Nobody will ever confuse the high-mindedness of A.I. with the low-brow hi-jinks of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (***), but the latest comedy from writer-director Kevin Smith offers its fair share of dum-dum pleasures. At one point in this ode to America's favorite slackers, a director (Chris Rock) claims that the movie he's shooting will make "House Party look like House Party 2." Actually, Jay and Silent Bob is a house party in itself: Not only do characters from Smith's previous films (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma) appear, but other fixtures on the Miramax lot also turn up at unexpected moments. The end result is a scattershot comedy that's endearing in its own oafish way, as Smith's obsession with pop culture results in some hilarious vignettes and a handful of clever cameos. Thematically, this is like a profane Pee-wee's Big Adventure, as Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith himself) head from their New Jersey turf to Hollywood to stop production of a film based on their comic book alter-egos, Bluntman and Chronic. Extremely vulgar but undeniably funny, this movie relies on Smith's good-natured self-effacement to make itself seem sweet in spite of its potty mouth. The double-disc DVD contains an almost absurd amount of extra material, including 42 deleted scenes, music videos (including Afroman's "I Got High"), a gag reel, a Comedy Central special, and a hidden "Easter Egg" featuring Jason Mewes' gonads (don't ask and don't look).
Far from being the year-end contender that its studio had doubtless anticipated, Hearts In Atlantis (***) proved to be both a critical and commercial dud, a far cry from the reception that greeted other non-horror Stephen King adaptations like The Green Mile and Stand By Me. Yet its minor pleasures worked their magic on me, and I'd take it in a heartbeat over director Scott Hicks' previous works: the overrated Oscar winner Shine and the deadly dull Snow Falling On Cedars. Set in 1960, the film casts Anthony Hopkins as Ted Brautigan, a mysterious figure who moves into a boarding house also occupied by struggling single mom Liz Garfield (Hope Davis) and her young son Bobby (Anton Yelchin). Liz is suspicious of Ted, but Bobby develops a friendship with the soft-spoken man, who, in between providing valuable life lessons, asks the lad to keep an eye out for shady characters he insists are after him. This isn't the smoothest King adaptation out there scripter William Goldman has minimized the supernatural aspects of the tale so that their erratic appearances feel jarring and intrusive. But in addition to providing Hopkins with a formfitting role, the movie does an exquisite job of conveying the flush'n'blush of that first childhood romance: The scenes between Bobby and his sweetheart Carol (Mika Boorem) are beautifully handled, thanks in no small measure to the late Piotr Sobocinski's luminous cinematography and the wonderful performances by the two young actors. DVD extras include audio commentary by Hicks, an interview with Hopkins, and the theatrical trailer.
Josh Hartnett turns out to be unexpectedly charismatic in the current 40 Days and 40 Nights, but he was stiff and ill-at-ease in his handful of 2001 features, including Pearl Harbor and the Othello update O (**). Shakespeare's tragic tale of the Moor who "lov'd not wisely but too well" was given an overhaul in this version, but the end result proves to be as irrelevant as 2000's Hamlet, which clumsily transferred the story to the world of New York conglomerates. Here, the setting is a Charleston high school, as Odin (Mekhi Phifer), the sole black student, and his girlfriend Desi (Julia Stiles) find themselves manipulated by their evil classmate Hugo (Hartnett). Tim Blake Nelson, whose performance as Delmar (one of the Soggy Bottom Boys) in O Brother, Where Art Thou? demonstrated a lot more creativity than his direction of this film, may have been trying to connect his movie to the present dilemma of school violence, but in the process, he and writer Brad Kaaya have stripped the Bard's tale of its power. The high school setting isn't remotely believable (at least in the Taming of the Shrew update 10 Things I Hate About You, the teens really sounded like teens), and with Shakespeare's delicious dialogue replaced with modern vernacular, the character of Othello/Odin has been trivialized, essentially coming off as a grandstanding teen who succumbs to the brutal instincts residing within him. Phifer and Stiles try to add import to their roles, but Hartnett's approach to Hugo/Iago is all wrong: I chortled when someone stated that his character is liked by everyone, since it's inconceivable any self-respecting clique would put up with this sullen creep for even a minute. Yet another double-disc DVD, extra features include deleted scenes, cast and crew interviews, and a restored silent version of Othello.
From 1930's The Big House through 1963's The Great Escape to 1979's Escape From Alcatraz, the prison flick has provided viewers with endless hours of hard-hitting, escapist fun. But if there's a genre that has seemingly exhausted its resources and now stands ready to be put out to pasture, surely it's this one that is, unless somebody in Hollywood elects to make a prison flick in which the convicts are hardened criminals who really do deserve their incarceration (now wouldn't that be a novel twist?). As it stands, The Last Castle (**) trots out the usual suspects: the noble prisoner who doesn't really belong behind bars; the humorless warden whose stern tactics barely conceal a sadistic streak; the morally torn inmate who must decide before the climax where his loyalties rest; the harmless young prisoner who practically has "Story's Sacrificial Lamb" stitched across his outfit; and the rest of the compound's rapists, murderers and thieves, most of whom are presented as the kind of jovial, disciplined guys you'd be happy to invite over for a Sunday afternoon in front of the TV. For the record, the prison presented here is a military compound for disgraced soldiers, the virtuous prisoner leading the revolt is played by Robert Redford (in one of his dullest performances), and the twitchy warden is portrayed by James Gandolfini (in an atypically stilted turn). DVD extras include audio commentary by director Rod Lurie, deleted scenes and the theatrical trailer.
Covering the field by taking readers from A to Z, we started with A.I. but wrap up with Zoolander (**1/2). After scoring big as part of the comic ensembles of There's Something About Mary and Meet the Parents, it seemed like a natural progression for Ben Stiller's first solo starring role to thrust him into the stratosphere. Instead, Zoolander, which finds Stiller serving as actor, director, co-writer and co-producer, turns out to be the most ragged comedy of the bunch, a frequently timid spoof that's surprisingly arid in between the handful of genuinely splendid gags. Based on a skit created for the 1996 VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards, this casts Stiller as Derek Zoolander, an imbecilic male model who becomes involved in a conspiracy plot that explains why there are no male models over the age of 30 (Logan's Runway?). Zoolander himself becomes the biggest patsy in this nefarious scheme, and it's up a fellow model (Owen Wilson) and a Time reporter (Christine Taylor, Stiller's wife) to help him bring down the villains. Randomly throw your remote control at the TV screen and chances are you'll hit a major star making a cameo appearance David Bowie, Winona Ryder, Jon Voight, Fabio, the list goes on but all the glad-handing between celebrities can't disguise the fact that there's not enough here to sustain an entire movie (even one that clocks in at 90 minutes). Still, there are some terrific bits scattered around (the gasoline scene is a riot), and Stiller and Wilson are perfectly cast as supermodels so idiotic, they think a bulimic is someone with the ability to read minds. DVD extras include audio commentary by Stiller, deleted scenes and an alternate end title sequence. *