Starring: Isaach de Bankole, Alex Descas, Jean-Francois Stevenin, Luis Tosa... Review: Even the great ones hit snags. With The Limits of Control, Jim Jarmsuch gets tangled up in his own deadpan. I'd explain a little of the plot, but there isn't any. Just the stoic visage of Isaach De Bankolé as a nameless hitman who wanders through non-touristy Spain (shot with a poet's eye by the masterful Christopher Doye) doing meet-and-greets with terrific actors, such as Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Gael Garcia Bernal and John Hurt. They don't act, really. They strike poses. But it's a kick just to watch Swinton swanning around in a cheap white wig that makes her look like...

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Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Lacey Chabert, Michael Doug... Review: Look, I wouldn't mind a comic desecreation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, as long as the darned thing was funny. Hell, Bill Murray hit that mark twenty years ago in Scrooged. But Ghosts of Girlfriends Past never comes as close as spitting distance to a laugh. Matthew McConaughey, who hit a comedy low (I thought) in Fool's Gold, sinks ever lower as hotshot celeb photographer Connor Mead, a stud who badmouths marriage to his about-to-be-wed kid brother (Breckin Meyer). Connor, a Scrooge when it comes to commitment, gets a life lesson from Uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas, the film's one bright spot), another man-whore...

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Starring: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Dominic Monaghan, Rya... Review: Summer movies whimper to a start with the wheezing Wolverine, a transparent attempt to squeeze a faltering franchise for its last drop of box-office juice. It should work for at least a week, until Star Trek opens and blows it out of the water by showing how an origin story should be done. Anyone looking for dangerous thrills is out of luck unless they risk federal prosecution by illegally downloading the movie on the Web. (Watch Peter Travers' video review of Wolverine) The movie itself is all PG-13 prim and proper. Look at the drag-ass title — X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Presumably, that will separate...

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The Garden RATING: (POLITE APPLAUSE)Documentary. Starring Joan Baez, Daryl Hannah and Dennis Kucinich. Directed by Scott Hamilton Kennedy. (Not rated. 80 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.) A vermin-infested plot of land just a few miles from the heart of the Los...


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X-Men Origins: Wolverine RATING: (SNOOZING VIEWER)Science-fiction adventure. Starring Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston and Lynn Collins. Directed by Gavin Hood. (PG-13. 107 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.) There's an implicit threat in the title "X-...


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