Roger Ebert Movie Review

Weekend Box Office: May 9-11, 2008

Iron Man tops the box office with $51.2 million

Daily Box Office: Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Iron Man tops Wednesday's box office with $3.1 million

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian / *** (PG)

by Jim Emerson, editor The "Chronicles of Narnia" movies take place in several worlds simultaneously. The magical fantasy land of the title is grounded in ancient Greco-Roman mythology, ruled by sorcery and superstition, and populated by centaurs, minotaurs, fauns, gryphons, talking mammals, tree spirits and such. The Pevensie kids are homo sapiens children of WW II England, though they spend most of their screen-time (and alternate lives) in Narnia, where they are royalty. C.S. Lewis wrote the novels in the post-war United Kingdom, between 1949 and 1954. And the pictures themselves are the products of a globalized 21st-century economy dominated by multinational conglomerates like the Walt Disney Company. All of these influences can be felt in the first two "Narnia" films, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" (2005) and the latest, "Prince Caspian" (2008).

Jellyfish / *** (No rating)

"Jellyfish" (78 minutes). Stories of three young women and people in their lives, set in Tel Aviv but not especially Israeli. We meet newly wed, a waitress, and a home-care provider from the Philippines, and also an enigmatic little girl who seemingly emerges from the sea. No vast plot revelations are secreted beneath their stories, which work simply as portraits from life. Directed by Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen annd written by Geffen. Winner of the Camera d'Or (for best first feature) from Cannes 2007. Rating: Three stars.

The Witnesses / *** (No rating)

"Witnesses" (Adults, 112 minutes). French drama by Andre Techine involving a young gay man, the cop who becomes his lover, the cop's wife, a doctor, an an aspiring opera singer. The story is set in 1984, and the rise of AIDS involves them all in a potential tragedy. Michel Blanc's performance as the doctor embodies empathy, tenderness, and surprising, passionate anger. Rating: Three stars.

Before the Rains / **1/2 (PG-13)

By Roger Ebert "Before the Rains" tells the kind of story that would feel right at home in a silent film, and I suppose I mean that as a compliment. It's a melodrama about adultery, set against the backdrop of southern India in 1937. There's something a little creaky about the production, especially in its frequent use of large crowds of torch-bearing men, who can be summoned in an instant at any hour of day or night to blaze a trail, search for a missing woman, or gather in front of the house of a possibly guilty man.

Body of War / *** (No rating)

By Jim Emerson, editor "I called Uncle Sam on Sept. 13, when I saw the president standing on top of the rubble in New York, saying that we were going to get those responsible, which I wanted to do. After a short time at Ft. Hood, Texas, it became clear that we in fact were going instead to Iraq." -- Tomas Young, Kansas City, Mo., of the Iraq Veterans Against the War

Redbelt / *** (R)

By Roger Ebert David Mamet's "Redbelt" assembles all the elements for a great Mamet film, but they're still spread out on the shop floor. It never really pulls itself together into the convincing, focused drama it promises, yet it kept me involved right up until the final scenes, which piled on developments almost recklessly. So gifted is Mamet as a writer and director that he can fascinate us even when he's pulling rabbits out of an empty hat.

Son of Rambow / *** (PG-13)

"Son of Rambow" (PG-13, 96 minutes). Two 11-year-olds in 1980s England are inspired by a pirated copy of "First Blood" to make their own home video portrait of Rambo. Will (Bill Milner) performs death-defying stunts, Lee (Will Poulter) mans the video camera, and they're inspired by the arrival of a misfit French exchange student (Jules Sitruk). Meanwhile, there's trouble at home; Will's family belongs to a strict religious sect, and his mom has collected a suitor who covets the role of his father. A gentle fantasy, where even the (considerable) violence is softened. Never quite in focus, but sweet enough, and the young actors have charm. Rating: Three stars.

America the Beautiful / *** (R)

By Roger Ebert The documentary "America the Beautiful" is not shrill or alarmist, nor does it strain to shock us. Darryl Roberts, its director and narrator, speaks mostly in a pleasant, low-key voice. But the film is pulsing with barely suppressed rage, and by the end, I shared it. It's about a culture "saturated with the perfect," in which women are taught to seek an impossible physical ideal, and men to worship it.

Speed Racer / *1/2 (PG)

By Jim Emerson, editor Evil is not a primary color. That is the point of the Wachowski brothers' video-arcade treatment of "Speed Racer," insofar as one can be determined. Blue, you can trust. Red and yellow, black and white -- they're all decent visible wavelengths. It's purple you have to watch out for.

Great Movie: Johnny Guitar (1954)

By Roger Ebert Nicholas Ray's "Johnny Guitar" (1954) is surely one of the most blatant psychosexual melodramas ever to disguise itself in that most commodious of genres, the Western. Consider: No money was lavished on the production. The action centers on a two-story saloon "outside town," but we never even see "town," except for a bank facade and interior set. So sparse are the settings that although the central character (Joan Crawford) plays the tavern owner and goes through a spectacular costume charge, we never see her boudoir -- she only appears on a balcony above the main floor, having presumably emerged from the sacred inner temple.

Movie Answer Man: The World's Fastest Remake?

Q. It has been observed many times that when Hollywood runs out of ideas, it remakes an older film. I was stunned to read that Nicolas Cage was going to star in a remake of the "Bad Lieutenant." It seems like only yesterday that I saw the original; 1992 doesn't seem that long ago to me and I'm curious if you know what the shortest time between the release of a film and it's remake is. Does this remake set any records for recycling movies? (Yuri Duncan, Indianapolis, IN) A. I don't know who holds the record, but I'm reminded that when Martin Scorsese was a guest on my TV show picking the ten best films of the 1990s, Abel Ferrara's film was on his list.