BC-CAPSULE:PH – entertainment (4420 words)

Capsule reviews of feature films

By Steven Rea and Carrie Rickey

Knight Ridder Newspapers

(KRT)

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS 1 1/2 stars. In this disappointing and fussy adaptation of Jules Verne’s classic novel, Jackie Chan joins an eccentric inventor (Steve Coogan) who accepts a bet that he can circumnavigate the globe in 80 days. The fun is much more sporadic than in the 1956 Oscar-winning film of the same name. PG (crude humor, action violence) – Carrie Rickey.

THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK 1 1/2 stars.Vin Diesel reprises his intergalactic muscleman sourpuss role from the 2000 sci-fi sleeper “Pitch Black,” but this time out the results are less “Alien and “Mad Max” and more “Dune” and “Stargate.” That is, kind of bad – and really dumb. PG-13 (violence, profanity) – Steven Rea.

DODGEBALL: A TRUE UNDERDOG STORY 1 1/2 stars. Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller are rival gym owners who fight it out on the dodgeball court. This strenuously uncouth comedy doesn’t have much on the ball. PG-13 (crude language and mock violence) – David Hiltbrand.

SOUL PLANE 2 stars. Just as a broken watch is right twice a day so a shotgun spoof hits some of its targets as does this raunchy comedy in the Airplane! vein that stars Kevin Hart as the brother who founds the first black-owned airlines. With Snoop Dogg and Tom Arnold. R (explicit sexual candor, drug jokes) – Carrie Rickey.

THE STEPFORD WIVES 2 stars. Network exec Joanna (Nicole Kidman) is fired and wakes up with a Prozac hangover in the Connecticut hamlet of Stepford. This uneven satire based on the 1975 sci-fi thriller suggests that Joanna is a candidate for reprogramming by milquetoast men who’ve had it with the way overachieving women run things. PG-13 (profanity, sexual candor) – Carrie Rickey.

THE TERMINAL 2 1/2 stars. Tom Hanks stars and Steven Spielberg directs this uneven mix of comedy and pathos about an Eastern European visitor trapped at JFK Airport, learning what America, and Americans, are like in the mall-like space of the International Transit Lounge. PG-13 (adult themes, profanity) – Steven Rea.

WHITE CHICKS 2 1/2 stars. Impersonating a pair of spoiled white socialites allows Marlon and Shawn Wayans to play fast and loose with race, gender and class distinctions in this crude but amusing farce. PG-13 (crude and sexual humor, profanity, drug content) – David Hiltbrand.

RATINGS:

4 stars: Excellent; 3 stars: Good; 2 stars: Fair; 1 star: Poor

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