3:10 to Yuma (R, 117 minutes) Russell Crowe and Christian Bale replace Glenn Ford and Van Heflin in this remake of the highly regarded 1957 western. Crowe is the outlaw leader on his way to court via the titular conveyance. Bale is the small-time rancher charged with escorting him there alive—no small task when droves of gun-toting bad guys show up. The film’s tense, ticking clock narrative plays out quite a bit like High Noon, with Bale and especially Crowe turning in compelling performances. James Mangold (Walk the Line) directs. Playing at Carmike Cinema 6
Across the Universe (PG-13, 131 minutes) Arty director Julie Taymor (Frida, Titus and that damn Lion King on Broadway) turns a bunch of Beatles songs into a long-form music video with a sappy story. Didn’t The Beatles already receive this treatment with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band? Well, at least this one doesn’t star The Bee Gees. There are lots and lots of surreal images (all of which were more interesting when they appeared in Pink Floyd The Wall) and a naive story about star-crossed hippie lovers Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood) and Jude (Jim Sturgess). No points are awarded for guessing which songs they get to sing. Playing at Carmike Cinema 6
The Bourne Ultimatum (PG-13, 111 minutes) The third (loose) adaptation of Robert Ludlum’s spy thriller series wraps things up for our amnesiac assassin Jason Bourne (Matt Damon). This time, our boy is racing around the globe, trying to shake a government agent and uncover the final mysteries about his dark past. This, of course, involves shooting a whole lot of people. Playing at Regal Seminole Square Cinema 4
The Brave One (R, 122 minutes) A mere two weeks after Kevin Bacon tried his hand at starring in a remake of Death Wish comes Jodie Foster doing largely the same thing. Foster takes on the role of Erica, a New Yorker who struggles to recover from a brutal attack by setting out on a mission of bloody vigilante revenge. The script feels awfully knee-jerk stereotypical at times, but some tight direction from Neil Jordan (The Crying Game) and a typically gritty performance by Foster keep things from becoming too trite. Playing at Regal Seminole Square Cinema 4
Death at a Funeral (R, 90 minutes) Former Muppet man Frank Oz directs this very British farce about a funeral gone very wrong. A large, dysfunctional family (all mostly unknown actors on this side of the pond) gathers at a lovely house in the English countryside to mourn the passing of its patriarch. Over the course of the chaotic funeral, various wacky situations (homosexual dwarves, hallucinogenic drugs, diarrhea) rear their ugly head. Farce should appear effortless, and Death at a Funeral strains so hard to be funny that it nearly busts a blood vessel. Unfortunately, it aims for the drawing room wit of Oscar Wilde and lands somewhere near the sitcom zaniness of Benny Hill. Playing at Regal Downtown Mall 6
Eastern Promises (R, 100 minutes) Director David Cronenberg (A History of Violence, Naked Lunch) contributes another sober rumination on violence. This one stars Viggo Mortensen (Lord of the Rings) as a mysterious tattooed driver tied to a family of Russian mobsters from London. Our taciturn criminal’s world view goes through some serious changes when he crosses paths with an innocent midwife (Naomi Watts, King Kong) caught up in the death of a pregnant teen. Playing at Regal Downtown Mall 6
Will history repeat itself? Catch Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth: The Golden Age, a sequel to 1998’s critical darling, Elizabeth.
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Elizabeth: The Golden Age (PG-13, 114 minutes) Director Shekhar Kapur and star Cate Blanchett try to repeat history with this sequel to 1998’s award-winning Elizabeth. Here, the British monarch is distracted from running her empire by an affair with adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen). The cast is packed (Geoffrey Rush, Samantha Morton and Rhys Ifans are also in there) and the computer-generated maritime battles are impressive, but the history lesson feels simplified and melodramatic this time around. Opening Friday; check local listings
Feast of Love (R, 102 minutes) Morgan Freeman, Selma Blair, Greg Kinnear, Radha Mitchell, Jane Alexander, Fred Ward and Billy Burke star in this ensemble meditation on love and its various incarnations set within a community of friends in Oregon. Naturally, Morgan plays the village wise man who also narrates. Based on the book by Charles Baxter and directed by Robert Benton (Kramer vs. Kramer). Playing at Carmike Cinema 6
Feel the Noise (PG-13, 86 minutes) Jennifer Lopez produced this song-and-dance-filled musical about an aspiring Harlem rapper (Omarion Grandberry, You Got Served) who flees to Puerto Rico to reunite with the father he never knew after a run-in with some local thugs. On the colorful island nation, he hooks up with a hottie dancer and finds “salvation” in the spicy music style of Reggaeton. For major fans of Reggaeton, I guess. Playing at Regal Downtown Mall 6
The Game Plan (PG, 110 minutes) Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson stars as a cocky professional quarterback who, out of the blue, finds the 8-year-old daughter he never knew dumped on his doorstep. This lazy family comedy recycles the most clichéd elements available from the sports movie genre and the “selfish adult learns a lesson from the impossibly cute little kid” genre. Suitable only for those mourning the loss of very special episodes of “Full House.” Playing at Carmike Cinema 6
Good Luck Chuck (R, 96 minutes) Dane Cook (still swimming in the crude romantic comedy pool after Employee of the Month) stars as a love-’em-and-leave-’em stud whose one-night stands immediately go on to meet the true love of their life. When our boy Chuck meets “the one” (embodied by Jessica Alba), he hopes to break his lifelong curse and form a lasting relationship. Playing at Regal Downtown Mall 6
