Male Heir-ia

The Duchess

The rise of Keira Knightley as a serious and believable actress is remarkable, especially considering how lousy she was in her early work. In movies like “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “King Arthur” Knightley was at best superfluous and at worst annoying. She seemed to satisfy the most basic set of criteria for the roles she was playing: pretty face, English accent, heartbeat and pulse. Then came “Atonement,” one of the best movies of 2007, in which Knightley played a genuine, emotionally complicated young woman. Her performance in “Atonement” was great and complemented the subtle and powerful act from her co-star James McAvoy, another formidable young actor.

Knightley’s latest movie is “The Duchess,” which tells the story of eighteenth century aristocrat Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, who was something of a celebrity in her day. Georgiana is married to the Duke of Devonshire (Ralph Fiennes) at a very young age and fails to foresee all the complications and emotional pitfalls in the marriage and her situation. The Duke asks Georgiana for nothing more than loyalty and a male heir, but Georgiana wants more from her life.

“The Duchess” is not the first of its kind and by no means the best, but it does stand as a solidly constructed period drama with good production values and some very good acting. Fiennes is superb as the dense and unaccommodating Duke, whose desire for a male heir to perpetuate his lineage borders on the obsessive. Fiennes is not only one of the finest actors alive; he is also one of the most dependable and can be counted on to play any part given to him.

Equally good is Hayley Atwell, who starred earlier this year in “Brideshead Revisited.” Atwell plays Georgiana’s friend-turned-rival, a woman whose tragic understanding of the imposed limitations on women motivates her to ally herself with the Duke. Atwell is someone to watch for in the future; she brings deepness and elusiveness to her characters, something that makes her all the more interesting and provocative.

The best performance comes from, you guessed it, Keira Knightley, whose comprehension of her character’s feelings and motivations makes for great acting. Her Georgiana is strong-willed, politically-minded, and a dreamer of better times. What is most remarkable is that Knightley is able to capture Georgiana’s feminism (in a time before such a word existed) and her helplessness. Knightley’s Georgiana is an authentic human, struggling to meet the expectations of her husband, her children, her friends, her position and her own sense of happiness.

“The Duchess,” is based on the novel “Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire” by Amanda Foreman.

** 1/2 out of ****

Also playing:

Reign of Fire **

Where the Buffalo Roam

Miracle at St. Anna

Some of the best movies ever made have centered on World War II. Its heroes, villains, atrocities and pageantry have played out in biopics like “Patton,” parables like “Les Misérables” and high drama like “Schindler’s List.”

The latest World War II film to hit theaters is Spike Lee’s “Miracle at St. Anna,” which covers an element of the conflict which has rarely been explored in Hollywood. The movie follows the men of the all-black 92nd Infantry Division, known informally as the Buffalo Soldiers, who fought in Italy during the last two years of the war. The Buffalo Soldiers comprised the only African-American infantry division to see combat in Europe during World War II.

Like “Saving Private Ryan,” another World War II action film, “Miracle at St. Anna” is bookended by scenes from the future. In 1983, we meet Hector Negron (Laz Alonso), a New York City postal worker. At work one day, a man approaches Negron’s window and asks for stamps. When Negron looks up from his station and sees the man’s face, he fumbles around in his desk, pulls out a pistol and shoots the stranger, killing him.

From there the movie flies backwards in time to Tuscany in 1944, where two platoons of the 92nd are attempting to cross a strategically important river. The foray turns into a bloodbath as German troops surprise the platoons and most of the men are killed. Four survive, including a young Negron, and find themselves trapped behind enemy lines.

“Miracle at St. Anna” is a long movie, 160 minutes, and packed with plots, sub-plots and mysteries. It is an epic movie in terms of scope, but not necessarily size. Lee explores a wide range of human feelings and emotions, but does so in relatively intimate settings: an interrogation room; a command post; and the spare, dark rooms of an Italian villa.

There is also a strong element of fantasy, of strange, dreamlike occurrences in “Miracle at St. Anna.” Most of these revolve around the detached head of the statue of the Primavera, which the company carries with them as a good-luck charm, and an orphaned Italian boy, who is adopted by the most sensitive of the four men, Private Train (Omar Benson Miller).

The topic of racial injustice is also explored in the movie, and is most potent in two scenes. The first finds Staff Sergeant Stamps (Derek Luke) commenting that he feels a sense of belonging in Italy much more than in his native country. The second scene, which occurs after a flashback to an example of bigotry, is a long, unbroken shot of all four soldiers, Train, Negron, Stamps and Sergeant Cummings (Michael Ealy), staring directly into the camera, as if to force the audience to address their injury.

Whether or not you enjoy “Miracle at St. Anna” will have a lot to do with your level of patience with the subject matter and your willingness to negotiate the sometimes difficult blend of fantasy and reality. Those who follow the story to its conclusion and invest themselves emotionally will be richer for the experience. Those who give up toward the beginning of the film will have a long two hours and forty minutes ahead of them.

*** 1/2 out of ****

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Rocky ***

Ménage à Blah

Vicki Cristina Barcelona

Woody Allen has always been preoccupied with sex, unrequited love and the dangerous pitfalls in relationships, but he's always had compelling characters and stories on which those preoccupations have thrived. His latest film, "Vicki Cristina Barcelona," is a romantic comedy of sorts (although not entirely funny or romantic), that's party guilty pleasure, part love letter to Barcelona and part monograph on monogomy. What it isn't, however, is compelling.

"Vicki Cristina Barcelona" starts off on a bad note: a monotone voice-over narration that signals to the audience that Allen, who wrote and directed the movie, is being lazy. We meet Vicki (Rebecca Hall), an uptight, studious young woman whose life is more or less set in stone. Her career path is set, she's engaged to be married and has no desire to deviate from the future she's set for herself. Vicki is spending her summer in Barcelona with her long-time friend Cristina (Scarlett Johansson), a loose, uninhibited young woman who seems to share nothing in common with her best friend other than a chromosome. How these two opposites, who adhere to divergent philosophies on life and romance, became good friends is difficult to explain.

Vicki and Cristina are staying in the home of a family friend, and their time in Barcelona is filled with good food, good wine and sight-seeing. One evening, at an art gallery, Cristina catches the eye of Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), a tall, dark and handsome painter. Later that evening, Antonio approaches Vicki and Cristina, who are in the middle of dinner, and invite them both to a romantic getaway. His intentions are spelled out clearly: good food, good times, good sex.

For the first two thirds of "Vicki Cristina Barcelona," the two young women contend with Antonio's advances, Cristina eager to jump into bed with him, Vicki just as eager not to. In these opening acts the people onscreen have a lot to do with how interesting the action is. Bardem, for his part, is wonderful to watch. His Antonio is sensual, honest, comfortable with himself. Hall is dull at first, but becomes more interesting as her personality, stereotypically written by Allen, becomes more three-dimensional. Least impressive is Johansson, who seems in way over her head. Where Antonio's sensuality seems rooted and organic, Cristina's seems forced and synthetic.

Only in the final act does "Vicki Cristina Barcelona" find itself, with the introduction of Antonio's passionate ex-wife Maria Elena (Penélope Cruz). Cruz is so convincing, so wild and so overflowing with sexuality that she almost overshadows the limp performances of Hall and Johansson.

