PICK OF THE WEEK:
“X-MEN” (PG-13) – Mutants battle humans and each other for breeding rights in director Bryan Singer’s incredibly cast adaptation of the Marvel Comics classic.
Fighting for good are wheelchair-bound psychic Xavier (Patrick Stewart), one-eyed cutie Cyclops (James Marsden), Storm (Halle Berry), Dr. Jean Grey (Famke Jannsen) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). On the other side are the deliciously evil Magneto (Ian McKellan), the tonguey Toad (Ray Park), Sabretooth (Tyler Mane) and Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos). The fate of the world as we kind of know it – and Anna Paquin’s teen-angel Rogue – hang in the balance.
Language: A half dozen nasty words.
Sex: Mystique the shape shifter is virtually naked the entire movie, although her skin is blue and rubbery not unlike silly putty.
Violence: It’s not pretty when mutants square off and while the violence is exaggerated in a comic book way, it’s also intense and occasionally bloody.
Audience: Teenagers and older.
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“THE KID” (PG) – Bruce Willis is a cranky image consultant on the verge of forty who generously spreads his personal unhappiness to everyone he touches – until the day he meets his match. That match is, through the miracle of time travel, himself at the critical age of eight (Spencer Breslin). Together, they weather the storms of the past and rewrite the future.
“CHICKEN RUN” (G) – Mel Gibson’s biggest summer hit has him (his voice, actually) playing chicken – er, rooster – as a flyaway circus bird who lands on a chicken farm and leads the cluckers to freedom in a funny take on “The Great Escape” and “Stalag 17.” The kids won’t get all the in-jokes about the classic WWII flicks and they don’t need to. The comic animation from “Wallace and Gromit” creators Peter Lord and Nick Park is truly diverting and “Chicken Run” has something few summer films have had – a satisfying story line. And this weekend it might not be sold out!
“TITAN AE” (PG-13) – This sci-fi animation seemed to disappear as quickly as it arrived, largely thanks to critics’ barbs and a marketing campaign that didn’t catch fire. Despite that, the Don Bluth animated adventure is still playing in area theaters if you look hard enough and definitely won’t be sold out. It’s about a fatherless youth (Matt Damon’s voice) who makes the universe safe for humankind with the help of a few committed aliens and a comely galpal. It’s a very strong, if occasionally violent, boy movie with some dazzling animation sequences that put Disney to shame.
“FANTASIA 2000” (G) – Like a favorite record that can be replayed to infinity, “Fantasia 2000,” with its wonderful vignettes set to James Levine conducting the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra, is a movie to return to more than once. Mickey Mouse is back as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, along with half a dozen new segments featuring Donald Duck, whales, flamingoes and a tin soldier, expressing themselves to Beethoven’s Fifth, among others. It’s not the original, but that doesn’t mean it’s not entertaining.
AVOID AT ALL COSTS
“SCARY MOVIE” (R) – After last weekend’s box office tsunami, it’s going to be hard to convince your kids that this movie isn’t for them when the rest of America seems to have seen it. Still, director Keenen Ivory Wayans’ horror movie pastiche is intentionally and completely vulgar. This can have its charms if you’re an adult, but the nonstop profanity, rampant pot smoking, near freakish displays of sexual perversity and over-the-top gore make this the movie where you, as a parent, have to draw the line.