sorana_necula_reset

The director Shekhar Kapur's remake of ''The Four Feathers'' is a tepid, shallow tributary of larger, deeper bodies of waters like the historical revisionist film dramas ''Last of the Mohicans'' (which was also a remake) and ''Little Big Man.'' Heath Ledger stars as Harry Feversham, an officer in Queen Victoria's army, full of mellow bonhomie and a cheeky modesty. In the late 1800's he and his unit are in training in the British Army, and ''Feathers'' gives us a protracted and reverent look at their life. Harry and his best pal, Jack Durrance (Wes Bentley), wearing a silly smirk that suggests he can't believe he's being paid for his bad British accent, are mad over Ethne. (Ethne is played by Kate Hudson, who seems to have been hired for balance: she possesses the one mock English accent worse than Mr. Bentley's.) But Ethne is wild about Harry. When the friends' unit is assigned to fight ...

Dad's dead, Mom's got a boob job and baby brother's got a cougar fiancee in director Shawn Levy's fitfully engaging family dramedy. Sitting shiva makes the heart grow fonder (and the libido rage and the repressed grievances runneth over) in “This Is Where I Leave You,” a sprawling ensemble dramedy that starts out like a full-tilt sitcom and gradually migrates to a place of genuine feeling. Repping a concerted effort by “Night at the Museum” and “Cheaper by the Dozen” helmer  Shawn Levy to spread his wings beyond the gilded cage of family-friendly tentpoles, this alternately manic and mawkish adaptation of  Jonathan Tropper ’s 2009 novel aims for “Kramer vs. Kramer” and “Terms of Endearment” territory and ends up somewhere closer to a Semitic “Home for the Holidays” or “August: Osage County.” But a tremendous ensemble cast gives the pic a significant boost, especially when they’re allowed to act rather than merely act out.   Even the name of its harried protagoni...