The Promise: Stunning visuals. Kick-ass action.

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Akeelah and the Bee

This is one of those films I'm going to get in serious trouble for disliking, but I hated this well-meaning piece of crap, and I'm prepared to deal with the fallout that's sure to ensue. The basic plot revolves around Akeelah (Keke Palmer), an exceptionally bright 11-year-old from the 'hood, who becomes a national sensation when she makes it to the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. At first she is hesitant to get involved in spelling bees for fear she'll be ostracized by her fellow ghetto dwellers. But with the help of a stern tutor (Laurence Fishburne), Akeelah comes to realize that being smart is actually a good thing. Though well-intentioned, writer-director Doug Atchison has crafted a hackneyed piece of drivel that gropes, clutches and embraces every imaginable cliché like some horny old bastard feeling up on a nubile bit of jailbait. In the genre of young-people-find-their-greatness you have exceptional films like Searching for Bobby Fischer and then you have steaming trash like Karate Kid III. Akeelah and the Bee definitely rests at the Karate Kid III end of the spectrum. Atchison actually tries to turn spelling into an exciting spectator sport, with scenes of Fishburne cast in the Mr. Miyagi role of sage mentor. The sad thing is that—as anyone who has seen the documentary Spellbound can tell you—spelling bees can be pretty exciting to watch. Which makes Atchison's failure all the more pathetic. PG. DAVID WALKER.

American Dreamz

What's great about the new comedy from writer-director Paul Weitz (About a Boy) is the way it satirizes contemporary America. What's sad about the movie is how much of it is likely to go over the heads of the very audience it makes fun of. Hugh Grant stars as the host of the most popular show in television history, the American Idol-like American Dreamz. The two favorite competitors are a manipulative tramp from the Midwest (Mandy Moore) and a wannabe terrorist (Sam Golzari) living in California waiting to be called to duty by his sleeper cell. Dennis Quaid stars as the recently re-elected president of the United States—a man devoid of all intelligence—who decides to start reading the newspaper and discovers he's out of touch with the world. Through a series of odd twists and turns, the president is scheduled to be the guest judge on the season finale of American Dreamz, where the terrorists plan an attack. Although the argument could be made that the bite of Weitz's humor could sink its teeth a bit deeper, the film is still hilarious, mixing a healthy dose of screwball comedy with political and pop-culture satire. PG-13. DAVID WALKER.

Rebecca Baron: Surveillance, Documentation and Narrative

[SHORT RUN] Acclaimed experimental and documentary filmmaker Rebecca Baron will be in town to present a showcase of her work. Sunday night's program includes How Little We Know of Our Neighbours, Baron's 2004 experimental documentary about Britain's Mass Observation Movement, which began in England during the 1930s as a study of how people act in public settings. The Idea of North examines the limitations of various recording methods within the larger context of historical understanding. Monday's program repeats How Little We Know and includes okay bye-bye, which scrutinizes the relationship of history to memory. For more information, go to cinemaproject.org. Cinema Project (New American Art Union), 922 SE Ankeny St. 232-8269. 7:30 pm Sunday and Monday, May 7-8. $6 suggested donation.

Brick

After the death of his beloved ex-girlfriend-turned-junkie, high-school student Brendan Frye (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) smells foul play and becomes a vigilante out to get the drug-dealing hierarchy, kicking the crap out of people twice his size, getting the crap kicked out of himself, and eventually becoming the right-hand man to legendary pusher The Pin (Lukas Haas). Although the plot begins to waver toward the end, Brick offers a much-needed revamping of high-school genre films and seems destined to endure as a cult classic. Written and directed by Rian Johnson, the film was magnificently photographed by Steve Yedlin, who also shot Lucky McKee's cult film May (which Johnson edited). R. LAURY MULRY.

Busting Out

[SHORT RUN] Seattle filmmakers Lauren Spellman and Francine Strickwerda offer up this documentary about how breasts affect women's lives in various ways. The film looks at everything from breast cancer to men's obsession with breasts and how breasts have been used in art. Both filmmakers are scheduled to appear. Gail Noonan's animated short Menopause Song will also screen. Whitsell Auditorium, 1219 SW Park Ave., 221-1156. 7 pm Thursday, May 4. $4-$7.

Change Agents: The Oregon Small Schools Initiative Student Film Festival

[SHORT RUN] The initiative to convert large high schools into small ones is under way, and students from small schools have created this series of video shorts, which illustrate the beneficial change. Guild Theatre, 829 SW 9th Ave., 2215-1156. 7 pm Tuesday, May 9. Free.

