Roger Ebert Movie Review

Weekend Box Office: May 16-18, 2008

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian tops the box office with $55.0 million

Daily Box Office: Wednesday, May 21, 2008

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian tops Wednesday's box office with $2.7 million

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull / ***1/2 (PG-13)

By Roger Ebert "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." Say it aloud. The very title causes the pulse to quicken, if you, like me, are a lover of pulp fiction. What I want is goofy action--lots of it. I want man-eating ants, swordfights between two people balanced on the backs of speeding jeeps, subterranean caverns of gold, vicious femme fatales, plunges down three waterfalls in a row, and the explanation for flying saucers. And throw in lots of monkeys.

Roman de Gare / **1/2 (R)

"Roman de Gare" (R, 103 minutes). The intriguing character Dominique Pinon, who looks like an insect when she's chewing gum, can do a lot of things at the same time. According to the labyrinthine plot of this movie, he is perhaps an escaped serial killer, a ghost writer, or a runaway husband. He meets the heroine (Audrey Dana) at 3 a.m. at a highway cafe, where she has been dumped by a jealous boyfriend. And in Claude Lelouch's twister, which is too clever by half, various possibilities of his possible identities loop back upon themselves. Also starring Fanny Ardant, Truffaut's widow, as an elegant best selling novelist. Rating; Two and a half stars.

Reprise / ** (R)

"Reprise" (No MPAA rating, 105 minutes). If there was ever a movie that seems written and directed by its characters, that movie is Joachim Trier's "Reprise." Here is an ambitious and romantic portrait of two young would-be writers that seems made by ambitious and romantic would-be filmmakers. In the movie, the young heroes idolize Norway's greatest living writer, who tells one of them his novel is good and shows promise, except for the ending, where he shouldn't have been so poetic. The movie itself is good and shows promise, except for the ending, when Trier shouldn't have been so poetic. Not only does "Reprise" generate itself, it contains its own review. Rating: Two stars.

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.

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.

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.

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

Movie Answer Man: Beauties in black and white

Q. You asked if readers raised on color had any thoughts on the B&W issue. I was born in 1971, and the worlds of television and cinema were fully in color. I grew up "hating" black and white, and dismissed it as something that was only used because there was no better option. In my teenage years, I saw two films that used black and white when color was readily available, and it worked exceptionally well: Woody Allen's "Manhattan," and David Lynch's "Eraserhead". These films convinced me that black and white is beautiful,and can help in the creation of mood and theme (although Lynch might have done "Eraserhead" in B&W for financial reasons). So, to the reader who wants to expose her children to films that they will enjoy, and wonders if using the color versions will help that process--I say, go for it! If they truly learn to love film the way I did, they will discover that b&w is an option, not a drawback. I would rather a young person watch a colorized old film than not watch it at all, and hopefully someday they will love it enough to see it the way it was intended to be seen. (Scott Mobley, Las Vegas NV) A. My selection as the Great Movie on Sept. 30 will be "My Man Godfrey," a b&w masterpiece that on the Criterion DVD is as stunning a b&w movie as I've ever seen on video. I go into detail about its beauty.