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Movie Review Archives A-L</b></font></center></td>
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Movie Reviews M-Z ...</b></font>
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<p>Following are capsules and ratings for past movies starting with the letters A-L. You can also post your own movie reviews for other Sussex Countians to read on <b><a href="http://www.sussexcountyonline.com/sussexcountyonlinecgi/discus/show.cgi?55/55.html">our Movies Forum</a></b> or view movie review archives for <b><a href="archivesm-z.html">letters M-Z</a></b> or see reviews for <b><a href="index.html">the latest releases</a></b>.</p>


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Movie Review Archives A-L ...</b></font>
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<font face="Helvetica"><b>
Ratings System:</b></font>

<ul><font face="Helvetica" size=-1><b>
<li>4 STARS -- Excellent.
<li>3 STARS -- Worthy.
<li>2 STARS -- Mixed.
<li>1 STAR -- Poor.
<li>0 -- Forget It.
<li>NR -- Not rated
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<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
15 Minutes</b></font>

<p>Ace cop Eddie Flemming (Robert De Niro) is a celebrity. He feeds and milks the local media, especially a "live at 5" specialist in TV tease-and-pounce named Hawkins (Kelsey Grammar). The film starts with a pair of mean-looking Slavic crooks, the Czech Emil and the Russian Oleg, who land in New York to collect money from an old job. The men kill their contacts, then spin off to more murders and extortion as Oleg decides he will simply beat any rap in soft, stupified America by pleading insanity. This slam-bang sells the sordid excitement of creepy shocks, pitches the leprous glamour of hard New York, while also pulling out the stops as a message "drama." It takes less than 15 minutes to see that this slick rampage is just the old Charles Bronson grinder, extruding pulp - mighty ripe for video. Cast: Robert De Niro, Edward Burns, Karel Roden, Oleg Taktarov, Melina Kanakaredes, Vera Farmiga. Running time: 1 hr., 44 mins. (Elliott) Rated R. <b>1 1/2 stars</b>.</p>

<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
Along Came a Spider</b></font>

<p>Morgan Freeman plays Alex Cross, a detective and published expert on serial killers, and when a senator's daughter is abducted, he is called in for sage guidance. Michael Wincott, whose cheekbones are pillars of intensity, plays the cruel, cerebral abductor as if morphing into Norman "Raskolnikov" Bates. The movie becomes a police procedural, a linear stretching of pieces as Cross teams with Monica Potter, the more dewy, blondish Julia Roberts, playing a young detective. There is a quirky, rather inane tangent involving the son of the Russian ambassador, a brainy kid most alive around his computer. The story never works on any level but the glossy, manipulative surface. Cast: Morgan Freeman, Monica Potter, Michael Wincott, Michael Moriarty, Penelope Ann Miller. Running time: 1 hour, 42 minutes. (Elliott) Rated R. <b>2 stars</b>.</p>

<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
Angel Eyes</b></font>

<p>Stars Jennifer Lopez as Chicago police officer Sharon Pogue. The film is a J.Lo vehicle and perhaps <img src="images/lopez.jpeg" width="200" height="200" align=right border=0 ALT="Jennifer Lopez, Angel Eyes">a J.Cav breakthrough. Jim Caviezel plays Catch, Sharon's catch in the increasingly gummy story. He and Sharon meet rather oddly, then keep meeting more closely until she tumbles that she met him long before, but not as Catch. She comes from a family damaged by spousal abuse. He has his own family secret, a tragedy that has made him an amnesiac. This J.Lo show becomes a taut laundry line of flapping hankies in the Joan Crawford tradition. There are scenes of ritual, revelation, rehabilitation. You can feel your heart not just being pulled, but being flush-pumped by a sentimental cardiologist. Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Jim Caviezel, Sonia Braga, Terrence Howard, Victor Argo, Shirley Knight. Running time: 1 hr. 40 mins. (Elliott) Rated R. <b>2 1/2 stars</b>.</p>

<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
The Animal</b></font>

<p>Rob Schneider stars in "The Animal," a dog of a movie. Schneider is Marvin Mange a guy who desperately wants to be a policeman like his late father. Only he can't pass the physical endurance test. One day he's in a near fatal crash and a deranged scientists decides to stuff him with animal parts. Now that he's Steve Austin-ed on the cheap, he's faster, stronger, but not one bit wiser. Colleen Haskell from the first "Survivor" co-stars as his tree-hugging girlfriend. 1 hr., 30 minutes. (McCormick) Rated PG-13. <b>No stars</b>.</p>

