Peabody Place 22, Forest Hill 8, Stage Cinema 12, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Raleigh Springs Cinema, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, Southaven Cinema, Summer Quartet Drive-In.
Peabody Place 22, Forest Hill 8, Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Hollywood 20 Cinema.
Zathura (PG, 102 min.) Two brothers are drawn into an intergalactic adventure when their house is magically hurtled through space. Based on the book by "Polar Express" author Chris Van Allsburg.
Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag: This IMAX film offers an insider's view into aerial combat. Runs through Nov. 11, with limited showings through March 3, 2006. Tickets: $8; $7.25 senior citizens, $6.25 children (age 3-12); group rates available.
Mystery of the Nile: Explorers navigate entire length of the Nile River. Limited showings through Nov. 11. Tickets: $8; $7.25 senior citizens, $6.25 children (age 3-12); group rates available.
Batman Begins (PG-13, 140 min.) Director Christopher Nolan ("Memento") and star Christian Bale (the most convincing Batman yet) give the faithful what they crave: the frightening "avenger of evil" of the comic books, brought to the screen with the prestige cast, technical accomplishment and seriousness of purpose of a David Lean epic. The script smartly returns to the traumatic psychological motivation that has undergirded the story of the orphaned Bruce Wayne's transformation into Batman since Detective Comics No. 33 in 1939, but the result is more verbose than mysterious -- the film feels muffled by the pall of the comic book industry's hard-won "respectability." This Batman is stalking Oscars, not Jokers.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (PG, 116 min.) This honorable and fairly faithful adaptation of Roald Dahl's 1964 children's novel represents something of a minor comeback for director Tim Burton, who reteams here with his onscreen alter ego, Johnny Depp, after their memorable collaborations on "Edward Scissorhands," "Ed Wood" and "Sleepy Hollow." Those earlier films told of oddball individualists struggling for acceptance within discouraging societies; it's appropriate that the now richly rewarded Burton and Depp would reunite to resurrect Willy Wonka, a creator-artist who established himself as a wealthy and powerful celebrity by embracing rather than denying his eccentricity. Although this "Charlie" may seem too sweet to those with a taste for the dark chocolate of the original book or the 1971 cult classic "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory," the film has much to recommend it, including a memorable visit with the squirrels of the "Nut Sorting Room" and superb comic performances by the actors who portray the story's ill-fated children.
C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America (Not rated, 89 min.) Ingenious and disturbing, Kansas writer-director Kevin Willmott's "mockumentary" satire -- which imagines what society would be like if the South had won the Civil War -- arrives in Memphis as a coincidental audiovisual aid for the debate over the future of the parks named for Nathan Bedford Forrest, Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy. "Southern heritage" advocates who argue the war was not about slavery will not be pleased, but others will admire Willmott's darkly comic alternate history, which includes images of the Confederate flag being hoisted at Iwo Jima and planted on the moon, commercials for "the Slave Shopping Network" and clips from such 1950s scare films as "I Married an Abolitionist." As the film's modern-day Confederates pursue "a divinely ordained quest for world dominance," we realize Willmott is not just addressing racial attitudes but encouraging us to contemplate current events.
The Constant Gardener (R, 129 min.) Working from a topical post-Cold War mystery novel by John le Carre, gifted Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles follows his often stunning "City of God" with this story of a low-level British diplomat (Ralph Fiennes) in Kenya who is radicalized by his investigation into the murder of his pregnant, activist wife (Rachel Weisz). The film's social-justice agenda is valid, even vital, but it seems to preach to the liberal guilt of the converted -- ultimately, it's more reassuring than revolutionary. There's no denying Meirelles's talent at creating a compelling sense of place, however: The Nairobi shantytowns photographed here are as beautiful/terrifying as the Rio de Janeiro favelas of the director's previous movie.
Peabody Place 22, Forest Hill 8, Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Studio on the Square, Raleigh Springs Cinema, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, Southaven Cinema.
