Reign Over Me

**.5/****     REIGN OVER ME (R)

Paul Greengrass’ United 93 and Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center hit theaters in 2006, becoming the first theatrical motion pictures to deal with the tragic events of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. Both films were highly controversial, but in the end, they were also respectful and tasteful towards the victims of the attacks and were dedicated to the heroism found on that day. In 2007, writer and director Mike Binder (The Upside of Anger) broaches the subject of September 11, 2001 in his latest film Reign Over Me. And while the film is somewhat refined in how it handles the controversial attacks, at times it wrongly uses those horrific events as the sole emotional basis in a particular scene.

In Reign Over Me, Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda, Ocean’s Twelve) stars as Alan Johnson, a dentist and family man who presently resides in a state of discontent and is depressed about his life’s direction. While he has achieved success in the workplace and has a loving wife and children, Johnson appears to have lost those moments of joy in his life and simply strolls through the daily motions miserably. But a chance encounter with his former college roomate Charlie Fineman (Adam Sandler) soon presents a refreshing change in lifestyle for Johnson.

The two begin to rekindle their friendship, but it becomes increasingly difficult to do with Fineman still griefing from the death of his wife and kids aboard one of the airliners that crashed into the World Trade Center. Fineman’s shock from the event leaves him emotionally insensible, and years later he remains confined and isolated from those who were once very close to him. But Fineman appears to find solace in the revival of his friendship with Johnson, and the two of them begin to face life’s challenges together.

An affecting and involving movie, Reign Over Me is fortunately not bound to Binder’s weak script and finds its good fortune through its extraordinary cast. Sandler resumes his course of crossing over from comedic work to dramatic material, ala Jim Carrey and Robin Williams, by delivering the finest performance of his acting career. After a bit of a dramatic blunder in 2004’s Spanglish, Sandler manages to show that his Golden Globe nominated performance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch Drunk Love was no fluke, by showcasing a great deal of range and helping to carry-out most of the film’s emotional weight.

Cheadle is strong in his role as the unhappy Johnson, but his character is written fairly rigidly and too much of his time on-screen is spent in a sub-plot with dental patient Donna Remars (Saffron Burrows) that was ill-conceived from the beginning. Jada Pinkett Smith (Collateral, The Matrix Revolutions) stars as Alan’s wife Janeane, but Binder’s script fails to utilize her character fully. And Liv Tyler (Jersey Girl, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King) plays Alan’s friend and Charlie’s therapist Angela Oakhurst, but her character also lacks any sort of depth and Tyler seems rather bland in the role.

The New York City backdrop certainly gives the film an authentic feel, and some lightly-tossed in humor stops the film from traveling too far into an unhappy and uneasy environment. Also, the picture’s title derives from The Who song “Love, Reign o’er Me,” and Binder allows music to play a key-role in the movie, and it’s used justly during particular scenes.

An emotional tale that isn’t as profound as it would like to be, Reign Over Me curiously holds your attention mainly because of the great work of an outstanding cast.

Fracture

***/****     FRACTURE (R)

In most thrillers, the emphasize is placed heavily on the plot and the action sequences, as opposed to delving into the character’s psyche. But in psychological thrillers, this formula is reversed, with most of the movie’s suspense centering around detailed character studies and manipulative mindgames being played among individuals. In Fracture, writers Glenn Gers and Daniel Pyne take it one step further by combining several elements of a John Grisham-type legal thriller with those well-know elements of the pyschological thriller genre. And although a perfect balance is never attained, the movie’s performances and direction help Fracture maintain itself as a compelling tale.

Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson, The Notebook) stars as Willy Beachum, a hot-shot deputy district attorney with a tremendous conviction rate who is about to land a job with a prestigious law firm. His final work in the district attorney’s office appears to be an open-and-shut case involving Ted Crawford’s (Anthony Hopkins) attempted murder of his wife Jennifer (Embeth Davidtz). Beachum has received a signed confession from Crawford from the detectives in the case, and Crawford’s fingerprints were found on the murder weapon retrieved from the scene of the crime. But the controversial discovery of the arresting police officer’s affair with Crawford’s wife soon sends Beachum’s apparent slam-dunk conviction into a downward spiral.

