Friday, Feb. 15, 2008

Look before you leap into "Jumper"

By Gary Wolcott, Special to the Herald

The quantum physics String Theory says there are multiple dimensions we don’t know about and the ability to use them means you could actually be somewhere before you leave. Or something like that. It’s a fascinating hypothesis that is way beyond me, and apparently beyond the creative talent of Jumper.

Hayden Christensen (Star Wars’ last Darth Vader) is a guy who can look at a picture and — presto — he’s there. Ping-ponging about the planet via decent special effects, he lunches atop the head of Egypt’s Sphinx, robs banks, has a nice pad and lives an opulent but rather meaningless existence.

A bad guy called a Paladin appears and wants to kill him. He’s played by Samuel L. Jackson, who sports hair white-as-wool done in a futuristic design to make him look bad. It succeeds. And do read that in the negative.

Meeting the Paladin drives the jumper to the woman he loved but left. They head for Rome, meet another jumper and more bad guys show up. They fight. She’s confused, he’s confused — heck — at this point, we’re all confused.

Not about what’s happening but about why. You never learn why jumpers jump or why the bad guys hunt them down and kill them. All you hear is that the Paladins think jumpers go bad. Hopefully they don’t go as bad as this movie, but you never know.

Quantum physics is about energy, and for a film involving energy, Jumper has precious little and a plot with holes bigger than those the characters leap through. That may be on purpose. When you gaze through those holes do you see the same letters I see? S-e-q-u-e-l.

Mr. Movie rating: 2 1/2 stars.

Rated PG-13 for mature themes, some violence. It’s playing at the Columbia Mall 8 and at Fairchild Cinemas.

The Spiderwick Chronicles

The Spiderwick Chronicles is based on a series of popular children’s books. Freddie Highmore (Charlie & the Chocolate Factory) plays half of a set of twins who move into a batty old aunt’s haunted home. Mom and dad are divorcing, and it’s the only place they have to go.

Jared, the angry twin, finds a book that details an invisible world filled with odd, supernatural creatures. The book has magical powers that hold off a dangerous demon whose ambition is to have those powers for himself. If he gets the book, the world as we know it ceases to exist.

The fun and adventure come from how the two brothers and their swashbuckling sister keep all that evil at bay.

If done slower, this material is boring. Director Mark Waters (Freaky Friday, Mean Girls) doesn’t dawdle. He gets right to it and keeps a steady, and even sometimes frenetic, pace. You don’t have time to pick at the flaws.

And that works for me because nothing beats a good fairy tale for bringing out the kid in you. Pack one with fairies, ogres, griffins and plenty of action and I’m hooked.

Mr. Movie rating: 4 stars.

Rated PG for mature themes. It’s playing at the Columbia Mall 8 and at Fairchild Cinemas.

Definitely, Maybe

Most years, Hollywood treats us to a reasonably good love story on Valentine’s Day weekend.

This year it’s Definitely, Maybe.

Ryan Reynolds (Van Wilder) is a soon-to-be-divorced dad arm-twisted into telling his daughter (Abigail Breslin) how he and mommy met. As he winds through several years of personal history and the many women in his life, his daughter — and the audience — is supposed to guess the identity of mommy.

If, by the time you get there, you actually care.

Definitely, Maybe wallows in the shallow waters of unsatisfactory and unfinished love stories. It misses the perfect opportunity to save itself at the 90-minute mark.

Sugar is the order of the day on Valentine’s Day, and if you’re diabetic, skip this one. It wastes a wonderful performance from Breslin, a nice cameo by Kevin Kline and, of course, your time. No maybe. Definitely.

Mr. Movie rating: 2 1/2 stars.

Rated PG-13 for mature themes. It’s playing at the Carmike 12 and at Fairchild Cinemas.

Offside

The first offering of the Battelle Film Club’s spring series is Offside, a 2006 film from Iran. In that nation, and other predominantly Muslim nations, women are banned from sporting events. Offside looks at a group of women arrested while trying to sneak into a World Cup soccer match.

Considering that he did much of the movie at the Iran vs. Bahrain game, I admire writer/director Jafar Panahi for the courage it takes to do a film with a feminist point of view in a society that doesn’t usually tolerate that attitude. But like the game of soccer, his one-note movie doesn’t have enough plot or punch to ramp up much of a score.

Mr. Movie rating: 3 stars.

Rated PG for mature themes. It plays tonight only at the Battelle Auditorium at 8 p.m.