The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • H5

MORE0318-A-H -Composite Proof 1:40 0:00 RMORE0318OH5 FMORE0318OH5 MOVI MORE 5H 5H Blue Red Yellow Black Blue Red Yellow Black H5 4 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Friday, March 18, 2005 REEL ALTERNATIVES BOB LONGINO, ACALENDAR OF NONCOMMERCIAL FILM SCREENINGS Documentary examines AIDS Frequent Small Meals and Kennesaw State University present video maker and AIDS activist Gregg Bordowitz, who will introduce his documentary (2001; 53 minutes), first shown in 2002 at the Paris Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. It looks at medical, ethical and spiritual issues of the AIDS epidemic. Bordowitz will sign copies of his book AIDS Crisis Is Ridiculous and Other Writings, 8p.m. Wednesday. $4.

Eyedrum, Suite 8, 290 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. 404-522-0655, www.eyedrum.org. INDIAN FESTIVAL Clayton College State University is completing its Indian film festival. Next up is Once Upon a Time in (6 p.m.

Wednesday), the three-hour, 44-minute, 2001 epic from director Ashutosh Gowariker. On Thursday will be Satyajit 1959 masterpiece World of at 6 p.m. and the at 8. Free. Room UC 272, 5900 N.

Lee Morrow. CARIBBEAN FILMS The High Museum of Art continues Caribbean Connections in conjunction with the exhibition Art of Romare on view through April 24. Next up is Cane (2003; 8 p.m. Saturday; in French with subtitles), the story of a woman in Martinique trying to spare her grandson a life working in the cane fields. The last film will be (8 p.m.

March 26). Woodruff Arts Rich Theater, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta. 404-733-5000, www.high.org. GERMAN FILM The Goethe-Institut Atlanta is continuing a Wednesday series of recent films from Germany.

Next up: Harmonies: Bach vs. Frederick (2003; in German with subtitles), the tale of the real-life encounter in 1747 between the composer and the ruler of Prussia. 7p.m. Goethe-Institut Atlanta at Colony Square. www.goethe.de/atlanta.

GUIDE TO MOVIES In this sanitized, family friendly high-school fable asweet physics whiz (Michelle Trachtenberg) studies the aerodynamics of figure skating for a physics project and suddenly burns to become a serious competitive skater. Understated sexual innuendo; teen skating rivals say destructive things; overambitious parents harangue kids. 8 and older. (G) Ring Meandering rehash of a sequel has Rachel (Naomi Watts) and her young son (David Dorfman) settled in asmall town following their Seattle run-in with the lethally haunted videotape. But the killer cassette reappears and the vengeful spirit of the long- ago murdered child Samara (Kelly Stables) tries to take possession of son.

Disturbing scenes show him haunted, nearly drowned; victims of the killer video have horrific faces; ghastly visage, spiderlike movements may scare fainthearted; subtle suicide, child abuse themes; nightmarish scene down a well. (PG-13) Delightful, witty, endlessly inventive computer- animated fable with Fiestaware colors and Rube Goldberg- esque design; a populist tale set in a totally robot world has young inventor-hero, Rodney Copperbottom (voice of Ewan McGregor), leading fellow robots (with voices of Robin Williams, Amanda Bynes, Halle Berry and others) in uprising against evil executive (Greg Kinnear) who aims to eliminate old spare parts and robots so he can sell costly new ones. Occasional mild sexual innuendo about making robot babies; crude robotic flatulence jokes; hellish underworld Chop Shop, where old robots are melted down, could briefly scare younger kids. 6 and older. (PG) Horwitz, Washington Post Writers Group original director, has tackled this American sequel todirector Gore 2002 Hollywood remake.

Nakata brings to the film a sense of pure cinematic dread with a few impressive camera angles and the willingness to bepatient, allowing scenes to unfold slowly and quietly. There are plenty of plot holes and miscues (the police are apparently so far behind in gathering facts they hardly ever show up). But the problems are frequently overshadowed by its sheer unending eeriness. opens six months after reporter Rachel Keller (Watts) and her young son, Aidan (David Dorfman), have fled Seattle and the horrors of the mysterious videotape for small-town Astoria, Ore. taken a job at the local newspaper.

But running from is not an option. Astoria high schoolers, it seems, have stumbled upon the tape, and life becomes Edvard all over again. Rachel keeps digging deeper into the story, Aidan keeps getting shadowed by the ghost girl, and soon is getting wrapped up in the kind ofmother-child story Sigourney Weaver would understand. Like the original, the movie is never bloody or gory, earning a PG-13 rating and ensuring a prime following of high school moviegoers. But one of the more fortunate aspects of both films is Watts.

No matter how far out the story gets (ghosts and TV sets; videotapes and telephone rings; a bathtub that shoots water up she sells it. got help, too. Sissy Spacek adds acting muscle, showing up in a short scene in anasylum, drenched in long, stringy black locks that make her look like a wigged-out Loretta Lynn. Hair is one of the film not-so-subtle themes. Pitch-black hair.

Strands drenched in mucky water and draped over a little eyes. Hair that engulfs and suffocates. horror as the ultimate bad hair day. DreamWorks Pictures Rachel Keller Naomi Watts )struggles with the evildoing ghost girl, Samara Kelly Stables Ring Battle against ghost girl gets more personal Continued from H1.