Eugene Weekly : Movies : 6.12.08


.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.

Artists’ Television Access: San Francisco’s Artists’ Television Access center presents a night of experimental film and video selected from its Open Screening sessions. 8 pm June 18, DIVA. 

Eighty-eight Minutes: College professor slash forensic psychiatrist (seriously, you still reading after that?) Jack Gramm (Al Pacino) deals with a death threat that claims he has 88 minutes to live; three grumpy folks might be behind the threat. R. 108 min (isn’t that cheating?). Movies 12.

Happening, The: Are you willing to give M. Night Shyamalan another chance? His followup to Lady in the Water is about a couple (Mark Wahlberg and the very likable Zooey Deschanel) trying to survive after some sort of … er .. happening. From what I hear, it’s ecological in nature. Run! Global warming is chasing you! R. 91 min. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15.

Incredible Hulk, The: Edward Norton slips into the inexplicably stretchy pants recently worn by Eric Bana in this reinvention of the Hulk franchise. Norton’s Hulk is trying to find a cure, but warmongers want to use his powers for evil. With Tim Roth and Liv Tyler. PG13. 114 min. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15.

Married Life: Nice to look at but with little under the surface, this 1940s-set sorta-comedy, sorta melodrama about cheating husbands and unfaithful wives (and girlfriends) has a handful of likeable stars (Chris Cooper, Patricia Clarkson, Rachel McAdams and Pierce Brosnan in suave and dapper mode) but not a lot of depth. PG13. 90 min. Movies 12. (4/10)

Shine a Light: Martin Scorsese directs this Rolling Stones concert film, shot at NYC’s Beacon Theater in 2006 by a “legendary team of cinematographers.” PG. 120 min. Movies 12.

Spike and Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation: The always-entertaining collection of twisted shorts returns to the Bijou. Friday night’s screenings will be introduced by Portland animators Phillip Juarez and Rick Guinan, who will also have extra shorts to screen. Not rated, but the title says it all. 97 min. Bijou. 

Stevie Ray Vaughan: The In-Concert series presents a 1984 German TV performance by Vaughan and Double Trouble. Bijou LateNite.

Surfwise: Director Doug Pray (Hype!) introduces viewers to the first family of surfing, the Paskowitzes, and looks at the effects patriarch Doc’s strict lifestyle had on his nine children. Despite the name, the film isn’t really about surfing but about the relationships between children and parents, and the difficulty of a different sort of American dream. R. 93 min. Bijou. See review this issue.

 

CONTINUING

Baby Mama: When successful businesswoman Kate (Tiny Fey) finds that she can’t conceive the kid she wants, she hires Angie (Amy Poehler) as her surrogate. It’s a clash of personalities and more when Angie shows up on Kate’s doorstep. “An essentially sweet-natured picture that doesn’t go as far as it could,” says Salon.com. PG13. 96 min. Movies 12.

Chronicles of Narnia, The: Prince Caspian: When the Pevensie children find themselves back in Narnia, it’s just a year later for them — and 1300 years later for the magical land, now under the control of an evil foreigner. Lucy, Susan, Peter and Edmund (with help, of course) must help get the true king back on Narnia’s throne. PG. 144 min. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15. (5/22)

Forgetting Sarah Marshall: The Apatow Onslaught continues with this romantic comedy about a guy (Jason Segel, who also wrote the screenplay) who tries get away from it all after his famous girlfriend (the fantabulous Kristen Bell) dumps him — only to find that she, and her strange new boyfriend, are at the same Hawaiian resort. With Mila Kunis, Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd and a lot of other funny people. R. 112 min. Movies 12. (4/24)

Horton Hears a Who: The Dr. Seuss classic gets the animated treatment from the creators of Ice Age, with Jim Carrey as Horton and Steve Carell as the mayor of Who-ville, the tiny world on a speck that Horton discovers and defends from his fellow animals, who think he’s gone nuts. G. 110 min. Movies 12. 

