Obsessed (2009) movie

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Cast: Idris Elba, Beyoncé Knowles, Ali Larter, Bruce McGill, Jerry O'Connell
Director: Steven Shill
Genres: Psychological Thriller, Thriller

Derek Charles (Idris Elba), a successful asset manager who has just received a huge promotion, is blissfully happy in his career and in his marriage to the beautiful Sharon (Beyoncé Knowles). But when Lisa (Ali Larter), a temp worker, starts stalking Derek, all the things he's worked so hard for are placed in jeopardy.


Obsessed Critic Reviews:
Don't expect a pot full of boiling bunnies, because nothing so creatively crazy ever happens in Obsessed, a Fatal Attraction-inspired predatory-female domestic thriller that spends much time spinning its wheels and making auds practically beg for an explanation to all the madness and obsession. Beyonce Knowles may be the big B.O. draw in this Stephen Shill-helmed psychodrama, which topped the weekend B.O. with a surprising $28.5 million opening, but she's barely a supporting player: The movie belongs to Ali Larter, who's long overdue for some kind of bigscreen breakout.

Sultry blonde Larter (Heroes) plays office temp/temptress Lisa Sheridan, who isn't even off the elevator at her latest job before she's set her psychotic sights on Derek (Idris Elba), a good-looking, happily married, up-and-coming investment broker at a flourishing downtown Los Angeles firm. Derek and wife Sharon (Knowles), who have a kid, have just moved into a cavernous old house with a wobbly attic floor and a glass-top table directly underneath it downstairs (remember this later!).

They seem the picture of contentment, save for Sharon's obvious unhappiness with the fact that Derek has a new female assistant. "I want her fired immediately," Sharon says (so much for sisterhood), and no one seems to think this marks any instability in what is soon to be one plutonium-enriched domestic partnership. But Derek, it seems, met Sharon at work, too (cue the organist).

Sharon doesn't leave a good impression, but Derek is the picture of marital fidelity: No matter how slinkily Lisa comports herself, Derek says no, thanks. Derek is believable enough; not so Lisa, whose inappropriate antics wouldn't be tolerated for five minutes in today's sexual harassment-conscious corporate atmosphere. David Loughery's screenplay never provides any explanation for why she is who she is: She has no motives other than mad obsession (which isn't that interesting, really; even the Wicked Witch of the West had reasons), and she has no backstory: Unless her temp agency recruits its workers outside Home Depot, Lisa would have to have references, and she would have to have acquired them from somewhere outside the mental-health community.

If Derek had actually slept with Lisa, a la Michael Douglas in Fatal Attraction, Obsessed would at least have had the spurned-woman gambit to play, however hoary. But Shill and Loughery aren't overly concerned with plausibility: There isn't one woman in a position higher than secretary at Derek's firm, and this alone makes the pic as shaky as Derek's attic floor. The seldom-seen Christine Lahti does play the requisite detective, albeit one who has a tendency to show up just as the action has come to an end.

Bruce McGill is his usual sturdy self as Derek's boss, but Jerry O'Connell gives one weird performance as his office pal, Ben. Ben may be in love with Derek. It seems to be an unhealthy trend.

Dance Flick (2009) movie

Cast: Damon Wayans Jr., Craig Wayans, Shoshanna Bush, Essence Atkins, Affion Crockett
Director: Damien Dante Wayans
Genres: Parody/Spoof, Comedy, Dance Film

"Dance Flick" is a hilarious new comedy that brings together the talents of two generations of the Wayans family, the explosively funny clan who brought us the "Scary Movie" franchise and "White Chicks", as well as the groundbreaking TV series "In Living Color." In "Dance Flick," a young street dancer, Thomas Uncles (Damon Wayans, Jr.), from the wrong side of the tracks and a beautiful young woman, Megan White (Shoshana Bush), are brought together by their passion for dancing and put to the test in the mother of all dance battles. "Dance Flick" sends up the dance movie genre, including such recent hits as "Step Up" and "You Got Served", as well as the classic "Flashdance".