Elizabethtown (PG-13, 123 min.) A headline in Cameron Crowe's excruciating new film reads: "Blueprint for a Mess." Or is that a copy of the script? Orlando Bloom stars as a depressed athletic shoe designer who returns to smalltown Kentucky for his dad's funeral; along the way, he is inexplicably (from the audience's standpoint) stalked by a smitten flight attendant played by Kirsten Dunst. The screwball comedy masters Crowe tries to emulate, such as Howard Hawks and Preston Sturges, revealed character through action; but Crowe ("Jerry Maguire," "Almost Famous") relies on maudlin voice-over narration, "meaningful" speeches and greeting-card sentiment. This is the type of film in which a widow (Susan Sarandon) pays tribute to her late husband by tap dancing to "Moon River" at his funeral. On the plus side, Memphis receives a big plug as a nice place to visit and eat chili (huh??) during the film's pointless road-trip finale; but by the time Elton John sings "Soon as this is over, we'll go home," viewers will be way ahead of him.
Everything is Illuminated (PG-13, 106 min.) Actor Liev Schreiber steps behind the camera as director and screenwriter of this much-abridged adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer's playful, sprawling novel. Former Hobbit Elijah Wood, his eyes magnified to Gollumesque dimensions behind thick glasses, plays "the Collector," a quiet American Jew who travels to Eastern Europe to search for his roots with the help of a hip-hop-loving Odessan (Eugene Hutz) and a dog named Sammy Davis Jr. The movie starts as a fun road trip, but loses interest as it heads toward the inevitable Holocaust revelations of its finale.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose (PG-13, 120 min.) A literal dramatization of the maxim that possession is nine-tenths of the law, Scott Derrickson's surprise hit combines the suspenseful rhetorical jousting of a trial movie with the creepy scare tactics of a demonic possession story -- it's like a special Linda Blair episode of "Law & Order," with Laura Linney as an ambitious agnostic attorney who defends a priest (Tom Wilkinson) charged with negligent homicide after "an exorcism gone bad." The film panders to the audience's presumed desire for simple good-vs.-evil explanations of faith-shaking malfunctions of the brain and body, making this a sort of "Song of Bernadette" for a violent show-me age, with Emily Rose helping to restore the faith of those around her with visions of hell rather than heaven.
Flightplan (PG-13, 98 min.) We've heard of airlines losing luggage, but kids? Jodie Foster, the mother of two young sons, follows "Panic Room" with another thriller that allows her to physicalize her maternal instincts into action-movie heroics. (Does her experience as a child actor help explain her protective instincts?) Extremely well directed by Germany's Robert Schwentke (in his English-language feature debut), this ingenious inflight update of "The Lady Vanishes" finds the always intense Foster as a grieving widow whose young daughter disappears during a crowded flight over the Atlantic. Only during the final act do the characters begin to behave like movie constructs instead of recognizable people.
Peabody Place 22, Stage Cinema 12, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Raleigh Springs Cinema, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, Summer Quartet Drive-In.
The Fog (PG-13, 100 min.) In 1980, John Carpenter solidified his commercial status as the new "master of horror" with his "Halloween" followup, "The Fog," an interesting if uneven ghost story. This unscary remake from director Rupert Wainwright (whose credits include "Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em: The Movie") might be remembered as "The Stench," as a cast of pale WB-style hunks and hotties (including "Smallville's" Tom Welling) and a "funny" black guy whose sole purpose is to say words like "dawg," confront a supernatural CGI mist that looks like it could be erased with a couple of mouse clicks. Dawg, this "Fog" is a dog.
Peabody Place 22, Stage Cinema 12, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Raleigh Springs Cinema, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, Southaven Cinema, Summer Quartet Drive-In.
