Times are subject to change, and we recommend calling ahead to confirm.
Beaver Creek Shopping Center, off NC55, Apex. 676-3456.
600 Blue Ridge Rd, Raleigh. 282-9003.
8611 Brier Creek Pkwy, Raleigh.
484-9994.
5501 Atlantic Springs Rd, Raleigh. 645-1111.
Colony Shopping Center, 5438 Six Forks Rd, Raleigh. 856-0111.
501 Caitboo Ave, Crossroads Shopping Center, Cary.
226-2000.
770 Cary Towne Blvd, Cary. 463-9989, .
2600 Timber Dr, Garner. 779-2212.
Apocalypto, Deck the Halls, D e j Vu, Casino Royale, Happy Feet, The Holiday, The Nativity Story, Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, Turistas, Unaccompanied Minors, Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj.
Call for times.
201 E Hargett St, Raleigh. 834-4040.
2109-124 Avent Ferry Rd, Raleigh. 834-2233.
4150 Main at North Hills St, Raleigh.
786-4511.
9525 Chapel Hill Rd, Morrisville. 645-1111.
Corner of Glenwood Ave and Lynn Rd, Raleigh. 226-2000.
Call for additional showtimes.
Falls Village Shopping Center, Raleigh. 847-0326.
1620 Glenwood Ave, Raleigh.
856-0111.
9500 Forum Dr, Raleigh. 846-3904.
1205 Timber Dr East, Garner. 676-FILM.
309 W Morgan St, Durham.
560-3030, .
1056 W Club Blvd, Durham. 286-1001, .
8030 Renaissance Pkwy, Durham. 676-3456.
2523 E Club Blvd, Durham.
688-1037.
1800 Martin Luther King Blvd, Durham. 489-9020.
Timberlyne Village Mall, 1129 Weaver Dairy Rd, Chapel Hill. 968-3005.
Southern Village, NC 15-501 South, Chapel Hill.
932-9000.
Timberlyne Shopping Center, 120 Banks Dr off Weaver Dairy Rd, Chapel Hill. 933-8600.
Call for shows and times.
123 E Franklin St, Chapel Hill. 967-8665.
119 N Main St, Graham. (336) 226-1488.
Barnyard mdash;7.
Also, Fri-Sun 9; Sat-Sun 1, 3, 5.
5050 Durham Rd, Roxboro. (336) 598-5050.
Apocalypto mdash;4:30, 7:10. Also Fri-Sat 9:55; Sat-Sun 2; Thu 1. Casino Royale mdash;Fri-Sat 9:30.
Deck the Halls mdash;4:35, 7:00. Also Sat-Sun 2:10; Thu 1. D e j Vu mdash;4:50, 7:30.
Also Fri-Sat 10; Sat-Sun 2:15; Thu 1. Happy Feet mdash;4:45, 7:15. Also Fri-Sat 9:35; Sat-Sun 2:10; Thu 1.
The Holiday mdash;4:40, 7:25. Also Fri-Sat 10:05; Sat-Sun 2:20; Thu 1. Nativity Story mdash;4:45, 7:05.
Also Fri-Sat 9:40; Sat-Sun 2:10; Thu 1. The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause mdash;4:50, 7:10. Also Sat-Sun 2:20; Thu 1.
Unaccompanied Minors mdash;4:40, 7:20. Also Fri-Sat 9:50; Sat-Sun 2:20; Thu 1.
Chronological by date and time
The Golden Child: Wed, Dec 6, 7 pm: A benefit for the Kadampa Center, a Tibetan Buddhist community based in Raleigh.
Colony Theater, 5438 Six Forks Rd, Raleigh. $5.
Terror at Home: Domestic Violence in America: Thu, Dec 7, 6 pm: Q A at 8 pm.
Oscar-winning filmmaker Maryann De Leo will present discuss her recent film. Also special guest Nancy G Addison, survivor one subject of the film, will be present. Duke Coffeehouse, located in the Crowell Building on East Campus.
. Free.
NC State University Campus Cinema: Dec 7 9, 7 pm; Dec 8, 9:30 pm: Little Miss Sunshine.
Dec 7 9, 9:30 pm; Dec 8, 7 pm: Snakes on a Plane. Dec 13, 7 9:30 pm: Beerfest. Witherspoon Student Center, NC State Campus, .
