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42 (PG-13) Something about the
challenges faced by Jackie Robinson
(Chadwick Boseman) as he broke the
color barrier in professional baseball
feels so much more singular than your
average true tale of successfully buck
ing the odds. Boseman’s performance
is not a skilled mimicry like so many
other portrayals of famous persons; he
imbues Robinson with such strength of
character and composure.
AFTER EARTH (PG-13) Did you
watch Castaway and think the film
would be better with Jaden Smith
substituting for Tom Hanks and Jaden’s
papa, Will, for Wilson? Then enjoy this
bland hunk of science fiction. After
their spaceship crash lands, a father
and son (the Smiths) are stranded on
Earth, abandoned by humanity years
earlier. This flick should have been The
Smith Family Robinson: instead, it’s
another shovelful of dirt in M. Night
Shyamalan’s cinematic grave.
BEFORE MIDNIGHT (R) Jesse and
Celine (Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy)
have come a long ways from 1995’s
Before Sunrise. Our third glimpse into
Jesse and Celine's lives paints a real
istic landscape of adult relationships
founded upon love. Many viewing pairs
will see themselves, arguing and rear
guing their own alternatingly petty and
weighty complaints.
THE CONJURING (R) Based on true
events (what haunted house movie
isn’t?), The Conjuring stars Patrick
Wilson and Vera Farmiga as paranor
mal investigators seeking answers for
the Perron family. Director James Wan
(Saw. Dead Silence and Insidious) is
pretty good at this type of scary.
THECROODS (PG) A family of cave
men are forced on a cross-country
road trip after their cave is destroyed
by the impending “end of the world."
Fortunately, Eep (v. Emma Stone)
meets Guy (v. Ryan Reynolds), whose
developed brain filled with “ideas”
might just help them all survive.
DESPICABLE ME 2 (PG) Gru (v.
Steve Carell) may no longer be a
master criminal, utilizing his freeze
rays and other diabolical inventions
to raise his three adopted daughters.
When a new super villain steals a dan
gerous, experimental serum, the Anti
Villain League enlist Gru’s assistance.
Despicable Me 2 has no shot at sur
passing expectations like its underdog
predecessor, and its appeal to anyone
over ten probably depends on one’s
tolerance for the Minions, whose roles
have been enlarged with their own
spinoff in the works for 2014. Still, it’s
a funny movie for kids and parents.
THE EAST (PG-13) Private inves
tigator Sarah Moss (Brit Marling) is
assigned to infiltrate an eco-terrorist
group who targets large organizations.
After convincing them of her sincerity,
she begins to find the group’s leader
(Alexander Skarsgard) and message
appealing. (Cine)
EPIC (PG) Epic is like Star Wars in a
forest; wait, that would just be Return
oftheJedi. Unbeknownst to human
ity, the forests are protected by the
Leafmen, who constantly do battle
with the Boggans, led by Mandrake
(v. Christoph Waltz). When M.K. (v.
Amanda Seyfried) is magically trans
ported to the world of the Leafmen, she
must ensure the survival of the forest.
The movie, based on William Joyce’s
book, The Leafmen, does far too little to
avoid Star Wars comparisons; it practi
cally invites them. See bird racing (pod
racing) and the two slugs who give off
a distinct R2D2/C3PO sidekick vibe.
FRANCES HA (R) Could this be Greta
Gerwig’s big, Lena Dunham-ish break?
She co-wrote this comedy with direc
tor Noah Baumbach (The Squid & the
Whale), and judging from the trailer, it
could be an indie smash. Think “Girls"
on the big screen. Frances (Gerwig)
works for a dance troupe, though she’s
not a dancer, and goes all in for her
dreams.
GIRL MOST LIKELY (PG-13)
Teaming up with American Splendofs
Shari Springer Berman and Robert
Pulcini seems like a smart move for
Kristen Wiig. Former Next Big Thing
Imogene Duncan (Wiig) sees her
dreams of being a big-time New York
playwright go down in flames. Now
she’s back living with her mother
(Annette Bening) and the younger man
sharing her bed (Matt Dillon).
THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD
(G) 1973. Cine continues its annual
Summer Classic Movie Series with
the second of Ray Harryhausen’s three
Sinbad epics. In The Golden Voyage
ofSinbad, the hero (John Phillip Law,
Barbarella) must battle villainous
Koura, played by future Dr. Who, Tom
Baker Future Bond girl Caroline Munro
appears as the beautiful slave girl,
Margiana. (Cine)
• GROWN UPS 2 (PG-13) With nary
a grown-up in it, this sequel to Adam
Sandler’s second biggest box office
hit of all time is worse than its sub-
par predecessor. Former Hollywood
bigshot Lenny Feder (Sandler) moves
his family back to his tiny hometown,
but rather than spend time with them,
he mostly hangs out with his child
hood besties—Eric (Kevin James),
Kurt (Chris Rock) and Higgins (David
Spade). Grown Ups2s biggest
accomplishment is how worthless it
is. “Jokes" fail to land. Likability and
funny are not one and the same. Argue
all you want about what a great guy
Sandler is, because at this point in
his career you’ll find it impossible to
convince someone he’s still funny or
better yet, relevant. That being said,
it’s already a box office smash, the
monster from the depths that’s destroy
ing the much more entertaining Pacific
Rim. Good job, America.
THE HANGOVER PART III (R) Gone
are the weddings, the hangovers and
the amnesia. The Wolfpack—Phil
(Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms) and
Alan (Zach Galifianakis)—now find
themselves thrust directly into a Charlie
Huston crime novel. Give writer-direc
tor Todd Phillips and crew credit for
the old college try, but recapturing the
comic freshness of the first Hangover
once, much less twice, has proven too
Herculean a humorous task.
THE HEAT (R) Uptight FBI agent
Sarah Ashburn (Sandra Bullock) needs
the help of foulmouthed, unpopular
Boston cop Shannon Mullins (Melissa
McCarthy) to take down a danger
ous drug lord. Bullock and McCarthy
don’t have Fey/Pohler chemistry.
McCarthy flails too wildly early while
Bullock’s too tightly wound for com
edy. Nevertheless, enough cannot
be said about how refreshing it is to
watch a buddy cop comedy starring
two women. Writer Katie Dippold and
Bridesmaids director Paul Feig never
explain away Ashburn and Mullins’
tough, brash exteriors as shields
needed to survive their male dominated
profession. Ashburn’s just weird and
Mullins grew up with four brothers.
The Heatmay not be smoking, but after
a barren first act, it's pretty darn funny.
KEVIN HART: LET ME EXPLAIN (R)
Kevin Hart is one of the more entertain
ing and, more importantly, least disap
pointing stand-up comics turned actor.
If you missed his return to the stage for
the 2012 “Let Me Explain” world tour,
you can now catch his sold-out show at
Madison Square Garden in this concert
film which may or may not have been
directed by Tim Story (Fantastic Four).
THE LONE RANGER (PG-13) This
second failed attempt to bring the
masked man back to the big screen (do
you recall 1981 ’s Legend of the Lone
Ranged!) reunites Johnny Depp with
his Pirates of the Caribbean director
Gore Verbinski for another bloated
blockbuster that misses the mark.
Depp’s Indian savant Tonto is one of
the oater’s strengths; the star swag
gers and mugs like a silent film star.
Otherwise, this over-plotted, overlong
origin story establishes the wrong tone
for its masked hero. With Tonto provid
ing the comic relief, John Reid (Armie
Hammer) should have been a one-
track-minded vigilante of justice—the
Lone Ranger as a cowboy Batman.
He’s not a natural Wild West lawman
though; he leaves a lot of the heavy
lifting to Tonto.
MAN OF STEEL (PG-13) The
extended time spent with Superman’s
birth parents on dying Krypton is the
film's strongest, most original segment.
The middle chunk, retelling Kal-EI’s
transformation from a hunky Clark Kent
(Henry Cavill) into Superman, intrigu-
ingly tweaks a well-known origin with
the benefit of fatherly wisdom from
Kevin Costner’s Jonathan Kent. Despite
some well-executed set pieces pitting
Superman against fellow Kryptonian
General Zod (Michael Shannon) and
his alien army the final act never fully
takes flight. Instead, the blockbuster
soars in fits and starts, seeming most
confident in its final frames than the
previous hour and a half of repetitive
conflict.
MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (G)
So let’s call it a slump. Cars 2was a
clunker; Braize was good verging on
really good but not close to great; and
Monsters University lacks the Pixar
pop of their undeniably great features
(Up, Wall-E, Toy Story 3). In this
prequel to Monsters, Inc., we learn
how Mike (v. Billy Crystal) and Sully
(v. John Goodman) met. Apparently
the two scarers didn’t start as best
buds. First, they were scaring rivals at
Monsters University. This Revenge of
the Monster Nerds doesn’t creatively
bend college life for monsters as one
would expect from Pixar. Fortunately,
the animation, especially the creature
design, is as lush and lifelike as ever.
• MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
(PG-13) Joss Whedon’s pretty much
a genius. Naturally, the guy can do
Shakespeare too. Of course, it helps
that he’s collected such a variety of
acting talents in the Whedonverse.
Alexis Denisof (Mr. Alyson Hannigan)
and Amy “Fred/Illyria” Acker wittily
bicker as Benedick and Beatrice, the
pair of lovers who cannot stand one
another. Reconnecting when Don Pedro
(Reed Diamond) visits Leonato (Clark
Gregg), Benedick and Beatrice become
the focus of everyone’s attention prior
to the wedding of young Claudio (Fran
Kranz) and Hero (Jillian Morgese).
Decide for yourself which is more lush,
the gorgeous black and white cinema
tography or the Elizabethan language.
Fans of Whedon’s previous television
works will find much to gush over.
Whedon plus Shakespeare is a match
made in heaven. Prithee, do thine own
self a favor and get thy butt to Cine
before the party’s over. (Cine)
NOW YOU SEE ME (PG-13) Four
street magicians are enlisted in a
mysterious, magical plan to do some
thing, but nobody is really sure what
until the last reel. Hot on their heels
is a dogged FBI Agent (Mark Ruffalo)
and a debunker of magicians (Morgan
Freeman). Now You See Me is as enter
taining as it is eye-rollingly contrived.
Clash of the Titans' Louis Leterrier
keeps the illusions moving along too
fast for anyone to see through the
script’s tricks until the woeful reveal.
ONE MAN FORCE (R) 1989. Former
NFL lineman turned actor John
Matuszak plays renegade cop Jake
Swan, who’s own renegadeness gets
his partner killed by the cartel. Getting
no help from the LAPD, Jake must
break all the rules to get justice in the
by-the-book 80s actioner. Part of Bad
Movie Night. (Cine)
ONLY GOD FORGIVES (R) Following
his second film with Blue Valentine’s
Derek Cianfrance, Ryan Gosling’s
back working with Drive's Nicholas
Winding Refn, who received a Palme
d’Or nomination for this ultraviolent
crime thriller. A cooler than cool drug
dealer (does Gosling play a character
any other way?) is bated into seeking
vengeance on his brother’s killer by
his domineering mother (Kristin Scott
Thomas). I don’t think I have seen a
trailer promising a film this badass
since, well, Drive. (Cine)
• PACIFIC RIM (PG-13) Yes, Pacific
Rim’s giant monsters versus giant
robots concept is unbelievably dumb,
but the level of unironicfun is bigger
than Knifehead and Gipsy Danger
combined! (Granted, that comparison
won’t mean much to you until you see
the movie, but trust me, it’s big.) A
portal to another dimension opens in
the Pacific, unleashing giant monsters
called Kaiju on humanity, who builds
giant robots called Jaegers to counter
them. Controlled by two mind-linked
pilots, Jaegers give us the edge over
the Kaiju, until they don’t. Years into a
losing war the Jaeger program leader,
Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba), takes
one last chance, sending the last
surviving robots and pilots (including
Charlie Hunnam, “Sons of Anarchy”)
to close the portal for good. I could
gush about this film for pages. The
most well-realized blockbuster of its
kind, Pacific Rim delivers the childlike
robot action missing from all three
misguided Transformers flicks. Writer-
director Guillermo del Toro’s smartest
move was leaving the snark and the
cynicism to lesser movies (Sharknado,
anyone?), and Pacific Rim delivers
on the geek promise of his previous
features.
PAIN & GAIN (R) With the subtlety
of an 18 wheeler, Pain & Gain
chronicles the true story of three
CINEMAS
Movie showtimes are not available by our deadline. Please check cinema
websites for accurate information.
CINE • 234 W. Hancock Ave. • 706-353-3343 • www.athenscine.com
GEORGIA MUSEUM OF ART • (UGA Campus) 90 Carlton St.
• 706-542-GMOA • www.uga.edu/gamuseum/calendar/films.html
TATE STUDENT CENTER • (JGA Campus) 45 Baxter St.
