But you still need to activate your account.
In theaters
TAXI, directed by Tim Story, written by Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon and Jim Kouf, 105 minutes, rated PG-13.
In her rich, soulful new album of standards, “The Dana Owens Album,” the rap star and actress Queen Latifah takes a risk by once again pressing against expectations, deftly broadening her audience with smooth covers of such songs as “California Dreamin,'” “Hard Times,” “Hello Stranger” and “I Put a Spell On You.”
The album is a pleasure, exactly what Latifah fans have been waiting for since her Academy Award-nominated performance as the brassy Matron Mama Morton in the 2002 musical “Chicago.”
What isn’t such a pleasure is this new movie of hers, “Taxi,” which continues to find Hollywood stumbling to find its footing in the face of her impressive talent.
Since her rousing performance in “Chicago,” Latifah has been saddled with an industry whose laziness and lack of imagination have demanded that she play to ethnic stereotype. “Barbershop,” “The Cookout,” “Barbershop 2: Back in Business” and “Bringing Down the House” all were crowdpleasers that commented on black and white culture, but not without crossing the line into minstrel in an effort to do so.
As directed by Tim Story from a script by Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon and Jim Kouf, “Taxi” is a tired retread of the 1998 French film of the same name, but it isn’t the breakout movie this Queen deserves.
It’s a dim slog with few laughs that features the actress as Belle Williams, a Manhattan bike messenger-cum-cabbie whose souped-up wheels fly through the curiously uncongested streets of New York in ways that suggest you can drive through that city at 120 mph. As if.
When Belle teams with Jimmy Fallon’s Washburn, a washed-up cop with an aversion to cars who’s out to thwart a bevy of busty, bank-robbing Brazilian supermodels, we get a buddy movie crammed with chase scenes that finds Belle and Washburn trying to connect in spite of their initial dislike of each other.
I understand this is meant to be Fallon’s movie and this review hasn’t focused on him, but there’s a reason for that. Let’s call it what it is – dismissal. Fallon isn’t the interesting one here and he is certainly not the performer we will be watching 10 years from now – Latifah is.
Fallon is of the moment. Whatever jocular appeal he possessed on “Saturday Night Live” is lost in translation to the big screen.
As for Latifah, “The Dana Owens Album” confirms that at least the music industry knows it has something on its hands with her talent. Now it’s up to Hollywood to follow suit and figure out what the rest of us already know. Queen Latifah is ready for the A-list – and the better movies that go along with it.
Grade: D+
On video and DVD
RAISING HELEN, directed by Garry Marshall, written by Jack Amiel and Michael Begler, 119 minutes, rated PG-13.
Garry Marshall’s “Raising Helen” stars Kate Hudson as Helen Harris, a savvy New York fashionista relentlessly on the corporate climb and forever on the go.
She’s a free-swinging single, an executive assistant at a Manhattan-based modeling agency who is pushing to become a full-fledged agent, which she obviously has the moxie to do. With ease, Helen juggles supermodels, photo shoots, egos and runways as well as calls from Paris and Milan. She knows the right people, she has enough charm to be disarming, and most importantly, she has the support of Dominique (Helen Mirren), her icy boss with the chunky jewelry and severe hair who is so thin, she makes Vogue’s spindly Anna Wintour look downright Rubenesque in comparison.
Helen has the instincts of a corporate success, not a successful mother. Still, when her sister and brother-in-law are killed in a car wreck, it’s she – not her supermom sister, Jennie (Joan Cusack) – who is chosen to be the guardian of her sister’s three children (Hayden Panettiere, Spencer Breslin, Abigail Breslin). What’s the logic behind that, you might ask? Well, for starters, there wouldn’t be a movie without the plot twist.
As written by Jack Amiel and Michael Begler, “Raising Helen” follows Helen and the three kids from the bright lights of Manhattan to the cheaper flats of Queens. There, they are all given a dose of the “real world” when Helen loses her job thanks to Dominique’s belief that “children and fashion don’t mix.”
What’s a girl to do? Naturally, hook up with a strapping Lutheran minister played by John Corbett (“My Big Fat Greek Wedding”), who notes after Helen’s initial rejection of him that “I’m a sexy man of God, and I know it.” Miraculously, thunder doesn’t clap.
Also miraculous is that “Raising Helen” isn’t as bad as it sounds. Some real parents will marvel that in Helen’s world, all familial troubles – great and small – are vanquished with sitcom ease. Still, the kids are cute, some of the throwaway lines pack a surprising wit, and it never sinks to the lows achieved in Hudson’s more recent films, “Alex & Emma” and the woeful “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.”
Grade: C+
Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, 5:30 p.m. Thursdays on WLBZ 2 Bangor and WCSH 6 Portland, and are archived at RottenTomatoes.com. He may be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.
The Video-DVD Corner
Renting a video or a DVD? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those in bold print are new to video stores this week.
Against the Ropes – D
The Alamo – D
Barbershop 2: Back in Business – B+
Connie and Carla – B
The Day After Tomorrow – B
Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights – D
Dogville – B
Ella Enchanted – B
Envy – D
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – A-
Fahrenheit 9/11 – A-
50 First Dates – C+
Fog of War – A
George W. Bush: Faith in the White House – B-
The Girl Next Door – C+
Hidalgo – C
Home on the Range – C-
House of Sand and Fog – B+
The Human Stain – D
In America – A-
Jersey Girl – C+
Johnson Family Vacation – D
Kill Bill Vol. 2 – B
The Ladykillers – B+
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – A-
Man on Fire – B
Mean Girls – B+
Raising Helen – C+
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