The case quickly becomes a public relations nightmare for the district attorney’s office, and the disclosure of Officer Rob Nunally’s (Billy Burke) affair with Jennifer Crawford places Beachum’s new illustrious job prospect in jeopardy. But unwilling to concede defeat, and not at all worried about losing out on a distinguished employment opportunity, Beachum continues to drudge through the case considering all options, even though the chances of victory are increasingly slipping away.

The best courtroom drama since director Gregory Hoblit’s 1996 film Primal Fear, Fracture has its share of clever and suspenseful moments with an appropriate mood and tone established by Hoblit, but like most courtroom films, it ultimately suffers from some obvious gaping plotholes. But in the end, Fracture is a film less concerned with presenting plausible, deceptive moments and more concerned with showcasing two phenomenal actors attempting to outdue each other skillfully in a tense setting. And on that front, the movie succeeds wonderfully.

Gosling follows-up his Academy Award nominated performance in Half Nelson with a stellar performance here. Once again charming and winsome, Gosling is also wisely restrained in the role of Beachum, allowing for the belief that an impressive prosecutor could be outmatched by the imposing Crawford. Hopkins’ (Bobby, All The King’s Men) commanding stage presence will remind you a lot of his Academy Award winning role as Hannibal Lector in The Silence of the Lambs, as he once again delivers another strong and chilling performance.

Brothers Jeff and Mychael Danna’s excellent score help to make the on-screen verbal jousting matches between Gosling and Hopkins highly enjoyable, but that tension is occasionally lost when the two are not on-screen to play off of each other. And an unwelcome sub-plot involving Beachum and a blossoming relationship with his new boss Nikki Gardner (Rosamund Pike) is given too much time, feels very forced and in the end its a totally lifeless aspect of the story.

A taut, though somewhat flawed thriller, Fracture won’t be a film worth remembering, but it is an entertaining film worthy of a look.

Next

*.5/****     NEXT (PG-13)

Deja Vu was a 2006 science-fiction thriller about an ATF agent who manages to travel back in time, thanks to some high-tech satellite capabilities, in an effort to prevent the bombing of a New Orleans ferry and the death of woman whose truck was used in the attack. Directed by Tony Scott and starring Denzel Washington, Deja Vu contained an over-the-top and ridiculous premise, but was still an enjoyable, nicely crafted adventure. Five months later comes Next, a similar tale of overcoming a time barrier in order to prevent a disastrous event, but this time around the plot lacks any intrigue and the end result is a much more rushed and frustrating story.

Nicolas Cage (Ghost Rider, The Wicker Man) stars as Cris Johnson, a lowly-Las Vegas stage performer guised under the name of Frank Cadillac. Somewhat clairvoyant, Johnson possesses the ability to see into his future in two minute intervals. Besides performing cheap magic tricks at a bottom-barrel casino, Johnson also manages to make a little money by using his special skills to gamble at the casino tables. Aware of his mental adroitness, FBI agent Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore) seeks Johnson’s assistance with thwarting a terrorist group’s plans to detonate a nuclear bomb in southern California.

Unwilling to help, Johnson scampers out of town with Liz (Jessica Biel), a beautiful young teacher at a nearby reservation that he runs into at a local diner. Johnson finds himself gaining an extraordinary connection with Liz, whom he manages to see much farther than the usual two minutes into his future with. But as he begins to develop a loving relationship with Liz, he is also forced into making a critical decision towards whether or not he should aid the government in foiling the known terrorist plot.

Next joins Minority Report, Paycheck and A Scanner Darkly on the increasing list of Philip K. Dick novel’s to have become adpated into feature films in recent years. Next is based on Dick’s short story “The Golden Man,” and contains the same sort of science-fiction, psycholgical and mind-bending tone of those previous adaptations mentioned, but unfortunately, even though Next won’t rank as the worst Nicolas Cage film of 2007, it does rank as one of the weakest Dick adaptations of all-time.

The film wants to be sharp, clever and thought-provoking, but the movie does far more pretending than it does actually presenting. The tension and suspense the picture craves is never fully established, background stories and character motivations are never fully fleshed out and the desired whimsical moments in Paul Bernbaum (Hollywoodland), Gary Goldman (Total Recall, Big Trouble in Little China) and Jonathan Hensleigh’s (The Punisher, Armaggedon) script are overdone and eye-roll inducing.

