originally published October 1, 2008

ALUCARDA / DEMONS

(R)/(R) 1978/1984. Just in time for October, Flicker unleashes a horrifically entertaining double feature. First up is Alucarda, or Sisters of Satan, about a young girl whose arrival at a convent sparks Satan worship, demonic possession and vampirism. The second film, Fantosporto Best Film nominee Demons, is a gorefest directed by Lamberto “Son of Mario” Bava from a script he co-wrote with horror maestro Dario Argento (Suspiria). Theater patrons are trapped in a theater with ravenous demons that kill and possess them one-by-one. Things go badly.

AN AMERICAN CAROL

(PG-13) IMDB says: In An American Carol a cynical, anti-American Hollywood filmmaker sets out on a crusade to abolish the 4th of July holiday. He is visited by three ghosts who try to change his perception of the country.

BABYLON A.D.

(PG-13) In the not-so-distant future, a mercenary, Toorop (Vin Diesel), hiding out in eastern Europe, is hired to deliver a package - a pretty, mysterious young woman named Aurora (Mélanie Thierry) - to America. Accompanied by a kickass nun, Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh), Toorop must outrun the various factions determined to deter him from his assignment. Director Mathieu Kassovitz (The Crimson Rivers, Gothika) has adapted Maurice G. Dantec's novel, Babylon Babies, into an incoherent, breathless, and hectically paced sci-fi actioner. The flick is Children of Men without any pretense of art, depth, importance, meaning or emotion, and it's pretty cool in its own urban, Eurotrash way. Kassovitz envisions a visually intriguing, if not terribly original future, and Diesel excels in a return to his curt, tough guy routine. Nevertheless, Toorop is no Riddick, and Babylon A.D. no Pitch Black.

BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA

(PG) Drew Barrymore voices Chloe, the pampered pet of Jamie Lee Curtis’ high-powered Aunt Viv. When Chloe gets lost in Mexico, she makes new friends and learns a little something about her heritage. This Disney movie features voice work from almost every familiar Hispanic actor (Salma Hayek, Andy Garcia, George Lopez, Cheech Marin, Edward James Olmos, etc.) in Hollywood save Jimmy Smits. Directed by Raja Gosnell (Home Alone 3, Scooby-Doo, Scooby Doo 2, Yours, Mine, and Ours), Beverly Hills Chihuahua looks like another processed family film from the Disney factory.

BLINDNESS

(R) A disease strikes the entire world blind, leaving only one woman (Julianne Moore), a physician’s wife, capable of seeing the chaos that ensues. First, director Fernando Meirelles gave us the best film of the new millennium, City of God; then he made the most layered, suspenseful romantic thriller of the decade, The Constant Gardener. Will he now make 2008’s most artfully post-apocalyptic film? Based on a novel, once thought unfilmable, by Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago, Blindness also stars Mark Ruffalo and Gael García Bernal.

BURN AFTER READING

(R) In Burn After Reading, Joel and Ethan Coen have concocted a mockery of a spy movie as only they could. After discovering a CD full of potentially sensitive "shit," gym employees Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) and Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt) blackmail former CIA analyst Osborne Cox (John Malkovich), who deludes himself into believing his worthless memoirs contain valuable state secrets. Concurrently, paranoid serial womanizer Harry Pfarrer (the Coens' go-to guy, George Clooney) is wooing Linda and Cox's cold, stuck-up bitch of a wife (Tilda Swinton). As the bodies pile up, the CIA, amusingly represented by a clueless, high-level duo played by Juno's undervalued J.K. Simmons and David Rasche ('80s TV gem, "Sledgehammer"), watch ineffectually from the sidelines. The Coen brothers have no delusions of grandeur. They know Burn After Reading need be nothing more than funny, and ridiculous, but over-the-top funny it is. Don't think too hard or expect too much from Burn After Reading; just sit back and laugh.

CHOKE

(R) See Movie Pick.

