CALENDAR ( COMMUNITY SPORTS ARTS FILM MUSIC) LISTING S

moles; and bulbous nose, Nanny McPhee brings from beneath the fictional Lake Victoria during spring D: John Luessenhop; with Chris Brown, Hayden D: Huck Botko, Andrew order and cooperation to the household with a tap break revels, and carnage ensues. If you’re going TAKERS THE VIRGINITY HIT of her walking stick. The film’s humor is designed to fault director Aja’s manic take on Corman’s old Christensen, Matt Dillon, Michael Ealy, Idris Elba, Steve Harris, Gurland; with Matt Bennett, Zack Pearlman, Jacob Davich, Justin to work for both kids and adults, and even if the terror-tory at all, you might say it’s too much of a good Tip “T.I.” Harris, Jay Hernandez, Johnathon Schaech, Paul Walker. Kline, Krysta Rodriguez, Nicole Weaver, Harry Zittel, Savannah film seems a little old-fashioned in its family- thing. The effects work is wickedly gruesome, and (PG-13, 107 min.) Welch. (R, 86 min.) entertainment goals, there are plenty of modern-day the pace is appropriately breathless. Granted, this The problem with Takers, a routine, patchily This remainder-bin comedy, which appropriates other poop jokes on the farm. Nevertheless, for American poisson rouge is not going to be to everyone’s taste, engaging heist thriller, is that it takes itself way too sources’ more successful jokes, feels like a copy of a children, Nanny McPhee Returns may seem some- but, that said, it’s still considerably more than 21st seriously – director Luessenhop seems to think copy of a copy. Another faux documentary, this movie thing like a foreign film, but the movie has enough century gorehounds probably bargained/hoped for. he’s assembled a sort of hip-hop Heat, even aping chronicles the efforts of 17-year-old Matt (the likable spoonfuls of sugar to make the Britishisms go down. Either way, come on in. The water’s fine disgusting. Michael Mann’s fondness for cool color palettes. The Bennett) to lose his virginity. Matt is a sensitive, abste- (08/20/2010) – Marjorie Baumgarten (08/27/2010) – Marc Savlov L.A.-based Takers takes great pains to split the nar- mious kid, and he’s had legitimate pain (a dead mom ★★★■CM Cedar Park, Hill Country Galleria, Lakeline, ★★★■Highland, Metropolitan rative between cops and robbers alike. Dillon plays and a deadbeat dad). Instead of bringing his crude, Metropolitan, Tinseltown North a down-on-his-luck detective trying to figure out who indulgent friends up to his level, co-writer/directors engineered a thrilling midday bank heist. The audi- Botko and Gurland want to drop-kick Matt down to SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE ence knows, of course – the opening minutes detail the subbasement and depravity of his lessers. These THE OTHER GUYS D: Adam McKay; with Will w WORLD D: Edgar Wright; with Michael Cera, Mary the job done by Elba and his crew – but it takes privileged white kids stalk New Orleans as if they own Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Eva Mendes, Michael Keaton, Steve Coogan, Elizabeth Winstead, Ellen Wong, Kieran Culkin, Mark Webber, Chris a while before any of these robbers’ personalities the place, hateful and destructive. Significantly, the Ray Stevenson, Samuel L. Jackson, Dwayne Johnson, Rob Riggle, Evans, Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, Jason Schwartzman, Mae emerge. Pity: The cops are a bore. It takes its time group depicted here is of the first generation raised by Damon Wayans Jr.. (PG-13, 107 min.) Whitman, Brandon Routh. (PG-13, 112 min.) getting there, but Takers has a nice-riding middle the Internet, but The Virginity Hit doesn’t have anything Reeling himself back from the career crash-zone section as the team plans its next big heist (it’s a anthropologically interesting to say about that. The Scott Pilgrim vs. the World comes from Bryan Lee doozy). But it takes way, way too long to take its final publicity department has gone to some pains to sug- of Land of the Lost, Ferrell returns to more famil- O’Malley’s graphic novel of the same name, but it’s iar ground with this fourth re-pairing with director bow, in the process burning off any residual good gest the film is based on real life. I couldn’t care less video games, not sequential art, that most inform this will. (09/03/2010) – Kimberley Jones either way – fact or fiction, The Virginity Hit is repugnant. McKay. Again, Ferrell plays a big boob, although his glad-hearted and furiously funny piece of pop entertain- Detective Allen Gamble in The Other Guys is not as ★★★■CM Round Rock, Southpark Meadows, Highland, (Closes Sunday.) (09/10/2010) – Kimberley Jones ment. Co-writer/director Wright turns his talents here to Tinseltown North, Tinseltown South Gateway extreme a doofus as his characters in many previ- the timeless tale of boy meets girl, boy woos girl, boy ous movies. Gamble is an NYPD forensic accountant battles said girl’s seven evil exes in order to win her who loves his desk job. His resentful partner, Terry hand. Boy is Scott Pilgrim, portrayed by Cera (Superbad), D: Sidharth Malhotra; with Kajol, Hoitz (Wahlberg), has been reassigned from the THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE WE ARE FAMILY who gently strays here from the Cera “type” of sham- D: David Slade; with Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal. (NR, 115 min., subtitled) field. The Other Guys front-loads its best gags into bling lovesick pup. Yes, he’s got it bad for a girl named Lautner, Ashley Greene, Bryce Dallas Howard, Peter Facinelli, Nikki Not reviewed at press time. This Bollywood film the first third of the film. After that, the jokes begin Ramona Flowers (Winstead), she of the evil exes – but Reed, Dakota Fanning, Billy Burke, Xavier Samuel, Kellan Lutz, is a Hindi adaptation of the Julia Roberts movie to repeat themselves, and the plot becomes mired Pilgrim is also an unintentional prick and responsibility- Jackson Rathbone, Elizabeth Reaser. (PG-13, 124 min.) Stepmom. (09/03/2010) – Marjorie Baumgarten in the details of the white-collar crime that Gamble shy. The battles, then, are his way of growing up, though and Hoitz are investigating. Lots of stuff crashes and Wright certainly doesn’t stage them so transparently. The dominant dramatic struggle of this third Tinseltown South blows up, and the precinct captain (the very good Instead, Wright takes the tools of a bloodless medium, installment is Bella’s (Stewart) push-pull between Keaton) has plenty to rail about. The Other Guys is the video game, and crafts an action-comedy with a two suitors: her hot-blooded wolf friend, Jacob neither the station house’s or cinema’s top dog. WINNEBAGO MAN D: Ben Steinbauer. true-blue beating heart. So what if it’s built on 8-bit? (Lautner), and her cold-to-touch vampire beau, w (NR, 87 min.) (08/06/2010) – Marjorie Baumgarten (08/13/2010) – Kimberley Jones Edward (Pattinson). The two rivals bicker and tussle ★★★ ■Alamo Drafthouse Village, CM Cedar Park, Hill ★★★★ Alamo Drafthouse South, Movies 8, Gateway, like schoolboys over a prized toy – and, really, Winnebago Man is one of the best films you’re going to see all year. Though its structure and object Country Galleria, CM Round Rock, Southpark Meadows, Tinseltown South, Westgate for long stretches of the film, Bella might as well Gateway, Tinseltown North, Tinseltown South, Westgate be an inanimate object. Bella has always been a of attention are routine choices, the places the film milquetoast, but what especially rankles here is that takes the viewer and its subject – Jack Rebney, the STEP UP 3D D: Jon Chu; with Rick Malambri, Adam G. when sexually curious Bella does try to initiate sex so-called Winnebago Man – are unexpected and sur- PIRANHA 3D D: Alexandre Aja; with Elisabeth Shue, Sevani, Sharni Vinson, Alyson Stoner, Keith Stallworth, Kendra Andrews, with Edward, she’s swatted away, with Edward – the prisingly satisfying. Rebney derived his underground Adam Scott, Steven R. McQueen, Jerry O’Connell, Eli Roth, Kelly Stephen Boss, Facundo Lombard, Joe Slaughter. (PG-13, 107 min.) mouthpiece for author Stephenie Meyer’s hectoring notoriety from the hilarious outtakes of him cursing Brook, Ving Rhames, Christopher Lloyd, Jessica Szohr, Riley Steele, pro-abstinence message – murmuring paternalisti- his way through a Winnebago industrial video, which Why are the Step Up movies so white? Six romantic Paul Scheer. (R, 89 min.) cally about her “virtue.” New director Slade splits YouTube turned into a viral pandemic. Still, no one leads over the course of three movies – well, really, the knew where he was until Steinbauer tracked him to Gratuitous in every sense of the word, this second the difference between kickstarter Twilight’s stylish same movie with Mad Libs-like switch-outs in character California, where Rebney lived as a hermit, with no remake of 1978’s Joe Dante-directed/Roger Corman- camp and follow-up New Moon’s turgid drama, and, motivation and setting – and not one above-the-line idea that he was the star of one of the most-watched produced Jaws knockoff is ridiculous summertime as a piece, it’s superior to the latter film. But the non-Caucasian in the bunch, even as a multiplicity of videos in the world. When Austin-based Steinbauer’s drive-in fun. It’s 89 minutes of blood, breasts, and supposedly epic battle the entire film builds toward ethnicities fills in as backup dancers. Step Up 3D’s film premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival way, way more blood. It’s by far the most over-the-top – the single action set-piece – is a ho-hummer. male lead Malambri plays Luke, den leader to a crew ’09 with Rebney in attendance, there was no doubt genre offering since Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive, and (07/02/2010) – Kimberley Jones of dancers in a NYC warehouse. They’re a likable that the “angriest man in the world” found pleasure it may well be the reddest movie in history. The story ★★★■Movies 8, Tinseltown South group; it’s Sevani, however, a carryover from Step Up 2, in bringing pleasure to others. Both the man and the can be summed up in one sentence: An earthquake who steals the show as the gangly misfit Moose. His