*NEW* The Fallen Idol

[SHORT RUN] The concept of truth and deception come crashing down on an 8-year-old boy in director Carol Reed's taut 1948 thriller. Teaming with author Graham Greene for the first time—their next collaboration would result in the classic The Third Man—Reed paints an intricate portrait of shattered innocence. Bobby Henrey stars as Phillipe, the young son of a French ambassador. Phillipe idolizes the embassy butler, Baines (Ralph Richardson), who entertains the boy with tall tales of adventure. When Phillipe's parents are away, he's left with Baines and his shrewish wife (Sonia Dresdel), who terrorizes the boy when she suspects her husband is having an affair. A violent confrontation between Baines and his wife helps to destroy the image Phillipe has of his hero, and leaves him despondent as he wrestles to grasp adult concepts of truth and lies. DAVID WALKER. Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st Ave., 223-4515. Friday-Thursday, May 5-11.

Friends with Money

Watching writer-director Nicole Holofcener's Friends with Money is like being dragged to a party where you don't know anyone, don't want to know anyone, and spend the whole night wishing someone would choke to death on a chicken wing. None of the main characters in this ensemble is likable, and the more you get to know them, the less you like them. Jennifer Aniston, Catherine Keener, Joan Cusack and Frances McDormand are a quartet of unhappy friends who feel compelled to share their misery with an audience for nearly 90 agonizing minutes. Aniston is a slacker pothead, Cusack is a spineless twit, Keener is a self-absorbed dingbat, and McDormand is a coldhearted bitch too lazy to wash her hair. As a drama there's nothing compelling, as a comedy there's nothing funny, and as a mix of the two the film is a lifeless failure. R. DAVID WALKER.

Hard Candy

The specter of pedophilia is raised in Hard Candy, an intense, well-acted film that deals with its alarming subject matter in an audacious way. Like it or hate it, there's no denying it hasn't been done quite like this before. Our predator is Jeff (Patrick Wilson), a handsome 32-year-old who meets a 14-year-old girl named Hayley (Ellen Page) on the Internet, followed by a meeting at a cafe, followed by a trip back to his house. That's when Jeff realizes Hayley's giggly, flirtatious teenager routine was an act, and that she's actually a precocious, manipulative girl who knows of his past crimes and is bent on revenge. Patrick Wilson, so flat in Phantom of the Opera, redeems himself here with a performance that is rawly emotional but not over the top, while Ellen Page—a striking young actress with great potential—carries the film on her righteously indignant little shoulders. Still, at 103 minutes, it's too long. The characters reach their emotional and psychological endpoints long before the film has ended, and there's not much for the story to do after that. Cut this thing down to size and you've got yourself one dickens of a thriller. R. ERIC D. SNIDER.

Hoot

Carl Hiaasen's Newbery Honor-winning book comes to life in this family film about taking a stand to protect the environment. Three middle-school students in Florida take on unscrupulous land developers when they discover that endangered owls are being threatened. Director Wil Shriner guides his cast of young heroes on an exciting, comedic adventure for the whole family. PG.

Inside Man

Denzel Washington stars as the cop sent in to negotiate with a bank-robbing criminal mastermind (Clive Owen) and his crew, who have taken hostages when an apparent bank heist goes wrong. But there is more to it, and soon Washington has to figure out what is really going on. Leaving behind much of the ham-fisted political and personal ranting that has muddled many of his previous films, Spike Lee—in what appears to be a work-for-hire situation—has made what amounts to his most entertaining film in many years. R. DAVID WALKER.

Kinky Boots

Those working-class British comedies, with their bittersweet mix of humor and melodrama, are all well and good, but between everything from The Full Monty to Waking Ned Devine to The Snapper, we've pretty much seen 'em all. This time around the action takes place in a shoe factory on the brink of financial ruin, inherited by Charlie Price (Joel Edgerton). Enter Lola (Dirty Pretty Things' Chiwetel Ejiofor), a transvestite who inspires Charlie to make women's footwear for men. Next thing you know it's the standard ups and downs, with everyone learning valuable lessons about self-esteem and accepting others for who they are on the inside. Been there, done that. Ejiofor continues his streak of great performances, but the hackneyed script is such an eye-rolling waste of time, his performance does not make it worth watching this junk. PG-13. DAVID WALKER. Opens Friday, May 5.

