Roger Ebert Reviews

"Holy Rollers" (R, 80 minutes). Jesse Eisenberg stars as a 20-something Hasidic Jew from Brooklyn Heights, moral and naive, who is tricked into becoming drug courier and later uses a gift for business to participate fully. Said to be based on a true story, the film is interesting but curiously detached; the low-key crime scenes and the suspense-free smuggling episodes seem unconvincing and lacking in energy. Two stars

"Splice" (R, 107 minutes). Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley play partners in research and romance who clone human DNA with genes from other animals and unexpectedly produce a child or a monster, take your pick. This creature, named Dren (nerd spelled backwards) is smart, fast-growing, and humanoid. Also very interesting, as are her "parents," but although the film starts on a thoughtful note, it sidesteps some of the implications of this new life form. All the same, it's well done, and intriguing. Three star

In global release. Playing at Chicago's Music Box June 4 - 10. The opening shots of the restored “Metropolis” are so crisp and clear they come as a jolt. This mistreated masterpiece has been seen until now mostly in battered prints missing footage that was, we now learn, essential. Because of a 16mm print discovered in 2008 in Buenos Aires, it stands before us as more or less the film that Fritz Lang originally made in 1927. It is, says expert David Bordwell, “one of the great sacred monsters of the cinema.”

"Marmaduke" (PG, 87 minutes). I don't mind talking animals in movies, as long as it's a voice-over narration. Most of the speaking roles in "Marmaduke" are by dogs (and a cat), and their dialog is all lip-synched. The effect is grotesque, especially when it appears on the scale of a Great Danes' drooling chops. The dog's family moves to California, there's a romance with a collie, a thrilling action scene involving a burst water main, and so on. So now you know. Rating: Two stars

Dennis Hopper's career began as an actor of alienation in movies like "Rebel Without a Cause." His career as a director began with "Easy Rider." His career as an art collector began went he bought one of Andy Warhol's soup can paintings for $75. His career as a drug abuser began at around the same time, and he told me, simply and factually, "I spent some time in a rubber room."

Q. Is there the slightest possibility that SATC2 is actually satirizing the shallow absurdity of its protagonists, but a large fraction of its audience has not realized that they are the target of its mockery? I suspect that the cast is also not in on the joke. If not, I may have to abandon my last shred of hope for the multiplex-going public. (Carl Zetie, Waterford, VA) A. Whatever else it is, it's not a satire. I suspect some of its box office appeal can be explained because it's like a social occasion: Women enjoy dressing up and wearing great shoes to attend it. A lot of that is a tribute to their fondness for the characters as they were seen on the original HBO series. The women of SATC2 are apples who have fallen far, far from the tree.

"Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" (PG-13, 116 minutes). Monumentally goofy swashbuckler about an urchin who becomes a prince, his father the king, his brothers, his evil uncle, and a beautiful princess who posses a push-button Dagger of Time. Shots of the actors are incorporated cleverly into incomprehensible special effects. Two stars.

For the purposes of watching “Survival of the Dead,” I'm perfectly willing to believe in zombies. It's a stretcher, however, to believe in an island off the coast of Delaware where life looks like outtakes from “Ryan's Daughter,” everyone speaks with an Irish accent, and there's a bitter feud between those who believe in capital punishment for zombies, and those who call for their rehabilitation and cure.

Some of these people make my skin crawl. The characters of "Sex and the City 2" are flyweight bubbleheads living in a world which rarely requires three sentences in a row. Their defining quality is consuming things. They gobble food, fashion, houses, husbands, children, vitamins and freebies. They must plan their wardrobes on the phone, so often do they appear in different basic colors, like the plugs you pound into a Playskool workbench.

"Father of My Children" (Unrated, 110 minutes). A workaholic French producer juggles projects and money and attempts to complete a troubled film by a perfectionist director, all the while trying to be a loving husband and father. The film is centered close to the heart of his family, and isn't about showbiz so much as work, love and duty. Evocatively acted. Winner of the special jury prize in the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes 2009. Rating: Three and a half stars

"Sex & the City 2" (R, 146 minutes). Comedy about flyweight bubbleheads living in a world where their defining quality is consuming things. They gobble food, fashion, houses, husbands, children, and vitamins. Plot centers on marital discord between Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Mr. Big (Chris Noth), a purring, narcissistic, velvety idiot? Later, the girls are menaced for immodest dress during a luxurious freebie in Abu Dhabi. Appalling. Sure to be enjoyed by SATC fans. One star