<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
Blow</b></font>

<p>Ted Demme's film has Johnny Depp as George Jung, a real figure. The bright New Englander escaped to California sun, surf, chicks and --  manna of the new dawn -- marijuana, everyone lighting up the '60s party well into the '70s. George goes with the new flow deep into cocaine, and takes up with lethal Colombian drugmasters. The smack really smacks George, with the law, with his bad new partners, with a coked Colombian beauty (Penelope Cruz), who seizes upon him as a cute guy and a ticket to faster deliveries. The film at its best has Depp and some depth - the giddy, shallow depth of a life lived fast, hard, doped and criminally self-defeating. Cast: Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Rachel Griffiths, Paul Reubens, Ray Liotta, Max Perlich, Bobcat Goldthwait. Running time: 2 hrs. (Elliott) Rated R. <b>2 1/2 stars</b>.</p>

<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
Bridget Jones's Diary</b></font>

<p>"Bridget Jones's Diary," a best-selling 1996 book about an unhappy London bachelorette, is now also a movie: "Unhappy," in this case, refers to the reaction of the book's UK fans when they learned Bridget would be played by Renee Zellweger, a Texan. Rest easy, skeptics: Not only does Zellweger make like Meryl Streep in the accent department, but she inhabits the role of the brooding Bridget with a flustered charm. She is, in fact, better than the movie. Not that "Bridget" is bad: The film makes for deft (if weightless) entertainment, with amusing turns by Hugh Grant and Colin Firth as romantic rivals. But some scenes do feel as though they're fresh off some romantic-comedy assembly line, commissioned to crank out Bridget widgets. Rated R. <b>2 1/2  stars</b>.</p>

<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
The Brothers</b></font>

<p>The film centers on four lifelong buddies in Los Angeles who are trying to navigate love's battlefield. Jackson (Morris Chestnut) is a pediatrician who's afraid of love and commitment. Brian (Bill Bellamy) loves playing the field and doesn't believe men should settle for one woman. Derrick (D.L. Hughley) is the married one in the bunch. Terry (Shemar Moore), is a former playboy who's rethinking his ways. The guys bond over basketball and beer and use the court as a place to let their guard down. But when Terry announces he's getting hitched, the other three use his announcement as a jumping-off point to examine their own relationships, or, lack thereof. In this film, the men may be kings of the castle and have the most screen-time, but it's the women who wear the pants. Cast: Morris Chestnut, D.L. Hughley, Bill Bellamy, Shemar Moore, Tamala Jones, Gabrielle Union, Jenifer Lewis, Tatyana Ali. Running Time: 1 hr., 43 mins. (McCormick) <b>2 stars</b>.</p>

<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
Cast Away</b></font>

<p>Tom Hanks plays Chuck Noland, a trouble-shooter for the FedEx delivery system, on his way to Asia when his plane hits a storm and drops into the Pacific Ocean. Suddenly, he's Robinson Crusoe. Chuck suffers injuries, deals with a wretched tooth, learns to spear fish and split coconuts, uses the nuts to save rainwater, and develops a chummy relationship with a piece of FedEx flotsam. "Cast Away" doesn't reach for big, metaphoric meaning, like "Hell in the Pacific." It has the rugged simplicity of one man's ordeal, with Hanks mumbling little pep talks to himself, sometimes cursing his luck, dreaming of ice, dropping his spare-tire flab. "Cast Away" is a good yarn book-ended by a weak opening and finish. But the movie runs past its naturally satisfying climax. Cast: Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt. Running time: 1 hour, 53 minutes. (Elliott). Rated PG-13. <b>3 stars</b>.</p>

<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
The Claim</b></font>

<p>Michael Winterbottom's thickly textured Western set in a Sierra Nevada mining town that, though way up above the valley, figures the new railroad is coming its way. Peter Mullen is the dominating, greedy patriarch, too buried in beard to have much charisma, and the females flickering through include Milla Jovovich, Sarah Polley, Nastassja Kinski. The atmospherics (snow, smoke, whores, rascals) are in debt, but poetically inferior to those in Altman's "McCabe and Mrs. Miller," and the slow reach for tragic depth (source: Hardy's "Mayor of Casterbridge") is more than this crafty, handsome movie can quite manage. 1 hr. 54 min. (Elliott). Rated R. <b>2 1/2 stars</b>.</p>

