Film

Monday, October 30, 2006
A guide to movies from a family perspective:

"Marie Antoinette"

_ Rated: PG-13.

_ Suitable for: Teens and above.

_ What you should know: Sofia Coppola wrote and directed this sympathetic, music-soaked take on the teen royal (Kirsten Dunst).

_ Language: Nothing notable.

_ Sexual situations and nudity: Naked body shown from behind, a flash of breast, talk of an unconsummated marriage, passionate embraces and kisses.

By PHIL VILLARREAL
Monday, October 30, 2006
"Jerry Maguire" is more than "Show me the money" or "you had me at hello." It's more than Cameron Crowe's crackling writing, Tom Cruise's cheshire grin, Renee Zellweger's pouting lips and Cuba Gooding Jr.'s diva athlete histrionics.

"Jerry Maguire" is more than a standard date movie, because of all the sports references, and it's more than just a sports movie, because of all the lovey-dovey stuff.

The film is what it is because of what the Gooding's Rod Tidwell character would describe as "quan" _ that intangible quality that lifts something from the basic to the sublime.

By JOHN HAYES
Sunday, October 29, 2006
The knee-jerk on the left: Al Franken _ wry, satirical, nitpicking and combative, a dumpy Democratic Everyman with a sense of humor.

The knee-jerk on the right: Ann Coulter _ cuddly as nails on a blackboard, combative and nitpicking , a raging Republican femme fatale with legs up to here.

Put them together on stage with a milquetoast moderator and watch the mushroom cloud rise.

In "God Spoke," the producers who made James Carville a star in "The War Room," which trained its cameras on Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, follow the former "Saturday Night Live" comedian, political author, co-founder of the Chapter 11-protected liberal talk-radio network Air America, and presumptive senatorial candidate from Minnesota in the run-up to what looks like a 2007 political campaign.

The scene described above is a clip from a knock-down-drag-out debate pitting Franken against Coulter in what plays like a grudge match for the most polarizing political talking head.

By PHIL VILLARREAL
Sunday, October 29, 2006
With "Flags of Our Fathers," "The Last King of Scotland" and "Marie Antoinette" opening in many cities this weekend, it's time for an early Oscar forecast.

By BETSY PICKLE
Sunday, October 29, 2006
"Flags of Our Fathers" may be the most frustrating movie you'll ever love.

Director Clint Eastwood weighs in on the Greatest Generation with this film adaptation of the nonfiction best seller about the men who fought on Iwo Jima _ both the ones who died and the ones who survived and were touted as heroes, especially those hailed for raising the U.S.

By PHIL VILLARREAL
Friday, October 27, 2006
Set in the late 1970s, "Heading South" is a socially minded drama about women who grew up with "Beach Blanket Bingo" and turned to Beach Blanket Monopoly at a Haitian resort.

While Haiti buckles under Duvalier's despotism, resort workers on the coast prop up a facade of paradise.

By BETSY PICKLE
Friday, October 27, 2006
The month of May might have dibs on the Kentucky Derby, but October is turning out to be the month for horse movies.

"Flicka" arrives on theater screens almost exactly one year after "Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story." Like "Dreamer," "Flicka's" central characters are a girl, the horse she loves and the hard-nosed father whose respect and attention she's trying to win, and also like "Dreamer," the girl started out as a boy.

By CARLA MEYER
Friday, October 27, 2006
"The Prestige" plunges us into a world of deception as means, end and as the whole point, really. Twists wait around every corner as two fiercely competitive magicians (Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman) one-up each other, onstage and off, to highly invigorating effect.

Director Christopher Nolan ("Batman Begins") lends the film a strong sense of urgency that reflects the passion with which these men view their craft.

By ROBERT DENERSTEIN
Thursday, October 26, 2006
ALL THE KING'S MEN (C-) A mostly stagnant attempt to breathe new life into Robert Penn Warren's classic 1947 novel, already made into an Oscar-winning movie in 1949.

By ROBERT DENERSTEIN
Thursday, October 26, 2006
I can't think of a time when I've felt more sympathy for what a filmmaker was trying to accomplish than while watching "Marie Antoinette," the latest film from director Sofia Coppola.