Forty Shades of Blue (Not rated, 108 min.) Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival, Ira Sachs's extremely personal made-in-Memphis feature examines -- with melancholy sympathy -- a few days in the lives of a legendary Memphis music producer (Rip Torn), his much-younger Russian girlfriend, Laura (Dina Korzun), and his resentful, self-pitying son (Darren E. Burrows). The relationships form a not-quite-love triangle, but this is Korzun's film: Her ethereal Laura seems trapped like a fish in an aquarium by the windows, mirrors and reflective surfaces that surround her; the elegant cinematography emphasizes her estrangement by maintaining the wary perspective of a surveillance camera. A native Memphian, Sachs includes contributions from Jim Dickinson and J. Blackfoot on the score; his film celebrates the city's blues-and-soul heritage while recognizing, with sadness, that the city's most vital days may be in the past.
The 40-Year-Old Virgin (R, 116 min.) A raunchy sex comedy with a sweet center intended to make it palatable as a "date" movie, "Virgin" is more sustained in both tone and story than the similarly strategized "Wedding Crashers" and could propel title action-figure collector Steve Carell to the big leagues alongside such Boys Club Comedy All-Stars as Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller and Luke and Owen Wilson. Writer-director Judd Apatow's sharply observed if outlandish characterizations compensate for his overemphasis on ethnic and sexual insults.
Four Brothers (R, 109 min.) Four adopted brothers (Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson, Garrett Hedlund and Andre Benjamin of the rap duo OutKast) return to Detroit to avenge the murder of their saintly mother in John Singleton's update of the John Wayne Western "The Sons of Katie Elder." Frequently violent but more often playfully if profanely comic, the film combines the loose, screwy vibe of the director's "2 Fast 2 Furious" with the convincing neighborhood and community portraiture that has been a Singleton specialty since "Boyz N the Hood" in 1991.
G (R, 96 min.) A true independent film that is just now finding limited distribution in a few cities thanks to a grassroots marketing campaign aimed at African-American moviegoers, this updated revamp of "The Great Gatsby" stars Richard T. Jones as Summer G, an enigmatic hip-hop mogul who lives in lonely splendor in the whitebread Hamptons. Director Christopher Scott Cherot ("Hav Plenty") shot this in 2001; he deserves credit for creating a different type of "black" film, but the result is dramatically underwhelming and as visually flat as a made-for-TV movie. The producers may be right to bemoan Hollywood's racial myopia, but it's the movie's execution, not its vision of an alternative African-American cinema, that delayed its release.
The Gospel (PG, 103 min.) Concert performances by Yolanda Adams, Fred Hammond and Martha Munizzi highlight this story of a hot R&B performer (Boris Kodjoe) who rediscovers his Christian roots after his father's illness brings him back home to Atlanta.
Peabody Place 22, Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8, Majestic, DeSoto Cinema 16, Raleigh Springs Cinema, Paradiso, Palace Cinema Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, Southaven Cinema, Summer Quartet Drive-In.
The Greatest Game Ever Played (PG, 115 min.) Actor Bill Paxton directed this golf drama about the famous U.S. Open of 1913, in which 20-year-old working-class American amateur Francis Ouimet (Shia LaBeouf) defeated British reigning champion Harry Vardon (Stephen Villane).
A History of Violence (R, 98 min.) A small-town husband and father (Viggo Mortensen) is hailed as a hero after killing the criminals who invade his diner, but his act of bloody self-defense inspires teen vengeance, domestic violence and territorial invasion -- an escalation with political as well as social implications. Director David Cronenberg -- the very definition of an auteur, from the consistency of his visual economy to the thematic continuity of his 15 features in 30 years -- stages the violence with the thrilling quickness of a duel in a classic Western; then he strangles the cheer in our throats by showing us the consequences of the gunplay. He recognizes our -- his -- attraction to violence, but he makes sure we're aware that there's something irreversible in this transformation of life into meat. The movie reminds us that conventional action filmmakers are as duplicitous as the politicians who won't allow citizens to see the body bags produced by their war.
