when he is admitted into Atlanta's privileged Truth University. Just when he thought he had escaped a life of gangs, DJ finds himself in the middle of a "war" between two upper-crust fraternities where stepping (a popular dance form) is their weapon of choice. When DJ realizes the coed he falls for is the girlfriend of the school's champion stepper, he joins the rival fraternity to try to show her--and himself--that he's as good as anyone else there. Stomp the Yard is not an original film. Add some drums and you've got Drumline . Change some of the characters around and you've got Save the Last Dance . What sets the movie apart is the stepping. The precision involved at this level is impressively complicated and Short--a dancer and choreographer--is beautifully expressive both as an actor...  (less)

Marlon and Shawn, and director-cowriter Keenen Ivory) some slack and at least try to answer the obvious question, what were they thinking? For the sake of charity, let's ignore charges of reverse racism that plagued this would-be comedy about a pair of FBI agents (Marlon and Shawn) who go undercover as over-privileged white debutantes to thwart a kidnapping scheme, and let's allow that comedy--not social satire--is the Wayans' top priority. If you can get past the fart jokes, the freakishly unconvincing "white chick" makeup, seemingly endless gags about "white chicks" getting hit on by lusty black guys, and a plot that really doesn't matter at all, you just might find a laugh or two in the Wayans' attempt to understand women through a bit of frien...  (less)

It's frantic antics and nonstop hilarity as the brothers go from hapless G-men to haute couture G-strings...with attitude! Groovin' tunes, hardcore jams and a sidesplitting disco dance-off with the bluebloods fuel outrageous laughs from start to finish in White Chicks--two brothers just keepin' it real. Sort of.What is UMDTM?UMD, Universal Media Disc, is a brand-new and groundbreaking optical storage medium, designed for the high speed and efficient delivery of digital entertainment content that can store up to 1.8 GB of digital data on a 60mm disc -- or an entire feature film on a single UMD video. All UMD DVDs are produced in Widescreen and encoded using advanced AVC compression. UMD for PSP will play on the new PlayStation Portable handheld entertainment system.SpecificationsDiameter: 60 mmMaximum Capacity: 1.8GB (Single-sided, dual layer)Laser wavelength: 660nm (Red laser)  (less)

to 10-year-old watcher. Does this make it a bad family film? Not in the slightest. The gee-whiz visual effects (created by original Star Wars wizard John Dykstra) and the film's ebullient wholesomeness make this a welcome addition to the home library. In E.B. White's world, it's hardly surprising that human parents would adopt "outside their species." The smooth-talking mouse Stuart (voiced by Michael J. Fox) seems the perfect new child for parents Geena Davis and Hugh Laurie, especially with an adorable wardrobe of very small sweaters and pants. Harder is fitting in with the Littles' family cat, Snowbell (voiced by Nathan Lane, who also deftly voiced Timon in director Rob Minkoff's last feature, The Lion King ). The simple story deals with Stua...  (less)

nothing tender about the Tenderloin District: "You've got people smoking crack while sitting in front of Starbucks." Chappelle's inspiration dips a bit after that, as the subject of sex with monkeys and smoking weed with Indians doesn't quite reach his usual standards. Then, suddenly, he's on top of his game again, his material like an echo of vintage Lenny Bruce as he discusses why whites drink grape juice and blacks drink "grape drink," why police harassment has led him to believe in impromptu alibis, and why the culture of celebrity should stay away from real-world issues: "Maybe Jah Rule doesn't have the answers we want in a disaster." --Tom Keogh Taken together, Richard Pryor's concert films, the essential Live in Conc...  (less)

homage to the Blaxpoitation films of the '70s (as he did with his remake of Shaft ), it walks a fine line of credibility with a mythic vengeance plot (recalling John Wayne's 1965 hit The Sons of Katie Elder ) that endorses violence as the last resort of a family under siege. When a saintly foster mother (Fionnula Flanagan) is gunned down in a convenience store, her only adopted sons (two white, two black, played respectively by Mark Wahlberg, Garrett Hedlund, Tyrese Gibson and Andre Benjamin) go after the killers, only to discover that their mother's death was not a random event. As they uncover a sticky web of criminal activity involving a local kingpin (Chiwitel Ejiofor), the character-driven plot races toward an inevitable showdown, with ex-con Wa...  (less)