If only the movie had been called "Antonio Maria Elena" instead of "Vicki Cristina Barcelona."

** 1/2 out of ****

Also playing:

Conan the Destroyer * 1/2

Supercop ***

The Devil's Backbone ***

Stupid People

Burn After Reading

No time off for good behavior.

Only seven months after winning three Oscars, including a Best Picture award for their melancholy western-nouveau “No Country for Old Men,” Joel and Ethan Coen have released another movie. It’s “Burn After Reading,” a comedy about intelligence, or the lack thereof.

“Burn After Reading” is the story of a group of unlikable people whose lives become intertwined when a compact disc containing sensitive information is lost by one party and discovered by another. The players include disgruntled CIA analyst Osborne Cox (John Malkovich), womanizer Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), insecure fitness instructor Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) and her fellow employee and moron Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt).

When Linda and Chad find the lost disc on the floor of their gym, Hardbodies, they concoct a hair-brained, almost moronic, scheme to blackmail its owner, Osborne. Into the mix come Osborne’s cold, humorless wife (Tilda Swinton), her secret lover Harry, and a host of confused CIA officers, who are bewildered at the nonsensical goings on.

The disc itself is little more than a McGuffin, and has no intrinsic value, but it serves to push the film’s characters back and forth and into some wildly funny scenarios.

Take, for example, a sequence in which an ill-prepared Chad attempts to blackmail Osborne. He arrives at the designated spot on bicycle (in a suit) and stumbles through his obviously rehearsed lines, including a hysterical “appearances can be…deceptive.”

There’s blackmail, there’s sex, there’s murder, but all of it is framed in a darkly humorous way, as only the Coen brothers can do.

All of the actors in “Burn After Reading” appear to having the time of their lives, especially Clooney, who mugs for the camera throughout the movie. Supporting actors turn in amusing performances as well, including Richard Jenkins and J.K. Simmons.

What is so remarkable is that the Coens were able to turn out “Burn After Reading” only one year after “No Country for Old Men.” In fact, the brothers wrote both screenplays at the same time, alternating every other day for each script.

The next Coen brothers’ movie, “A Serious Man,” will be released next year. It’s another black comedy, like “Burn After Reading” and like so many of their previous works, including “Raising Arizona” and “Fargo.” Joel and Ethan Coen have a brilliant understanding of the line which separates funny from unfunny and a knack for infusing one with the other.

*** out of ****

Also playing:

Hamlet 2 ***

Bangkok Dangerous (1999) ***

Happy Birthday, Star Trek!

Forty-two years ago today, "Star Trek" premiered on network television. The series ran only three seasons, from 1966 to 1969, but from those humble beginnings came four spin-off series and ten motion pictures. The eleventh film, tentatively titled "Star Trek," is due out next May.

In honor of the "Star Trek" franchise and its creator Gene Roddenberry, I have composed a short list of the top three "Star Trek" movies.

For a list of the top three "Star Trek" episodes, please visit http://doc755musings.blogspot.com/.


Top 3 "Star Trek" Movies:

3) "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country"

Released in 1991, "The Undiscovered Country" went a long way to cleaning out the bad taste left in fans' mouths by "Star Trek V," considered by many to be the worst film installment. It reunited the original T.V. cast in an inventive, suspenseful and, above all, plausible scenario: renewed hostilities between the Federation, a confederacy of allied star systems, and the Klingon Empire, their principal enemy, days before a peace treaty is to be signed.

The most interesting and compelling part of "The Undiscovered Country" is Captain Kirk's opposition to the Klingons, who he blames for his son's death. His usually sound judgment seems impaired by his visceral hatred for the Empire, which is personified in General Chang (Christopher Plummer), one of "Star Trek's" greatest villains.

2) "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan"

The original film treatment of "Star Trek" officially marks the first time the science-fiction franchise appeared in theaters, but it was "The Wrath of Khan" that set the tone and mood for future movies.

In "The Wrath of Khan" writer Harve Bennett and director Nicholas Meyer resurrected a villain from the original television series: Khan Noonian Singh, a genetically-engineered super-human. Ricardo Montalban is excellent as the villain Khan, who exacts revenge with cold precision. There is plenty of action and spectacle in "The Wrath of Khan," but many of the battles are fought and won (or lost) in the minds of Kirk and Khan, two formidable adversaries.

"The Wrath of Khan" is perhaps most memorable for the selflessness of Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and the touching scenes between Spock and Kirk, his commanding officer. The entire funeral ceremony, including Kirk's eulogy, is devastating and touching.

1) "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home"

The one with the whales? Yes, "The Voyage Home" might be the most polarizing movie in the "Star Trek" canon, but it's also the best, and for a number of reasons. "Star Trek" has never been, in its soul, a saga about epic space battles and larger-than-life villains; it is a story about humanity, and about mankind's place in the universe.

In "The Voyage Home," the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise go backwards in time to 1986 San Francisco to rescue a pair of humpback whales, which have gone extinct in the future. While there, members of the crew suffer from a serious case of culture-shock.

"The Voyage Home" is easily the funniest and most imaginative of the ten "Star Trek" movies. It lampoons some of the sillier things going on on the 1980s (punk rock) and some of the more serious (the Cold War). Chekov's "nuclear wessels" scene alone is worth the price of a rental.

High Anxiety

Pineapple Express

Although the summer movie season began, thanks to big-budget Hollywood blockbusters, with a bang, it seems to have ended with a guffaw, as August has been dominated by comedies. More remarkably, however, is that many of the high-profile comedies are based around original ideas, and not rehashes of old and lifeless plots.

One of the funniest and most unusual August comedies is “Pineapple Express,” the title of which refers to an exclusive and expensive variety of marijuana. “Pineapple Express” is the story of Dale Denton (Seth Rogan), a twenty-something with a dead-end job, a girlfriend in High School and an addiction to marijuana. When Denton arrives at a rich man’s house to deliver a subpoena, he witnesses a brutal murder.

Fearing that evidence he left at the scene of the crime might lead the bad guys back to him and his drug dealer, Saul Silver, Denton decides to scoop up Silver and go on the run.

In many ways, “Pineapple Express” is a buddy comedy, like “48 Hours,” or “Lethal Weapon.” Amid all the jokes, fights and stunts, there is some serious male bonding going on. The most hilarious bits come from the interaction between Denton, Silver (James Franco) and Red (Danny McBride), the drug dealing middleman. Franco is especially hilarious as the lonely and paranoid drug dealer who finds profundity in the least meaningful things. He steals virtually every scene that features him.

The supporting cast in “Pineapple Express” is also entertaining, especially drug kingpin Ted Jones (Gary Cole) and his two henchmen, played by Kevin Corrigan and Craig Robinson.

The star of “Pineapple Express” is its screenplay, which is very funny, silly and, at times, brilliant. Penned by Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the pair who wrote “Superbad,” the screenplay allows its characters to act outrageously because they’re high most of the time.

The screenplay also tricks the audience into liking all of its characters, even though some are killers, some drug dealers and most amoral. This affection is most likely the result of the farcical nature of “Pineapple Express,” where all the action seems to be occurring in a safe, fictional universe. The plot is so improbable and the characters so comical that we forgive its moral ambiguity.

