film

Film listings are edited by Cheryl Eddy. Reviewers are Robert Avila, Meryl Cohen, David Fear, Dina Gachman, Susan Gerhard, Dennis Harvey, Johnny Ray Huston, Patrick Macias, and Chuck Stephens. See Rep Clock and Movie Clock, for theater information.

San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

The 23rd annual San Francisco Jewish Film Festival runs July 17-Aug 4. Venues are the Castro Theatre, 429 Castro, S.F.; Wheeler Auditorium, UC Berkeley, Bancroft at Telegraph, Berk; CineArts, 3000 El Camino Real, Bldg Six, Palo Alto; and the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center, 1118 Fourth St, San Rafael. For ticket information, call (925) 275-9490 or go to www.sfjff.org. For commentary see "Eye and Thou," page 42. All times p.m. unless otherwise noted.

Thurs/17

Castro Manhood 8.

Sat/19

Castro Local Angel (free screening) 12:30. "Sharing the Screen: 20 Years of Israeli and Palestinian Cinema at the Jewish Film Festival" (clip show; free screening) 2:45. Black Israel 5. The Burial Society 7:15. Kinky Friedman: Proud to Be an Asshole from El Paso 9:30.

Sun/20

Castro Detained and The Settlers 11a. For My Children 2. Hiding and Seeking 4:45. The Soul Keeper 7:15. The Glow 9:45.

Mon/21

Castro Close, Closed, Closure and It Is No Dream 11a. Welcome to the Waks Family and The Collector of Bedford Street 2. The Last Letter and Foolish Me 4:15. Under Water 6:30. Monsieur Batignole 8:45.

Tues/22

Castro Secret Lives and Johnny and Jones noon. Have You Heard about the Panthers? 3. Embrace Me and Taqasim 6. Hand on the Pulse and "Maideles with Attitude: Lesbian Short Films" (shorts program) 9.

Opening

Bad Boys II Stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, director Michael Bay, and producer Jerry Bruckheimer team up for what'll no doubt be one gloriously excessive buddy-cop sequel. (2:25) California, Century Plaza, Century 20, Jack London.

Beyond Vanilla The message of this movie is delivered by director Claes Lilja himself, offering his final thoughts during the film's conclusion: "Sex is way cool. Enjoy it!" This documentary on the sexual underground – featuring many of your favorite San Francisco sexperts, including Dr. Carol Queen and Lady Green – is sweet but mostly airheaded and amateurish. Even if you find yourself giggling at Lilja's commentary ("Do you like to be spanked?"), the movie is worth seeing for a few scenes in which an articulate female-to-male transsexual talks honestly about his body and shows us how he uses his testosterone-enhanced clit-penis. (1:31) Red Vic. (Annalee Newitz)

Color of Truth Prolific Hong Kong director Wong Jing returns with a cops-and-robbers action flick starring Anthony Wong. (1:30) Four Star.

Garage Days The latest from director Alex Proyas (Dark City) follows an Australian garage band willing to do anything to succeed. (1:45) Shattuck.

How to Deal A pessimistic teen (popster Mandy Moore) realizes falling in love ain't all that bad, actually. (1:41) Century Plaza, Century 20, Jack London, Shattuck.

I Capture the Castle For once a charming film about teenage love that does not explode with campy cheese (pay attention, Amanda Bynes, Hilary Duff, Mary Kate and Ashley, etc.: your fish-out-of-water-girl-got-chutzpah debacles have sadly formed a genre). I Capture the Castle, directed by Tim Fywell and based upon Dodie Smith's classic coming-of-age novel, takes place in 1930s England, where 17-year-old Cassandra Mortmain (Romola Garai) lives with a vain older sister, a failed writer father, an eccentric stepmother, and a Harry Potter-ish younger brother in a dank and crumbling castle. The landlords are two young American brothers (Henry Thomas and Marc Blucas) who show up and provide young Cassandra with several refreshing lessons in love's ambiguities and disappointments. Garai does a fine job of playing the astute yet innocent Cassandra, and the character's musings on relationships resonate like distilled versions of grown-up frustrations. Some of Cassandra's wry observations are inevitably lost during the novel's translation to the screen, but aside from a few missteps – including a horribly miscast Blucas (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) – the film stays true to the author's overall tone. (1:53) Opera Plaza, Shattuck. (Koh)

Johnny English British comedian Rowan Atkinson (Black Adder, Bean) stars as an unlikeley secret agent. (1:24) Century Plaza, Century 20, Grand Lake, Orinda, Shattuck.

