Short Takes

Special screenings

Ann Vickers

Irene Dunne, Walter Huston, Conrad Nagel. Directed by John Cromwell. 76 minutes. Not rated.

A social worker/prison reformer looks for love with men who abuse her, and finds herself attracted to a controversial judge. Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road, 507-3400. 7/3, 1 pm, free.

The Ant Bully

Voices of Zach Tyler Eisen, Julia Roberts, Nicolas Cage. Directed by John A. Davis. 88 minutes. Rated PG.

After Lucas Nickle floods an ant colony with his water gun, he’s magically shrunk down to insect size and sentenced to hard labor in the ruins. Baker Park, St. Louis Ave. & 10th St., 229-1087. 7/5, 8 pm, free.

The Bourne Identity

Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Chris Cooper. Directed by Doug Liman. 119 minutes. Rated PG-13.

A man (Damon) is picked up by a fishing boat, bullet-riddled and without memory, then races to elude assassins and recover from amnesia. Whitney Library, 5175 E. Tropicana Ave., 507-4010. 7/1, 11:30 am, free.

Voices of John Ritter, Wayne Brady, Jenna Elfman. Directed by Robert C. Ramirez. 73 minutes. Rated G.

Worried that he costs too much to feed, Clifford the big red dog runs away to join a carnival act and help win a lifetime supply of Tummy Yummies. East Las Vegas Community/Senior Center, 250 N. Eastern Ave., 229-1515. 6/28, 2 pm, free.

Eragon

Ed Speleers, Jeremy Irons, Robert Carlyle. Directed by Stefen Fangmeier. 104 minutes. Rated PG.

A farm boy happens upon a dragon’s egg—a discovery that leads him on a journey when he realizes he’s the one person who can defend his home against an evil king. Whitney Library, 5175 E. Tropicana Ave., 507-4010. 6/28, 2 pm, free.

IMAX Theatre

Deep Sea 3D, Fighter Pilot, Mystery of the Nile, Lions 3D: Roar of the Kalahari

Call for showtimes. $11.99 each show.

Luxor, 3900 Las Vegas Blvd. S., 262-4629.

Jules & Jim

Jeanne Moreau, Oscar Werner, Henri Serre. Directed by Francois Truffaut. 105 minutes. Not rated.

Chronicle of decades of a love triangle among two friends and an impulsive woman. In French with English subtitles. Screening presented by Voices from the Set author Tony Macklin. Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road, 507-3400. 7/3, 7 pm, free.

Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Tim Curry. Directed by Jim Sharman. 100 minutes. Rated R.

The perennial 1975 cult classic is a mix of horror, comedy and musical, featuring sex, transvestites and the Time Warp. Augmented by a live cast and audience participation. Tropicana Cinemas, 3330 E. Tropicana Ave., 243-7469. Sat, midnight, $10. Info: www.rhpsvegas.com. Onyx Theater inside The Rack in Commercial Center, 953 E. Sahara Ave., #101. First & third Sat of month, 11:30 pm, $7. Info: 953-0682 or www.divinedecadence.org.

Z

Yves Montand, Irene Papas, Jean-Louis Trintignant. Directed by Costa-Gavras. 127 minutes. Rated PG.

Following the murder of a prominent leftist, an investigator tries to uncover the truth while government officials attempt to cover up their roles. Film followed by discussion led by independent producer Luis Bonilla. Film and discussion in Spanish. East Las Vegas Community/Senior Center, 250 N. Eastern Ave., 229-1515. 6/28, 7 pm, free.

New this week

Evening **

Claire Danes, Vanessa Redgrave, Toni Collette, Patrick Wilson, Hugh Dancy. Directed by Lajos Koltai. 117 minutes. Rated PG-13.

Live Free or Die Hard ***

Bruce Willis, Justin Long, Timothy Olyphant, Maggie Q, Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Directed by Len Wiseman. 128 minutes. Rated PG-13.

