Roger Ebert Movie Review

What If Darth Vader Worked At McDonalds
Tell the fry tech to drop more fries before the lunch rush...

Weekend Box Office: February 22-24, 2008

Vantage Point tops the box office with $22.9 million

Daily Box Office: Thursday, February 28, 2008

Vantage Point tops Thursday's box office with $1.2 million

Chicago 10 / ***1/2 (R)

By Jim Emerson, Editor "We believe that politics is the way you live your life, not who you support. It's not in terms of rallies or speeches or political programs. It is in terms of images and in terms of transforming people's lives." That was Abbie Hoffman, the notorious Yippie, expressing his dedication to politics as "total theater" in 1968. He was just over 30 then, and never to be trusted, which is exactly what so many people found galvanizing about this gregarious, frizzy-haired prankster.

The Other Boleyn Girl / **1/2 (PG-13)

By Jim Emerson, Editor Mary Boleyn: "You know I love him." Anne Boleyn: "Well, perhaps you should stop." Sassed her, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! If Russ Meyer had made "The Other Boleyn Girl," Anne and Mary Boleyn would have yanked some hair, scratched some eyeballs, walloped each other in their respective kissers, and the movie would have been all the better for it. Just imagine: "Beneath the Valley of the Tudorvixens": Meee-oww!

The Counterfeiters / **1/2 (R)

By Jim Emerson, Editor Even if you didn't know that Stefan Ruzowitsky's "The Counterfeiters" was a 2007 Oscar nominee for best foreign language film, you'd probably guess it was, anyway. This Austrian drama about the Nazis' top secret Operation Bernhard, the largest counterfeiting scheme of all time, is paradoxically all too good at fitting the horrors of the Holocaust into a prestige movie format. Predictably, it won the Oscar.

Be Kind Rewind / **1/2 (PG-13)

"Be Kind, Rewind" (PG-13. /// minutes). After every tape in a VHS rental store is inadvertently erased, Jack Black and Mos Def don't want the store owner (Danny Glover) to find out. So they set to work to "re-enact" them in low-tech home movies. I felt positive and genial while watching it, but I didn't break out in paroxysms of laughter. Written and directed by the usually more brilliant Michel Gondry. Rating: Two and a half stars

Charlie Bartlett / **1/2 (R)

Charlie Bartlett -- A teen comedy about a kid's fantasies of popularity -- brought about by illegally selling prescription drugs to his fellow students. is based on successful teen comedy formulas of the '70s, '80s, and '90s, like "My Bodyguard," "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," "Breakfast Club" and "Say Anything..." The romance between Charlie and Susan (which even has a Cat Stevens song for a theme) is basically "Harold and Maude" with a gorgeous teenage girl instead of feisty septuagenarian Ruth Gordon. Like many of John Hughes' high school movies it presents a fantasy about kids from different social circles -- nerds, jocks, punks, cheerleaders, drama clubbers -- coming together for a larger cause. Rated R, 97 minutes (Jim Emerson)

The Signal / *** (R)

"The Signal" -- A horror-comedy in three parts, about an outbreak of anti-social behavior that causes "one out of every two people" to impulsively murder the other one out of every two people. "The Signal" explores the common ground between visceral horror and sketch comedy, and finds plenty of it. (Running time: 101 minutes) Three stars.

Great Movie: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

By Roger Ebert The staircase should be billed along with the stars in Robert Aldrich's "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" (1962). On a claustrophobic set, it dominates many shots, separating the upstairs captivity of the paraplegic Blanche from the downstairs lair of her deranged sister Jane. Although the two sisters live in a "mansion" that allegedly once belonged to Valentino, it is jammed between nosy neighbors and seems to consist only of a living room, a kitchen, a hallway and a bedroom for each sister. In this hothouse a lifelong rivalry turns vicious, in one of Hollywood's best gothic grotesqueries.