The Heartbreak Kid (R, 116 minutes) What would happen if you combined Neil Simon and The Farrelly Brothers? The makers of There’s Something About Mary try remaking a 1972 Neil Simon comedy with decidedly mixed results. Ben Stiller plays a loveless 40-year-old who marries an attractive gal (Malin Ackerman, Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle) on a whim. While on their honeymoon in Mexico, our boy discovers his wife is nuts and manages to fall in love with an even more attractive gal (Michelle Monaghan, Mission: Impossible III). There are a few stabs at the Farrelly’s tradmark rude humor, but most of it is awfully uncomfortable and unsympathetic. Playing at Carmike Cinema 6
Trailer for The Heartbreak Kid. |
In the Valley of Elah (R, 114 minutes) Writer/director Paul Haggis follows up his string of Oscar-winning efforts (Crash, Million Dollar Baby, Letters from Iwo Jima) with this slow, somber, war-weary murder mystery. Tommy Lee Jones gives a brilliant, understated performance as a patriotic, long-retired MP who goes looking for his AWOL Army son. Contrary to expectation, the film doesn’t preach against the Iraq war. Instead, it’s a thoughtful rumination on sending young men off to war—any war—and the effect that has on them when they return. The film isn’t a thriller by any stretch of the imagination, but it boasts some fine, sympathetic performances. Playing at Regal Downtown Mall 6
The Jane Austen Book Club (PG-13, 105 minutes) Once again, the name Jane Austen is employed as a carefully calculated beacon to attract loyal chick flick viewers. In this ensemble romance (based on Karen Joy Fowler’s book), six Californians start the titular organization, only to find that their tangled relationships start to resemble the plots of Ms. Austen’s novels. The cast (Maria Bello, Emily Blunt, Kathy Baker, Amy Brenneman, Jimmy Smits, Hugh Dancy) is up to the task, but the script is laid out purely by the numbers. From the director of such other femme-friendly literary adaptations as Little Women, Practical Magic and Memoirs of a Geisha. Playing at Vinegar Hill Theatre
The Kingdom (R, 110 minutes) The Iraq War dramas continue with this thriller about an FBI counter-terrorism team sent to Saudi Arabia to investigate the bombing of an American facility. Of course, both the Saudi government and the American military stymie the investigation at every turn. Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman and Chris Cooper fill out the cast. Playing at Carmike Cinema 6
Mr. Woodcock (PG-13, 87 minutes) Seann William Scott (American Pie) stars as a young man who returns to his hometown only to find that his mom (Susan Sarandon) is marrying his arch-nemesis (Billy Bob Thornton), the high school gym coach who made his life a living hell. And, yes, you can expect more balls in the crotch jokes. Playing at Carmike Cinema 6
Resident Evil: Extinction (R, 95 minutes) The Resident Evil franchise ups the ante (so to speak) with this postapocalyptic outing. Apparently things have gone very wrong since the last couple of movies, as Alice (Milla Jovovich) is now leading a small band of survivors across the Nevada desert. While passing through the ruins of Las Vegas, the group must battle hordes of undead monsters created by the Umbrella Corporation’s now rampant T-Virus. Speaking of coming back from the dead, Russell Mulcahy (Highlander) directs. Playing at Regal Seminole Square Cinema 4
The Seeker: The Dark is Rising (PG, 94 minutes) As expected, Susan Cooper’s Harry Potter-ish book series (written before Harry Potter, it should be noted) goes Hollywood. In it, an ordinary boy learns that he is the last of a group of warriors bestowed with secret magical powers in order to defeat the forces of darkness. If you loved Eragon… Playing at Regal Seminole Square Cinema 4
Superbad (R, 114 minutes) From the makers of Knocked Up comes another outrageous comedy. This one stars Jonah Hill (Accepted) and Michael Cera (“Arrested Development”) as a couple of dorky, codependent high schoolers who figure they’ll get lucky if only they can score some booze for an upcoming graduation party. This is unrepentant R-rated stuff and all the better for it. Underneath all the shocking talk about male and female anatomy, however, is a rather sweet story about friendship and growing up. Playing at Regal Downtown Mall 6
Sydney White (PG-13, 90 minutes) Credit where credit is due: Sydney White is certainly the first film to combine Show White and the Seven Dwarves and Revenge of the Nerds. Amanda Bynes, arguably the most talented of the Disney Channel’s tween queens, stars as the titular college freshman who tries to pledge her long-dead mother’s sorority, only to run up against a shallow and vindictive beauty queen (Sara Paxton). Booted from the paradise of sorority row, she shacks up with a septet of super dorks, who help her get revenge against the evil Greeks. It’s awfully silly stuff (the poisoned apple is now an iMac), but young gals will like it just fine. Playing at Regal Downtown Mall 6
Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married? (PG-13) Tyler Perry directs another big screen adaptation of one of his shot-to-video stageplays (this one barely a year old). For better or worse (much better as far as I’m concerned), Perry’s drag character Madea does not appear in this comedy/drama about a sexy young temptress who shows up at a marriage retreat for couples only. Perfectly acceptable if you like your comedy, your drama and your Christian dogma extremely light. Opening Friday; check local listings
We Own the Night (R, 117 minutes) Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg and Robert Duvall star in this muscular but conventional crime drama about a coke-dealing Brooklyn nightclub manager who tries to save his straight-arrow brother and father (both cops) from evil Russian hitmen. Writer/director James Gray (maker of the nearly identical flicks Little Odessa, The Yards) would helm a fine episode of “The Shield,” but he’s no Martin Scorsese. Opening Friday; check local listings
