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JANE HORWITZ - FAMILY FILMGOER |
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``Open Season'' (PG, 1 hr., 19 min.) ``School for Scoundrels'' (PG13, 1 hr., 41 min.) You really want ``School for Scoundrels,'' in which a milquetoast learns to stand up for himself, to be a riot from start to finish. Instead, it is merely funny -- no small feat -- right up until its oddly tacked-on, not-so-funny closing scene. High-schoolers may be drawn to this tale of a triumphant underdog and to stars Jon Heder, who played the title geek in ``Napoleon Dynamite'' (PG, 2004), and Billy Bob Thornton, the perfect cool-dude foil for any dweeb. Heder plays Roger, a timid Manhattan male meter maid bullied by parking violators and co-workers alike and so shy he faints when trying to ask out the girl (Jacinda Barrett) he loves. A friend steers him to a class taught by the dubious Dr. P (Thornton), who builds backbone in mousy men with verbal abuse and homework assignments ordering them to ``initiate a confrontation.'' Just as Roger starts to gain courage, Dr. P starts horning in on his love life. A big bonus in ``School for Scoundrels'' is the droll supporting cast, from Barrett to Michael Clarke Duncan as Dr. P's hulking assistant, to all the scared guys in Roger's class. ``School for Scoundrels'' is too profane and occasionally lewd to recommend for middle-schoolers, with relatively infrequent use of the F-word, but much use of the S-word and other oaths that push it near R territory. It also contains semi-crude sexual slang and innuendo, including a running joke implying one male character raped another, and a gag about stalking women. There are physical hijinks (paintball shots in the crotch), bullying (head shoved in toilet) and drunkenness. The film also stereotypes African-American characters for no purpose. P.S. FOR TEENS: ``School for Scoundrels'' is a remake of a 1960 British film, ``School for Scoundrels or How to Win Without Actually Cheating!'' (from a novel by Stephen Potter). None of the actors in it will be familiar to you except, perhaps, Alastair Sim, who starred in the best version ever of ``A Christmas Carol'' (1951). It might be interesting to check out the original ``Scoundrels'' to see how four-and-a-half decades plus the differences between British and American humor have altered the basic story. ``Jet Li's Fearless'' (PG-13, 1 hr., 43 min.) An exciting, poignant, painterly epic about a real-life Chinese martial arts master at the turn of the 20th century, ``Jet Li's Fearless,'' though fictionalized, offers teen audiences a ripping yarn and plenty to chew on. It is the story of a martial arts master brought low by his own arrogance, who learns humility and peace and tries to teach those values as well as the discipline of fighting. American teens may find it enlightening to see the film examine -- from the Chinese point of view -- how the influx of Western merchants and missionaries, circa 1900, affected that country. The fight scenes ought to satisfy martial arts buffs, with thunderous punches, heavy swordplay and impressive athleticism. Director Ronny Yu shows restraint, too, in the use of blood and the portrayal of death. A woman and child who have been murdered (the killing is not shown) are seen lying dead, with a little blood and no graphic injuries. A victim of poisoning vomits blood. Themes deal with the loss of a child and heavy grief. The film is in Mandarin, Japanese and a bit of English, with subtitles. Intense actor and martial arts star Jet Li plays Huo Yuanjia, who in 1909 founded the Jingwu Sports Federation, which, the film tells us, has branches in 50 countries to this day. Mixing fact and fiction, the movie tells the story of his life, from timid childhood to arrogant young manhood to tragedy, self-imposed exile, grief, redemption and bittersweet triumph. BEYOND THE RATINGS GAME -- 6 AND OLDER: ``Open Season'' PG (NEW) (Refreshingly riotous, inventive, idyllic computer-animated fable about a domesticated bear named Boog (voice of Martin Lawrence), his new pal Elliot (Ashton Kutcher), a