The strong first season of Heroes ended with a whimper, and the sputtering continued in Heroes: Season 2 (Universal), in which once again the world is in danger, and once again the people who can stop the threat are scattered around the globe (and around the timeline), still largely unaware of each other's presence. New characters are introduced and underused; old characters come back but don't get to do a whole lot. Here's hoping that series creator Tim Kring spent the hiatus watching Lost, to learn how serialized fantasy should be done…
David Mamet's love for the up-close feel of an exclusive social scene—the inside-baseball world of gangsters, cops, filmmakers, academics, etc.—comes to the fore again in Redbelt (Sony) an almost-terrific film about a martial-arts teacher (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who attempts to maintain his form of honor even when he gets tangled up with Hollywood types and a corrupt mixed-martial-arts scene. Muddled storytelling and a clichéd ending interfere with the last 10 minutes, but until then, it's a brilliantly observed, taut character piece, Mamet's best since 2000's State And Main…
The trend toward slick, glammed-up, gimmicky styles in documentaries hits full flourish in Chicago 10 (Paramount), Brett Morgen's look at the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention and subsequent showboating-heavy trial of Abbie Hoffman and friends. Computer-rotoscoped sequences recreate the mayhem in court, while vintage footage tells the rest of the story. It all makes for an overly packaged package, but it's brisk, entertaining, and full of the verve the story deserves…
Welcome to high-concept hell: What Happens In Vegas (Fox) follows two vapid New Yorkers, fresh off life-altering disappointments, who head to Sin City to booze away their troubles. They hook up, get married, and split just as they win a $3 million jackpot in the slots. When both claim the money, a judge sentences them to "six months of hard marriage." The American justice system at work, ladies and gentlemen…
Hailing from the Michael Moore school of first-person, liberal filmmakers who adopt a phony man-of-the-people pose, Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock turns his attention to the War On Terror in his latest documentary, Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden? (Weinstein). His premise—to embark on a tour of the Middle East to track down bin Laden, the world's most wanted man—is willfully ridiculous. Less easy to forgive is the thesis that not all people in the Middle East are America-hating terrorists. What a scoop!