<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
Company Man</b></font>

<p>The nudge-nudge gag that runs through the pitifully puerile "Company Man" is that the cockamamie attempts on Fidel Castro's life are taken from real-life cockamamie attempts by the real-life CIA. The thing of it is, the real-life CIA is funnier. Douglas McGrath plays Quimp, a milquetoast high-school grammar teacher who claims to be a CIA agent in order to impress his overachieving brothers and would-be yuppie wife (Sigourney Weaver). The Company has to take him on board when a Russian dancer (Ryan Phillippe) visiting Quimp's school decides to defect, and Quimp, pitching in as a Driver's Ed teacher, brings him in from the cold. Jokes are set up, then abandoned. Vapid, predictable bits unspool interminably. And the outtakes stink worse than the movie itself. Cast: Douglas McGrath, Sigourney Weaver, John Turturro, Woody Allen, Alan Cumming, Anthony LaPaglia. Running time: 1 hr., 21 mins. (Salm) Rated PG-13. <b>No stars</b>.</p>

<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
Crazy / Beautiful</b></font>

<p>Kirsten Dunst plays Nicole, a sloppy, halter-topped, "party hearty" babe with a terrific smile, but little real heartiness - a boozing, giddy candidate for wreckage, even suicide, and feels victimized by her status (her father is an L.A.-area congressman, they live in a pristine box of modernism in Pacific Palisades, and Nicole's mom was a suicide). Nicole scoops up a young Chicano hunk named Carlos (Jay Hernandez), an aspiring, future Annapolis man from the barrio. It may be a triumph of young love from the commercial textbook, but the main characters are much too alive to be merely object lessons, and that makes the film special. Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Jay Hernandez, Bruce Davison, Herman Osorio, Soledad St. Hilaire. Running time: 1 hr., 35 mins. (Elliott) Rated PG-13. <b>3 stars</b>.</p>

<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles</b></font>

<p>This third installment (the last was in 1988) of Paul Hogan's lucrative franchise has Aussie Mick Dundee, his American girlfriend (Linda Kozlowski) and their son (Serge Cockburn) heading for L.A., allowing Hogan to recycle SoCal cliches: the Jacuzzi gag, the "Let's do lunch" exchange, the earthquake reference, the "I gotta call my agent" line, the colonic irrigation fad. It's all somewhat listless, and that's too bad - there's a lot of charm in Hogan, his Dundee character and the gentle humor of the Dundee movies. Sporting a plot worthy of a "Barnaby Jones" episode, and directed by the erratic Simon Wincer, Dundee III contains a couple of naughty words, some less-than-extreme violence and a great deal of mild, good-natured, though pretty much exhausted humor. 1 hr., 35 min. (Salm). Rated PG. <b>2 stars</b>.</p>

<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
Down to Earth</b></font>

<p>This is a new take on the 1978 Warren Beatty/Julie Christie vehicle, "Heaven Can Wait," in which a pro quarterback (Beatty) is yanked up to heaven too soon, then given the opportunity to return to Earth in another body. Instead of a star quarterback, however, Chris Rock plays a bike messenger/amateur comedian named Lance Barton, whose ambition is to knock 'em dead on the famed Apollo Theater's final night. Lance is given temporary custody of the body of mogul Charles Wellington, a pudgy, elderly white guy. We, however, continue to see Lance (Rock) on screen. The bulk of the humor supposedly comes from this pudgy, elderly white guy talking and moving and getting off on things like ... well, like Chris Rock. This isn't his A-level material, but it's enough to make you want to walk out of the theater and into a video joint to rent a Chris Rock concert tape. As long as you're there, pick up "Heaven Can Wait." Cast: Chris Rock, Regina King, Mark Addy, Eugene Levy. Running time: 1 hr., 20 mins. (Salm) Rated PG-13. <b>1 1/2 stars.</b></p>

<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
Dr. Dolittle 2</b></font>

<p>Please, never a 3. Eddie Murphy bottoms-out his talent, once so edgy and sharp, as the nice vet and henpecked dad who can talk to animals. They talk back through computerized lips, and most of the gags are excruciatingly elementary or childishly vulgar. It isn't really a movie, it's a TV sitcom shoved into theaters to sell the coming video release. Even San Francisco seems tired, used-up. 1 hr. 32 min. (Elliott). Rated PG. <b>1 star</b>.</p>