Rogen and Goldberg’s next joint project will be a film remake of “The Green Hornet,” the story of newspaper publisher Britt Reid, who fights crime in secret. Details on the project are scarce, but with their history of irreverent comedy, Rogen and Goldberg are sure to bring some absurdity and silliness to the traditional action-adventure storyline.

*** out of ****

Also playing:

Three Kings ***

Street Kings ** 1/2

Bungle in the Jungle

Tropic Thunder

There are some comedies which make you laugh and send you from the theater with a huge grin on your face. Then there are comedies which make you laugh against your better judgement and send you from the theater masking your smile so other theater patrons won't think you're a sociopath. "Tropic Thunder" belongs in the second category.

Ben Stiller's latest movie, “Tropic Thunder,” tells the story of the production of a big-budget war movie, and everything that goes wrong in the process. When novice director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) comes to the conclusion that his Vietnam War epic is unconvincing, he decides to drop his cast into the jungles of Vietnam and shoot the picture guerilla-style (think “Platoon” meets “The Blair Witch Project”). Little does he know that the helicopter transporting the cast has flown far off course and landed them in a jungle filled with dangerous opium smugglers. Soon enough, the cast is thrust into real danger and forced the complete a real-life rescue mission.

From the very beginning, thanks to mock movie trailers, “Tropic Thunder” sets its tone: sarcastic, ironic, and bad-mannered. The audience meets the three stars of the movie, prima donnas all. There’s action star Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), a Stallone-clone who’s famous for his one-liners and big guns; Australian method actor and award-winner Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey, Jr.), a very obvious jab at Russell Crowe; and funnyman Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) a riff on Eddie Murphy. The platoon is rounded out by rapper Alpha Chino (Brandon T. Jackson) and rookie Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel).

Many of the jokes in “Tropic Thunder” come from the situation in which the conceited and overconfident actors find themselves: stuck in a strange jungle and pursued by dangerous men with real guns. The most hilarious bits, however, come from the personalities of the actors themselves, especially Speedman and Lazarus, who get the most screen time. Lazarus, the audience learns, has undergone a controversial skin pigmentation surgery to look the part of the platoon’s African-American sergeant. In fact, he’s so dedicated to the role that he refuses to break character even when the situation becomes increasingly dangerous.

“I don't break character until the DVD commentary,” says Lazarus.

Speedman, threatened by Lazarus’ acting chops and rejected by the rest of the ensemble, decides to travel into the jungle alone, where he’s quickly captured and held for ransom. In captivity, Speedman goes the way of Colonel Kurtz in “Apocalypse Now,” muttering crazy non-sequiturs and adopting a Laotian boy he calls little Half-Squat.

Above all, “Tropic Thunder” is a parody of war movies and of all movies in general. It pokes fun at the movie business, at Hollywood and at the intransigence of celebrities. “Tropic Thunder” might not be a movie for the politically correct, but it’s one of the funniest films to be released this year. It’s crude, rude and incredibly offensive, but it’s also sharp, knowing and often hilarious.

*** out of ****

Star Warriors

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

The magical world of "Star Wars" has undergone something of a facelift over the last ten years. Once the preeminent sci-fi/fantasy franchise in the world, "Star Wars" has become a ghost of its former self: associated most recently with money, complicated special effects and amateurish writing; not the sense of wonder, adventure and humanity that characterized the original trilogy. Almost this entire shift in quality corresponds to the three "Star Wars" prequels, released in three-year intervals between 1999 and 2005. Those prequels, which range from passable to lousy, have gone a long way to dehumanize what was a distinctly human franchise. If the original trilogy was vibrant, bustling and full of life, the new trilogy is colorless, plastic and antiseptic.

The latest addition to the "Star Wars" brand is the animated full-length feature film "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," which takes place between "Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith," the second and third prequels. "The Clone Wars" is the first installment of an animated "Star Wars" series set to debut on Cartoon Network and TNT this fall.

"The Clone Wars" is the story of the ongoing galactic civil war between the governing Republic and the secessionist Confederacy, played out in battles fought by Confederate droid armies and Republic clone troopers. Leading those troopers are Jedi knights, protectors of peace and justice in the Republic. Two knights in particular, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, are at the center of "The Clone Wars," just as they are at the center of the entire "Star Wars" storyline. New to the mix is Jedi hopeful Ahsoka Tano, a young woman sent by Jedi master Yoda to train under Skywalker.

Early in the film, Skywalker and Tano are called away from the frontlines for a mission with far-reaching consequences: find and rescue the kidnapped son of gangster Jabba the Hutt, whose criminal organization controls important shipping lanes that might swing the war toward one side or the other.

"The Clone Wars" is the most episodic of the seven "Star Wars" films, and tells only a fraction of a story that will no doubt be explored in the upcoming serial. But because its story is so short and diverting, "The Clone Wars" is more lean and Spartan than its three predecessors.

"The Clone Wars" is very much like the final (and most exciting) forty-five minutes of "Attack of the Clones," filled with non-stop action and fireworks. The beginning battle scene, in which rival armies fight ferociously in the streets of an alien city, is particularly compelling. In the second act, a platoon of clone troopers, led by Skywalker and Tano, scale a vertical cliff wall to access a heavily fortified temple.

One of the more surprising and touching elements of "The Clone Wars" is the sense of brotherhood and fraternity among the clone troopers’ ranks, and the strong impression of loyalty between the troopers and the Jedi who command them.

The funny and heartfelt moments in "The Clone Wars" will surely annoy many "Star Wars" fans and others who find them too juvenile. But "The Clone Wars" was made for kids, just as every movie in the franchise was made for kids.

*** out of ****

Also playing:

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Dot, Dot, Dot

Mamma Mia!

Film genres previously thought dead keep popping up now and then to remind us of their viability. Movies like “3:10 to Yuma,” “The Proposition” and “Open Range” keep alive the Western; movies like “Chicago,” “Hairspray” and, now, “Mamma Mia!” refuse to let the musical perish without a fight. It’s a losing battle, though, because more powerful genres, like superhero movies and animated films, continue to take up real estate and edge older types of movies out.

The newest movie musical is “Mamma Mia!” based on the stage musical inspired by the songs of the Swedish pop group ABBA. The story of “Mamma Mia!” concerns soon-to-be-married Sophie Sheridan (Amanda Seyfried), a young, vivacious woman living on a Greek island with her mother Donna (Meryl Streep). When Sophie stumbles upon her mother’s diary, she learns she has three possible fathers. She then decides to invite all three to her wedding, under false pretenses, and predicts she will know her father when she sees him.

“Mamma Mia!” is a sweet, good-natured musical with several magnetic personalities and a handful of rousing song and dance numbers, but inconsistency keeps it from realizing its true potential. There is just not enough substance between the songs to keep it afloat.

The biggest treat in “Mamma Mia!” is Streep and her two best friends Tanya (Christine Baranski) and Rosie (Julie Walters). All three have known each other for years and have been there, in the good times and the bad times. They are wise, supportive, salty and sexy, all at once. Their song and dance numbers are especially emotive and dynamic, particularly “Dancing Queen” where Donna, Tanya and Rosie sing so proudly that they recruit a small army of women who leave their posts around the island to sing along.