Local Filmmaker Showcase

[SHORT RUN] Two of the most popular films to screen earlier this month at the Longbaugh Film Festival—both local productions—are back for extended runs. Before he left Portland for New York City last year, filmmaker David Waingarten made Addison's Wall (9 pm), one of the most impressive works done by a local director in years. At once beautiful and haunting, Waingarten's film finds a young boy suffering after a profound trauma, who has retreated into his own silent world. Despite the attempts of his mother (Ritah Parrish) to reach him, Addison (Colton Lasater) refuses to speak. He instead communicates his feelings through writings on his bedroom wall. Local actress Parrish is primarily known for her comedic performances, but here she proves that she is hands-down one of the best actors in this region. Her emotional turmoil is so real you want to reach into the screen, take her by the hand, and reassure her, "It's going to be all right." Shot in stunning black and white, director Waingarten's film has a poetic beauty and deep emotional resonance that signals the arrival of a talent worth scrutinizing. Also screening is Tonje Hessen Schei's powerful documentary Independent Intervention (7 pm). The major media coverage of the war in Iraq has presented only one side of a very complex story. Its prime agenda seems to be to make the American population feel comfortable with the atrocities going on, while glossing over the very real human toll being taken. Schei's documentary explores the stories surrounding the war in Iraq that are going largely unreported, while examining how information is packaged and portrayed in the United States. DAVID WALKER. Clinton Street Theatre, 2522 SE Clinton St., 238-8899. Wednesday-Thursday, May 3-4.

Mission: Impossible III

Tom Cruise returns to protect the world from evil (aka non-Scientologists). Find out if he's successful in next week's review. PG-13. Opens Friday, May 5.

*NEW* La Mujer de Mi Hermano

While our elected officials are screaming at each other about illegal immigration and 700-mile-long fences, they're overlooking an infestation just as insidious: the steady stream of crappy movies flowing into this country from south of the border. La Mujer de Mi Hermano (My Brother's Wife) stars actors from all over South America and was shot in Chile by a Peruvian director, yet what it most closely resembles is a Mexican soap opera. The gorgeous Zoe (Bárbari Mori) and her gorgeous husband, Ignacio (Christian Meier), have a lot of money but zero chemistry. Ignacio refuses to have sex with her except on Saturdays, and even then he can't seem to impregnate her, which strains their relationship further. Clearly, Zoe has no alternative but to sleep with Ignacio's gorgeous brother Gonzalo (Manolo Cardona), who has already earned Ignacio's disdain by being an artist instead of working for a living. What follows is 90 minutes of gorgeous people lying to each other—Zoe to Ignacio, Ignacio to Gonzalo, Gonzalo to his regular girlfriend—why, they even lie to the poor maid, Maria, who must wonder what she did to deserve working for such despicable, self-centered idiots. ERIC D. SNIDER. Opens Friday, May 5..

Neil Young: Heart of Gold

The concert film Neil Young: Heart of Gold captures why the old guy's career has lasted four decades, why so many performers who came after him consider him a godfather, and why he is revered in every musical circle from country to grunge. The reason? Because he's so damn good. ERIC D. SNIDER.

The Notorious Bettie Page

[SHORT RUN] The life and times of legendary pinup model Bettie Page are the stuff of which great movies are made. And in more capable hands than that of screenwriter Guinevere Turner and director Mary Harron, the team that brought us American Psycho, this film might have had a fighting chance. But rather than make something compelling, this not-so-dynamic duo have crafted a film of such maudlin mediocrity that it becomes an endurance test just to sit through what amounts to nothing more than a made-for-television movie with nudity. Recounting the rise to infamy of Bettie Page (Gretchen Mol) from wholesome schoolgirl to the embodiment of sexuality, this film falls short of even the most hackneyed of biopics. It would be easy to find fault with Mol's sad lack of charisma, but with a flaccid script and direction that confuses stylish flourishes with depth, even better actresses would come across as dull and lifeless. Fans of Bettie Page will be sadly disappointed, and those who don't know who she is will be left wondering what the big deal was. R. DAVID WALKER. Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st Ave., 223-4515, 7 and 9 pm Wednesday-Thursday, May 3-4. $4-$7.