• 706-542-6396 • www.union.uga.edu/movies
BEECHWOOD STADIUM CINEMAS II • 196 Alps Rd.
• 706-546-1011 • www.georgiatheatrecompany.com
CARMIKE 12 • 1570 Lexington Rd. • 706-354-0016
• www.carmike.com
GEORGIA SQUARE VALUE CINEMAS 5 • 3710 Atlanta Hwy
• 706-548-3426 • www.georgiatheatrecompany.com
UNIVERSITY 16 CINEMAS • 1793 Oconee Connector
• 706-355-9122 • www.georgiatheatrecompany.com
How many degrees apart are we now?
bodybuilders—Daniel Lugo (Mark
Wahlberg), Paul Doyle (Dwayne
Johnson) and Adrian Doorbal (Anthony
Mackie)—who turn to crime in order to
achieve the American Dream. The film
is too long, sledgehammeringly artless
and mindnumbingly dumb.
RED 2 (PG-13) Retired CIA operative
Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) gets the
team back together (minus Morgan
Freeman) to track down a missing
nuclear bomb. Returning players John
Malkovich, Helen Mirren and Mary-
Louise Parker are joined by franchise
newbies Anthony Hopkins, Byung-hun
Lee and Catherine Zeta-Jones. The
trailer, if it’s to be believed, augurs an
entertaining action comedy.
< R.I.P.D. (PG-13) This flick looks
like Men in Black with the undead.
Based on the comic book by Peter
M. Lenkov, R.I.P.D. partners Jeff
Bridges, as a dead lawman named
Roy Pulsipher, and Ryan Reynolds, as
a recently deceased police detective
named Nick Walker. Together, this dead
duo tries to capture the evil spirits that
mean humanity harm. The first time I
saw the trailer I was intrigued; the gags
have been quickly worn thin by subse
quent viewings.
THIS IS THE END (R) This pot-fueled
“apoc-comedic" nightmare from Seth
Rogen and Evan Goldberg is far fun
nier than most meta-comedies starring
comic actors as themselves. On the
night of James Franco’s housewarming
party the seeming Rapture occurs,
leaving behind this band of famous
faces (Danny McBride, Jonah Hill,
Jay Baruchel). Turning to and on one
another, Judgment Day brings out the
best, worst and funniest in the cast.
TURBO (PG) I sure hope you like Ryan
Reynolds because the star of R.I.P.D.
lends his voice to this latest animated
feature from DreamWorks. Garden snail
Turbo (v. Reynolds) dreams of winning
the Indy 500. After a freak accident
imbues him with crazy fast speed,
that dream could become a reality.
Featuring the voices of Paul Giamatti,
Snoop Dogg, Maya Rudolph, Michelle
Rodriguez and Samuel L. Jackson.
THE VOICE OF THE MOON (R)
1990. Cine continues its annual
Summer Classic Movie Series with
a rare 35mm screening of Federico
Fellini’s final film. Based on the novel
It poema dei lunatici by Ermano
Cavazzoni, The Voice of the Moon stars
Roberto Benigni as the idiot savant
hero Ivo Salvini, who wanders through
a dystopian countryside with his pal,
Gonnella (David Award winner Paolo
Villaggio). (Cine)
WHITE HOUSE DOWN (PG-13) In
White House, Channing Tatum stars
as D.C. cop John Cale, who must
protect the President (Jamie Foxx)
and rescue his precocious daughter
(Joey King) after terrorists take over the
White House. Disaster master Roland
Emmerich stages the destruction with
his usual crowd-pleasing clarity and
the movie, written by The Amazing
Spider-Man's James Vanderbilt, has a
sense of humor about it.
WORLD WAR Z (PG-13) The big
gest zombie movie ever made is better
than expected. Former U.N. employee
Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) is sent around
the globe to discover the source of the
zombie pandemic threatening to wipe
out humanity. One-time Bond director
Marc Forster and his stable of writers
turn Max “Son of Mel" Brooks’ oral
history of the zombie conflict into a
more focused, traditional “one hero
must race time to save the world,” and
it works. Minor quibbles range from
a lack of blood (blame the need for a
PG-13 rating to recoup the massive
budget) and way too fast, superstrong
zombies; still, it’s way more excit
ing than the second season of “The
Walking Dead.”
Drew Wheeler
8
FLAGPOLE.COM -JULY 17, 2013