$1.50-2.50.
Masters of French Cinema Film Series: Fri, Dec 8, 8 pm: Mon Oncle. Fri, Dec 15, 8 pm: An American in Paris. 2110 Blue Ridge Rd, Raleigh.
839-6262, . $5, $3.50 students.
Duke Student Film Showcase: Fri, Dec 8, 5-9 pm: Part of the Screen/Society series. Richard White Auditorium, Duke University East Campus, Durham. .
The Cinema, Inc: Sun, Dec 10, 7 pm: O Brother Where Art Thou? . Rialto Theater, 1620 Glenwood Ave, Raleigh.
The Future of Food: Fri, Dec 15, potluck at 7:30 pm, movie at 8 pm: Where does our food come from? Are the production methods sustainable? Durham Co-op Grocery, 1101 W.
Chapel Hill St. Free.
Film Capsules
Our rating system uses zero to four stars.
If a movie has no rating, it has not been reviewed by Laura Boyes (LB), Godfrey Cheshire (GC), David Fellerath (DF), Neil Morris (NM) or Zack Smith (ZS).
Running from his director's reputation? Apocalypto opens this week.
Photo courtesy of Icon Distribution APOCALYPTO mdash;However improbable it may have sounded, and notwithstanding its creator's recent public embarrassments, Mel Gibson's subtitled plunge into ancient Mayan civilization turns out to be no folie de grandeur or demented art film but a brilliantly imagined, thoroughly engrossing popcorn epic, a chase film dizzy with energy and excitement. The tale has a sturdy architecture: An idyllic Indian village is besieged by raiders who haul part of the population into captivity. After enduring a near escape from human sacrifice in the Mayan capital, young Jaguar Paw (nicely played by Rudy Youngblood) leads several of his captors on a headlong chase as he attempts to return to his family.
Yes, as in previous Gibson films, there's plenty of blood and gore, but here it doesn't have the S M tinge of Passion of the Christ. And while there are hints that Mel wants astute viewers to understand this as a kind of Mesoamerican correlative for the Book of Revelation, a distant mirror of our own decadent civilization, the movie's real claim to fame is that it's simply a great display of old-fashioned movie thrills and storytelling smarts. Rated R.
mdash;GC
BAABUL (RESPECTED FATHER) mdash;Amitabh Bachchan encourages daughter-in-law Rani Mukerjee to seek her own happiness after the death of his son. The topic of widow remarriage is still controversial in conservative Hindu circles. This opulent melodrama tackles the issue with the superstar gravitas of Amitabh, returning to the screen after his recent illness.
Salman Khan, John Abraham and Hema Malini co-star. Not rated. mdash;LB
BLOOD DIAMOND mdash;This new drama by Edward Zwick (The Last Samurai) stems from the latest celebrity cause, the campaign against so-called "conflict diamonds" that reach Western markets after having helped fund horrible destruction in unstable African states.
No doubt the cause is a worthy one, but the film plays like a typically self-righteous Hollywood sermon wrapped around a very bloody, totally predictable and unbelievable adventure yarn constructed of jackhammer "action beats." Even fine performances by leads Leonardo DiCaprio (sporting a South African accent) and Djimon Hounsou can't offset the formulaic filmmaking, or Jennifer Connelly's lame turn as an activist reporter. Rated R.
mdash;GC
COPYING BEETHOVEN mdash;Ed Harris plays the Viennese composer in the last year of his life. Agnieska Holland, the director, has a worthy mdash;if checkered mdash;r e sum e (Angry Harvest, Europa Europa, Olivier Olivier). Rated PG-13.
mansions and snow-covered English cottages. Still, they just can't seem to find a good man. So, after a little instant messaging, Hollywood movie trailer director Amanda (Cameron Diaz, hyperactive) swaps homes with London obit editor Iris (Kate Winslet, delightful) for the holidays.
Iris soon finds solace in the arms of a movie music composer (Jack Black mdash;wha?!), while Amanda's luck changes after a guy looking like Jude Law literally stumbles onto her doorstep.
