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30 MINUTES OR LESS (R) 30
Minutes or Less, the second movie
from Zombielanddirector Ruben
Fleischer, starts ott pretty poorly
thanks to bad writing and a focus on
its two least appealing characters,
unfortunately played by the top-billed
Jesse Eisenberg and Danny McBride. A
slacker (is that term valid for this gen
eration 9 ) who drives like Mario Andretti
(is that reference too dated as well 9 ).
Nick (Eisenberg. who's a long way
from his Academy Award nomination)
is forced by two fledgling criminals.
Dwayne (McBride) and Travis (Nick
Swardson) to rob a bank after they
strap a bomb to his chest
A GOOD OLD FASHIONED ORGY
(R) A 30-something dude (Jason
Sudeikis) uses his parents empty
house in the Hamptons to hold an
impromptu end of summer orgy with
his old high school pals Sudeikis.
Tyler Labine. Lake Bell (so surprisingly
funny on Childrens Hospital"). Martin
Starr Will Forte I do like this cast
APOLLO 18 PG-13) Decades-old
NASA footage reveals the existence of
alien life on the moon Wanted director
Timui Bekmambetov is producing this
quickie sci-fi flick from the Weinstein
Company The success of B-movies
like Apollo 18 is hard to predict (see
The Fourth Kind and Skyline), but
the combination of a viral marketing
campaign and Bekmambetov s guid
ing hand bode well Director Gonzalo
l Opez-Gallego is an international award
winner his Nomadas and El rey de la
montana sound intriguing
• BEGINNERS (R) Mike Mills,
who wrote and directed the excellent
Thumhsucker in 2005. returns with his
sophomore film, a wonderful, sad ode
to love both hetero and homosexual
and loss Oliver (Ewan McGregor)
recently lost his father The perpetu
ally glum Oliver meets a pretty young
actress. Anna (Melanie Laurent), but
lies not very good with girlfriends
thanks to his parents' less-than-loving
14 yea marriage Oliver s dad. Hal
(Christopher Plummer), is gay and
was gay throughout his entire mar-
nage This lovely film is easily one of
the year s strongest despite being a
tad twee (a subtitled Jack Russell, a
costumed laryngitic meet-cute, histori
cally conscious vandalism etc)
• COLOMBIANA (PG-13) Galli
actioneer Luc Besson has hit several
targets and an occasional bull's
eve— Taken, the Transporters. District
BIS—as a writer/producer (he leaves
the heavy lifting to Transporter 3 hel
met Olivier Megaton), but he misses
completely with Colombiana. A revenge
potboiler about a hottie assassin
should be exploitation cake. Instead,
stale dialogue, terrible music cues and
perhaps the year's worst plot device (a
cell phone pic sent to a sister-in-law at
the police department breaks the case)
far too often breaks up the often exhila-
ratingly stealthy action Revenge is a
dish best never served boring
CONAN THE BARBARIAN (R) Conan
(Momoa) seeks revenge against the
baddie. Khalar Zym (Avatar's Stephen
Lang), that murdered his loving
barbarian papa (a heavily hirsute Ron
Perlman). Fortunately. Conan gets
an assist Irom his Malcolm Jamal-
Warnerbe pal. a pretty priestess (Rachel
Nichols) and a thief (Said Taghmaoui)
Conan might be content with living,
loving and slaying, but a movie needs
more than buckets of CGI blood and
topless extras Howard purists may
not love John Milius 1982 Conan, but
everyone II abhor the 2011 version
CRAZY. STUPID. LOVE. (PG-13)
Steve Carell stars as Cal Weaver,
whose wife. Emily (Julianne Moore),
suddenly bombs him with a divorce
pronouncement that leads him to a
local bar where Cal meets inveterate
womanizer Jacob (Ryan Gosling)
While Cal the nice guy is learning to
objectify women. Jacob the man-whore
is falling for law student Hannah
(Emma Stone).
THE DEBT iR) Back in 1965. Mossad
agent Rachel Singer (Helen Mirren)
hunted a Nazi war criminal known as
the Surgeon of Birkenau Flash for
ward to the present when a Ukrainian
man claims to be the convicted killer
leading Singer to travel to Eastern
Europe in search of the truth The
new film from Shakespeare in Love's
John Madden (based on the film.
Ha-Hov) intrigues, especially with a
script cowritten by Kick Asss Matthew
Vaughn and Jane Goldman With Sam
Worthington. Ciaran Hinds and Tom
Wilkinson
•DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK
(PG-13) Dont Be Afraid of the Dark
isn't a hard command to follow while
watching the Guillermo del Toro writ
ten and produced update of the 1973
MOVIE LISTINGS
Schedules often change after our deadline. Please call ahead.
