Capsule reviews of films opening this week:
"The Brothers Grimm" - There's no happy ending here, or a happy beginning or middle, for that matter. That's the one consistent thing in Terry Gilliam's latest film, which is plagued by inconsistency. Certainly, you expect some weirdness walking into one of Gilliam's movies, like "Time Bandits" and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," but those films had the benefit of a singular vision. Working from a script by Ehren Kruger, writer of "The Ring" movies, Gilliam is all over the place this time. It's as if he doesn't know what he wants his film to be. A loopy farce? A lavish costume piece? A high-energy action film? At times it even feels as if this is Gilliam's anti-war film, framed within the context of a comedic fairy tale. In the midst of all this madness are Matt Damon and Heath Ledger as brothers Will and Jacob Grimm, fictionalized incarnations of the real-life brothers Grimm, Wilhelm and Jacob. PG-13 for violence, frightening sequences and brief suggestive material. 118 min. One and a half stars out of four.
- Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic
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"The Cave" - You're already thinking it so we're just going to say it, get it out of the way: This looks like a rip-off of "Alien," because that's what it is. It's also a paltry pastiche of "Pitch Black" and "The Abyss" (which were also rip-offs of "Alien") and is available in a far more entertaining and enlightening fashion as a series of 3-D IMAX documentaries from James Cameron. Instead of outer space, first-time director Bruce Hunt and writers Michael Steinberg and Tegan West feign originality by taking us into inner space. The location of "The Cave" - with its inevitable mayhem and death - is a complex underground system miles below the Romanian forest, where all kinds of undiscovered species are sitting around, licking their chops and fantasizing about human flesh. Cole Hauser, Eddie Cibrian, Morris Chestnut and Piper Perabo play some of the good-looking, rugged scientists in peril. PG-13 for intense creature violence. 97 min. One and a half stars out of four.
- Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic
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"Undiscovered" - More like a pilot for a glossy nighttime soap on Fox - and probably a short-lived one - than a feature film with even a modicum of discernible originality. A gaggle of pretty people, all aspiring actors or singers or musicians, prowl around Los Angeles, where they are photographed with suitably edgy hand-held camerawork and swathed in the flattering glow of neon light. One of them is Luke (Steven Strait), the bad-boy singer-songwriter with a heart of gold who experiences a brief flash of fame and struggles to keep his feet on the ground. Little does he know that the hype was manufactured by friends Brier (Pell James) and Clea (Ashlee Simpson, whose father is one of the movie's executive producers, hence we are forced to watch her get up on stage and sing a lot). Bafflingly, Carrie Fisher shows up, and at least provides some much-needed humor and substance. PG-13 for sexual material including dialogue, partial nudity, language and drug content. 96 min. One and a half stars out of four.
- Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic
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