S.W.A.T. team appears to be D.O.A.
The only thing most people remember from the 1970s TV series S.W.A.T. is its insanely hummable theme song, which made you want to climb into your car and drive really fast. The only thing most people will remember from S.W.A.T.'s big-screen incarnation is its advertising tagline (``Even cops call 911''), which promises a movie director Clark Johnson has no intention of delivering.
( BY RENE RODRIGUEZ, rrodriguez@herald.com, 08/08/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

Sweet, romantic 'Valley Girl' feels like it's brand new
In a decade or two, no doubt there will be people who look back on American Pie and Dude Where's My Car? and think of them as minor classics. Today, though, it's movies like Valley Girl (MGM Home Entertainment, $20) that get us feeling all nostalgic. The 1983 comedy, about a valley girl (Deborah Foreman) who falls for a punk rocker (Nicolas Cage), much to the chagrin of her status-conscious friends, is admittedly slight and formulaic, not to mention cheap-looking.
( RENE RODRIGUEZ, rrodriguez@herald.com, 08/08/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

Here's our third serving of 'Pie'
''I thought I would have grown out of this sort of behavior by now,'' says Jim (Jason Biggs), the perpetually humiliated hero of American Wedding. But in an American Pie movie, no one ever really grows up, not even the adults.
( BY RENE RODRIGUEZ, rrodriguez@herald.com, 08/01/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

Disastrous 'Gigli' pairs hit man, lesbian
In Gigli (pronounced gee-lee), Ben Affleck plays Larry, a lunk-headed hit man for the mob who is reputed to be a ''vicious mad dog.'' The key word here is reputed, since the meanest thing we ever see Larry do, aside from jabbing angrily at his TV dinner vegetables, is sever a corpse's thumb with a plastic knife. There are second-year medical students, or even high school science-club treasurers, who could take this guy without breaking a sweat.
( BY RENE RODRIGUEZ, rrodriguez@herald.com, 08/01/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

Overly-artsy 'Northfork' drags
Northfork takes place in 1955, when the few remaining residents of a dead-end Montana town are preparing to bid their home a reluctant farewell. In a few days, Northfork will be under water, the casualty of a hydroelectric dam that is being forced on the residents by the state in the name of progress. But the elegiac, melancholy tone of the movie -- not to mention its mournful sepia tones -- makes it clear that the death of this town is really a tragedy. Northfork is, in essence, a dreamlike requiem...
( BY RENE RODRIGUEZ, rrodriguez@herald.com, 08/01/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

Extras fatten up paper-thin `Daredevil'
Ben Affleck looks just as silly in that red-leather get-up on your TV screen as he did in the theater, and the movie itself still feels both overly busy and thin. But some comic-book fans might still want to check out the two-disc set of Daredevil (Fox Home Entertainment, $30), if not for the film itself, then for the terrific extras included.
( 08/01/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

Someone robbed 'Cradle of Life'
When she's not leaping off buildings, dodging bullets with a Neo-like ease or punching computer-generated sharks on the nose, Angelina Jolie spends much of Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life running around with a noticeable smirk. This could be interpreted in one of two ways: It's either a sign of Lara's unflappable confidence in the face of overwhelming danger, or a testament to Jolie's embarrassment at drudging up the pony-tailed archaeologist for another joyless, brain-numbing adventure...
( BY RENE RODRIGUEZ, rrodriguez@herald.com, 07/25/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

'Spy Kids' game over, but what a ride
The main difference between Robert Rodriguez's Spy Kids series and most other live-action family films is that these colorful, frantic pictures feel like they were made by kids, not just for them. Rodriguez -- who wrote, directed, edited, photographed and did just about everything but act in the movies -- doesn't really care whether or not grown-ups show up to the party, other than as chaperones. He's putting on a show specifically geared to his 14-and-under target audience, and as a storyteller...
( BY RENE RODRIGUEZ, rrodriguez@herald.com, 07/25/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

'Swimming Pool' is shallow, yet overflowing with sensuality
In François Ozon's seductive, ultimately frustrating Swimming Pool, Charlotte Rampling plays Sarah Morton, a best-selling mystery author who has grown uncomfortable with her own success. ''I'm not the person you think I am,'' she snaps at an adoring fan who recognizes her on the London subway. She fidgets and sighs when people tell her they've read all her books. ''I'm fed up with murders and investigations,'' she tells her editor John (Charles Dance), who is hungrily awaiting Sarah's...
( BY RENE RODRIGUEZ, rrodriguez@herald.com, 07/18/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

'Boys II' goes from bad to (probably) worst
It may be too early to label Bad Boys II as the worst picture of the summer -- there is, after all, more than a month of movies left to go, including something called Jeepers Creepers 2 -- but it's certainly not too soon to call it the vilest film of the season.
( BY RENE RODRIGUEZ, rrodriguez@herald.com, 07/18/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

Just like a gambling addict, 'Mahowny' is a bit of a loser
Philip Seymour Hoffman has played so many sad sacks in his career that when you first see him in Owning Mahowny, with his hunched shoulders, oversized eyeglasses and forced, shy voice, it's as if you were about to catch up with the perverted loner from Happiness or the lonely sycophant from Boogie Nights.
( BY RENE RODRIGUEZ, rrodriguez@herald.com, 07/18/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

'Jet Lag' has smooth takeoff, then tailspins
This review ran in February during the Miami International Film Festival. There are frothy romantic comedies and then there is Jet Lag, a movie so thin it borders on nonexistence. Even the formidable appeal of Juliette Binoche and Jean Reno -- playing strangers who meet while stranded at an airport and, you know, fall in love -- isn't enough to sustain the rickety showcase director Daniele Thompson has built for them.
( BY RENE RODRIGUEZ, rrodriguez@herald.com, 07/11/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

'Extraordinary Gentlemen' is all too ordinary
In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, several characters from classic 19th-century fiction -- Allen Quatermain, Dr. Jekyll, the Invisible Man, Tom Sawyer and Captain Nemo, among others -- band together to help the British government save the world. This requires a lot of the usual punching, kicking and running, but it also leaves room for an occasional, unexpected literary reference (''Call me Ishmael,'' a chauffeur says to his new passengers). Here, finally, is a superhero movie your AP English...
( BY RENE RODRIGUEZ, rrodriguez@herald.com, 07/11/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

Rewind/Fast Forward: film antidote for the jaded
The prospect of yet another film festival -- this one coming smack in the middle of a crowded summer movie season -- might seem a bit redundant. But there's no mistaking the Florida Moving Image Archive's third annual Rewind/Fast Forward Film & Video Festival for any other film festival in town.
( BY RENE RODRIGUEZ, rrodriguez@herald.com, 07/10/2003 03:01 AM EDT)