CONVERSATION PIECE

(NR) 1974. The Damned Oscar nominee Luchino Visconti’s Conversation Piece, or Gruppo di Famiglia in un Interno, stars Burt Lancaster as an American professor living in beloved solitude in his ritzy palazzo until a vulgar Italian marchesa (Silvana Mangano), her lover (Helmut Berger), her daughter, and her daughter’s boyfriend move in upstairs. Sponsored by the Lamar Dodd School of Art as part of the GLOBES Cinema Series in honor of Andrew Ladis (1949-2007), former Franklin Professor of Art History.

EAGLE EYE

(PG-13) See Movie Pick and Flick Skinny.

THE EXORCIST

(R) 1973. When actress Chris McNeil’s (Academy Award nominee Ellen Burstyn) adolescent daughter, Regan (Academy Award nominee Linda Blair), starts exhibiting strange symptoms that medicine cannot explain, two priests, elderly Father Merrin (Max Von Sydow) and the faith-challenged Father Damien Karras (Academy Award nominee Jason Miller), are called in to perform an exorcism. Director William Friedkin’s film, adapted by author William Peter Blatty from his own novel, is notorious for its graphic depictions of the demonic possession of a young girl, but it is also still one of the most effective horror films ever made. The Exorcist won two Academy Awards (Best Sound and Best Adapted Screenplay), but was nominated for eight more including Best Picture and Best Director.

THE FAMILY THAT PREYS

(PG-13) Perry's latest may be his best film to date. Two matriarchs, Alice Pratt (the always great Alfre Woodard) and Charlotte Cartwright (Academy Award winner Kathy Bates, sporting a noticeably fake southern accent), share family woes as their grown-up children's unethical affairs - private and professional - come to light. Alice's married daughter, Andrea (Sanaa Lathan), is sleeping with Charlotte's equally married son, William (a particularly sleazy Cole Hauser), whose business dealings aren't on the up and up as he attempts to wrestle control of the family business from mommy. Perry's continued efforts to diversify his characters - and presumably audience - needs work, but this juicy melodrama is just the right amount of overcooked for those with a taste for the auteur's dishes.

FIREPROOF

(PG) Sherwood Pictures, the moviemaking ministry of Albany's Sherwood Baptist Church, released the surprise hit, Facing the Giants, last fall, proving writer-director Alex Kendrick knows his audience. Despite its nonprofessional acting, clunky dialogue and uninspired direction, Fireproof will please its congregation. Watching Fireproof is like watching a feature-length infomercial about God.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

(PG-13) The adaptation of H.G. Bissinger’s 1990 account of the Permian High Panthers’ 1988 season captures the crucial details of high school football better than most films. 

GET SMART

(PG-13) “Get Smart,” the television hit that ran from 1965 to 1970, was Mel Brooks and Buck Henry’s answer to James Bond. In 2008, a year that will see a new 007 come November, Steve Carell comfortably steps into the shoephone of the late, irreplaceable Don Adams in an inoffensive, slightly boring big-screen adaptation, the series’s second (1980’s The Nude Bomb). The new Get Smart enjoys some of the best TV-to-big screen casting in some time. Carell is sublime as always. Get Smart isn’t stupid, but it misses by that much.

GHOST TOWN

(PG-13) Thanks to star Ricky Gervais, Ghost Town is an amusing place to visit despite its dreary title and dated, Topper-ian premise. Dentist by trade, misanthrope by nature, Bertram Pincus (Gervais, creator and star of the British "Office") briefly dies during a routine colonoscopy. When he awakes, he can see dead people, lot and lots of annoying, needy dead people. To halt the harassment, Pincus agrees to help one tuxedo-clad dead man, Frank (Greg Kinnear), break up his widow Gwen's (Téa Leoni) impending marriage to a dull human rights lawyer (Billy Campbell). Cowriter-director David Koepp (a frequent Spielberg collaborator) conjures a blithe, spirited romantic comedy, and Gervais, Kinnear and Leoni are all up to the task. British star Gervais makes quite an amusing impression in his Hollywood debut as a leading man, but anyone aware of his previous work as David Brent on "The Office" will not be surprised. Gervais is a genius of human discomfiture. Heck, Gervais sells the inspirational, Pay It Forward pabulum wrap-up. Even Leoni appears sincerely amused by him. He may not be a classic movie star, but we've got enough Clooneys and Pitts. There's only one Ricky Gervais.

