Eugene Weekly : Movies : 10.30.08


.MOVIE LISTINGS | MOVIE REVIEW ARCHIVE | THEATER INFO

 

OPENING OR RETURNING:
Films open the Friday following date of EW publication unless otherwise noted. See archived movie reviews.

Changeling: The latest from Clint Eastwood tells the true story of Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie), whose son was kidnapped. When he’s returned  months later, she realizes the boy brought to her is not her child — but the LAPD doesn’t like being made to look bad and won’t admit the mistake. With John Malkovich. R. 141 min. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Steven Spielberg’s 1977 tale of benevolent aliens who want to contact earthlings stars Richard Dreyfuss and Melinda Dillon, with French director Francois Truffaut. Fine special effects serve the story. PG. 6 pm Thursday, Oct. 30, 180 PLC, UO. Free.

College: Wacky teen comedy clichés ensue when three high school kids visit a local college. Yes, I’m rolling my eyes as I write this. R. Movies 12.

Election Files, The: Subtitled “The Theft of 2008: A Greg Palast Investigation,” the film compiles Greg Palast’s reports on the elections in 2000, 2004 and this year. 1:30 pm Sunday, Nov. 2, Bijou. Free.

1408: This adaptation of a Steven King short story, which stars John Cusack as a man alone in a horribly haunted hotel room, garnered surprisingly good reviews; Entertainment Weekly said it’s “reassuringly old-school gothic.” With Samuel L. Jackson, directed by Mikael Hâfström. PG13. 94 min. 6 pm and 8 pm Oct. 30 & 31, David Minor Theater. 21+. Free.

French Film Festival: The UO Cultural Forum brings six films from The Tournées Festival, beginning with Frontier(s), a horror film in which a group of armed robbers flees Paris in an attempt to escape a right-wing regime. What they find in a small town is even scarier. NC17. 108 min. 11:30 pm Thursday, Nov. 6, Bijou. Free.

Girl Cut in Two, A: In French director Claude Chabrol’s latest film, the lovely Ludivine Sagnier stars as a young woman who finds a much older writer (François Berléand) and a wealthy, spoiled young man (Benoît Magimel) have fallen in love with her. Also, they hate each other. “Unquestionably the work of a master,” said the Los Angeles Times. Not rated. 114 min. Bijou. 

Haunting of Molly Hartley, The: As her 18th birthday approaches, Molly Hartley (Haley Bennett) has to deal with being the new girl at school — and with nightmares about the time her mother tried to kill her. Is Molly going crazy? Is there something else at stake? PG13. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15. 

House Bunny, The: Playboy bunny Shelley Darlington (Anna Faris) gets booted from the mansion and finds herself helping the members of a sorority that’s in danger of losing its house. She teaches them about makeup! They teach her about individuality! Please, Hollywood. Stop that. PG13. Movies 12.

Lone Star: Filmmaker John Sayles probes the secrets of small town life in a Texas border town to settle the mysterious death of a corrupt lawman (Kris Kristofferson). Investigator is “Sheriff Junior” (Chris Cooper) and chief suspect is his dead father (Matthew McConnaughey).  Multigenerational, multicultural stories involve large cast, including Elizabeth Peña as the love interest. R. 7 pm Saturday, Nov. 1, Lorane Grange. $7 sug. don.

RocknRolla: The latest from Guy Ritchie is a complicated gangster yarn in which two crooks (Idris Elba and Gerard Butler) steal some money from a Russian property dealer and a London crime boss. I think. It’s a little convoluted, but it sounds like fun. With Thandie Newton and Mark Strong. R. 114 min. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15.

Rocky Horror Picture Show, The: Do the time warp again! Catch the long-term 1970s camp cult classic fave with live performance by Forbidden Fruit. R. Midnight Oct. 30 & 31 and Nov. 1. Bijou LateNite.

Stealing America: Vote by Vote: Dorothy Fadiman’s documentary looks at voters purged from the rolls, electronic voting machines and everything else that puts the accuracy of our elections in question. A “tersely sobering documentary” with “hardheaded numerical logic,” says Entertainment Weekly. Bijou.

