Borstal Boy, Changing Lanes, The Cherry Orchard, Frailty, Human Nature, The Sweetest Thing

Big Trouble
Based on "humorist" Dave Barry's novel, Big Trouble tells the story of how a mysterious suitcase brings together and changes the lives of a motley-ass group of people played by a motley-ass ensemble cast that features Tim Allen, Janeane Garofalo, Rene Russo, Stanley Tucci, and many many more. Metro

* Chop Suey
Reviewed this issue. Bruce Weber's stunning cinematic collage with a side of beefcake. Reviewed this issue. Varsity

Doing Time, Doing Vipassana
A documentary about a female inspector general who introduces Vipassana meditation to inmates at India's largest and toughest prison. Little Theatre

FEAST OF FRANCE
This week: Lola. Seattle Art Museum

FREE FAMILY FILMS
This week: The perfectly trippy Alice In Wonderland. Seattle Asian Art Museum

High Crimes
Not a Cheech & Chong movie, but a thriller starring Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman directed by Carl Franklin, who did the wonderful Devil in a Blue Dress and the terrible One True Thing. Judd plays a woman whose husband is accused of murdering civilians in El Salvador as a covert military operative; she enlists the help of a "wild card" attorney played by Freeman. Drama ensues. Metro

I'm the One That I Want
Margaret Cho's hilarious concert film of her one-woman show returns. Egyptian

Invasion of the Blood Farmers
"Spring Sucks," the late-night series at the Grand Illusion, presents this flick about druids who draw blood from their victims to keep their queen (in a Plexiglass coffin) happy. Sort of like Scientology. Grand Illusion

National Lampoon's Van Wilder
And so once again National Lampoon's attempt to reclaim those cinematic "glory days" falls miserably flat. As a comedy, National Lampoon's Van Wilder offers maybe one or two laughs--not the hearty, spazzy laughs, mind you, but slight chuckles, possibly minor snorts. A zany college romp that tries to be Animal House for a new generation, this film lacks both the zaniness and the wit that made the Delta Brothers' movie so entertaining. Stay away. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER) Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Varsity, Woodinville 12

* Open Screening
This monthly screening series at 911 is one of the most hit-or-miss events in town: no curators here, merely willing hosts to whoever submits a film. For only $1, however, it's also one of the best deals. (BRUCE REID) 911 Media Arts Center

* Revolution OS
See Stranger Suggests. An insightful and thought-provoking documentary about Linux, the tech revolutionaries taking on Microsoft. Little Theatre

* Son of the Bride
Reviewed this issue. An Argentinian film about a man's epiphany and the world around him's stubborn refusal to acknowledge it. Reviewed this issue. Guild 45th

* Sonic Cinema: Sparklehorse
Virginia-based band Sparklehorse commissioned filmmakers to make visual accompaniment for its album It's A Wonderful Life, featuring the excellent macabre animators the Brothers Quay and Jem Cohen, who directed the impressionistic documentary Benjamin Smoke. JBL Theater at EMP

VIOLENCE IN CINEMA
The Northwest Alliance for Psychoanalytic Study sponsors this film series, which will take place every first Friday for the next six months. They explain: "This year we move beyond the theme of Eros and the experience of Beauty, which is the cornerstone of mental health, to explore the roots of the violent destruction of the mind's linking capacity that ordinarily sustains an inner world where love is dominant over hate." This week the Alliance shows Unforgiven. Seattle Asian Art Museum

Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?
This 1989 Korean film follows three men living in a Buddhist monastery as the eldest, a Zen master, is dying. Grand Illusion

* Y Tu Mamá También
See Stranger Suggests. A sexy Mexican road movie with serious underpinnings. Reviewed this issue. Egyptian

40 Days & 40 Nights
Josh Hartnett may be a hunk, but said hunkiness is not nearly enough to save 40 Days & 40 Nights, the latest example from director Michael Lehmann to prove that, Heathers aside, he is a complete hack. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER) Meridian 16, Redmond Town Center

All About the Benjamins
Ice Cube plays a bounty hunter in Miami who repeatedly chases down a small-time crook played by Mike Epps. They stumble upon a $20 million diamond heist and team up to get the loot. Lewis & Clark, Pacific Place 11

