Hey, remember Final Destination and Final Destination 2? Well, Final Destination 3 (New Line) is like that, only with a big rollercoaster and without scary man Tony Todd…
What happens when you insert Rob Schneider, David Spade, and Jon Heder through the Happy Madison wacky-underdog suspended-adolescence lowbrow-sports-comedy machine? You end up with the low-wattage baseball comedy The Benchwarmers (Sony), a harmless, albeit thoroughly uninspired, variation on an Adam Sandler-engineered formula that ran out of steam ages ago, but doesn't seem to be going away any time soon…
The ingratiatingly prankish Beastie Boys concert film Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That! (ThinkFilm) boasts a gimmick worthy of William Castle or John Waters: The venerable rap trio gave cameras to dozens of fans and friends and had them film a concert at Madison Square Garden, which was then edited into a trippy, fuzzy concert film destined to inspire both cult adoration and splitting headaches…
A lusty housewife trapped in a loveless marriage finds escape and sexual satisfaction with the earthy bohemian brother of her uptight husband in La Mujer De Mi Hermano (Lions Gate), an oversexed potboiler more notable for its reactionary, regressive take on sexuality than its florid melodrama. Though lead actress Bárbara Mori does offer some prurient compensation…
An Australian drama about an emotionally damaged, sexually ripe teenage runaway, Somersault (Magnolia) makes for an unnerving viewing experience, because it always seems like something terrible is just about to happen to the star. The film doesn't exactly defy expectations, but it's extremely well-acted and convincing, with especially fine work by star Abbie Cornish, who deserves all the awards she's never going to get.