CAST: Charlize Theron, Christina Ricci, Bruce Dern, Lee Tergesen, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Scott Wilson, Marc Macaulay.
SYNOPSIS: Charlize Theron won an Oscar for her bravura portrayal of Florida serial killer Aileen Wuornos.
WHAT WE SAID: St. Petersburg Times film critic Steve Persall found the film too sympathetic to Wuornos and not sympathetic enough to her victims. "As much as I admire Charlize Theron's transformation from gorgeous movie star to Wuornos' roughness, and as effectively as Jenkins stages respectable snuff sequences, sitting through Monster made me wish the theater restroom had a shower stall available to wash away the dirty feeling of being entertained by a whitewash of evil," he wrote, giving the film a B.
CAST: Neve Campbell, Malcolm McDowell, James Franco, Susie Cusack, Barbara Robertson, Marilyn Dodds Frank, the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago.
SYNOPSIS: One season in the Joffrey Ballet's life with a ballerina named Ry (Campbell) stepping to the forefront after a lead dancer is injured. Ry begins dating a chef named Josh (Franco), but he doesn't distract her from trying to please Alberto Antonelli (McDowell), a tough-love sort whose brusque manner can hurt or heal.
WHAT WE SAID: "The Company works most of the time because Altman cuts through most backstage cliches and boldly embraces others, if only to propel a wispy plot," wrote Persall, who gave it a B+ "There is romance and melodrama but very little of each. The emphasis is on ballet itself."
MPAA RATING: PG-13; profanity, sexual situations.
RUNNING TIME: 112 min.
Angels in America
DIRECTOR: Mike Nichols.
CAST: Meryl Streep, Mary-Louise Parker, Emma Thompson, Al Pacino, Patrick Wilson, Jeffrey Wright, James Cromwell.
SYNOPSIS: HBO's production of Tony Kushner's sweeping two-part drama about the AIDS crisis in 1980s America features St. Petersburg native Wilson as closeted, married lawyer Joe Pitt, who finds a warped father figure in Roy Cohn (Pacino).
WHAT WE SAID: Times TV/media critic Eric Deggans gave Angels in America an A. "One look at Nichols' sprawling take on Angels, and it's obvious: This is a landmark piece of television drama. . . . What impresses most is Nichols' lavish production, somehow melding the grandeur of film with the theatrics of the stage and the immediacy of television. Pulling off such an expansive story . . . is nothing less than a show-biz miracle."
RATING: TV-MA (mature audiences).
RUNNING TIME: Six hours.
My Baby's Daddy
DIRECTOR: Cheryl Dunye.
CAST: Eddie Griffin, Anthony Anderson, Michael Imperioli.
SYNOPSIS: Comedy about three pals whose girlfriends become pregnant at the same time, bringing a reluctant end to their partying ways.
WHAT WE SAID: The Times did not review this film.
MPAA RATING: PG-13; crude humor, profanity, sexual situations, drug references.
RUNNING TIME: 86 min.
Eurotrip
DIRECTOR: Jeff Schaffer.
CAST: Scott Mechlowicz, Michelle Trachtenberg, Jacob Pitts.
SYNOPSIS: College chums go road tripping through Europe looking for sex, intoxication and one guy's hot pen pal. Call it European Pie.
WHAT WE SAID: The Times did not review this film.
MPAA RATING: R; crude humor, sexuality, nudity, harsh profanity, drug and alcohol abuse.
RUNNING TIME: 90 min.
Catch That Kid
DIRECTOR: Bart Freundlich.
CAST: Jennifer Beals, Kristen Stewart, Max Thieriot, Corbin Bleu.
SYNOPSIS: The daughter of a paralyzed mountain climber plans to pay for his medical treatment by robbing the bank where her mother works.
WHAT WE SAID: Times XPress film critic Billy Norris gave this one a C, saying "it seems almost as if they took Agent Cody Banks, all three Spy Kids movies, The Italian Job and Ocean's Eleven (minus eight), and threw them in the wash together just for the heck of it."
