Joel I

"Pitch Black" is an undistinguished entry into the "marooned in space" genre. A very mixed group of space travelers (including a psychopathic convict and a family of devout Muslims) crash land on a barren planet, only to find they are not alone. The planet is inhabited by man-eating monsters (did someone say Alien). One good thing is that the monsters are photophobic and can't come out into the light. Another good thing is that the planet has three suns and is always in light (the monsters dwell bat-like in caves). But then comes a major problem: the travelers learn that every 22 years, the planet gets thrown into a total eclipse (of all three suns no less). And guess what! This is the 22nd year! Uh-oh. This could be a neat and scary premise, but director David Twohy hasn't figured out a good way to film scenes in the dark. The monsters look like they could be terrifying, if only you could see them better. There is the predictable one-by-one reduction of main characters, but because of the darkness, you can't even be sure which character has been eliminated. None of this is helped by the awful performance of Radha Mitchell as the spaceship's tough commander (there seems to be a genre trend toward female spaceship commanders). Mitchell showed she could act in "High Art," so we will charitably assume that she was just miscast here. She seems about as tough as a val-girl at the mall. Directors seem to think that if you just take any actress and dress her in a tank top and let her curse a lot, she will turn into macho-woman. Not here. The saving asset of this movie is Vin Diesel as the mysterious psycho convict, Riddick. Diesel adds welcome depth to the character, and imbues him with an impressive Darth Vader voice. There are also hints of a back story on Riddick that seems to be more interesting than this movie. Perhaps we will find out.

Fred A. Leuchter Jr. is an execution consultant, i.e. he advises states on how to put criminals to death humanely ("I am not against capital punishment, I am against capital torture"). The first part of the film has the nerdy Leuchter recounting his career in garrulous fashion and propounding the pros and cons of various methods of execution (for the record, he favors the electric chair, but only if it is designed by him). Already we are firmly planted in the Errol Morris landscape of blooming eccentrics, complete with the odd quirks, such as Leuchter's daily consumption of 40 cups of coffee. But midway through, the film has a shocking surprise in store for us. It turns out that Leuchter had been hired as an expert witness by a Canadian Holocaust denyer who was on trial for spreading hate propaganda. Leuchter travels to Auschwitz intent on proving that no gassings could have occurred there. He returns with flimsy evidence to that effect, and although his infamous report is never admitted in the trial, Leuchter finds himself a hero of Holocaust revisionists and a hot ticket on the Neo-Nazi talk circuit. Morris does little more than point the camera at Leuchter and let him talk -- giving him enough rope to hang himself (a fitting metaphor in this case). You don't know whether to laugh at this nerdy little jerk or to be horrified. The subject is full of irony and dark fascination, but Morris's style is not as diverting as in his previous films, and he has trouble bringing it to feature length. Merely finding an eccentric character and pointing the camera at him is not enough, no matter how strange he is. What is missing are the typical Morris cinematic flourishes that we saw in "The Thin Blue Line" and "Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control," much better films. There are some bits of interest, outside of Leuchter's talking head, but not enough. I liked Morris's use of old home movies, some videotape of Leuchter in Auschwitz, and offscreen interviews with Mrs. Leuchter, his wife of short duration (the trip to Auschwitz was also made to serve as their honeymoon). The movie is worth seeing for its incredible subject matter, but it is not up to Morris's high standard of filmmaking. The best Morris-style film of the year was not made by Morris at all -- it was S. R. Bindler's magnificent "Hands on a Hard Body." Go out and rent that one while you wait for Mr. Death to visit your video store.

Jim Carrey's sensational performance as Andy Kaufman is at the heart of "Man on the Moon." In fact, it's the whole movie, which doesn't amount to much more than re-creations of Kaufman's greatest hits. Kaufman's offstage life is not as compellingly presented. Those who were hoping that the movie would shed some light on this most eccentric of performers will be disappointed. Still, the movie is well worth seeing for Carrey's uncanny impersonation (some have said "channeling") of Kaufman. When he imitates Elvis, he's not just imitating Elvis -- he's imitating Kaufman imitating Elvis. And his portrayal of "Tony Clifton," Kaufman's obnoxious alter ego, is a comic masterpiece. So, you will be greatly entertained, but still clueless as to what made Kaufman tick.