The single greatest number is Streep’s show-stopping rendition of “The Winner Takes All,” a wounded and devastatingly honest performance by one of the most talented women in the movie business.

Equally fun are the three potential fathers in Sophie’s life, Bill (Stellan Skarsgård), Sam (Pierce Brosnan) and Harry (Colin Firth), all of whom throw themselves completely into the proceedings of “Mamma Mia!” It’s a real joy to see three accomplished actors, who have often played stone-faced serious men, act absolutely goofy, fumbling over their potential fatherhood. For a closer look at their goofiness, stay in the theater once the credits begin to roll.

Seyfried, who plays Sophie, is also compelling, with a huge, bright smile and a beautiful singing voice. Mostly known for her television work, Seyfried should be able to use “Mamma Mia!” as a launching pad for her film career.

The weakest element of “Mamma Mia!” is its direction; not surprising, because the film’s producers hired Phyllida Llyod, who directed the original London stage version of “Mamma Mia!” but who has no background in film. A lot of the awkwardness and uneasy transitions in the movie can be attributed to her lack of experience.

It’s difficult to dislike “Mamma Mia!” because the movie has such an optimistic attitude and relishes the simple, joyful moments in life. However, the movie is such an uncomfortable mix of good and bad that it finally settles on average. It’s a middle-of-the-road kind of musical, but one that has moments that are worth the price of admission.

** 1/2 out of ****

The FBI's Least Wanted

The X-Files: I Want to Believe

Who will like the new "X-Files" movie? Not necessarily diehard fans of the show, who are looking for grand revelations and close encounters. Not necessarily those who never watched the sci-fi series, who are looking for a ghost story without any baggage. Most likely those who appreciate the new "X-Files" movie are people who are familiar with the television series, which ran from 1993 to 2002, but who appreciate the dynamic between its two lead characters more than the demons and monsters which inhabit their world.

"The X-Files: I Want to Believe" is the story of former FBI agents Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), once assigned to a series of unexplained, paranormal case records called the X-Files. Now years removed from the agency, Scully is a physician at a Catholic hospital and Mulder, always more willing to believe in supernatural forces and alien life forms, is a recluse.

One day federal agents contact Scully and ask her to recruit Mulder for one last assignment: help the FBI track down a missing special agent who has disappeared from her home in rural Virginia. Their only lead is a self-proclaimed psychic (Billy Connolly) who claims to see visions of the lost agent. Mulder, who is infamous for his ability to work with psychics, grudgingly decides to help the FBI, but only if Scully participates in the investigation.

"I Want to Believe" has almost nothing to do with the "X-Files" mythology; it stands alone as an isolated event in the lives of Mulder and Scully. And although the hunt for the missing agent is thrilling, compelling and sometimes deeply disturbing, it pales in comparison to the drama between former partners Mulder and Scully, who appear as two people genuinely in love with each other.

The writing in "I Want to Believe," is characteristic of the "X-Files" show: intelligent, realistic and provocative. The screenplay was written by series executive producer Frank Spotnitz and series writer and director Chris Carter, who also directed this most recent "X-Files" movie. Dialogue between Mulder and Scully, tender and meaningful, is especially memorable and sounds like the back-and-forth between two people who know each other completely and intimately.

"I Want to Believe" is short on action, but heavy on suspense. With the exception of a harrowing chase scene through a deserted construction site and a violent climax, the movie focuses much more on investigation than violence.

In many ways, "I Want to Believe" is a throw-back, an analog thriller in a cinematic world gone digital. It’s most similar to "The Silence of the Lambs," a thriller about human monsters and human redemption. In 2008, when special effects and gore are the components of successful thrillers, it’s easy to see why "I Want to Believe" can (and has) slipped through the cracks.

*** out of ****

Also playing:

Balls of Fury ** 1/2

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A Knight in Polyurethane Armor

The Dark Knight

The story of the comic book hero Batman has been interpreted and reinterpreted many times since Bob Kane created the character in 1939. He’s been a campy 60s punster, a flashy hero in a rubber suit, and, most recently, a dark crusader in a world on fire. This latest incarnation of the Caped Crusader is thanks to Christopher Nolan, who rebooted the “Batman” franchise in 2005 with the wildly popular “Batman Begins.” That movie gave fans what they desperately wanted: a realistic and believable story of Batman. Its sequel, “The Dark Knight,” was released last week.

“The Dark Knight” continues the story established in “Batman Begins.” Billionaire Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) is secretly the masked vigilante Batman, who apprehends criminals when the regular police force cannot. He has an ex-flame in the District Attorney’s office, Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), and a friend in the police department, Lieutenant James Gordon (Gary Oldman). We also meet two new faces, newly elected District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) and psychopathic bank robber The Joker (Heath Ledger).

As The Joker’s crimes become more and more deadly, Batman, Gordon and Dent struggle to apprehend the criminal mastermind, who always seems one step ahead.

“The Dark Knight” is easily the best movie in the “Batman” franchise and one of the best movies of the year. It has near-perfect direction, acting, writing and production values. In a world packed with so many superhero films, “The Dark Knight” is the first to completely transcend the genre. It no longer belongs to the pages of comic books; it is a sweeping crime drama first, and a superhero movie second.

Much has been written about Ledger’s performance in “The Dark Knight,” in part due to his ferocious acting and in part due to his untimely death several months before the movie premiered. The praise heaped upon him is not an overstatement; his performance is a tour de force, his version of The Joker terrifying, unpredictable and mesmerizing. His death, at age 28, is a significant loss for Hollywood.

The rest of the actors in “The Dark Knight” also give solid performances, especially Michael Caine as Wayne’s butler and confidant Alfred, and Morgan Freeman as Wayne’s business partner Lucius Fox.

One of the most compelling parts of “The Dark Knight” is its screenplay, penned by Nolan and his brother Jonathan. The dialogue is believable and unforced, the situations harrowing and thrilling. Unforgettable are the exchanges between Batman and the Joker, who form philosophical opposites to each other: Batman, believing above all in justice; The Joker, an agent of chaos, and therefore random injustice.

Nolan and company set out three years ago to reinvent the Batman franchise, ground it in reality and make its heroes and villains believable. What they have done is reinvent the superhero genre.

**** out of ****

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

There are few filmmakers in the world who can tap into their subconscious imagination more productively than Guillermo del Toro. His movies, made in Mexico and the United States, are filled with images that could only be discovered in dreams and in nightmares. He is perhaps most famous for “Pan’s Labyrinth,” a horror-fantasy story set in fascist Spain.

Del Toro’s latest movie is “Hellboy II: The Golden Army,” a roaring action-packed sequel to the first “Hellboy,” released in 2004. Like he did in the first installment, del Toro fills “Hellboy II” with inventive and thrilling sights and sounds. The puppetry, animatronics and digital effects are all superior, coming together to create some fantastical and memorable movie monsters.

“Hellboy II” is the story of a demon from another dimension. He was released by the Nazis through an inter-dimensional portal during World War II, rescued and raised by an allied paranormal expert. In the present day, the demon, codename: Hellboy, is a member of an elite squad of heroes who fight against the forces of darkness.

The latest challenge for Hellboy (Ron Perlman) and his friends comes in the form of Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), an exiled Elf prince who is searching for the key to unlock the Golden Army, a legion of indestructible mechanical soldiers. Accompanying Hellboy in his quest to quash Nuada are fish-man Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) and Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), who has pyrokinetic abilities.

