PHOTOS
Jeff Boam
Opening This Weekend
Law Abiding Citizen
Jaime Foxx, Gerard Butler
After the blockbusting success of the swords ’n’ sandals actioner 300, H’wood sure put a lot of trust in the star power of Scottish actor Gerard Butler. Before that, his most memorable parts had been in, well, mostly forgettable fare (Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, P.S. I Love You). In 2009 alone, however, he has already graced movie screens with The Ugly Truth and Gamer. And now, there is talk of his involvement in a prequel to 300. In his latest, the R-rated crime thriller Law Abiding Citizen, Butler stars as a vengeful wronged man out to terrorize a Philadelphia prosecutor (Foxx) from the confines of his prison cell. The Plus: The players. Butler proved that 300 wasn’t just a fluke with an ace turn in Guy Ritchie’s little-seen-but-bloody-damn-good London caper RocknRolla. Meanwhile, Oscar-winner Foxx (Ray) has done nail-biting action before (Miami Vice, The Kingdom) and done it well to boot (Collateral). The Minus: The odds. Romantic comedy The Ugly Truth did decent box office, but R-rated thriller Gamer died a quick death upon its opening weekend proving that audiences are fickle with this genre … and possibly Butler.
Paranormal Activity
Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat
It has been 10 years since The Blair Witch Project broke box office records by pioneering faux documentary horror (and nine years since its awful sequel didn’t). Though its style spawned other flicks for better (*Rec, Cloverfield) and worse (Quarantine), there is talk of another Blair Witch follow-up. In the meantime, Paranormal Activity is picking up the slack. In this R-rated doc-style thriller, a suburban couple (Featherston, Sloat) becomes increasingly disturbed by a presence — demonic or otherwise — that comes in the middle of the night as they try to sleep. The Plus: The buzz. This low-budget thriller cost writer/director Oren Peli only about $15,000 to make. It has already broken box office records for being the highest grossing movie ever to open on 200 or less screens. This figure should only mushroom as the picture goes wide this weekend. The Minus: The competition. With an R-rated crime thriller and another PG-13-rated horror flick opening, Paranormal Activity may face stiff competition, but seeing as it has already grossed nearly 500 percent over its initial investment, your reviewer thinks such competitors will matter very little.
The Stepfather
Dylan Walsh, Sela Ward
First, those dastardly H’wood butchers went after director John Carpenter’s CV (The Fog, Halloween, Last House on the Left). Then, they went after New Line Cinema’s slasher catalogue (Friday the 13th, the forthcoming A Nightmare on Elm Street remake). Now, they’ve apparently set their sights on the bottom-of-the-barrel catalogue (the 1987 gem The Stepfather starring Terry O’Quinn). By “butchers,” your reviewer speaks of remaking horror movies. In this PG-13-rated horror remake, a young man (Penn Badgley) grows suspicious of her mother’s new boyfriend (Walsh) after possibly uncovering a murderous past. The Plus: The genre. Friday the 13th and the first Halloween remake made a killing at the B.O. The Minus: The odds. Just a month ago, another ’80s horror remake, Sorority Row, got murdered on its opening weekend.
Where the Wild Things Are
Catherine Keener, Mark Ruffalo
Spike Jonze has wowed audiences with the unordinary before. This former music video director with an offbeat style (“Sabotage,” The Beastie Boys; “Buddy Holy,” Weezer) turned heads in H’wood by tapping into an actor’s brain, literally (Being John Malkovich). Now, he is taking a 10-page piece of kid-lit and turning it into a full-length feature film. In Spike Jonze’s PG-rated adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s book, a rambunctious and sensitive boy (Max Records) escapes to a mysterious island full of strange creatures (voices of James Gandolfini, Forest Whitaker) where he is king. The Plus: The players. Jonze — who was the first director to bring offbeat screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) to the screen — has an eye for talent. In addition to Keener (Into the Wild), Ruffalo (Shutter Island), Gandolfini (The Taking of Pelham 123) and Whitaker (Vantage Point), he has cast Michele Williams (I’m Not There), Catherine O’Hara (Away We Go), Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood) and Chris Cooper (Breach). Best yet, he tapped The Jim Henson Creature Shop to create Sendak’s monsters. The Minus: The unknown. Reportedly, Warner Brothers was not happy with Jonze’s first cut and ordered extensive reshoots. Though this rumor was shot down, it does raise some concerns as to the adaptation.