actually a foul-mouthed, jewel-thieving midget. The rubbery face of Marlon Wayans ( White Chicks ) is digitally transposed onto the body of an actual midget so that Marlon can play Calvin, a bad-tempered thief who's trying to retrieve a humongous diamond from the purse of Vanessa (Kerry Washington, Ray ), the buppie wife of Darryl (Shawn Wayans, Scary Movie 2 ). Darryl doesn't care about his wife's new promotion, he just wants to have a child--and he gets one when Calvin arrives on his doorstep dressed in baby clothes. At which point, the kicks, head-butts, and blunt object trauma to the groin begin. It's beside the point to argue whether or not this is definitively funny; blows to the groin either make you laugh or they don't, and if they do, you know who you are and...  (less)

in China ) arrives at an emperor's palace with three weapons, each belonging to a famous assassin who had sworn to kill the emperor. As the nameless man spins out his story--and the emperor presents his own interpretation of what might really have happened--each episode is drenched in red, blue, white or another dominant color. Hero combines sweeping cinematography and superb performances from the cream of the Hong Kong cinema (Maggie Cheung, Irma Vep , Comrades: Almost a Love Story ; Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, In the Mood for Love , Hard Boiled ; and Zhang Ziyi, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ). The result is stunning, a dazzling action movie with an emotional richness that deepens with every step. --Bret Fetzer  (less)

world of Narnia through a magical wardrobe while playing a game of "hide-and-seek" at the country estate of a mysterious professor. Once there, the children discover a charming, once peaceful land inhabited by talking beasts, dwarfs, fauns, centaurs, and giants that has been turned into a world of eternal winter by the evil White Witch, Jadis. Aided by the wise and magnificent lion Aslan, the children lead Narnia into a spectacular climactic battle to be free of the Witch's glacial powers forever! The Chronicles of Narnia, Narnia, and all other book titles, characters and locales original thereto are trademarks of C.S. Lewis Pte Ltd. and are used with permission. © Disney/Walden  (less)

and uncensored format in this three-disc set. As with McGruder's strip, the animated version of The Boondocks uses a fish-out-of-water format--10-year-old revolutionary-in-training Huey Freeman (voiced by Regina King), his 8-year-old brother Riley (also King), and their salty Granddad (John Witherspoon) relocate to an upscale suburban neighborhood--to take aim at all manner of cultural issues in both the black and white communities. Targets sighted in these episodes include singer R. Kelly's bedroom shenanigans ("The Trial of R. Kelly"); gangsta rap ("The Story of Gangstalicious," which includes a wicked spoof of the documentary Tupac: Resurrection ); Oprah Winfrey (who is almost kidnapped by Riley in "Let's Nab Opr...  (less)

plays the title character, a white-trash orphan in search of the parents who abandoned him at the Grand Canyon. The humor is supposed to come from Joe's misadventures, his redneck gullibility, and his encounters with such figures as a serial killer, a wacked-out janitor (Christopher Walken), and a lovable gal (Jamie Pressly) who may, unfortunately, turn out to be his sister. But the squishier requirements of the story, requiring the audience to feel deeply for the pain of Spade's caricature, are an irritant and force Spade to veer from the nastier stuff he does so well. With Kid Rock, Dennis Miller. --Tom Keogh  (less)

Christopher B. Stokes as a crassly commercial vehicle for B2K, the teen group that Stokes managed while making cheap-ass movies like this one. There's a tissue-thin romantic subplot, but mostly it's about the MTV-styled showdown between B2K (as Orange County white boys) and their black L.A. competitors, including members of the hip-hop group IMx. Their aggressive moves are undeniably impressive (in other words, don't try this at home unless you know a good chiropractor), but Stokes would've been better off making a straight documentary, thus avoiding all the nonsense that You Got Served delivers between its abundance of choppily edited dance scenes. --Jeff Shannon  (less)