Voices of Patton Oswalt, Lou Romano, Brad Garrett, Janeane Garofalo. Directed by Brad Bird. 110 minutes. Rated G.

Sicko **1/2

Directed by Michael Moore. 113 minutes. Rated PG-13.

Now playing

1408 ***

John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Mary McCormack. Directed by Mikael Hafstrom. 94 minutes. Rated PG-13.

As writer Mike Enslin, who pens cheapo nonfiction guides like Ten Haunted Houses and Ten Haunted Castles, Cusack uses his sarcastic, hangdog style to sell the character’s cynicism, along with his loneliness. Mike’s at New York’s Dolphin Hotel to stay in the titular room, the site of numerous suicides and natural deaths over the last hundred years or so. Once inside, Mike gets down to the business of being terrorized by the never-defined evil presence in the room. Cusack carries it all, especially when there aren’t any other actors around for him to interact with. –JB

Konstantin Khabensky, Mariya Poroshina, Vladimir Menshov. Directed by Timur Bekmambatov. 132 minutes. Rated R.

This sequel to Bekmambetov’s 2006 convoluted horror/sci-fi/action Russian import Night Watch offers more of the same and will most likely send the uninitiated into a spiral of confusion. Basically, two supernatural armies try to keep an uneasy truce as normal people go about their lives. Troublemaking hero Anton (Khabensky) returns, this time training a new Night Watch agent, the pretty Svetlana (Poroshina). Bekmambetov isn’t particularly concerned with making this story, which ladles in many more characters and subplots, clear. The attempts at dazzling showmanship only delay the cold, hard truth that there really isn’t much here. –JMA

Delta Farce (Not reviewed)

Larry the Cable Guy, Bill Engvall, DJ Qualls. Directed by C.B. Harding. 90 minutes. Rated PG-13.

Three bumbling Army reservists bound for Iraq are accidentally dropped at a Mexican village besieged by hostile forces.

Jaime Pressly, Holly Valance, Sarah Carter, Devon Aoki. Directed by Corey Yuen. 87 minutes. Rated PG-13.

Based on the video game of the same name, Yuen’s DOA: Dead or Alive starts fast, moves fast and ends before you know it. Like a cross between Charlie’s Angels and Enter the Dragon, the action revolves around an annual fight tournament on a remote island. The best fighters in the world, each with a different style, are invited to join. DOA: Dead or Alive is unquestionably brain-dead, but also a great example of unpretentious, second-gear celluloid, generated quickly, cheaply—and for the fun of it. –JMA

Evan Almighty **

Steve Carell, Morgan Freeman, Lauren Graham. Directed by Tom Shadyac. 94 minutes. Rated PG.

God (Freeman, reprising his Bruce Almighty role) has set his sights on Evan (Carell), who’s left his TV job in Buffalo after being elected to the U.S. Congress. Evan’s barely had time to settle into his new house and job before the smarmy deity shows up and demands that he build an ark in anticipation of a coming flood. Predictably, the ark is less about global disaster and more about Evan learning some important lessons about making time for his family and—most relentlessly and heavy-handedly—caring for the environment. Not that what passes for humor is worth a whole lot—there’s an entire montage of Carell falling down and/or getting hit with things, and far more jokes about bird poop than should ever be in one movie. –JB

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer **

Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis. Directed by Tim Story. 92 minutes. Rated PG.

In the new sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, the superhero team’s problems begin when first class is overbooked. Their problems continue in the same vein. The million-dollar wedding between Mr. Fantastic and Sue Storm, aka the Invisible Girl (Alba), is over-publicized, and Sue worries about how they’re going to raise a family when they’re so famous. Their wedding is subsequently interrupted when the Silver Surfer begins blowing holes in the planet and knocking out electrical systems. Unfortunately, he’s just the minion of the planet-eater Galactus, who has now been informed that Earth is on the menu. The film hinges entirely on these gigantic, yet straightforward, simple conflicts, resulting in little or no emotional involvement in the characters. –JMA

Hostel: Part II ***

Lauren German, Roger Bart, Heather Matarazzo, Bijou Phillips. Directed by Eli Roth. 93 minutes. Rated R.

