Based on the short-lived 2002 Fox TV series “Firefly,” this miraculous spin-off feature tells the tale of a small rag-tag group of outlaws and lost souls aboard the rust bucket space ship Serenity. After rescuing one of their crew, a psychic named River (Glau), from a security facility, the crew finds her emotionally unstable and discovers that she has been programmed to let loose in violent, room flattening outbursts when a subliminal message is broadcast in her vicinity. As Captain Mal Reynolds (Fillion) flees the coldly lethal government operative (Ejiofor) sent against them, he endeavors to decipher the federation-shattering secret that River carries buried in her head. This extremely likeable and original science-fiction adventure plays like a thinking man’s underdog version of “Star Trek.” Serenity’s crew is a morally grey but honorable and ultimately justified bunch and one roots for them passionately and feels their shocking losses strongly. Thematically and iconically it’s somewhat reminiscent ...

  “The Phantom of the Opera” tells the story of orphaned ingénue Christine Daae (Emmy Rossum) who is taught by a masked tutor living beneath the Opera Populaire in Paris. In love with Christine, the deadly Phantom (Gerard Butler) will stop at nothing to put Christine in the spotlight, but though initially attracted, even deluded, Christine is ultimately repulsed by his impulsive violence and his deformed appearance. Gaston Leroux’s crowded tale of mystery, terror and tragic romance has stirred filmmakers’ imaginations for over 80 years and has been adapted over a dozen times for film, stage and television. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s smash hit stage musical is undoubtedly the most successful of them, having run on Broadway, London and internationally since 1986. Joel Schumacher’s film adaptation of the Webber musical comes fairly late in the game (too late by far for stage leads Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman, originally going to appear in a 1990 ...

  “The Last Samurai” is a sweeping, sprawling epic devoted to character, a specific geographical location and a mindset locked in a moment of time. Tom Cruise stars as Captain Nathan Algren, a tortured soldier who served under Colonel George Armstrong Custer in the genocidal battles against the Cheyenne American Indians. During his time with Custer, Algren got to know the Cheyenne and grew to respect their way of life. Under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Bagley (played with surprising ease by Tony Goldwyn), Algren was responsible for the deaths of many American Indian women and children in an outright massacre. Tormented and haunted by those memories, Algren has become a lost soul seeking solace in liquor. However, his life changes radically when he becomes part of a military detachment sent by the United States President to Japan, where American political and business interests hope to open up Japanese markets once they get the ...

  Shane Black as a scriptwriter has been hit-and-miss with the audiences. “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang” evenly divides the audience again—viewers will either love this move or hate it. The cock-eyed and intricate plot will lure crime story aficionados and drive away others who prefer a more streamlined approach. The slapstick humor combined with the bloody violence will likewise repel and attract. Downey’s voice-over, as Harry Lockhart, especially with the way he plays with the viewer and goes back and forth in time because he can and because he wants to, will cause another rift. Black’s first movie starred Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, “Lethal Weapon”, and was the kind of buddy-flick he became known for. “The Last Boy Scout” with Bruce Willis and Damon Wayans followed, then “The Last Action hero”, an Arnold Schwarzenegger film, and “The Long Kiss Goodnight” with Samuel L. Jackson and Geena Davis. All of those films, like “Kiss Kiss, ...

  From 1979 to 1985, “The Dukes of Hazzard” was televised every week, detailing the over-the-top and sometimes silly adventures of Bo and Luke Duke, along with their Uncle Jesse and cousin Daisy, as they fought against the machinations of Boss Hogg and Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane to rip off the hardscrabble citizens of Hazzard County. The series might have started out as serious fare, with tongue in cheek, but quickly migrated to slapstick humor and commentary by the narrator, Waylon Jennings. Jennings even made fun of the situation in the theme song, saying his momma always wondered why they kept showing his hands but not his face on TV. The series premise was that Bo and Luke had once run moonshine that their Uncle Jesse made; he had once been a runner too. But Bo and Luke had been put on probation by the judge for running Uncle Jesse’s shine. Uncle Jesse had ...