50 FIRST DATES
One sure filmmaking rule: If at first you’ve even marginally succeeded, try, try again. That’s the case here, where, thanks to their surprise 1998 hit The Wedding Singer, Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore reunite for another romantic comedy. Things are wackier this time, as Sandler is a vet and Barrymore a woman with short-term memory loss. She falls for Sandler once, but he has to keep wooing her so she’ll fall for him again and again. The chemistry between the two is definitely worth remembering, even if much of the movie proves as forgetful as
Barrymore’s character. February 13

KILLL BILL-VOL. 2
Here's how the studio describes the second part of Quentin Tarantino’s fourth feature film: “In Kill Bill-Vol. 2, the emotional momentum that builds throughout Vol. 1 will achieve its cathartic resolution as The Bride goes through the remaining Vipers to reach the man himself, the father of her child, and make a deeply poignant discovery.” We won’t give the discovery away — but we will say that a whole lot of blood is spilled on the way to uncovering it, making Vol. 2 just as intensely violent as last fall’s Vol. 1. This time, Uma Thurman’s The Bride cuts a swath down to dusty El Paso, confronting Michael Madsen’s Sidewinder, and then down to even dustier Mexico for the climactic — and apparently cathartic — vengeful showdown with David Carradine’s Bill. Could all that have been squeezed into just one volume? Probably. But Vol. 2 works well enough, proving Tarantino right to sheathe his sword in the editing room. February 20