The Monitor Movie Guide

Director: Jeremiah Chechik. With Ralph Fiennes, Uma Thurman, Sean Connery, Jim Broadbent. (90 min.)

+ This dull spinoff of the 1960s TV series has a spectacular cast but little energy and no ideas, squandering its resources on an idiotic story about government agents chasing a villain who wants to control the world's weather. At least the original TV show broke some ground by allowing the Emma Peel character to become one of pop culture's most liberated women; the wan movie version fails to come up with anything of comparable worth for the '90s.

++ Style without substance, disjointed, surreal.

Sex/Nudity: None. Violence: A lot of bloodless, cartoonish shootings and explosions. Profanity: 2 expressions. Drugs: 7 scenes with cigarettes, some social drinking.

BRAZIL (R)

Director: Terry Gilliam. With Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Kim Greist, Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins, Michael Palin. (131 min.)

++++ Revival of Gilliam's great 1985 fantasy about an imaginative man lusting for freedom in an insanely bureaucratized society. Pryce gives his most memorable performance as the ill-starred hero, and De Niro is brilliant as a guerrilla air-conditioner repairman. But the movie's main asset is its astonishing visual style, one part Monty Python extravaganza and one part sheer cinematic delirium.

THE CHAMBERMAID ON THE TITANIC (NOT RATED)

Director: J.J. Bigas Luna. With Romane Bohringer, Aitana Snchez Gijn, Didier Bezace, Aldo Maccione. (96 min.)

+++ Often enchanting, always entertaining comedy-drama about a laborer who has an "overnight fling" with a mysterious woman, enthralls his working-class buddies with tales about the experience, and becomes a celebrity through the strength of his hitherto unsuspected storytelling skills. Acted with sparkling enthusiasm by an excellent cast, and directed by Luna with more gentleness and understatement than some of his earlier pictures contain.

+++ Original, interesting plot, should be rated "R."

Sex/Nudity: Seven sexual situations. Violence: Five brief and mild scenes. Profanity: 24 oaths and obscenities. Drugs: 4 scenes with drinking, 8 with smoking.

DANCE WITH ME (PG)

Director: Randa Haines. With Vanessa L. Williams, Chayanne, Kris Kristofferson. (126 min.)

++1/2 Dancing is supposed to be fun, a teacher reminds an arguing dance team, and the dancing is what's fun in this picture. A young Cuban (Chayanne) comes to the United States as a dance-studio handyman in search of his family. Turns out he dances, too. Intrusive editing sometimes detracts from the musical sequences, and the dramatic scenes tend to drag. But great dancing, upbeat music, and a likable multiethnic cast make it worth watching. By M.K. Terrell

+++ Energetic, romantic, well danced.

Sex/Nudity/Violence: None. Profanity: 1 expression in Spanish. Drugs: 5 instances of drinking.

54 (R)

Director: Mark Christopher. With Mike Myers, Ryan Phillippe, Neve Campbell, Salma Hayek, Sela Ward. (90 min.)

DUD Myers plays the late Steve Rubell, Studio 54's real-life co-owner in the 1970s, who turns an innocent young man, Shane O'Shea (Phillippe), into a desirable young stud. It's been reported that first-time feature director Christopher toned the film down for Miramax, but he watered it down so much that he forgot to include a plot, lively disco music and dancing, or believable characters. And what about the groovy '70s fashion? That's missing too. Contains strong language, heavy drug use, and sex and nudity. By Lisa Leigh Parney

++ Graphic, weak plot, not for kids.

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