It says something about Miley Cyrus’ commitment to the family-friendly soaper The Last Song (Buena Vista) that the title itself is misleading: Cyrus’ character, a Juilliard-caliber talent on piano, works on a composition, but at no point deigns to add vocals. No matter. This is another formulaic, sentimental Nicholas Sparks adaptation, redeemed only by Greg Kinnear’s distractingly competent performance as Cyrus’ father…
All parents whose children are diagnosed with autism are told the story of Temple Grandin, a high-functioning autist in the ’50s who attended a boarding school for the gifted, earned a Ph.D. in animal science, and went on to help revolutionize commercial cattle ranching. The stellar biopic Temple Grandin (HBO) builds beautifully on her inspirational story, but reveals the difficulties inherent in the way she understands the world…
Ninety-nine percent of actors would probably look vaguely embarrassed about matching wits against crafty raccoons, skunks, and the other forest animals in Furry Vengeance (Fox), so credit Brendan Fraser for committing to the material with the enthusiasm that’s become his stock in trade. Unfortunately, the material is about as dire and witless as live-action kiddie comedies get, and the heavy-handed proselytizing about deforestation and the lies of so-called “green” companies doesn’t do the film any favors…
Terrific acting can’t do much to rescue The City Of Your Final Destination (Screen Media) from its own limpness: Anthony Hopkins, Laura Linney, and Charlotte Gainsbourg all deliver strong performances, but they feel like they’re putting their hearts into acting exercises in separate, sealed rooms. Making their first film without longtime producing partner Ismail Merchant, director James Ivory and writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala deliver what’s become their standard dignified but stuffy, passionless arthouse film, in this case about a dead, famous writer whose family first tries to stop, then begins to enable, a young devotee and would-be biographer…
Working with a generous budget, Korea’s Kim Ji-woon (A Tale Of Two Sisters) directs his spaghetti Western/Hong Kong-style action hybrid The Good, The Bad, The Weird (IFC) with style to burn, piling shootouts, robberies, and chase sequences atop each other. But at 130 minutes, the effect is often more enervating than exhilarating. Still, the last 20 or 30 minutes bring the convoluted developments together, along with legions of Japanese Army troops, for a cross-desert free-for-all like nothing since The Road Warrior.