HANCOCK

(PG-13) For Hancock, saving the day typically involves millions of dollars worth of property damage, some drunken curses, and ungrateful rescuees. Unsuccessful at saving the world through corporate America, PR Man, Ray Embrey, (Jason Bateman) assists Hancock in an image makeover, encouraging him to go to jail, be polite, and wear a bespoke uniform. At an hour and a half - much longer and Hancock’s true weakness (inadequate plot) would have been exposed - this superhero action-comedy doesn’t overstay its welcome.

HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS & ALIENATE PEOPLE

(R) When pop culture critic Sidney Young (Simon Pegg) jumps the Pond, he finds the New York City scene to be a far cry from Jolly Olde England. Soon he’s running with starlets and wooing a coworker (Kirsten Dunst). Pegg’s a genius and needs an American box office hit. If director Robert B. Weide (an Oscar nominee for the documentary Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth and Emmy winner for “Curb Your Enthusiasm”) can keep HTLF&AP’s humor as sharp, this flick could be it. With Megan Fox and Jeff Bridges.

IGOR

(PG) A Frankensteinian computer animated monster stitched together from spare parts pilfered from the labs of Tim Burton and Pixar, Igor bungles the execution of a fantastically creative idea. In the evil land of Malaria, residents are destined for one of two professions: Mad Scientist or Igor. One switch-pulling, "Yes, Master"-ing Igor (voiced by John Cusack with the wonderful richness of a master bedtime storyteller) dreams of becoming a mad scientist. Igor is much better than most of the bush league computer animated kids movies out there (Space Chimps and Fly Me to the Moon 3D), but it is far below the high standards set by Pixar and Shrek.

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL

(PG-13) Crystal Skull doesn’t achieve Raiders-level greatness, but fourth-best in one of the greatest movie franchises of all time is still reams better than first best in any of the knockoffs.

KUNG FU PANDA

(PG) Kung Fu Panda is actually one of the best martial arts films to gracefully flip, kick and chop across the big screen in some time. Po the Panda and the Furious Five, not to mention the sinister Tai Lung, kick ass like Bruce Lee used to do it. Just because the fights are animated rather than choreographed doesn’t mean they must be any slower or less violent.

LAKEVIEW TERRACE

(PG-13) Director Neil LaBute (In the Company of Men, Your Friends & Neighbors) again plumbs the dark, dark depths of the human psyche in Lakeview Terrace. Chris and Lisa Mattson (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington) are newlyweds who just bought their first home. However, their next door neighbor, Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson), doesn't think the house or the neighborhood is right for the Mattsons. The LAPD officer keeps hinting that the interracial couple (Chris is white; Lisa is black) might fit in better somewhere else. Those hints become taunts; those taunts become threats; and those threats become overt acts of violence as Abel, a widower trying to raise two kids, melts down. A credible potboiler, Lakeview Terrace simmers with polarizing depth. This mainstream thriller is a tough watch. Provocation is rarely this entertaining; then again, Hollywood thrillers are rarely this bravely thought-provoking.

LIONESS

(NR) Directors Meg McLagan and Debra Sommers tell the story of the first women in U.S. history to face direct ground combat in open violation of official policy. The experiences of five female soldiers over a year in Iraq are recounted through journal excerpts, interviews and archive footage. Lioness was an official selection of Tribeca and the Human Rights Watch Film Festivals; McLagan and Sommers won the CDS Filmmaker Award from the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. Part of the ACC Library’s iFilms series.

MAJOR ORGAN & THE ADDING MACHINE

(NR) The long-awaited premiere of the new filmic companion to the mysterious Elephant 6 collective album of the same name, featuring musical and theatrical contributions from Jeff Mangum, Kevin Barnes, William Cullen Hart, Julian Koster, Andrew Reiger and Dixie Blood Moustache.

MAMMA MIA!

(PG-13) Meryl Streep goes all-out - whether or not it's the right thing to do - as Donna, the unmarried, middle-aged mother of Sophie (too cute Amanda Seyfried, "Veronica Mars" and "Big Love"), whose wedding on an isolated Greek isle is cause for a reunion of former beaus.

