Take the Lead

Starring Antonio Banderas, Alfre Woodard. Rated PG-13

You gotta see this if: You know the difference between a tango and a lindy hop.

final analysis: ** I’m going to show my gender preference here by saying how incredibly hot Antonio Banderas is in this movie. The film itself is predictable genre fare. You know how it goes. . . passionate teacher helps troubled inner city kids by giving them something to believe in, in this case, ballroom dancing. You’ve seen this before in “Coach Carter,” “Dangerous Minds,” and “Blackboard Jungle.” The teens are predictable, too: promiscuous girl, gangsta boy, the hoodlum, the victim, etc. It’s a movie designed to give warm fuzzies by wringing emotion from its audience and delivering a “message” about troubled youth. Unfortunately, when a message is shoved down your throat, it’s usually regurgitated. There’s only one reason to see “Take the Lead,” but it’s a powerful one. The dancing is stunning. Taken as a 2-hour lesson in ballroom dance, the music, the moves, and the sensuality of it will take your breath away. The teens in “Take the Lead” accomplish what the kids in “Mad Hot Ballroom” were too young to do. Take notes boys, then sweep her off her feet.

Brick

Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lukas Haas. Rated R

You gotta see this if: You like wearing a trench coat and sunglasses at night.

final analysis: *** “Play it again, Sam.” When I think of film noir, I think of Bogey, the ‘30s, and tall, cool women with long cigarettes. I don’t think of teens in southern California. First-time director Rian Johnson has combined John Hughes with Dashiell Hammett or jocks and geeks with gumshoes and dames. It’s an intriguing idea and works, for the most part. Sometimes the noir dialogue feels overly contrived or just plain impossible to understand, but the plot moves like a Sam Spade picture and the acting is top notch. Joseph Gordon-Levitt portrays Brendan, a teen investigating the murder of his ex-girlfriend. His search quickly leads to a drug kingpin whose inner circle Brendan infiltrates through a series of fistfights and dealings with a rich femme fatale. I like new twists on old genres and “Brick” didn’t let me down. The characters may be pulled from classic literature but, like Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo and Juliet,” they believe in their situation and they made me a believer, too.

Friends With Money

Starring Jennifer Aniston. Rated R

You gotta see this if: You’ve ever lunched at the Costco sample tables.

final analysis: *** I’m guessing most of us, at some point in our lives, have had at least one friend with more greenbacks than he/she knew what to do with. And as we watched that friend drive off in his beautiful car or show off her designer shoes or tell me about her upcoming trip to the Caribbean with the guy I . . . whoops, got off track. My point is, we’ve all experienced the feeling of “Why can’t that be me?” “Friends with Money” revolves around Olivia (Jennifer Aniston) who works as a maid in an affluent section of Los Angeles. Her three best friends are “ladies who lunch.” Married, wealthy Los Angelites who make single, low-income Olivia their pet project. But as they try to build up their struggling friend, the cracks in their own lives visibly widen. Yes, we all know that money doesn’t buy happiness and, thankfully, there’s a lot more to this movie than a trite moral. “Friends with Money” is more about the difference between how we see ourselves and how our friends see us. By sticking with her “Friends,” Aniston has finally picked a winner.