Armed only with his mysterious mental connection to the feral minds of studio executives, the Movie Guru reveals just how good or bad this week's new releases will be:

28 Days Later (R)
With fear of bio-terrorism at an all-time high, director Danny Boyle (Shallow Grave, Trainspotting) resurrects the zombie movie with a scare-you-out-of-your-skin flick. Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes from a blow to his head in an empty hospital. All too quickly he learns that, 28 days ago, the Earth's human and animal populations were infected by a virus that puts the afflicted into a permanent state of killing rage. Jim meets up with a few other survivors in London and together they struggle to stay alive and uninfected—and to avoid killing each other.
Prediction: See this week's movie review.

Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (PG-13)
The Angels (Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu) return to investigate the theft of a witness protection database after five people in the program end up dead.
Prediction: With Bernie Mac as the new Bosley, Crispin Glover reprising his Thin Man role, and Demi Moore as a good-Angel-gone-super-baddie, this sequel may be superior to the 2000 original. Which isn't saying much, but still...

Man on the Train (R)
French tale of a veteran thief sent to a small French town to pull a bank heist. There's no room at the inn, but a kindly old teacher lets him stay at his mansion. As these two elder, apparent opposites (one outside the law, aloof, and a rambler, the other the epitome of the social servant, genteel, and a homebody) get to know each other, they come to believe their lives might have turned out better if their roles had been switched.
Prediction: An excellent way to spend a couple of hours if you like paradoxes, lots of talk, wry humor, and candid observations on and reflections of the human condition.

Whale Rider (PG-13)
Set in the New Zealand culture of the Maori, this is the story of 12-year-old Pai, the only surviving child of the tribal chief's son. Her mother and brother are dead and her father has left the country. She dreams of becoming the Whale Rider, the leader of the tribe, although only males have ever had that distinction, previously. Challenging tradition and prejudice, Pai decides to fulfill her dream.
Prediction: A Sundance Film Festival winner, Rider is said to be a great flick with a wonderful, uplifting message. Sounds darn good to us.

Doc-u-payoff

Some movie-lovers flinch at the word "documentary," like the form is still mired in the dull pools of sixth-grade filmstrips and lackluster PBS nature programs. While there are projects that should be consigned to this boring wasteland—take, for instance, anything by the insipid Nick Broomfield—a great many films mine all of the potential the form has to offer and find rich nuggets of truth about being human.

Take, for instance, Dogtown and Z-Boys(2001, PG-13). Filmmakers Stacy Peralta and Craig Stecyk hone in on one small point in time (the mid '70s) and on one small group of shaggy-haired kids (The Zephyr skateboarding team, of which the filmmakers were also members.) Rather than merely being a movie about skateboarding that would appeal only to 12-year-olds, Peralta and Stecyk tapped into the universal themes of changing the status quo and the perils of success.

But forget all of the subtext—what is most magnetic about Dogtown is the way it uses tools like a killer soundtrack, still pictures, and candid interviews to draw in those who couldn't care less about the main topic at hand. Through masterful use of footage, the Dogtown creators illustrate the sheer joy of sport and this almost balletic form. It is enticing and intimate and real—and twice as entertaining as most of the special-effects-heavy dreck you'll see one the big screen this summer.

S.R. Binder's Hands on a Hard Body (1997, PG) lacks the visual and aural panache of Dogtown but explores the same impulse. His document is about a small, now frequently imitated, competition for a new truck in small-town East Texas.

What could have been a mockery of these 24 contestants, who are each trying to keep one hand on a Nissan Hard Body pickup, instead is a light-on- visual-jazz exploration of the importance of the competition. Rather than just give us the how, Binder untangles the deeper layers of why with heart and grace, even when his subjects lose all of theirs.

—Adrienne Martini

June 26, 2003 * Vol. 13, No. 26
© 2000 Metro Pulse