Brideshead Revisited

Ben Whishaw and Matthew Goode star in a new adaptation of Brideshead Revisited (Miramax)

We get a break from superheroes this week as a new adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's 1945 novel Brideshead Revisited comes to the big screen. PBS adapted Brideshead Revisited back in 1981. The very popular mini-series concerned class and religion in pre-war England, and it launched Jeremy Irons' career. But a mini-series has the luxury of time that a single feature film does not. So that's the challenge facing Julian Jarrold as he revisits Brideshead Revisited (opened August 1 at Landmark's Hillcrest and La Jolla Village Theaters) and must decide what to cut and what to hold onto from Waugh's novel. So while the PBS series got to cover more of the actual text, this new film offers a truncated but more narrowly focused version of the book.

Son of Rambow

Guerrilla filmmakers Lee Carter and Will Proudfoot (Paramount Vantage)

I doubt that Sylvester Stallone could have ever imagined that his 1982 action film First Blood could have spawned a British charmer called Son of Rambow (opening May 16 at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas). But this bastard offspring displays as much feisty, fighting spirit in its scrawny pre-adolescent body as Stallone's buffed out Vietnam vet ever did. And if you think being a one-man army is hell, just try being unpopular in school. That can scar someone for life. (You can listen to my Film Chat with Dwane and Maureen, which also includes discussion of another action spoof, OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies.)

Son of Rambow presents us with two very different young boys. Will Proudfoot (Bill Milner) is the eldest child of a fatherless Plymouth Brethren family. Being part of The Brethren means following a very strict moral code and living a life very separate from the rest of the world. So that means no pop music, no TV and definitely no American movies. Will's mother (Jessica Stevenson, Simon Pegg's co-star in the fun Brit series Spaced) tries to keep her family together but Will is feeling the pull of the outside world. He has somehow managed to convince her to let him continue attending public school.

The Other Boleyn Girl

Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman as sisters in The Other Boleyn Girl (Columbia Pictures)

The Other Boleyn Girl (opening February 29) serves up historical drama as if it were a Jacqueline Susann novel -- not a whole lot of historical fact but plenty of melodrama as two sisters vie for the affection of a king. But since Susann never covered the British royals, the film turns to Philippa Gregory's historical novel of the same name as source material. The story focuses specifically on events leading up to Henry VIII's second marriage to Anne Boleyn. The film covers some of the same bodice ripping bedroom terrain as the recent cable series The Tudors. But on the big screen, Eric Bana is not as sexy or sulky a monarch as Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Although the new film definitely serves up higher caliber casting when it comes to the Boleyn girls themselves with Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson as sisters Anne and Mary.

The New World/Interview with Q’Orianka Kilcher

Everyone probably knows the story of Captain John Smith and Pocahontas.

JOHN SMITH: At the moment I was to die she threw herself upon me

Pocahontas is celebrated for saving the life of Smith, an English soldier in Jamestown who was to have been put to death in 1608 by the Indian princess father. Filmmaker Terence Malick uses this famous incident as the leaping off point for a lyrical mediation on love in The New World.

Despite a long career, Malick hasnt made many films. In fact, hes only made four in three decades. But with each successive work, hes been more inclined to dispense with dialogue and instead to rely on images to tell his story. So his visually stunning films Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line and now The New World have become progressively more poetic.

The Best and Worst of 2006

South Korea's A Bitter Sweet Life

As 2006 comes to an end, it's time to reflect back on the films that came out during the year to sort out the best from the worst. First of all, in determining the best of the year there are always a few films that have quirky releases, and I never know whether it's fair to include them or not. But two films that played for only a day each at the San Diego Asian Film Festival deserve mention even if they never received a theatrical release here.

Hou Hsiao Hsien is quite simply one of the world's premier filmmakers. For Three Times, the Taiwanese director serves up three segments involving a romance and each set in a different time period but with the same pair of actors (the lovely Shu Qi and Chang Chen) performing the leads. Hou's film explores how the culture and social limitations of each era affect the relationships of the characters. The film is ravishing to look at, with Hou crafting a dazzling and deceptively complex work. A film of a very different nature but equally worth checking out is Kim Ji Woon's A Bittersweet Life from South Korea. With A Bittersweet Life Kim delivers an action film with a dark soul and aching vulnerability buried at its heart. If you can find either of these on DVD, check them out. They would make my Ten Best in any year.

Richard III/Interview with Sir Ian McKellan

Sir Ian McKellan leads the cast of Shakespeare's Richard III (MGM)

British actor Sir Ian McKellen first brought his brand of Shakespeare to San Diego in 1987 when he performed his Ian McKellen: Acting Shakespeare at the Old Globe Theater. Earlier this month, he stopped by the KPBS studios to speak with These Days film critic Beth Accomando about his latest film Richard III.

IAN McKELLEN: It begins very quietly, no words are spoken, its the tap of a Morse code, its the whine of a dog, its the scrap of a knife and fork on the plate as Richard's first victim has his last supper. Then a dog starts barking and in comes Richard III riding on a tank. Then the sound continues and we hear Richard's heavy breathing through the gas mask hes wearing [takes deep breaths in and out] and I'm breathing in the rhythm of blank verse whether you know it or not and then I shoot my second victim and the movie starts.