A Beautiful Mind
Stories about the insane are an inherent paradox. Because for a story to be compelling, it has to have rules, and an inner logic, whereas mental illness doesn't have rules, and treats logic as just another way of seeing. John Nash (Russell Crowe) plays the Nobel Prize-winning mathematician who suffered from schizophrenia. With a deft directorial touch, the paradox of Nash's world could really come to life. But that would take more of a talent than Ron Howard. (MICHAEL SHILLING) Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center, Woodinville 12

Black Hawk Down
As a filmmaker, Ridley Scott is an ad man forever in search of a product to sell. In Black Hawk Down, there are several competing products, including Military Hypocrisy, Uncommon Valor, and African Savagery, but in the end the bill of goods boils down to the hoariest chestnut of all: War is Hell. Like any good shill, this director can't be bothered to let messy details like politics, reason, or history overcomplicate his pitch. (SEAN NELSON) Northgate

Blade II: Bloodhunt
This sequel to the 1998 original stars Wesley Snipes as human/vampire warrior Blade, based on the Marvel Comics character. It's not the particulars or the plot that matters of course. It's the great action sequences, and Snipes looking sexy and threatening. (NATE LIPPENS) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Meridian 16, Oak Tree, Woodinville 12

Clockstoppers
A teenager accidentally activates a machine that enables him to make time stand still. So did the director when he picked up a camera. Factoria, Meridian 16, Oak Tree, Redmond Town Center, Woodinville 12

Death to Smoochy
Driven by adults' universal aversion to pervy, purple, children's TV characters, Danny Devito's dark comedy is adequately raunchy, but ultimately forgettable. There's nothing really wrong with the dour turns by Devito, Ed Norton, and Robin Williams (who relishes every expletive and throws himself into violent outburst with decent results), but the script simply isn't deviant or developed enough to hold up, and the idiotic pseudo-conflict tacked on the end is simultaneously forced and boring. Besides, co-star Catherine Keener is far too sharp and sexy to be wasting her time in such underbaked satires. (HANNAH LEVIN) Factoria, Redmond Town Center, Uptown, Varsity, Woodinville 12

E.T. (20th Anniversary)
Childhood is never quite as magical when you revisit it. Case in point: the 20th anniversary re-release of E.T. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER) Cinerama, Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Pacific Place 11, Woodinville 12

Escaflowne
An anime classic by Kazuki Akane. Pacific Place 11

* Gosford Park
Set in 1932, Gosford Park is a meta-mystery, meaning the setting, figures, and tropes of a murder mystery form the frame for the real concern (or concerns): class and gender rivalries; the rise of mass entertainment; and the dark history of the industrial revolution and British imperialism. (CHARLES MUDEDE) Aurora Cinema Grill, Majestic Bay, Pacific Place 11, Seven Gables

Harrison's Flowers
One of the many sad consequences of the brutal war in the former Yugoslavia has been the steady succession of bad films that have attempted to address it. Harrison's Flowers is the latest addition to this sorry list. (CHARLES MUDEDE) Pacific Place 11

Ice Age
The recent boom in computer animation bodes well for the next generation, as their childhoods will hopefully not be squandered on lame-ass 2-D Disney musicals. Pleasant and funny, this movie is littered with enough sophisticated jokes to entertain the adults, but is really nothing more than a fast-paced, shimmering toy for kids. Which is just the way it should be. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Majestic Bay, Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree, Woodinville 12

* In the Bedroom
This langorous, beautifully acted film about erotic and familial entanglements in a small Maine fishing town one summer builds up to three moments of utter emotional brutality so severe that the long moments in between them thrum like high tension wires. (SEAN NELSON) Lewis & Clark, Metro, Uptown

Iris
The brilliant British writer and philosopher Iris Murdoch (Judi Dench, Kate Winslet), a woman who lives most decidedly in the world of ideas, succumbs to the dementia of Alzheimer's, "sailing into darkness" as she so rightly puts it. (EMILY HALL) Broadway Market, Metro