A privileged white girl from the suburbs moves to the inner city and attempts to perfect her notoriously clumsy dance moves in this parody of popular dance movies. Damon Wayans Jr. and Craig Wayans star in a comedy co-written by Shawn, Keenen Ivory, Marlon, Craig, and Damien Wayans, who also directs.


Dance FlickCritic Reviews: Glenn Whipp
After flashing a dismal move that would make Dancing With the Stars judge Len Goodman weep uncontrollably, the emcee in the Wayans brothers' latest parody, Dance Flick, holds his nose and proclaims, "That's not just bad. That's everything-on-the-CW bad."

What the character should have said was that the intentionally bad dancing was way worse (which is to say, funnier) than just about any of the sorry sketches found in the proliferation of parody movies that arrived after the Wayans' deadly funny Scary Movie back in 2000.

The Wayans had nothing to do with those fatigued exercises in tedium (Date Movie, Epic Movie, etc.), but the assumption remains that they did, tainting "Dance Flick" by association. But this send-up, created in large part by new-generation family members Damon Jr., Craig and Damien Dante Wayans, possesses a more nimble comic footing. We'll stop short of calling it graceful, given that the movie's second joke involves a dance competitor sticking his head up his behind.

Yes, it's that kind of comedy, a buzz saw grinding its way through formulas found in such recent dance movies as Step Up, Stomp the Yard and You Got Served, not to mention such "classics" as Flashdance and Fame. The latter comes into play when a Zac Efron-styled high school student makes like Irene Cara and sings not about living forever, but coming out with . . . um . . . pride.

Efron should probably pass on seeing this one, likewise Halle Berry, whose persona sets one of the "plot" points in motion with a gruesome hit-and-run accident. For these new Wayans, every scene can be improved by adding a violent beating. Example: A Ray Charles stand-in shows up, ostensibly only to spill hot coffee in his mother's lap. (Yes, he hits the road, Jack.)

The miss-and-hit parodies score best when focusing on the Julia Stiles-styled girl next door (Shoshana Bush) chasing her dream of becoming a ballet dancer while attending Musical High. It's not in the Wayans' family makeup to develop an actual plot with connective tissue, but had they stayed within the school's corridors, they could have had a lot more fun with Marlon Wayans' aptly named drama teacher Mr. Moody and the vindictive girls gym instructor (Heather McDonald), whose name, like most of the movie's humor, we dare not speak.

17 Again Movie (2009)

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Cast: Zac Efron, Leslie Mann, Thomas Lennon, Matthew Perry, Tyler Steelman
Director: Burr Steers
Genres: Fantasy Comedy, Teen Movie, Comedy, Family Drama

Mike O'Donnell (Matthew Perry) was a high-school basketball star with a bright future. But he threw it all away to marry his girlfriend and raise their child. Almost 20 years later, Mike's marriage has failed, his kids think he's a loser, and his job is going nowhere. He gets a chance to correct the mistakes of his past and change his life when he is miraculously transformed back into a teenager (Zac Efron), but in trying to fix his past, Mike may be jeopardizing his present and future.

Star Trek (2009)

Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Leonard Nimoy, Eric Bana, Bruce Greenwood, Karl Urban
Director: J.J. Abrams
Genres: Sci-Fi Action, Space Adventure, Science Fiction

From director J.J. Abrams ("Mission: Impossible III," "Lost" and "Alias"), producers Damon Lindelof and Bryan Burk and screenwriters Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman ("Transformers," "MI: III") comes a new vision of the greatest space adventure of all time, "Star Trek," featuring a young, new crew venturing boldly where no one has gone before.

Star TrekCritic Reviews: Kenneth Turan
Here's a challenge: How do you implant a potentially lethal alien organism into a body that desperately needs the help but might die if things don't go just right? No, it's not the plot of an old Star Trek episode, it's the back story of the new Star Trek motion picture.

It's no secret that director J.J. Abrams and his writers of choice, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, were brought in by Paramount to reformulate the venerable space opera franchise that was viewed as requiring a jolt of energy. What was not often focused on was that the differences between what they wanted to do and what had gone before made this a perilous endeavor.

