4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (trailer)
Director: Cristian Mungiu
Last year’s Palme d’Or winner at the Cannes Film Festival deals with abortion under the Communist government in 1980s Romania. It’s gotten a good boost in publicity lately from the critical outrage after being snubbed from the 15-film selection list for the Foreign Film Oscar – look at those ratings to see why the outrage has been particularly acute (it’s not like this has never happened before). It’s been near the top of my want-to-see list for some time.
MC/RT: 99/96
Taxi to the Dark Side (trailer)
Director: Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room)
Gibney’s Enron was a thorough, impeccably researched documentary, so I’d expect the same from his new documentary about the US practice of torture in the “War on Terror”. It’s also been nominated for an Oscar.
MC/RT: 79/100
In Bruges (trailer)
Director: Martin McDonagh
Ralph Fiennes tries to kill Colin Farrell. In theory, I think we can all agree, this sounds appealing, but I get the sinking feeling that Fiennes doesn’t succeed in the first five minutes. At any rate, despite the Farrellness of the enterprise, I suppose I’ll have to go see this one after glowing reviews from both Wells and Ebert (whose site is down at the moment, so no link). I’m a little weary of the hitman angle (and also Colin Farrell, not to belabor the point), but I’ll give it a shot.
MC/RT: 67/69
Tre (trailer)
Director: Eric Byler (Charlotte Sometimes)
Honestly, I have no idea what this is, and I’m just listing it here because the rest of this week is pretty bad. From the trailer, it looks to be like a late-night Cinemax version of “Friends”.
MC/RT: not listed/50
Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights – Hollywood to the Heartland (trailer)
Director: Ari Sandel
Vince Vaughn hits the road for a comedy tour with a bunch of comics I’ve never heard of. Judging from the trailer, none of them are very funny.
MC/RT: 48/58
Fool’s Gold (trailer)
Director: Andy Tennant (Ever After, Anna and the King, Sweet Home Alabama, Hitch)
Anyone else have the Reelz channel? They have a series called “The Directors” where they profile, um, directors. When the channel was first launched, they had shows about Clint Eastwood, Michael Mann, and so on. As time has gone on, though, the quality of the directors has started to slip. Just the other day, I noticed one about Andy Tennant. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a successful director … but maybe it’s time to get a new idea for a show.
MC/RT: 27/11
Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins (trailer)
Director: Malcom D. Lee (The Best Man, Undercover Brother, Roll Bounce)
There’s a line in the trailer describing Martin Lawrence’s character as “the male Oprah.” Um, no. There is no possible way any character played by Martin Lawrence could be a popular talk-show host. It just could never happen. I’m irritated at the very suggestion.
MC/RT: 51/35
The Hottie and the Nottie (trailer)
Director: Tom Putnam
Paris Hilton movie.
MC/RT: 6/10
