kristin Blegen, Mike Nawrocki, Lisa Vischer. Running time: 1 hr., 23 mins. Just Married (PG-13) — Sarah, who comes from a well-to-do, snobbish family, falls in love with a traf fic repor ter — much to her family’s chagrin. The happy couple embarks on a honeymoon plagued by bad luck and the inter ference of Sarah’s ex-boy friend, commissioned by her family to split up the fledgling marriage. Cast: Ashton Kutcher, Brit tany Murphy, Christian Kane, David Moscow. Kangaroo Jack (PG) — Two childhood friends, Charlie (Jerry O'Connell) and Louis (Anthony Anderson), from Brooklyn are forced to deliver a mysterious envelope to Australia af ter one of them accidentally causes the police to raid a mob warehouse. En route to the land down under, Louis peeks in the package and discovers that it contains $50,000. Af ter the guys arrive in the Outback, they accidentally run over a kangaroo. Louis decides to take pictures of the animal and even puts shades and his lucky jacket on the 'roo, which is only stunned and hops away with the jacket containing the money. Now the guys are forced to chase the animal through the Outback, or they'll have to repay the mob with their lives. The real star of "Kangaroo Jack" is the beautiful Outback. That alone may be wor th the price of admission. Or not. Cast: Jerry O'Connell, Anthony Anderson, Estella Warren, Christopher Walken, Dyan Cannon, Mar ton Csokas. Running time: 1 hr., 30 mins. (McCormick) ★
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (PG13) — Long, violent, death-fixated, dark in tone,
heavy in heroic mood, this is a film for addicts of the series. Lit tle Frodo is marginalized as Viggo Mor tensen leads the defense of a castle from hordes of vicious scumballs, and the two grand beards (Ian McKellan, Christopher Lee) contend for Middle Ear th. There's a little schizo in a wispy loincloth, expressively per formed and voiced, but the almost Stone Age mythology rolls over us like layers of geology. 3 hrs. (Elliot t) ★★ Maid in Manhattan (PG-13) — The airy fantasy puts Jennifer Lopez into a cute maid's uniform at a swank New York hotel. She's Marisa, and when she tries on the very expensive, if rather Bel Air trophy wife out fit of a snobbish guest, this at tracts the "playboy" eye of senatorial hopeful Chris Marshall (Ralph Fiennes). Chris' manager (Stanley Tucci) is in controlfreak agony that the Republican politician might fall in love with someone not toity and rich. The film is most marked by the flagrant waste of talent. As the sitcom
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“Narc”
yucks racked up their lit tle nif ties, perked along by music, I had a weird, tiny pinch of nostalgia for "Jackass: The Movie." Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Ralph Fiennes, Bob Hoskins, Natasha Richardson, Stanley Tucci, Tyler Garcia Posey. Running time: 1 hr., 35 mins. (Elliot t) ★1/2
My Big Fat Greek Wedding (PG) —
Unmarried Toula Por tokalos is a 30-year-old waitress in her parents’ Greek restaurant, Dancing Zorba’s. Vowing to change, she gets a makeover and takes a job in her aunt’s travel agency, where, newly confident, she meets handsome Ian Miller — a high-school teacher who is definitely not Greek. The tale is familiar: strong and fiercely commit ted to their ethnic roots family but ts heads with the outsider wanting to marry into the group. But “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” of fers enough in the way of wit to stifle the sitcom feel a film like this might otherwise have. Cast: Nia Vardalos, John Corbet t, Louis Mandylor, Gia Carides, Joey Fatone. Running time: 1 hr., 35 mins. Narc (R) — opens with a breathless foot chase. One man is shot in the throat, another is shot dead, a pregnant woman is wounded. Narcotics detective Nick Tellis (Jason Patric) is mentally on the street every moment. An ace at undercover work, but emotionally too strapped to his work, Tellis is suspended for that opening carnage. His wife wants him to quit. It isn't a pension plan that makes him want to stay on the force, it's