<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
Driven</b></font>

<p>"Driven" was written by Sylvester Stallone, who stars as Joe Tanto, legendary has-been of the Grand Prix circuit, a man who "blew it," but returns to racing in mid-season. He has been hired chiefly to put extra fire behind red-hot, rising but nervous star Jimmy Bly (Kip Pardue). Bly's key rival is current champ Beau Brandenberg (Til Schweiger). Stallone has opened his Rocky Balboa Golden Book of Screencraft: stark motives for everyone, rushes of adrenaline, bald confrontations, clear resolutions, some heartache, heroism, smiles at the end. "Driven," true to its hyped agenda, so motorized, so expertly edited, leaves viewers either frantic for speed or ready for golf carts. Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Burt Reynolds, Gina Gershon, Kip Pardue, Cristian de la Fuente, Til Schweiger, Robert Sean Leonard, Stacy Edwards. Running time: 1 hr. 49 min. (Elliott) Rated PG-13. <b>2 1/2 stars</b>.</p>

<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
Enemy at the Gates</b></font>

<p>Old-fashioned, the Stalingrad epic "Enemy at the Gates" could have virtually been made during World War II, minus its steamy sex scene, a few jolts of carnage and some digitalized effects. The French director Jean-Jacques Annaud, using an $80 million budget, gives us some sense of the titanic destruction and chaos, but almost no sense of the battle plans. Annaud tightens the focus more by reducing the conflict to a mano-a-mano between the celebrated Russian sniper Vassili Zaitsev (Jude Law) and the Bavarian aristo and marksman Maj. Konig (Ed Harris). Zaitsev's political commissar Danilov (Joseph Fiennes) promptly sums up the duel as "the essence of the class struggle." No, it's the essence of old westerns. This slaughter fest will find its fans. Cast: Joseph Fiennes, Jude Law, Ed Harris, Rachel Weisz, Bob Hoskins, Ron Perlman, Eva Mattes. Running time: 2 hrs., 4 mins. (Elliott) Rated R. <b>2 stars</b>.</p>

<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
Exit Wounds</b></font>

<p>Some sort of distillation of excrement - low even for a Steven Seagal film. He is the Detroit "rogue" cop sent to the worst precinct because, well, he saved the vice president's life. DMX is his cool-dude enemy turned friend, and lots of goons, thugs, whores, walls of muscle and hip-hop attitude cruisers are shoved through the Joel Silver meat grinder of mindless chases, smashes, deaths; even the bad dialogue offers little satisfaction. In the press kit, at least, these people are artists. 1 hr., 27 mins. (Elliott). Rated R. <b>No stars.</b></p>

<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
Evolution</b></font>

<p>There is a good opening shot, of a meteor breaking up, the big chunk landing near a big lunk, Wayne (Seann William Scott). The rock totals Wayne's car, shocks his meager mind, then confounds a pair of cutely sleuthing geologists, Ira (David Duchovny) and Harry (Orlando Jones). The thing burrows into a cave and starts morphing from stone to one-celled life to flatworms to creepo gizmo aliens to what seems the Abominable Space Snowman. Harry, Ira and Wayne rush around catching or avoiding the ickies, a mall is terrorized, the town is evacuated, a general (Ted Levine) seeks to napalm the county and the governor arrives like a nuke bomb of bluster (Dan Aykroyd). Evidently a spoof of space monster pictures, "Evolution" proves the theme can be dinked to death, or at least to silly banality. Cast: David Duchovny, Julianne Moore, Orlando Jones, Seann William Scott, Ted Levine, Dan Aykroyd. Running time: 1 hr., 30 min. (Elliott) Rated PG-13. <b>2 stars</b>.</p>

<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
Finding Forrester</b></font>

<p>Jamal (Rob Brown) is supposedly a genius from the raw Bronx, a 'C' student at school, but a master reader of serious books and a great memorizer. His secret wizardry is detected, and he is given a scholarship to an elite private school, but mainly to bolster the basketball team. Playing pick-up games with his buddies, Jamal has been observed by an old man who lives as a comfy hermit on the top floor of a building nearby. Forrester (Sean Connery) wrote a Pulitzer-winning novel in 1953, then fled the celebrity game and further publication. He befriends the boy by opening his life and lets the boy jab away at a manual typewriter. When Jamal submits his piece to the excruciatingly demanding Prof. Crawford at school, the pedant twitches with suspicion. The film reaches for inspiration sloggingly, solemnly, its facile drama allowing too many practiced posturings by Connery. Here is the sort of package that, for lack of a loftier label, can sadly be called "Oscar bait." Cast: Sean Connery, Rob Brown, F. Murray Abraham, Anna Paquin, Busta Rhymes. Running time: 134 minutes. (Elliott) Rated PG-13. <b>2 stars</b>.</p>