* Italian for Beginners
The characters of Italian for Beginners begin in a state of despair. This being a romantic comedy, their lives begin to intersect through a series of coincidences--coincidences that could feel contrived, but due to the rough integrity of the script, performances, and direction (shaped in part by the monastic rigors of the Dogme 95 ethic), they feel like the organic waywardness of life. (BRET FETZER) Harvard Exit

Kissing Jessica Stein
Three things are readily apparent within the first 10 minutes of Kissing Jessica Stein: Though the film ostensibly is about two straight women who decide to go lesbo and fall in love, Jessica Stein will end up with the guy she currently despises. Also, despite both women taking a freshman crack at the girl-girl thing, one is clearly more invested in the concept than the other. Finally, the too-close camera shots, the emphasis on fast, witty banter, and the overacting will be a niggling annoyance throughout the film. (KATHLEEN WILSON) Guild 45th

Last Orders
The talents of six of the finest British actors alive are squandered by this moist little movie about a journey to deliver a dead man's ashes to the seaside. (SEAN NELSON) Broadway Market

Monsoon Wedding
At first, it seems like Mira Nair is just doing family drama. The film is stylish, brisk, witty, and beautifully filmed. But within the patchwork of marriage melodrama, Monsoon Wedding presents a subversive argument about the insidiousness of progress and its fluid relationship with tradition. (SEAN NELSON) Harvard Exit, Redmond Town Center

Monster's Ball
Monstrous Balls is more like it. Hank is a racist prison guard (Billy Bob Thornton, perfect), son of a retired racist prison guard (Peter Boyle, who doesn't even try an accent), and father of a young, non-racist prison guard (Heath Ledger, who tries his hardest) in a Georgia State Penitentiary death row. Hank falls into a desperate affair with Leticia (Halle Berry, semi-plausible), a black woman, after both of their sons die. (SEAN NELSON) Meridian 16, Metro

* No Man's Land
War is--guess what?--hell in this story of the Bosnia-Serbia conflict, circa 1993. Surrounded by UN "peacekeepers," clumsy media vultures, and their warring rival factions, two soldiers cross into the zone between the bullets and clash about the war's origins and costs. (SEAN NELSON) Broadway Market

The Panic Room
The clever and tightly orchestrated twists and turns never rise above thriller formulas driven by utter cliches. (BRET FETZER) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Meridian 16, Neptune, Oak Tree, Woodinville 12

Resident Evil
If you're going to be foolish enough to make a movie out of a video game, this here is the way to do it. If you're a fan of the game, go see it. If you find yourself ridiculously baked, go see it. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER) Lewis & Clark, Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center

The Rookie
In The Rookie, Dennis Quaid and Disney bring to the screen the real-life story of a baseball player-turned Texas high-school science teacher-turned baseball player. (SONIA RUIZ) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Majestic Bay, Meridian 16, Metro, Woodinville 12

Showtime
Eddie Murphy and Robert De Niro star in this unlikely-buddy-cop film that satirizes reality cop shows on TV. Ker-snooze. Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Meridian 16, Oak Tree, Woodinville 12

* The Son's Room
Directed by and starring Nanni Moretti, this film tells the story of Giovanni, an Italian psychiatrist, and his family, as they struggle in the wake of a horrible tragedy. It's a heart wrenching drama that focuses on the finely tuned performances of Moretti and his wife, played by Laura Morante. (NATE LIPPENS) Uptown

Sorority Boys
To save money three frat boys go undercover in drag at a sorority. Sexist? Stupid? Both. It's Bosom Buddies with nudity starring the heartthrob without a pulse from Seventh Heaven. (NATE LIPPENS) Factoria, Lewis & Clark, Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center, Woodinville 12

The Time Machine
Guy Pearce and his cheekbones star in this update of the H.G. Wells sci-fi landmark. Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center, Woodinville 12

* Trembling before G-d
A thoughtful documentary on gay and lesbian Orthodox Jews. (NATE LIPPENS) Metro

We Were Soldiers
Scrawny little bastard Mel Gibson stars in this jingoistic turd of a Vietnam War film. Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Woodinville 12