Now Playing
Couples Retreat
Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau
Oftentimes, disappointment strolls down the cinema aisle unnoticed well after the lights have gone dim. Granted, it doesn’t always show up as a row of chatty teenagers running in and out of the theater or even as the monstrously loud chomper who has taken management up on a free large bucket of popcorn refill. No, sometimes moviegoers themselves unknowingly sneak disappointment in as “high expectations.” Such is the case with Couples Retreat, a comedic coupling of Vaughn and Favreau — who, while hungry younger actors, once wowed your reviewer as a modern-day Matthau and Lemmon in Swingers and (to a lesser degree) Made. Together again with less to prove, these now-established H’wood players give audiences a comedy that’s more Ritz Brothers than Marx Brothers — humorous, but far from their personal best.
In this PG-13-rated comedy, four couples (Vaughn, Malin Akerman; Favreau, Kristin Davis; Jason Bateman, Kristen Bell; Faizon Love, Kali Hawk) embark on a journey to a tropical island resort only to find that their group-rate vacation comes at the high cost of therapy.
Perhaps, after personal successes apart (Favreau, director: Elf, Iron Man; Vaughn, star: Old School, Wedding Crashers), these actors are just showing their age. Risk has been replaced with formula. Verve has been replaced with simplicity. Thankfully, they keep their knucklehead personalities intact which gives moviegoers a few chuckles. They stand and deliver standard fluff (she loves me, she loves me not) with tired gags (hi-jinks in a tropical paradise) and a tidy ending, coloring-by-numbers where once they colored outside of the lines. Bottom line: Beat a hasty retreat.
Capitalism: A Love Story
Michael Moore
When filmgoers finally realize that Michael Moore is a humorist and not a documentarian, a greater appreciation for his pointed and bittersweet films becomes possible. Total objectivity is impossible for any filmmaker, but Moore paints with broad satirical brush strokes. For your reviewer, this moment of clarity came when Fahrenheit 9/11, Moore’s vitriolic rant against the Bush administration, proved so heated and scattershot that a “He doth protest too much” cloud hovered over it. Then, your reviewer saw that (now Congressman) Al Franken dodged slander lawsuits because he claimed to be a political humorist and not a comedian. It turns out that 9/11 was just bad filmmaking, but the satirical brush strokes were blatantly evident. Moore’s being a humorist doesn’t change the fact that his facts are often right, however, and Capitalism’s honest and plain-speaking voice will strike a nerve with even the most discerning viewer.
In Moore’s latest R-rated film, the root causes of the global economic meltdown are examined via a comical look at the corporate and political shenanigans that allegedly kicked off the whole damn thing.
As with Sicko, Moore smartly keeps off camera for most of the picture, letting the issue truly take focus. Moore seems to have humbled and uses on-screen moments for extreme but appropriate measures like going to the headquarters of both AIG and Citibank to make citizens arrests. The best example of this comes at the end with a fourth wall-breaking call-to-action. It isn’t as gut-punch perfect as Bowling for Columbine, but its shear timeliness perhaps makes it his most telling. Bottom line: Much love.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Voices of Bill Hader, Anna Faris
In this PG-rated 3-D animated adaptation (also available in 2-D), an inventor (Hader) tries to solve a food shortage and inadvertently causes food to fall from the sky in abundance. It tries to pull a Pixar, making a smart cartoon that both kids and adults can enjoy, but misses the mark on both. The smart-alecky zingers are above kids’ heads, but below the standards of their parents, meaning many of the jokes end up in the ether. The blame falls on a half-baked script. The screenwriters put together gags that hold promise but never fully deliver. For example, a monkey wears a device that audibly voices his simple thoughts, but — aside from saying his name, “Steve” — the punchline never comes. The end product is occasionally fun but never out-and-out funtastic. Bottom line: Bad weather report.