So it is pleasant to report that though it's not perfect, the reconstituted Star Trek is successful enough for everyone to breathe a sigh of relief. Though it has its over-caffeinated aspects and its missteps, this Star Trek has in general bridged the gap between the old and the new with alacrity and purpose.

Part of the reason for the film's success was its decision to position itself as Star Trek: The Young Years. Back we go to the maiden voyage of the starship Enterprise, to the first meetings of future Capt. James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and his baby-faced crew: Spock (Zachary Quinto), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), "Bones" McCoy (Karl Urban), "Scotty" (Simon Pegg), Chekov (Anton Yelchin) and Sulu (John Cho).

In addition to using capable actors who were not marquee names and working in a satisfying role for Leonard Nimoy as Spock Prime (you'll have to see the movie if you want that explained), Abrams and company have come up with a serviceable "the Earth must be saved" plot. Involved are such science fiction staples as alternate realities and black holes as well as a tattooed Romulan evildoer named Captain Nemo (a capable Eric Bana) who looks like the frontman for a nasty rock band from the north of England.

The plot is also the frame on which numerous action sequences are hung, big ticket items that emphasize stunts, special effects and all the other goodies that all the other franchise movies have. As a known invigorator of pop culture enterprises (Mission: Impossible III), Abrams has not shied away from that particular mission.

The difficulty is that Abrams' mandate to a certain extent conflicts with the Star Trek ethos, a clash that can't be easily ignored. Despite all the glib talk about how moribund the franchise has become, any TV series that spawned 10 preveious motion pictures and several small-screen series has the kind of deep appeal that Hollywood ignores at its peril.

Terminator Salvation

Cast: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Anton Yelchin, Moon Bloodgood, Bryce Dallas Howard, Common
Director: McG
Genres: Sci-Fi Action, Science Fiction

In the fourth installment of the Terminator series, Christian Bale stars as John Connor, the eventual leader of mankind's fight againts the machines. The setting is 2018, focusing on the war between the humans and the computer network Skynet. Anton Yelchin co-stars as soldier Kyle Reese, and Sam Worthington appears as new terminator Marcus Wright.

Plot Synopsis by Jason Buchanan:

The fourth installment of the Terminator series follows an adult John Connor (played by Christian Bale) as he attempts to organize a human resistance force which could prove to be mankind's last true hope in the war against the machines. Opening in the year 2018, Terminator Salvation finds John Connor's certainty about the future shaken by the sudden appearance of a mysterious stranger named Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), whose last memory is of sitting on death row and awaiting execution. Unable to determine whether Marcus was sent from the future or rescued from the past, Connor begins to wonder whether there is still any hope left for the human race as the robots grow more powerful and aggressive than ever before. It appears that Skynet is preparing a devastating final attack designed to eliminate the human resistance once and for all, leaving Connor and Marcus with no choice but to strike back at the cybernetic heart of Skynet's operations. Once there, the two battle-scarred soldiers discover a devastating secret regarding the potential annihilation of all humankind. Anton Yelchin fills Michael Biehn's shoes as a young Kyle Reese in the first installment of a planned Terminator trilogy from director McG

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

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Cast: Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Robin Williams, Ricky Gervais, Owen Wilson
Director: Shawn Levy
Genres: Adventure Comedy, Fantasy Adventure, Adventure, Comedy

Overview and Synopsis:
When the Museum of Natural History is closed for upgrades and renovations, the museum pieces are moved into federal storage at the famous Washington Museums. Security guard Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) infiltrates the Smithsonian Institute in order to rescue Jedediah (Owen Wilson) and Octavius (Steve Coogan), who have been shipped to the museum by mistake. The centrepiece of the film will be bringing to life the Smithsonian Institution, which houses the world's largest museum complex with more than 136 million items in its collections, ranging from the plane Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams) flew on her non-stop solo flight across the Atlantic and Al Capone's rap sheet and mug shot to Dorothy's ruby red slippers, Fonzie's jacket from Happy Days and Archie Bunker's lounge chair from All in the Family.


The AMG Review:
With its savvy mix of kid-friendly special effects and parent-friendly comedy, Night at the Museum became a box office smash. Sadly, the uninspired sequel, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, manages to offer fewer joys on either of those fronts.