Km.0 It's a hot, stick-to-vinyl day in Madrid, and the natives get randy in ways that include online dating, incest, prostitution, and the interference of a guardian angel. The cause of all of the sex-farce trouble is Kilometer Zero, the beginning point for area road measurements and the meeting place for 14 characters who, of course, bumble their connections in ways gay, straight, illegal, and legit. Cowriters and directors Juan Luis Iborra and Yolanda Garcia Serrano keep things light and breezy as a flapping skirt – this is situation comedy in which embarrassing misunderstandings form the heavy stuff. Unfortunately, who is having sex and who is enjoying it seems divided down gender lines, but really, that kind of analysis is better reserved for a less-effervescent flick. The characters are quirky in a one-dimensional ensemble manner, and most of the film is amusing, save an annoying Pretty Woman-style subplot. (1:45) Embarcadero, Shattuck. (Koh)

Love Undercover 2 In this Hong Kong import, a young police officer (Mirian Yeung) takes on a tough assignment while trying to rekindle her relationship with her boyfriend (Daniel Wu). (1:30) Four Star.

Northfork See Movie Clock. (1:34) Act I and II, Embarcadero.

Ongoing

L'auberge espagnole (1:56) California, Opera Plaza.

*Bend It like Beckham With a witty screenplay, feel-good story, and kick-ass soundtrack, Gurinder Chadha's Bend It like Beckham (named, by the way, for the soccer star who's also known as Mr. Posh Spice) has already broken box-office records in the U.K. and arrives in the United States with a worldwide $50 million gross already under its belt. Jess, Beckham's protagonist, is a reluctant challenger who's driven by her passion for soccer to deviate from the expectations of her old-world family. Beckham pointedly punctures English, Indian, and immigrant foibles despite a few jokes that are broad enough to hit the side of a barn. But its pseudo-lesbian subplot is unlikely to ruffle viewers of any lifestyle. More satisfyingly, the film's climactic wedding scene erupts into high drama with mistaken-identity mischief delicious enough to ensure it won't be mistaken for Monsoon Wedding. (1:42) Shattuck. (B. Ruby Rich)

Bruce Almighty (1:41) 1000 Van Ness.

*Capturing the Friedmans Pegged as the lurid must-see of this year's Sundance Film Festival, Andrew Jarecki's documentary is definitely a fly in the ointment of any belief that documentary cinema (let alone legal process) necessarily equals truth. This movie leaves so many unpleasant questions unanswered you'll be positively itchy with the sense of being soiled-by-association. Tipped by postal inspectors, police raided the home of one Arnold Friedman, a well-liked schoolteacher and father of three teenage sons. They found stores of "kiddie porn" (or at least teen porn); this led to interviews with students in Mr. Friedman's after-school computer classes, held in the family's basement. The stories that emerged described horrific, sometimes quite literally beyond-belief sexual abuse of boys by both Friedman and youngest son Jesse. Were the purported victims' testimonies influenced and inflamed by the zealousness of investigators, not to mention the wildfire outrage that ran through local parents? (Some class attendees still insist nothing happened at all, but their voices were overwhelmed during the resulting media and prosecutorial onslaught.) What's perhaps most disturbing about this one-of-a-kind document is that hysteria becomes indistinguishable from truth, even (or especially) among the Friedmans themselves – a family that recorded itself endlessly via home videos (amply excerpted here), to a remarkable and unflattering degree. Watching them tear themselves apart under pressure – with self-appointed mother-of-all-martyrs Elaine quite possibly inflicting more damage than press, community, law, and still-questionable sex crimes combined – is an experience you won't soon forget. (1:47) Act I and II, Embarcadero, Empire. (Harvey)

Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu return, this time involved in reclaiming missing Witness Protection Program rosters. Major impediments are Justin Theroux as Barrymore's satanic ex-boyfriend, and Demi Moore (who's not on-screen that much, despite the impression given by the ads) as a former angel gone bad. The first Angels, also directed by McG, raised the discourse level of megamall franchise flicks by more than a few notches: it was funny, spectacular, knowingly ridiculous, and ironic in all the right ways. This sequel falls into that shrug-inducing cinematic category known as Just More of the Same. Which ain't a bad thing necessarily, though the freshness is definitely edging toward day-old-doughnut here. The action sequences are now so far outside the realm of physical possibility that they're just silly – a dirt biking set piece is one iota short of simply being fully animated. There are so many cameos (Bruce Willis, Jaclyn Smith, Pink, the Olsen twins, etc.) that some more desirable talents with actual roles – notably Crispin Glover – get scarcely more screen time. Bernie Mac is a poor substitute for Bill Murray's inspirational weirdness as the new Bosley, while Moore's stony posturing is the worst piece of overhyped, overpaid celebrity supervillain casting since Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze in Batman and Robin. Despite these flaws, there's enough color, kitsch, and miscellaneous swirling motion to warrant giving Full Throttle OK marks as a fun if immediately forgettable way to spend $9.50. (1:45) Century 20, Jack London, Kabuki, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness. (Harvey)

*Chicago (1:47) Oaks.*City of God (2:10) Four Star.

Down with Love (1:42) Balboa, Oaks.

*Finding Nemo When his beloved son Nemo is whisked from the ocean by a scuba diver, neurotic clown fish Marlin (Albert Brooks) launches a Great Barrier Reef-sized quest to track him down, running into a huge assortment of oceanic perils (sharks, shipwrecks, weird-looking deep-sea fish, seagulls) and pals (notably a forgetful fish named Dory, who, as voiced by Ellen DeGeneres, gets the film's biggest laughs) along the way. Meanwhile, Nemo hatches elaborate escape plans with the creatures dwelling in his new home – a dentist's office aquarium. Though the search-and-rescue plot of this latest computer-animated adventure from Disney-Pixar (Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc.) will play pretty routine to the grown-ups, pint-sized audiences will be in suspense to the end; adult audiences can enjoy the film's more subtle, clever touches (the dental-office scenes are particularly ingenious). (1:41) Century Plaza, Century 20, Grand Lake, Kabuki, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness, Orinda, Shattuck. (Eddy)

Holes (1:51) Oaks.

Hulk Emotional, talky tales involving repressed memories and bad parenting surely have their place – but in a movie based on a comic book, not so much. Way long, pretentious, and with jarring transitions that imitate comic strip panels, Ang Lee's foray into summer blockbuster-land is as disappointing as you thought it would be when you saw those previews during the Super Bowl – except the special effects are the pretty much least sucky thing here. After scientist Bruce Banner (Eric Bana) is zapped in a lab accident, he begins having serious anger management issues, complicating the lives of his ex-girlfriend (a weepy Jennifer Connelly), assorted government heavies, and his long-lost nut of a father (Nick Nolte). When Banner goes green, the leaping, smashing, and crashing (but only killing one really, really bad guy) almost make up for the rest of Hulk's turgidness. But not quite. (2:18) Century 20, Kabuki, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness. (Eddy)