Strangers, The: Scary masked folks invade the meant-to-be-romantic post-wedding getaway of troubled couple Kristen (Liv Tyler) and James (Scott Speedman). R. 90 min. 10 pm Oct. 30 & 31, David Minor Theater. 21+. Free.

Wag the Dog: Barry Levinson’s 1997 satire involves the presidential hiring of a fixer (Robert De Niro) whose job is to create happy spin that’ll help said president get re-elected. Manufacture a war? Sure! With Dustin Hoffman and Anne Heche. 145 min. 7 pm Monday, Nov. 3, 150 Columbia, UO. Free.

Why Eat Candy When You Can Eat Humans?: A selection of horror shorts from all over Oregon, this night of scaaaaaary film has easily the best name I’ve seen in weeks. 11:45 pm Saturday, Nov. 1, Bijou.

Women, The: Remake of the 1939 classic stars Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Debra Messing and Jada Pinkett Smith as, in the summary’s words, “group of close friends [who] meet to talk about their relationships.” As you’d expect with such a trite summary, reviews aren’t good. Sigh. PG13. 114 min. Movies 12.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno: The latest from Kevin Smith concerns two longtime friends (Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks) who figure they might be able to solve their money problems by making an adult film. No big deal, right? Unless you start realizing you actually like the other person. R. 101 min. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15. 

 

CONTINUING

Appaloosa: Ed Harris directs and stars as Virgil Cole, a lawman hired (with Viggo Mortensen’s Everett Hitch) to bring “vigilante entrepreneur” Jeremy Irons to justice. Renée Zellweger costars as just about everyone’s love interest at one time or another. Solid and effective work from the director of Pollock. R. 116 min. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15. (10/9)

Beverly Hills Chihuahua: A Taco Bell commercial stretched out to feature length with a paper-thin plot about a rich girl (er, dog, voiced by Drew Barrymore) who needs to get home from scary Mexico? Ugh. PG. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15.

Burn After Reading: The Coen brothers follow up the dark No Country For Old Men with this comedy about an ex-CIA spy’s memoir that falls into the hands of a couple of gym employees. With George Clooney, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt. R. 96 min. Bijou. (9/18)

City of Ember: Bill Murray and Saoirse Ronan (Atonement) star in this adaptation of Jeanne Duprau’s novel about a city that exists in darkness, lit by generators, and has for 200 years. But the generators are failing, and a box in one girl’s closet might hold the key to survival. PG. Movies 12. (10/16)

Duchess, The: A newly married duchess (Keira Knightley) is tempted to turn to her first love (Dominic Cooper) when her husband (Ralph Fiennes)’s many affairs are rubbed in her face. Knightley’s character “is history with a human face,” says Salon.com. R. 105 min. Bijou. (10/23)

Eagle Eye: Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan are strangers thrown together by the instruction-filled phone calls of a woman who tells them to do all sorts of crazy, dangerous things. What the hell is going on? Will anybody care? Directed by D.J. Caruso (Disturbia). PG13. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15.

Fireproof: “Religious romantic drama” starring Kirk Cameron as a man who’s got to get things sorted with God in order to fix his marriage. PG. Cinemark. 

High School Musical 3: Senior Year: The earnestness practically drips off the screen in the preview for this movie, which brings the cable-TV smash into theaters for OMG! Senior year! With Zac Efron and the rest of the fresh-faced teen stars. G. 112 min. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15.

Journey to the Center of the Earth: Brendan Fraser stars as a less-than-traditional scientist who finds himself leading his nephew and a friend into the center of the earth, where there’s … another world! In 3D, which makes all those falling rocks and underground dinosaurs even more exciting. PG. 89 min. Movies 12.

Mamma Mia!: Get the song outta my head! Oh, too late. Anyway, the giant hit Broadway musical becomes a giant film starring Meryl Streep as the mother whose daughter (Amanda Seyfried of Veronica Mars) wants to find out who her father is: Colin Firth, Pierce Brosnan or Stellan Skarsgard. Oh, and there’s some Abba. PG13. 108 min. Movies 12.

