Vampires, zombies and the paranormal
Published Friday October 30th, 2009
Opening this week: Parnormal Activity and Michael Jackson's This Is It, with Friday and Saturday late showings of 2004's Dawn of the Dead and a Saturday matinee of the Metropolitan Opera's Tosca.
* Astro Boy - Director David Bowers, who co-wrote the script with Timothy Hyde Harris, gets some help from a lively voice cast that includes Freddie Highmore, Kristen Bell, Bill Nighy and Nathan Lane, and the Art Deco look of the film's architecture has a classic appeal. But it almost feels like there are too many movies competing simultaneously in what is essentially a pretty standard tale of good versus evil. The jokes aren't all that funny and the father-son relationship between Astro Boy (Highmore) and brilliant scientist Dr. Tenma (a typically lethargic and curiously cast Nicolas Cage) isn't all that heart-tugging. There's a lot going on, but none of it ever really grabs you. HH out of four. Rated PG.
* Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant - Adapted from a 12-book series, Cirque du Freak characterizes itself from other vampire fare in its outlandishness. Here, vampires are no longer enough; we now get a freak show complete with a bearded Salma Hayek, a super-tall Ken Watanabe and a vampire John C. Reilly. Two high school kids (Chris Massoglia, Josh Hutcherson) stumble upon the group. With remarkably little thought, they cast their lot as vampires, each taking different sides in the war between vampires (who merely sedate their prey) and vampaneze (who kill). It might be the single most overstuffed film of the year: a high school film crossed with a vampire film crossed with a mutant film crossed with Willem Dafoe cameos. H½ out of four. Rated PG.
* Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs - A scientist tries to solve world hunger only to see things go awry as food falls from the sky in abundance. With the voices of Bill Hader, Neil Patrick Harris, Anna Faris, James Caan and Andy Samberg. HH out of four. Rated G.
* Couples Retreat - This is what life might have been like if the guys from Swingers had grown up, moved to the suburbs and turned into lame, sitcommy clichés. Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn team up again, on screen and on the script (along with Dana Fox), for this broad comedy about four couples who go on a tropical vacation together. In theory, they're all there to support their friends Jason (Jason Bateman) and Cynthia (Kristen Bell) as they try to save their marriage through the couples' counselling the resort offers. Little do they know they'll get sucked into agonizing therapy sessions that reveal their own rifts. You wouldn't mind getting voted off this island. H½ out of four. Rated PG.
* Dawn of the Dead - A nurse, a policeman, a young married couple, a salesman, and other survivors of a worldwide plague that is producing aggressive, flesh-eating zombies, take refuge in a mega Midwestern shopping mall.
* Law Abiding Citizen - A man who witnessed the murder of his wife and child orchestrates his revenge in a series of high-profile murders from his jail cell. Starring Gerard Butler, Jamie Foxx, Leslie Bibb and Viola Davis. HH out of four. Rated 18A
* Michael Jackson's This Is It - Watching Michael Jackson's This Is It will have fans grieving once again, but this time, it won't only be for the fallen King of Pop, but for what we lost - a brilliant entertainer who gave every inch of his body and soul for what might have been one of the most spectacular comebacks of all time. Jackson never got to complete that comeback, dying days before his London concerts were to begin in July, but This Is It, culled from hundreds of hours of rehearsal footage for those shows, does it for him. Even though it's been well edited, the amazing performances Jackson delivers in this film are not a result of camera magic, but Jackson's own. HHH½ out of four. Rated PG.
* Paranormal Activity - The no-budget ghost story Paranormal Activity arrives 10 years after The Blair Witch Project, and the two horror movies share more than a clever construct and shaky, handheld camerawork. Like its predecessor, Paranormal Activity has been making waves through a viral marketing campaign that has been building positive buzz through early, sold-out college town screenings and Internet chatter. Paranormal Activity opens with a title card, thanking the families of Micah Sloat and Katie Featherstone as well as the San Diego Police Department, an immediate signal that the "found footage'' we're about to see won't have a happy outcome. Micah (Micah Sloat) has bought a video camera to document the "weird (stuff)'' that has been happening in the two-story San Diego home he shares with his girlfriend of three years, Katie (Katie Featherstone). The entire film takes place at the couple's cookie-cutter dwelling, its layout and furnishings indistinguishable from just about any other readymade home constructed in the past 20 years. HH out of four. Rated 14A.
* Saw VI - Special Agent Strahm is dead, and Detective Hoffman has emerged as the unchallenged successor to Jigsaw's legacy. However, when the FBI draws closer to Hoffman, he is forced to set a game into motion, and Jigsaw's grand scheme is finally understood. Rated 18A.
* The Stepfather - A student returns home from military school to find his mother in love with a suspicious man that seems to be hiding a dark side. With Dylan Walsh, Sela Ward and Penn Badgley. Screenplay by J.S. Cardone, based on a screenplay by Donald E. Westlake. H out of four. Rated 14A.
* Where the Wild Things Are - Where the Wild Things Are, the book, is just 339 words long. But in turning it into Where the Wild Things Are, the movie, director Spike Jonze has expanded the basic story with a breathtaking visual scheme and stirring emotional impact. It's a gorgeous film: This may sound contradictory, but it's intricate and rough-hewn at the same time, dreamlike and earthy. What keeps it from reaching complete excellence is the thinness of the script, which Jonze co-wrote with Dave Eggers. The beloved and award-winning children's book, which Maurice Sendak wrote and illustrated 45 years ago, still holds up beautifully today because it shows keen insight into the conflicted nature of kids - the delight and the frustration that can often co-exist simultaneously. HHH out of four. Rated PG.
* Zombieland - Zombieland mostly finds that tricky balance of the laugh-out-loud funny and the make-you-jump scary, of deadpan laughs and intense energy. It's a total blast even if the story is a bit thin, and it does run out of steam toward the end, but thankfully our trip to Zombieland is appropriately quick. HHH out of four. Rated 18A.
- with files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press
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