CINE (706-353-3343)
Beginners (R) 5:15, 9:45 (W. 8/31 & Ih. 9/1) (ends Th. 9/1)
Life in a Day (PG-13) 5:15. 7:30 (starts f. 9/2)
Midnight in Paris (PG-13) 5:00. 7:15. 9:30 (W. 8/31 & Th. 9/1) new
times starting 9/2 (check website)
The Trip (NR) 7:30 (W. 8/31 & Th. 9/1). 9:45 (starts F. 9/2). 2:45 (Sa.
9/3 & Su. 9/4)
Winnie the Pooh G) 2:30 (Sa. 9/3 & Su. 9/4)
UGA TATE CENTER THEATER (706-542-6396)
Johnny Tsunami (G) 8:00 (Th. 9/1)
Tangled (PG) 3:00, 6:00. 9:00 (F. 9/2-Su. 9/4)
Accurate movie times for the CARMIKE 12 (706-354-0016),
BEECHWOOD STADIUM 1 1 (706 546 1011) and GEORGIA
SQUARE 5 (706-548-3426) cinemas are not available by press
time. Visit www.flagpole.com for updated times.
TV movie. The horror movie opens
with some of the worst parenting I've
ever seen Off-screen mom sends
her depressed little girl, Sally (Bailee
Madison), to live with daddy (Guy
Pearce) and his new girlfriend Kim
(Katie Holmes), in the old. dark house
they're restoring No shocker here;
Sally's depression does nol improve
when little creatures that can't stand the
light escape from the basement.
FRIGHT NIGHT (R) This remake
of the 1980s horror comedy classic
is good It's better than good even
Former geek Charley Brewster (Anton
Yelchin). who is dating lithe hottie,
Amy (Imogen Pools), has hit the high
school lottery until his old friend "Evil"
Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) conlides
that Charley's strapping new neighbor.
Jerry (Colin Farrell), is a vampire
GREEN LANTERN (PG-13) The
movie version ot DC s second-line
superhero, a ring-equipped interga-
lactic policeman, lacks the nostalgic
baggage checked by the big two, Supes
and Bats. Test pilot Hal Jordan (Ryan
Reynolds) is chosen to join the Green
Lantern Corps just in time to battle
Parallax, a world-devouring baddie
who uses the yellow power ot fear
to turn Peter Sarsgaard from a John
Carpenter doppelganger into an evil,
bloated alien John Carpenter
THE HANGOVER PART II (R) The
Hangover Part //sidesteps the land
mines that blow away the humorous
limbs trom most comedy sequels.
Lobbing critical grenades at the movies
lack of creativity ignores the ingenuity
that fashioned a funny facsimile without
simply recycling wholesale gags from
the 2009 blockbuster
HARRY POTTER AND THE
DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2
(PG-13) It's over The final battle
rages over and through the hallowed
halls of Hogwarts as Harry (Daniel
Radclitfe). Hermione (Emma Watson)
and Ron (Rupert Grint) attempt lo end
Voldemort's (Ralph Fiennes) evil reign
The last few Horcruxes must be found
and destroyed if Harry is ever to truly
defeat You-Know-Who
THE HELP (PG-13) The whitewashed
world ot The Help lacks the proper
depth lo feel real Every black servant is
a saint, every white employer a demon
Thankfully, college-educated Eugenia
Skeeter Phelan (the extremely lik
able Emma Stone, who grows into her
accent) comes home to Jackson to
save its minority population through
bestselling pop fiction
KUNG FU PANDA 2 (PG) However
mucn I dug the first Kung Fu Panda.
the second adventure of Dragon
Warrior Pn (v. Jack Black, who is better
heard than seen) and the Furious Five
has more visual inventiveness than it
does comic or narrative combined
MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (PG-13) Owen
Wilson stars as the latest Woody
stand-in, Gil, a Hollywood hack try
ing to finish a novel while on a family
business trip to Pans with his fiancee’s
(Rachel McAdams) family On a magi
cal midnight walk Gil runs into Scott
and Zelda Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston
and Alison Pill), gets writing advice
trom Papa Hemingway (Corey Stoll)
and Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates) and
tails tor Picasso's girlfriend. Adriana
(Marion Cotillard).