The Italian Job (1:43) Century 20, Kabuki, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's graphic novel was a wet dream for bibliophiles: gather together literary heroes from Stevenson, Stoker, Verne, and H.G. Wells, then pit them against famous Victorian-era villains. This big-screen adaptation lamentably strips the comic's intellectual properties down to its bare-bones high concept and bulldozes over viewers with bells and whistles turned up to paint-peeling volume. It'd be hard to completely catalog how director Stephen Norrington (Blade) managed to ruin such surefire material, though any partial list would have to include the gratuitous addition of characters (including everyone's favorite American secret service agent of letters ... Tom Sawyer?!?), action sequences favoring chaos over coherence, and squandering the inspired casting of Sean Connery as an autumnal Allan Quartermain. Worse, LXG commits the most venal of summer movies sins in that it lacks any sense of fun; its most "extraordinary" quality may be that it somehow succeeds in alienating bookworms, comic geeks, and Cineplex groupies in one fell swoop. (1:52) Century Plaza, Century 20, Jack London, Kabuki, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness. (Fear)

*Legally Blonde 2: Red, White, and Blonde Blonder than ever, Reese Witherspoon returns as Elle Woods, notorious Beverly Hills bimbette turned shrewd attorney. In this sequel, Elle takes on animal testing, the beauty industry, and Capitol Hill, all to reunite her beloved lapdog, Bruiser, with his imprisoned mom. It's hard to follow a hit comedy, but it helps that favorite characters from the first film are back (including Luke Wilson as the perfect hubby to be). While the script isn't as fresh this time around, Witherspoon carries the film with ease; her revival of the beloved blond with smile-and-the-world-smiles-back naïveté, stubborn charm in the face of adversity and mocking, and of course, a dazzling pink wardrobe that Barbie would die for, are as hilarious as ever. Toss in a mean Southern senator whose dog turns out to be a leather daddy, an army of sorority sisters, and cheerleading interns choreographed by Toni Basil and, really, what's not to love? Double snaps. (1:34) Century Plaza, Century 20, Jack London, Kabuki, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness, Orinda, Presidio. (Sabrina Crawford)

*The Legend of Suriyothai Even in truncated form, Prince Chatri Chalerm Yukol's tale of monarchs and martyrs still washes ashore as one eye gouge of an epic, regal pustules and all. Second kings still covet power, severed heads still roll, courtesans and concubines still jockey for position, and the titular princess (M.L. Piyapas Bhiromhakdi) continues pachyderm-bound toward her destiny. Whether the prince or his old friend Francis Ford Coppola is responsible for the film's tendency to ramrod its way through historical incidents quicker than a flip book and rely on abundant narration and intertitles to fill in the gaps is uncertain. Regardless of the movie's sprint-pacing faults, it's easy to see why Suriyothai became such a cause célèbre in its native land; rarely has the birth of a nation seemed so garishly opulent and stone-facedly reverent simultaneously. Even audiences unfamiliar with Thailand's legacy (either literal or cine-literal) will find familiar purchase here, as Prince Chatri's grand filmmaking sweep and narrative instantly bring to mind elements of Cecil B. DeMille, MacBeth, and Akira Kurosawa's battlefield choreography. (2:22) Opera Plaza, Shattuck. (Fear)

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2:59) Oaks.

*Madame Satã Brazilian director Karïm Ainouz's debut feature, Madame Satã – a portrait of street legend João Francisco dos Santos – is a prickly, evasive creature; it's just as explosive as Fernando Meirelles's City of God, albeit on a smaller scale. Hustler, murderer, and queen are just three of the labels alternately modeled and discarded by dos Santos, known simply as João (Lázaro Ramos) in the film. dos Santos was swapped for a mare by his mother when he was seven, and thus began an outlaw's journey – a 76-year odyssey punctuated by 27 years of prison time – that would ultimately be celebrated during the '70s in the pages of countercultural journals such as Pasquim. Though Ainouz is convinced of dos Santos's importance, he isn't concerned with making him likable, and in denying the built-in restrictions of various storytelling forms, the director winds up providing a brief glimpse of a long, full life. Madame Satã is a unique series of snapshots in motion, but it could have been so much more. (1:45) Opera Plaza, Shattuck. (Huston)