Cage wearily walks his way through the film, barely challenged by the character or the script, and gives another performance that exemplifies his inconsistent nature in movies. Julianne Moore’s (Freedomland, The Forgotten) role vaguely resembles her work in Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men, and similar to that 2006 sci-fi adventure flick, her performance is by far the most forgettable. And Jessica Biel (The Illusionist, Elizabethtown) continues to improve as an actress, but she is terribly miscast as Johnson’s romantic interest, lacking any chemistry on-screen with Cage.

The potential for a good story and interesting movie exists, but Next happily stumbles through the motions, turning out an easily missable product.

Thr3e

1/2-a-star/****     THR3E (PG-13)

David Fincher’s 1995 crime thriller Se7en is a sharp, intriguing tale about two detectives investigating a series of ritualistic murders inspired by the seven deadly sins. Skillfully written and wonderfully crafted with strong performances, Se7en is one of the standout films for the critically-acclaimed director. But with a recent increase in religious-themed dramas and thrillers, including The Da Vinci Code, End of the Spear and The Reaping, it was only a matter of time before someone wrongly replicates the same style chronicled in Se7en. And in the low-budget scare flick Thr3e, the blatant rip-off of Se7en’s title is the least putrid thing about the picture.

Kevin Parson (Marc Blucas) is a seminary student who receives a threatening phone call from a pyschopathic murderer, known as the Riddle Killer, who demands that Parson confess his sins. Permeating Kevin’s life, the Riddle Killer ends up blowing Parson’s car to bits, kidnaps his crazy Aunt Belinda (Priscilla Barnes) and straps a ticking bomb to the chest of one of his seminary schoolmates. But as Parson battles these hostile attacks from his stalker, he soon discovers a personal connection between himself, the Riddle Killer and his childhood friend Samantha (Laura Jordan).

Kevin and Samantha begin a chase towards piecing together clues about the killer, while avoiding all forms of contact with the police per the murderer’s request. But the two have a tough time keeping separated from police detective Jennifer Peters (Justine Waddell), whose brother died years ago as result of a turtorous act committed by the Riddle Killer. And as more clues from Kevin’s tormentor end up placing more people in jeopardy, the three race against time to try and end the ongoing psychotic manipulations.

The epitome of a direct-to-DVD release, Thr3e arrives in theaters as one of the most shoddily made films in recent memory. The movie’s narrative is very disoriented, and the deplorable editing tactics of transitioning from scene-to-scene by simply fading in-and-out of black are painfully funny. And the lack of intrigue created in the storytelling ultimately hurts the film, as the audience is guaranteed to spend the majority of the movie pointing out its numerous flaws and chuckling about the film’s overall cheap production elements.

The acting is nauseating, and most of the characters deliver the terribly-written lines like they are reading the dialogue for the very first time. Blucas (First Daughter, The Alamo) is stiff and wooden as the leading man, containing absolutely no charisma or appeal. But, as weak as Blucas’ performance is, a good chunk of the blame can be placed on b-writer Alan B. McElroy (The Marine, Wrong Turn) who offers no depth or backstory to the character of Kevin, making it very hard to care whether Kevin suffers or not.

Laura Jordan (TV’s Brothers & Sisters) and Justine Waddell (Dracula 2000, Mansfield Park) equally match Blucas with their rigid performances, with both playing the prototypical damsel in distress. And the moments involving Kevin on the phone with the Riddle Killer feel heavily copied from the psychotic voice on the phone in Wes Craven’s Scream, while the constant traps and puzzles feel fairly repetitive following the actions we’ve viewed in the Saw trilogy.

Beyond the point of being labeled ridiculous and absurd, Thr3e is a preposterous movie that will easily rank as one of the worst films of 2007.

Code Name: The Cleaner

1/2-a-star/****     CODE NAME: THE CLEANER (PG-13)

Spike Lee’s 2000 joint The Original Kings of Comedy was a concert film featuring four African-American comedians on the verge of breaking out into the mainstream of Hollywood. At the time, Steve Harvey was the star of The Steve Harvey Show on the WB Network and would later land a deal as the host of “The Steve Harvey Morning Show” on Premier Radio Networks. Also at the time, D.L. Hughley was the star of the ABC television sitcom The Hughleys, and more recently he has found himself featured prominently on the Aaron Sorkin drama Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. And the biggest success story from the film was comedian Bernie Mac, who earned two Emmy Award and two Golden Globe nominations for his work on Fox’s The Bernie Mac Show.

The one comedian who has found himself floundering about in mediocrity and has yet to achieve the same level of critical appeal as his compadres is Cedric the Entertainer. Although worth noting in his supporting effort in 2002’s Barbershop, Cedric is well-known for appearing in second-rate films and delivering below-average performances. His latest film, Code Name: The Cleaner, is certainly no different.

Cedric the Entertainer stars as Jake Rodgers, a seemingly regular guy who awakes in a hotel room lying next to a dead FBI agent. Jake has no recollection of who he is, and why he is in the hotel room at the time of the FBI agent’s murder. Rodgers soon stumbles into Diane (Nicollette Sheridan), a blonde vixen who claims to be his wife, but after being riddled with bizarre questions from Diane, Jake quickly realizes that things are not as they appear.

Constantly having flashbacks of participating in actual combat, Rodgers starts to believe that he is a secret agent disguising himself undercover as a janitor for a video game design company known as Digital Arts. With the assistance of Gina (Lucy Liu), a waitress at a local diner who alleges to be Jake’s real-life girlfriend, Rodgers begins to unravel his true identity and the unexpected bout of government corruption he has found himself entangled in.

Hokey and corny to say the least, Code Name: The Cleaner is a film entirely without direction. With a wonderful score by George S. Clinton that parodies the type of music found in secret agent-adventure flicks, Code Name: The Cleaner could have been a satire on the genre in similar fashion to that of Mike Meyers’ Austin Powers series. But instead of playing up the action moments with over-the-top gags and sharp laughs, the movie simply plods along through its boring script and fails to ever set a comedic or dramatic tone.

Cedric the Entertainer is his usual banal self, bringing nothing fresh to the role and his incredibly weak performance is one of the main reasons the film suffers. Given his leading work in The Honeymooners, Johnson Family Vacation and Man of the House, it’s practically a given that you can pencil in any film headlined by Cedric as a potential Golden Raspberry Award nominee.

Nicollette Sheridan (Beverly Hills Ninja, Spy Hard) nearly portrays the same trampy, cleavage-baring shrew that has recently made her recognizable again on ABC’s Desperate Housewives, while Liu (Lucky Number Slevin, Kill Bill Vol. 1) follows up her wonderful work in Thom Fitzgerald’s indie-drama 3 Needles with an overall embarrassing outing here. The strongest character in the movie, Liu’s Gina joins the fray a little late and her character twist delivers very little impact.

Code Name: The Cleaner is an early year release that wants to pretend it is a laugh-fest, while in actuality it is entirely void of any laugh-out-loud moments.

TMNT

*/****     TMNT (PG)

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles catapulted into the pop culture landscape nearly two decades ago with a highly successful animated series, that soon saw the characters branch out into the mainstream even further with a favorable range of children’s merchandise and three full-length feature films in the early-90s. The three films followed Leonardo, Raphael, Michaelangelo and Donatello, along with their sensei Splinter, battling their arch-nemisis Shredder. Now fourteen years removed from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, the foursome are back on the big-screen and have abandoned the live-action motif in favor of computer graphics in the badly-titled TMNT.

Following the defeat of Shredder, this new film captures the Turtles as they have all found themselves going their own way. Leonardo has been sent away by Splinter to train towards becoming a better leader, while Donatello works as an internet technology service representative and Michaelangelo dons an oversized turtle head and entertains at children’s parties. Unkown to the rest of the group, Raphael has begun masquerading in New York City as the Nightwatcher, a solo vigilante attempting to recapture the glory days of his time with his brothers.

When Leonardo returns to the group after having been absent for a year, it becomes evident that inner turmoil exists between the four and a hostile environment has been created. But the Turtles soon look to unite when they discover that technology tycoon Max Winters has managed to revive the foot clan, previously led by Shredder, as well as enlisted the aid of four ancient stone warriors as Winters looks to conquer the world.

Written and directed by Kevin Munroe in his feature film debut, TMNT is far more about style than it is about substance. The dialogue is incredibly silly, while the overall tone of the movie shifts from implausible fun to peculiarly dark far too often for a film delivered with an incredible amount of haste. The movie attempts to appeal to the current crop of young filmgoers, while at the same time trying to generate the type of mood that might draw some interest amongst the twenty-somethings that spent several Saturday morning’s growing up with the Turtles. Unfortunately, TMNT falls short in trying to satisfy either party.

