Upcoming Releases
1408 (PG-13) Paranormal investigator and confirmed skeptic Mike Enslin (John Cusack) meets his match when he checks in the titular room at a Manhattan hotel and finds all hell literally breaking loose. Based on a short story by Stephen King, 1408 is a welcome change from the Saw/Hostel splatterfests currently in vogue, but the film’s approach isn’t exactly old-school psychological-horror either. Director Mikael Hafstrom throws a steady stream of somewhat incongruous elements at the wall hoping something will stick, and while there’s plenty of eerie atmosphere and surreal visions here, there are also lots of cheap tricks, with the equivalent of somebody jumping out of a closet and yelling “Boo!” every few minutes. Cusack is on screen nearly every moment here, and he’s quite good, but the film is a mixed bag — for better or worse, a spot-on translation of King’s compulsively watchable and eminently disposable style. Also stars Samuel L. Jackson and Mary McCormack. Opens June 22 at local theaters. 3 stars
EVAN ALMIGHTY (PG-13) A sequel to Bruce Almighty minus Jim Carrey, in which Steve Carell goes all Noah-esque when God (Morgan Freeman) tells him to build an ark. Also stars Lauren Graham, Wanda Sykes, John Goodman and Steve Oedekerk. Opens June 22 at local theaters. (Not Reviewed)
RECENT RELEASES
28 WEEKS LATER (R) 28 Weeks Later is largely headache-inducing stuff. The movie picks up some months after its predecessor (28 Days Later), with the zombie-inducing epidemic of the original film apparently contained and American-led NATO forces moving in to help rebuild a devastated Britain. Everything soon enough goes to hell, of course, and the bulk of the film is pure chaos, as masses of frightened human survivors and infected, flesh-craving zombies run amok through the streets of London, and confused U.S. soldiers stand at a distance firing blindly into the crowds, unable to tell friends from foes. The movie’s scenario practically demands a parallel or three with Iraq, but there’s very little shape or nuance to what happens here, and what 28 Weeks Later mainly has going for it is some pretty extreme and ugly nihilism. There are some clever turns here, but the movie mainly just tosses out faceless characters for its zombies to chow down on, all set to a combination of aggressive metal and dreamy, discordant rock of the sort that used to be called alternative. Stars Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Catherine McCormack, Imogen Poots, Makintosh Muggleton and Idris Elba. 2.5 stars
AFTER THE WEDDING (R) Former Dogme hard-liner Susanne Bier’s most melodramatic leanings have surged to the surface, where they’re aired out in feverishly opulent style. Mads Mikkelsen (the blood-weeping baddie from Casino Royale) stars as the Danish manager of a Bombay orphanage, whose meeting with a wealthy benefactor (Rolf Lassgard) lifts a veil on the past, uncorking a magnum of tears, traumas, secrets and lies. The camera still whips around nervously, almost Dogme-like at times, but the shots are just as likely to be smoothly executed and slickly composed, while a seemingly endless succession of iconic close-ups of eyes fill the screen. It’s all absurdly over-heated and maybe even a bit silly, but I wouldn’t at all call it unpleasant. Also stars Sidse Babett Knudsen and Stine Fischer Christensen. Opens June 22 at Tampa Theatre. Call theater to confirm. 3 stars
AWAY FROM HER (PG-13) Julie Christie stars as Fiona Anderson, a woman suffering from Alzheimer’s, and as her memory vanishes, Away From Her sets itself the task of examining what remains. As much as the film focuses on Fiona’s slow, slipping-away process, Away From Her is on equally intimate terms with her husband/caregiver Grant (Gordon Pinsent), and the bittersweet portrait painted here is ultimately a two-shot, a carefully layered mosaic of the couple’s 44-year union. In a larger sense, the movie is a quietly telling examination of the nature of love itself, a reminder of what holds couples together even after the realization that our loved ones are not as we imagined them to be. In lesser hands this could easily have become treacly, even tedious going, but Away From Her turns out to be that rare, small film that packs an uncommonly large punch. Also stars Olympia Dukakis, Michael Murphy and Kristen Thomson. 3.5 stars
BUG (R) Is it a horror movie or an existential art flick masquerading as a horror movie? Or vice versa? Since the studio declined to screen this one for review, we’ll just have to wait to see how it all comes out in the wash. Based on a stage play, and directed by William Friedkin (The Exorcist), Bug stars Ashley Judd as a woman holed up in a hotel room while some sort of (metaphorical?) contamination rages outside. Also stars Michael Shannon and Harry Connick Jr. (Not Reviewed)
DAY WATCH (R) Day Watch, the sequel to the 2006 Russian action-fantasy-horror hybrid Night Watch, begins with a brief introduction that brings us up to speed — or at least as close to “speed” as we can reasonably expect with material this convoluted. We’re then left to wander the wilderness for the next 140 minutes, surrounded by signposts well worth gawking at, but that don’t provide a clue as to our whereabouts. Former music video director Timur Bekmambetov returns us to a more or less modern-day Russia where magic rules and where an uneasy, age-old détente holds between the forces of darkness and light. Like its predecessor, Day Watch is as tasty as any Hollywood eye candy, but its storytelling chops are often tough going, with sequences filled with expositional gobbledy-gook that’s sometimes silly and occasionally flat-out incomprehensible. Still, there’s style to burn here, and those willing to suspend disbelief may find much to appreciate in a world where witches, wizards and shape-shifters take part in a crumbling post-Communist bureaucracy. Also stars Vladimir Menshov, Maria Poroshina and Galina Tyunina. 3 stars
FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER (PG-13) As superhero sagas go, this fledgling franchise has yet to prove its bankability, but that could all change with this new installment, which seems hand-designed for the fanboy crowd (those young-ish male louts who rule the box office). Rise of the Silver Surfer promises to be a geek’s paradise, with some of Marvel Comics’ most popular creations featured, including the titular silvery one and a beyond-good-and-evil nemesis who devours entire planets simply to exist. Oh yeah, and did we mention Jessica Alba? Also stars Ioan Gruffudd, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, Julian McMahon and Kerry Washington. (Not Reviewed)
GEORGIA RULE (R) Two of the actresses you love to hate — Lindsay Lohan and Jane Fonda — are among the three featured female leads here. Felicity Huffman makes up the final third of the movie’s female triad, playing a boozy Californian who sends her out-of-control teenaged daughter (Lohan) to spend the summer in Nowheresville, Idaho, with Huffman’s estranged, iron-willed mother (Fonda). Director Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride) mercilessly milks the shtick resulting from three generations of feuding mothers and daughters, but the conflicts are mostly too tidy, the personalities too rigid, and every other gesture over-enunciated, like a so-so play, stiffly executed and slapped up on the screen. Also stars Dermot Mulroney, Garrett Hedlund and Cary Elwes. 2 stars
KNOCKED UP (R) This is the new one from Judd Apatow, writer-director of the painfully funny The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and although I’m not quite ready to go out on a limb and suggest that Apatow is the Thinking Person’s Bobby and Peter Farrelly, Knocked Up feels a lot like what the Farrelly’s movies might have been like had their films continued to get better after There’s Something About Mary. The unlikely event fueling all the wackiness here is an unwanted pregnancy, the result of a drunken one-night-stand involving dumpy, unemployed pothead Ben (Seth Rogan) and go-getter Jessica Simpson look-alike Alison (Katherine Hegel), classically mismatched characters that a smart script and naturalistic performances help us believe could actually wind up together. Also stars Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann and Jonah Hill. 4 stars
NANCY DREW (PG) Adorable Emma Roberts, whose aunt is herself an adorable movie star (by the name of Julia), steps into the perfectly shined shoes of the famous tweener detective much loved by female readers of a certain age. Also stars Rachael Leigh Cook and Tate Donovan. Opens June15 at local theaters. (Not Reviewed)
OCEAN’S 13 (PG-13) Who says star power is dead? The Ocean’s movies may lack the fancy special effects and unadulterated escapism of other summer enterprises, but it’s hard to deny the glossy appeal of Messrs. Clooney, Damon, Pitt and company, this time bolstered by the iconic presence of some guy named Pacino. Celine Dion’s here too, but don’t let that scare you away. Stars George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, Bernie Mac, Ellen Barkin and Scott Caan. (Not Reviewed)
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END (PG-13) One more go around — and, reportedly clocking in at over two and a half hours, a very long go around — for Johnny Depp and company. The mega-budgeted third part in a swashbuckling franchise of almost Bollywood-like over-abundance (Adventure! Comedy! Horror! Romance!), this latest installment also boasts appearances by Chow Yun-Fat and, as Depp’s swaggering, slurring pop, Keith Richards. Also stars Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Geoffrey Rush and Bill Nighy. (Not reviewed)
SHREK THE THIRD (PG) After the sustained comic brilliance of Shrek and Shrek 2, maybe we should be thankful for the breather supplied by a little water-treading. The zingers still fly thick and fast — with all the rapid-fire asides and absurdities, this latest Shrek often seems one step removed from the frenetic desperation of a Naked Gun flick — but the story this time out is clearly aimed more at satisfying kids than engaging grown-ups. The patented Shrek formula remains intact, with myths and modernity conflated like crazy, but the jokes simply don’t soar as high this time, and the ubiquitous pop-culture references are even becoming a bit strainedFeatures the voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, Julie Andrews, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Rupert Everett and Justin Timberlake. 3 stars
SURF’S UP (G) Surf’s Up‘s humor generally aims closer to droll spoofery than teeth-gnashing cuteness, with the movie assuming the form of an animated mockumentary revolving around the absurdist premise that surfing was invented by the talking penguins who are the film’s subjects. These birds aren’t the most charismatic or adorable animated characters you’ll ever meet, but they’re as engagingly self-conscious in front of a camera as anybody on The Office, and their gags often benefit from a seemingly improvised quality in keeping with the whole “reality filmmaking” approach. Also features the voices of Shia LaBeouf, Zooey Deschanel, Jon Heder, Jane Krakowski and James Woods. 3 stars
WAITRESS (PG-13) A slight and sweetly quirky affair, Waitress is an oddball fairy tale with a faintly naughty undertow. The movie’s title refers to not one but three colorful women living lives of varying degrees of dissatisfaction while working in a curiously idealized dive called Joe’s Pie Diner. The principal “pie genius” here is Jenna (Keri Russell), a pregnant backwoods beauty trying to figure a way out of her marriage to a bad-tempered jerk named Earl (Six Feet Under‘s Jeremy Sisto). The weirdo whimsy is sometimes a bit forced and it doesn’t always fully mesh with the more “real” reality that periodically rears its head — but, at the risk of conjuring up tired old words like “bittersweet,” it’s quite a feat that director Adrienne Shelly manages to put a sunny and even silly face on material that might just have easily slipped into tragedy. Also stars Nathan Fillion, Adrienne Shelly, Cheryl Hines, Andy Griffith and Eddie Jemison. 3.5 stars
This article appears in Jun 20-26, 2007.
