Cinema
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“Shanghai Knights”
M E T R O S P I R I T M A R
Movie Listings t ypical teen-ager with a secret — he’s par t of a CIA pilot program, in which youngsters are trained to become spies. Banks’ latest mission has him going undercover at a prep school to befriend beautiful and popular Natalie Connors, whose father, a scientist, is unknowingly involved in the development of deadly weapons for an evil group. All of which could be a problem for Banks — he doesn’t exactly have a way with the ladies. Cast: Frankie Muniz, Hilar y Duf f, Angie Harmon. Biker Boyz (PG-13) — Described as a “contemporar y Western on wheels,” “Biker Boyz” delves into the underground world of motorcycle racing. Undefeated champ Smoke dominates California’s racing scene, but his position is threatened by a young racer named Kid. Kid’s out to win Smoke’s helmet — and his fame. Cast: Laurence Fishburne, Derek Luke, Orlando Jones, Djimon Hounsole, Lisa Bonet, Kid Rock.
Bringing Down the House (PG-13) —
Queen Latifah smoothly pockets "Bringing Down the House" as Charlene, a good-hear ted fugitive from the law, turning to a starchy, divorced ta x at torney for refuge and suppor t. Steve Mar tin is the lawyer, Peter. The core idea of this ver y simple comedy is pure buzz of contrast: Latifah is abundantly, explosively black, while Mar tin may be the whitest man ever to star in movies. Latifah rides out the nonsense in her queenly, Pearl Bailey st yle. It's a cookie-cut comedy. The movie delivers its ver y manufactured goods, but it lacks the guts to be a meaningful comedy. Cast: Steve Mar tin, Queen Latifah, Eugene Levy, Joan Plowright, Jean Smar t, Bet t y White. Running time: 1 hr., 45 mins. (Elliot t) ★★ Chicago (PG-13) —- It's been 23 years since Richard Gere stripped on Broadway for "Bent." Now he gets to pull of f his clothes as slick shyster Billy Flynn. Mostly in wonder ful suits, his hair shining like creased silver, Gere is having the best time of his movie life, singing and tapdancing and lording over women with rakish snaz. He's a lioness-tamer; the main cats are Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones), a cabaret sex
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bazooka and killer on Death Row and newcomer Roxie Har t (Renee Zellweger), a Bet ty Boop who killed her lover. For cash and headlines, Flynn will help guilty women beat the law. "Chicago" is zip for depth, but it has all the sexy sur face it needs to be ex travagantly alive. It tops of f at the Chicago Theater, and the old show palace looks delighted. Cast: Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, John C. Reilly, Queen Latifah, Christine Baranski, Taye Diggs. Running time: 1 hr., 53 mins. (Elliot t) ★★★★ Cradle 2 the Grave (R) — DMX stars as thief Tony Fait, who pulls of f a heist involving rare black diamonds. On Fait’s trail is Su (Jet Li), a Taiwanese government agent who has been tracking the path of the diamonds throughout the world. Su’s former par tner Ling, lured by the diamonds and looking to procure them for himself, kidnaps Fait’s young daughter in an at tempt to exchange her for the diamonds. Fait realizes his only chance to get his daughter back is to team up with Su. Cast: Jet Li, DMX, Anthony Anderson, Gabrielle Union, Mark Dacascos. Daredevil (PG-13) — Ben Af fleck as Mat t Murdock is another lonely " tormented" orphan whose only therapy is a revenge quest that pretends to be a moral, city-saving crusade. His boxing father (David Keith) came to a brutal end, not long af ter the sensitive boy was blinded by a chemical spill. Now his other senses are "heightened," which somehow gives Daredevil immense strength, the talent to leap great distances. Colin Farrell plays enemy Bullseye, who loves hurling sharp objects at people's throats. The hero's fem interest is Elek tra (Jennifer Garner). There is immense Michael Clarke Duncan as bad guy Kingpin. We want to believe that corporate Hollywood can evolve beyond this form of serial constipation, so full of action, but with nothing truly human moving. Cast: Ben Af fleck, Jennifer Garner, Colin Farrell, David Keith, Michael Clarke Duncan. Running time: 1 hr., 35 mins. (Elliot t) ★ Deliver Us From Eva (R) — Eva, described as the “sister-in-law from hell” by the men in her life, is one big nagging pain in the — well, you get the idea. The guys, desperate to stop her nagging and shut her
MGM/UA Pictures
“Agent Cody Banks”
RATINGS
★★★★ — Excellent.