The plot of the film is noticeably weak and foolish, with only a tiny piece of character development and depth provided to Leonardo and Raphael. Those two characters help ignite the feud amongst the Turtles, while Donatello and Michaelangelo are carefully situated in the background so you at least know they are there. The group’s pals Casey Jones and April O’Neil are also added into the story, but they also share very little screen-time and overall they feel inconsequential to the rushed events.

The film’s animation is a definite improvement over the live-action fare featured in the previous three movies, as the graphics make it a slightly easier to buy into the whole absurdity of the picture. The film’s action moments are also done efficiently, with the movie sensibly building around the fight sequences that provide the picture’s only true elements of excitement.

Sure to be a fun return for some, for most TMNT will feel like watching the recent live-action incarnations of the Scooby Doo gang – an insipid and unpleasant offering that shamefully makes money based off adored characters.

The Italian

***/****     THE ITALIAN (PG-13)

Child trafficking has become a major problem around the world, particularly in Europe where countries are considered prime consumers because of their affluent market place. Parents raising children in impoverished communities are tempted by the offers of schooling for their kids, or at the very least an opportunity to make a little money, and give their child up to an illegal adoption agency. Approximately 1.2 million children are trafficked every year by these agencies who begin by exploiting these kids for labor, before selling each child off to an eager buyer. This practice provides the basis for this year’s limited-released foreign-language film The Italian.

We first meet Vanya Solntsev (Kolya Spiridonov), a six-year old boy living in an orphanage in a small Russian village, as he is introduced to Roberto and Claudia, an Italian couple who is paying the children’s home a large sum of cash to adopt him. During a two-month period in which the paperwork of his adoption will become finalized, Vanya comes in contact with an alcoholic woman who abandoned her son years ago, but desperately wants to reconnect with her child. The woman soon commits suicide in front of the orphanage after learning about her son’s adoption, with the result of her death leaving an indelible mark on young Vanya.

While all of the other children in the home persist that Vanya will live a good life with his new adoptive parents, Vanya only dreams about rejoining his birth mother. With the assistance of Irka (Olga Shuvalova), an older girl living in the children’s home, Vanya quickly learns how to read and uses his newfound knowledge by scanning his personal file and unearthing the whereabouts of his biological mother. Unbeknownst to those in charge, Vanya runs away from the orphanage and begins pursuing the mom he never knew.

What would have been an overtly sappy and schmaltzy movie in Hollywood’s hands instead comes off as a subtle and affecting picture in director Andrei Kravchuk’s control. In his feature film debut, this 2006 Foreign Language Oscar submission from Russia doesn’t attempt to hide the harshness of the world in which these orphans live, but also wisely decides not to overplay these factors for sentimental impact.

The wintry Russian backdrop helps to emphasize the cold and dreary environment that surrounds these kids, where continuous exploitation for labor use is apparent, along with a heavy amount of drug abuse and prostitution. These disastrous elements are all underscored, and they certainly aid in the understanding of Vanya wanting to escape this life.

Spiridonov does a remarkable job as six-year old Vanya in his feature film debut. Believable throughout the role, Spiridonov brings the needed warmth and heart to the movie, while also managing to exhibit gloom and hope through his simplistic facial expressions.

The film is not without flaws, as Kravchuk struggles to maintain focus by opening up too many outside doors pertaining to those in charge of the orphanage, and the rest of the kids who make up the home. Once Vanya’s search begins, the audience is hooked, but on too many occasions, the story is wrongfully interrupted to drive home the point of who the bad guys in the film are.

A tender and touching film based around a childhood of despair, The Italian doesn’t quite resonate with the impact it wants, but it also doesn’t lack in overall worth.

Disturbia

**/****     DISTURBIA (PG-13)

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 Academy Award nominated film Rear Window, starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly, told the story of professional photographer L.B. Jefferies. Jefferies is confined to a wheelchair because of a broken leg, and out of boredom he begins spying on his neighbors. Jefferies soon becomes convinced that one of his neighbors has committed a murder. A thrilling picture that ranks as one of Alfred Hitchcock’s best, Rear Window has now fallen victim to the remake world of Hollywood, thanks to D.J. Caruso’s Disturbia.