<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
Freddy Got Fingered</b></font><br>

<p>The audience gets the finger from this lame, inanely undeveloped comedy about a boy-man, 28, who wants to be an animator, but seems clueless. He stays at home doodling and making life miserable for his parents (scrawny Julie Hagerty, and sometimes amusingly hysterical, butt-baring Rip Torn). Lanky human 'toon Tom Green stars, directed, wrote and messed up his own "Citizen Lame." He goes for cheap grossers, or he wrecks sets and vehicles, while avoiding any connective, comical rhythm. The "meat music" number is a bit special, but we also get bits about erotically inflamed animals, the insane childbirth scene, a sado-maso rocket scientist who is also an airhead, and some dismal humor about child molestation (and lying about it). Wasted are Drew Barrymore, Marisa Coughlan and, well, everyone. 1 hr. 30 min. (Elliott). Rated R. <b>1 star</b>.</p>

<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
Get Over It</b></font>

<p>The sublime and the stupid collide in this teen comedy, which features a musical version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and many shots of a sex-crazed dog. The appealing Kirstin Dunst and Ben Foster star as high-school buddies destined to become more than friends, once they get his broken heart and a gorgeous ex-girlfriend out of the way. It's totally predictable, but thanks to R. Lee Fleming Jr.'s genial script, Tommy O'Haver's campy direction and the combined skills of a snappy cast (especially Martin Short as a pompous drama teacher) this is 90 minutes of good - if not squeaky clean - fun. It's mindless, but it isn't stupid. 1 hr., 30 mins. (Karla Peterson) Rated Pg-13. <b>2 1/2 stars.</b></p>

<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
Hannibal</b></font><br>

<p>The first film was clammy and vile, the new one has more pedantic manipulations. "Hannibal" is about the mystique of Lecter, enjoying the sadomasochistic pleasure of reeling in Starling on the twisting line of story. Since Lecter is "hiding" in Florence, we get to view the grand piazzas, and go to the opera, and hear Lecter reciting from Dante. Moore has her steel-wired, lucid intensity as Starling, and Foster's country accent. She challenges Lecter long-distance before confronting him, while lesser figures feed the doctor's appetite. The ending of Thomas Harris' book has been altered rather cutely. We can guess that another sequel is in the offing, suggested by Starling with her line about Lecter, "He's always with me. Like a bad habit." This is a habit we could all afford to break. Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Julianne Moore, Ray Liotta, Giancarlo Giannini, Francesca Neri. Running time: 2 hours 11 minutes. (Elliott) Rated R. <b>1 1/2 stars</b>.</p>

<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
Heartbreakers</b></font><br>

<p>Jennifer Love Hewitt plays Page, the daughter half of a mother-daughter con-artist team led by mom, Max (Sigourney Weaver). Max lures and marries wealthy man, denying him sex for religious reasons, then pretends to conk out on the wedding night. The next day, the frustrated groom is easily seduced by hotsy-totsy Page. Max catches the pair about to be in the act, files for quickie divorce with a sizable settlement, and it's on to the next chump. The two motor to Palm Beach to scout for the big, big score. Max zeroes in on a tobacco magnate (Gene Hackman). Meantime, semi-clad Page has sauntered into a beach bar and set about insulting and abusing the bar's laid-way-back owner, Jack (Jason Lee). When it comes to light that the bar rests on land worth millions, Page decides to reel him in. Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Gene Hackman, Ray Liotta, Jason Lee. Running time: 2 hrs., 3 min. (Salm) Rated PG-13. <b>2 stars</b>.</p>

<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
The Invisible Circus</b></font>

<p>The novice stunner Jordana Brewster plays Phoebe, a California girl who goes to Europe to decipher the mystery of her sister's suicide. The sister is played as a '60s free soul turned radical by lovely yet symbolic Cameron Diaz, and the hippie era is like a nostalgic decal (so is the radicalism). But Brewster is remarkably fresh in her brisk, worried vitality, and there is good work by Christopher Eccleston as a haunted lover, and by Blythe Danner as the girls' pained mother. Adam Brooks wrote and directed with some succulence, though he telegraphs themes. 98 minutes. (Elliott). Rated R. <b>3 stars</b>.</p>

