“Aileen:
Life and Death of a Serial Killer”
See review
3 reels (out of four)
“Hellboy”
See review
3.5 reels (out of four)
“Home on the Range”
See review
3.5 reels (out of four)
“The Prince and Me”
Paramount Pictures
Rated PG
Julia Stiles plays a study-obsessed college freshmen
who meets the Prince of Denmark in her Wisconsin
college. He’s trying to fit in…with
Wisconsin college students. It must have been one
hell of a brochure. Expect people to fall in love,
have misunderstandings and reunite.
“The Reckoning”
Paramount Classics
Rated R
(out of four)
Films set in medieval times tend to be sweeping,
elegant royal epics, but director Paul McGuigan’s “The
Reckoning,” adapted from Mark Mills’s
novel, looks at fringe members of society with handheld
cameras and gritty realism. The murder mystery critiques
the era’s reign of the Catholic church in the
government through the eyes of a renegade priest
and a touring theater troupe.
Rising talent Paul Bettany plays Nicholas, a priest
who abandons his post after sleeping with another
man’s wife. Willem Dafoe plays Martin, the
new leader of the actors that his father led until
he died the night Nicholas met him. Martin has a
vision of theater that isn’t based on biblical
stories (who knows, it could catch on), and decides
to make some money by dramatizing the recent murder.
Research for the production soon suggests that the
deaf woman whom the town convicted didn’t commit
the murder, and Nicholas sets out to uncover the
truth, even if it endangers the established government.
While the story runs a bit long and occasionally
becomes convoluted, “The Reckoning” makes
up for it with the depiction of medieval theater
and a stunning scene in which Nicholas and Martin
speak with the blind girl. Plus, there are no kings,
knights or fairies.
“Tycoon”
New Yorker Films
Not Rated
Opening at the Madstone
(Not reviewed)
“Tycoon” is apparently “The Godfather” set
in Russia with a more difficult storyline. Watch
the gangsters start scheming during the Gorbachev
era and continue to modern times.
“Walking Tall”
MGM
Rated PG-13
Some walk crooked and some walk small, but The Rock
walks tall as a man who returns to the Army to find
his town overrun with crime and drugs in “Walking
Tall.” So he does what any former Special Forces
officer would do—kick some ass.