On a Clear Day

The latest in a long list of working-class tales of endurance and triumph from the United Kingdom, director Gaby Dellal's movie joins the ranks of such films as Billy Elliot, East Is East, The Full Monty, and even Stephen Frears' adaptations of Roddy Doyle's Bartown trilogy. Peter Mullan stars as Frank Redmond, a fiftysomething shipyard worker who has recently been laid off. Despite the support of his wife (Brenda Blethyn) and his motley crew of mates, Frank flounders with no sense of purpose. That's when he decides to swim the English Channel. Of course, this is really a larger metaphor for the challenges of life. Dellal gets solid performances from the cast, and Alex Rose's screenplay has a certain amount of charm. Those who haven't grown tired of this standby formula, which has become a regular fixture in the indie and foreign film world, will be entertained. PG-13. DAVID WALKER. Cinemagic.

*NEW* The Promise

The maturation of the Asian action film has reached amazing heights in the past few years, with movies like House of Flying Daggers and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. These films have taken the traditional conventions of old-school Hong Kong action films and married them with Asian mythology and history to create visually stunning epics. The most recent to make its way to the United States is director Chen Kaige's breathtaking film The Promise. The film starts with a starving young girl striking a deal with a goddess, and growing up to be a beautiful princess (Cecilia Cheung). But the princess is cursed never to know true love, which makes it difficult for the men in her life, who include a powerful general (Hiroyuki Sanada) and a lowly slave (Dong-Kun Jang). Although some of the special effects are cheesy, the overall production design and action sequences are amazing, and the story of doomed love is compelling. PG-13. DAVID WALKER. Opens Friday, May 5.

*NEW* RV

RV isn't any good, but at least it has Barry Sonnenfeld (The Addams Family, Men in Black) as its director. The guy knows how to tell a visual joke. He'll position the camera and the actors in just the right way to catch the comedy, even when, as is the case for most of RV, there's no comedy taking place. Because Tim Allen was busy, I guess, Robin Williams stars as Bob Munro, a bumbling, workaholic dad who tries to make up for neglecting his wife and kids by taking them on an RV trip to Colorado. All the clichés of the road-trip comedy are present, including the vehicular mayhem (the RV is a rental, which means it must be destroyed) and a run-in with some wildlife (a raccoon, specifically). And in a special two-for-one offer, we also get the cliches of the workaholic-dad-learns-what's-really-important comedy, right down to the finale where Bob tells his soulless boss to take this job and shove it. The whole thing is made bearable by Sonnenfeld's visual acumen; you can tell a talented professional had his hand in it. Now, why a man with Sonnenfeld's gifts would expend so much effort in making an erupting RV toilet look interesting, I have no idea. PG. ERIC D. SNIDER.

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days

A rare World War II film that focuses on Gentile Germans who resisted the war and the Hitler regime, Sophie Scholl is the moving tale of a gutsy student and her brother, who were caught distributing anti-war leaflets at their university. They were immediately jailed and, when it became clear that denial wouldn't fly, opted to stick to their guns and stand up for their beliefs in the face of Nazi wrath. Sophie (Julia Jentsch) enrages the Nazi bureaucrat who interrogates her because, as he says, "You're so gifted—why don't you think like we do?" BECKY OHLSEN. Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd., 281-4215. $4-$6.

Spirit of the Beehive

[SHORT RUN] Victor Erice's 1973 film about a young girl in a small Castillian town in 1940, who has a haunting imagination preoccupied with death, and an obsession with the Frankenstein monster. Whitsell Auditorium, 1219 SW Park Ave., 221-1156. 7 pm Friday-Sunday, May 5-7. $4-$7.

Stick It

Jessica Bendinger's first screenplay was the snarky and subversive cheerleader flick Bring It On, and while she got sidetracked thereafter with loads like First Daughter and this year's Aquamarine, she's back in full-sass mode with the surprisingly funny Stick It. Focused this time on the world of competitive teenage gymnastics, Bendinger creates a world where everyone speaks in that über-slangy Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Gilmore Girls patois. A gymnast-turned-juvenile-delinquent (Missy Peregrym) is ordered to resume training under a has-been coach (Jeff Bridges) alongside a team of girls who hate her for walking out on the world finals a few years ago. It's a breakout performance for the relatively unknown Peregrym, while Bridges proves he still has some comedic gusto as he approaches 60 (!). Bendinger is in the director's chair for the first time, and while the film takes an odd "fight the power" detour in its last act—who knew there was such rancor against the gymnastics scoring system?—it's otherwise a stylish, smooth piece of work, with plentiful bitchy dialogue and actors savvy enough to know how to sling it. PG-13. ERIC D. SNIDER.

