2002 Mega Movie Guide
(Page 2 of 49)
Staff * Seeking solace after a breakup with his ex-girlfriend, a young man seems unable to break his habit of engaging in one-night stands. So, for Lent, he takes a vow of celibacy. With enough ribald humor to make the cast of "American Pie" blush, this comedy tries in vain to soften its edginess by having the sex-starved character fall in love. The overall result: too few laughs, and a story that paints men as leering leches and women as wanton profligates. By Stephen Humphries
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Sex/Nudity: 41 instances, mostly innuendo, but several nude scenes. Violence: 1 scene. Profanity: 54 mild and strong expressions. Drugs: At least 6 scenes of drinking. 1 with smoking.
Director: Stephen Gaghan. With Katie Holmes, Benjamin Bratt. (99 min.)
Staff ** A college senior (Holmes) is being harassed by a former boyfriend, who has been missing and presumed dead for two years. This first directing effort by screenwriter Gaghan ("Traffic") generates a few suspenseful moments, but its leaps between past, present, and future are more confusing than artful. The muddled surprise ending lacks much punch. By Gregory M. Lamb
Sex/Nudity: 6 scenes of implied sex and innuendo. Violence: 3 instances, including drowning. Profanity: 7 harsh expressions. Drugs: 1 scene with drugs; 4 with alcohol, 2 with smoking.
Directors: Paul Weitz, Chris Weitz. With Hugh Grant, Toni Collette. (101 min.)
Sterritt * Grant plays a mischievous bachelor who pretends he has a child so he can hunt wooable women in a single-parents club. He then becomes the unexpected friend of a real 12-year-old who needs help to overcome his geekiness. Hoult is excellent as the kid, but there's little he or Grant can do with the movie's most mawkish moments.
Staff *** Wryly humorous, cute, unconventional.
Sex/Nudity: 1 scene and some innuendo. Violence: 5 scenes with bullying. Profanity: 44 expressions. Drugs: 14 scenes with alcohol; 9 with smoking.
Director: Alexander Payne. With Jack Nicholson, Hope Davis, Dermot Mulroney, Kathy Bates. (125 min.)
Sterritt *** After his wife's unexpected death, a retired man rethinks his future and reevaluates his past while traveling across the Midwest to his daughter's wedding, where his discontents grow greater than ever. Nicholson's acting is awesome, and Payne and co-writer Jim Taylor haven't lost their ear for the empty aphorisms of middle-class speech.
Director: Seth Kearsley. With (voices) Adam Sandler, Jackie Titone, Jon Lovitz, Tyra Banks. (86 min.)
Staff ** Bitterness over losing both parents 20 years ago has turned Davey Stone into the town drunk. Yet as Hanukkah begins, Whitey, the basketball league's retiring referee, sees through the Grinch-like façade and hopes to make Davey his replacement. Tasteless gags and language undermine the moments of warmth and comic brilliance.
Sex/Nudity: 7 instances innuendo. Violence: 7 scenes of cartoonish, dark violence. Profanity: 12 harsh expressions. Drugs: At least 7 scenes of drinking.
Director: Spike Jonze. With Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Brian Cox. (114 min.)
Sterritt *** A fictional doppelganger of real-life screenwriter Charlie Kaufman struggles to write the screenplay of this film, dogged by the success of his (totally fictional) twin brother and spurred by his bashful admiration for the journalist who wrote the nonfiction book he's trying to adapt, about a man who's obsessed with tracking down rare orchids. The film is less confusing than it sounds, and it's great mazelike fun until it bogs down in familiar chase-picture conventions near the end.
Director: Ron Underwood. With Eddie Murphy, Randy Quaid, Rosario Dawson. (95 min.)
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