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: It’s the only mainstream movie opening this weekend! It’s got Harrison Ford and Cate Blanchett and Shia LeBoeuf and sassy Raiders of the Lost Ark dame Karen Allen! Also, it takes place 19 years after the underrated third film in a world facing the possibility of nuclear annihilation. That’s about all I’ve got. That and a big plastic Indy whip. PG13. 124 min. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15. (5/29)

Iron Man: The first major summer flick (summer? Huh?) stars Robert Downy Jr. as Tony Stark, a wealthy industrialist who devises a suit that gives him the superheroic ability to take down baddies who misuse his destructive technology. Awesome. With Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard and Gwyneth Paltrow. PG13. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15. (5/8)

Kung Fu Panda: Jack Black — or at least his voice — stars as Po the Panda, a waiter whose love for kung fu serves him well when it turns out there’s a prophecy about him saving the world from some powerful enemies. With the voices of Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie and Jackie Chan. PG. 88 min. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15.  

Nim’s Island: Moppet-of-the-moment Abigail Breslin stars as Nim, a girl who lives with her scientist father (Gerard Butler) on an island and has a literary heroine whose life is rather similar. When Nim’s father disappears, life brings Nim and her favorite author together to find him. With Jodie Foster. PG. 95 min. Movies 12.

Prom Night: If I tell you this is a horror flick set around prom night, is that enough? ‘Cause it seems like all you’d really need to know. Y’know, prom’s supposed to be the best night ever! So it’s really meaningful to make it scary and horrifying! With Brittany Snow and Idris Elba. PG13. 88 min. Movies 12.

Sex and the City: High heels and ugly dresses (c’mon, you know Carrie wears some truly dreadful stuff) take it to the big screen in what New York magazine calls “a joyful wallow.” Plot? You want plot? I’m thinking some boy trouble, some mild strife, maybe a happy ending or two for Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Charlotte (Kristin Davis), Samantha (Kim Cattrall) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon). R. 148 min. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15.

Son of Rambow: Director Garth Jennings (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) offers a sweet story about friendship and collaboration in the ’80s, but his film trips over itself at the end. Still, the film charms with winning performances from the two young actors who play a sheltered boy who comes to admire Rambo and a budding filmmaker who’s also the school troublemaker. 96 min. PG13. Bijou. (6/5)

Stop-Loss: Director Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don’t Cry) takes on the military policy that keeps soldiers in the service longer than they expect with ths story of a sergeant (Ryan Phillippe) who finds, once he gets home, that the powers that be want to send him back already. With Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ciaran Hinds. “The first major movie of the new year that touches greatness,” says Rolling Stone. R. Movies 12. (4/3)

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. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15.

Ten Thousand B.C.: Director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day) directs a set-ages-ago story about a young hunter and the lovely woman he’ll stop at nothing to save from “mysterious warlords.” Other key phrases from the studio’s synopsis include “ultimate fate,” “tyrannical god” and “empire beyond imagination.” PG13. 109 min. Movies 12.

Twenty-one: An unconventional math professor (Kevin Spacey) recruits his brightest students (among them Kate Bosworth and Jim Sturgess) to count cards in Vegas, leading to tuiton money for them and, one assumes, mad loot for the boss. Until things get complicated. PG13. 123 min. Movies 12.

What Happens in Vegas: Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher star as a couple that gets rather spontaneously wed in Vegas, then realizes they hate each other — only to wind up stuck together when he puts her quarter in a slot machine and hits the jackpot. PG13. 99 min. Movies 12.

You Don’t Mess With the Zohan: Adam Sandler plays an Israeli commando who really wants to be a hairstylist in this gently mocking and fun comedy from the minds of Sandler, Judd Apatow (Knocked Up) and Robert Smigel (Triumph the Insult Comic Dog). PG13. Cinemark. VRC Stadium 15. See review this issue.

 

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