Ben Stiller returns as Larry Daley, who has left his night watchman gig at the Natural History Museum to become the CEO of a successful company that sells his quirky inventions, such as a glow-in-the-dark flashlight. On a return visit to the museum, he learns that most of the exhibits are being shipped to deep storage at the Smithsonian. This news disappoints his young son, but not until Larry gets an alarming call from miniature cowboy Jed (Owen Wilson) does he set off to help his old friends who are engaged in a battle with the ancient leader Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria) who – thanks to the magical tablet from the first movie – has sprung back to life with a thirst for world domination.

What follows is a collection of loud, mostly pointless effects sequences occasionally offset by a laugh, often thanks to Azaria, a master of comic timing. His grandiose, yet slightly fey bad guy is equally funny when he’s chewing out minions as he is when deliberating if Oscar the Grouch and Darth Vader are evil enough to join his team.

Without Azaria’s comedic gifts, the movie would be close to unendurable since Larry is utterly blasé about the spectacular events going on around him. There is no sense of wonder or amazement in our hero, not even when The Lincoln Memorial comes back to life; it’s just another obstacle for him to overcome on his adventure. And since Larry is our guide into this magical realm, his failure to stop and go “WOW!” drains the wonder and fun right out of the movie. Sure, there are some funny moments in Battle of the Smithsonian, but without that sense of childhood glee, the whole thing becomes nothing more than a stale, would-be summer blockbuster, devoid of the playful innocence that made the first one so appealing.

Up movie

Cast: Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, John Ratzenberger, Jordan Nagai, Delroy Lindo
Director: Peter Docter
Genres: Family-Oriented Adventure, Children's/Family

Carl Fredricksen, a 78-year-old balloon salesman, finally fulfills his lifelong dream of a great adventure when he ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies away to the wilds of South America. But he discovers all too late that his biggest nightmare has stowed away on the trip: an overly optimistic 8-year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell. From the Academy Award®-nominated director Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc.), Disney•Pixar’s “Up” invites you on a hilarious journey into a lost world, with the least likely duo on Earth. “Up” will be presented in Disney Digital 3-D in select theaters.

Full Synopsis:
A feisty septuagenarian teams with a fearless wilderness ranger to do battle with a vicious band of beasts and villains in this computer-animated adventure scripted by Pixar veteran Bob Peterson and co-directed by Peterson and Monsters, Inc. director Peter Docter. Carl Fredricksen is a 78-year-old balloon salesman. His entire life, Carl has longed to wander the wilds of South America. Then, one day, the irascible senior citizen shocks his neighbors by tying thousands of balloons to his home and finally taking flight. But Carl isn't alone on his once-in-a-lifetime journey, because stowed away on his front porch is an excitable eight-year-old wilderness explorer named Russell. Later, as the house touches down on the world's second largest continent, Carl and his unlikely traveling companion step outside to discover that not only is their new front lawn considerably larger, but that the predators therein are much more ferocious than anything they ever faced back home

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Michael Douglas, Breckin Meyer, Lacey Chabert
Director: Mark S. Waters
Genres: Romantic Comedy, Fantasy Comedy, Comedy

A bachelor goes to his younger brother's wedding, where he is visited by the ghosts of his past girlfriends.




Ghosts of Girlfriends PastCritic Reviews: Claudia Puig

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past probably won't scare up many laughs. Nor will it make you long for past or future loves. It just makes you yearn for Matthew McConaughey to wipe that smirk off his face.

Ghosts can't make up its mind whether it wants to be a racy raunchfest or a sentimental celebration of soul mates. So it ends up being a sappy, sleazy hybrid.

McConaughey reprises his cocky "player" persona to limited comic success. The lasting image after seeing it is his blindingly white teeth.

The formulaic story evaporates faster than cotton candy, and it's often as cloyingly sweet and tacky.

Womanizing photographer Connor Mead is the sort of guy you'd warn your sister, daughter or best friend about. His relationships often last only minutes, and he has several going on at once. He has been known to break up via conference call and "in bulk" seconds before setting up his next date.

