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 | Fighting Mad, Boll Turns to (Intentional) Comedy Uwe Boll is tired of the abuse. The man popularly dismissed by Internet pundits as “the worst filmmaker in the world” earned a new nickname -- “Raging Boll” -- in September 2006, when he faced off against five of his most vociferous critics in the boxing ring, beating them all into bloody submission, if not some newfound appreciation of his films.More |  | The Fab Four Return Let there be full disclosure: I do not represent [b]Sex and the City[/b]’s demographic. I rarely watched the HBO series, and found it only sporadically interesting when I did. So the prospect of watching five uninterrupted episodes in the form of a two-and-a-half-hour movie seemed less than appealing, to put it mildly. That said, I liked it, which means that fans of the show should warm to it with unbridled enthusiasm.More |  | Goin’ Back to Indiana For a generation weaned on the strange, playfully inventive exploits of Indiana Jones, the resurrection of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg’s long-dormant franchise inspires feverish excitement and a hint of trepidation. Could lightning strike a fourth time, despite the 19-year layoff since Harrison Ford last donned his well-worn fedora? Or would his legacy be tarnished by a lackluster reprise?More |  | When Masochism and Narcissism Collide Watching first-time director Gil Kofman’s [b]The Memory Thief[/b] is a singularly disquieting experience, but isn’t that the point? The film, which incorporates the videotaped testimonials of actual Holocaust survivors into its fictitious tale of a tollbooth collector fixated on concentration-camp atrocities, is not so much about Hitler’s systematic slaughter of the Jews as it is about wounded people struggling to cope with profound loss.More |  | Mamet Gets in the Ring, With Uneven Results David Mamet’s sharp, bruising dialogue has informed tales of desperate salesmen, murderous con artists and blue-collar labor leaders, men for whom hostility, if not the explicit threat of violence, is an ever-present workplace reality. Rarely has Mamet explored the fight game, as he does with mixed results in [b]Redbelt[/b], but careful observers will recognize in his latest thriller some of the characters and themes that have become staples of his hyper-masculine storytelling.More |  | A Losing Hand [b]Deal[/b] is a movie made by poker enthusiasts for poker enthusiasts, and your appreciation of it depends largely on your passion for the game. For those who have passed hours of their lives playing virtual strangers online, or studying the strategies of World Poker Tour aces like Doyle Brunson or Phil Hellmuth, it may prove a worthy diversion, either for its brisk but predictable tournament action or its laughably earnest philosophy, which suggests that the game is just a metaphor for life. If poker’s not your thing, well, there’s always the welcome sight of Burt Reynolds, on hand as a retired legend hungry for one last score.More |  | War on Terror Enters the Stoned Age Whether [b]Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay[/b] could have succeeded in spawning a franchise on its own is questionable, but as a politically charged follow-up to the winning 2004 comedy that introduced the pair as twenty-something stoners in search of the perfect late-night snack, it hits more often than it misses.More |  | Blood and Breasts, Served Early and Often [b]Zombie Strippers[/b] has been billed as the mainstream debut of Jenna Jameson, whose past credits include [b]I Love Lesbians 10[/b] and [b]Dirty Bob’s Xcellent[/b], but the difference between her latest work and the hardcore pornography that made her famous is not nearly as pronounced as one might expect. While [b]Strippers[/b] is rated R -- a compelling testament to the notion that sex in films is far more offensive to America’s Motion Pictures Association than even the most explicit violence -- it is, in almost every other respect, as narratively unsophisticated as the bulk of Jameson’s past productions.More |  | The Search for a Killer in the Muslim World [b]Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?[/b] finds documentarian Morgan Spurlock training his cameras not on the artery-clogging cuisine served at McDonald’s, as he did somewhat memorably in 2004’s [b]Super-Size Me[/b], but on the Middle Easterners he encountered during a seven-month quest to find the world’s most elusive terrorist.More |  | Legendary Coupling Produces Goofy Adventure Fans who have long awaited the pairing of legendary martial artists Jackie Chan and Jet Li may be slightly disappointed to learn that [b]The Forbidden Kingdom[/b] focuses on the story of a Boston teenager (Michael Angarano) magically transported to ancient China and charged with saving the mythical Monkey King from the clutches of an evil warlord.More |
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