one-antlered mule deer, and how they get sent back to the wild after trashing a convenience store and learn to survive; they're pursued by a crazed hunter (Gary Sinise), harassed, then befriended by woodland creatures -- silly rabbits, acorn-hurling squirrels (Billy Connolly as their Scottish leader), gossiping skunks, blue-collar dam-building beavers, and a cuddly porcupine. Younger kids may get briefly scared by the hatchet-faced, rifle-toting, villainous hunter when he takes aim at our heroes or chases them in his truck (he gets his comeuppance); characters caught in a frightening flood, rapids and waterfall; final battle between woodland creatures and many hunters shows no animal or human with serious injuries; main hunter pulls a knife but doesn't use it; truly funny what-does-a-bear-do-in-the-woods toilet humor; rare semi-crude language.) ``Everyone's Hero'' G (Amiable, if unexceptional, computer-animated Depression-era fable (directed early on by Christopher Reeve; completed by others after his death) about 10-year-old Yankee Irving (voice of Jake T. Austin), whose dad (Mandy Patinkin) gets fired from his job at Yankee Stadium after Babe Ruth's bat disappears; the boy learns a Cubs pitcher (William H. Macy) stole it, and goes on a heroic journey to get it back and return it to Ruth (Brian Dennehy); a talking baseball (Rob Reiner) and later Ruth's talking bat (Whoopi Goldberg) keep him company -- only the boy can hear them or see their faces; Negro League players and hobos help him. Cartoonishly harrowing chases; gross ``booger ball'' pitch; flatulence gag; nasty Eleanor Roosevelt joke geared to adults; kids may need background on Depression, Negro Leagues -- film gives none.) -- PG-13s: ``School for Scoundrels'' (NEW) (Consistently funny, if not hilarious, perfectly cast farce, painfully shy, timid Manhattan male meter maid, Roger (Jon Heder of ``Napoleon Dynamite (PG, 2004) fame), who enrolls in a class designed to build courage, taught by shady, verbally abusive Dr. P (Billy Bob Thornton) and a hulking assistant (Michael Clarke Duncan); things go well till Dr. P hits on Roger's new girlfriend (Jacinda Barrett). Infrequent use of F-word, but much use of S -word, other oaths, push film towards R; semi-crude sexual slang, innuendo; running verbal joke implying one male character raped another; gag about stalking women; paintball shots in the crotch; head shoved in toilet; drunkenness; pointless injection of African-American stereotypes. Too profane and occasionally lewd for many middle-schoolers.) ``Jet Li's Fearless" (NEW) (Exciting, poignant epic stars Jet Li in partly fictionalized story of Chinese martial arts master Huo Yuanjia, who, in 1909, founded the still-extant international Jingwu Sports Federation; film follows Huo's life from timid childhood to arrogant adulthood to tragedy, self-imposed exile, redemption and triumph, as he takes on challengers and learns value of humility and peace. Thunderous punches, heavy swordplay; restraint in use of blood, portrayal of death; murdered woman and child (killing not shown) are seen lying amid some blood, but with no graphic injuries; victim of poisoning vomits blood; themes deal with the loss of a child, heavy grief. In Mandarin, Japanese and occasional English, with subtitles. Teens.) ``The U.S. vs. John Lennon" (NEW; LIMITED RELEASE) (Fascinating, atmospheric documentary traces high-profile connection between John Lennon (post-Beatles, with wife Yoko Ono) and the American anti-war movement and Nixon administration's efforts to deport him; great interview footage with Lennon and Ono, present-day interviews with activists from that era -- Bobby Seale, Angela Davis, Ron ``Born on the Fourth of July" Kovic, others; songs include ``Imagine," ``Revolution," ``Give Peace a Chance." Grim Vietnam War footage; dead student at Kent State after National Guard fired on demonstrators; marijuana references; cigarette smoking; rare profanity; mild sexual innuendo. Teens into 1960s nostalgia, politics.) ``All The King's Men" (Handsomely shot but oddly stagy, soporific adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's