In contrast, his brother Paul (Breckin Meyer) is the settling-down type. He's about to marry Sandra (Lacey Chabert), and Connor is his best man. Returning to their childhood home brings memories flooding back for Connor. One that looms large is his affection for his childhood friend Jenny (Jennifer Garner). But while he's being rakish, cynical about marriage and generally putting a damper on the pre-wedding festivities, he is visited by the ghost of his Uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas), a hard-partying playboy who taught Connor everything he knows. Douglas' sunglasses-wearing cad is one of the movie's few highlights, along with Emma Stone as the ghost of Connor's first girlfriend.

From his initial encounter with his deceased uncle, Connor visits old and present girlfriends and gets a glimpse of his future in a gimmicky mangling of A Christmas Carol. Jennifer Garner is low-key and appealing, but she's not given enough to do and deserves better material. So funny and endearing as a romantic lead in 13 Going on 30, Garner is mismatched here and lacks chemistry with McConaughey. Ghosts' focus is Connor's unconvincing redemption and transformation from love Scrooge to good guy. Garner's character seems almost incidental.

McConaughey's laid-back style and Texas drawl is meant to be charming and likable, but he comes across smug and unsympathetic. The role isn't much different from every other one he has done (except for his turn in Tropic Thunder, his funniest to date).

The story is hackneyed and tiresome, bouncing from one witless and wince-inducing situation to another. There's little romance or comedy in this predictable and leaden rom-com.

Angels & Demons movie

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Cast: Tom Hanks, Ayelet Zurer, Ewan McGregor, Stellan Skarsgård, Pierfrancesco Favino
Director: Ron Howard
Genres: Crime Thriller, Religious Drama, Thriller

When Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) discovers evidence of the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the illuminati—the most powerful underground organization in history—he also faces a deadly threat to the existence of the secret organization’s most despised enemy: the Catholic Church. When Langdon learns that the clock is ticking on an unstoppable illuminati time bomb, he jets to Rome, where he joins forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and enigmatic Italian scientist. Embarking on a nonstop, action-packed hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and even to the heart of the most secretive vault on earth, Langdon and Vetra will follow a 400-year-old train of ancient symbols that mark the Vatican’s only hope for survival.


Angels & DemonsCritic Reviews: Betsy Sharkey

There are too many demons, too few angels and not nearly enough grace to save Angels & Demons, the latest Dan Brown-inspired religious action thriller (three words you don't usually see together). Nail-biting, God-fearing and unfolding at a breakneck pace -- a little like The Da Vinci Code on celestial speed -- ultimately everything wilts under the weight of the complicated story lines of its many saints and sinners.

Tom Hanks is back, with much better hair, as Professor Robert Langdon, the Harvard symbologist we first encountered in 2006 cracking the Da Vinci Code and unlocking its Mona Lisa mysteries. In Langdon, Brown has created a cross between a claustrophobic Columbo of Catholicism and a biblically inclined Indiana Jones, and it's hard to imagine anyone but Hanks being able to pull off the role in any credible way.

Science and religion are at war here, an ages-old grudge match that goes back to a rift between Galileo and the Vatican, when freethinkers of all stripes were forced underground if they wanted to keep discussing crazy theories like the Earth spinning around the sun. Out of that repression, the Illuminati, a secret society, with a serious decoder system of churches and statues and rituals and words, was born.

Just when everyone thought they'd long since disappeared, four Cardinals are kidnapped on the eve of a conclave called to replace the pope, a progressive thinker who has conveniently died. The Illuminati is not only claiming responsibility but setting about to brand (yes, brand, as in molten metal searing skin) each of the Cardinals before killing them at the rate of one an hour and gruesomely staged for maximum effect. If that wasn't frightening enough, there are dark hints of the Vatican being consumed by light at the stroke of midnight.

Meanwhile (there is always a "meanwhile" in Dan Brown's densely plotted tomes), a prominent research facility in Geneva has succeeded in creating anti-matter, the substance that everything is made of. Creation, my friends, courtesy of colliding particles, and we get to see it. Though before we witness the Big Bang, those unseen particles -- dubbed "God particles" in case you've missed the allusions that have been falling around us like a hard rain -- race through a complex maze of underground pipes that look like they might carry sewage except they're polished to a blinding high sheen. Even a Hans Zimmer orchestration with lots of swells and cymbals (versus symbols) doesn't help.

