Now in Theaters - August 26, 2011

There are three new movies opening this weekend and none of them is highly recommended by anybody. Our Idiot Brother stars Paul Rudd as a genial ne’er do well who runs into some life challenges and elects to solve them by crashing into the well ordered lives of his three sisters. Big hit at Sundance, getting decent, but not terribly enthusiastic reviews. Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark is a remake of a made for TV movie; it stars Guy Pearce and Katie Holmes as the parents (well, Pearce is the dad, Holmes is dad’s new girlfriend) of a precocious youngster (Bailee Madison) who unleashes goblins, or something, in the old Gothic home they’ve just moved into. Scary stuff – or not: one critic suggested that all you would need to fight off the little creatures is a good stiff broom. What does seem scary is that Guy Pearce and Katie Holmes are in this movie. Weren’t they supposed to be serious actors, once upon a time? Finally we have Columbiana, an action picture where Zoe Saldana sheds her Avatar Blue, picks up a gun and becomes a dangerous assassin. By most accounts this movie will remind you of every other movie where someone learns to kill in order to avenge the tragic, senseless death of a loved one. There are a lot of movies like that. This one isn’t very good.

So what to see? Well, The Help is a popular choice. It’s become a box office juggernaut, beating out other adult oriented films as well as the latest blockbusters. Well worth seeing: entertaining, thought provoking, all of that. If you are in a summer movie mood, Captain America and Rise of the Planet of the Apes are still in theaters, and if scares are your thing, give Fright Night a try.  

Nothing strike your fancy?  Well, just hang on.  Next week a new shark movie is coming out.  And it's in 3D!

Transformers

Paramount Pictures

For the ReelFan, it’s been a long summer without enough movies. Oh, there have been plenty of films in theaters, just too much summer traveling to find time to see them. Recently I was in Chicago and from my hotel window, just past the river and peeking out from behind a skyscraper, I could see a building with the AMC logo on it. I imagined myself creating a credible pretense and strolling over there, then dashing in to catch whatever was playing. I was willing to see anything. I would have gone to Final Destination 5.

Which might have been a better choice than Transformers; I saw the latest installment of the blockbuster fighting robot franchise at a strange little theater in Saratoga Springs, New York. It was part of one of those giant, sprawling retail complexes where you can drive for hours through adjacent parking lots, trying to make sense of conflicting signposts that claim to be leading you to wherever you thought you were going. Which is a little bit like Transformers: the movie is a muddled mess of confusing parts that are vaguely connected, and you keep hoping there will be some sort of cinematic signpost that leads you to a logical conclusion. There aren’t though, any signposts or logic; instead the film has lots of crashing explosions and battles between robots that look so alike you can’t tell which one to root for. Or why they’re fighting, for that matter – I think the future of humanity was on the line. I’m not sure.

Shia LaBeouf was cool, though. Such an everyman, this guy, but he has a little swagger, a way of squaring his shoulders and striding into robot battle that makes you believe he can be a badass. He’s fun to watch, and that worked for me, but I don’t recommend anyone see this movie. No reason to go.  C