Thursday, May 24, 2007

NEW MOVIES: 5/25/07

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Ahoy maties!!! Ok, so when would I ever get to say that except now? Which is one of the lovely reasons you should go see the third (and supposedly final) installment of Captain Jack Sparrow's adventures, as he pisses off every pirate he meets and causes trouble for the young lovers, Will and Elisabeth. The basic plot is: Captain Barbossa, the young lovers, and Jack's loyal crew go to Davy Jones's Locker (bizarro name) to save Jack from a gruesome death. If his shenanigans aren't enough to drag you by your knickers to the pits of pirate hell, then you might be enticed by the fact that Chow Yun Fat and Keith Richards are joining in on the fun. So land lovers, dive into this 2hr 48 min sea adventure to discover a world you won't soon forget.


BUG

Plot: "A Gulf War vet turned drifter (Michael Shannon) holes up with a woman (Ashley Judd) in hiding [from her recently paroled ex-husband (Harry Connick Jr.)] in her seedy motel room. The pair is relatively isolated, except for the bug infestation problem that triggers their respective psychological issues." There's been a lot of buzz (pardon the pun) around this film, that's ranked by the tomatometer's cream of the crop at 73%, about how convincingly deranged Shannon (Vanilla Sky) becomes as he's progressively infected by bugs. Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum refers to him as having "a mean-baby face that morphs by imperceptible degrees from innocent to madman." That alone seems worth seeing. Alas, if you don't want to go to sleep with the sneaking sensation that there are bugs prying into your pores and tucking themselves in under your skin, you might want to skip it.


Limited Releases

ANGEL-A


This is a black and white, French, romantic comedy from Luc Besson, the director of Fifth Element, The Transporter, and The Professional. It's about Andre, a scam artist (Jamel Debbouze, She Hate Me) and Angela (Rie Rasmussen, Femme Fatale), a really hot girl, who just happen to meet while standing on a bridge railing as they're about to kill themselves. If you've seen his movies, you know his characters tend to be a tad offbeat, which is why it's no surprise that this really hot girl just might be a figment of Andre's imagination. Like in The Transporter, Andre spends most of the film trying to evade loan sharks and Angela is his only salvation. So, if you're looking for something with minimal special effects that's devoid of pirates, this might be a nice alternative.


PAPRIKA

It's a Japanese anime film, directed by Satoshi Kon and written by Yasutaka Tsutsui, about a female therapist, Paprika, who has to find a stolen machine that allows therapists to enter their patient's mind. Sixteen out of seventeen critics on rottentomatoes.com gave it a thumbs up. So, if you're tired of reading manga, put the comic/graphic novel down and go watch Paprika save our sanity.


Boss of it All

An actor is hired to pretend to be the new boss of a small company. Unfortunately, he wasn't informed of how much his employees hate him or how bizarre they all are. This foreign film takes "The Office" to a whole other level, making Steve Carrell look like Boss of the Year. The Village Voice breaks it down the best, saying the film has: "quite a lot to say, actually, about loyalty, the temptation of the almighty dollar, and corporate buck-passing as a kind of Olympic sport." But the New York Times cracked me up when it said the film was: "A cold, misanthropic work that places no faith in institutions and in humanity itself. But it’s also very funny." That sounds like something "Daria" would've say.

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