film had reached outcomes that no one could have frees a school of carnivorous, Mesolithic-era piranha playful duet with a gal pal is easily the most winning VAMPIRES SUCK D: Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer; foreseen. (08/20/2010) – Marjorie Baumgarten sequence in a film that has its fair share of gaspingly with Jenn Proske, Matt Lanter, Chris Riggi, Diedrich Bader, Ken ★★★★ Alamo Ritz, Alamo Drafthouse Village good dance moves. But the 3-D format is a distraction. Jeong, Anneliese van der Pol, David DeLuise, Kelsey Ford. Sure, it’s nifty enough to see dust particles swirling (PG-13, 80 min.) or hands swooshing at you, but the 3-D muddles the WINTER’S BONE D: Debra Granik; with invention and exquisiteness of the film’s raison d’être: Spoofing the teen vamps vs. werewolves w Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Lauren Sweetser, Kevin the dancing. (08/06/2010) – Kimberley Jones Twilight series and its exsanguinary fanbase Breznahan, Dale Dickey, Garret Dillahunt, Shelley Waggener, Isaiah ★★ Tinseltown South sounds like an exercise in redundancy, and, as Stone, Ashlee Thompson. (R, 100 min.) this humorless offering from the filmmakers who brought us Meet the Spartans proves, it, like, total- “Never ask for what ought to be offered,” THE SWITCH D: Josh Gordon, Will Speck; with Jennifer ly is. Proske plays Becca Crane, who, after moving 17-year-old Ree Dolly (Lawrence) admonishes her Aniston, Jason Bateman, Patrick Wilson, Jeff Goldblum, Juliette to Sporks, Wash., finds herself torn between pale younger brother and sister. Despite their hunger Lewis, Thomas Robinson, Scott Elrod. (PG-13, 101 min.) vamp Edward Sullen (Lanter) and wolfdude Jacob and destitution, the Dolly clan will know the differ- White (Riggi). The best thing about Vampires Suck, ence between right and wrong and learn the codes Based on a short story by Pulitzer Prize-winner of behavior that govern the isolated social milieu Jeffrey Eugenides, The Switch is amiable fluff that and I use the term guardedly, is Proske’s dead-on lampooning of Kristen Stewart’s self-seriousness in these Ozark Mountain backwoods of Missouri. takes its time learning how to act like the kid-centric It’s an almost hermetically sealed environment rom-com that it is. Those with the lowest expectations in the Twilight films. The same can’t be said of the extremely loose collection of repetitive sight ruled by its own moral laws and customs, tradi- will be pleasantly surprised, which isn’t to say that The tions that have been further skewed by years of Switch is a good film. It’s not, but supporting actors gags, god-awful puns, and soul-crushingly lame kinda/sorta impersonations of everyone from the poverty, rampant methamphetamine abuse, and Goldblum and Lewis are just casually weird enough to the callous concern of outsiders. Dolly carries stave off cinematic crib death. Aniston and Bateman Black Eyed Peas to American Idol. Vampires Suck will make you appreciate the comparatively bril- the weight of her family on her young shoulders. are Kassie and Wally. They are, you know, made for “Never ask for what ought to be offered” could each other. Wally’s hip to this fact, but Kassie placed liant satire of the Wayans brothers’ Scary Movie series, which is in itself a scary thought. Anything also sum up my feelings about Granik’s film, a him in the “friendship zone” long ago. That doesn’t work so finely wrought that it makes other movies Stolen Kisses change even when Kassie, at 40, decides to become is better than Friedberg and Seltzer’s endless, bar- gain-basement, sub-Cracked magazine un-comedy. appear wanting. With piercing characterizations Stolen Kisses (1968) D: Francois Truffaut; with artificially inseminated with Roland’s (Wilson) donor (08/27/2010) – Marc Savlov and as tense and harrowing a plot as I’ve seen in Jean-Pierre Léaud, Delphine Seyrig, Michel Lonsdale, sperm. Things get convoluted during the insemina- Hill Country Galleria, Lakeline, Tinseltown South a long time, Winter’s Bone never hits a false note. Claude Jade. (NR, 90 min.) Austin Cinematheque. The tion “party,” and Wally ends up the secret father of (06/25/2010) – Marjorie Baumgarten third film in Truffaut’s Antoine Doinel series follows Kassie’s precocious child, Sebastian (the ridiculously ★★★★★■Arbor the young man as he drifts through an array of jobs cute, scene-stealing Robinson). Emotion-heavy comedy and loves. It is considered by many to be Truffaut’s ensues. The Switch: Potentially more satisfying than finest work. And it’s fitting for the Cinematheque spending a romantic evening with a turkey baster. to kick off the new season with another Doinel film (08/20/2010) – Marc Savlov Check Film Listings online for full-length reviews, up-to-date showtimes, archives, and more! since the first film it presented five years ago was ★★ Hill Country Galleria, CM Round Rock, Gateway, Truffaut’s 400 Blows. @Texas Union Theatre, Monday, Gold Class 8pm; free. austinchronicle.com/film

74 T H E A U S T I N C H R O N I C L E SEPTEMBER 17, 2010 a u s t i n c h r o n i c l e . c o m