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Cinema Movie Listings
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Adaptation (R) — "Adaptation" is an occasionally inspired film about a writer stymied by his screenplay. Nicolas Cage plays both Charlie Kaufman and his brother Donald (who isn't real), a sor t of creative antibody. Cage's Charlie is a sweat bag of fear about every idea, frantic about losing his hair and not appealing to women he can barely approach; Don is an upbeat, pushy doof prone to bad jokes and happily stupid at titude. Beyond the doubled Cage compulsion (good acting, even bet ter tech work), the film has rich filler. Cast: Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Cara Seymour, Tilda Swinton. Running time: 1 hr., 54 mins. (Elliot t) ★★★1/2 Agent Cody Banks (PG) — is about teens recruited by the CIA — Osama, are you watching? Compact hero Cody, 15, gets to derail the scary plan for global domination of another crazy villain (Ian McShane). It blithely exploits such talents as Cynthia Stevenson, Mar tin Donovan and Keith David (tops as the CIA chief). This hyper baby-Bond has gizmos, chases, modestly lavish sets, cheap explosions, a sleek va-voom played by Angie Harmon and a girlish wow played by Hilary Duf f, who's like a Culkin version of Bardot. Running time: 1 hr., 50 mins. (Elliot t) ★★ Anger Management (PG-13) — Af ter "assaulting" a stewardess on a flight, doofy Dave (Adam Sandler) is ordered by a cour t into anger therapy. That means bonding with Buddy (Jack Nicholson), anger management guru, and time with Buddy's pet circle of hair-trigger loons, including Luis Guzman as a gay par ty beast and John Tur turro as a rage-aholic called Chuck. Buddy and Dave get in each other's hair, play mean pranks on each other, trade frat-level penis jokes, run up to Boston and return to New York, where both seem to
Warner Bros. Pictures
M E T R O
“The Matrix: Reloaded”
have something going with Dave's girlfriend (Marisa Tomei). "Anger Management" is not bad enough to make you angry, because inevitably the cast cooks some silly fun. Cast: Jack Nicholson, Adam Sandler, John Tur turro, Marisa Tomei, Luis Guzman, Woody Harrelson. Running time: 1 hr., 35 mins. (Elliot t) ★★ 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 very 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 style. It's a cookie-cut comedy. The movie delivers its very 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 ty White. Running time: 1 hr., 45 mins. (Elliot t) ★★ Bulletproof Monk (PG-13) — Pity poor Chow Yun-Fat. Af ter making a string of forget table movies such as "The Replacement Killers" and "Anna and the King," it appeared he had finally hit his stride with 2000's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." His newest flick, "Bulletproof Monk," unfor tunately, is a major step backward. Chow stars as the "Monk With No Name" and is charged with protecting a scroll of unbelievable power. If the scroll falls into the wrong hands, it could mean the end of the world as we know it. And of course, the scroll is being pursued by Stern – a Nazi who wants to shape the world in his image. All of this, of course, leads to a final showdown between the Monk and the Nazi. If you have to ask who'll win, then
you haven't seen too many of these so-called action films. Cast: Chow Yun-Fat, Seann William Scot t, Jaime King, Karel Roden, Victoria Smur fit. Running time: 1 hr., 44 mins. ★★. Confidence (R) — Jake Vig (Ed Burns) heads a crack team of scamsters who are also his buddies. One is killed when a scam goes wrong, money having been taken from someone they did not know was an underling of a deadly, hyper sociopath called the King (Dustin Hof fman). Mostly we get cocky, trim-cut Burns and grif ter chums Brian Van Holt and Paul Giamat ti and corrupt L.A. cops (Luis Guzman, Donal Logue), all pulling a bank scam to pay back the King. This ship leaks, and it sinks if you have experienced Mamet's "House of Games," Claude Chabrol's "The Swindle," Fabian Bielinsky's "Nine Queens" or Stephen Frears' "The Grif ters." Those scam par ties could have conned "Confidence" into a whimpering corner. Cast: Ed Burns, Dustin Hof fman, Rachel Weisz, Paul Giamat ti, Andy Garcia, Luis Guzman, Brian Van Holt. Running time: 1 hr., 38 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. Daddy Day Care (PG) — Two fathers, played by Eddie Murphy and Jef f Garlin, lose their jobs and are
forced to take their sons out of an expensive private day care program. In their spare time, and with the idea of making a few bucks, the two open their own day care facility — and employ some very unor thodox methods of child care. Cast: Eddie Murphy, Steve Zahn, Anjelica Huston, Regina King, Jef f Garlin. Darkness Falls (PG-13) — A young man in a small town, isolated because the locals think he’s crazy, is the only one who can help a young boy, the brother of his childhood girlfriend. The boy is threatened by a centuries-old evil, a force that served as the inspiration for the seemingly innocuous tale of the tooth fairy. Cast: Chaney Kley, Emma Caulfield, Joshua Anderson, Andrew Bayly, Emily Browning. 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 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 everyone. Cast: Gabrielle Union, LL Cool J, Essence Atkins, Dar tanyan Edmonds, Meagan Good. 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. Head of State (PG-13) — “Head of State” marks the directorial debut of comic Chris Rock, who also
“X2”
“Daddy Day Care”
Sony Pictures
20th Century Fox
46
RATINGS
★★★★ — Excellent.
★★★— Worthy.
★★ — Mixed.
★ — Poor.
0— Not worthy.