While Diaz and Law try to out-mug each other, Iris' friendship with an aging screenwriter (Eli Wallach) proves the film's most compelling coupling. In the end, some sporadic chuckles, picturesque settings and infectious charm cannot offset the lack of direction and somnolent banality. And, would someone please place a moratorium on characters who talk aloud to themselves while reading or typing on a computer?
Rated PG-13. mdash;NM
UNACCOMPANIED MINORS mdash;This refreshingly entertaining holiday flick aims to channel the mixture of slapstick and poignancy of John Hughes' Planes, Trains and Automobiles, but winds up closer to Home Alone. Based on a story from NPR's This American Life, it chronicles the misadventures of a small group of children-of-divorce (including Tyler James Williams from TV's Everybody Hates Chris and Brett Kelly from Bad Santa) who find themselves snowed in at an airport on Christmas Eve and run amuck while avoiding the Scrooge-esque airport head (Lewis Black).
Director Paul Feig, creator of TV's Freaks Geeks, is a little too in love with the slapstick, and keeps things a little too frantic for the kids to develop as characters. But the younger actors are terrific, and there are plenty of jokes for adults as well. Plus, it's nice to see a holiday film acknowledging divorce and being stuck in transit.
Bonus points for casting multiple actors from Arrested Development, The Daily Show, The Kids in the Hall and the American version of The Office in supporting roles. Rated PG. mdash;ZS
Current Releases BABEL mdash;Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga weave another hypnagogic, multifaceted tapestry of personal struggle and despair endured by characters linked together by a common tragedy.
The ambitious, interrelated storylines span from Morocco to San Diego to Tokyo, all revolving around how our species remains a collection of tribes separated by barriers mdash;language, borders, culture, race, disabilities, etc. A uniformly remarkable cast, headlined by Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, gives their all to a script whose primary flaw is that it may inadvertently incite the very isolation it assails by depicting the travails that arise from cross-cultural mingling. Rated R.
mdash;NM
Estevez, however, wants to say something meaningful about Bobby Kennedy and here he falls flat. The movie has the airbrushed, hagiographic feel of a campaign infomercial. Most astonishingly, in saying almost nothing about either Eugene McCarthy (the peace candidate RFK opposed) or Sirhan Sirhan (Kennedy's Palestinian assassin), this account erases the political complexity and resonance from one of America's most fascinating politicians.
Rated R. mdash;GC
BORAT: CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN mdash;Inventive British TV satirist Sacha Baron Cohen makes his big-screen starring debut playing Borat, an eager, culturally obtuse Kazakh TV reporter road tripping across the United States. Much of it shot Candid Camera style, the comic odyssey features memorable, sometimes truly hilarious encounters with feminists, gays, Pentecostals, frat boys, rodeo fans and many other native species.
Though the comedy sometimes relies a bit too obviously on gross-out and lowbrow provocations (including its absurdist take on Jews), its relentless ingenuity and its star's wacky winning presence make it unfailingly amusing, a sure guarantee of many Cohen comedies to come. Rated R. mdash;GC
CASINO ROYALE mdash;Easily the best 007 movie since the 1960s, the 21st installment in cinema's most successful franchise sweeps away a lot of the cutesy gimmickry that's encumbered it in recent decades while inaugurating a new Bond, Daniel Craig, who proves to be the most skilled and charismatic actor to occupy the role since Sean Connery.
Returning to the 1953 Ian Fleming novel (filmed as a spoof in 1967) that introduced the suave spy, director Martin Campbell and his collaborators show us Bond earning his 00 (license to kill) status, then follow him on a sequence of adventures that lead him from Europe to Africa and the Bahamas, culminating in a grand poker game in Montenegro. While the basic formula of action and intrigue in exotic locales remains the same, the fantasy quotient has been significantly reduced, giving us a more human, complex Bond, a virtue that extends to his romantic involvement with a beautiful Treasury agent (French actress Eva Green), who, for once, shows us the agent's heart. Rated PG-13.
mdash;GC
If you can't get enough of Christmas movies involving flaming trees and characters falling down in the snow ...
rent National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Rated PG. mdash;ZS
D E J Agrave; VU mdash;Despite director Tony Scott's trademark (if proficient) visual gimcracks, a slew of plot holes and some eye-rolling techno claptrap, a provocative narrative eventually unfurls from this time-shifting, bayou-based sci-fi thriller.
