The funny and the scary playing at local theaters

JAKARTA (JP): A headless horseman or Rob Schneider as a male hooker, you decide which is scarier. The following reviews and grades are by Rayya Makarim, Oren Murphy and Tam Notosusanto.

American Beauty. Dark comedy, 120 minutes; starring Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Chris Cooper and Peter Gallagher. Directed by Sam Mendes.

Forty-two-year-old Lester Burnham is having a mid-life crisis. He hates his job, his wife can't stand him and his teenage daughter Janey thinks he's a loser. Feeling comatosed for years, Lester undergoes a radical life change when he meets Janey's cheerleader friend, Angela. This story about dysfunctional families in demented suburbia is a perfect blend of powerful drama and black comedy. The characters are expertly developed, and the acting superb. A (RM)

The Beach. Drama, 119 minutes; starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Virginie Ledoyen, Tilda Swinton and Robert Carlyle. Directed by Danny Boyle.

A young American backpacker, Richard (DiCaprio), heads to Thailand and hears of a mysterious beach undiscovered by the parasitic hoards of other tourists. He finds it and also discovers the cost of the pursuit of unadulterated pleasure. Boyle frequently diverges from Alex Garland's original storyline, but remains true to many of its themes. The film lacks the book's wit and freshness, but is worth a look anyway. B (OM)

Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo. Slapstick comedy, 90 minutes; starring Rob Schneider and William Forsythe. Directed by Mike Mitchell.

A fish tank cleaner, Deuce (Schneider), becomes a gigolo (or "male whore" as they refer to themselves in the film) to pay off damage to an acquaintance's apartment. In the process of dating all kinds of eccentrics, he meets the love of his life, but has to struggle to show he really loves her. Mishaps and capers ensue. It's stupid, but you'll probably find yourself laughing anyway. C (OM)

The Green Mile. Supernatural fable/ Prison drama, 185 minutes; starring Tom Hanks, David Morse, James Cromwell, Michael Clarke Duncan and Bonnie Hunt. Written and directed by Frank Darabont.

Darabont's Oscar-nominated second attempt of adapting a Stephen King prison story has Hanks leading a group of Depression-era Death Row prison guards whose new inmate is a retarded, towering black man (Duncan). It turns out this gentle giant has miraculous healing powers which some of them get a chance to benefit from. But nobody can seem to help him avoid the electric chair. Aside from some ghastly execution scenes, this is a poignant story with some biblical resonance which is bolstered by a first-rate cast that includes a lovable, scene-stealing mouse. B (TN)

The Prophecy II. Action-fantasy, 85 minutes; starring Christopher Walken, Russell Wong, Jennifer Beals and Eric Roberts. Directed by Greg Spence.

Imagine angels going really, really bad. This silly movie has Walken playing archangel Gabriel, who is overcome with worldly desires and has formed a band of renegade angels to battle the ones loyal to their Creator. Now one of the good angels has impregnated a female human being (Beals) because their baby is believed to be the one who will put an end to the war. And Gabriel is out looking for this woman. All heaven breaks loose. C- (TN)

Sleepy Hollow. Gothic horror, 100 minutes; starring Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Jeffrey Jones, Christopher Lee and Christopher Walken. Directed by Tim Burton.

Not much in the film resembles Washington Irving's classic, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, but it is an enjoyable film nonetheless.

Pathologist/detective Ichabod Crane (Depp) is sent up the Hudson to investigate a series of decapitations by a headless horseman in the small town of Sleepy Hollow. Burton's film focuses on atmospherics over content, and creates a landscape as stunning as it is creepy. Depp is excellent as the faint-hearted detective. An often gruesome, but very entertaining film. B (OM)

Stir of Echoes. Supernatural thriller, 99 minutes; starring Kevin Bacon, Kathryn Erbe, Kevin Dunn and Illeana Douglas. Written and directed by David Koepp.

Completing Hollywood's 1999 trilogy of supernatural flicks, this movie is clearly riding on The Sixth Sense's coattail with its wide-eyed tyke who communicates with dead people. Only here the boy's father (Bacon), who recently acquires the gift himself thanks to a hypnosis session, joins in the effort to decipher the messages of the ghost of a teenage girl. Koepp's haunting visuals keep us thrilled throughout the film. But it all eventually leads to the unearthing of a predictable, unexciting murder secret. C+ (TN)

Very Bad Things. Comedy/thriller, 100 minutes; starring Christian Slater, Cameron Diaz, Jon Favreau, Daniel Stern and Jeanne Tripplehorn. Directed by Peter Berg.

A bachelor party in a Vegas hotel, complete with drugs, alcohol, gambling and sex, goes terribly wrong when a prostitute is accidentally killed while having wild sex. The cover-up, planned by the five friends, gets increasingly complicated as the bodies start piling up. This nonsensical film with over-the-edge characters has some good editing with some great music-video moments, but that's not enough to make us feel for any of the characters. They are created merely as devices to further the warped plot. B- (RM)