The Salina Journal from Salina, Kansas • Page 28

D4 FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 2006 encore! SALINA AQUAMARINE CENTRAL Rated PG Two eighrti-graders (Emrna Roberts and JoJo) befriend a mermaid (Sara Paxton) who has three days to prove to her merfa- ther that love'exists. The girls have a crush on a lifeguard (Jake McDorman) but are too young for him to date, so they coach the menmaid. Meanwhile, a mean blond girl (Arielle Kebbel) and her posse cause everybody a lot of trouble before they are defeated and humiliated. Fairly simpleminded, but awfully sweet. Showtimes: 4:20, 7:20 and 9:50 p.m.

today; 1:20, 4:20, 7:20 and 9:50 p.m. Saturday; 1:20, 4:20 and 7:20 p.m. Sunday; and 4:50 and 7:20 p.m. Monday through Thursday. CURIOUS GEORGE CENTRAL Rated Faithful to the spirit and innocence of the famous books, with a visual look that's uncluttered and charming.

George the monkey follows the Man in the Yellow Hat (Will Ferrell) back from Africa and has adventures in New York. Frankly and cheerfully a children's movie for smaller kids. Showtimes: 4:30 p.m. today; 1:30 and 4:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; and 5 p.m.

Monday through Thursday. DATE MOVIE CENTRAL Rated PG-13 A variety of unwelcome sights pepper this lame attempt to satirize romantic comedies ranging from "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" to "Hitch." Alyson Hanniqan (Band Girlin the "American Pie" movies) looks for romanticlove after a gargantuan weight loss and a stomach-churning makeover Robert Denersfein, Scripps Howard News Service. Showtimes: 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. today and Saturday; 7:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday.

EIGHT BELOW CENTRAL Rated PG Eight sled dogs are left behind when a scientific expedition has to pull out of Antarctica ahead of a winter storm. Their master (Paul Walker) desperately wants to return for them but is overruled by superiors, and by the fierce weather. Convincing and sometimes breathtaking footage of the dogs and their story, intercut with a more mundane human narrative. Showtimes: 4, 7 and 9:40 p.m. today; 1,4,7 and 9:40 p.m.

Saturday; 1, 4 and 7 p.m. Sunday; and 4:30 and 7 Monday through Thursday. FAILURE TO LAUNCH CENTRAL Rated PG-13 A 35-year-old man (Matthew McConaughey) still lives at home with his parents. They dream of being empty-nesters and hire Sarah Jessica Parker, a specialist at getting grown men to move out of their parents' homes. She makes them fall in love with her, gets them out of the house and dumps them.

The guy is just as bad, using his parents as a way to dump girls after Tie sleeps with them. Characters in this movie are bitten by a chipmunk, a dolphin, a lizard and a mockingbird. If justice were done, a shark would appear in the last reel or better still in the first one. Showtimes: 4:20, 7:20 and 9:50 p.m. today; 1:20, 4:20, 7:20 and 9:50 p.m.

Saturday; 1:20, 4:20 and 7:20 p.m. Sunday; 4:50 and 7:20 p.m. Monday through Thursday. HILLS HAVE EYES CENTRAL Rated A family on vacation is touring nuclear test zones when they stop at the only gas station in 200 miles and a slobbering degenerate helpluify suggests a shortcut. That makes them prey for a demented mutant incestuous cannibalistic pickax gang.

The family members bravely do one stupid thing after another. The idea of survivors living in a nuclear wasteland is intriguing, but not if they have survived only to kill and are great disappointments when it comes to conversation. Showtimes: 4, 7 and 10 p.m. today; 1, 4, 7 and 10 p.m. Saturday; 1, 4 and 7 p.m.

Sunday; and 4:30 and 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday. MATCH POINT ART CENTER CINEMA Rated One of Woody Allen's very best films, a thriller about a rich British family and two outsiders (Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) who hope to enter it by using their sex appeal. Meyers marries rich and beautiful Emily Mortimer; Johansson is engaged to Mortimer's brother, rich and handsome Matthew Goode, but they are more attracted to each other Smart, devious, charged with lust and fear Some people "don't like Woody Allen films," but this isn't a "Woody Allen film" but simply a great thriller Showtimes: 5 and 7:30 p.m. today; 2, 5 and 7:30 p.m.