In Her Shoes (PG-13, 131 min.) How will the discovery of an unknown grandmother (Shirley MacLaine) affect the love-hate relationship between an unlucky-in-love lawyer (Toni Collette) with weight issues and her irresponsible, loose-living sister (Cameron Diaz)? Working from a novel by Jennifer Weiner and a smart script by Susannah Grant ("Erin Brockovich"), genre-hopping director Curtis Hanson ("L.A. Confidential," "8 Mile") has created a marvelous showcase for his three leads. The film is funny, wise, moving and engrossing -- a "chick flick" that transcends the expected limitations of that judgmental label.
Just Like Heaven (PG-13, 101 min.) Lonely architect Mark Ruffalo meets cutie-pie Reese Witherspoon, an apparent ghost who haunts his new apartment. The chick-lit version of "Corpse Bride"? Mark Waters ("Freaky Friday") directs.
Kids in America (PG-13, 91 min.) Josh Goldberg's earnest teen film is "Rock 'n' Roll High School" rejiggered for the idealistic we-can-make-a-difference kids of the Myspace.com generation, with the evil principal a hottie (Julie Bowen) and the youngsters mobilizing for safe sex, gay rights and freedom of speech instead of sneaking off to the see the Ramones. It's about tolerance, not anarchy -- a change that may be socially responsible but is cinematically dull.
Madagascar (PG, 86 min.) An Ali G-voiced lemur that dances the robot and a crack squad of espionage-agent penguins highlight this frenetic DreamWorks farce in which a quartet of pampered zoo animals are stranded on the title African isle. The broad squish-and-stretch slapstick style of the computer animation is intended to match the gag-a-minute pace, although the results fall short of the classic Looney Tunes episodes that inspired the filmmakers. The voices belong to Chris Rock (a zebra), Ben Stiller (a lion) and Jada Pinkett Smith (a hippo).
March of the Penguins (G, 85 min.) Thanks to enthusiastic word of mouth, French director Luc Jacquet's intimate documentary look at the lifestyles of the cute and flightless has become the surprise art house hit of the year. Morgan Freeman provides the voiceover narration that describes the film as "a story of love," but such anthropomorphism is unnecessary: With amazing camerawork, the movie astounds us again and again as it tracks the annual mating trek of Antarctica's Emperor penguins -- a centuries-old struggle for species survival that demonstrates how life finds a way to thrive in even the harshest environment.
North Country (R, 127 min.) "Monster" Oscar-winner Charlize Theron goes for the gold again, this time deglamorizing herself to portray a sexually abused coal miner.
Peabody Place 22, Forest Hill 8, Stage Cinema 12, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Hollywood 20 Cinema.
Red Eye (PG-13, 85 min.) An efficient, unpretentious thriller unburdened by the self-conscious subtext and winking self-referential humor that humanities professor-turned-filmmaker Wes Craven usually imposes on his material, "Red Eye" presents rising star Rachel MacAdams as a smart multi-tasker terrorized within the claustrophobic cabin of an in-flight airliner by sinister Cillian Murphy, the Irish actor whose ghost-pale blue eyes also made a spooky impression in "Batman Begins." The film reminds us that moviegoing and air travel are somewhat similar experiences in which customers who pack themselves into tight rows of padded seats may experience turbulence and even white-knuckled terror at the hands of a pilot/director; the difference, of course, is that moviegoers often want to scream.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (R, 100 min.) This self-consciously outrageous and kinky horror-movie spoof has become the ultimate audience-participation film, spiced with sex, camp and rock music, including an "oldies" number performed by Meat Loaf, whose presence provides the set-up for one of the funniest of the many now-mandatory crowd responses. Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick star as a straight couple stranded in an old dark house full of weirdos, presided over by Tim Curry as that "sweet transvestite from Transylvania," Dr. Frank-N-Furte.