*Man on the Train A mysterious stranger (Johnny Hallyday) breezes into a small French burg and attracts the attention of a local poetry teacher (Jean Rochefort), who offers the out-of-towner room and board. It turns out that the stranger is a career criminal with his eye on the local bank and that the local is desperately looking for one last chance at excitement to set off a long life of dullness and regrets. It's the duo's gentle, tentative stabs at friendship before tragedy inevitably rears its head that make the latest meditation by director Patrice Leconte (The Hairdresser's Husband) on the melancholia of loners and losers so quietly moving. Thanks to the alchemy of legendary Gallic rocker Hallyday's steel-flint gaze and Rochefort's matronly kindness, what should be a normal iconographic noir essayed in gun-metal shades of blue gray takes the road less traveled, gracefully morphing into an elegy of missed opportunities and misaligned lives. (1:30) Balboa. (Fear)

*A Mighty Wind The latest from Christopher Guest (Best in Show) and his ensemble of comics and character actors is another high-concept parody: when the legendary folk music impresario Irving Steinbloom passes away, his son organizes a tribute show featuring the crème de la crème of the 1960s Bleecker Street scene. The event heralds the return of such seminal acts as the Folksmen (Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer) and the reunited Mitch and Mickey (Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara). Wind features the genius comic turns (Levy's shell-shocked Brian Wilson impersonation vies with Fred Willard's unctuous band manager for the show-stealing throne) and deadpan shtick that's become synonymous with the all-star collective. But although Wind is still far funnier and more inventive than most of what passes for yukfests these days, this experiment in without-a-net creative comedy never quite gels; one senses that not even the editing room could turn what's essentially a number of disparate, fragmented laugh-riot ideas into the cohesive tour de force their legacy demands. (1:27) Balboa. (Fear)

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl In this seaworthy tale from Ring director Gore Verbinski and action-happy producer Jerry Bruckheimer, offbeat swashbuckler Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and blacksmith Will Turner (Lord of the Rings elf Orlando Bloom) team up to pursue the snarling buccaneers who've kidnapped Will's beloved Elizabeth (Keira Knightley from Bend It like Beckham). Seems the crew of the Black Pearl (including Geoffrey Rush as their monkey-toting leader) believe she's the key to lifting the nasty curse that plagues them. Pirates taps plenty of familiar motifs – a talking parrot ("Shiver me timbers!"), a cave filled with treasure, cannon fights, people saying, "Arrrr!" – and follows a pretty rote escape-and-capture story line. And yeah, it's based on a Disneyland ride. But thanks in no small part to Depp's oddly endearing performance, the good-natured Pirates aims for fun and largely succeeds. (2:23) Century Plaza, Century 20, Grand Lake, Jack London, Kabuki, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness. (Eddy)

Postmen in the Mountains Before he retires, a father (Teng Rujun) teaches his mail route to his son (Ye Liu). The 112-mile trek is mountainous to say the least – the perilous pilgrimage puts the United States Postal Service to shame. As the son embarks on his first journey through the Chinese countryside, he discovers his connection to the village communities he serves – and reaffirms the unbreakable bond that links father to son – in a film loaded with metaphor (for better and for worse). Postmen in the Mountains is not a perfect film; the subtitles (translated from Mandarin to English) seem to fall short of conveying the intended dialogue, and at times the script (adapted from the book by Peng Jianming) tells rather than shows. Postmen is at its best when simply showing, as when director Huo Jianqi frames a gorgeous ensemble of shots filmed in the rolling green utopia of south Hunan. (1:33) Four Star. (Pham)

Respiro (1:35) Balboa.

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas DreamWorks' latest animated tale follows pirate extraordinaire Sinbad (Brad Pitt) as he's enlisted by goddess of chaos Eris (Michelle Pfeiffer) to steal the Book of Peace so that her reign of destruction can begin. Trouble arises when Eris herself snags the tome from Sinbad's childhood friend Proteus (Joseph Fiennes), who then shoulders the criminal sentence. The sailor of the seven seas must steal back the book with some help from his crew and Proteus's plucky fiancée, Marina (Catherine Zeta-Jones), or his pal gets the axe. Borrowing liberally from Greek mythology and the Ray Harryhausen epics of the '50s, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas couches its morality tale in a hybrid of traditional cell animation and the latest computer-driven innovations. Pitt's flat Midwestern twang seems curiously wrong for the swarthy, handsome hero, but even minus a proper lead and with minimum swashbuckling, there's enough diverting derring-do here to keep kids giggling. (1:26) Century 20, Kabuki, Metreon, Oaks, 1000 Van Ness. (Fear)

