Movie Guide

Director: Mark Christensen. With Adam Cooper, Jenny Kim. (87 min.)

Sterritt ** Denizens of a distant planet dream of freedom from their tyrannical rulers after a wayward US spacecraft brings them an unexpected shipment of rock 'n' roll music. The story is almost incoherent, but there's a weirded-out charm to Christensen's visual style – part German Expressionism, part "Captain Video," part early David Lynch – all as hazy as a half-remembered dream.

Director: Kim Ki-Duk. With Kim Yoo-Suk, Suh Jung, Park Sung-Hee. (89 min.)

Sterritt * Affection blooms between a fisherman and a prostitute in an isolated setting. This atmospherically filmed South Korean melodrama uses a unique location, dominated by fishermen's floating huts, as the background for an overheated story that grows steadily more grotesque and unpleasant as it proceeds. In Korean with English subtitles.

Director: Blair Treu. With Evan Rachel Wood, Michael Angarano, Vivica A. Fox. (100 min.)

Sterritt ** See review, page 15.

Director: Mark Romanek. With Robin Williams, Connie Nielsen. (98 min.)

Sterritt ** See review, page 15.

Director: Raja Amari. With Hiyam Abbas, Hend El Fahem. (100 min.)

Sterritt *** A single mom adds spice to her life by taking gigs as a nightclub belly dancer and striking up a romance with a younger man, bringing complications to her relationship with her teen daughter. Sincere acting and heartfelt filmmaking add energy to this unassuming Tunisian drama. In Arabic with English subtitles.

Director: Reginald Hudlin. With Matthew Perry, Elizabeth Hurley, Bruce Campbell. (100 min.)

Sterritt * While trying to serve a subpoena on a winsome wife in a divorce case, a scruffy exlawyer takes her side against the arrogant spouse who tries to dump her. Perry and Hurley don't have much chemistry, and the story is so dumb you might want to sue it for stupidity. But it moves at a lively clip, and the actors don't take it more seriously than it deserves.

Director: Andrew Niccol. With Al Pacino, Catherine Keener, Winona Ryder, Evan Rachel Wood. (117 min.)

Sterritt * See review, page 15.

Director: Ron Underwood. With Eddie Murphy, Randy Quaid, Rosario Dawson, Joe Pantoliano. (95 min.)

Staff *1/2 It's 2087, and reformed smuggler Pluto Nash (Murphy) gets out of the slammer and opens the moon's most popular nightclub. When he refuses to sell out to a gangster who covets the site for a casino, the kingpin blows up the club and sends his goons to kill Nash. With colossal sets, a remarkable cast, and hundreds of extras, this sci-fi comedy-adventure spoof of '30s movies should be funny and adventuresome, but it falls flat. A sign outside the moon colony says it all: "Prepare for full gravity." By M.K. Terrell

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