Chapel Hill has more than a couple of interesting movies on the docket for this weekend, so I’m going to do Screen Time a little differently. Insteadof just blabbing on at usual length about three different films, I’m goingto bullet point these mugs and see if that lets me cover more ground inless space. Each film will have four bullet points, one each for plot synopsis, miscellaneous facts, why you should go see it, and a brief over-all prediction of how it will turn out.
Law Abiding Citizen (Wide Release):
-Synopsis: After the murder of his wife and young daughter, Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler), a former super-spy who just happens to look like a middle-aged Spartan king, is hungry for justice. But a crooked district attorney (Jamie Foxx) cuts a questionable deal with one of the murderers who walks free as a result. This is all OK for a man trained specifically in covert and creative ways of killing people: Shelton simply turns his hunger for justice into a hunger for revenge, going on a killing spree and knocking out everyone connected to the murder of his family and the failed justice system that he can, even after he’s been detained by the “rightful” authorities.
-Miscellany: From the chronology of events in the trailer, it appears that Shelton kills the two murderers of his wife and child while he is still at large, and doesn’t go after those “guilty parties” of the legal establishment until after he has been apprehended by the law. In that case, the movie is raising serious ethical questions about the inherited duality of our modern legal system. Who, in this case, are the “rightful authorities”? Can vigilante justice be the same thing as community justice?When a government official is in bed with criminals, does the official automatically become a criminal himself? It’s always nice when action-thrillers bring a little philosophy to hang out with their explosions and shoot-outs. I’m just sayin’.
-Why To See It: Bruce McGill has a supporting role as a government prosecutor. Every movie I can think of that’s had McGill in any kind of legal or political role (The Insider, W., etc.) has been well worth the watch.
-Prediction: What looks like a terribly used-up situational premise will blossom into a genuinely edgy and introspectively physical film.
Click above to read about the rest of this week's releases.
Where the Wild Things Are (Wide Release):
- Synopsis: Come on! You know the book. But wait, there’s a crucial difference in the movie. This time Max is angry about his mother’s new boyfriend (Oedipus Complex, anyone?) and bites her before running to his room (Mike Tyson complex, anyone?). There he sails away in his imagination to the land of the wild things.
-Miscellany: This movie has one of the most exciting voice-casts I’ve seen in a long time: James Gandolfini, Forest Whitaker, Paul Dano and Catherine O’Hara, just to name a few.
-Why To See It: Because reliving childhood is every college student’s favorite pastime.
-Prediction: This film adaptation of a childhood literary favorite will be visually intriguing, but ultimately unsatisfying. For alas, living pictures are not as suggestive as written words.
The Boys are Back (The Chelsea):
-Synopsis: A popular and sharp sports writer (Clive Owen) endures the tragic death of his wife to find himself a single parent with two sons from a previous marriage. In order to pull his life back together, and be a good father to his boys, he has to engage in a parental philosophy of “yes,”refusing his sons next to nothing. But this is no Jim Carrey sitcom: set in the Australian version of a beautiful landscape (which is actually so beautiful that it could make Yosemite National Park look like Jersey City), Owen’s character becomes a loving, charming dad without cheap yucks or geriatric blow jobs.
-Miscellany: George MacKay, who plays the elder of Owen’s two sons, looks eerily like Rupert Gint. In fact, he looks exactly like Gint did four or so years ago. Weird.
-Why To See It: Because, no lie, Clive Owen can act. Even a movie this sappy probably won’t bog him down.
-Prediction: While sappiness won’t stop Clive, it will probably slow down the movie as a whole. The dead wife, the single father, the two endearing sons, the beautiful sun-drenched Aussie clime. If it sounds like an over-load of pre-processed emotions, that’s probably because it is.
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