MAN ON WIRE

(PG-13) On August 7, 1974, Philippe Petit spent 45 minutes 1350 feet in the air, crossing back and forth between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Director James Marsh (The King) uses archival footage, dramatic reenactments, interviews, and photos to recommit what has been called “the artistic crime of the century.” The film has been met with almost universal acclaim and won both the Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize and its Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary.

MIRRORS

(R) After one great slasher pic, High Tension, and one really good remake, The Hills Have Eyes, writer-director Alexandre Aja has become quite the big name inside the circles of horror aficionados. That reputation will never translate into wider fame and big B.O. if he starts doing hack work like Mirrors, which crumbles after a promising start.

THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR

(PG-13) The first Mummy movie engagingly sandwiched neat special effects into a cheesy, Indiana Jones-lite, matinee serial. The first sequel introduced a whiny kid and didn’t come near the first movie’s bargain entertainment value. In the underwhelming new installment, that whiny kid, Alex O’Connell, has grown up into a hot Australian actor, Luke Ford, and now raids tombs while his pops, Rick (Brendan Fraser), and mom, Evelyn (Maria Bello), live the quiet life in Jolly Old England. When a well-preserved Chinese emperor (Jet Li) is resurrected by the hapless O’Connell clan, they must band together to vanquish him. The Mummy 3 has its moments (the CG Yeti are totally rad), but this family action-adventure flick is ultimately doomed by the numerous little flaws. Bello’s accent makes Rachel Weisz’s absence far too conspicuous; Fraser and Ford are too close in age to be father and son; and the instinctless Rob Cohen (Stealth) may be the worst action director still getting hired for major studio work. Poor John Hannah deserves better than this, but at least he’s good at embarrassing himself as comic foil, Jonathan. It’s time to bury The Mummy for good.

THE MUPPET MOVIE

(G) Jim's Henson's furry creations had their first full-length feature showcase in this 1979 film.

MY BEST FRIEND'S GIRL

(R) There is nothing wrong with a crude movie, but a crude and unfunny comedy is just offensive. My Best Friend's Girl, the charmless new Dane Cook-Kate Hudson flick, goes straight for the gutter without any hesitation. Professional a-hole Tank Turner (Cook) makes a living through what his best buddy, Dustin (Jason Biggs), calls "emotional terrorism." If a guy wants his girlfriend back, he hires Mr. Very, Very Wrong to terrify her into reconciliation. When Dustin loses his dream girl, Alexis (Hudson), he hires Tank, who falls for his best friend's girlfriend. Cook can be charismatic (I liked Employee of the Month), but Tank is pretty irredeemable. Also, the star should take director Howard Deutch to task for shooting him in seriously unflattering close-up. A few years ago, I would claim this material to be below Hudson, but after Raising Helen, The Skeleton Key, and Fool's Gold, she seems at home in the dreck. Audiences seem willing to take Hudson back no matter her cinematic offenses, but Cook had better be careful. After Good Luck Chuck and My Best Friend's Girl, audiences might realize that it's not them; it's him.

NICK & NORAH’S INFINITE PLAYLIST

(PG-13) Two teenagers, Nick (Michael Cera) and Nora (Kat Dennings, The 40-Year-Old Virgin), spend a magical night in the Big Apple after she asks him to be her boyfriend for five minutes in order to avoid his ex, Tris (Alexis Dziena, Fool’s Gold). Comic wunderkind Cera has quickly become the golden boy, and Dennings shone in The House Bunny and Charlie Bartlett. Nick & Norah is the second film by director Peter Sollet, who wowed the indie crowd back in 2002 with Raising Victor Vargas.

NIGHTS IN RODANTHE

(PG-13) One doesn't have to have read a Nicholas Sparks novel to crack his code. Two beautiful people in a beautiful locale fall in love only to have it tearfully ripped from them. That's A Walk to Remember, The Notebook, and Nights in Rodanthe in a nutshell. Handsome surgeon Paul Flanner (Richard Gere) travels to the Outer Banks to confront a man whose wife died on Paul's operating table. While staying at a remote inn, Paul meets Adrienne Willis (Diane Lane), who is considering a reconciliation with her lousy husband. Nights in Rodanthe doesn't quite hit the tear-inducing low notes like The Notebook, but it satisfyingly sings its tender tune.  