Plot-wise this is virtually the same movie as the first one, with American girls being tortured in Eastern Europe swapped in for American boys, and it’ll never be mistaken for anything more than a cheap, trashy exploitation movie. But it’s actually pretty good at being that, and the slight changes in structure make it a bit more successful than the first movie. Roth has wisely pretty much ditched the political commentary, which was muddled and unsuccessful the first time out, and allowed his main characters to be mostly sympathetic without embodying any ugly-American stereotypes. This formula wouldn’t work again, but the second time around finds enough variation to be satisfying for those who don’t expect too much. –JB

Narrated by Nicole Kidman. Directed by Richard Trank. 105 minutes. Not rated.

Simon Wiesenthal first became famous as the Jewish “Nazi hunter” whose efforts led to the capture and eventual execution of Adolf Eichmann. This documentary by Richard Trank (The Long Way Home) attempts to chronicle the enormous impact Wiesenthal’s work had on the world. The film gives some background information, as well as details his experiences in concentration camps, but mostly follows the quest of a man spurred on by the world’s biggest case of survivor’s guilt. It’s a dark journey, but Trank’s straightforward style trusts the subject to keep us engrossed. –BS

Jindabyne **

Gabriel Byrne, Laura Linney, Chris Haywood. Directed by Ray Lawrence. 123 minutes. Rated R.

Four men on a fishing trip find a murdered woman’s body but decide to finish their baiting and bonding before reporting the cadaver. Might’ve worked. Didn’t. Instead, it’s like something Sam Shepard might’ve come up with if he was on deadline and had a bad migraine, with a little dash of Deliverance thrown in. (And if that comparison strikes you as odd, you’re actually getting the point here.) Forward momentum is lacking and never compensated for with things like well-crafted character development—although Byrne is outstanding in the movie’s only meaty role. –AZ

Knocked Up ***

Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl, Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann. Directed by Judd Apatow. 129 minutes. Rated R.

The wholesome values in Knocked Up are effectively intermixed with the movie’s real selling point, its outrageous humor, but it’s clear which side wins out. That makes the film either an act of subversive genius—getting stoners and slackers to appreciate the importance of parenthood—or a strangely conservative scolding in the guise of a dumb comedy. As tempting as it is to give Apatow credit for subversion, it might be safer to say that he’s really just telling his audience to grow up and accept some responsibility. That’s exactly what happens to Ben Stone (Rogen), a prototypical representative of the Apatow demographic, when his one-night stand with driven E! news producer Alison Scott (Heigl) results in an unplanned pregnancy. –JB

A Mighty Heart **

Angelina Jolie, Dan Futterman, Archie Panjabi. Directed by Michael Winterbottom. 100 minutes. Rated R.

The title of Mariane Pearl’s memoir, A Mighty Heart, presumably refers to her late husband, Daniel, the reporter who was kidnapped and murdered by Islamic extremists in the winter of 2002. In Winterbottom’s new film adaptation, however, the coronary mightiness is all Mariane’s. Save a hasty account of the events leading up to his disappearance, the doomed man (Futterman) appears only in bittersweet flashbacks and recreated photos; the bulk of the movie depicts the efforts of his pregnant wife (Jolie) and various others to secure his safe return—efforts that we observe with sorrow, knowing they will fail. A Mighty Heart doesn’t exactly qualify as a procedural, and it certainly isn’t a thriller or a drama. Instead, it’s a hectic testament to Mariane Pearl’s courage and self-possession—the hagiography of a grieving widow who doesn’t yet know for certain that her husband is dead. –MD

Angelina Jolie (right) is A Mighty Heart's coronary power.