Rising star Shia LaBeouf stars as Kale, a depressed teenager who has become heedless and reckless following the death of his father. Kale’s misfit nature lands him in hot-water with the law, and he is soon sentenced to three-months house arrest. As his disciplinarian, his mother Julie (Carrie-Anne Moss) decides to revoke several priveleges, including Kale’s X-Box and iTunes. To fill idle time, Kale starts observing his neighbors with the aid of his binoculars.

At first, Kale’s voyeurism draws him towards Ashley (Sarah Roemer), the beautiful teenage bikini-wearing girl next door. But as Kale’s fascination with those who live around him continues, he begins to suspect that his neighbor Mr. Turner (David Morse) may be responsible for the recent kidnapping of an area girl that has captured media headlines. Kale and his friends soon become submerged in their efforts of uncovering the truth behind their mysterious neighbor.

Disturbia is a movie that is easily forgettable, but deserves praise for electing not to become a trite and predictable teenage horror flick. It may be an unnecessary homage to Hitchcock, but even in its attempts to cater the movie to an entirely different demographic than Rear Window, the film remains true to the suspenseful form of filmmaking that Hitchcock helped to pioneer. And similar to how 2005’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a romantic comedy centered around action elements, Disturbia is a romantic comedy with the added intrigue of a thriller.

LaBeouf continues with his string of strong performances, following his amusing performance in the 2006 ensemble Bobby and his tremendous work in the indie-drama A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints with a charismatic performance in Disturbia. LaBeouf is charming and has great comedic timing, both of which he is able to successfully showcase to a mainstream adult audience for the first time in this movie. LaBeouf carries much of the movie’s load, and delivers an effective and believable performance.

As the object of his romantic affection, Roemer (The Grudge 2) fits the role of titillater pefectly. For much of the movie, the audience simply ogles Roemer’s wet frame in a skimpy bikini, making it easy to understand a cooped-up teenager’s infatuation with the beauty, yet we never discover the details of why Ashley would be attracted to a pervert under house arrest who secretly views her during her most secluded moments. She, along with Kale’s best friend Ronnie (Aaron Yoo), join Kale in invading their neighbor’s privacy and they also help to lighten the overall mood of the film with witty remarks and actions.

Morse (16 Blocks, Down in the Valley) does an adequate job, given the material, but he is easily the most trite character of the movie. Unlike Rear Window where the suspense of the mysterious neighbor is perfectly captured by Hitchcock’s decision to never offer the audience a close-up view of the individual, Morse makes repeated appearances throughout the film that ultimately ends up running the movie’s tension leading up to the climax.

A standout picture in the wasteland of garbage geared towards teenagers, Disturbia is enjoyable, even though it lacks originality or substance.

The Reaping

1/2-a-star/****     THE REAPING (R)

The Plagues of Egypt are the ten calamities inflicted upon Egypt by God in order to convince Pharaoh to let the Israelite slaves leave, as recounted in the book of Exodus. The plagues include rivers and other water sources turning to blood, disease on livestock, hail mixed with fire and the death of the firstborn. Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 film The Ten Commandments depicted several instances of the plagues during its dramatization of the Biblical story of Moses, but it’s the recently-released horror film The Reaping that actually attempts to depict incidents of the plagues in modern times.

Hilary Swank stars as Katherine Winter, a former ordained priest who is now a professor at Louisiana State University and specializes in debunking religious phenomena. Katherine soon becomes aware of Haven, a small-town where a nearby river has turned to blood following the discovery of child Brody McConnell’s body. Katherine and her assistant Ben (Idris Elba) go on a mission to Haven, hoping to find scientific explanations for the bizarre occurences in the town.

Upon arrival, Katherine and Ben become engaged with the continuation of the strange events, and the people of Haven begin placing blame on the plagues on Brody’s younger sister Loren McConnell (AnnaSophia Robb). Loren belongs to an unsophisticated family that has become outcasts in the Haven community, and she draws the ire of the local citizens after she is spotted at the locations of the extraordinary incidents. But Loren is just as elusive as the reasons behind the abnormal activity, and Katherine is desperate to seek out the mysterious answers behind Loren’s involvement.

What starts as a semi-entertaining flick quickly becomes obscured and confused amongst the ridiculous and typical horror movie cliches. The movie’s pacing is effective in the early-going, with an uncomfortable mood and tone having been set. But as The Reaping’s story begins to unravel, the plot is thrown off-course and the hokey and predictable twists and turns of the horror movie genre begin to rear their heads.