PSYCHO

(R) 1960. Hitchcock's classic thriller is back.

RED HEROINE

(NR) 1929. The only surviving episode of the 13-part serial, Red Heroine, or Red Knight-Errant, is one of the few, still existing, complete silent martial arts film. A young woman, kidnapped by an invading army, becomes a warrior while hiding with the Daoist hermit, White Monkey. The Devil Music Ensemble, three multi-instrumental Boston musicians that have been scoring silent films like Nosferatu since 1999, will perform their live soundtrack to accompany the screening of this rare piece of cinematic history.

RIGHTEOUS KILL

(R) Two reasons and two reasons only exist for seeing Righteous Kill: Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. If the teaming of these two titans doesn't excite you (and it might not; Bobby and Al are past their prime), Righteous Kill, a not-so-twisty maze of a cop(s) hunts a serial killer flick that a five-year-old could solve, has nothing else to offer.

THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW

(R) Interactive midnight screening of the 1975 cult classic. Sex, rock and roll, transvestism and murder all come together in this campy romp - the longest running release in film history.

SHERLOCK HOLMES FACES DEATH

(NR) 1943. Basil Rathbone’s sixth outing as the famed detective will be screening at the ACC Library with audio narration for visually impaired viewers. Presented by the Special Needs Library, Sherlock Holmes Faces Death takes place during World War II, when several murders at a convalescent home lead Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) to call on the services of the master detective. Sherlock Holmes Faces Death follows director Roy William Neill’s first Holmes adventure, Sherlock Holmes in Washington.

SPACE CHIMPS

(G) The grandson of the first chimp astronaut (chimponaut?), Ham III (the voice of Andy Samberg), and his two buddies, Lt. Luna (v. Cheryl Hines) and Titan (v. Patrick Warburton), are sent into space where they must rid a faraway planet of its nefarious ruler, Zartog (v. Jeff Daniels).

STEP BROTHERS

(R) Step Brothers is really, really funny, but it's not as good as either Anchorman or Talladega Nights, the previous comedies written by star Will Ferrell and director Adam McKay. Ferrell's Brennan Huff, a super-spoiled 40-year-old virgin with the mind of a 15-year-old and the mouth of a 60-year-old grizzled sailor, hates his new step brother, the equally regressed Dale Doback (John C. Reilly). But after Brennan and his mom (Mary Steenburgen) move in with Dale and his dad (the undervalued Richard Jenkins), the two work out their issues to form a dangerous, malignant friendship. The jokes are as scattershot here as in any Ferrell comedy, but you'll find yourself laughing more often than not despite the flick's potty mouth syndrome.

A SUMMER IN THE CAGE

(NR) The Mental Health Association of Northeast Georgia is sponsoring a screening of Ben Selkow’s documentary account of his friend Sam’s battle with bipolar disorder for Mental Illness Awareness Week. Selkow followed Sam for seven years, capturing footage of the emotional impact of delusional mania and paralyzing bouts of depression on Sam, his family, and the director himself. A Summer in the Cage, former PA Selkow’s first film, was nominated for a 2008 PRISM Award for Bipolar Disorder Depiction.

SWING VOTE

(PG-13) Bud (Kevin Costner) drinks too much and must be cared for by his nearly adult, 12-year-old daughter, Molly (Madeline Carroll). In the highly overscripted plot by Jason Richman and director Joshua Michael Stern, Bud’s deciding vote, placed by Molly, doesn’t count due to an electronic error, giving this uneducated American 10 days to become the most important man in the nation. A doggone decent civics lesson, Swing Vote is also pretty funny. Costner never seems completely comfortable as Bud, who is more loser than he is lovable, but the bonafide movie star has tons of charismatic kindling left to burn. He also has a lot of help. Swing Vote boasts a cast of recognizable faces - some talented (Nathan Lane, Stanley Tucci, Dennis Hopper), some likable (Kelsey Grammer) - to carry the scenes that aren’t Bud-centric. Typically, movies that attempt to boil down super important issues for mainstream, comedic consumption are unhip, unfunny and ultimately unsuccessful satires. The bipartisan Swing Vote is certainly the epitome of the first, but actually keeps some of the trailer’s and premise’s humorous and satirical promise.