Touchtone Pictures
Agent Cody Banks (PG) — Cody Banks is a
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up for good, hope that the right man will do the trick. They pay a smooth studmuf fin, played by LL Cool J, to seduce Eva. The results of the experiment come as a surprise to ever yone. Cast: Gabrielle Union, LL Cool J, Essence Atkins, Dar tanyan Edmonds, Meagan Good. Die Another Day (PG-13) — Pierce Brosnan moves with energy and can fake conviction. His chest hair is superb, his voice remains Bondaceous. But he looks peaked, and we imagine he found time to remember when acting meant, well, acting. Not just pulverizing glass, plunging through ice, brandishing absurd weapons and making limp jokes. True to its Cold War roots, the series reaches for one more rotten Commie enemy. So bring on dear old Nor th Korea. A Pyongyang lunatic has found the resources, via diamonds, to create a satellite sun called Icarus, to burn or blind the dumb Yanks, the snot ty Brits and the greedy South Korean stooges. He captures Bond, tortures him, then zips of f to Cuba, where he is DNAmorphed into a sneery Brit named Graves (Toby Stephens). We recall Connery, and old plots that, however abundantly silly, were adventurous larks and not just plastic shelves for hardware display. Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, Toby Stephens, Rosamund Pike, John Cleese, Judi Dench, Rick Yune. Running time: 2 hrs. (Elliot t) ★★ Drumline (PG-13) — A young street drummer from Harlem wins a scholarship to at tend a Southern university and decides to make the trek af ter being convinced by the university’s band director, even though he knows he’ll have a hard time fit ting in. Gradually, his drumming skills help the other students warm up to him. Cast: Nick Cannon, Orlando Jones, Zoe Saldana, Jason Weaver. 8 Mile (R) — As Jimmy "Rabbit" Smith, Eminem flunks his first hip-hop bat tle, a cut ting contest of insult rhymes at a black club, is pegged a choker and sulks back to his grueling job at a metal-stamping mill. The simple story is how Rabbit motorizes his mouth, confirming the "genius" proclaimed by pal and club emcee Future (Mekhi Phifer). As a buzzer, it has juice. Thanks to Eminem and the rising rap momentum, "8 Mile" is engrossing. In this urban, if not urbane, fantasy, the hero takes a bad beating, gets up and goes to work, interrupts work to wow everyone at the hip-hop club, then returns to work af ter a verbal outlay that would have put even Winston Churchill in bed for days. Cast: Eminem, Kim Basinger, Mekhi Phifer, Evan Jones, Brit tany Murphy, Anthony Mackie. Running time: 1 hr., 58 mins. (Elliot t) ★★★ Final Destination 2 (R) — As in the first movie, a group of teen-agers manages to cheat death. But death, unsatisfied with the teens’ getaway, pursues in a myriad of disturbing ways. Kimberly, driving a group of friends to Florida, has a premonition that helps them avoid being caught in a fatal freeway pileup. Death has other plans. Cast: Ali Lar ter, A.J. Cook, Michael Landes, T.C. Carson, Jonathan Cherry, James Kirk, Tony Todd. Friday After Next (R) — This is the third film in the "Friday" series and features the same people, places and pals highlighted in the first two. "Friday
★★★— Worthy.
★★ — Mixed.
★ — Poor.
Af ter Nex t" takes place around Christmas, as Craig and Day-Day are working as security guards af ter a "ghet to Santa" who’s been stealing presents. Cast: Ice Cube, Mike Epps, Don "D.C." Curry. Gods and Generals (PG-13) — Rober t Duvall brings his rather gaunt but vinegar presence to the role of Gen. Lee. In this 216-minute epic, Lee is sidelined by Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, played by Stephen Lang not as a stone wall but a statue-inprogress. The Nor therners exist mostly to die, like dutiful blue ants. It's like an old history cyclorama "brought to life" with a mix ture of wa x, starch and pulped hymnals. The main audience will clearly be military buf fs, armchair warriors and re-enactors. For them, here is a devotional of death, inferior to "Get tysburg" and, of course, a vir tual car toon of the war in its true and awful glory. Cast: Rober t Duvall, Stephen Lang, Jef f Daniels, Kevin Conway, Mira Sorvino, Bruce Boxleitner. Running time: 3 hrs., 36 mins. (Elliot t) ★★
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (PG) — Harry (Daniel Radclif fe) faces destiny with a
clear eye and spor ty will, not the least neurotic despite having been orphaned into a family of idiotic prigs who treat him abominably. He again escapes to Hogwar ts, to his pals (Ruper t Grint as wobble-faced Ron, Emma Watson as bookworm Hermione) and the snippish regard of Prof. Snape (Alan Rickman) and Prof. McGonegall (Maggie Smith), and the wonder ful giant Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) and Headmaster Dumbledore (Richard Harris, now dead). Jason Isaacs should be given more time as Lucius, the evil, whitemaned father of snob Draco Malfoy. There is a sense of a grand machine greased, sometimes grinding. The "chamber of secrets" is less an exciting mystery at the center than a device to car t the bulky saga forward. Cast: Daniel Radclif fe, Ruper t Grint, Emma Watson, Kenneth Branagh, Richard Harris, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane. Running time: 2 hrs., 41 mins. (Elliot t) ★★★
How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days (PG-13) —
should be retitled "How to Lose a Movie in 10 Minutes." The spirited opening credits are a clever visual and musical introduction to Andie Anderson (Kate Hudson) as she dashes and fumbles though research for "how-to" ar ticles published in a glitzy women's magazine. But all promise evaporates when the lame dialogue begins. Andie is destined to meet Mat thew McConaughey's womanizing adver tising executive, Ben Barry, whose major goal is snagging the world's biggest diamond account. These two up-andcoming New York hot ties bump along through the contrived plot, which involves Andie's "how to lose a guy" assignment and Ben's bet with competing co-workers that he can make a woman fall in love with him — all in the same 10-day deadline. The teasers for "10 Days" tout: "One of them is lying. So is the other." Ah, yes, the per fect date movie. Cast: Kate Hudson, Mat thew McConaughey, Adam Goldberg, Bebe Neuwir th. Running time: 1 hr., 50 mins. (Wood) ★1/2 The Hunted (R) — Benicio Del Toro is U.S. special forces soldier Aaron Hallam, fresh out of the
0— Not worthy.
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