“Hellboy II” is absolutely overflowing with action, stunts and monsters, but it retains the sense of romance, humor and gravitas that distinguished its predecessor. In the end, the “Hellboy” series is one of relationships. Del Toro examines the strained romantic connection between Hellboy and Liz, the star-crossed love affair of Abe and the Elf princess Nuala (Anna Walton), the public’s animosity toward Hellboy, and, most relevant, the conflict between men and the natural world.

Mixed among those interactions are thrilling special effects set pieces, which include a scary battle with voracious “tooth fairies” in a New York City high rise and a scene in the subterranean Troll Market, a bazaar filled with goblins, ogres and other enchanting creatures.

Whether the “Hellboy” saga will become a trilogy is uncertain at this point, as del Toro, who also wrote “Hellboy II,” is attached to direct “Doctor Strange” next year. Then, in 2010, del Toro will begin work on a two-film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” the precursor to “The Lord of the Rings.”

It’s amazing that del Toro, who began his career making low-budget horror movies in his native Mexico, will soon direct a blockbuster adaptation of one of the most famous stories in the world. It’s a testament to his skill behind the camera, his ability to organize and inspire a team of artists, and his raw creative power.

*** out of ****

Also playing:

The Blob (1958) ***

RoboCop 3 ** 1/2

Invisible Ham

Hollow Man

There are many laws that human beings would happily break if it were not for the fear of being caught. Who knows what actions men and women might take if they were confident in their anonymity before and after the fact. That is the vague philosophical foundation of "Hollow Man," a slasher flick masquerading as a thriller.

"Hollow Man" has a story, but its an underdeveloped narrative used mostly to introduce visually stunning special effects and soon-to-be victims. It tells the story of genius scientist Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon) and his research team, made up of ex-flame Linda McKay (Elizabeth Shue), Matthew Kensington (Josh Brolin) and several other one-dimensional personalities. They're all working on a top-secret Pentagon project to create a serum which renders its hosts invisible.

When the most believable part of a movie involves a secret government project for an invisibility potion, something is terribly wrong.

We meet Sebastian as he finally, after weeks of frustrating disappointment, develops a serum which returns hosts to a visible spectrum. The research team tries it on an invisible gorilla and she transforms, although with some complications, into a completely visible being. Sebastian then coerces the senior team members to inject him with the invisibility serum, hoping to complete the final phase of the project: human transformation.

For a long time, easily 75 minutes, "Hollow Man" is completely dull. The audience meets the team, none of who are remotely interesting, and Sebastian, who's a run-of-the-mill egomaniac. Most of the action takes place in an underground lab where Sebastian in confined after his injection. It's strange to see Sebastian, who is touted as a genius, use his newfound powers simply to perform practical jokes on his associates.

Finally, when the movie reveals its true identity, bodies begin to pile up. Everything degenerates into a silly cat-and-mouse game with lots of blood and little suspense.

The only thing which separates "Hollow Man" from "Friday the 13th" or "Halloween" are its visual effects, almost all of which are brilliantly conceived. The most amazing effects involve Sebastian's initial transformation, where layers of skin, muscle and bone disappear in stages, leaving him completely invisible. Other neat effects include Sebastian's invisible body submerged in water and in a cloud of carbon dioxide.

"Hollow Man" was directed by Paul Verhoeven, who is famous for his graphically violent and sexually explicit films, including "RoboCop," "Total Recall," and "Basic Instinct." Although those films flirted with NC-17 ratings, they were all intelligently directed and full of suspense. In "Hollow Man," Verhoeven seems like nothing more than a director for hire; he doesn't appear to care for the script, the characters or even the extraordinary special effects.

** out of ****

Whiskey Sour

Hancock

Let's face it: the summer movie season doesn't take many risks. Year after year, the same big-budget blockbusters show up in multiplexes with the same mega-watt stars. Two sequels, one television adaptation and one musical adaptation are due out this month alone. In "Hancock," however, we have a refreshingly original idea; and, although it features one of the biggest names in the movie business, Will Smith, it's still something of a gamble.

"Hancock" is the story of an unconventional superhero, a man who costs Los Angeles millions of dollars in collateral damage in order to apprehend a handful of bad guys. When we first meet Hancock (Smith), he's passed out drunk and needs to be alerted to a high-speed highway chase by a young boy. He saves the day, of course, but earns the contempt of the city once again. They're sick and tired of his drinking, his swearing and his basic contempt for personal and municipal property.

We also meet Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), a public relations specialist struggling to impress upon executives the importance of charity and altruism. When man and superman encounter each other, Ray decides it would help both men's careers if he repairs Hancock's image.

"Hancock" is brief, only 92 minutes, but packs a load of material in that span. It's got plenty of action and special effects, but those are largely perfunctory. The real treat of "Hancock" are the interactions between Hancock and other people, including Ray, his wife Mary (Charlize Theron), villains and bystanders, most of whom jeer the superhero. The scenes in which Ray tries to make Hancock a softer and more affable superhero are especially funny.

"Hancock" was written by Vincent Ngo and Vince Gilligan, both of whom bring different resumes to the film. Ngo has a background in suspense and action, while Gilligan, who wrote for "The X-Files" and its spin-off "The Lone Gunman," has worked extensively with science fiction and the supernatural. The result is a script full of action and danger, but with a very intriguing mythology.

Stuck in a summer movie season so fascinated by famous superheroes like The Incredible Hulk and Batman, "Hancock" could easily model itself after an established franchise. Instead, the writers and director Peter Berg made Hancock an unorthodox hero in an unorthodox movie. It's one thing to revive a character who's been developed for years in a comic book; it's quite another to develop a new type of hero in a world with so many established archetypes.

*** out of ****

The Fellowship of the Gun

Wanted

There is a scene early in "Wanted" when a super-assassin runs down an office hallway high in a skyscraper, breaks through a plate glass window at incredible speed, and flies the length of a football field to reach rival assassins on the rooftop of the adjacent building, shooting his attackers in mid-flight. This sequence establishes the over-the-top action and violence of "Wanted," a story ripped from the pages of a comic book series by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones. Those who enjoyed the scene will probably enjoy "Wanted;" those who found it preposterous will have a long 110 minutes ahead of them.

"Wanted" tells the story of a secret league of assassins, their assignments chosen by fate. It also tells the story of Wesley Gibson, a twenty-something nobody. Gibson (James McAvoy) has a dead-end job, an unfaithful girlfriend and low self-esteem. His father left him the week he was born, and he appears to have no other companions beside his disrespectful girlfriend and his lecherous best friend.

Then one day at a pharmacy, where he's picking up medication, Wesley is approached by a beautiful stranger (Angelina Jolie). "Your father died yesterday," says the woman, "he was one of the greatest assassins who ever lived." From that moment on, Wesley is aggressively recruited by The Fraternity, a 1,000-year-old brotherhood of assassins, to take his father's place and kill the man responsible for his death.

"Wanted" is, naturally, short on realism and long on action. The movie exists in a comic book world where the laws of physics do not necessarily apply. That being said, many of the action set-pieces in "Wanted" are thrilling and technically eye-popping, including a firefight inside a high-speed train. The visual effects, including several nifty bullet effects, are equally impressive.

