Friday, May 09, 2008

Do you have the need for speed?

Well, "Speed Racer" is a fast mover of a movie - all action and color and spectacle. But at 134 minutes, there's a lot of spinning of wheels in the story, too. Also, the Wachowski brothers don't know whether they're aiming at kids (who get the comic antics of Speed's little brother Spritle and chimp Chim-Chim) or at older viewers (who can tolerate the mild profanity and violence).

But "Speed Racer" is a masterpiece compared with "What Happens in Vegas," a mean-spirited and humorless romantic comedy that exhausts whatever charms and sex appeal that stars Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher had.

David Mamet's "Redbelt" is a curiosity, a kick-boxing drama that casts the always-good Chiwetel Ejiofor ("Talk to Me," "Children of Men") as the prototypical Mamet hero: The one steadfast guy upholding his personal code of honor, even when beset by liars and deceivers. But Mamet overstuffs his movie with shady side characters (with a cast that includes Tim Allen, Alice Braga, Rodrigo Santoro, Emily Mortimer, and Mamet regulars Ricky Jay and Joe Mantegna) who gum up the works.

The Broadway has a delightful documentary, "Young@Heart," which profiles the members of a Massachusetts community choir - average age 80 - who sing rock 'n' roll standards. The stories of these senior singers are, by turns, humorous and touching.

Best of this week's lot, by far, is Thomas McCarthy's "The Visitor." This gentle and moving drama stars Richard Jenkins (a veteran character actor, best known as the deceased father in "Six Feet Under") as a widowed professor who discovers two undocumented aliens - a Syrian musician and his Senegalese girlfriend - living in his Manhattan apartment.