January 17, 2008

"27 Dresses" (PG-13, 1 hr., 50 min.)

Thanks to the likability of leads Katherine Heigl ("Knocked Up," R, 2007, "Grey's Anatomy" on TV) and James Marsden ("Enchanted," PG, 2007, "Hairspray," PG, the "X-Men" films, PG-13), this bit of fluff charms nearly all the way through, despite a very phony finale and a cringe-inducingly retro view of modern womanhood. But whatever its gender politics, the film's portrait of a young woman with a big heart, low self-esteem and a history of being a bridesmaid but never a bride unspools as a witty romp and will delight many teen girls. "27 Dresses" contains rude sexual innuendo and slang, so it's less appropriate for middle-schoolers. If younger teens do see it, the movie at least questions the morality of winning someone's heart through deception. It also features an implied sexual situation, occasional strong profanity, drinking and toilet humor.

While Jane (Heigl), the uber-bridesmaid, shuttles between Manhattan and Brooklyn to be in two concurrent ceremonies, a cynical wedding columnist (Marsden) notices from the sidewalk her frantic (though modest) dress-changes in a taxicab and senses a story. He laughs at her idealistic belief in marriage and is fascinated by her closetful of 27 bridesmaid's dresses. After her manipulative younger sister (Malin Akerman) turns up and entrances Jane's boss (Edward Burns) -- whom Jane not-so-secretly loves -- the heartbreak spurs her to take an honest look at her life, with the help of that cute columnist and her sarcastic best pal (Judy Greer).

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"Cloverfield" (PG-13, 1 hr., 23 min.)

A dizzying fever-dream of a horror flick, "Cloverfield" ingeniously creates a sense of dread by imagining the decimation of Manhattan by a monster risen from the harbor as seen only through the viewfinder of a camcorder, held -- very shakily -- by one of the characters. (Those prone to motion sickness, beware.) It is a touch of "The Blair Witch Project" (R, 1999) but with far more style and better acting. Computer-generated visuals of the skyscraper-tall monster are fed in tantalizing glimpses, and with thunderous sound effects. "Cloverfield" becomes a roller-coaster ride that will grab high-school horror fans and not let go. With a few briefly bloody exceptions, the movie displays little gore, thus hanging onto its PG-13 rating, but it would be a bit much for many middle-schoolers or older teens not into the genre. The movie also uses images that deliberately echo the 9/11 terror attacks, with buildings falling and dust clouds. And it shows fighter jets and bombers pounding the monster. There is also profanity, scatological humor, mild sexual innuendo, and a party with much drinking.

The film's herky-jerky style makes tough to keep characters straight. It opens with lovers Rob (Michael Stahl-David) and Beth (Odette Yustman) waking up in a high-rise and strolling in the city -- as recorded by Rob on his camcorder. Days later the camera changes hands as Rob's brother Jason (Mike Vogel) and friend Lily (Jessica Lucas) give him a surprise party. The camera then gets handed to a friend, Hud (T.J. Miller). Drinking, gossip and quarrels are interrupted by an apparent earthquake, then explosions and chaos. Rob, Lily, Jason, Marlena (Lizzy Caplan) and Hud, who keeps the camera going, try to escape death and rescue Beth, trapped in her midtown apartment.

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"Mad Money" (PG-13, 1 hr., 42 min.)

"Mad Money" may not have as obvious an appeal for teen audiences as "27 Dresses." Yet it is well written and refreshingly quirky, and its co-stars Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes span a wide demographic as women who triumph over adversity, albeit by proving that crime pays. This may give parents pause, though the script sounds positive moral notes, too. The movie contains much midrange profanity, some semi-crude sexual innuendo, a naked derriere, drinking and toilet humor.

Bridget (Keaton), an upper-middle-class Kansas City housewife, learns her husband (Ted Danson) has lost his job and they could lose their house. With her depressed spouse on the couch, she applies for jobs, and with no qualifications winds up as a cleaner at a Federal Reserve Bank. Obsessed by the sight of all that worn out paper money headed for the shredder, she decides to create a scheme to smuggle a bit of it out. She enlists fellow cleaners Nina (Latifah), a single mom with two kids, and Jackie (Holmes), a young iPod freak with a slacker husband (Adam Rothenberg). The process by which the women steal the cash is low-tech and fun, if implausible, and the various ways they handle their new riches make for amusing character notes. But the three-way friendship that spans age, class and racial differences is the film's nicest touch.