"Wanted" is the first American film of Timur Bekmambetov, a Russian-Kazakh filmmaker known for the vampire series "Night Watch." Bekmambetov does a good job at organizing all the special effects in the movie, and at drawing out decent performances from his actors, most of whom had fairly unchallenging roles. Jolie is especially good as Fox, Wesley's mentor.

The best way to think of "Wanted" is as a child of "The Matrix," albeit with a more nihilistic bent than its forebear, which investigated how the human experience has become a simulated reality.

Action-packed and visually innovative, "Wanted" is a fun summer blockbuster, but it still lacks a serious emotional element to raise it above the mediocre. Fleshing out the relationship between Wesley and Fox would have gone a long way toward infusing "Wanted" with an emotional gravity.

** 1/2 out of ****

Iran so Far Away

Persepolis

In a cinematic landscape filled increasingly by high-tech computer-generated imagery, it's refreshing to see the simple and expressive animation of "Persepolis," last year's Best Animated Feature Oscar nominee. Told mostly in stark blacks and whites, "Persepolis" is as much a history lesson as it is a memoir.

"Persepolis" tells the story of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran and its aftermath through the eyes of a young Iranian girl. When we meet the young Marjane "Marji" Satrapi, the Western-backed Shah is still in power in Iran. Indoctrinated by her school teacher and by the government, Marji believes the Shah to be divinely ordained as head of state. In a very funny aside, Marji's father explains how England supported the Shah in return for access to oil.

Then comes the insurrection, swift and decisive, after which many political prisoners are set free. Marji meets her estranged uncle Anouche, a communist, and falls in love with his way of life. Then hell breaks lose in Iran. The country is declared a theocracy and becomes subject to a very conservative Islamic code of conduct. Shortly thereafter, Iraq, emboldened by Iran's internal conflict, attacks its eastern neighbor. It is no longer safe for Marji, now a teenager, to remain. She is sent to boarding school in Vienna where, it turns out, she learns some important life lessons.

"Persepolis" was co-written and co-directed by the real-life Marjane Satrapi, whose autobiographical graphic novel "Persepolis" inspired the movie. All of the seminal events in Satrapi's life are mentioned here, told with brutal honesty and a sense of irony. The scenes in "Persepolis" range from tragic - young men turned soldiers running through mine fields - to heartfelt and hilarious.

The artwork in "Persepolis" is very beautiful in its simplicity and starkness. Thick black and white lines frame every face and every body. When something happens to Marji that is too awful or absurd to imagine, the lines become distorted and grotesque. In one scene, chastising Muslim schoolteachers become cruel faces in amorphous burqas.

"Persepolis" is not the masterwork that many critics have claimed it to be, but it is a charming, honest and important movie. Its discussion on liberty and justice in Iran is startling and its commentary on the role of women is intensely troubling.

Unfortunately, not every country in the world is satisfied with "Persepolis." Lebanese authorities have banned it from the country, citing a distorted image of Muslims in Iran. The Iranian government was so opposed to the movie that it sent a letter to the French embassy in Tehran to protest against the movie and also pressured the organizers of last year's Bangkok Film Festival to drop "Persepolis" from the lineup.

*** out of ****

Glutton for Punishment

The Punisher (2004)

Actor Thomas Jane has now been featured in two of the worst comic book to movie adaptations. The first was "The Crow: City of Angels," a 1996 stinker in which he played a crooked henchman; the second is "The Punisher," an ugly revenge movie with bad acting, worse writing and amateurish production values.

In "The Punisher," Jane plays Frank Castle, a career FBI man. Hours before his retirement, an undercover bust goes wrong and the youngest son of mobster Howard Saint (John Travolta) is killed. The Saints want revenge, and find it in Puerto Rico, where, amazingly and conveniently, Castle is enjoying a post-retirement family reunion. Every family member is gunned down by hit men, including women and children, and Castle is shot and left for dead. He survives, however, and sets himself to punish the people responsible.

Most of "The Punisher" is drenched in violence, but it falls in a strange no man's land between stylized comic-book carnage and visceral brutality. The massacre in Puerto Rico, for example, is surprisingly bloodless. Stranger still are random scenes of dark humor and one intensely unsettling scene of torture. The movie doesn't seem to know how to address the violence of Frank Castle's world. Is it funny, disturbing or simply background music? Most of the time, it's uninteresting.

No one can be blamed more for that than Jonathan Hensleigh, who directed and co-wrote "The Punisher." Hensleigh is a prolific action writer, having penned "The Saint," "Armageddon," and "Die Hard: With a Vengeance." His script for "The Punisher" is an absolute mess, filled with undeveloped secondary characters, inexplicable subplots, and contrivance after contrivance. The dialogue is particularly awful, filled with a dozen laughable one-liners.

Had the movie not been edited down from its original running time (176 minutes), the subplots and the characters might make more sense. On the other hand, those extra 52 minutes might have been just as grueling as the 124 which remain.

The most consistent part of "The Punisher" is its lousy acting, which infects everyone from Jane and Travolta to the smaller roles on both sides of the vendetta. The worst offender is Laura Harring, who is positively goofy as Livia Saint, Howard's wife. Then there are Rebecca Romijn, Ben Foster and John Pinette, who play Castle's anti-social neighbors. All three seem totally lost and directionless, and appear to be guessing at their characters' motivation. The only decent performance comes from Will Patton, who plays sadist Quentin Glass, the Saint family's lawyer and advisor.

The story of The Punisher will be retold this winter in "Punisher: War Zone," a sequel of sorts with a new cast, director and group of writers, two of whom contributed to "Iron Man," one of the better comic book to movie adaptations. Hopefully they will learn from the mistakes of the 2004 release and push The Punisher is a more compelling and coherent direction.

* 1/2 out of ****

A New Space Odyssey

WALL-E

Whether or not the geniuses at Pixar Animation Studios are incapable of wrongdoing is yet to be determined. What is perfectly clear is that they are unwilling to produce any movie with substandard production values. In fact, there is no moviemaker in the world today more consistent than Pixar. Their animated movies are gorgeous, touching, funny and bold, and the new standard against which all computer-animated films are judged. Their only real competition is Studio Ghibli, the company which produces the films of acclaimed Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki.

Pixar's latest success is the story of WALL-E, a waste-allocation droid from the year 2700. Long after human beings departed Earth in search for a cleaner planet, WALL-E is still earthbound, sorting through the mountains of trash left behind. His is a lonely life, brightened only by small trinkets he discovers in his daily rummages and the company of an indestructible cockroach. Then, unannounced and without warning, a giant spacecraft lands near WALL-E and changes his life forever.

"WALL-E" is a technical marvel and Pixar's most ambitious film to date. Not only does it contain a touching love story and many funny jokes, but it also tackles issues of environmentalism, technology and consumerism. That's not to say that Pixar used "WALL-E" as a platform for some political agenda; the primary theme of the movie is hope: hope for the future, hope for the planet and hope for the plucky, naive robot named WALL-E.

"WALL-E" is also ambitious in its use of a cast made predominately out of robots. There are very few human voices in the film; most of the noises are robotic and conceived by sound guru Ben Burtt, who won a Special Achievement Oscar for the sound effects of "Star Wars." Remember Chewbacca's growl, the hum of a lightsaber and R2D2's beeps and whistles? All were created by Burtt.

