CAST: Cole Hauser, Dennis Farina, Tom Sizemore, Daniel Baldwin, Robin Tunney
SYNOPSIS: A celebrity (Hauser) seeks revenge on the photographer (Baldwin) who almost caused a tragedy.
WHAT WE SAID: The Times did not review this film. Roger Moore of the Orlando Sentinel wrote that the film is "a petulant, violent and sophomoric hissy fit about those nasty photographers who torment the rich and famous. . . . First-time director Paul Abascal is an ex-hairdresser whose debut film wallows in melodramatic excesses - tense, shrieking music, spitting, sputtering villains and a hero who is right and righteous because, well, he's a celebrity."
MPAA RATING: PG-13; intense violent sequences, sexual content and language
RUNNING TIME: 85 min.
Touch of Pink
DIRECTOR: Ian Iqbal Rashid
CAST: Jimi Mistry, Kyle MacLachlan, Kristen Holden-Ried, Suleka Mathew
SYNOPSIS: A gay Muslim (Mistry) guided by the spirit of the late Cary Grant (MacLachlan) tries hiding his homosexuality from a devout family.
WHAT WE SAID: Times film critic Steve Persall gave the film a C+
He wrote, "We've seen almost everything in Ian Iqbal Rashid's comedy before: a gay man coming out to a family he's certain won't understand, an Indian clan gathering for an event marking so many films from that part of the world - a wedding. Touch of Pink is something borrowed from a lot of movies, retaining some of the charm that previously worked. What the movie adds to the mix is an interesting performance by Kyle MacLachlan (Blue Velvet, Dune) as, of all people, deceased Hollywood icon Cary Grant."
MPAA RATING: R; sexual content and brief language
RUNNING TIME: 91 min.
The Village
DIRECTOR: M. Night Shyamalan
CAST: Bryce Dallas Howard, Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Brendan Gleeson, Michael Pitt
SYNOPSIS: Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Signs) jumps out and says "boo" again, this time in a 19th century village where forest creatures strike.
WHAT WE SAID: Times reviewer Philip Booth gave the film an A. "It's a cleverly paced, intelligently written, artfully photographed yarn that's refreshingly original, despite references to the mood and tone of The Blair Witch Project, episodes of The Twilight Zone and Gothic literature (the script was inspired, in part, by Shyamalan's re-reading of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights). And the film's final revelations are truly surprising, and satisfying," he wrote.
MPAA RATING: PG-13; violence
RUNNING TIME: 107 min.
Without a Paddle
DIRECTOR: Steven Brill
CAST: Dax Shepard, Matthew Lillard, Seth Green, Burt Reynolds
SYNOPSIS: Three city slickers (Green, Lillard, Shepard) search for the legendary D.B. Cooper fortune in the wilderness and run into Deliverance-style trouble.
WHAT WE SAID: Booth gave this movie a D. He wrote, "Director Steven Brill and his cohorts take a trio of lovable morons to the middle of nowhere, where they quickly run out of things to do. Oh, wait. I nearly forgot about the unfunny slapstick, the tired gay baiting, the soggy moralizing (about, you know, living an unencumbered life) and the distinctly suspense-free encounters with white-water rapids, an amorous bear, and marijuana-growing hillbillies."
MPAA RATING: PG-13; sexual innuendo, profanity, violence