Spellbound A frightening, often comedic look into the family lives of the nation's top young spellers, Jeff Blitz's documentary too easily balances the oddities of overachievers: if there's an obsessed speller, there's also a nonchalant one; some families are wealthy, some are poor. There's diversity, love, faith, and most predictably, a fight against the odds. Though the film builds tension as it reaches various humiliating climaxes at the microphone, it suffers the same malady as its subjects: it feels far more stage-managed than earned or lived. (1:36) Embarcadero, Shattuck, Smith Rafael. (Gerhard)

*Swimming Pool Charlotte Rampling plays Sarah Morton, an author in the Patricia Highsmith mold – with an emphasis on mold – who ventures to a vine-laced villa in the south of France to begin work on the latest addition to her musty mystery series. Ludivine Sagnier plays Julie, the slutty daughter of Sarah's publisher, and an unwelcome surprise guest at Sarah's writer's retreat. The two don't waste any time invading each other's privacy. Whether that privacy is typed on a laptop or penned in girlie cursive, it's a key to asserting power over the other. Swimming Pool's "secrets" tease audiences; ultimately, the film is a poison-lensed love letter to director François Ozon's producer. It's time for this mildly naughty boy to make a wildly rude film that pleases no one but himself. (1:54) Albany, Clay, Piedmont. (Huston)

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines The terms "unnecessary cash-in" and "soulless retread" come to mind; even the film's catchphrases are straight from the recycling bin. With James Cameron and Linda Hamilton out of the picture, the weight of T3 rests on Schwarzenegger's meaty shoulders and director Jonathan Mostow's ability to dole out the film's mounting battles and explosions. A robotic assassin from the future (Kristanna Loken) is sent to kill John Connor (Nick Stahl), because he's the one who'll eventually lead the resistence movement after machines take over the world, blah, blah, blah. Thank gawd a Terminator turned protector (you know who) is also on the case. The superior Terminator 2: Judgement Day told the same story, with a female lead far more powerful and multidimensional than T3's milquetoast Claire Danes and Loken's steely "Terminatrix" combined. As for the FX, remember how everyone shat themselves back in 1991 when Robert Patrick's character did all that melting-morphing business? There's nothing so thrilling this go-round. (1:49) Century Plaza, Century 20, Grand Lake, Jack London, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness. (Eddy)

*28 Days Later Early in Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, a patient named Jim (Cillian Murphy) awakes from a coma only to find the hospital, the streets, the surrounding buildings, and possibly – probably – the entire world, completely, nightmarishly deserted. The culprit? "Rage," a highly contagious blood virus accidentally unleashed on London by a group of well-intentioned animal rights activists. Symptoms, which manifest in 20 seconds or less, include red eyes, projectile vomiting, and the uncontrollable urge to viciously attack everyone around you. Thanks to the use of digital video, a trembling pop soundtrack, and British slang, 28 Days Later is pretty arty for a genre film. Still, horror is the main event, and like all truly scary movies, this one neatly plays off current events (SARS, for one) to increase the oh-shit-this-might-really-happen vibe. Though this heavily Romero-influenced film isn't overflowing with original ideas, the timing of its release is impeccable. Who isn't afraid of catching a horrible disease, or of waking up to find an entire city wiped out by a scary, unknown event? (1:48) Century 20, Metreon, 1000 Van Ness. (Eddy)