Take the Lead

Take the Lead combines two tired genres: the one where a peculiar teacher comes to an inner-city school and turns all the kids' lives around with his unorthodox methods and Socratic wisdom, and the one where teenage rivals come together through the healing power of dance. Stand and Deliver meets Save the Last Dance, if you will. Antonio Banderas plays Pierre Dulaine, a Manhattan ballroom-dance instructor who, for ill-explained reasons, takes over a ghetto high school's detention program and teaches the delinquents there how to dance. Meanwhile, the kids fall in love with each other, overcome prejudices, and heal old wounds—tick, tick, tick, right down the checklist. Alfre Woodard has a noble presence as the tough-as-nails principal, and darned if Banderas isn't so charming he almost makes this by-the-numbers old claptrap actually work. Almost. PG-13. ERIC D. SNIDER.

Thank You for Smoking

Based on Christopher Buckley's bestselling novel from the early 1990s, Thank You for Smoking stars Aaron Eckhart as Nick Naylor, the "sultan of spin"—a master of manipulating the truth with a self-conferred "bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names." Nick's job as the vice president of the Academy of Tobacco Studies is to debunk the claims that cigarettes are bad and to promote smoking. Adapted for the screen and directed by Jason Reitman in his feature debut, Thank You for Smoking is a dark, comedic companion to such recent films as Good Night, and Good Luck and Syriana, both of which recall the politically charged films of the 1970s. Brimming with subtle visual gags and absurd humor, Thank You for Smoking is a brilliant comedy that is ruthless in its attacks on both hand-wringing liberals and money-grubbing conservatives. R. DAVID WALKER.

United 93

United 93 may prove to be America's catharsis, a big group-therapy session for everyone who lived through 9/11 and still remembers it as though it were yesterday. As the first filmmaker to depict events from that day, writer-director Paul Greengrass has been under intense scrutiny amid fears that he would botch the project through sentimentalism, false heroism or any of the myriad ways a film like this could go wrong—and it turns out those worries were unfounded. This is as perfect a film as I've seen: respectful of its subject matter, utterly devoid of Hollywood-style fakery, and 100 percent gripping from beginning to end. Greengrass employs a subtle, documentary-style touch as he tells the story of the hijacked flight that crashed in Pennsylvania on 9/11. He refuses to underline important symbolic moments the way most filmmakers would, or indeed to pander to our emotions in any way, preferring to let the naturalistic acting and the crackerjack editing do the job without overt manipulation. The result? A completely devastating experience that demonstrates a mastery of the medium. R. ERIC D. SNIDER.

V for Vendetta

Imagine the not-too-distant future, where Great Britain is a fascist state that has separated itself from the rest of the world. Obscured by a mask, Hugo Weaving stars as V, a mysterious "terrorist" out to topple the Orwellian dictatorship that oppresses the nation. Adapted from Alan Moore's 1980s comic-book series by director John McTeigue and screenwriters the Wachowski brothers (of Matrix fame) the film is not without style or cautionary, politicized messages. But while it is effective enough to achieve an admirable level of cerebral action drama, the uneven script is a stumbling block that keeps the whole thing from ever stepping firmly into the realm of genius. R. DAVID WALKER.

The Wild

Please remember: Just because a film is animated and has the Disney name on it doesn't mean it's any good. As the new Exhibit A, I offer The Wild, a lazy, half-witted adventure that is probably the worst cartoon Disney has ever produced. (I never saw The Black Cauldron.) It offers no real laughs, no excitement, no adventure and no interesting characters. In fact, if you saw last year's Madagascar, you (1) deserve a refund, and (2) have already seen this. In the New York Zoo, a young lion named Ryan (voice of Greg Cipes), following an argument with his dad, Samson (Kiefer Sutherland), hides in a storage compartment that is subsequently put on a ship bound for Africa. Samson and his animal friends set out to save him, and they all wind up in Africa, where nobody knows how to survive because they were born in captivity. And then there's a cult of wildebeests who want to become carnivores, and they intend to start practicing on the lions, and a dance number. Honestly, a dance number. It's tempting to call the film The Mild, but I think even "mild" might be too strong a word. PG. ERIC D. SNIDER.

Zizek!

[SHORT RUN] Astra Taylor's documentary profiles Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek, sometimes called "the Elvis of cultural theory," whose works range in subject from 9/11 to Hitchcock and Christianity. Guild Theatre, 829 SW 9th Ave., 221-1156. 7 pm Friday-Sunday, May 5-7. $4-$7.