Library

Languages: English

Subtitles: French

Sound: Dolby

Comments: Amity Island had everything. Clear skies. Gentle surf. Warm water. People flocked there every summer. It was the perfect feeding ground.

Summary: In the vastly overrated 1998 book "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls", author Peter Biskind puts the blame for Hollywood's blockbuster mentality at least partially on Steven Spielberg's box-office success with this adaptation of Peter Benchley's bestselling novel. But you can't blame Spielberg for making a terrific movie, which "Jaws" definitely is. The story of a Long Island town whose summer tourist business is suddenly threatened by great-white-shark attacks on humans bypasses the potboiler trappings of Benchley's book and goes straight for the jugular with beautifully crafted, crowd-pleasing sequences of action and suspense supported by a trio of terrific performances by Roy Scheider (as the local sheriff), Richard Dreyfuss (as a shark specialist), and particularly Robert Shaw (as the old fisherman who offers to hunt the shark down). The sequences on Shaw's boat--as the three of them realize that in fact the shark is hunting "them"--are what entertaining moviemaking is all about. "--Marshall Fine"

Languages: English, French, Spanish

Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo

Comments: Fear takes a road trip.

Summary: With confident style and low-budget ingenuity, "Jeepers Creepers" gets under your skin, provoking spine-tingling horror when college siblings Trish (Gina Philips) and Darry (Justin Long) encounter a flesh-eating demon along a barren rural highway. After a harrowing car chase that sets the movie's nerve-wracking tone, they investigate suspicious activity near an abandoned church, where a corrugated pipe leads to unimaginable horrors. What follows is a cat-and-mouse game against the regenerating demon, which feeds on fear--and selected body parts--according to a psychic (Patricia Belcher) who adds chilling portent to the routine climax in a besieged police station. Writer-director Victor Salva ("Powder") emphasizes primal fear over logic, but plot holes are easily forgiven when you're scared out of your socks. A surprise box-office hit in late summer 2001, "Jeepers Creepers" will please even jaded horror fans with its back-to-basics frights. "--Jeff Shannon"

Languages: English, French, Spanish

Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround

Comments: He can taste your fear.

Summary: Despite the usual symptoms of sequelitis, "Jeepers Creepers 2" delivers the goods for those who enjoyed the 2001 original--a group large enough to propel this sequel to a record-setting opening in August 2003. While establishing the flesh-eating "Creeper" as a new horror icon with frantic action and more elaborate special effects, writer-director Victor Salva follows the traditional formula, dispensing with plot almost altogether and focusing entirely on threat, menace, mayhem, and gore. That's likely to disappoint horror fans hoping for a more revealing exploration of the Creeper's origins (room for another sequel, perhaps?), and by trapping nondescript teens in a school bus attacked by the Creeper, Salva severely limits the movie's overall potential. Still, there's something to be said for straightforward shocks, and "Jeepers Creepers 2" delivers enough of them to justify its profitable existence. "--Jeff Shannon"

Languages: English, French, Spanish

Subtitles: Spanish

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround

Comments: Everybody loved him... Everybody disappeared.

Summary: One of the best romantic comedies of the 1990s, this box-office hit cemented writer-director Cameron Crowe's reputation as "the voice of a generation." Crowe could probably do without that label, but he's definitely in sync with the times with this savvy story about a sports agent (Tom Cruise) whose fall from grace motivates his quest for professional recovery, and the slow-dawning realization that he needs the love and respect of the single mom (Renée Zellweger in her breakthrough role) who has supported him through the worst of times. This is one of Cruise's best, most underrated performances, and in an Oscar-winning role, Cuba Gooding Jr. plays the football star who remains Jerry Maguire's only loyal client on a hard road to redemption and personal growth. If that sounds touchy-feely, it is only because Crowe has combined sharp entertainment with a depth of character that is rarely found in mainstream comedy. "--Jeff Shannon"

Languages: English, French, Spanish

Subtitles: French, Spanish

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: He Has No Fear. He Has No Anxiety. He Has No Inkling.