Roll Bounce (PG-13, 108 min.) Allusions to the Cosby Kids and 'What's Happening!!' are played for laughs, but they're apt: This is family-friendly youth fare, set in the 1970s, about affable teen roller-skaters from Chicago's South Side who challenge the snooty superiority of a pimped-out roller-rink kingpin named Sweetness (Wesley Jonathan). Director Malcolm D. Lee's crowd-pleaser could use more "Roller Boogie" routines and fewer heart-tugging heart-to-hearts between the young hero (Bow Wow) and his hardworking widowed father (Chi McBride), but a soundtrack heavy on Chic, Johnny 'Guitar' Watson and Kool & the Gang makes up for the mawkishness.
The Skeleton Key (PG-13, 104 min.) Nurse Kate Hudson takes a job in a decaying mansion haunted by the memory -- and possibly more -- of the estate's long-dead black caretakers in this "hoodoo" thriller set in the Louisiana bayou, where the trees hang heavy with Spanish moss and the air hangs heavy with Southern sin. Genteel director Iain Softley ("The Wings of the Dove") generates zero scares, but the film's supernatural enactment of Malcolm X's warning about the chickens coming home to roost is not just a bitter satire of assimilation but a welcome throwback to the 1970s, when such studio chillers as "The Mephisto Waltz" weren't afraid to let evil get the upper hand.
Sky High (PG, 98 min.) The summer's best superhero movie doesn't star Batman or the Fantastic Four but the students of Sky High, a school that's a sort of floating Hogwarts for the children of costumed crimefighters. Director Mike Mitchell's engaging and family-friendly Disney comedy suggests a John Hughes rewrite of "The Incredibles," with Michael Angarano as an insecure teen coping with super-bullies and a super-crush on a sexy senior (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) while struggling to live up to the legacy of his world-saving parents, The Commander (Kurt Russell) and Jetstream (Kelly Preston).
Stay (R, 99 min.) Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor star in an eerie boundary-of-life-and-death drama from director Marc Foster ("Finding Neverland," "Monster's Ball").
Peabody Place 22, Ridgeway Four, Forest Hill 8, Stage Cinema 12, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Cordova Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema.
Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (PG, 76 min.) A shy fishmonger's son (voiced by Johnny Depp) finds himself claimed in marriage by the title cadaver (Helena Bonham Carter), who pulls the lad from his gloomily Dickensian hometown to the colorful and "lively" land of the dead. Morbid yet charming, this stop-motion followup to "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is like one of those old Rankin-Bass holiday specials as imagined by macabre cartoonist Charles Addams, as Burton and co-director Mike Johnson marshal the expected influences (Hammer horror, "Caligari," Gothic literature ) for a fun modern folk tale that demonstrates that social institutions, cultural conventions and family traditions can trap the unwary in an unfulfilled life that is worse than death.
War of the Worlds (PG-13, 112 min.) Filled with reminders of 9/11, Steven Spielberg's adaptation of H.G. Wells's 1898 alien invasion novel tries to crash through the psychic guardrail that tells us "It can't happen here," delivering a sci-fi scare film that is confrontational rather than escapist. The brilliantly choreographed action unfolds entirely from the point of view of a divorced blue-collar father (Tom Cruise), who leads his son and daughter through a devastated landscape of increasing violence and panic. Spielberg has created not just the darkest "monster" movie since the 1954 "Godzilla" but a speculative fantasy inspired by the tragic experiences of the victims of overseas wars: This is an American refugee film.
Wedding Crashers (R, 119 min.) Owen Wilson plays cute, but Vince Vaughn amazes as Wilson's motormouthed best friend and confederate womanizer, a demented Don Wannabe who sprays lethal patter the way a Tommy gun sprays lead. The premise and cast build hopes for a modern comedy classic, but director David Dobkin sabotages a script of potentially Billy Wilderesque cynicism with sloppy sentiment and slack pacing.
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