"WALL-E" was written and directed by Oscar-winner Andrew Stanton, who also brought to life "Finding Nemo." Stanton has a wonderful imagination and can portray onscreen all the beauty and mystery of the unknown, whether it's a thousand feet beneath the waves or a thousand light years away from Earth.

In the past four years, Pixar has turned out three of its greatest movies and shows no signs of slowing down. Their animators are precise and imaginative, their writers have an understanding of the human condition, and their directors tell tales with the gentleness and demonstrativeness of a bedtime story.

*** 1/2 out of ****

East Meets West...Again

Rush Hour 2

When we last saw Chief Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan) and Detective James Carter (Chris Tucker) they were onboard a plane headed for Hong Kong. They had just unmasked the head of a criminal syndicate and had rescued the kidnapped daughter of a Chinese consul. They had done all this despite interference from the FBI, violent opposition from the syndicate and a significant culture barrier between the two policemen: one from Hong Kong and one from Los Angeles.

When we next see Lee and Carter, at the beginning of "Rush Hour 2," they have already arrived in Hong Kong and are struggling to find some rest and relaxation. Carter, the more loud-mouthed and irreverent of the two, is especially anxious to meet women. Unfortunately for both men, Lee is constantly being called away on criminal cases. Then comes a new tip: Ricky Tan, the leader of a criminal organization, is suspected of killing two translators at the American Embassy. Lee, fortified by his overpowering sense of duty, volunteers to track down Tan and solve the case; Carter, distracted by his overpowering libido, grudgingly agrees to help.

Viewed specifically through its plot, "Rush Hour 2" is not very different from its predecessor. In both movies, the two cops search for clues, fight deadly assassins and are blocked in their investigation by a myopic government agency, this time the Secret Service. "Rush Hour 2" distinguishes itself, however, in its use of comedy. The jokes in "Rush Hour" were born from the misunderstandings between Lee and Carter, but the jokes in the sequel are based on their complete comprehension of each other.

The screenplay, written by Jeff Nathanson, also has some very funny lines that are very politically incorrect. Lee, who is Chinese, and Carter, who is African-American, trade racial barbs with each other in a very playful and benign way.

As in the first movie, the action in "Rush Hour 2" is exciting, funny and fluidly choreographed. A fight scene at a massage parlor early in the film is especially creative and hilarious, as Lee and Carter, wearing only their bathrobes, fight a small army of Tan-sympathizers.

The supporting cast of "Rush Hour 2" is a decidedly mixed bag. Although Ziyi Zhang is perfect as the cold and ruthless assassin Hu Li, Roselyn Sanchez is underwhelming as the friend-or-foe Isabella Molina. The biggest disappointment is John Lone, who plays Ricky Tan. Lone stole every one of his scenes in "The Shadow," where he played the last descendent of Genghis Khan, but in "Rush Hour 2" he is unimpressive and ultimately forgettable.

In any event, the main draw of the "Rush Hour" movies is Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, who have developed a strong sense of chemistry and are very funny together. Chan, a student of the silent film comedians, and Tucker, a stand-up comic, bring two unique perspectives to physical and verbal comedy. Theirs is an odd couple to be remembered.

** 1/2 out of ****

Turtle Power

TMNT

From the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" played a dominate role in popular culture and in the imagination of children. Born in comic books, the four turtle brothers - Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael - were reinvented on television (an animated show which ran for nine seasons), on the big screen (three live-action films) and in video games.

Then, around 1996, when the television show was cancelled, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" began to lose its relevance. It survived, in one form or another, for seven more years until 2003, when FOX revived the franchise as a Saturday morning cartoon show. Four years after that, the fourth Ninja Turtles film, simply titled "TMNT," arrived in theaters.

Unlike the previous three film installments, which used live actors, "TMNT" uses only computer-generated imagery (CGI). Its focus on action over comedy is also a departure from the earlier films and especially the orginal animated series. Grittier, darker and packed with action, it belongs more to the comic books where the Ninja Turtles first appeared.

The story of "TMNT" is surprisingly complex, considering its main audience is young children. We learn, in opening narration by Laurence Fishburne, that 3,000 years ago a great warlord found the key to immortality in an inter-dimensional portal. His unlimited life came at a cost, however, as his three brothers and sister were turned to lifeless statues, and thirteen fearsome monsters escaped the portal from a far away world.

The movie then flashes forward to the present. Leonardo (James Arnold Taylor), the oldest of the turtles, is alone in the jungles of Central America, training himself to become a better leader. Back in New York City, his brothers wait impatiently for his return, having settled into mundane jobs. Then come strange sightings of walking statues and rampaging monsters.

"TMNT" is fast-paced, action-packed and faithful to its comic book origins. The animation, stylized CGI, is artfully rendered. The story, at once fantastical and poignant, touches on themes such as the loneliness of immortality, the competition among brothers and the danger of pride. Although the quiet moments in "TMNT" are brief, they are undeniably heartfelt.

The future of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," for now, seems to be the current FOX show and the comic books, which include two ongoing publications "TMNT" and "Tales of the TMNT."

Although the extreme popularity the franchise once enjoyed might be lost and gone forever, "TMNT" is a pleasant reminder of the irresistible appeal of these characters. Remember: many people, when they hear Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael, think of Ninja Turtles and not Renaissance painters.

*** out of ****

Getting Dumber

Get Smart

What ever happened to the American comedy? For a country that has turned out brilliantly funny movies, from the likes of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Frank Capra, Mel Brooks and Woody Allen, we're sure turning out duds, and at an amazing rate. Silliness has given way to stupidity and satire has given way to sarcasm.

The latest unfunny flop is "Get Smart," a new movie based on the spy spoof television show that ran from 1965-1970. "Get Smart" was a product of the Cold War and was hatched in the wonderfully demented minds of Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, who penned "The Graduate." In the words of Brooks, "it's an insane combination of 'James Bond' and Mel Brooks comedy."

The show starred Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, a bumbling secret agent from CONTROl, an American intelligence agency. He was joined on his missions by Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon) a sexy and competent spy who routinely saved Smart from his own mistakes.

Just as James Bond had difficulty adjusting to a post-Cold War world, so does "Get Smart," released 38 years after the original series ended, find itself in a world without a default villain. Writers Tom Astle and Matt Ember resurrected KAOS, the Soviet counterpart to CONTROL, which is run by Siegfried (Terrence Stamp). Without the context of the Cold War, however, KAOS is just a rogue terrorist group, and serves mainly as a plot device.

On the other side of the fence is CONTROl, run by the Chief (Adam Arkin) and filled with agents (Dwayne Johnson, David Koechner), R&D geeks (Masi Oka, Nate Torrence) and analyst Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell). When CONTROL is breached by an unknown party and the identities of its field agents are compromised, Smart is promoted to a full-time agent and partnered with 99 (Anne Hathaway). Soon they're off to Russia to investigate the breach and discover what sinister things KAOS has been planning.

What keeps "Get Smart" from achieving full-fledged comedy status, besides the fact that many of its jokes fall flat, is its weird ratio of action to laughs. Much too often jokes are replaced with stunts and action set-pieces. A chase scene late in the movie involves a helicopter, an out-of-control SUV and a rampaging locomotive. The entire movie feels more like a third-rate Bond film than a Brooks/Henry creation.