Denzel Washington plays an intrepid ATF agent assigned to solve a deadly terrorist explosion onboard a New Orleans ferry. When evidence leads to the mysterious, possibly related murder of a young lady (Paula Patton), investigators employ a covert device that allows them to peer exactly four days and six hours into the past. Some clever parallel time-chasing ensues, but the film's true thematic grit comes when the police stumble onto a way to transmit messages, and perhaps more, across dimensions.
Bill Marsilii and Terry Rosso's script evokes such films as Twelve Monkeys and Primer, and ultimately hints that we are only seeing the final chapter of an indeterminate story mdash;early on, take note of the cell phone ringing from inside a body bag. Rated PG-13. mdash;NM.
A. Of course, the plot is nonsense. Well-funded heists of unfenceable rare objects occur almost by magic.
Action guru Allen Amin has devised a dizzying array of stunts for Hrithik, whose superb balance and sinuous dance moves dominate the swift three hours of jet skis, parasails, snowboards, rollerblades, motorbikes and cliff side plunges. The cast is exquisitely styled, and all (including seductresses Aishwarya Rai and Bipasha Basu) radiate a superhuman level of gorgeousness, beautifully lit, primped and moistened. Abhishek, Hrithik and Uday, all sons of industry power houses, grew up together and have great chemistry.
This giddy international caper encourages you to rev your engines, check your brain and dhoom, dhoom. Not rated. mdash;LB
FACING THE GIANTS mdash;A football team of underdogs defeats the odds.
Rated PG.
FLUSHED AWAY mdash;In a kids' movie market so inundated with toilet humor, I suppose it was just a matter of time before a film was set inside one. An unexpected trip down the loo transforms Roddy (voiced by Hugh Jackman) from Kensington house mouse into subterranean sewer rat when he lands in Ratropolis, a London mockup furnished with the discarded giblets of our consumer culture and populated by rodents, amphibians and a chorus of gastropods.
The story's construct is essentially a James Bond spoof involving a power-mad Toad (Ian McKellen) and sassy gal-pal (Kate Winslet). This delight from Aardman Animations (Wallace Gromit; Chicken Run) is their first fully CGI offering but employs software that reproduces some of the visual "imperfections" found in their trademark plasticene stop-motion endeavors. The soundtrack spans Billy Idol, Tom Jones and The Dandy Warhols, while the humor ranges from droll (pop references and cheeky Brit wit abound) to subversive: The frogs are French and the American tourists wear cowboy hats and T-shirts reading "I 3 Steak.
" Rated PG. mdash;NM
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION mdash;Christopher Guest steps outside his usual mockumentary approach in this hilarious satire about a low-budget Southern-Jewish-World War II-dying-mother coming-out drama with musical numbers called Home for Purim that unexpectedly earns Oscar buzz. As the increasingly strung-out lead actress, Catherine O'Hara does the best work of her career, ably assisted by Harry Shearer, Parker Posey and nearly 20 other actors (Fred Willard is a particular standout as a mohawked TV host).
Though not all the actors get enough screen time and the plot is predictable, Consideration is a poignant and dead-on take on Hollywood buzz that deserves a nod of its own mdash;which would only make it funnier. Rated PG-13. mdash;ZS
THE FOUNTAIN mdash;The third film by Darren Aronofky is a tale of "love everlasting" that features Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz as lovers connected by reincarnation through three lifetimes: as a queen and conquistador during the Spanish conquest of Mayan Mexico, a medical researcher and a dying writer in the present, and space dwellers in the distant future.
Though the visual gifts Aronofsky displayed in pi and Requiem for Dream are again apparent in this lush yarn, the story itself is full of New Age waftiness and jejune romanticism; like too many tales in graphic novels in comic books, it seems to spring from vague pop-culture fantasies and received ideas rather than any perception of the real world. At once overblown and underwhelming, it suggests that Aronofsky is an inventive stylist who desperately needs the help of a good writer. Rated PG-13.
mdash;GC
Rated PG. mdash;NM
LET'S GO TO PRISON mdash;How the hell did so many talented comedians make this? Directed by and co-starring Bob Odenkirk (Mr.