Summary: Mr. Bean meets Mr. Bond in "Johnny English", a spy spoof that skewers the genre with Rowan Atkinson's trademark brand of "veddy"-British slapstick. It's a bit half-baked as a wannabe franchise, but Atkinson's creation of a new screen persona is just promising enough to warrant a sequel, despite critics' complaints that "Austin Powers" had already exhausted the spy-spoof's potential. Poppycock! Atkinson's gift for physical and, in this case, even verbal humor will surely please his devoted fans, even when a rather tepidly comedic screenplay prevents the British funnyman from reaching new heights of absurdity. As bumbling superspy Johnny English, who gains top-level MI-7 clearance after inadvertently causing a colleague's demise, Atkinson breathes life into gags that are too familiar to earn such an amusing revival. With John Malkovich as a smarmy Frenchman determined to overthrow the British monarchy, and Natalie Imbruglia as Johnny's comely comrade-in-arms, this slight but enjoyable comedy gives Atkinson plenty of opportunity to mug it up as only he can. "--Jeff Shannon"

Languages: English

Sound: SDDS

Comments: Same Planet. Different World.

Summary: "Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D" is full of whizz-bang demonstrations of how far 3D technology has come--trilobite antennae quivering towards the audience, a T-rex lunging out of the frame, even affable star Brendan Fraser spitting on us--as well as a half-dozen action sequences clearly destined to become videogames or theme park rides. The plot is incidental: When a seismic geologist (Fraser) discovers his lost brother's notes in a copy of the titular Jules Verne novel, he and his nephew (Josh Hutcherson, "Bridge to Terabithia", "Zathura") head to Iceland. There, joined by a fetching mountain guide (played by Icelandic actress Anita Briem), they get trapped in a cavern and go down, down, down, finally arriving in a primeval underworld full of prehistoric beasts and carnivorous plants. It would be pointless to complain about the empty-headedness of it all; "Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D" aspires to be a kinesthetic experience. It wants to engage your adrenal glands, not your brain or your heart (the dialogue and characters are so generic, the script may have been cut-and-pasted from previous versions of Verne's book). Fraser, with his goofy handsomeness and accessible presence, provides a reasonably human axis around which all the frantic flying and swooping CGI effects revolve. The movie is as hollow as the world it depicts, but as mindless action movies go, you could do a lot worse. "--Bret Fetzer"

Languages: English, French, Spanish

Subtitles: English, Spanish

Sound: AC-3

Comments: anywhere is possible.

Summary: As preposterous action movies go, "Jumper" is pleasantly unpretentious and breezily entertaining. A young man named David (Hayden Christensen) discovers he has the power to teleport (or "jump") anywhere he can visualize. After using this power to steal and make a comfortable life for himself, he pursues the girl he longed for in school (Rachel Bilson, "The O. C."). But as he does so, another jumper (Jamie Bell, "Billy Elliot") and a pack of fanatical jumper-hunters called paladins (led by a white-haired Samuel L. Jackson) crashes into David's freewheeling life. "Jumper" wastes no time trying to explain how jumping works or delving into the hows and whys of the paladins; this is an alluring fantasy of power directed at a pell-mell pace by Doug Liman ("The Bourne Identity", "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", "Go"). There's a brief moment when it feels like the movie will bog down in romance and vague gestures towards character development--happily, that's the moment when Bell appears and the whole movie shifts into overdrive. You might wish that Bell and Christensen had swapped roles; Bell has a far more engaging personality, and Christensen's bland good looks might better suit a more aggressive character. Nonetheless, "Jumper" has oodles of dynamism and nifty visual effects to propel its comic-book storyline forward. A variety of recognizable actors in bit parts (such as Diane Lane and Kristen Stewart, "Panic Room") suggest that the filmmakers are laying the groundwork for sequels. Based on a critically-acclaimed science-fiction novel by Steven Gould. --"Bret Fetzer"

Beyond "Jumper"
More from Steven Gould
The "Jumper" Soundtrack
More from Fox


Stills from "Jumper"

