BY LEAH ROZEN
DRAMA
Frustrated after his latest novel is rejected, debt-ridden author Clifford Irving (Gere) decides he'll fake it to make it. His plan: Write a bogus as-told-to autobiography of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes and claim it's the real deal. He's gambling that the hermetic Hughes is too much of a privacy freak to come forward to denounce the book.
The Hoax, directed by Lasse Hallstrom (Casanova), is a smart, bouncy retelling of the fascinating true story of how Irving nearly pulled off this bold con in the early '70s. An energized Gere gives a sensational performance as a guy who, though jumping off a cliff, convinces others and almost himself that he can fly. Equally adept are Harden as his insecure wife, Delpy as his sexy mistress and Molina as a nervous helper. (And watch for promising newbie Mamie Gummer, whose mom is Meryl Streep; she pops up briefly as Dana, an anxious aide at a publisher.) (R)
Freddy Rodriguez, Rose McGowan, Rosario Dawson, Kurt Russell
ACTION
Two of cinema's best-known bad boys have teamed to make a pair of movies with nothing on their minds but other movies. Under the umbrella title Grindhouse, director-writers Robert Rodriguez (Sin City) and Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill) offer a double feature of loving but winking tributes to the cheapie exploitation flicks both marinated in as youths.
Tarantino's Death Proof, which comes second, is the better film. A tale of car chases and revenge, it's knowing, droll and packed with mind-blowing driving stunts. Rodriguez's weaker Planet Terror, about a brave posse fighting predatory humanoids, is hokier and overdoses on gore (both films are exuberantly bloody). At 90 minutes each, they're too long, but the filmmakers' sheer, wait-till-you-see-this enthusiasm is obvious in every frame, and it's infectious. (R)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeff Daniels, Isla Fisher, Matthew Goode
CRITIC'S CHOICE
THRILLER
Certain scripts kick around Hollywood for years; everyone loves them but due to money woes, waffling stars, studio politics, etc., they never get made. The Lookout was just such a script until talented screenwriter Scott Frank (Minority Report) promoted himself to director and got the cameras rolling. Viewers will be glad he did. This clever, character-driven crime thriller pulls you in and doesn't let go. Gordon-Levitt, in a terrific performance, is an ex-high school golden boy who suffers from memory problems, the legacy of a head injury in a car crash. A low-life hood (Goode) befriends him, drawing the lonely young man into a plan to rob the bank where Gordon-Levitt works as a night janitor. The Lookout is a small film, but it's exceptionally well-acted, suspenseful and loaded with dark humor. See it. (R)
Hilary Swank, David Morrissey
SUPERNATURAL
Filmmakers seeking memorably scary source material can forget Stephen King and instead open their Bibles. Witness The Reaping, which lifts from the chapters in Exodus in which God punishes Egypt by unleashing 10 horrific plagues. Here, the 10—in order: blood, frogs, lice, flies, ill cattle, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and the death of the firstborn—begin afflicting a rural town in Louisiana. Summoned to investigate is professional miracle debunker Katherine Winter (Swank), an ex-minister who lost her faith after her husband and child died. But science can't explain away these weird occurrences, and she starts wondering if the Good Book might have the answers after all. Reaping is effectively silly-scary and moves at a fast clip, with plagues whizzing by (dig those hungry locusts). Swank attacks her role with the same fierce intensity she brought to her Oscar-winning turns in Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby; against her, Lucifer doesn't stand a chance. (R)
David Duchovny, Sigourney Weaver
COMEDY
Sigourney Weaver should have "Dragon Ladies 'R' Us" printed on her business card. She reliably digs into she-devil roles with hungry relish, never more so than in The TV Set, a savvy satire about the television business from writer-director Jake Kasdan (Orange County).
Playing Lenny, the head of programming at a major TV network, Weaver mixes supreme self-confidence, moral vapidity and false empathy into one hilarious package. Lenny is the nemesis of Mike Klein (Duchovny, dryly amusing), a shlumpy writer who's making a pilot for her, which he hopes will become a series. Lenny dumbs down Mike's show every way she can and heeds her teenage daughter's word on whether the male lead is hot enough. While much of TV Set is inside baseball, it's juicy stuff, presenting a relatively realistic view of the inane pilot process. It shows why, though there are splendid series on TV today, precious few are exactly what their creators first intended. (R)
Ice Cube, Nia Long, John C. McGinley
FAMILY
If HGTV ever opts to show movies, this rehab comedy is a contender. A sloppily slapstick remake of 1948's Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (with Cary Grant), Are We Done Yet? seeks humor in home renovation but regrettably misses on more jokes than it nails.
This sequel to 2005's Are We There Yet? tracks the mishaps a family (Cube, Long and two kids) encounters upon trying to make habitable a spacious fixer-upper in rural Oregon. Floors buckle, roofs cave in, furry creatures invade. Pitching in is a local oddball (McGinley), who's their real estate agent, contractor and midwife. Fred, my 7-year-old consultant on kids' movies, offered: "It could have been more entertaining—and that guy [McGinley] who played all those parts, he wasn't actually funny in any of them." Bingo. (PG)
The movie world fascinated Howard Hughes (left, in 1938), who owned a studio and dated stars—and his life has long fascinated moviemakers. Catch these films about him:
THE CARPETBAGGERS (1964) Hunky George Peppard struts through a salacious fictionalized version of Hughes's life.
THE AVIATOR (2004) Leonardo DiCaprio (right) is compelling in a revealing biopic about Hughes's early years.
MELVIN AND HOWARD (1980) In a sweet comedy, a luckless guy befriends an aged Hughes (Jason Robards).
After the Wedding: As she showed in earlier films (Brothers and Open Hearts), Danish director Susanne Bier can imbue the most conventionally melodramatic story with heart, humanity and humor. She does it again masterfully in this complicated domestic drama about love lost and found, starring Casino Royale's Mads Mikkelsen (below). After was among this year's Oscar nominees for Best Foreign Language film. (R)
Firehouse Dog: Much better than the TV ads make it seem, this earnest family drama is about a boy who unknowingly adopts a pampered Hollywood hound missing from a movie set. Bonding over the pooch, the lad and his fireman dad bridge their differences. Scary scenes of people barely rescued from fires make this one too intense for small fry. (PG)
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
