Friday roundup
What pair do you want to see this weekend? Scully and Mulder, or Ferrell and Reilly?
Those paranormal-attracting ex-FBI agents Dana Scully and Fox Mulder, played by Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny, are back in "The X-Files: I Want to Believe." Those hoping for an extension of the TV series' complex mythology will be disappointed - this is a straight-up thriller, much like a "stand-alone" episode of the show. It's still a gripping and entertaining return to form for series creator Chris Carter, who directed and co-wrote the film.
The team that made "Talladega Nights" - Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly and director Adam McKay - reunite for "Step Brothers," but the results aren't quite as funny this time. Ferrell and Reilly play stay-at-home slackers whose parents (Mary Steenburgen and Richard Jenkins) get married. There are laughs to be had, but the movie runs out of gas well before the closing credits.
Two art-house films vie for "best of the week" honors.
"Encounters at the End of the World" is Werner Herzog's new documentary, in which he visits Antarctica. As he has done with the documentary "Grizzly Man" and his narrative epic "Fitzcarraldo," Herzog finds the line between unforgivable nature and people crazy enough to put themselves out there. The results here are fascinating, the images gorgeous.
"Blind Mountain" is a harrowing drama by Chinese director Li Jang, in which a young college grad (Huang Li) is kidnapped and forced into a marriage to a villager in a remote province. It's a harrowing drama that exposes the ugliness of China's sex-slave trade.
The last movie of the week is "The Wackness," a hit at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, which stars Josh Peck (formerly of Nickelodeon's "Drake & Josh") as a pot-dealing high-schooler who trades marijuana for therapy sessions with a shrink (played by Ben Kingsley). In spite of solid performances by Kingsley and Olivia Thirlby ("Juno"), the movie is an apathetic snooze.
Those paranormal-attracting ex-FBI agents Dana Scully and Fox Mulder, played by Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny, are back in "The X-Files: I Want to Believe." Those hoping for an extension of the TV series' complex mythology will be disappointed - this is a straight-up thriller, much like a "stand-alone" episode of the show. It's still a gripping and entertaining return to form for series creator Chris Carter, who directed and co-wrote the film.
The team that made "Talladega Nights" - Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly and director Adam McKay - reunite for "Step Brothers," but the results aren't quite as funny this time. Ferrell and Reilly play stay-at-home slackers whose parents (Mary Steenburgen and Richard Jenkins) get married. There are laughs to be had, but the movie runs out of gas well before the closing credits.Two art-house films vie for "best of the week" honors.
"Encounters at the End of the World" is Werner Herzog's new documentary, in which he visits Antarctica. As he has done with the documentary "Grizzly Man" and his narrative epic "Fitzcarraldo," Herzog finds the line between unforgivable nature and people crazy enough to put themselves out there. The results here are fascinating, the images gorgeous.
"Blind Mountain" is a harrowing drama by Chinese director Li Jang, in which a young college grad (Huang Li) is kidnapped and forced into a marriage to a villager in a remote province. It's a harrowing drama that exposes the ugliness of China's sex-slave trade.
The last movie of the week is "The Wackness," a hit at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, which stars Josh Peck (formerly of Nickelodeon's "Drake & Josh") as a pot-dealing high-schooler who trades marijuana for therapy sessions with a shrink (played by Ben Kingsley). In spite of solid performances by Kingsley and Olivia Thirlby ("Juno"), the movie is an apathetic snooze.
7:00 AM
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