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BEYOND THE RATINGS GAME

-- OK FOR KIDS 6 AND OLDER:

"The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A Veggie Tales Movie" G -- This is the second feature based on the popular faith-based computer-animated videos. Again, talking salad fixin's hop about, armless and legless, and have a cheery adventure. Unlike the first film ("Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie," G, 2002), the tone here is more nonsectarian, with a message about friendship and courage, though Christians will identify with certain symbols and phrases. The animation is not brilliant, nor the writing ultra witty, but little ones will be gently entertained. Three dinner theater busboys dressed as pirates (played by VeggieTales stars Mr. Lunt the gourd as Sedgewick, Larry the Cucumber as Elliott, and Pa Grape as George) are spirited back to the 17th-century high seas to help a princess rescue her brother from "real" pirates. There are mildly scary scenes with cannon fire, "Rock Monsters," a sea serpent, an ocean storm, nasty cheese curls with teeth, and toilet humor. OK for kindergarteners.

"Alvin and the Chipmunks" PG -- A genial, occasionally very funny update of the nearly 50-year-old franchise, "Alvin and the Chipmunks" mixes live-action and computer animation to tell a farcical tale that aims most of its wit at little kids and not grown-ups, for a change. Oft-rejected songwriter Dave (Jason Lee) discovers that three talking chipmunks -- mischievous Alvin (voice of Justin Long), studious Simon (Matthew Gray Gubler) and babyish Theodore (Jesse McCartney) -- have infiltrated his home. He freaks at first. Then he hears them sing and writes them a hit. The PG covers chipmunk poop and "smelly behind" gags, mild human sexual innuendo and the chipmunks briefly wired on coffee. OK for under-6s.

-- OK FOR KIDS 10 AND OLDER:

"National Treasure: Book of Secrets" PG -- This sequel (to "National Treasure" PG, 2004) is an overlong scavenger hunt that waters down history, but it moves briskly, and good actors in neat locations lend credibility to the silliness. Kids 10 and older should be entertained. Armed with factoids and ciphers, the heroes nose around Buckingham Palace, the Library of Congress, Mount Rushmore and the Oval Office. Treasure hunter Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage) and his dad (Jon Voight) receive evidence that an ancestor was involved in the assassination of Lincoln. Ben and his cohorts aim to disprove it. The film re-enacts the assassination understatedly and has another gun death, car and gun mayhem, foot chases, floods, sexual innuendo and toilet humor.

-- PG-13s OF VARYING INTENSITY:

"27 Dresses" (NEW) -- Co-stars Katherine Heigl and James Marsden help this fizzy romantic comedy work its charms, despite a sometimes cringe-inducing retro view of modern womanhood. Heigl plays Jane, a perennial bridesmaid of big heart and low-self-esteem. Marsden plays a cynical wedding columnist who finds her and her closetful of 27 bridesmaids dresses fascinating. The plot thickens when her vixenish younger sister (Malin Akerman) snares Jane's boss (Edward Burns), whom Jane not-so-secretly loves. The film contains rude sexual innuendo and slang, an implied sexual situation, occasional strong profanity, drinking, and toilet humor. It is less appropriate for middle-schoolers, though at least it portrays generosity and honesty as preferable to greed and deception, and it demonstrates the foolishness of winning someone's heart through lies.

"Cloverfield" (NEW) -- This dizzying fever-dream of a horror flick may be too much for middle-schoolers or anyone easily prone to motion sickness. For other cinema buffs it offers a terrific roller-coaster ride, imagining the decimation of Manhattan by a monster seen only through the viewfinder of a camcorder held -- very shakily -- by a character. There are rare computer-generated visuals of the giant creature. Mostly the dread comes from thunderous sounds and images of destruction, as well as a strong cast of young unknowns registering real emotion. It all begins quietly with a happy video of lovers Rob (Michael Stahl-David) and Beth (Odette Yustman). The camera changes hands and we're at a party. Then a seeming earthquake, explosions and chaos. Rob, his brother (Mike Vogel) and three friends (T.J. Miller, Lizzy Caplan and Jessica Lucas) go to rescue Beth. One guy (Miller) has the camera and keeps it on. With a few briefly bloody exceptions, the movie displays little gore. It does deliberately echo the 9/11 terror attacks, with buildings falling and dust clouds, and shows fighter jets and bombers pounding the monster. There is profanity, scatological humor, mild sexual innuendo, and drinking.

