To see what movies will be coming to a theatre near you this month, click here.

Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Falon star in “Fever Pitch.”
Photo Copyright 20th Century Fox. All Rights Reserved.

April 5, 2005

Dead Doll ( R ) – Joe Babicki, Matt Boren

Deep Evil ( R ) – Lorenzo Lamas, Ona Grauer

Dirty War ( NR ) – Louise Delamere, Dorian Healy

Dragon’s World: A Fantasy Made Real ( PG ) – Tom Chadbon, Paul Hilton

Elektra ( PG-13 ) – Jennifer Garner
Hit or Miss: Miss

Fade to Black ( R ) – Jay-Z, Beyonce Knowles

I am David ( PG ) – James Caviezel, Ben Tibber

Sideways ( R ) – Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church
Hit or Miss: Hit

Spanglish ( PG-13 ) – Adam Sandler, Tea Leoni
Hit or Miss: Miss

Suburban Madness ( R ) – Brett Cullen, Sela Ward

With or Without You ( R ) – Maia Campbell, Cynda Williams

April 12, 2005

All the Way ( NR ) – Dennis Hopper, Melanie Griffith

Blood Trail ( NR ) – Barry Tubb, R.J. Preston

Bound By Lies ( R ) – Stephen Baldwin, Kristy Swanson

Chapter Zero ( R ) – Dylan Walsh, Penelope Ann Miller

Criminal ( R ) – John C. Reilly, Maggie Gyllenhaal

Hotel Rwanda ( PG-13 ) – Don Cheadle, Nick Nolte

Momento Mori ( R ) – Min-sun Kim, Yeh-jin Park

Ocean’s Twelve ( PG-13 ) – Brad Pitt, George Clooney
Hit or Miss: Miss

Sasquatch Hunters ( R ) – Amy Shelton-White, Matt Lattimore

Street Tales of Terror ( R ) – Wayne Dehart, Junie Hoang

The Woodsman ( R ) – Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick

April 19, 2005

Birth ( R ) – Nicole Kidman
Hit or Miss: Miss

Carry Me Home ( PG-13 ) – Penelope Ann Miller, Kevin Anderson

House of Flying Daggers ( PG-13 ) – Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Ziyi

A Love Song for Bobby Long ( R ) – Scarlett Johansson, John Travolta

Malevolence ( R ) – Samantha Dark, Heather Magee

Meet the Fockers ( R ) – Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Blythe Danner, Teri Polo, Robert DeNiro, Barbara Streisand
Hit or Miss: Hit – Hit or Miss Home Movie Pick of the Month

No Rest for the Brave ( NR ) – Thomas Suire, Thomas Blanchard

Primer ( PG-13 ) – David Sullivan, Casey Gooden

Riding the Bullet ( R ) – Jonathan Jackson, David Arquette

Stratosphere Girl ( NR ) – Chloe Winkel, Rebecca R. Palmer

April 26, 2005

Alien Abduction ( R ) – Megan Lee Ethridge, Griff Furst

The Black Gate ( PG-13 ) – Jeff Rector, George Saunders

Blade: Trinity ( R ) – Wesley Snipes, Jessica Biel, Ryan Reynolds
Hit or Miss: Hit

Book of Love ( R ) – Frances O’Connor, Simon Baker

Darkness ( R ) – Anna Paquin, Lena Olin

Emile ( R ) – Ian McKellen, Deborah Unger

Hell’s Gate 11:11 ( NR ) – Paul Dzenkiw, Kristina Copeland

Heroic Duo ( R ) – Ekin Cheng, Karena Lam

I Do ( but I Don’t) ( NR ) – Denise Richards, Dean Cain

Indigo ( NR ) – Dane Bowman, Gregory Linington

Larva ( R ) – Vincent Ventresca, Rachel Hunter

Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events ( PG ) – Jim Carrey
Hit or Miss: Miss

Undertow ( R ) – Jamie Bell, Devon Alan

Hit – Starring Michelle Trachtenberg, Kim Cattrall, Hayden Panettiere, Joan Cusack

While researching a physics project to help her get a scholarship to Harvard, Casey (Trachtenberg) comes to the realization that she is a talented figure skater.

A movie the whole family will enjoy. Ice Princess delivers good old fashioned values and a “G” rating to match. Michelle Trachtenberg is a delight to watch and provides a likeable main character. I also enjoyed watching Hayden Panettiere, who you may have recognized from movies such as Racing Stripes and Remember the Titans.

I found this Disney movie to be free of over-the-top spotlight stealing young actresses and instead found the chemistry between all the actors to flow accordingly.

The story is simple, the characters are likeable, and the ice skating sequences are visually stimulating.

My only complaints about this movie are: 1. Joan Cusacks character claims she never graduated from college, yet, later in the movie we see her teaching a class to (what seems to be) college age students. This would be ok if she had not stated that she never graduated from college, because there is no way she would be able to teach at this particular level without a master’s degree. 2. I also felt that Joan Cusack wasn’t the right fit for this particular character. Although a fan of Cusack, I felt she was not very nurturing in her portrayal of Casey’s mom. 3. The movie is slow moving.

This movie claims to be a comedy but does not provide any laugh-out-loud moments. I would personally re-locate this movie under the teen/drama category.

Best Scene: The complaining of the “Jumping Shrimp” before her ESPN interview. And, when Casey’s friend brings the Zamboni machine to her house.

Teen Drama

Running Time: 1 hour 32 minutes

Rated G

Miss – Starring Naomi Watts, Sissy Spacek

Although the original may have you believe that Samara is finally resting in peace, Samara is back, and this time it’s personal. The evil that haunted The Ring wants to take the place of the living and plans on using Rachel’s (Watts) son to breakthrough to the other side. This movie takes place six months after the original.

