Gil Mansergh’s Cinema Toast

New Releases 10/12/07

Michael Clayton (R)
George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack
Directed by Tony Gilroy
A political thriller that’s a throwback to the good old days when acting mattered and convoluted plots added to the suspense instead of making you shake your head in disbelief. Clooney rocks, but the others roll as well.
3 and 1/2 pieces of Clooney the movie star toast

We Own The Night (R)
Joaquin Phoenix Mark Wahlberg
Directed by: James Gray
Cops and Russian drug dealers populate the watering holes of Brighton Beach but who is really who doesn’t really matter, as the director takes us to territory he explored previously.
2 and 1/2 pieces of bad script toast

The Darjeeling Limited (R)
Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Roman Coppola, Camilla Rutherford
Directed by: Wes Anderson
If you can get over thinking about Owen Wilson’s suicide attempt every time he comes on screen, you might just enjoy this “Royal Tannebaums” style story of three American brothers who have not spoken to each other in a year yet set off on a train voyage across India with a plan to find themselves and thier brotherliness.
3 pieces of oddly amusing toast

Lust, Caution (NC-17)
Tang Wei, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Wang Lee Hom, Joan Chen, Chih-ying Chu
Directed by: Ang Lee
This lushly erotic espionage thriller set in WWII-era Shanghai is beautiful to watch and the sex scenes are artfully choreographed, but when the fanal credits role the result is surprisingly cold and empty.
2 and 1/2 pieces of uneventful toast

Elizabeth: the Golden Age (PG-13)
Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, Geoffrey Rush, Samantha Morton
Directed by Sekhar Kapur
Hoping to capitalize on the success of the first installment in this queen’s “One Life to Live” style reign, the actors and filmmakers who made “Elizabeth” try a gain and fail miserably. This one’s all costumes and flounces, axe-wielding jealousy and rage, and simpering, whimpering “poor-liitle-old me” bombast drowned in a heavy-handed musical score.
1 and 1/2 pieces of English crumpet toast

Across the Universe (R)
Evan Rachel Woods, Jim Sturgess, Eddie Izzard, Bono,
Directed by Julie Taymor
It’s nostalgic tunes galore as the director of “Frida” and Broadway’s amazing “The Lion King” tries a “Mama Mia” style story built on the Beatles songbook. Many of the music video sequences are inventive and fun, some (like Eddie Izzard’s) are bizarre, but what doesn’t work is the interconnecting story about a Liverpool born lad, a Boston bred girl, her Vietnam drafted boyfriend, and Princeton attending brother.
2 and 1/2 pieces of great songs, bad story toast

NEW ON VIDEO/DVD

Surf’s Up (PG)
Voices of Jeff Bridges, Brian Benben, Zooey Deschanel, Shia LeBeouf
Directed by: Chris Buck and Ash Brannon
Box Office: $58,867,694
These surfing penguins are a lot cuter than the ones protecting their eggs through the Antarctic winter and this one has the Dude (morphed from “The Big Lebowski“), and lots of jokes aimed at the parents so that the whole family will enjoy this trip to the beach. The idea to make this a real world style documentary about the goings on at the Big Z Memorial Surf Off was inspired. Cowabunga bruddah.
3 and 1/2 pieces of Hawaiian shirt wearing toast

28 Weeks Later (R)
Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner
Directed by: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Box Office: $28,586,503
The virus that mutated in “28 Hours” is the only thing alive and original in this explosive, bloody, inferior shadow sequel of a “zombies run amok ” movie.
2 pieces of we deserve better than this toast.