Size has nothing to do with performance when it comes to Jet Li (Lethal Weapon 4). While clearly of diminutive stature and build, this Beijing-born action star is easily the most exciting martial arts battler in movies today. As he fends off multiple enemies with a single lightning-quick kick or hand-chop to each, his movements are elegant in their economy. So supreme are his abilities that half the time his hands rest at his sides or—and maybe my eyes deceive me here—lie casually buried in his pockets.
In the hard-driving but brainless action thriller Cradle 2 the Grave, Li plays a Taiwanese cop who has come to Los Angeles to recover a bag full of black diamonds that were stolen from his government. He teams with Tony Fait (DMX, born Earl Simmons), a jewel thief who has his own reasons for wanting to find the stones. The plot is perfunctory and the acting by both Li (whose English lines are minimal) and rapper-turned-actor DMX is only borderline passable. But Li's fight scenes are sensational. Hard-core action fans will be gleeful as the movie overdoses on gunfire, car chases, crashes and male bonding while beating up a common enemy. (R)
BOTTOM LINE: We get a kick out of Li, but the movie stumbles over itself
Ralph Fiennes, Miranda Richardson, Gabriel Byrne
Featured attraction
Playing a mentally ill man who speaks only in incomprehensible word fragments, Fiennes in Spider mumbles his way to one of the better performances of his already distinguished career. He can do more merely muttering than many actors can do with all of "To be or not to be."
This intriguing puzzle of a film by creepy director David Cronenberg (Existenz) takes viewers deep into the twisted mind of Dennis "Spider" Cleg (Fiennes). After being released from a mental institution to which he was sent at age 10, Cleg wanders through his old London neighborhood. Memories of his childhood with his folks (Richardson and Byrne) and a murder come flooding back, but are his recollections right? This is a strange film, requiring patience and attention from a viewer, but the pieces all fit by the end and the acting by Richardson and Byrne, in addition to Fiennes, is first rate. (R)
BOTTOM LINE: Weaves a fascinating web
Robert Duvall, Stephen Lang
Nearly a full 10 years after the Civil War epic Gettysburg comes this prequel, an equally massive, monotonous history of the Confederate victories at Chancellorsville and Fredericksburg. Four hours long (with intermission), Gods and Generals is a two-pronged drama that alternates between indifferently filmed battlefield scenes and stiffly declaimed speeches about God and states' rights. Hundreds upon thousands of those words seem to emanate from somewhere in the thick beard of Stonewall Jackson (Lang). (PG-13)
BOTTOM LINE: War is hell to sit through
Helena Bonham Carter, Guy Pearce
Any film that takes its title and much of its imagery and inspiration from poet T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" can't be all bad. But then again, this slow, mixed-up mélange of ghost story and memory play isn't all that good either.
Pearce, who was also memory-challenged in the far superior Memento (2001), plays a somber Australian psychiatrist who has buried his past. While visiting his rural hometown, the shrink flashes back to his fondness as an adolescent for a poetry-quoting lass who drowned. When an ethereal Bonham Carter shows up in town and jumps off a bridge, he rescues her and she starts quoting the same poem. What could it all mean? Not all that much, as it turns out. But the Australian scenery is lovely. (R)
BOTTOM LINE: Cinematic Sominex
The keggers, the hazing, the hangovers: Saturday Night Live alum Will Ferrell relived his University of Southern California frat days in the campus comedy Old School. He even agreed to streak in front of rapper Snoop Dogg. "He was like, 'Man, you're crazy,' " says Ferrell, 35. "But if the money is right, I'm there."
Britney Spears, not cash, induced him to do an SNL skit in February, a mock update of his life since he left the show in '02. "They had me living as an organic gardener and then revealed my bride was Britney," he says. "It doesn't sound like a bad life."
His real life isn't so bad either—despite some freaky fans. "It's usually guys in baseball caps who ask me to do cheerleading routines in airports," he says. Ferrell does hold dear one memento from the show: the frumpy blue dress he wore to play former Attorney General Janet Reno. At the Hollywood Hills home he shares with his wife of almost three years, actress Viveca, 33, he jokes, "I still wear it to garden in."
•Dark Blue Kurt Russell gives a standout performance as a corrupt cop in a muddled police drama set in L.A. in 1991 during the Rodney King trial. (R)
•Daredevil Minor and morose entry in the superhero bin. A blind lawyer (Ben Affleck) turns leather-suited Daredevil by night to fight for justice. Sexy Jennifer Garner, Colin Farrell and Michael Clarke Duncan costar. (PG-13)
•Lawless Heart This lovely and thoughtful British romantic drama examines the mysteries of the heart by tracking three males during overlapping episodes in their lives. Bill Nighy, Douglas Henshall and Tom Hollander star. (R)
- Contributors:
- Tom Gliatto,
- Ruth Andrew Ellenson.
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!