Holy Moly (I bet you haven’t heard that in a long time), this movie is so bad it joins our Vertical Limit club of bad movies. First off… they claim that this movie is six months after the original which would be ok except for the fact that the young man who plays Aidan looks more like 2 to 3 years older than he was in the first movie. Second of all, the movie provides no further development of character, which would be fine if the first movie provided this for us but sadly the audience is so disengaged from Watts’ Rachel that I just want her to stay in the well and never come back. This film provides no sympathetic character for the audience to relate to and therefore falls short of providing any emotional connections from the audience to the characters.

What did this film do that all horror films do? Beat a dead horse (or deer in this case). Seriously. I am tired of seeing movies that are purely scary because of their ability to use quick editing and creepy music. Personally, I like horror movies that are a little bit smarter and have a lot more style. I also enjoy horror movies that include some comic relief. This movie did not provide … anything. If there is one thing you can take away from this review it is this… Bottom Line: The better choice this weekend would have been Ice Princess. I obviously chose incorrectly.

On another note: The director of this movie was also the director for the original film Dark Water. This director was not asked to direct the remake of Dark Water starring Jennifer Connelly and it is speculated that this film is very similar in theme for the sheer fact of getting back at Hollywood for slamming the door on his Dark Water dreams.

Best Scene: An interesting water sequence when Aidan first is put in the bathtub.

Most laughable moment: Climbing out of the well made me think of American Gladiators.

Rated PG-13 for violence/terror, disturbing images, thematic elements and some language.

Horror

Running Time: 1 hour 51 minutes.

Hit – Starring John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Christina Milian, Vince Vaughn, Cedric the Entertainer, Andre 3000, Steven Tyler, Dwayne Johnson

Chili Palmer (Travolta) has had enough of the movie business and is ready to try his hand a producing records. He meets some interesting characters along his path, and ends up romancing newly widowed music executive Edie Athens (Thurman).

Cool. A good movie… but nothing to get too excited about. The cast delivers excellent performances and Christina Milian holds her own next to a star-studded cast. Uma Thurman is always a lovely touch to a film, and The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) provides excellent comedic timing and style.

I went into the movie expecting a fast paced action comedy but I received a slow moving comedy with bits of action strewn about. Cameos by Steven Tyler and Seth Green are included. Steven Tyler of course plays himself whereas Seth Green plays a music video producer.

One great aspect of the movie was its ability to laugh at itself. At this point, with The Pacifier being number one at the box office, hopefully Be Cool can maintain its ability to have a good laugh about the situation. Overall: Entertaining but could have been 30 minutes short. We don’t need to see another movie with a dance sequence between Uma and John… it is so “Pulp Fiction,” ago.

Best Scene: The Rock’s “monologue.”

Rated PG-13 for violence, sensuality, and language including sexual references.

Comedy

Running Time: 1 hour 44 minutes.

Photo Copyright MGM. All Rights Reserved.

Hit, a film the whole family will love – Starring Vin Diesel, Faith Ford, Brittany Snow, Lauren Graham, Carol Kane, Brad Garrett
After Navy S.E.A.L. Shane Wolfe (Diesel) failed to protect a US government scientist, he is assigned to keep the man’s family out of danger. Therefore, Shane must move into their home and essentially become part of the family. It doesn’t take Shane long to realize this is one of his most difficult assignments.

Families everywhere will be lining up to see this comedy of errors. Vin Diesel is the modern day Arnold Schwarzenegger (from the days of Kindergarten Cop) and provides the audience with great laughs and impressive physical stunts, which make me wonder if he has a double or if he is doing the entire screen-combat fighting on his own.?

Why your kids will like it: Great sequences incorporating ideas that kids can relate to. An especially funny sequence involves a group of girls called The Fireflies (Girl Scouts) squaring off against their male competition (Boy Scouts). Your kids will also like the mild action sequences involving the entire cast of characters.

Why women will like it: This movie provides the characteristics of a romantic comedy. There are two underlying love stories of the film that are not blatantly played out but provide for some touching moments.

Why men will like it: Beginning action sequences, Brad Garrett and Vin Diesel facing off in a wrestling match, and the idea of good guy vs. bad guy. And overall the movie fits into the category of action and comedy, what could be better?

Bottom Line: Money well spent. I was entertained the whole way through.

Best Scene: The Fireflies finally learn how to defend themselves.

Rated PG for action violence, language and rude humor.
Comedy
Running Time: 1 hour 31 minutes.

Photo Copyright Walt Disney Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

Hit – Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Monica Keena, Christina Milian, Paula Garces, Kelli Garner, Vanessa Ferlito, Cedric the Entertainer and R. Lee Ermey

Texas Ranger, Roland Sharp (Jones) is assigned to protect a group of college cheerleaders after they witness a murder. To do this, he has to move into their house and try to survive living with five hot, young women who love to party, listen to loud music and walk around barely wearing any clothes.

Sounds like a real tough assignment, huh?

This movie was a lot of fun. It had just enough action, drama and comedy to keep the audience interested and waiting to see what would happen next. Jones pulls off the hard-nosed, no-nonsense Texas Ranger with ease. And his interaction with the five girls, each with their own personality, was great to watch. Of course, the girls were a lot of fun to watch on their own.

Now, if you are going in expecting to be shocked at who the bad guy is or looking for the outstanding, never before scene type of movie, you will be disappointed. There are no surprises…at all. But if you go in looking to have some fun, see some good action sequences, have a few good laughs and to see some hot girlies walking around in skimpy outfits, then you will thoroughly enjoy yourself.

Best Scene: Tommy Lee Jones shopping for feminine products.

Rated PG-13 for violence, sexual content, crude humor and a drug reference.

Comedy

Running time: 97 minutes

Photo Copyright Revolution Studios. All Rights Reserved.