Fourth Row Center

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room! So said President Merkin Muffley to General Buck Turgidson and the Russian ambassador as they scuffled on the floor of the Pentagon War Room in Stanley Kubrick's blackly comic Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb . I never tire of seeing this twisted apocalyptic film, this cautionary tale about the absurdity of war, and I jumped at the chance to see it again on the big screen at Seattle Center as part of a Kubrick retrospective. This is one movie that leaves me not only laughing out loud in places, but giggling like a school girl in others. Peter Sellers' triple performance as Group Captain Mandrake, President Muffley (above, with the Russian ambassador), and the mysterious Dr. Strangelove (top) is among his best work on screen, but it's George C. Scott as General Buck Turgidson who walks away with the big laughs. Scott (famous for his portrayal as Patton) is not widely known as a ...

Following on the heels of his successful Broadway hit "The Producers," Mel Brooks has brought his 1974 comedy "Young Frankenstein" to the stage. "Young Frankenstein" opens on Broadway in November, but we had the opportunity to see the show previewed in Seattle this week. Brooks, who picked up three Tony awards for his stage version of "The Producers," was in town for the world premiere of this latest musical extravaganza. (He is a small man, I was pleased to discover). Brooks, who wrote the songs and co-wrote the book for this show, stays close to the screenplay he and Gene Wilder crafted for the '74 film. The sets and staging are spectacular, and the show brings enough cinematic flair to the stage to make it visually arresting while at the same time "Young Frankenstein" is still very much a stage musical." Together Again for the First Time," "He Vas My Boyfriend," "Transylvania Mania," and the crowd-p...

Ah... a Siskel and Ebert moment. After reading my partner Chuck's brief review of Ratatouille I felt I must respond. It's a shame that the two of us were unable to view the movie together (the miles make it impossible); it would have resulted, no doubt, in an interesting discussion. My rebuttal begins by saying that Pixar is right on track with this bold and unique idea. Not one to repeat itself, the studio resists the temptation to beat a dead horse ( Shrek 3 , anything with penguins) and is willing to take a chance on offering a vision that is fresh and unique. Though not a perfect film, Ratatouille is warm and funny, and proffers an genuinely felt interspecies relationship between the rat Remmy and the boy Lunguini . The animation is rich and lushly realized, and the voice characterizations are vivid and compelling. Granted, the whole "rats in the kitchen" element is not for everyone, and perhaps Pixar renders them too realistic toward the end for all tast...

I have not seen many of the big summer movies this year, probably due to the number of films I saw at the Seattle Film Festival. Most of what I have seen have been small or indie movies. (I'm not going to admit I actually saw Shrek 3 .) Which brings me to Sunshine , from director Danny Boyle ( Trainspotting , 28 Days Later). It looks like a big budget summer movie (the special effects are top-notch) but feels like a much smaller, indie film. What's it about? Think Alien crossed with Deep Impact with The Core thrown in for good measure. A team of astronauts must seed the sun with a huge bomb in order to ... well, save the sun. It's going out. (Remember the "Twilight Zone" episode?) The ensemble cast led by Cillian Murphy ( Batman Begins , Red Eye ) is Earth's second try, and they run into the foreseeable challenges after discovering the remains of the previous, failed mission on the dark side of Mercury. Yep, people will start to die, one by one. But will t...