Movie Reviews

The Story: A spoiled chihuahua is lost in Mexico and has to find her way back to Beverly Hills through much danger. The Lowdown: Admirers of talking dogs and those not bothered by rampant (and of variable quality) CGI may find this passable. Everyone else, be warned.

The Story: Bill Maher travels around the world trying to get people to explain religion to him. The Lowdown: Deliberately provocative and confrontational, Maher's irreverent look at religion -- primarily Christianity, Judaism and Islam -- is often wildly funny, thought provoking and apt to offend a lot of people.

Two episodes of The Prisoner, part of a series of Classic Cinema From Around the World, will be presented at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 10, at Courtyard Gallery, 9 Walnut St. in downtown Asheville. Info: 273-3332.

The Story: A mysterious epidemic of blindness occurs in a city, causing the authorities to try to contain the situation by quarantining the victims under barbarous conditions. The Lowdown: A powerful -- and powerfully unpleasant -- allegorical work that's definitely worth a look if you're up to its grim, unflinching portrait of the events at…

Two episodes of The Prisoner, part of a series of Classic Cinema From Around the World, will be presented at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3, at Courtyard Gallery, 9 Walnut St. in downtown Asheville. Info: 273-3332.

The Why of Tai Chi plays for one show only at 9:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 2, at Fine Arts Theatre.

The Story: A slacker copy boy and a single mother get entangled with a mysterious cabal who coerce the duo into a baffling, dangerous plot. The Lowdown: A silly story line and wafer-thin characters derail this attempt at a high-octane thrill ride.

The Story: An unhappy wife and a doctor with issues share the experience of surviving a hurricane in a beach house and fall in love, but can happiness be possible for them? The Lowdown: Nice to look at and certainly well made and performed, the film is, at bottom, absurdly plotted and never as affecting…

The Story: A film that follows the efforts -- and eventual success -- of French tight-wire walker Philippe Petit to walk a wire between the tops of the World Trade Towers in 1974. The Lowdown: An altogether brilliant film that's as deft at walking the line between drama and documentary as its subject.

The Story: A sex addict tries to overcome his problem (none too strenuously), while dealing with his dying mother who holds the key to his identity. The Lowdown: A faithful -- and outrageously funny -- adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's novel; it just misses being great by never going beneath the surface of its bizarre story.

The Hendersonville Film Society will show That Hamilton Woman at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 5, in the Smoky Mountain Theater at Lake Pointe Landing Retirement Community, 333 Thompson St., Hendersonville. (From Asheville, take I-26 to U.S. 64 West, turn right at the third light onto Thompson Street. Follow to the Lake Point Landing entrance and…

The Story: Three soldiers home from Iraq end up going on a cross-country driving trip when no flights are available. The Lowdown: An enjoyable, if predictable and somewhat muddled, little movie that's held in place by its cast, but ultimately seems lacking in point.

The Story: During World War II, four African-American G.I.s and a young wounded boy with a secret get stranded behind Nazi lines in a small Italian village. The Lowdown: A sprawling, ambitious, often unwieldy work from Spike Lee that rises above its challenges through its own singular uniqueness.

The Story: A fireman whose marriage is on the rocks enters into an agreement to follow the dictates of a book that might restore his marriage. The Lowdown: A faith-based drama that's strictly for the faithful.

Grave of the Fireflies will be shown at 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 28, at the Asheville Art Museum.

The Story: A vile-tempered, mean-spirited dentist finds he can see and converse with ghosts after briefly dying during a surgical procedure. To rid himself of these annoying specters, he agrees to help one of them with some unfinished business. The Lowdown: A thoroughly charming, sweet-tempered romantic comedy/fantasy that strikes just the right tone throughout and…

The Story: A young married couple move into an upper-middle class neighborhood in Los Angeles, only to bear the wrath of their police-officer neighbor, who doesn’t take kindly to the fact that they’re in an interracial relationship. The Lowdown: A good performance by Samuel L. Jackson and a surprisingly engrossing first half aren’t enough to…

Vampyr, part of a series of Classic Cinema From Around the World, will be presented at 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 26, at Courtyard Gallery, 9 Walnut St., in downtown Asheville. Info: 273-3332.

The Story: A loutish cad who makes a living by horrifying women back into the arms of their ex-boyfriends plies his trade on his best friend's pseudo-girlfriend with predictable results. The Lowdown: Sleazy and crude collide with the dictates of rom-com formula resulting in an indigestible mélange.

The Hendersonville Film Society will show Toscanini: The Maestro at 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 28, in the Smoky Mountain Theater at Lake Pointe Landing Retirement Community, 333 Thompson St., Hendersonville. (From Asheville, take I-26 to U.S. 64 West, turn right at the third light onto Thompson Street. Follow to the Lake Point Landing entrance and…

The Story: In order to better the lives of their families, two women of very different backgrounds team up in an operation to smuggle illegal aliens over the New York-Canada border. The Lowdown: A well-intended lower-depths drama that suffers from melodramatic plotting, but scores enough points on characterization to make for involving viewing.