"Mad Money" (NEW) -- Teens may be surprised at how much they enjoy this quirky, well-written comedy. Diane Keaton plays an upper-middle class housewife whose husband (Ted Danson) loses his job and slumps onto the couch. Reduced to working as a cleaner at a Federal Reserve Bank, she becomes obsessed by the piles of old greenbacks headed for the shredder. She enlists two fellow cleaners, a single mom (Queen Latifah) and a young wife (Katie Holmes) with a slacker husband (Adam Rothenberg), into her clever low-tech plot to smuggle cash past security. The film's implicit message that crime pays is offset a bit by its acerbic view of consumerism and the celebratory three-way friendship that develops. It contains midrange profanity, semi-crude sexual innuendo, a naked derriere, drinking and toilet humor.

"First Sunday" (NEW) -- The laughs and sermons are laid on with a trowel in this comic morality tale, but it has nice moments. Two small-time ex-offenders, Durell (Ice Cube) and LeeJohn (Tracy Morgan), make a desperate attempt to rob an inner-city Baltimore church and are tranformed instead by its members (chiefly Chi McBride, Loretta Devine, Malinda Williams, Olivia Cole). Cube plays straight man to Morgan's hyper nincompoop, and Katt Williams is funny as the high-strung choir director. A subplot about Durell needing money for child support offers a strong message about staying in a child's life even if the parents' relationship is over. The movie contains mild profanity, threats and brandished weapons, but no real violence, comic sexual innuendo and drinking.

"The Bucket List" -- Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman lend their star power to this sentimental, slapdash bit of moviemaking, nudging its flaws into the background. A tale of two geezers is not a natural teen magnet, but some kids find their grandparents fascinating, so they might be tickled by Nicholson and Freeman cracking wise. Billionaire Edward (Nicholson) and auto mechanic Carter (Freeman) are hospital roommates who've each been handed a death sentence. Carter shows Edward a list he made of things he wanted to do before he kicked the bucket, and they go off to do them -- skydiving, drag racing, the Taj Mahal, etc. The movie contains midrange profanity (most of it scatological), rude gestures, frisky nonexplicit sexual innuendo, drinking, smoking, toilet humor, subtly depicted illness and themes about divorce and infidelity.

"One Missed Call" -- A grad student (Shannyn Sossamon) is horrified when her friends start dying in freak accidents after they receive bizarre cell-phone calls foretelling their fate. A cop (Edward Burns) tries to help. This remake of a 2003 Japanese film gives off a convincing sense of dread with a welcome lack of gore -- though there is some -- but it also lacks internal logic and becomes a narrative trainwreck. Some high-school horror buffs may find it a bit tame. The film shows a corpse that reanimates, characters hit by vehicles, impaled and stabbed. Upsetting flashbacks show a child dying of an asthma attack and children physically abused by parents or siblings. The movie includes a hallucinatory image of Jesus coming to life on a crucifix, an implied hanging suicide, snakes, mild profanity, smoking, drinking and nongraphic sexual content.

"I Am Legend" -- Will Smith is terrific as a medical researcher who seems to be the lone immune survivor of a plague that has emptied Manhattan and the world of humans in this nifty, if illogical, sci-fi thriller based on Richard Matheson's novel. He and his dog troll around an artfully decimated Big Apple by day. Rabid zombies transformed by the virus come out at night. There are flashbacks of the evacuation of Manhattan, with the faces of the infected slamming against car windows, and the implied deaths of the hero's wife and child in the chaos. Gory scenes show him fighting off zombies and there are bloody animal deaths. A bit much for middle-schoolers, the movie will speak existentially to high-schoolers.