Mr. Brooks ***

Kevin Costner, William Hurt, Demi Moore, Dane Cook. Directed by Bruce A. Evans. 120 minutes. Rated R.

Mr. Brooks (Costner) has a slight addiction to bloodshed. He’s been going to AA meetings to help suppress these urges, but that little devil on his shoulder keeps egging him on. Temptation is beautifully personified by Marshall (Hurt), who’s not so much Brooks’ alter-ego as he is a bad-influence type of imaginary friend. Marshall periodically pops up to offer Brooks fathering advice, remind him of little details he might forget and, of course, persuade him to massacre copulating couples for kicks. In spite of the convoluted finale, Mr. Brooks still ends up being good, twisted fun. –MSH

Emma Roberts, Tate Donovan, Max Thieriot, Laura Elena Harring. Directed by Andrew Fleming. 99 minutes. Rated PG.

Crafty teen detective Nancy (Roberts) enters the picture fully formed (no prologue necessary). She solves a crime, negotiates with the robbers and scales down the side of a building before leaving her hometown of River Heights for Los Angeles, where her lawyer father (Donovan) has picked up some temporary work. He makes her promise not to sleuth in the big city, but Nancy has already found a mystery in their rented house. Decades earlier, a movie star (Harring) disappeared, then turned up murdered. Nancy tries to figure out whodunit and why. Fleming creates a clever, snappy, self-aware picture in which Nancy thrives. –JMA

Ocean’s Thirteen ***

George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Al Pacino. Directed by Steven Soderbergh. 113 minutes. Rated PG-13.

As in the first film, our heroes have targeted a fabulous Las Vegas casino—this one owned not by Andy Garcia’s Terry Benedict, who’s partially bankrolling the operation, but by a preening, back-stabbing mogul named Willie Bank (Pacino). Their objective isn’t quite what you’d expect, though. Ocean & Co. don’t want Bank’s vast fortune for themselves—they’d just prefer that Bank, who’s both humiliated and hospitalized their jovial mentor, Reuben (Elliott Gould), possess a whole lot less of it. For the most part, Ocean’s Thirteen reverts to the breezy, weightless antics—charismatic men plotting byzantine schemes in exotic locales—that made Eleven such forgettable fun. –MD

Once ***1/2

Glen Hansard, Marketa Irglova, Geoff Minogue. Directed by John Carney. 85 minutes. Rated R.

Once is a musical expressly designed for people who think they hate musicals—a movie that takes full advantage of the genre’s expressionistic power, conveying heightened emotions entirely via libretto, while at the same time remaining firmly grounded in gritty, mundane reality. Carney’s means of achieving this apparent contradiction is refreshingly simple: Both of his lead characters are aspiring musicians, and their week-long relationship is ostensibly a musical collaboration, as they jointly compose, arrange and record a demo. Nobody ever really bursts into song in Once—it’s more as if they stumble into song, tentative and uncertain, finding their confidence and their passion as they go along. This approach lacks the razzle-dazzle of the classic musical, but it has an endearingly awkward charm of its own. –MD

Marketa irglova and Glen Hensard meet cute in Once

Juliette Binoche, Steve Buscemi, Willem Dafoe, Gérard Depardieu, Marianne Faithfull, Ben Gazzara, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Bob Hoskins and others. Directed by various. 120 minutes. Rated R.

Like other anthology films, the new Paris, Je T’Aime has its strong points and its low points, and no two viewers will agree on which is which. Eighteen directors participated in this tribute to the City of Lights, each assigned to a different neighborhood. Each short film runs an average of eight minutes, so even if you get stuck with a clunker, it’s not long before the next one starts. Overall, the filmmakers manage to capture a sense of wonder and romance about the city, even if the “neighborhood” concept isn’t consistent. –JMA

Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Geoffrey Rush. Directed by Gore Verbinski. 168 minutes. Rated PG-13.

