Author:   Ken Hanke

The Story: In this sequel to Are We There Yet?, Ice Cube buys a house in the country for his new family only to find the structure redefines "fixer-upper." The Lowdown: A lamebrained unfunny sequel to an equally unfunny original.

The Story: A lightweight biographical film about children's author Beatrix Potter. The Lowdown: Ultimately neither substantial as biography, nor quite whimsical enough to qualify as fantasy, Miss Potter presents a safe sketch of the writer that's blessed with skillful casting and charming performers.

Teorema is part of a series of Classic Cinema From Around the World being presented at 8 p.m. Friday, April 13, at Courtyard Gallery, 9 Walnut St. in downtown Asheville (enter at Walnut next to Scully's or at 13 Carolina Lane).

Our VOICE, Inc., Buncombe County's rape crisis center, in partnership with the Fine Arts Theatre presents Grbavica as part of an evening of art and film to honor survivors of sexual assault and to benefit Our VOICE on Thursday, April 12. The event opens at 5:30 p.m. with the 7th Annual Survivors' Art Show in…

The Story: A carnivorous monster -- spawned by pollution -- comes out of the river to terrorize Seoul. The Lowdown: An enjoyable monster flick with a dollop of political satire. The movie's too long for its own good, but offers worthy compensations, especially in its last half.

The Story: A multi-generational culture-conflict story following the lives of an immigrant Bengali family in America. The Lowdown: Maybe a bit too ambitious, but a worthy and moving attempt to examine the lives of a transplanted family balancing between two cultures.

The Hendersonville Film Society will show The Night of the Following Day at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 15, 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…

The Story: A professional debunker of religious phenomenon is called to a town where the river has turned to blood. The Lowdown: A silly and stupefyingly derivative religioso shocker that is more funny than thrilling.

Planet Terror: The Story: When a mysterious bio-chemical is released into the populace which turns people into cannibalistic "sickos," a ragtag group must fight their way to safety. The Lowdown: Probably the most over-the-top, ridiculous movie you'll ever see -- and also one of the most purely entertaining. Death Proof: The Story: A former possible…

The Story: A brain-damaged bank janitor is lured into a plot to rob the bank. The Lowdown: A skillfully constructed crime film that's boosted by attention to characterization and strong performances.

The Story: A young orphan has to travel to the future to retrieve his stolen invention or the future will be changed -- and not for the better. The Lowdown: Kids will like this animated film, but adults may find it a bit wanting and too frenetic.

Juan Pablo Villaseñor’s Por Si No Te Vuelvo a Ver (1997) is the kind of small foreign film that slips by unnoticed—something more apt to happen with Spanish-language movies than, say, French ones. (Consider the fact that an utterly mediocre French film like My Wife Is an Actress (2001) got U.S. theatrical bookings, but this […]

The Story: An actress (Laura Dern) gets a role in a film that may be "cursed," and her life spirals out of control -- and context. The Lowdown: Weird, audacious, challenging, David Lynch's latest redefines the phrase "not for everyone," but it's a remarkable work if you're open to it.

The Story: The dastardly mutants are back -- killing, eating and/or impregnating a group of hapless National Guard trainees in the desert. The Lowdown: Utter trash -- and rather dull trash at that.

The Story: A man (Adam Sandler) suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after having lost his family in 9/11 finds himself being reawakened when his old college roommate (Don Cheadle) re-enters his life. The Lowdown: Passable drama with good intentions that feels both too contrived and too simplistic to really work.

On Christmas Day in 1929, a Stokes County, North Carolina farmer named Charlie Lawson murdered his family, laid the bodies out neatly, and then killed himself. The murders became an immediate sensation, and the house where they took place became a tourist attraction. The story was recounted in a popular 1930 song “The Ballad of […]

Sure, A Face in the Crowd is a little on the overwrought side, but in all honesty, I’ll take Elia Kazan’s 1957 drama about the rise and fall of an increasingly psychotic “good ol’ boy” TV personality over the director’s more famous works. I’m not, in fact, sure that a film on this subject could […]

Wim Wenders’ Until the End of the World (1991) is both like a Wim Wenders film (check out the soundtrack) and not. The film—at least till it hits the final stretch—is as quirky as anything the filmmaker ever did, but it’s a bit more playful. It’s certainly one of the more quixotic enterprises imaginable. Wenders […]

The Story: When a creepy ventriloquist's dummy inexplicably shows up on his doorstep and his wife is killed shortly afterwards, a young man goes to his hometown in search of the truth about a local legend. The Lowdown: An often effective, always enjoyable supernatural shocker that suffers from a thin storyline, but offers many compensations…

The Story: Two children find a mysterious box containing toys that take them to a higher plane of knowledge. The Lowdown: An odd mix of 1940s science fiction with new age philosophy that works as barely passable kiddie stuff, but not much else.

The Story: In 1984 East Germany a secret policeman's life changes when he's ordered to place a dramatist under surveillance. The Lowdown: A finely conceived character study about repressive regimes and the redemptive power of human connectivity and art, but be warned, parts of it are truly slow.