Wedding Crashers (New Line) has a great premise—two guys sneak into weddings to pick up women—and the ideal cast for it: Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, with Christopher Walken as their comic foil. But where are the laughs? Or is it improper etiquette to ask about these things?
Jim Jarmusch's road comedy Broken Flowers (Universal) continues Bill Murray's streak of low-key, melancholic turns as lonely middle-aged men whose lives are at a crossroads. That familiar character arc has led some to take Murray's stellar work for granted, but few actors are as deft at conveying humor and sadness simultaneously. As an aging Don Juan searching for the mother of a son he didn't know he had, Murray delivers another (yawn) excellent performance…
It didn't generate the headlines of The Passion Of The Christ, The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, or even Diary Of A Mad Black Woman, but the quietly stellar commercial performance of The Gospel (Sony) testified to the existence of a hungry Christian audience poorly served by traditional Hollywood fare. It's just too bad the film's ham-fisted melodrama, lumpy pacing, and clunky performances ensure that it's preaching exclusively to the converted…
My Date With Drew (First Look) didn't get much love in theaters, but then again, it barely saw theaters. Just as well: Its sparky, ultra-low-budget, ultra-low-stakes home-documentary feel works better on the small screen anyway. Can nebbishy nobody Brian Herzlinger parlay his tiny game-show winnings and lack of industry connections into a date with his idol, Drew Barrymore? Viewers probably care less about that question than whether he approaches his chosen challenge with humor, imagination, and winning charisma. Fortunately, he does…
Sometimes a movie is hampered by bad acting. Sometimes it's poor special effects, or ineffective attempts at suspense, or murky lighting. And sometimes a movie has all these problems. Like The Cave (Sony).