35
mantic comedy directed by Alan Poul, Lo- pez plays pregnant Zoe, a pet-shop owner knocked up by her OB-GYN and a baster full of donor sperm. “This isn’t about a guy,” she declares early in the movie, as- serting her pride in choosing single moth- erhood — but, of course, it’s a movie, so it is about a guy, Stan, played by Alex O’Loughlin. Zoe and Stan meet in a cab on the Upper West Side, and soon begin to fall for each other. But Zoe, who’d just given up the search for Mr. Right, has to decide whether to stick to her back-up plan — single motherhood and career — or take a chance on telling her new beau exactly why it is she’s glowing. (PG-13, 105
minutes) Contains sexual content and pro- fanity. At University Mall Theatres.
BBB1
⁄2
CITY ISLAND
Vince Rizzo (played by Andy Garcia,who also produced) is a corrections officer, would-be actor and beleaguered hus- band. Domestic relations being what they are, he tells his wife, Joyce (Julianna Mar- gulies), that he’s going out to play poker rather than admit he’s taking an acting class. For her part, Joyce is the personifi- cation of matrimonial displeasure who puts all her hopes and dreams into her college-student daughter, Vivian (Domi- nik Garcia-Lorido), who has dropped out of school and is working as a stripper. One of the amazing things about Raymond De Felitta’s film is just how many enormous secrets are being harbored by so few peo- ple: an illegitimate son, forbidden lust, il- licit smoking. The acting is, in fact, su- perb and, given the amount of drama per frame, the best current buy for one’s
movie dollar. (PG-13, 100 minutes) Contains
vulgarity, adult content and lots of smok- ing. Area theaters.
½star CLASH OF THE TITANS
In striving for a combination of grit and grandeur, director Louis Leterriermisses a chance to make the kind of camp classic that could have endured for generations. Instead, it’s a muddled disappointment. What appeal the movie has comes from its two biggest-name stars: as Zeus, Liam Neeson struts around in a disco-inspired silver outfit that shines so brightly we can barely see his face. As his brother Hades, Ralph Fiennes swoops up from the under- world in his own cloud of dirty smoke, like an infernal Pig Pen. They’re welcome counterpoint to Sam Worthington’s Per- seus. Sent off in search of a way to kill the Kraken, the leviathan who is the gods’ greatest weapon, Perseus and his band of merry misfit soldiers hack and slash their way through a rogues’ gallery of quasi- mythological creatures. The movie’s con- clusion promises a sequel; unfortunately, it’s too big to fail. (PG-13, 118 minutes)
Contains (very gruesome) fantasy action violence, frightening images and brief sen- suality. University Mall Theatre.
BBBDATE NIGHT
A self-described “boring married couple” gets mistaken for blackmailers and spends 90 minutes going through contor- tions to clear their names, to mildly amusing effect. In the hands of, say, a Greg Kinnear and a Sarah Jessica Parker, the thing could be a disaster. It’s not. Not by a long shot. That’s because Steve Ca- rell and Tina Fey have something that no movie, no matter how predictable, can stifle. It’s called chemistry, but it’s not the romantic kind. Instead, it’s the power that each of them has to crack the other up. Aiding Carell and Fey in their efforts is a talented supporting cast that includes James Franco and Mila Kunis as the real blackmailers along with Mark Wahlberg as a black-ops consultant whose help the Fosters seek. I know: It doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t have to. All it needs to do is make us laugh. (PG-13, 87 minutes)
Contains obscenity, plentiful crude humor and some gunplay. Area theaters.
BBDEATH AT A FUNERAL
Danny Glover hurls vulgar verbal ord- nance in Neil LaBute’s adaptation of the 2007 British comedy by Dean Craig. Glov- er plays Uncle Russell, a cantankerous old coot in a wheelchair who swears a blue streak and has nary a kind word for any- body at the funeral of his brother. But it’s entirely in keeping with the original mov- ie, whose antic idea of humor included an errant corpse, wincingly graphic bath- room humor and a man tripping on LSD while traipsing naked on a rooftop. Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence round out an appealing cast as the competitive sons of the deceased, along with Zoe Saldana and Tracy Morgan. Fans of the broad slapstick and ludicrous farce that propelled the
original will be well served by the remake.
(R, 118 minutes) Contains strong, brutal vio- lence throughout, pervasive profanity, sex- ual content, nudity and some drug use. At Regal Potomac Yard and AMC Magic John- son.
BB1
⁄2
DIARY OF A WIMPY KID
— Dan Kois
In Thor Freudenthal’s intermittently in- spired film, Greg Heffley— the 11-year- old known to millions of young Jeff Kinney readers as a glum-faced stick figure with a cowlick — may have been transformed into a live boy played by Zachary Gordon, but his trials and tribulations remain true to the book. He’s just starting middle school as the second-smallest kid in his class. He has parents who don’t under- stand him, a teenage brother who tor- ments him and a best friend who humili- ates him. Despite all that, he has dreams of fame and fortune — or at least of se- curing a spot in the “Class Favorites” sec- tion of the yearbook. As for the rest of the movie, it’s a scattershot affair, too slackly paced to sustain real comic momentum. But kids who realize they’re fully ordinary — that is, pretty much all of them — will be pleased to see a world they recognize on the big screen. (PG, 92 minutes) Con-
tains rude humor and language. At Kent- lands Stadium and University Mall Thea- tres.
BBBEXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP
— John Anderson
A celebration of pranksterism and per- haps a superb prank in its own right, this documentary captures the outlaw, mon- key-wrenching glee of the graffiti artists who became art stars at the turn of this century. It purports to be directed by Banksy, the shadowy British street artist whose stencils of rats and puckish acts of mischief have made him a huge interna- tional success. Thierry Guetta, a French- man living in Los Angeles, turns out to be the real star here, even though the film features Banksy and the equally famous Shepard Fairey. The film offers an absorb- ing glimpse of a bracingly subversive slice of the culture, as well as some tantalizing images of Banksy at work. It may raise a lot of questions, but they’re all the right
ones. (R, 87 minutes) Contains profanity.
At Landmark’s E Street Cinema.
BFURRY VENGEANCE
— D.K.
“Furry Vengeance” is the kind of kid- friendly comedy that finds its delights in the varying degrees of slapsticky torture inflicted on Dan Sanders (Brendan Fra- ser), a well-intentioned real estate devel- oper who, at the behest of his maniacal boss (Ken Jeong), is razing acres of for- estland to make room for an allegedly en- vironmentally friendly, single-family sub- division called Rocky Springs. Of course, the cuddly woodland creatures that live in that forest aren’t exactly in favor of the proposal. So they form their own preser- vation posse and pool their resources — acorns, boulders, a surprising deftness for hot-wiring cars — to unleash all man- ner of Animal Planet fury on Dan. (PG, 91
minutes) Contains some rude humor, mild language and brief smoking. Fairfax Towne Center.
BBB1
⁄2
THE GHOST WRITER
— Michael O’Sullivan
The Ghost, as Ewan McGregor’s stead- fastly anonymous protagonist is called, is a young author assigned to pen the mem- oirs of a retired British prime minister af- ter the first author’s mysterious death. The day the Ghost seals the deal, he’s whisked to an island off Massachusetts, where former prime minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan) lives in an elegantly ap- pointed concrete bunker with his wife (Olivia Williams) and a staff of comely as- sistants. As the Ghost sets to work on the project, he realizes that Lang’s distant reticence, a tight deadline and curiously tight security around the project will be the least of his problems. Roman Polanski smoothly threads viewers through a story that comes alive with flawless detail, con- vincing performances and an uncanny
prescience. (PG-13, 130 minutes) Contains
profanity, brief nudity and sexuality, vio- lence and a drug reference. At Landmark Bethesda Row.
BB1
⁄2
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
At its simplest, this Swedish thriller based on the first in a series of three popular Stieg Larsson novels is the story of a 40-year-old missing-person investi- gation. Wealthy businessman Henrik Van- ger (Sven-Bertil Taube) hires investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyq- vist) to find out what happened to Van-
— A.H.
ger’s favorite niece, Harriet (Ewa Froel- ing), who is presumed to have been mur- dered. No sooner does Mikael start to poke around than he is joined by multiply- pierced computer hacker Lisbeth Salan- der (Noomi Rapace), the tattooed girl of the title. Much of the film’s most critical detective work involves high-tech twists to the shoe-leather approach to PI work, and for once it really works. So many movies today use computers as a modern deus ex machina; in this one, anyone with a laptop can believe it. For fans of the thriller genre, it’s also one heck of a lot of
fun. (Unrated, 152 minutes) Contains ob-
scenity, violence, grisly crime scene photos,
nudity, sex, rape and smoking. In Swedish with English subtitles. Area theaters.
B1 ⁄2
HARRY BROWN
Michael Caine delivers a stunning per- formance in this rancid little revenge fan- tasy that probably doesn’t deserve him. Caine plays the title character, a retired military man living in a bleak housing project in England, where gangs of teen- age hooligans terrorize neighbors, deal drugs in the pubs and turn abandoned flats into pot farms and weapons depots. After a particularly egregious violation, Harry finally goes rogue, buying a gun
— M.O.
from a skeevy gang leader and proceed- ing to dole out vigilante justice. As some- one who literally wrote the book on screen acting, Caine brings all his sense of subtlety and expression to bear on Har- ry, whose loneliness he makes palpable just by touching his wife’s empty pillow. But Caine’s sense of nuance is lost on di- rector Daniel Barber, who labors mightily to create a world of rampant wickedness and failed institutions, so that Harry’s ac-
tions make sense. (R, 103 minutes) Con-
tains strong violence and language through-
continued on next page
“”
PETE HAMMOND, BOXOFFICE MAGAZINE
THE BIGGEST AND MOST FUN ADVENTURE OF THE SUMMER!
— D.K.
— A.H.
— Jen Chaney
— A.H.
STARTS TODAY
Check Local Listings or Text PRINCE with your ZIP CODE to 43KIX (43549)
SORRY, NO PASSES
THE WASHINGTON POST • FRIDAY, MAY 28, 2010
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