The saving grace of "Get Smart" are its actors, all of whom are perfectly cast, with the exception of the leaden Hathaway. Stamp, Arkin and Johnson are particularly funny and refuse to take themselves too seriously. The biggest treat is Carell, whose comic acting is irreproachable. Carell, who looks like Don Adams, departs from his predecessor's deadpan style and makes Maxwell Smart a compassionate and sensitive agent.

Unfortunately for Carell, the lousy script and heavy-handed direction, by Peter Segal, don't due him justice. His version of Maxwell Smart is worthy of sequels; this incarnation of "Get Smart," uninspired and often juvenile, is not.

** out of ****

Going Green

The Incredible Hulk

We are now officially knee-deep in the summer of superheroes. It began May 1 when "Iron Man" made its way into multiplexes (it's still showing in many theaters) and continues now that its Marvel counterpart, "The Incredible Hulk," is showing nine times a day and pulling in millions. July will bring audiences two more, "Hellboy II: The Golden Army," based on the Darkhorse Comics character, and "The Dark Knight," director Christopher Nolan's continuation of the Batman story.

"The Incredible Hulk," which is not a direct sequel to Ang Lee's 2003 film "Hulk," is a solid entry in the genre and fits nicely into the storyline Marvel is attempting to construct before it releases "The Avengers" in 2011. Although information about that film is only slowly becoming available, it will probably star Iron Man and The Hulk, and might potentially include the superheroes Captain America, Thor and Ant Man, all of whom have their own motion pictures due out sometime between 2009 and 2011.

In contrast to most superhero flicks, "The Incredible Hulk" dispenses with its hero's creation story in the opening credits. We learn, in brief snippets, that gamma radiation has turned an ordinary scientist, Bruce Banner, into a hulking green giant, capable of incredible feats of strength and uncontrollable bursts of rage. When the audience meets Banner (Edward Norton) he's on the run from the authorities, hiding in a Brazilian suburb, and carefully monitoring his pulse and anger levels. Extreme stress, we discover, can trigger Banner's transformation from a normal person to the superhuman Hulk.

Through a twist of fate, Banner is discovered by the army and tracked down by General "Thunderbolt" Ross and a squad of commandos, including career soldier Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth). What follows is an exhilarating chase through the city streets, which culminates in a fierce battle royale in a bottling plant. From there, Banner escapes Brazil and heads north, back to his home in the United States.

"The Incredible Hulk" has just what you'd expect from a superhero movie: plenty of action and spectacle. In addition to the fight in the Brazilian plant, there's a rousing skirmish on a Virginian college campus and a brutal street fight in Manhattan. Spread among those action set-pieces are scenes of humor and serious tenderness. The scenes between Banner and his estranged girlfriend Betty (Liv Tyler) are especially touching.

Only in the third act does "The Incredible Hulk" begin to lose momentum, as it becomes increasingly bogged down in violence and destruction.

The summer of superheroes has scored two hits, but it's far from over. "Hellboy II" arrives July 11 and "The Dark Knight," perhaps the most highly anticipated movie of the bunch, premieres a week later. It will be interesting to see how each stacks up agaisnt "Iron Man," "The Incredible Hulk" and the ever-expanding Marvel universe.

*** out of ****

The Best Movie of 2008 (so far)

Prince Caspian

What a difference three years make. In 2005, only 36 months ago, the first film installment of "The Chronicles of Narnia" appeared in theaters. "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" earned nearly $300 million and won an Oscar for achievement in makeup. Conservative Christian activist groups, which endorsed the movie because of its Christian theology, took credit for its financial success. More likely it was a massive advertising campaign and the extreme popularity of the source material, penned by C.S. Lewis, which ranks among "The Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter" as the most famous of fantasy books.

"The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," a polished family-friendly film, told the story of the four Pevensie children – Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy – who fell through a magical wardrobe into the mystical world of Narnia. After their adventures concluded in Narnia they returned to England, circa 1940, from where they had come. The movie was pleasant and charming, suffering only from wooden acting from its adolescent leads and a prolonged battle scene that disagreed with the whimsical nature of the story. It was an acceptable beginning to a long story, flawed in many ways, but important in establishing the beauty and majesty of Narnia and the personalities of its main characters.

Flash forward three years to May 16, 2008 when part two of the "Narnia" saga, "Prince Caspian" debuted in theaters all over the country. Unlike its predecessor, "Prince Caspian" is not a charming story about four human youths lost in a mystical land; it is a medieval battle epic filled with all the grand and romantic themes which are rarely found in blockbuster films in the twenty-first century. In "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" Narnia was a place to be discovered. In "Prince Caspian" Narnia is a place to be saved.

In "Prince Caspian" the Pevensie children are each one year older, but Narnia has endured a long 1,300 years. A castle, in which the children sat as kings and queens of Narnia, has been reduced to ruins. Their former friends have long since died. And, most troubling, the magical inhabitants of Narnia – talking animals, dwarfs, centaurs and griffins – have disappeared and been replaced by Telmarines, conquerors from a foreign land.

"Prince Caspian" introduces a host of new characters to the Pevensies, who, along with the god-like lion Aslan, are the only returning characters. The most important is the titular character Caspian (Ben Barnes), the Telmarine crown prince driven from the throne by his usurper uncle. Most of the first third of the movie is devoted to Caspian's coming to terms with his situation – powerless and alone – and his relationship with native Narnians, whom he thought were long extinct. Caspian and the Narnians have a common enemy, King Miraz (Sergio Castellitto), and form an alliance to reclaim Narnia for its rightful owners.

The remainder of the first third is devoted to the Pevensies' search for answers in a new, more dangerous Narnia. Their guide in this journey is a cantankerous dwarf named Trumpkin, played wonderfully by Peter Dinklage. Trumpkin guides the children to the woods, where Telmarines are scared to tread, and finally encounters Caspian and his growing army.

"Prince Caspian" marks a huge rise in quality over its predecessor. The acting is better, as is the writing, directing and storytelling; very strange because the director, screenwriters and four main actors are unchanged. What is most interesting is the change in tone. "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" established Narnia as a Garden of Eden, troubled only by the serpent (the White Witch). In "Prince Caspian" Narnia has become more of a biblical Jerusalem, troubled by invaders, internal strife and destruction.

The battle scenes in "Prince Caspian" are creative, thrilling and lengthy. A nighttime castle siege, occurring late in the movie, involves airborne and earthbound warriors clashing with each other above and between dark castle walls. The final battle, fought mostly on a grassy field, is a beautiful and symbolic clash between the ferocity of man and the supreme power of nature. Throughout everything is the influence of Lewis' religiosity, although much less obvious than that in "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."

"Prince Caspian" is a substantial movie, in terms of special effects, size and scope. It is probably more closely related to the "Lord of the Rings" movies than its 2005 predecessor.

"You may find Narnia a more savage place than you remember," says Trumpkin to Lucy, the youngest and most faithful of the Pevensie children. That may be the overriding theme of "Prince Caspian," that innocence must eventually be lost and that even the great monuments of Narnia, once towering and pristine, must someday fall down.

**** out of ****