by JOANNE LATIMER, SARAH ROWLANDand MARK SLUTSKY

Proof

A movie about math had better go out of its way to entertain. Director John Madden doesn’t bother with his latest project—and there are consequences. Proof may be based on a smash-hit Broadway play, but it’s a big-screen bore.

The gloomy premise doesn’t help. It starts with a grieving daughter, Catherine (Gwyneth Paltrow), preparing to bury her father (Anthony Hopkins), a celebrated mathematician who went mad. Catherine’s sister Claire (Hope Davis) arrives from New York for the funeral and thinks she can start giving orders. Tempers flare.

Catherine is alternately depressed and tortured by her latent genius. It’s hard to care about her, really, yet she catches the eye of Hal (Jake Gyllenhaal), a former student of her father’s. Hal is sifting through 103 of his late mentor’s notebooks in search of an undiscovered mathematical proof. Gyllenhaal’s character seems to have a parallel mission: to exhibit to audiences that math geeks are really quite cool, deep down, and sometimes even cute.

Madden (Shakespeare in Love, Mrs. Brown) chops up the story’s timeline, keeping us guessing about the sanity of this father-daughter team. Hopkins’ character lives in flashbacks and delusional episodes that raise questions about Catherine’s future. Paltrow has a history with this particular character (see Sylvia), but she comes off unplugged here—instead of unhinged. Is Catherine nuts? I was too disinterested to care. (JL)

Into the Blue

Blue Crush director John Stockwell returns to the ocean in this light action pic about a Bahamas-based diver dude (Paul Walker) and his totally cool girlfriend (Jessica Alba), who, along with diver dude buddy (Scott Caan) and sketchy new lady (Ashley Scott), discover an invaluable underwater stash of cocaine that happens to be right next to an invaluable underwater stash of pirate treasure. Some luck! The four argue for a while about whether to just take the coke and sell it, whether to use it to finance a salvage operation, or just pretend it’s not there and go for the booty. The whole first half of the movie is pretty much dedicated to this muddled conflict and shots of the other kind of booty.

Into the Blue does pick up steam in its second hour, as the whos, wheres and whats—and more importantly, the bad guys—get a little more defined, and our heroes take on drug smugglers, mean salvage dudes and sharks. (As it turns out, there are two kinds of sharks: the nice ones, who hang around before any real trouble arises, and the bad ones, who wait until the situation needs a little intensifying to attack). The action scenes are competently directed, and it’s pretty much watchable, although the relentless “bromance” between Walker and Caan (lots of grab-ass and about 200 uses of the word “bro”) is not quite as fun as the movie thinks it is. (MS)

Popaganda: The Art and Crimes of Ron English

At the rate Ron English’s pop art flies off the shelf, he could be living the life of a rock star right now. But his contempt for mass media saturation has led him down another path. As we see in the hilarious documentary, Popaganda: The Art and Crimes of Ron English, the successful New York artist has dedicated a big chunk of his time (time that could be spent producing art that sells) on sabotaging billboards by subverting legitimate ads with satirical knock-offs. His favourite targets include tobacco companies, the war on Iraq and Jesus. In one particularly funny scene, he and his billboard bandits barely escape an angry mob of God-fearing rednecks after erecting a poster that says, “Let’s Get Drunk and Kill God.”

Aside from all the corporate hijacking, director Pedro Carvajal offers a glimpse into some of English’s bizarre side projects, such as appearing on trashy talk shows and trying to break Saddam Hussein’s record for having more songs written about him than anyone else. And we also see how the underground hero is so obsessed with culture jamming that it has taken a toll on his marriage. In short, this is a must-see for Adbusters subscribers, anti-Bush activists and people who just like really good movies. With appearances from Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock, outsider head-case Daniel Johnston and former G ’n’ R guitarist Slash. (SR)

RON ENGLISH AND PEDRO CARVAJAL WILL PRESENT POPAGANDA: THE ART AND CRIMES OF RON ENGLISH AT THE CINÉMA DU PARC FRIDAY, SEPT. 30, AND SATURDAY, ocT. 1. PROOF AND INTO THE BLUE OPEN FRIDAY, SEPT. 30.

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