Saturday and Sunday; and 5 and 7:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday. "Manhattan Short Film Festival Finalists," 9:45 tonight. THE SHAGGY DOG CENTRAL Rated PG Tim Allen plays a prosecutor who is trying his daughter's high school teacher, torched a lab that was experimenting on animals. Allen is bitten by a 300-vear-old dog from a monastery and periodically turns into a dog himself, which makes both his srofessional and personal lives much more difficult.

Robert Downey Jr is the animal experimenter. There is an age above which this movie is unnecessary, and it may be in the low double digits. Showtimes: 4:10, 7:10 and 9:40 p.m. today; 1:10, 4:10, 7:10 and 9:40 p.m. Saturday; 1:10, 4:10 and 7:10 p.m.

Sunday; and 4:30 and 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday 16 BLOCKS CENTRAL -k-k-k Rated PG-13 Bruce Willis plays a tired, middle-aged detective with a booze problem who is assigned to transport a witness (Mos Def) 1 6 blocks to a grand jury hearing. This turns out to be dif- ficu because many people want the witness dead. Willis plays the cop as a man who has been pushed once too often and pushes back. Mos Def plays the witness as a goofy motormouth who may have something serious going on beneath his nonstop monologue.

Showtimes: 10, 7:10 and 10 p.m. today; 1:10, 4:10, 7:10 and 10 p.m. Saturday; 1:10. 4:10 and 7:10 p.m. Sunday; and 4:40 and 7:10 p.m.

Monday through Thursday. ULTRAVIOLET CENTRAL Rated PG-13 This film is intended as futuristic, comic-book re-envisioning of the 1980 John Cassavetes film "Gloria." Milla Jovovich stars as Violet, an angry young woman who's lost her husband and her baby after tJeing infected with a blood disease. And ifs given her mind-bogglingly complex martial-arts skills. "Ultraviolet" wants desperately to be a provocative, high-concept action thriller about fear and terrorism, paranoia and racism. But it looks more like a shampoo commercial (Christy Lernire, The Associated Press).

ShowHmes: 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. today; 1:30, 7:30 and 9:30 Saturday; 1:30, 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday; 5 and 7:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Reviews by Roger Ebert unless otherwise noted.

Movie times can be found on the Almanac page daily. TOP GROSSING FILMS v.S^'*> 1 1 Madea's Family Reunion $12.6 $47.7 2 16 $11-9 $11.9 3 2 Eight Below $10.1 $58.6 4 Ultraviolet $9.1 $9.1 5 Aquamarine $7.5 6 3 The Pink Ponlher $6.9 $69,7 7 Dove Chapelle's Block Party $6.2 $6.2 8 4 Dole Movie $5.1 $40.7 9 5 Curious George $4.5 $49.3 10 6 Firewall $36 $42.5 Source; Exhibitor Relations of Morch 3-5 IHS lAST WEEK WEEK 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 TOP RENTAL FILMS Saw II Nortfi Country The Weather Man Domino Flighlplan Just like Heoven Elizabelhtown Zaihura Waiting Doom NEW DVDS SALINA LIBRARY Arthur's Family Fun Eorly to Bed Early ta Rise I Spy: A Mumble Monster Mystery The Lion in Winter Elmo's Sing-Along Guessing Game Source: Billboard magazine Bradshaw bares it all Former football star bares body in movie, soul in interview By DOUGLAS J. ROWE Tlie Associated Press NEW YORK Pssst. Wanna see Terry Bradshaw naked? What's that you say? Should be good for a laugh, if you don't turn into a pillar of salt first? That's OK with Bradshaw. As usual, he did it to make you crack up.

Bradshaw bares all in "Failure to Launch," in which he co-stars with Oscar-winner Kathy Bates as the parents of a 35-year-old man (Matthew McConaughey) stillllving at home. They're reduced to hiring a woman (Sarah Jessica Parker) to seduce their son and induce bin: to leave. Once he's out, his I 'oom becomes daddy's Naked Room. "Not that 1 got a lot to show off here. But I I 'eally thought, and I think I'm right," Bradshaw said, "you seeing my butt is a shocker "I just thought it shows the people that I've got the guts to do something like that.

Which is important for me. It was kind of a brave thing for me. I got a family I got to answer to. I got kids my older pai-ents and my preachers and everybody," he said, then busts out laughing. ''I'm going to have to answer for this." In an interview, Bradshaw offers the same high-energy, easy-to-laugh persona sports fans enjoy on television until the bombast and ostensible buffoonery give way to a contemplative 57-year-old man baring his soul.