At World’s End picks up, as these things tend to do, roughly where its slightly less inflated predecessor ended, with Elizabeth Swann (Knightley) allied with Captain Barbossa (Rush) and the surviving swabbies of the Black Pearl to rescue Jack Sparrow (Depp) from the very euphemistically named Davy Jones’ locker. Even if you loved The Curse of the Black Pearl and Dead Man’s Chest, this dour, tedious, aggressively unfunny, egregiously padded helping of celluloid fluff will only waste your time and money. –MH

Voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas. Directed by Chris Miller. 92 minutes. Rated PG.

The loveable titular ogre (voiced by Myers), already saddled with talking-animal sidekicks Donkey (Murphy) and Puss In Boots (Banderas) and married to princess-turned-ogre Fiona (Diaz), acquires a horde of new friends and foes in this latest installment. Chief among them is the supremely uninteresting Artie, cousin to Fiona, and Shrek’s choice to succeed Fiona’s late father as the king of Far, Far Away, because the ogre himself would rather not rule. What started out as a genial stab at Disneyfied fairy tales has morphed into a catch-all parody with no focus and even less bite. It’s hard to buy into the movie making fun of anything when it’s become such an easy target for mockery itself. –JB

Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church. Directed by Sam Raimi. 140 minutes. Rated PG-13.

You want villains? Our boy Spidey must contend not just with the Sandman (Church), an ex-con brawler capable of departiculating his entire body at will; not just with Harry Osborn (Franco), who’s discovered his late father’s secret laboratory and refashioned himself as a junior version of the Green Goblin; but also with a malevolent hunk of symbiotic black goo from outer space, which first attaches itself to one of Spider-Man’s costumes and later transforms snotty rival Daily Bugle photographer Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) into a fanged mutant Spider-Clone known as Venom. You want romance? Mary Jane (Dunst) is still around, but she’s now simmering with jealousy at the vapid blond advances made by Peter’s science lab partner. The overall game plan involves tossing so much sheer stuff at us that we’ll be too dizzy and distracted to notice that no single element is actually working. –MD

Voices of Shia LaBeouf, Jeff Bridges, Zooey Deschanel. Directed by Ash Brannon and Chris Buck. 85 minutes. Rated PG.

Cody Maverick (LaBeouf) doesn’t fit in with his penguin kin, preferring to surf over gathering fish and tending eggs. Cody travels to fictional Pen Gu Island for a big surf competition, where he falls for a lifeguard named Lani (Deschanel) and learns totally deep life lessons from his idol, an aging surf champion named Big Z (Bridges). It’s breezy and fitfully amusing stuff, and directors Brannon and Buck make at least a token effort to break out of the monolithic computer animation pack with the mockumentary gimmick, although livening up one tired genre by combining it with another is not necessarily a formula for success. –JB

Vacancy (Not reviewed)

Luke Wilson, Kate Beckinsale, Frank Whaley. Directed by Nimrod Antal. 80 minutes. Rated R.

A young married couple becomes stranded at an isolated motel and finds hidden video cameras in their room. They realize that unless they escape, they’ll be the next victims of a snuff film.

Waitress ***1/2

Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Jeremy Sisto. Directed by Adrienne Shelly. 107 minutes. Rated PG-13.

Jenna (Russell) is an unhappily married—and very unhappily pregnant—waitress at a small-town diner who’s constantly dreaming up exotic pies and naming them after whatever crisis she’s currently undergoing. Abortion, it seems, is out of the question—the possibility is never so much as raised—but Jenna’s red-state family values don’t stop her from embarking upon a guilty, start-stop affair with her hunky but equally married new obstetrician (Fillion). This all goes more or less where you’d expect it to, but it’s hard to begrudge familiarity when it’s accompanied by such dizzy warmth and offbeat charm. –MD

JMA Jeffrey M. Anderson; JB Josh Bell; MD Mike D’Angelo; MH Mark Holcomb; MSH Matthew Scott Hunter; BS Benjamin Spacek; AZ Adrian Zupp