'The Grudge 2'

The tormented souls from "The Grudge" are still tormented, but they're taking their pain on a world tour in "The Grudge 2" ().

That creepy dead girl with the long, stringy black hair (Takako Fuji) and her little brother in his perpetual fetal position (Ohga Tanaka) are back, as is Takashi Shimizu, who directed the 2004 hit "The Grudge," based on his own series of Japanese horror movies. ("Evil Dead" creator and "Spider-Man" director Sam Raimi once again lends his name, and his cred, to the credits as an executive producer.)

This time they explain the origins of the curse that dwells within that dark, secluded house. But now the haunted themselves seem to have the ability to be everywhere at once: in a girls' locker room in Tokyo, in a bathtub in Chicago, in a phone booth, in a hospital. They seem to travel through walls and water; they can control electricity and cell-phone communication.

Seems that if they're this resourceful, they could figure out whatever it is they're looking for and finally find some peace. But then there wouldn't be a "Grudge 3," which this sequel clearly sets up.

There are a couple of good jumps here and there, but we've seen this all before. And the creepy dead girl, having been infinitely parodied (especially in "Scary Movie 4"), doesn't seem quite so creepy anymore.

Amber Tamblyn ("Joan of Arcadia") takes over as the plucky heroine in distress, though Sarah Michelle Gellar, star of the original "Grudge," drops in for a cameo. Tamblyn, as Aubrey, is sent to find her older sister (Gellar), who's being treated in a Japanese hospital and is under investigation for the fire that killed her boyfriend. The two conveniently have had a falling out, which only the shared stress of a horror movie could repair.

At the same time, several other disparate characters have found themselves similarly victimized.

Maybe everyone's going crazy. Maybe the spirits are savvy enough to use their frequent-flyer miles. Either way, interior logic has been tossed out the window somewhere along the journey.

Rated for PG-13 for mature thematic material, disturbing images/terror/violence, and some sensuality.

-- Christy Lemire, The Associated Press

'One Night With the King'

An adequate cast and competent direction make "One Night With the King" () the most ambitious Biblical period piece since "The Passion of the Christ." It needed a better script and a Charlton Heston -- a magnetic, scenery-chewing leading man. But it has its Yul Brynner. "King" has charismatic villains aplenty.

The movie was adapted from a novel based on the Bible's Book of Esther. It's a Jews-in-exile tale of a girl (Tiffany Dupont) who hides her Hebrew identity when she is taken into the harem of the Persian king, Xerxes (Luke Goss). Once there, she enchants him with stories of her people and falls for him. And then duty calls.

Dupont has a winsome screen presence, but she and Goss don't really click. To a man, though, the wizened screen veterans class up the film, with John Rhys-Davies thundering the portentous narration, Peter O'Toole going Old Testament on the Agagites, and John Noble and James Callis (as Hamen) lying, cheating, murdering, and all but smacking their lips over it.

Filmed at an Indian castle with digital vistas added to re-create the ancient capital, Persepolis, this movie reaches for the scale of "Lord of the Rings" at a fraction of the cost. It doesn't quite get there.

But the filmmakers' ambitions have done justice to a tale that is not a supernatural myth. Esther's triumph isn't due to divine intervention. It's her humanity and bravery that make her a legend, and make that "One Night" worth remembering, 2,500 years later.

Rated PG for violence, some sensuality and thematic elements.

-- By Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel