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mind reels at so much laidbackness and likableness D: Steve Pink; from LaBute. Rock, who previously worked with HOT TUB TIME MACHINE LaBute on the uneven 2000 comedy Nurse Betty, with John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, Clark Duke, Chevy dials his antic charisma way down here for what is Chase, Lizzy Caplan, Crispin Glover. (R, 98 min.) essentially the straight-man role, and Lawrence, all The screenwriters have gone to relative extremes smooth-talking ladies’ man in brand-name eyeglass- to include every aspect of Eighties teen sex come- es, plays against type, too. In the late Nineties and dies, party films, and John Hughes lites, but the aura early Aughts, the pair defined broad, commercial of absurdity Hot Tub Time Machine strives to summon comedy, but here they deliver not jokes but actual (as laid out in the tell-all title) is more Bill & Ted than performances in this slight but agreeable picture. Better Off Dead. If anything, the film doesn’t push (04/23/2010) – Kimberley Jones the weirdness far enough, although, to its credit, ★★★ Barton Creek Square, CM Cedar Park, CM Glover is used to fine effect in a great repeating Round Rock, Southpark Meadows, Highland, Gateway, gag. Essentially The Hangover with, you know, a time- Tinseltown North, Tinseltown South, Westgate traveling hot tub, the film casts the pseudo-iconic Cusack as middle-aged everyman Adam who reunites The Evil Dead with once-upon-a-teen best friends (Robinson and The Evil Dead (1983) D: Sam Raimi; with THE GIRL WITH THE Corddry), resulting in the sort of hit-or-miss gags that w are more the provenance of the Scary Movie series Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Betsy Baker, Hal DRAGON TATTOO D: Niels Arden Oplev; Delrich, Sarah York. (R, 85 min.) Big Screen Classics. with Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Lena Endre, Peter Haber, than anything else. Even Cusack seems to be phon- Night Nurse The film which launched the careers of both writer/ Sven-Bertil Taube. (NR, 152 min., subtitled) ing it in, and the plot, even while aping the stringent director Raimi and star Campbell was described at codex of Eighties teen flicks, feels decidedly ram- Night Nurse (1931) D: William A. Wellman; the time in a Variety review as the “ne plus ultra of No one escapes untainted in this grimly fiendish shackle. Consider this yet another nail in the Eighties with Barbara Stanwyck, Ben Lyon, Joan Blondell, Clark low-budget gore and shock effects.” @Alamo Ritz, adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s bestselling novel. On coffin. (04/02/2010) – Marc Savlov Gable. (NR, 72 min.) Stanwyck and Blondell star in Sunday, 1:40pm; Monday, 9:45pm; Tuesday, 7pm; the face of it, the film is something of an investiga- ★★■Barton Creek Square, Gateway, Tinseltown South this great example of a pre-Code Hollywood film, in Wednesday, 9:55pm. tively inclined thriller. The film quickly realizes itself which grim realities and blatant sexuality become as vastly intriguing, well-written, and sensationally part of the melodrama and not swept under the rug. topical. Chief among those intrigues is the disappear- HOW TO TRAIN YOUR Writer Kim Morgan (www.sunsetgun.typepad.com) will ance, some 40 years earlier, of a young girl from a w introduce the film and lead the discussion. @Alamo D: Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders; humanities in one of the longest expository prologues DRAGON Ritz, Sunday, 7pm. Swedish island. She was the niece of a now-82-year- with the voices of Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, America Ferrara, yet committed to film.) But no one in his or her right old retired industrialist who hires Stockholm-based Craig Ferguson, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Kristen mind is going to Clash of the Titans for extra credit journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Nyqvist) to investigate (one hopes); they’re going for the epic monster vs. the cold case. Running parallel to and finally weav- Wiig, T.J. Miller. (PG, 98 min.) man (or man-god) kickassery, and Leterrier’s film ing its way into Blomkvist’s own storyline is the Whether Viking-born or contemporary American, the film, Borte’s premise works beautifully. Moore does have some nifty CGI up its sleeve. It’s being scrutiny of the fearsomely independent and black- all children want to control their dragons, be they and Duchovny are well-cast as Kate and Steve Jones, released in 3-D but wasn’t conceived that way, and clad, cycle-riding female hacker Lisbeth Salander of literal or metaphorical origins. That’s the bet gracing the film with their generally sardonic line the result is a murky image that’s often far too dark (Rapace): the girl with the dragon tattoo. Oplev’s made by this new animated film, which is directed deliveries and cool presence. But around the midway for the action onscreen and which features little film is deftly calculated to thrill even as it repulses. by the same team that made Lilo & Stitch. Inspired point, the film’s cultural critique falls by the wayside if any three-dimensional awesomeness one would This is not your mother’s murder mystery, unless by Cressida Cowell’s eight-book series, this film is as the Joneses are hit with psychodrama after psy- expect from an “epic adventure” such as this. your mother’s maiden name is de Sade and she has set on the Viking island of Berk, where the com- chodrama. The tone shifts from comedy to moralistic (04/02/2010) – Marc Savlov an appallingly bleak vision of modern society that munity’s only problem derives from its occasional cautionary tale and The Joneses never recovers. ★★ Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek, Alamo Drafthouse occasionally fixates on the historical misdeeds of the onslaught by flying dragons. It is cerebral young (04/16/2010) – Marjorie Baumgarten South, Alamo Drafthouse Village, Barton Creek Square, corporate/industrial world and the correction thereof. Hiccup (Baruchel), previously an embarrassment to ★★★■Arbor, Hill Country Galleria CM Cedar Park, Hill Country Galleria, CM Round Rock, (04/02/2010) – Marc Savlov his clan-leader father (Butler), who discovers the Southpark Meadows, Highland, Gateway, Lakeline, ★★★★■Arbor secret to conquering the clan’s dragon problem: Metropolitan, Tinseltown North, Westgate Make love, not war. Nursing a downed Night Fury, KICK-ASS D: Matthew Vaughn; with Aaron Johnson, the most feared of all dragons, Hiccup realizes Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Moretz, Mark Strong, Nicolas Cage, GREENBERG D: Noah Baumbach; with Ben Stiller, that all the Vikings’ assumptions about dragons Clark Duke, Evan Peters, Lyndsy Fonseca, Michael Rispoli, Xander DATE NIGHT D: Shawn Levy; with Steve Carell, Tina Fey, w Greta Gerwig, Rhys Ifans, Jennifer Jason Leigh, have been incorrect. The flight scenes are made Berkeley. (R, 117 min.) Mark Wahlberg, Jimmi Simpson, Common, Taraji P. Henson, Leighton Merritt Wever, Chris Messina. (R, 107 min.) with a great understanding of 3-D, and despite Meester, James Franco, Mila Kunis, Ray Liotta, William Fichtner, several incongruities the film is an engaging yet Based on Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.’s Baumbach’s critics have sneered that with Marvel/Icon comic series of the same name, Kick- Kristen Wiig, Mark Ruffalo. (PG-13, 88 min.) Greenberg, the 40-year-old writer/director has made bloodless adventure with a sterling message about meeting the enemy and discovering that he is us. Ass asks the pointy question: “Instead of reading For a date-night outing unburdened by high his first mumblecore movie. I think, more accurately, (03/26/2010) – Marjorie Baumgarten about superheroes and watching them at the movies, expectations, the transparently titled comedy Date he’s working with the same Seventies lexicon that why not commit fully to the dream and become a ★★★★■Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek, Alamo Night will fit the bill. Carell and Fey create a totally in part inspired the mumblecore generation. Stiller superhero?” That’s a subtext-rich leaping-off place for believable portrait of a New Jersey husband and wife plays Greenberg, a Los Angeles native and failed Drafthouse South, Barton Creek Square, CM Cedar all manner of esoteric philosophizing on the nature of whose jobs, child-rearing, and home-maintenance musician who moved to New York, picked up carpen- Park, Hill Country Galleria, CM Round Rock, Southpark heroes – super- and otherwise – and the roles they responsibilities dominate their lives and leave little try, had a mild nervous breakdown, then returned Meadows, Highland, Gateway, Lakeline, Millennium, play in our lives, but Kick-Ass never really bothers time and energy left over for romantic pursuits and home to recuperate in his brother’s vacant Laurel Tinseltown North, Tinseltown South, Westgate to explore its own background all that deeply and time alone as a couple. Despite the suitability of Canyon house. Greenberg is a loner, for the most instead settles for everything the title promises and the casting and the naturalistic performances of the part, who eventually takes up with his brother’s D: Derrick Borte; with David Duchovny, less. Johnson plays everyfan Dave Lizewski, who stars, Date Night never breaks out of its dullsville personal assistant, Florence (Gerwig), who is 15 THE JONESES decides to stop fantasizing and start living the hero rut. The film is only mildly amusing, utterly predict- years his junior but just as directionless. Going dra- Demi Moore, Amber Heard, Ben Hollingsworth, Gary Cole, Glenne life before entirely thinking through the vigilante able, and a sad spectacle to watch as two of televi- matic, Stiller commits to the role completely; there’s Headly, Lauren Hutton. (R, 96 min.) ramifications. Kick-Ass batters you about the face sion’s cleverest comic personalities (on The Office something admirable in his refusal to pander or soft- The Joneses are the kind of people whom wealthy and neck with wildly over-the-top fountains of gore, and 30 Rock, respectively) dumb down their banter to pedal the self-serious, frankly unlikable Greenberg. suburbanites aspire to be and “keep up with.” Each bone-cracking slow-motion, and, yes, Cage. Working reach the broader tastes of the filmgoing audience. Baumbach smartly expands his funny and cutting family member is a handsome specimen of physical the hero vibe sporadically, the film never fully func- The plot involves a case of mistaken identity, which observational drama into a three-part character beauty and personal charm; the family as a whole tions as either a clear-cut satire of modern hero- leads to a long night of chase and escape from mob study, with standout supporting work from Gerwig appears to be the living consummation of their worship or a cogently kick-ass commentary on the toughs. Date Night, however, shoots mostly blanks. and Ifans. Through them, Baumbach reminds us, like upscale lifestyle. In an angle perfectly suited to our same. (04/16/2010) – Marc Savlov (04/09/2010) – Marjorie Baumgarten golden-days Mazursky did, of the aching elusiveness times, the Joneses are a stealth marketing team, ★★★■Alamo Ritz, Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek, ★★ Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek, Alamo Drafthouse but absolute essentialness of human connection. employed to lure their neighbors and classmates Alamo Drafthouse Village, Barton Creek Square, CM (03/26/2010) – Kimberley Jones South, Alamo Drafthouse Village, Barton Creek Square, into purchasing all the products they so ably model Cedar Park, Hill Country Galleria, CM Round Rock, ★★★★■Alamo Drafthouse South, Arbor CM Cedar Park, Hill Country Galleria, CM Round Rock, as a living tableaux. For maybe one-third to half of Southpark Meadows, Dobie, Highland, Gateway, Southpark Meadows, Gateway, Lakeline, Metropolitan, Lakeline, Tinseltown North, Tinseltown South, Westgate Tinseltown North, Westgate THE LAST SONG D: Julie Anne Robinson; with DEATH AT A FUNERAL D: Neil LaBute; with In the Darkness Miley Cyrus, Greg Kinnear, Liam Hemsworth, Bobby Coleman, Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, Tracy Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Luke Hallock Beals, Kelly Preston, Nick Lashaway, Carly Chaikin. Wilson, James Marsden, Danny Glover, Columbus Short, Peter of the Night (PG, 108 min.) Dinklage, Loretta Devine, Regina Hall, Keith David. (R, 90 min.) In the Darkness of the Night (2004) Cyrus waves goodbye to her Hannah Montana Frank Oz’s 2007 Death at a Funeral was a dud, D: João Canijo; with Fernando Luís, Rita Blanco, tween-star identity with The Last Song, the latest never finding the right pitch at which to play the Beatriz Batarda, Cleia Almeida. (NR, 94 min.) Austin Nicholas Sparks-penned romance to be made into mounting hysteria of a funeral gone cataclysmically Film Society: Viagem a Portugal – Contemporary a movie. Though she plays a troubled music prodigy wrong (featuring blackmail, an accidental LSD dos- Portuguese Cinema. A family that has gotten too in The Last Song, Cyrus is not heard singing in the ing, and a dead body, for starters). Working with deeply into debt with the Russian mob is forced to movie until, literally, the final song plays over the the same script (by Dean Craig) as the original UK hand over their youngest daughter for prostitution. closing credits. Marked by her bubbly and asser- film, American director LaBute takes a different @Alamo Drafthouse South, Tuesday, 7pm. tive presence, smiley Miley is not the best dramatic tack. In the face of so much frenzy, he decides to, choice to play this movie’s rebellious and conflicted well, chill the fuck out. It mostly works, even as the Ronnie. No doubt hoping that her appearance in this

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