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By Marc Bernardin
Marc Bernardin
Marc Bernardin

The Departed
You know you're in Scorsese-circa-GoodFellas territory when you hear ''Gimme Shelter'' as Jack Nicholson strolls by. And so it's all cops and criminals and shoot-outs as both Leo DiCaprio and Matt Damon wonder if they're in too deep. Sweet. B+

Borat
British comedy is the comedy of embarrassment — has been for decades. And so ''Kazakh newsman'' Borat — Brit comedian Sacha Baron Cohen in a crazy mustache — finds new ways to make us feel uncomfortable. If the trailer's this funny...egads. A-

Catch a Fire
Derek Luke stars in this based-on-fact story of the making of a South African revolutionary. The heady spot bravely asks the question: When you are fighting for what you know to be right but authority has labeled wrong, are you a hero or a terrorist? A

Man of the Year
The most egregious thing here is not that the film is about a political funnyman à la Jon Stewart who runs for president, or that Robin Williams is in full-on annoying-shtick mode. No, it's that the trailer gives away that he wins. Idiots. C-


Posted Aug 18, 2006 | Published in issue #893 Aug 25, 2006 | Order Article Reprints