Somewhere Between Bad, and Not So Bad

Three notable films are opening this weekend; unfortunately none of them arrive with much critical enthusiasm. Burn After Reading is the Coen brothers latest, they brought us No Country for Old Men last year and Fargo before that. Good pedigree, but this outing appears to be less interesting. The cast is hot, though: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, and Tilda Swinton. With all that talent, how bad can it be? Speaking of talent, Deniro and Pacino team up in Righteous Kill, a movie about a serial killer vigilante cop; the police detectives played by our Greatest Actors seem more inclined to admire the bad guy than arrest him. Not supposed to be a very good film, but around here they have screenings where you can drink wine and beer while you watch: that could work. Finally, The Women – this is a shame: the original, made by George Cukor in 1939, had a sort of wicked catty charm, it was a little subversive. This remake, featuring a gaggle of actresses and headlined by the ever perky Meg Ryan, is reputed to be much more Sex in the City than Mean Girls. Time Magazine’s Robert Schickel said it was the worst movie he’s ever seen. If I was going to pick one of these I would go with the Burn After Reading – Coen Brothers movies always have entertainment value. Oh, and one more: Tyler Perry has a new picture, The Family That Preys. I’m not a Perry fan – I tend to think that he is unkind to his female characters, but this picture has a little bit of buzz.
Otherwise, if you’re looking for action/suspense and all that, try Traitor: Don Cheadle plays a double agent who may or may not have gone over to the dark side.