his pride — and the glory-in-risk of a topping case, to solve the murder of another narcotics officer. But to do that he must work with the strong-arm veteran Lt. Henry Oak (Ray Liot ta), who is stoking a hot fuse about his young, dead par tner and the worm farm that is depar tment politics. The case drags them into a sor t of moral mudslide. "Narc" suggests that the mean streets are meaner than you want to know — but might wish to see filmed and acted this effectively. Cast: Ray Liot ta, Jason Patric, Anne Openshaw, Busta Rhymes. Running time: 1 hr., 45 mins. (Elliot t) ★★★1/2 National Security (PG-13) — Mar tin Lawrence and Steve Zahn play L.A.P.D. rejects on both ends of the spectrum who get paired up as security guards. While on par tol, they uncover a smuggling operation, in between bits of slapstick that are obligatory for films of this genre. The Ring (PG-13) — begins with the telling of an urban-legend-like tale that, for a while, seems likely to consign this movie to the slasher/horror bin: A weird videotape is circulating. As soon as you're through watching it, the telephone rings. A voice on the phone informs you that you have seven days to live. Seven days later, you die. The film boasts first-rate per formances, a gorgeous look, an engaging plot and a jangly, thrumming sense of dread. The ef fectiveness of such a movie depends entirely on the beholder. Save for a long, uneasy feeling of foreboding and one solid jolt, I didn't find it all that scary. Two young women exiting the theater in front of me, however, declared that the thing had terrified them, and I'm willing to take their word for it. Cast: Naomi Wat ts, Mar tin Henderson, David Dor fman, Brian Cox. Running time: 1 hr., 55 mins. (Salm) ★★1/2 The Santa Clause 2 (G) — Tim Allen discovers af ter eight years of being Santa that there's another small detail in his contract: In order for him to continue being the Jolly Old Elf, he's got to take a wife. But first he has to deal with his son, Charlie (Eric Lloyd), who's landed himself on the naughty list. Charlie's principal (Elizabeth Mitchell) wants him gone pronto and is a bit blue because the holidays don't mean as much to her as they once did. With 28 days to go before the contract expires, Santa's got a lot of work to do. One of his trusty elves comes up with a machine that can duplicate Santa while he's out in the real world hunting
for a wife. Allen is remarkable playing Santa as funny, wise and sympathetic, all at the same time. 1 hr., 42 mins. (McCormick) ★★★ Shanghai Knights (PG-13) — Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson return as Chon Wang and Roy O’Bannon in this sequel to “Shanghai Noon.” When Wang’s father is murdered by a Chinese rebel, who flees to England, the pair travel to London to get revenge. They meet up with Wang’s sister Liu, who has discovered a conspiracy to murder the royal family. Cast: Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson, Donnie Yen. Signs (PG-13) — Mel Gibson plays Father Graham Hess, an Episcopal priest who lost his faith and retired his collar af ter his wife was killed in an auto accident. He lives in an old farmhouse with two adorable kids, plus a younger brother (Joaquin Phoenix). Big, elegantly precise "crop signs" turn up in their cornfield. It's space aliens, and the movie teases us as the signs pile up. The aliens show up, shoving clawed hands under doors but scared by steak knives, full of evil strength, yet not able to knock down the pathetic blockade of a fruit cellar. "Signs," though handsomely shot, seems meant for viewers who need to believe in tabloid aliens, and that we can beat them with plainspun, homeland vir tues. It should be called "Sins" for compounding the sins of bad filming. Cast: Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin, M. Night Shyamalan, Cherry Jones. Running time: 1 hr., 46 mins. (Elliot t) ★
Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams (PG) — A cheer ful theme park of a comedy about