Languages: English, French

Subtitles: Spanish

Sound: Dolby

Summary: Jurassic Park
Steven Spielberg's 1993 mega-hit rivals "Jaws" as the most intense and frightening film he'd ever made prior to "Schindler's List", but it was also among his weakest stories. Based on Michael Crichton's novel about an island amusement park populated by cloned dinosaurs, the film works best as a thrill ride with none of the interesting human dynamics of Spielberg's "Jaws". That lapse proves unfortunate, but there's no shortage of raw terror as a rampaging T-rex and nasty raptors try to make fast food out of the cast. The effects are still astonishing (despite the fact that the computer-generated technology has since been improved upon) and at times primeval, such as the sight of a herd of whatever-they-are scampering through a valley. "--Tom Keogh"
The Lost World - Jurassic Park
In the low tradition of knockoff horror flicks best seen (or not seen) on a drive-in movie screen, Steven Spielberg's sequel to "Jurassic Park" is a poorly conceived, ill-organized film that lacks story and logic. Screenwriter David Koepp strings along a number of loose ideas while Jeff Goldblum returns as Ian Malcolm, the quirky chaos theoretician who now reluctantly agrees to go to another island where cloned dinosaurs are roaming freely. Along with his girlfriend (Julianne Moore) and daughter, Malcolm has to deal with hunters, environmentalists, and corporate swine who stupidly bring back a big dino to Southern California, where it runs amok, of course. Spielberg doesn't seem to care that the pieces of this project don't add up to a real movie, so he hams it up with big, scary moments (with none of the artfulness of those in "Jurassic Park") and smart-aleck visual gags (a yapping dog in a suburb mysteriously disappears when a hungry T-rex stomps by). A complete bust."--Tom Keogh"
Jurassic Park III
Surpassing expectations to qualify as an above-average sequel, "Jurassic Park III" is nothing more or less than a satisfying popcorn adventure. A little cheesier than the first two "Jurassic" blockbusters, it's a big B movie with big B-list stars (including Laura Dern, briefly reprising her "Jurassic Park" role), and eight years of advancing computer-generated-image technology give it a sharp edge over its predecessors. While adopting the jungle spirit of "King Kong", the movie refines Michael Crichton's original premise, and its dinosaurs are even more realistic, their behavior more detailed, and their variety--including flying pteranodons and a new villain, the spinosaurus--more dazzling and threatening than ever. These advancements justify the sequel, and its contrived plot is just clever enough to span 90 minutes without wearing out its welcome.
Posing as wealthy tourists, an adventurous couple (William H. Macy, Téa Leoni) convince paleontologist Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and his protégé (Allesandro Nivola) to act as tour guides on a flyover trip to Isla Sorna, the ill-fated "Site B" where all hell broke loose in "The Lost World: Jurassic Park". In truth, they're on a search-and-rescue mission to find their missing son (Trevor Morgan), and their plane crash is just the first of several enjoyably suspenseful sequences. Director Joe Johnston ("October Sky") embraces the formulaic plot as a series of atmospheric set pieces, placing new and familiar dinosaurs in misty rainforests, fiery lakes, and mysterious valleys, turning "JP3" into a thrill ride with impressive highlights (including a T. rex versus spinosaurus smack-down), adequate doses of wry humor (from the cowriters of "Election"), and an upbeat ending that's corny but appropriate, proving that the symptoms of sequelitis needn't be fatal. "--Jeff Shannon "

Languages: English

Subtitles: English, French

Sound: AC-3

Summary: A quirky independent film featuring some strong acting by an eclectic cast, "Just Add Water" captures the desolate spirit of a group of trailer park inhabitants who have little hope of ever escaping their mundane lives. Ray (Dylan Walsh, "Nip/Tuck") works as a parking-lot attendant who, like many of the town's inhabitants, is at the mercy of the local babyfaced drug dealer Dirk (Will Rothhaar). Flush with money from his meth business, Dirk is now the town's primary landlord and he takes a no-holds barred attitude when it comes to collecting rent from tenants who barely have enough money to survive. Trapped in an apathetic marriage to the agoraphobic Charlene, Ray enjoys some normal moments with their teenage son Eddie (Jonah Hill, "Superbad"). Father and son also share an experience neither would want to be reminded of when Ray tries to help Eddie lose his virginity, something Eddie clearly has issues with. Directed and written by actor Hart Bochner, "Just Add Water" works as an intriguing dark comedy. The casting is spot-on, with a nice appearance by Danny DeVito as an would-be oilman who could make life for these people just a little easier. "--Jae-Ha Kim"