TRANSSIBERIAN

(R) A Trans-Siberian journey by train becomes something more for a seemingly innocent American couple (Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer) being pursued by a detective (Ben Kingsley). Could this Hitchcockian (natch) thriller be the film The Machinist director Brad Anderson needs to finally break through? Genre fan that I am, I am not sold; Anderson’s debut, Session 9, was incredible, but his small screen entries on “Masters of Horror” (“Sounds Like”) and “Fear, Itself” (“Spooked”) underwhelmed considerably.

VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA

(PG-13) Match Point is still the best film made by Woody Allen in twenty years, but Vicky Cristina Barcelona is the best Woody Allen film made by the Woodster in that same span. On summer vacation in Barcelona, two American tourists, sensible Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and capricious Cristina (Scarlett Johannson), fall in love with Juan Antonio (Academy Award winner Javier Bardem), a painter still devoted to his ex-wife, the crazed Maria Elena (Penélope Cruz). The fourth film from Allen’s European sojourn (is it time to consider this a “period” in the auteur’s career?) benefits from the diversity of its cast. Juan Antonio and Maria Elena seem to have wandered over from a film by Pedro Almodovar, and their passionate, violent exchanges are the film’s most entertaining. Allen’s typical Manhattanites pale in comparison. Then again, maybe it’s just that the youthful American and British actors cannot keep up with Bardem and Cruz. Vicky Cristina Barcelona may be as lightly romantic as the summer dalliance it portrays, but the ardor is equally as fleeting, especially when the septuagenarian’s bourgeois conclusions on love lead to unhappily ever after.

WALL•E

(G) WALL•E, with his Woody Allen-ish binocular orbs and nebbishy hand-wringing, is a next gen romantic hero educated in the old school. He says little, and that minimal vocalization - provided by Star Wars genius Ben Burtt - singularly strengthens the film’s Jacques Tati-an, silent playfulness. When a ship lands and launches EVE, a sleek, temperamental robotic beauty, WALL•E goes on the most exciting, romantic adventure in the universe. WALL•E is no mere cartoon; it is easily the class of 2008’s cinematic output to date.

WHAT ABOUT ME?

(NR) The latest offering from 1 Giant Leap - the concept band and media project behind the double Grammy nominated Unity Through Diversity, helmed by Duncan Bridgeman and Jamie Catto, the founding member of Faithless. This visionary project filmed in over 50 locations worldwide explores through music the complexities of human nature on a global scale. Covering universal topics such as God, sex, death and money, the film features interviews with a diverse collection of the world's top thinkers, writers and entertainers - from Noam Chomsky to Michael Stipe.

WILD COMBINATION: A PORTRAIT OF ARTHUR RUSSELL

(NR) A visually absorbing portrait of the seminal avant-garde composer, singer-songwriter, cellist, and disco producer Arthur Russell. Before his untimely death from AIDS in 1992, Arthur prolifically created music that spanned both pop and the transcendent possibilities of abstract art. Director Matt Wolf incorporates rare archival footage and commentary from Arthur's family, friends, and closest collaborators - including Philip Glass and Allen Ginsberg - to tell this poignant and important story.

THE WOMEN

(PG-13) Four women - the curly-haired, lovable Mary (Meg Ryan); older career woman, Sylvia (Annette Bening); mother of four Edie (Debra Messing); and the African-American lesbian Alex (Jada Pinkett Smith) - live, love, lose and learn in the Big Apple. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? The Women is a less chic "Sex and the City" without any men. The themes and concerns of these Women and the gals of "SATC" are so similar that some central plot points are identical; the script for The Women was hammered out during the six season run of HBO's phenomenon so some overlap was bound to occur.

Drew Wheeler