Gil Mansergh’s Cinema Toast

New Releases 1/22/10
The Tooth Fairy (PG)
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Ashley Judd, Stephen Merchant, Julie Andrews
Director: Michael Lembeck
Lacking the Disney Touch (this one is from 20^th Century Fox) the fairy tale experience eludes everyone involved, but especially the six screenwriters listed in the credits. Should be renamed the Tooth Ache.
1 and 1/2 pieces of full of cavities toast

Extraordinary Measures (PG)
Starring: Harrison Ford, Brendan Fraser, Keri Russell
Director: Tom Vaughan
Following the script from “Lorenzo’s Oil”only with a different rare and fatal disease (Pompe dystrophy) and loving family searching for a cure.  The press notes spend more time on the backroom deals and list of previous movies the various “suits” were involved with  (i.e. “Erin Brokovich,” “World Trade Center,” “Chocolat,” etc.), then on the plot and stars.
1/2 pieces of mediocre toast

Legion (R)
Starring: Paul Bettany, Dennis Quaid, Lucas Black, Tyrese Gibson
Director: Scott Stewart
The press notes say: An out-of-the-way diner becomes the unlikely battleground for the survival of the human race. When God loses faith in Mankind, he sends his legion of angels to bring on the Apocalypse.”  How did they neglect to mention that the angels are flesh –eating shapeshifters.
Not available for preview


Crazy Heart (R)
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Colin Farrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Robert Duvall
Director: Scott Cooper
Aiming for a fifth Oscar-nomination, Jeff Bridges plays an aging, down-and-out, alcoholic country singer as an old, vomiting, drunkard—and it works  (he sings well too).
3 and 1/2 pieces of toast

NEW ON DVD

Invention of Lying (PG-13)
Starring: Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner, Rob Lowe, Louis C.K.
Director: Ricky Gervais, Matthew Robinson
Tom Waites sings that “in the land of the blind, the one-eyed-man is king,” and it makes me think that Ricky Gervais got the idea for this movie by wondering if a liar would be king in a land where everyone tells the truth. Acknowledging that some parts of this comedy are left unfulfilled, the fact is that the timing of the actors involved is spot-on, and the section where religion is invented by that single liar telling his ill mother that life continues on after you die, is one of those subversive movie scenes which should become iconic.
3 pieces of pretty funny (and I’m not lying) toast

Pandorum (R)
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Ben Foster, Cam Gigandet, Antje Traue
Director: Christian Alvart
The press notes say: “Two astronauts awaken in a hyper-sleep chamber aboard a seemingly abandoned spacecraft. It’s pitch black, they are disoriented, and the only sound is a low rumble and creak from the belly of the spacecraft. They can’t remember anything – who are they, what is their mission? The only way out of the chamber is a dark and narrow airshaft.”
Unavailable for preview and still not seen

Gamer (R)
Starring: Gerard Butler, Michael C. Hall, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Kyra Sedgwick
Director: Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor
The “300” star keeps his shirt on for most of what the studio calls “a high-class, action thriller” about a future-day gladiator who life (or death) is remotely controlled by a young gamer with rock-star stature.
Unavailable for preview and still not seen