Friday roundup
The first movies of November, a prelude to the Christmas movie season, fly in on double waves of hype.
For the grown-ups, there's "American Gangster," director Ridley Scott's epic biography of '70s Harlem drug kingpin Frank Lucas and the cop who finally brought him to justice. Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe are top-notch in the lead roles, even if Steven Zaillian's script is derivative of a dozen other gangster movies.
For the kids, there's "Bee Movie," Jerry Seinfeld's computer-animated tale of a bee in the human world. If you didn't know this movie was opening today, congratulations on being impervious to all forms of advertising.
Also opening wide is "Martian Child," in which John Cusack stars as a widowed writer who adopts a troubled six-year-old. Cusack's wary performance is good, but the movie falls into a patch of cliches in the second half.
The art-houses have some interesting choices. "Wristcutters: A Love Story," a clever conceit that was largely abandoned after the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, stars Salt Lake's own Patrick Fugit as a man looking for his lost love in a dreary afterlife populated by suicide victims. And the documentary "Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)", which won top honors at this year's Sundance, tells of corruption and kidnapping in Brazil through surreal and striking images. Less interesting is the documentary "Kurt Cobain: About a Son," a dense and self-consciously arty look at the Nirvana frontman's life that melds footage of his old haunts with audio interviews.
The Tower Theatre also is bringing in the International Documentary Association's DocuWeek - six movies (two of which, "Nanking" and "Protagonist," played Sundance) trying to qualify for Academy Award consideration.
For the grown-ups, there's "American Gangster," director Ridley Scott's epic biography of '70s Harlem drug kingpin Frank Lucas and the cop who finally brought him to justice. Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe are top-notch in the lead roles, even if Steven Zaillian's script is derivative of a dozen other gangster movies.
For the kids, there's "Bee Movie," Jerry Seinfeld's computer-animated tale of a bee in the human world. If you didn't know this movie was opening today, congratulations on being impervious to all forms of advertising.
Also opening wide is "Martian Child," in which John Cusack stars as a widowed writer who adopts a troubled six-year-old. Cusack's wary performance is good, but the movie falls into a patch of cliches in the second half.
The art-houses have some interesting choices. "Wristcutters: A Love Story," a clever conceit that was largely abandoned after the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, stars Salt Lake's own Patrick Fugit as a man looking for his lost love in a dreary afterlife populated by suicide victims. And the documentary "Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)", which won top honors at this year's Sundance, tells of corruption and kidnapping in Brazil through surreal and striking images. Less interesting is the documentary "Kurt Cobain: About a Son," a dense and self-consciously arty look at the Nirvana frontman's life that melds footage of his old haunts with audio interviews.
The Tower Theatre also is bringing in the International Documentary Association's DocuWeek - six movies (two of which, "Nanking" and "Protagonist," played Sundance) trying to qualify for Academy Award consideration.
8:49 AM
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