The Movie Blog

Chicken Little thinks the sky is falling, and it will come as no news that he seems to be wrong. But then the movie would be over, so it turns out the sky actually is falling, as his town is invaded from outer space. Good voice performances by such as Garry Marshall, Joan Cusack, Steve Zahn and Don Knotts (as Mayor Turkey Lurkey), but the story is thin and the jokes make you smile but not exactly laugh. Perfectly acceptable for kids up to a certain age, but without the universal appeal of the best recent animation.

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Inspired by the true story of gangsta rap artist Curtis (50 Cent) Jackson, it tells a harrowing story: He never knew his father, was orphaned by the early death of his mother, was selling drugs as a teenager, was shot but lived and eventually sold millions of albums. The film has parallels with a better one, “Hustle & Flow,” which has fewer drugs and more music, but this one has a power and anger of its own. A more accurate title might have been, “I Got Rich But Just About Everybody Else Died Tryin’, and So Did I, Almost.” Jackson plays the character based on himself, Terence Howard is his friend and manager, Joy Bryant is the woman who loves him, and there are good supporting performances by Viola Davis as his grandmother and Bill Duke as a drug kingpin. Directed by Jim (“In America”) Sheridan.

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Two boys, one a teenager, one on the brink of adolescence, are faced with the trauma of their parents’ separation. Both parents (Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney) are writers, fearsome with words, and their sons (Jesse Eisenberg and Owen Kline) take sides, each admiring one of them. It’s a messy situation in a troubled family, but somehow we sense that out of the chaos will emerge interesting young adults, absorbing what is useful in their parents and forgiving what is not. Written and directed by Noah Baumbach, himself the son of two writers.

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Campbell Scott plays a Hollywood producer who loves the new screenplay by Peter Sarsgaard except for one detail – it’s about homosexuals. Make them straight, and he’ll pay the writer $1 million. While insisting on this deal, the producer simultaneously makes a pass at the screenwriter, and they become lovers, something that Scott’s wife (Patricia Clarkson) discovers through a plot device that it at first intriguing but ultimately fatal to the movie, leading to a singularly unsatisfactory ending. Too bad, because the premise, the dialog and the performances are absorbing right up until the moment the movie loses it.

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The story of a Marine sniper named Tony Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) who with his spotter Troy (Peter Sarsgaard) are trained to fight a war in which they never fire a shot – the 1990 Gulf War. It is not about action, not about adventure, not about easy laughs, but about the fundamental changes that took place within him as the result of the experience. For the rest of his life, Swofford tells us, whether he holds it or not, his rifle will always be a part of his body. It wasn’t like that when the story began. Powerful and haunting, directed by Sam Mendes (“American Beauty”), also starring Jamie Foxx.

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A new 35mm print of Robert Bresson”s 1959 classic. Most of Bresson”s films deal, in one way or another, with redemption. “Pickpocket” is about a man who deliberately tries to operate outside morality.

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Q. If “Doom” were just another action thriller, then I would have to say you were too generous by giving it one star. The movie frankly deserves zero stars. But is not just a movie. “Doom” was to games what “Rashomon” was to movies. It invented a way of showing something that had never been done before — what you call the “point-of-view shot looking forward over the barrel of a large weapon.”

“Doom” the movie is a tribute to this seminal event. This movie isn”t about clever camera angles, witty dialogue or subtle directorial touches. “Doom” has no pretensions, aspirations or delusions about what it is about. You aren”t supposed to wonder about the origins of mankind as you walk out of the theater. “Doom” the movie is “Doom” the game brought to the screen without messing around too much with the original. “Doom” works as a tribute because it fails so utterly as a movie. There is a reason so many video game-based movies suck: They are fundamentally different forms of representation. Thus by being faithful to the game, the movie pisses off the critic and pleases the gamer.

Vikram Keskar, Kirksville, Mo.

A. With friends like you, what does “Doom” need with critics? Surveys indeed show that more than half the movie”s opening-weekend viewers had played the game. I suppose they got what they were expecting. I am a believer in the value-added concept of filmmaking, in which a movie supplies something that a video game does not. Seen as a moviegoing experience, this was not a good one. There are specialist sites on the Web devoted to video games, and they review movies on their terms. I review them on mine. As long as there is a great movie unseen or a great book unread, I will continue to be unable to find the time to play video games.

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( Release: Nov. 9, 2005   Avg. Score: 2/5    
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 ) The Gist —
50 Cent”s semi-autobiographical drama ain”t no “8 Mile”

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( Released: 11/08/2005   Rated: PG   Avg. Score: 4/5    
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Charlie Bucket (Highmore) is so poor he only gets to buy one chocolate bar a year — so there”s really no chance he”ll be lucky enough to find one of the five golden tickets hidden inside of Wonka Bars, the delicious treat manufactured at the top-secret factory owned by Willy Wonka (Depp). But when the unlikely event occurs, Charlie”s invited on a guided tour of Mr. Wonka”s surreal building.

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( Released: 11/08/2005   Rated: NR   Avg. Score: 2/5    
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Margaret Cho performs stand-up at the Warner Theater in Washington, D.C., during her “State of Emergency” tour in May 2005.

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