Page 3 of 3

THE MAGDALENE SISTERS This powerful work is writer-director Peter Mullan's unflinching account of Ireland's Magdalene laundries, church-sanctioned establishments in which young women accused of "sex sins" (even flirting with boys was cause for incarceration) were sent to spend time (many of them for the remainder of their lives) working as slaves under the auspices of money-grubbing nuns who humiliated their prisoners at every turn. What sticks the most, even past the surface dramatics and superlative performances, is the film's clarion call to action, its outrage at the immoral activities that are allowed to run unchecked -- and are often even encouraged by governing bodies -- throughout what we keep telling ourselves is a civilized western world order. 1/2

MATCHSTICK MEN Nicolas Cage, in full "Look at me, I'm acting!" mode, gets more endearing as the film progresses, playing a con artist whose medical malfunctions (he's an obsessive-compulsive) threaten to get in the way of his chosen crime field. And matters become even more complicated once he discovers he has a teenage daughter (Alison Lohman) just as he and his partner (Sam Rockwell) are about to embark on a major swindle. This is the sort of film in which once the climactic twists are revealed (or guessed), viewers will play the film backward to see if all the puzzle pieces fit snugly. For the record, they don't, but audiences will be reasonably entertained anyway. Lohman, so memorable in White Oleander, is equally impressive here. 1/2

ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO A crushing disappointment, this final chapter in the "Mariachi" trilogy (after El Mariachi and Desperado) finds our guitar-swinging, gun-slinging hero (Antonio Banderas) crossing paths with a duplicitous CIA agent (Johnny Depp). So many storylines, so little time to get involved with any of them; the biggest casualty is Banderas, who seems like an extra in his own movie. And while Desperado may have been both bloody and cold-blooded, it contained enough pluses to allow us to turn a blind eye to its less savory elements. This time, there are no smoke screens -- only bullets and bloodletting, uniting to provide a dour conclusion to a series that once upon a time offered something more than just gratuitous violence.

OPEN RANGE Decidedly "old school" in both content and intent, this doesn't expand the parameters of the Western but instead feels like a throwback to the types of genre flicks that populated moviehouses until their fizzle in the late 70s. Kevin Costner (who also directed) and especially Robert Duvall deliver strong performances as two cattlemen forced to defend themselves against a vicious rancher (Michael Gambon) and his hired guns. The shootouts are presented as clumsy and chaotic -- gritty dances of death that aren't commented upon (as in Unforgiven) but that aren't glamorized, either.

THE ORDER Weary travelers who need a place to stop for the night now have a choice: They can spend about $65 to stay in a decent motel or they can shell out eight bucks and crash in an auditorium playing The Order. Either way, their slumber won't be interrupted. To be fair, this long-on-the-shelf release has an interesting premise, but the film burying it beneath layers of cobwebs is unremittingly dull. Heath Ledger plays a priest who comes into contact with The Sin Eater, an ancient being who absorbs the misdeeds of sinners so that they may enter the kingdom of God. The script posits that there's only one Sin Eater left on the planet, but we all know that's bull: Anybody who devours a Whopper or a Big Mac basically falls under this heading as well. 1/2

STEP INTO LIQUID Bruce Brown's 1966 surfing documentary The Endless Summer has long been considered a classic in its field, and now here's Bruce's son Dana Brown following in his old man's footsteps. The film opens with the words, "No special effects. No stuntmen. No stereotypes," and it's soon apparent that it will go 3-for-3 on that claim. That third point might come as a surprise to viewers who buy into the image of the stoner-surfer, yet what this picture makes clear is that the lure of the perfect wave attracts all types. Even with a running time of 88 minutes that necessitates cramming a lot of material between its opening and closing credits, this is remarkably fluid (no pun intended) while painting its cheery portrait of the surf culture.