ONE DAY (PG-13) One Day. adapted
by author David Nicholls from his own
novel and directed by An Education s
Lone Scherfig. is a thoroughly unap
pealing romance about two Brits whose
entwined lives we see on the same
day, July 15. each year Emma (Anne
Hathaway, wasted as yet another ugly
duckling waiting to blossom) and
Dexter (the bland Jim Sturgess) meet
on their graduation night and spend
most ot their lives engaged in an unre
quited love affair Unfortunately, she's
boring, he's boorish
•OUR IDIOT BROTHER (R) Is there
anyone as charming as Paul Rudd 9
(I'm not actually asking, the answer
is clearly no.) As beatific, honest
and kind lo a law-breaking fault Ned.
Rudd beams and aw, man' s his way
through a twee indiecom Irom former
Lemonhead Jesse Peretz (he also
directed The fx) After being tricked by
the douchiest dickhead cop ever. Ned
goes to prison Once he's released,
his organic girlfriend (Kathryn Hahn)
kicks him out and keeps his dog.
Willie Nelson Forced to live with
his sisters—homemaker Liz (Emily
Mortimer), professional Miranda
(Elizabeth Banks) and tree-spirited
lesbian Natalie (Zooey Deschanel)—he
wreaks havoc on their lives I enjoy
these kinds of genial independent
comedies much more than their more
riotous, raunchy, plentiful kin Our Idiot
Brother glides lazily along on the heav
ily hirsute Rudds massive charisma
and little else
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN:
ON STRANGER TIDES (PG-13) You
would think Johnny Depps Captain
Jack Sparrow would soar to the surface
now that he's shed of the dead weight
that was Will Turner (Orlando Bloom)
and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley).
Instead, the fourth adventure ol Captain
Jack is terribly unexciting and. worst
of all. boring, as he canters frantically
about for no reason more dramatically
pressing than box office booty
RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE
APES (PG-13) A super smart chimp
named Caesar (Andy Serkis in yet
another motion capture performance)
leads a primate revolution James
Franco stars as the human scientist
that created and raised him With Brian
Cox. Freida Pinto and John Lithgow
SAVING PRIVATE PEREZ (PG-13)
Huh 9 A Mexican crime lord infiltrates
Iraq to recover his missing brother per
his mother's instructions It's doubtful
you'll see that plot repeated in another
movie this year Writer-director Beto
Gomez won a couple of awards for his
El Sueho del Caiman With Miguel
Rodarte, Jesiis Ochoa (Man on Fire
and Quantum ot Solace) and Joaquin
Cosio (“Eastbound & Down").
SHARK NIGHT 3D (PG-13) I wish
this SyFy-sounding flick had kept
its original working title. Untitled 3D
Shark Thriller and gone for an R rat
ing PG-13 sounds like a waste of time
This genre movie could be an in-spirit
sequel to the surprisingly effective,
kind of dumb Deep Blue Sea
SPY KIDS: ALL THE TIME IN THE
WORLD (PG) Robert Rodriguez's
family espionage franchise is reborn.
and Miramax is hoping lor this flick
to be a big hit A former spy (Jessica
Alba) returns to battle the villainous
Timekeeper (Jeremy Piven) who is
plotting to rule the world. Expect
appearances from series regulars, the
Cortezes (Antonio Banderas. Alexa
Vega, Daryl Sahara) and Machete
(Danny Trejo).
THE SMURFS (PG) The live action/
CGI hybrid version of The Smurfs is
not as bad as its atrocious trailers
would imply, thanks largely to the
smurfish talents of Neil Patrick Harris
Intriguingly, the scripters throw in
unnecessary but welcome nods to
the Smurfs' Belgian roots and creator
Peyo, a cleverness undercut by their
own poor gags and the blandly unat
tractive movie
SUPER 8 (PG-13) J J Abrams and
Steven Spielberg team up for an hom
age to the sort of wide-eyed, wonderful
extraterrestrial adventures that made
Spielberg a box office sensation in the
70s and '80s This retro take on the
found footage subgenre is set in 1979
when an alien being transported cross
country from Area 51 escapes
• THE TRIP Steve Coogan goes on a
dining tour of northern England with
his buddy. Welsh comic Rob Brydon
The duo get into all the typical road
movie shenanigans but amidst the
silliness are moments of weighty clar
ity. regarding aging, stardom. Heeling
greatness and friendship Originally a
six-episode BBC program, acclaimed
filmmaker Winterbottom must have
kept all the brilliant bits when he cut
it down to a compact sub-two-hour
sojourn because The Trip is funny
enough to produce tears
WINNIE THE POOH (G) Disney
brings Winnie the Pooh and all the
other denizens ol the Hundred Acre
Wood back to the big screen in the
hand-drawn animated tradition ol old
Walt himself.
Drew Wheeler
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