Swank (Boy’s Don’t Cry, Million Dollar Baby) is a proven actress who makes just as many bad decisions as she does good decisions when it comes to selecting parts in movies. At this stage in her career, Hilary’s first role in a horror film since 2001’s The Gift is far more surprising than her work as a stereotypical school teacher in this year’s Freedom Writers, and is even more frustrating than her disappointing performance in Brian De Palma’s The Black Dahlia. Similar to Mel Gibson’s work of Graham Hess in M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs, Swank’s Katherine is someone fighting to rediscover her faith, but deficient character development and her unsympathetic nature help thwart the film’s direction.

Like Damien in The Omen, Samara in The Ring or Alessa in last year’s Silent Hill, Loren McConnell joins the growing laundry-list of demonic and possessed kids in horror films. But instead of allowing Robb to showcase her actual acting abilities, she is asked to play a sedated little girl with a dirty face and frumpy clothing. She is underused and far from scary, with the audience only sensing their is something puzzling about Loren because the movie’s characters continually tell us so.

Neither the wonderful Hilary Swank or the loveable AnnaSophia Robb manage to rise above the material in this cheap and silly film. And without a single fright, scare or thrill, The Reaping is without substance and without a need to be seen.

Firehouse Dog

*/****     FIREHOUSE DOG (PG)

An old proverb states: “Dog is man’s best friend.”  Over the years, movies and television shows have attempted to convince us of this fact by showcasing these loving relationships. We’ve seen Charlie Brown and Snoopy, Shaggy and Scooby Doo, and of course Timmy and his famous collie Lassie. This year’s Firehouse Dog is the latest to join the growing list of boy-and-canine loving companion films. And while it isn’t as endearing as My Dog Skip, Firehouse Dog also isn’t as excessively foul as Air Bud.

This time around, our four-legged friend is Rexxx, Hollywood’s top action-star from box-office hits “Jurassic Bark” and “The Fast and the Furriest.” Performing stunt work on his latest motion picture, Rexxx experiences parachute problems skydiving out of an airplane and he ends up finding himself lost in some remote location. In an effort to avoid the animal control officer hot on his tail, Rexxx hides out in an abandoned building that is soon set on fire.

Rexxx is rescued from the scene of the fire by Connor Fahey (Bruce Greenwood). Fahey is the captain of Engine 55, a worn-down fire station that is soon expected to consolidate with other area fire departments because of city budget cuts. Fahey is the single father of 12-year old Shane (Josh Hutcherson), who cares for Rexxx while they wait to find Rexxx’s rightful owner. But along the way, Connor and Shane and the rest of Engine 55 become captivated and enthralled with the station’s newest acquaintance.

Firehouse Dog is a story told in three distinct ways — one is the beformentioned budding friendship between boy and dog, another is a satire on the unique and solitary environment of Hollywood, and the final component highlights a world filled with moral depravity and government corruption. All are intriguing tales, but none of them are fascinating here, having been poorly crafted together. Tonally speaking, director Todd Holland (TV’s Malcolm in the Middle) struggles towards locating an appropriate balance for the film’s lighter, humorous moments and the movie’s overtly sappy and cheesy elements.

Several of the plot pieces are easily jumbled together, creating a confusing and muddled mess that unfortunately leaves behind important character developments. You gain a sense that Shane feels isolated and neglected, but it’s never understandable. You have a feeling that Connor is beginning to feel disheartened or discouraged by his job, but it’s not something you can readily comprehend. And you begin to perceive that Rexxx would much rather enjoy spending his life with the Fahey’s and the staff of Engine 55, but the opening scene gives off the impression that Rexxx is extremely well-cared for elsewhere.

With the action sequences having been ill-conceived and greatly contrived with an overemphasized score added to intentionally tug on the strings of your heart and play on human emotions, the film’s most intensified moments are far from thrilling because the characters involved feel so trifling and foolish at the most significant of times. In fact, the film portrays firefighters in such an absurd and ridiculous light, each of the off-key characters at the fire station closely resembles the Three Stooges more so than American heroes.

None of the actors truly stand-out, except for fourteen year-old Josh Hutcherson. And although it’s hard to attack his performance in Firehouse Dog, families would be far better suited to seek out his far better performance in this year’s far better family film, Bridge to Terabithia.