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 | No Rush to See This "Hour" [b]Rush Hour 3[/b] is an aptly titled bit of disposable celluloid, firmly lodged in cruise control, without momentum or apparent direction. Despite the long-rumored return of Chris Tucker, last seen in 2001’s [b]Rush Hour 2[/b], it is a relatively joyless exercise in which characters who once seemed fresh are thrust into a routine caper, charged with the thankless task of invigorating it with sheer personality.More |  | Something (Endearingly) Stupid This Way Comes "Saturday Night Live" producer Lorne Michaels has an infamously spotty track record when it comes to the big screen, but perhaps that’s to be expected: Stretching five-minute sketches into feature-length productions is never a simple task, especially those featuring characters whose defining trait is their willingness to fall down on cue. Rod Kimble, the aspiring but hopelessly incompetent stuntman who attempts to steal Evel Knievel’s thunder in [b]Hot Rod[/b], is just such a character.More |  | Queer Lies for the Straight Guys Larry has a problem. He’s a born firefighter, one of Brooklyn’s bravest, but as a widower with two children, he can’t risk his life on a daily basis without a more rewarding pension plan. One night, Larry (Kevin James) devises a scheme to save his job and protect his family: He and his best friend Chuck (Adam Sandler) will register as domestic partners, reaping the tax breaks afforded gay couples in the state of New York.More |  | It’s Miller Time Based on the 2003 original by Dutch director Theo van Gogh, whose death at the hands of an Islamic terrorist inspired Steve Buscemi’s lurid remake, [b]Interview[/b] will not establish Sienna Miller as a household name, but it should cement her reputation as fierce, courageous performer.More |  | Lawrence, Re-imagined for the 21st Century Seventy-nine years after D.H. Lawrence wrote the first edition of [b]Lady Chatterley’s Lover[/b], his tale of the lonely, aristocratic wife who experiences a sexual reawakening in the arms of a rugged gamekeeper has lost its scandalous edge. The notion that a newly liberated woman could remedy her marital malaise with a passionate affair is no longer shocking -- it’s practically quaint. Yet the story itself has lost none of its charm or insight.More |  | A Waking Nightmare During his recent stint as a guest columnist for [b]Entertainment Weekly[/b], Stephen King has made little secret of his fondness for “Lost”, the ABC drama that pits the survivors of a plane crash against supernatural forces that are at once thrilling and supremely confounding. This should come as no surprise to fans of King’s stories -- he has always been fascinated by the mysteries of life, the extraordinary phenomena that can’t be explained away with logic or reason, and he has spent his career translating that wonder into tales of the merrily macabre.More |  | The Show Must Go On Those who don’t understand the significance of a full-scale Wu-Tang Clan reunion need only look at the body language of the group’s fans when, after a tense and potentially dangerous delay, they finally appear on-stage. It is an electrifying spectacle, befitting the brazenly boastful hit single “Triumph” from their 1999 opus [b]Wu-Tang Forever[/b], and it should be enough to convey the import of the moment to anyone unfamiliar with their brief but legendary body of work. This isn’t the Rolling Stones at Altamont -- it’s bigger, and, at times, just as scary.More |  | Preaching to a Select Choir There are some who contend that Western corporate interests (represented by institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund) serve to impoverish and debilitate millions of African citizens, but many more are either unaware of or indifferent to these issues. The former may gravitate toward Mauritian director Abderrahmane Sissako’s [b]Bamako[/b], provided they can find it playing in some small art-house cinema. For the latter, there’s always [b]Shrek the Third[/b].More |  | An American in Paris, Struggling to Survive Calling all angels! André (Jamel Debbouze, best known to American audiences for his bit role in [b]Amélie[/b]) is a luckless loser who is drowning in a sea of gambling debts. Worse yet, his creditors have lost patience, giving him a few scant hours in which to make good…or else. Stuck in Paris -- though claiming, rather dubiously, to own a posh apartment in New York -- André appeals to the American embassy, then to the Parisian police. When they turn him away, there is only one option left: suicide.More |  | From France, A Sweetly Seductive Farce Pierre (Daniel Auteuil) has a problem. His wife is convinced that he’s cheating, with good reason; his supermodel mistress is tired of waiting for a divorce; and the paparazzi are following him all over Paris, hoping to ensnare him in a tempestuous scandal. What’s a philandering tycoon to do?More |
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