<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
Joe Dirt</b></font>

<p>Very few movies can make you laugh, cringe and feel dirty, all at the same time. This isn't Oscar-winning stuff, but if you look beyond the sight gags and muddled plot, you might find a gem of a moral. Joe Dirt (David Spade) is a mullet haircut and acid-wash-jeans-wearing poster boy for poor white people. He's got a heart of gold and a mission in life - to find the parents who "lost" him during a trip to the Grand Canyon in 1975. Along the way, he settles in a small town, where he befriends the beautiful Brandy (Brittany Daniel) after saving her dog one frozen night. With Brandy, Joe feels like the king of the world, and she feels like his queen. The problem is, Joe is too dense to realize she loves him much more than as a friend. Will Joe find his family? Or will he find he had it all along? That's what you'll have to unearth for yourself. You dig? 1 hr, 33 mins. (McCormick). Rated PG-13. <b>1 1/2 stars</b>.</p>

<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
Josie and the Pussycats</b></font>

<p>Three girls in a rock band, each a fluffed marvel of mall attitude (though Rachael Leigh Cook is adorable and fairly bright as the lead singer) are processed for instant pop-buzz fame by a pompous British packager (Allan Cumming, too bitingly aggressive to be much fun). The movie lampoons fake celebrity, banal cultism and crass commercialism by getting gaudy and hyper-cute, and whomping across its product plugs. Some real hipsters on hand, like Seth Green, Parker Posey and Eugene Levy, are simply grist for the grinding. It's mindless. 1 hr. 34 min. (Elliott). Rated PG-13. <b>1 1/2 stars</b>.</p>

<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
Just Visiting</b></font>

<p>One minute, 12-century French nobleman Thibault is enjoying a feast celebrating his impending nuptials to the lovely Lady Rosalind. The next minute, a cup of spiked wine has him running his lady-love through the heart with a sword. Then he downs yet another potion that will send him back in time so he can undo the damage he has just done. Thibault (Jean Reno) and his manservant, Andre (Christian Clavier), end up in an medieval-history exhibit in a modern-day Chicago museum, surrounded by curious school children. So Thibault and Andre take refuge with the kind-hearted Julia Malfete (Christina Applegate), a member of the Malfete dynasty. "Just Visiting" isn't terrible, but it isn't terribly good, either. Cast: Jean Reno, Christina Applegate, Christian Clavier, Matthew Ross, Malcolm McDowell. Running time: 1 hr., 28 mins. (Peterson) Rated PG-13. <b>1 1/2 stars</b>.</p>

<font face="Helvetica" size=+2><b>
A Knight's Tale</b></font>

<p>William (Heath Ledger), Roland (Mark Addy) and Wat (Alan Tudyk) are squires to a knight who has expired just before a final jousting run. Too bad, because he was way ahead on points, and the guys sure could use the prize money. But wait -- William could don his armor; only noblemen are allowed to compete, but who'll know the diff? William triumphs, and gets it in his head that their winnings should be invested in training and gear for more tournaments. He can claim a noble background, wield that lance and they'll all get rich. "A Knight's Tale" stumbles near the end, by injecting a hokey Horatio Alger message, but one needn't pay it any mind: There's simply too much fun in all the other stuff. Anachronisms be damned! Knights -- start your engines! Cast: Heath Ledger, Mark Addy, Rufus Sewell, Shannyn Sossamon, Alan Tudyk. Running time: 2 hrs., 12 mins. (Salm) Rated PG-13. <b>3 stars</b>.</p>


<p>Capsules compiled from movie reviews written by David Elliott, film critic for The San Diego Union-Tribune, and other staff writers.</p><br>

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Sussex<br>
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From<br> <a href="http://www.beach-net.com">Beach-Net!</a></font>


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<li><a href="http://www.beach-net.com/Thingshome.html">Activities</a>
<li><a href="http://www.bethanycam.com">Bethany Cam</a>
<li><a href="http://www.beach-net.com/Dinehome.html">Dining</a>
<li><a href="http://www.beach-net.com/Events.html">Events</a>
<li><a href="http://www.beach-net.com/Fishinghome.html">Fishing</a>
<li><a href="http://www.beach-net.com/Lodgehome.html">Lodging</a>
<li><a href="http://www.beach-net.com/maps/maps.html">Maps</a>
<li><a href="http://www.beach-net.com/REhome.html">Real Estate</a>
<li><a href="http://www.rehobothbeachcam.com">Rehoboth Cam</a>
<li><a href="http://www.beach-net.com/Shophome.html">Shopping</a>
<li><a href="http://www.beach-net.com/Surfhome.html">Surfing</a>
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<font size=-1>* Beach-Net! is a service of Coastal Images Inc., Fenwick Island, Delaware.</font>
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