Then, wouldn't you know it, despite incredible levels of security, one of the anti-matter canisters is stolen and its lava-lamp likeness turns up on a Vatican camera, though in this high-tech wireless world, the Swiss Guards who protect the pope and his environs have no idea where it is, an issue they've hopefully resolved since the book came out.

Through all this Langdon has been swimming laps at the Harvard gym. But wave the word "Illuminati" in front of him and he's at Vatican headquarters in a flash -- ahem, a man of science called to save the church.

"Oh, good, the symbologist has arrived," says a droll Swiss Guard Commander Richter ( Stellan Skarsgard), whose biting skepticism helps keep the pompous in perspective. (He's not the only actor who seems to be telegraphing that Angels & Demons shouldn't be taken all that seriously.) By now the beautiful Italian scientist Vittoria Vetra, an underused Ayelet Zurer, has shown up as the brains behind the anti-matter brew.

As if this arena weren't already standing room only, there's the plethora of villains and heroes, most prominently Ewan McGregor's Camerlengo Patrick McKenna, whose pale skin, watery eyes and soulful observations are a perfect fit for playing the late pope's right-hand man.

Many weighty philosophical questions are thrown out along the way, including the "big" one, "Do you believe in God?" posed by the Camerlengo to Langdon. I suspect they were designed to fool you into thinking Angels & Demons is more than what it is -- an old-fashioned, big-budget action flick dressed up in cassocks and collars, bleeding red and pretending spirituality.

To his credit, director Ron Howard tried to make some course corrections after The Da Vinci Code. He and screenwriters David Koepp and Akiva Goldsman have lost a few of the book's schemes and schemers to keep the film on fast forward. The Angels' killer is dressed in a natty suit rather than wool robes that hid a penchant for self-mutilation that we had to suffer through in Da Vinci, though the killings themselves are far more perverse and brutal. And much of what is supposed to pass for dialogue is merely a recitation of fact, but at least we've been spared the historical flashbacks with the books-on-tape voice-overs that so pulled at the seams of The Da Vinci Code.

Where Angels & Demons succeeds best is in its look and speed. With much of the story set in and around Vatican City, a shrine to art as much as God, Howard has a rich canvas, used to great effect by production designer Allan Cameron. Meanwhile, the action and the effects come so fast and furiously, if you turn away for a second you may miss a murder.

Where the film ultimately fails is that Howard never really takes control of the ideas. The director is far too reverential, leaving Angels & Demons to reflect Dan Brown's hackneyed vision rather than his own.

Fast & Furious 4 movie

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Cast: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, John Ortiz, Laz Alonso
Director: Justin Lin
Genres: Action Thriller, Chase Movie, Action

Heading back to the streets where it all began, two men rejoin two women to blast muscle, tuner and exotic cars across Los Angeles and floor through the Mexican desert. When a crime brings them back to L.A., fugitive ex-con Dom Toretto reignites his feud with agent Brian O'Connor. But as they are forced to confront a shared enemy, Dom and Brian must give in to an uncertain new trust if they hope to outmaneuver him. And from convoy heists to precision tunnel crawls across international lines, two men will find the best way to get revenge: push the limits of what's possible behind the wheel.



Fast & FuriousCritic Reviews: Betsy Sharkey

If you're a lover of stomach-clenching speed that turns the world into a neon blur; if you thrill to the sight of high-gloss chassis screeching, spinning and slow-rolling into explosive fires and flying debris; if your eyes go soft in the presence of a gleaming motor; if a pounding bass is the bump-and-grind background music of your dreams -- or put more simply, if you're in the mood for a lot of vroom, vroom, thump, thump, then Fast & Furious, the fourth edition of that metal-twisting series, should leave you exhausted and satiated for a very long time.

The pit crew from The Fast and the Furious, or most of it, is back, led by Vin Diesel's Dom -- all ripped muscles, fast cars and evil deeds -- as enigmatic as ever, and still with girlfriend Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), the only one who's ever been able to push past Dom's "auto" erotic zone to touch that slow beating heart of his. It takes a tragedy to pull rogue FBI agent Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker) back into Dom's life, and Brian realizes he still has a real soft spot for Dom's sister Mia (Jordana Brewster, looking more than ever like a young Demi Moore).