junior spies, with a bigger budget and more inventive fun than the 2001 original (the plot is no advance). Rober t Rodriguez directed, wrote, helped with the digital ef fects and gizmo touches, including excellent creatures. The many Hispanic rif fs do not land with PC heaviness, and the lively cast includes Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara as the main kids, plus Antonio Banderas, Steve Buscemi, Carla Gugino, Alan Cumming, Bill Pa x ton, Tony Shalhoub, Danny Trejo, Cheech Marin and (still macho at 81) Ricardo Montalban. Running time: 1 hr., 27 mins. (Elliot t) ★★★ Sweet Home Alabama (PG-13) — Only a year and two weeks af ter New York became our most tormented but inspiring city, it is upstaged by a happy hicksville called Pigeon Creek. Why? Because cute "Mel" (Reese Witherspoon) fled poor-folks marriage to Pigeon Creek sweethear t Jake (Josh Lucas). She is now a light of Manhat tan as fashion designer Melanie Carmichael. And she has the love of politically upward dreamboat Andrew (Patrick Dempsey, son of The Apple's tough but dishy mayor, Candice Bergen). Andy doesn't know that his betrothed is still married to 'Bama boy Jake, who is hur t, haunted and planning his own rise from mediocrity. Mel returns home for a divorce, puts on her corn-pone accent instantly, and rediscovers the joys of Pigeon Creek. Director Andy Tennant serves this corny material with the skill of a machine punching out Alabama license plates. Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Josh Lucas, Patrick Dempsey, Fred Ward, Mary Kay Place, Candice Bergen. Running time: 1 hr., 40 mins. (Elliot t) ★★ They (PG-13) — A grad student witnesses a horrifying incident, which rekindles her childhood fears of the dark and night terrors. Soon, she finds herself wondering if the images that plagued her as a child were real. Cast: Larua Regan, Marc Blucas, Dagmara Dominczyk, Ethan Embry, John Abrahams. Treasure Planet (PG) — The movie transmutes Rober t Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" into the heavily digitalized animation of a "Star Wars" of fshoot. Now Jim is a very American and stalwar t 'toon-teen voiced by Joseph Gordon-Levit t, and Silver (Brian Murray) is a huge cyborg with an old-salt pirate face and tech arms wor thy of the Terminator on a hardware rampage. A space movie that has interstellar craf t with lof ty, luminous sails and crusty barnacles on hulls is so absurd that it's charming. In visual fer tility, "Treasure Planet" rivals the top Japanese animations of recent vintage. For the sub-13 crowd (and many beyond it), this is satisfying holiday enter tainment. Voices: Joseph Gordon-Levit t, Emma Thompson, Michael Wincot t, Brian Murray, Mar tin Shor t, Laurie Metcalf, Roscoe Lee Browne, Patrick McGoohan. Running time: 1 hr., 35 mins. (Elliot t) ★★★ Two Weeks Notice (PG-13) — Lucy Kelson (Sandra Bullock) is a smar t but stressed at torney whose client, millionaire George Wade (Hugh Grant), is deeply dependent on her. George won’t let her quit until she finds her own replacement – a young lawyer who has her eye on George. George, however, is looking elsewhere: at what just lef t. Cast: Sandra Bullock, Hugh Grant, Alicia Wit t. The Wild Thornberrys (PG) — Big-screen version of the animated Nickeloden series about a family who travels around the world to make nature documentaries. While in Africa, 12-year-old Eliza learns that she can speak with animals and, with their help, aims to stop a group of poachers. Cast: Lacey Chaber t, Tim Curry, Ruper t Everet t, Flea, Lynn Redgrave, Marisa Tomei. —Capsules compiled from movie reviews written by David Elliott, film critic for The San Diego Union-Tribune and other staff writers.
alltogether along with
Currie Kilpatrick Boyd began her jewelry design career in Aspen, Colorado, where she lived and worked for seven years. Each unique piece of jewelry is handcrafted with precious metal components and genuine semi-precious gemstones. The inspiration for her pieces comes from fond memories of Aspen and Nicholas Lane.
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