Max Payne: Mark Wahlberg stars as the title character — from the videogame of the same name — who’s working to solve murders and get over his family’s deaths. With Mila Kunis. R. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15.

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist: The trailer for this adaptation of David Levithan and Rachel Cohn’s already too-cute novel looks aggravatingly like a host of other teen flicks, just with a cleaned-up New York club setting. When Norah (Kat Dennings) asks Nick (the reliable Michael Cera) to be her boyfriend for five minutes, it kickstarts an amazing night. PG13. VRC Stadium 15. (10/16)

Pineapple Express: Generally, this comedy (written by the same folks as Superbad) is about a pot dealer, one of his customers and some folks who want to kill them. Mostly. Kinda. Sorta. Directed by David Gordon Green, whose usual fare (All the Real Girls) is a little different. R. 111 min. Movies 12. (8/14)

Pride and Glory: Edward Norton stars as a troubled cop assigned to investigate a series of killings that his brother-in-law (Colin Farrell) may have something to do with. “It follows the well-worn pathways of countless police dramas before it,” says Roger Ebert. R. 130 min. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15. See review this issue.

Quarantine: A young reporter and her cameraman assigned to spend the night with a fire patrol find themselves locked inside an L.A. building from which there is no escape: the CDC wants to control a “strain of rabies” contracted by someone in the building. Mmm hmm. Vampire rabies? R. VRC Stadium 15.

Saw V: Two detectives butt heads while investigating the continued Jigsaw murders. Hey, didn’t that guy die in a previous movie? Guess not. R. 92 min. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15.

Secret Life of Bees, The: Dakota Fanning plays Lily, a girl whose relationship with her father (Paul Bettany) is strained. She splits with her caretaker (Jennifer Hudson) to a small town, where she’ll meet wonderful people and learn about her dead mother’s past. Does this sound like an Oprah book to anyone else? Maybe it was. PG13. 110 min. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2: The sequel to the sweet and light 2005 film jumps ahead three years (and, I gather, a few books in the series) to the foursome’s departure for different colleges. Stars America Ferrera, Blake Lively (now a bigger name thanks to Gossip Girl), Amber Tamblyn and Alexis Bledel. PG13. 117 min. Movies 12.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Animated film sits between Attack of the Clones and, um… oh yeah: Revenge of the Sith. (I really had to think about that.) Anakin, Obi-Wan, Yoda and other familiar faces — and a young Padawan named Ahsoka — face off against the Sith while the Separatists and Galactic Empire battle for the fate of the galaxy. PG. 90 min. Movies 12.

Tropic Thunder: Ben Stiller directs this wildly funny if somewhat meandery send-up of actors and war movies; he also stars (with Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr.) as one of the primadonna actors whose director (Steve Coogan) decides to impart a bit of realism to his Vietnam film — by dropping his stars into the jungle and filming their reactions. R. 107 min. Movies 12. (8/21)

W: Oliver Stone’s new biopic looks at the life of our current commander-in-chief (played by Josh Brolin). The Hollywood Reporter says Stone “goes out of his way to give Bush a fair hearing,” but others disagree. PG13. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15. (10/23)

WALL-E: The latest from the geniuses at Pixar is about a lonely trash-cleaning robot on what’s left of Earth. A sleek robot named EVE discovers, when she visits the deserted planet, that WALL-E’s figured out something important, so off to the stars (and the humans) she races, a besotted WALL-E in pursuit. “One of the best movies of the year,” said Richard Roeper. G. 97 min. Movies 12. (7/3)

 

MOVIE THEATERS
Use the links provided below for specific show times.

Bijou Art Cinemas
Bijou Theater 686-2458 | 492 E. 13th

Regal Cinemas
VRC Stadium 15 342-6536 | Valley River Center

Cinemark Theaters
Movies 12 741-1231 | Gateway Mall
Cinemark 17 741-1231 | Gateway Mall