Halloween II
Tyler Mane, Malcolm McDowell
In this R-rated sequel masquerading as murder porn, Michael Myers’ (Mane) murderous rampage continues with his sister (Scout Taylor-Compton) seemingly dead in his sights. If John Carpenter directed Twin Peaks or David Lynch directed Halloween, it would probably look a lot like this indulgent mess. With Halloween II, moviegoers are left with a flick so laughably drenched in Karo syrup that it becomes downright silly, not scary. Worse, it puts viewers through dime store armchair psychology involving visions of the serial killer’s inner child, the director’s wife and an unfortunate white horse that must have wandered into the shot. This isn’t psycho-babble — this is psycho-bubblegum and it plays out about as well as the first craptastic Halloween sequels did back in the day. Bottom line: Tainted trick-or-treat candy.
The Informant!
Matt Damon, Scott Bakula
In this R-rated comedy, Damon plays a bumbling but high-ranking whistleblower of a major corporation whose de facto dealings with the FBI begin to uncover a multi-million dollar trail of embezzlement. Despite the true events being as serious-as-a-heart-attack, director Steven Soderbergh’s comedic bent works — really REALLY works. Sadly, his spot-on and outrageously funny treatment didn’t need much transmogrifying. Matt Damon’s transformation into a schlubby everyman proves flawless (30 pounds and a bad mustache later), but his no-poker-face body language and delivery will deservedly win him an Oscar nomination. He carries Soderbergh’s timely material to a surprising but satisfying end, appropriate exclamation point and all. With this hilariously sad sack tale, they have turned tragedy into comedy in the same revealing mirror-to-society manner of Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H in 1970. Bottom line: Incredible! In-tune! Indeed!
The Invention of Lying
Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner
In this PG-13-rated comedy set in an alternate reality where lying doesn’t exist, Gervais plays a down-on-his-luck loser who suddenly develops the ability to lie. Without its H’wood trappings, this movie’s high-minded but potentially winning concept feels like it would have made a brilliant import. Instead, the British humor ends up perfectly rounded … on all four sides. In cooking up his “first-and-only liar” comedy with a half-baked American formula (distracting star cameos, neat ’n’ tidy ending), Gervais seems to have had much of his Britishness neutered, which was why many audiences loved him in the first place. Granted, his script wrings some funny bits out of religion and sex, but they ultimately go nowhere. By end credits, he might as well lose the accent and give his Bollocks a full Yank. Bottom line: A lowdown Lying shame.
Surrogates
Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell
In this PG-13-rated sci-fi thriller with a clever hook and a director who damn well understands this hook, a detective (Willis) lives in a futuristic world where humans have lived in isolation and interacted through surrogate robots for years, only he has to leave his home to solve a murder. Saddled as it is with a connect-the-dots story and color-by-numbers action, this piece of candy-coated popcorn is still the best of its bunch … in theaters now, that is. While most futuristic cinema worlds lie drenched in shadows, Surrogates is all about color. It proves to be false front of an image-obsessed culture, of course. As far as Willis playing a cop (Die Hard 5: Die Hard Day’s Night, anyone?) he’s still better than anybody else in the yippee ki yay mothertruckin’ game. Bottom line: Bland Runner.
Zombieland
Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg
In this R-rated horror comedy, a ragtag group (Harrelson, Eisenberg, Abigail Breslin, Emma Stone) joins forces to survive a worldwide zombie outbreak. Writer/director Ruben Fleischer drums a helluva lot of belly laughs out of this niche in the wake of other zombie comedies. (Even George Romero himself used a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor in his work.) His piss and vinegar take comes off less pointedly farcical than Shaun of the Dead, however. As the title suggests, he just embraces horror comedy with an amusement park abandon — fun, wild and damn well worth the price of admission. With relish, Harrelson scarily wears undead-clobbering masochism like a glove. The rest of the performances work well, but mostly due to the Roman Circus decadence of the side-splitting script (three words: Bill Murray cameo). Bottom line: Bring on your dead.