novel stars Sean Penn in simplistic yet overwrought turn as Willie Stark (based on Louisiana's Depression-era politico, Huey P. Long), a small-town populist who becomes governor and grows corrupt and demagogic -- though the change in him occurs unsatisfactorily off-screen; Jude Law as Jack Burden, the newsman and film's narrator, who works for Stark; Kate Winslet, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Hopkins as friends, loved ones Burden fails or betrays. Bloody, slow-motion shoot-out; implied suicide; near-nudity; sexual innuendo, implied sexual liaisons; rare profanity; drinking, smoking. Teen history, literature buffs.) ``Flyboys" (Reverent, sentimentalized but still absorbing tale of young American men who, for adventure or glory, joined France's aerial fighting corps in 1916 (before the U.S. entered World War I), flying rickety planes in machine-gun dogfights with better-equipped Germans; James Franco as rancher who becomes a flying ace; Martin Henderson as a jaded veteran. Swooping, bullet-riddled dogfights, ground warfare recreated with thundering ballistic realism, some blood and death -- little graphic gore -- including hacking off of a man's hand; shootings; a suicide; shell-shocked flyer; mild sexual innuendo, including scenes at a brothel with women in underwear; rare profanity; racial slurs; brief toilet humor; drinking. Teen history and aviation buffs.) ``Gridiron Gang" (Dwayne ``The Rock" Johnson as real-life youth counselor Sean Porter, who started a football team in a California detention center for violent juvenile offenders, using it to turn around gang members' lives; uplifting fact-based story (based on a 1993 documentary) feels preachy, long, heavy-handed, but might inspire teens who like sports dramas. A couple of fatal shootings; rough fights; lots of midrange profanity, a few stronger words; mildly crude sexual language; racial slur; themes about teens fathering babies, losing a parent, grief.) ``The Covenant" (Music video masquerading as a movie spins silly yarn about cadre of buff teen warlocks at a New England prep school; as descendants of Salem witches, they keep their powers secret; Caleb (Steven Strait), on the eve of his 18th-birthday ``ascendance" to full power, is challenged by a new kid (Sebastian Stan) who aims to steal his powers. Dead bodies with blank white eyes; skeletal live human; swarming spiders; rats; guys slam each other against walls, toss rays of light/energy; teen sexual innuendo; a few make-out moments; shower scene with implied nudity; gross-out humor; middling profanity; homophobic slur; smoking, drinking.) -- R's: ``Jackass: Number Two" (Johnny Knoxville et al. in sometimes hilarious, often gag-inducing gross-out stunt fest (sequel to ``Jackass: The Movie," R, 2002, both based on MTV's ``Jackass" show) continues their style of hot-dogging raised to extreme levels of crudeness and danger. Stunts -- not to be tried at home -- include going off piers in rocket-powered grocery carts, running from rampaging bulls, letting a snake sink its fangs into a sock puppet covering one guy's member, and a tasteless ``terrorist" sketch; graphic toilet humor, including on-screen defecation, vomiting, consuming of products from a horse's bodily functions; strong profanity; not-quite-fully-frontal male nudity. NC-17-esque.) ``The Black Dahlia" (Deeply flawed, convoluted film noir -- hilariously melodramatic, with maddeningly obscure dialogue; based on James Ellroy's novel about gruesome real-life 1947 murder of struggling Hollywood actress, Elizabeth Short (played by Mia Kirshner); Aaron Eckhart and Josh Hartnett as cops obsessed with the crime, Scarlett Johansson as a woman they both love, Hilary Swank as a rich girl with secrets. Graphic views of mutilated corpse; shoot-outs; bullet-riddled victims, including a child; bloody baseball bat and razor attacks; steamy but abbreviated, nongraphic sexual situations; toplessness, back-view nudity; semiexplicit scenes from lesbian porn film; profanity; racial slur; drinking, smoking; references to drug use. 17 and up.)
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