Show), co-written by Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant of Reno 911! and starring the smarm-tastic Will Arnett of Arrested Development, Prison is a 90-minute version of the Saturday Night Live sketch where Jerry Seinfeld was sent to OZ masquerading as a satirical look at the flaws in the penal system. In his persona that could be called David Spade 2.
0, Dax Shepard plays a three-time loser seeking revenge on a late judge by getting his entitled son (Arnett) sent to the same prison as him. Arnett, Chi McBride and Dylan Baker give some zest to their line-readings, but the non-stop dark humor doesn't leave much room for relatable characters or an actual point. The Arrested Development episode where Arnett spent a night inside and got shanked by White Power Bill was better mdash;and shorter.
Rated R. mdash;ZS
THE NATIVITY STORY mdash;With all the provocative potential at its disposal, the real pity is how conventional this PG-rated, by-the-Good Book rendering from director Catherine Hardwicke turns out. The visual effects are on par with a made-for-cable television movie, and there is little intrigue once the narrative starts down its inexorable path toward a sacred birth sans umbilical cord, staged with as much spontaneity as the living Nativities you see outside churches every December.
Rated PG. mdash;NM
THE QUEEN mdash;The latest from Stephen Frears has a great premise: a look into the lives of Britain's royal family at the time of the tumultuous public reaction to the death of Princess Diana. Unfortunately, the seriocomic concept is undermined from the first by Peter Morgan's script, which has all the obviousness and banality of a TV production.
Rated PG-13. mdash;GC
SHUT UP SING mdash;Friend and foes alike will find fodder for their opinions about the Dixie Chicks in this provocative documentary on their controversial career. However, while the film depicts a defiant and unapologetic trio devoted to their craft, true fans and, yes, country, it too often feels like a stagy, pedestrian hagiography made for the true believers.
Rated R. mdash;NM
STRANGER THAN FICTION mdash;Will Ferrell is closer to Peter Sellers in Being There than his usual manic self as Harold Crick, a lifeless IRS agent who's unknowingly the subject of a tragic novel by a blocked author (Emma Thompson). As Ferrell hears Thompson's incessant voice-over narration about his pathetic existence, he attempts to rebel against his plot-oriented death by seeking help from an English professor/lifeguard (Dustin Hoffman) and pursuing romance with a tax-dodging baker (Maggie Gyllenhaal, who was also in the similarly-themed Adaptation).
Though some parts don't click (why Ferrell is Thompson's character is never made clear), the film still manages to come to life in a touching third act that makes some dark points about the nature of storytelling. Rated PG-13. mdash;ZS
TENACIOUS D IN THE PICK OF DESTINY mdash;You'd think that a film that starts with a John Kricfalusi animation and a cameo by Ronnie James Dio would burn with flames of awesomeness (if you don't think that, you're probably not interested in this movie anyway).
But the long-gestating film version of Jack Black and Kyle Gass's "Greatest Band on Earth" act misses the opportunity to parody the over-the-top nature of rock films in favor of microwaved gags from Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and The Blues Brothers. Chronicling the D's origin as they unite in Venice Beach and seek a legendary guitar pick, the film features some entertaining songs, but never seems to come to life beyond various stoner jokes and flat slapstick. Even hardcore fans of the D will find this effort flat.
Rated R. mdash;ZS
TURISTAS mdash;This Diet Coke version of Hostel and The Descent has some effective moments of violence, but mostly just reiterates urban legends and horror film clich e s (hint: the character who takes her top off gets the worst of it). A ridiculously attractive cast, including Josh Duhamel from TV's Las Vegas and model Beau Garrett, play tourists in Brazil, who, through a combination of bad luck and unbelievable stupidity, find themselves in danger from a sinister figure (Miguel Lunardi) with a fondness for sharp objects.
Director John Stockwell (Into the Blue, Blue Crush, Crazy/Beautiful) mines some tension from some underground cave sequences and a torture scene, but the film misses the opportunity to comment on the real issue of tourist abductions in favor of telegraphed twists and badly-edited action scenes. Rated R. mdash;ZS
VAN WILDER: THE RISE OF TAJ mdash;Asian-American stoner hero Kal Penn stars in this inessential National Lampoon sequel that doubtlessly has fans greeting it with serious munchies.
Rated R.
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