Opening this week
‘Funny People’ and ‘Aliens in the Attic’
Compiled by LEE CLARK ZUMPE
| Article published on Monday, July 27, 2009 |
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| From left, George (Adam Sandler), Laura (Leslie Mann) and Ira (SethRogen) chat in writer/director Judd Apatow's film “Funny People,” the story of a famous comedian who has a near-death experience. |
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PINELLAS COUNTY – A number of new movie releases will hit theaters this week, including the following films opening in wide release:
“Funny People”
Over the past several years, filmmaker Judd Apatow has proven that when it comes to comedy, nothing – not even middle-aged virginity or unwanted pregnancy – is sacred territory. Both his breakthrough 2005 feature, “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” and 2007 follow-up, “Knocked Up,” were critical and box-office smashes that allowed audiences to collectively share in the most painfully funny moments of their lives.
In his third time directing a film, Apatow finds humor in one of the biggest struggles of a person’s lifetime. He directs Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen and Leslie Mann in “Funny People,” the story of a famous comedian who has a near-death experience … and what he does with a second chance. Apatow addresses a question that hasn’t been touched with such trademark bluntness: If you had the chance to start all over again, would you be the same jerk you always were?
Joining the cast that reunites Apatow with Rogen, Mann and Jonah Hill in their third movie together are a troupe of seasoned and new comic actors: Eric Bana, Jason Schwartzman, Rza, Aziz Ansari and Aubrey Plaza. Rated R.
“Aliens in the Attic”
“Aliens in the Attic,” co-scripted by one of the writers of “Madagascar” and the Academy Award-winning “Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit,” is an adventure/comedy about kids on a family vacation who must fight off an attack by knee-high alien invaders with world-destroying ambitions. At the same time, the youngsters work hard to keep their parents in the dark about the battle upstairs.
It’s the Pearsons versus the aliens who came from upstairs, in an all- out battle that will decide the fate of the Earth – and kick-off the ultimate summer vacation. Rated PG.
“The Collector”
For handyman and ex-con Arkin, a quiet home and a family on vacation is an “opportunity.” For inside his new employer’s country home lies a safe, and inside the safe is a gem – his only hope for repaying a debt to his ex-wife and keeping what’s left of his family intact.
Unfortunately for Arkin, inside the house is also a box containing the latest addition to a collection catalogued in blood, bone and tears. As the seconds tick down to midnight, Arkin becomes a reluctant hero trapped by a masked “Collector” in a maze of lethal invention – the Spanish Inquisition as imagined by Rube Goldberg – while trying to rescue the very family he came to rob.
From Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton, the twisted minds behind “Saw IV,” “Saw V” and the upcoming “Saw VI,” “The Collector” emerges as a real-time game of cat-and-mouse, melding primal horror with suspense thriller. Rated R.
The following will open in limited release.
“Adam”
Romance can be risky, perplexing and filled with the perils of miscommunication – and that’s if you aren’t Adam, for whom life itself is this way. In this heartfelt romantic comedy, Hugh Dancy stars as Adam, a handsome but intriguing young man who has all his life led a sheltered existence – until he meets his new neighbor, Beth (Rose Byrne), a beautiful, cosmopolitan young woman who pulls him into the outside world, with funny, touching and entirely unexpected results. Their implausible and enigmatic relationship reveals just how far two people from different realities can stretch in search of an extraordinary connection. Rated PG.
“The Cove”
In a sleepy lagoon off the coast of Japan lies a shocking secret that a few desperate men will stop at nothing to keep hidden from the world. At last, the truth of “The Cove” comes to the fore in an act of covert filmmaking that turns a documentary into a gripping action- adventure thriller … and a heart-pounding call for help from the world’s oceans.
“The Cove” begins in Taiji, Japan, where former dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry has come to set things right after a long search for redemption. In the 1960s, it was O’Barry who captured and trained the five dolphins who played the title character in the international television sensation “Flipper.” But his close relationship with those dolphins – the very dolphins who sparked a global fascination with trained sea mammals that continues to this day – led O’Barry to a radical change of heart. One fateful day, a heartbroken Barry came to realize that these deeply sensitive, highly intelligent and self- aware creatures so beautifully adapted to life in the open ocean must never be subjected to human captivity again.
This mission has brought him to Taiji, a town that appears to be devoted to the wonders and mysteries of the sleek, playful dolphins and whales that swim off their coast. But in a remote, glistening cove, surrounded by barbed wire and “Keep Out” signs, lies a dark reality. It is here, under cover of night, that the fishermen of Taiji, driven by a multi-billion dollar dolphin entertainment industry and an underhanded market for mercury-tainted dolphin meat, engage in an unseen hunt. The nature of what they do is so chilling – and the consequences are so dangerous to human health – they will go to great lengths to halt anyone from seeing it.
Undeterred, O’Barry joins forces with filmmaker Louis Psihoyos and the Ocean Preservation Society to get to the truth of what’s really going on in the cove and why it matters to everyone in the world.
With the local chief of police hot on their trail and strong-arm fishermen keeping tabs on them, they will recruit a team of underwater sound and camera experts, special effects artists, marine explorers, adrenaline junkies and world-class free divers who will carry out an undercover operation to photograph the off-limits cove, while playing a cloak-and-dagger game with those who would have them jailed.
The result is a provocative mix of investigative journalism, eco- adventure and arresting imagery that adds up to an urgent plea for hope. Rated PG-13.
“Thirst”
“Thirst,” the new film from director Park Chan-wook, is already a box office smash in Korea. “Thirst” was honored with the Prix du Jury at the 2009 Cannes International Film Festival.
Sang-hyun (Song Kang-ho) is a priest who cherishes life; so much so, that he selflessly volunteers for a secret vaccine development project meant to eradicate a deadly virus. But the virus takes the priest, and a blood transfusion is urgently ordered up for him. The blood he receives is infected, so Sang-hyun lives – but now exists as a vampire. Struggling with his newfound carnal desire for blood, Sang- hyun’s faith is further strained when a childhood friend’s wife, Tae- ju (Kim Ok-vin), comes to him asking for his help in escaping her life. Sang-hyun soon plunges into a world of sensual pleasures, finding himself on intimate terms with the Seven Deadly Sins. Rated R.
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Article published on Monday, July 27, 2009
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