Top 3 Picks at the Box Office
1. Poseidon
Disaster movies are pretty much our reason to exist in the summer-where else can you sit in air conditioning and be in total denial of the world outside, the laws of physics, and the concept of believable dialogue? That said, Wolfgang Petersen's third water adventure (after Das Boot and The Perfect Storm) combines everything we love about disaster films-ludicrous situations, gorgeous ensemble casts, and great, irrational perils-for an extravaganza of classic panic. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be afraid to live on the east coast of Florida after you see the tidal wave.
2. Mission: Impossible III
Tom Cruise's decision to install a new director with each dispatch of the Mission franchise has proved a clever one, and this time out first-time helmer J.J. Abrams doesn't disappoint. All the hallmarks of the series are here, including a sprawling, sexy team of IMF agents, a ridiculous excuse for another actor to play Cruise dressed up as a different character, and a great variation on Lalo Schifrin's original theme, this time by Kanye West. Come for the explosions, stay for the sheer pleasure of watching Philip Seymour Hoffman do his Tom Cruise impression.
3. Akeelah and the Bee
Spelling bee movies (we're thinking Bee Season, Spellbound) tend to be a celebration of nerdery, and while that's not always a bad thing, it can be kind of twee and tedious. Not so with Doug Atchison's tender and plucky story of an eleven-year-old girl who discovers her talent for wordplay and uses it to rise above her depressed life. Keke Palmer, playing Akeelah, turns in a magnificently shaded performance, and the climactic competition is as tightly written and edited as any sports movie. Again, the laughing, the crying. It's okay, we won't tell anyone.
|
|