It is no small irony that this righteous ode to muscle cars -- and a bygone era when all America wanted from its wheels was speed, power and pumped-up style -- comes to theaters just as the U.S. auto industry is imploding, in part because it too was clinging to the memory of what was. All of which turns Fast & Furious into a strange piece of nostalgia, where, without apology, fast cars still rule and fuel is burned with abandon.

Director Justin Lin is behind the wheel again -- he of the beautiful moving metal of Tokyo Drift, the one redeeming aspect of No. 3 in the franchise, except for the wry Vin cameo at the end. Lin brought a tight new torque to the series even though he didn't have the best story line and characters to work with (not that there's much story to be found in any of these vehicles).

Lin infuses the necessary full-throttle bits with a dynamic lyricism, choreographing the chaos like a whipped-up jazz-fusion set -- trusting absolutely in the hypnotic power and beauty of strength and movement. Which is why Fast & Furious is, in a very bizarre way, a thing of gasp-inducing artistry to watch, even if you're not a member of the NASCAR, gear-head, street-racing crowd.

Even with all the movie's speed, at the deep center of its adrenaline-charged heart Fast & Furious is a love story of boys and their cars, with all of the longing looks sweeping right past the barely clad bones of girls who gather like flies to honey, draping themselves over the cars and the guys, anything to get close to the power that rumbles to furious life within.

Looking back to 2001, it is remarkable that the original brought on such fever dreams, with its relative restraint and its far more tentative soul. The new movie's energy field is vibrating on high from the beginning. Fast & Furious picks up Dom's story in the Dominican Republic, where he's apparently been sitting out the series since the first one ended with him heading for the Mexico border.

Dom, Letty and a new crew are boosting oil tanks, taking them right off the back of truck cabs as they're heading to market at 100-plus mph on pockmarked roads perched on the edge of deadly drop-offs high above the blue Caribbean. It's been a good run for Dom, but one that is about to end with law enforcement hot on his heels.

A quick plot twist and a few fast cuts and we're back in L.A. where it all began. Suddenly, there are major scores to settle. At the center of the action is a ruthless Mexican drug lord who is running a high-stakes operation that has the fastest drivers he can find moving product across the border, caravan style, at 200 mph.

Dom and the FBI, with Brian driving their fleet, want to bring him down, but for different reasons. What happens next isn't really important as long as you know there are a series of extreme and extended demolition derbies -- needless to say countless cars gave their lives to make this movie possible.

As much as metal rules in Fast & Furious, it would be nothing (well, almost) without Diesel, as Universal found out when the studio tried to re-create the magic in No. 2 and No. 3 without him and box-office numbers began a downward slide. When Diesel's characters work, they are compelling in the most counterintuitive of ways.

Dom never stops being the outsider, even with his own crew, always existing on the edges of any given moment or situation, without the slightest trace of emotion. Facing off against a psychopath with endless depths of fury, Diesel is always implacable, unreadable. He just . . . is. Yet somehow his apparent absence of malice is reassuring, because you just know, no matter what, he will punch the clock, he will get the job done.

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Hollywood lands in DC for 'Museum' premiere

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Abraham Lincoln rises from his chair at his memorial to keep the peace among warring characters from history who came to life Thursday in the premiere of the film, "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian."

It was the first Hollywood premiere ever for the world's largest museum complex, the Smithsonian Institution, which is also the setting for the sequel to 2006's "Night at the Museum." And one of the most popular of its 19 museums, the National Air and Space Museum, rolled out the red carpet for stars of Hollywood and politics alike.

The film's stars, Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson and Hank Azaria, mixed with Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and members of Congress.

Stiller, who starred in both movies, said he was happy the way the sequel turned out.

"The Smithsonian was the springboard for doing the whole thing again," Stiller said.

Stiller's character, security guard Larry Daley, comes to Washington to find his museum friends from the first movie, who had been shipped from New York to a mythical vault under the National Mall.