But back to the bare butt for a moment: In his playing days, the ex-quarterback got undressed innumerable times in The Associated Press Cast members (from left) Bradliy Cooper, Terry Bradshaw, Kathy Bates, Matthew McConaughey, Sarah Jessica Parker, Zooey DeMhanel and Justin Bartha pose for photographers as they arrive Wednesday at the world premiere of their film "Failure to Launch," in New York. The film opens today at Central Mall Cinemas. Bradshaw locker rooms with plenty of people around, so he didn't fret too much before walking to the movie set. "Once I dropped my boxer shorts and exposed myself to the entire crew, it was kind of refreshing in a way," he said, chortling agahi. "I was like: I can BREATHE, "It was fun to do, I wish I was about 90 pounds lighter, but it was fun to do," The Bradshaw you see in the movie tipped the scales at 244, He's down to 228 and hopes to get to his playing weight of 215, He packed on the pounds because of back problems that he said stem more from running than from injuries during his National Football League career, Bradshaw has joked about being ugly, but that's always just been shtick, he said.

"Now if I'm next to Matthew McConaughey, am I Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm ugly But so are YOU," he said, laughing roariously and adding, "1 don't want to hurt your feelings," But looks aren't a concern for Bradshaw since he's not planning a feature-film comeback anyway It's been a quarter-century since he appeared in "Smokey and the Bandit 11" and "The Cannonball Run," playing himself or a variation of himself. He took the part in "Failure to Launch" only after being approached and even initially turning it down and stipulating that he would play a "low-key guy" Tom Dey, the film's director, said, "This turned out to be one of those times when you have a hunch about casting and it works out even better than you could have imagined," Bradshaw has signed on for- one other movie gig, and that's only because Oscar-winning screenwriter Billy Bob Thornton told him he's writing a dramatic scene especially for him. Bradshaw said it was hard to be taken seriously as an actor 25 years ago after being a football star, "I actually wanted to be accepted, and I wanted to learn the craft of acting, the techniques and told the agents that I found, 'I don't want big roles, I don't deserve big roles, 1 want to earn it, like the others do: Study do little scenes'," He wanted to build a resume, "but 1 never could get to first base, and so that's why I quit," The former football star has, uh, certainly rounded the bases in other ways, gaming popularity in sportscasting, first on CBS and now on Fox, after winning four Super Bowls with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Bradshaw, who lives in a Fort Worth, Texas, suburb, is signed to do "NFL Pox Sunday" for six more years.

He also raises quarterhorses in Oklahoma and hopes to "eventually downsize" and spend a few months a year in Hawaii. Study finds big gender gap in G-rated movies By The Associated Press LOS ANGELES Male characters outnumbered females 3-to-l overall in top- grossing G-rated films from 1990 to 2004, according to a study whose sponsors say the disparity diminishes the importance of women in children's eyes. "We're showing kids a world that's very scantly populated with women and female characters," said actress Geena Davis, founder of See Jane, a program of the advocacy group Dads Daughters that encourages balanced gender representation in entertainment for children. In the 101 animated and live- action films examined, 28 percent of speaking characters were female, and just 17 percent of people in crowd scenes were female, researchers found in the study released last month by See Jane. "It's important for what kids watch that as far as possible, they see the real world reflected, to see men and women, boys and girls, sharing the space," said Davis, star of TV's "Commander in Chief" in which she plays the U.S.

president. "They should see female characters taking up half the planet, which we do." The results came as little surprise to researchers. Studies have found similar imbalances between male and female roles in films for adults and on TV shows, and anyone who channel-siu'fs or goes to the movies regularly knows anecdotally that men dominate the screen. Branson's Favorite Show for 25 Years! TIlis Sunday Sal inn journal The Braschler Music Show Gospel Country Bluegrass March 25 7:30 p.m. FOR THE PERFOMNG AKIS Tickets: $16, $12 for childrenIS and under available at the Stiefal Theatre Box Oflice, open M-F Noon 5 p.m.; by phone at 1-800-585-3737; oronllneatwww.slarticketsplus.com.

www.stlefeltheatre.org For more Information call 785 827-1998 151 S.Santa Fe.SalIha J..