*Whale Rider Director Niki Caro's adaptation of New Zealand author Witi Ihimaera's 1986 novel combines familiar coming-of-age elements with Maori mysticism to exceptionally engaging effect. Pubescent Pai (Keisha Castle-Hughes) has been raised by her strict but loving grandfather Koro (Rawiri Paratene) and more easygoing grandma (Vicky Haughton) since her artist dad left to travel the world. The latter (Cliff Curtis) was and is too grief-stricken to stay in the community – his wife died giving birth to Pai, and tribal chief Koro still pressures him to deliver a male grandchild who might one day "lead our people out of the darkness" that modern, Westernized life has imposed. But that ain't happening, so granddad opens a "sacred school" to educate local boys in "the old ways – the qualities of a chief." These involve everything from religious ritual to martial arts instruction. Koro is so rigidly tradition-minded that he insists girls are "worthless" in these capacities – though it's increasingly clear to everyone else that Pai possesses talent and discipline far beyond any male peers. The resulting, painful rift between child and grandparent reaches a climactic point of catastrophe and supernatural redemption that would be ludicrous in any less psychologically level-headed, stylistically astute context. A rare movie that should play just as well for eight-year-olds as it does for art-house grownups. (1:55) California, Bridge, Empire, Piedmont. (Harvey)

What I Want My Words to Do to You: Voices from Inside a Women's Maximum Security Prison Former Weather Undergrounder Judith Clark addresses the question posed by the title when she says, "I want my words to disrupt your day. I want you to ask 'Why?'" The documentary film is created from her words and the words of other prisoners both famed and infamous (fellow '60s radical Kathy Boudin, To Die For inspiration Pamela Smart) in Eve Ensler's creative writing workshop at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women. The words aren't shaped for disruption, however. Nor will they leave you asking "Why?" Instead, they tidy up lives destroyed and/or transformed by stints in prison into comfortable clichés. When performed for the whole prison population by Glenn Close and Marisa Tomei, among others, the words gain aura for those who saw the performance live, but lose their true power for film's viewing audience. (1:18) Roxie. (Gerhard)

*Winged Migration (1:29) Albany, Embarcadero, Empire, Piedmont, Smith Rafael.

Rep picks

*'Cinemuerte International Horror Film Festival' See "Blunt Feast," page 41. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Double Dare See 8 Days a Week, page 52. Film Arts Foundation (Yerba Buena Center for the Arts).

'An Evening with Art Clokey and Gumby' See 8 Days a Week, page 52. Smith Rafael.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Sergio Leone, padrone of the spaghetti western, used spaces – Spanish landscapes posing as American Southwestern ones, stretched extralong across the TechniScope rectangle – wider and more open than anybody else. His idiosyncratic style briefly revivified the fading western genre, sparked a thousand imitations, and basically created Clint Eastwood. Now we get Leone's 1966 The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, restored to its full three-hour length after years of being trimmed by as much as 50 minutes. Offering a tale of greed and vengeance not unlike The Treasure of Sierra Madre or Monte Hellman's The Shooting – albeit without their palpable horror at dehumanized behavior – it's a three-way stare-down incongruously pumped up by massive scenes of Civil War slaughter and dying-soldier landscape straight out of Gone with the Wind's South. "Good" Eastwood, a.k.a. "Blondie," is the Man with No Name, a drifter-con man; "Ugly" Tuco (Eli Wallach) is a bandito betrayed by Blondie; and "Bad" Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef, with his commanding smirk) is a remorseless bounty hunter cum soldier only interested in a certain stolen box of gold coins. In the end, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is a shaggy-dog anecdote masquerading as a saga, its unconvincing pauses for sentiment and spectacle far less integral than the private drollery that allows Eastwood to be not so much tough under pressure as simply amused. (3:00) Smith Rafael. (Harvey)

*'Kung Fu Movie Madness' and 'Midnites for Maniacs' It's all about "the meanest guy in the world" in Sonny Chiba's signature film, The Street Fighter (Ozawa, 1974); the other half of the kung fu double feature is the Jet Li-starring Fist of Legend (Chan, 1994). Bobby Peru types (i.e., maniacs) have plenty to chew on with David Lynch's 1990 Wild at Heart. Four Star.

The Ramones: End of the Century See Sonic Reducer, page 46. Roxie.