"Creatively, I think it turned out better than the first movie," Director Shawn Levy said.

Martin Scorsese to direct biopic of Frank Sinatra

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Martin Scorsese will tell Frank Sinatra's life story on film.

The Academy Award-winning director of "The Departed" will direct "Sinatra," the first feature film about Ol' Blue Eyes' life, Universal Pictures and Mandalay Pictures said Wednesday.

The film will be "an unconventional biopic," said Mandalay Pictures President Cathy Shulman, who is co-producing the film with Mandalay Chairman Peter Guber.


"It's not a cradle-to-the-grave traditional portrait of the consecutive events in a man's life," Shulman said. "Instead it's more of a collage and, in many ways, it will feel like an album itself. It's a collection of various moments and impressions in his life and together we hope they'll tell the full story and present full themes."

Oscar-nominated screenwriter Phil Alden Robinson ("Field of Dreams") has spent "at least a year buried in 30,000 pages of research" to write the screenplay, Schulman said.

No casting decisions have been made and no production date has been determined, she said, adding: "It's everyone's hope that this will be a movie that comes to the screen shortly."

It took two years to secure the rights to Sinatra's life and music, Shulman said. Warner Music Group and the Sinatra estate are partners on the project.

Having Scorsese bring "Sinatra" to the screen "seems like a match made in heaven," she said.

"In any family, you're dealing with a precious life, and in this case, you're dealing with an extraordinary life," she said. "We knew Scorsese would lead the troops to a true, fair, exciting and entertaining portrait of the man."

Sinatra's daughter, Tina, said it was "personally pleasing" to know Scorsese would oversee the celluloid version of her father's life story.

"My father had great admiration for the talent of the people he chose to work with, and the talented people who worked with my father had great admiration for him," she said, adding, "to me that this paradigm continues with Marty Scorsese at the helm of the Sinatra film."

An iconic entertainer, Sinatra was known for his smooth voice and even smoother personal style. He was part of the Rat Pack that included Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford.

Sinatra "was indisputably the 20th century's greatest singer of popular song," according to Rolling Stone.

"Not only did his freely interpretive approach pave the way for the idiosyncrasies of rock singing, but with his character a mix of tough-guy cool and romantic vulnerability, he became the first true pop idol, a superstar who through his music established a persona audiences found compelling and true," the magazine says on its Web site.

Sinatra, who died in 1998, performed on more than 1,400 musical recordings, was awarded 31 gold records and earned 10 Grammys. He also appeared in 58 films and won a supporting-actor Oscar for 1953's "From Here to Eternity." In 1971, he was presented with another Oscar: the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

Sinatra's story has been told before on the small screen. A 1992 made-for-TV movie, "Sinatra," starred Philip Casnoff in the title role. It won a Golden Globe for best miniseries and an Emmy for director James Sadwith. Ray Liotta played Sinatra in the 1998 HBO film, "The Rat Pack."

At one time, Scorsese was in talks to direct a Dean Martin biopic, but that project never came to fruition.
Associated Press.

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Anne Hathaway and All-Star Cast Celebrate 'Valentine's Day'

Julia Roberts and Anne Hathaway are just two of the many stars involved in Garry Marshall's new romantic comedy "Valentine's Day."

New Line Cinema is also negotiating with Jennifer Garner, Ashton Kutcher, Bradley Cooper, Shirley MacLaine, Jessica Biel, and Jessica Alba, The Hollywood Reporter says.

The comedy will tell five interconnecting stories during Valentine's Day in Los Angeles, the trade paper says.

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Actor Tobey Maguire's wife gives birth to baby boy

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The wife of "Spider-Man" star Tobey Maguire has given birth to the couple's second child, a boy.

People.com reports that 31-year-old Jennifer Meyer gave birth to a baby boy on Friday. Maguire publicist Kelly Bush on Sunday confirmed the birth but gave no other details.

Meyer gave birth to the couple's daughter, Ruby Sweetheart Maguire, more than two years ago.

The 33-year-old Maguire and Meyer met in 2003 and were married in 2007.


Meyer is the daughter of Ron Meyer, president and chief operating officer of Universal Studios.


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