filmland / By Charlie Myers

‘Pirates’ stands up to ‘Knocked Up’

(June 7, 2007) Previews

Knocked Up failed to dislodge Pirates from atop the box office, but perhaps Ocean’s Thirteen will accomplish that feat. Happily set back in Las Vegas after the European setting of the disastrous Twelve, Steven Soderbergh returns as director and Pitt, Clooney and Damon now face a new enemy and scamee in Al Pacino, one of the best scenery chewers around. But for me, the appearance of the ever-fresh Ellen Barkin is all I need to know. Rated PG-13 for brief sensuality. 132 m. At the Broadway, Mill Creek, the Minor and the Fortuna.

Except for Barkin, more promising for my taste is the comedy/romance Waitress , written and directed by Adrienne Shelly. Sadly, this will be her final project due to her murder in Manhattan on Nov. 1, 2006. Keri Russell (MI:III) plays Jenna, a pregnant waitress in an unhappy marriage. But a new person in town may be her last chance for happiness. Shelly plays one of Jenna’s co-workers. Rated PG-13 for sexual content, language and thematic elements. 117 m. At the Broadway.

The box office success of made-on-the-cheap Hostel in 2006 made Hostel: Part II, again directed by Eli Roth, inevitable. The story picks up where Hostel left off, and this time three traveling women art students replace the three guys from Part I in the torture chamber. What an imaginative variation. Rated R for sadistic scenes of torture and bloody violence, terror, nudity, sexual content, language and some drug content. 103 m. At the Broadway, Mill Creek and the Fortuna.

Surf’s Up is an animated family film with the premise that penguins invented surfing. The film takes the form of a fake documentary that follows the action at the Penguin World Surfing Championship. Featuring the voices of Shia LaBeouf, Jeff Bridges, John Heder, James Woods and others. Rated PG for some mild language and rude humor. 95 m. At The Movies, Mill Creek and the Fortuna.

Reviews

MR. BROOKS: In Mr. Brooks, Kevin Costner plays compulsive serial killer Earl Brooks (called the Thumbprint Killer by the police and press), who attempts to mitigate his unfortunate addiction by attending AA meetings but who always gives in to his seductive Mr. Hyde persona (named Marshall here), embodied by the seductive William Hurt, who haunts Mr. Brooks’ every moment like the bad angel in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, or perhaps like some enabling bartender who knows a lush when he sees one. Having panned Costner in the past, an actor who’s made a bunch of films while exhibiting little discernible talent, I must say that in this film, writer/director Bruce A. Evans makes good use of Costner’s limitations as an actor. Costner does well as a seemingly nice guy, good husband, and Portland’s Chamber of Commerce Man of the Year, and he brings that quality to his nasty deeds, which he enjoys but never really gets carried away with. The film’s weakness is that it throws in too many narrative lines, as though someone didn’t trust the primary story. The most irrelevant of these revolves around Thornton Meeks (Matt Schulze), a.k.a. the Hangman, an escaped serial killer who’s out to wreak revenge on beleaguered but wealthy Detective Tracy Atwood (Demi Moore), as though she didn’t have enough problems with her sleazebag husband who’s trying to take her for five million in a divorce settlement. The primary plot has some nice twists and a satisfactory conclusion. Marg Helgenberger, the feisty investigator in CSI, is totally wasted as Mr. Brooks’ wife, but Danielle Panabaker, the troublesome and disobedient daughter on Shark, gives new meaning to the bad seed as Mr. Brooks’ daughter, Jane. Rated R for strong bloody violence, some graphic sexual content, nudity and language. 130 m. At the Broadway and Mill Creek.

KNOCKED UP: Based on Judd Apatow’s previous film as writer and director, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and a bevy of positive reviews (“strikes me as an instant classic” trumpets A.O. Scott in the New York Times), I went to Knocked Up with high expectations. Initially, I was very let down; the film seemed yet another litany of lame adolescent sexual humor with an overdose of slacker and stoner jokes thrown in. But the film grew on me and by the end I realized it accomplishes what few comedies manage to do: it actually explores some serious social issues without condescension while being totally entertaining. Seldom has the sugarcoated pill aesthetic been handled so effectively. In fact, the strength of the film lies in the fact that it can be viewed and enjoyed on one level (the obvious comedy) or several. Apatow also benefits from a strong ensemble cast, some of whom he has worked with before. The story is simple: somewhat overweight slacker Ben (Seth Rogen) meets the up and coming on-air interviewer and drop-dead gorgeous Alison (Katherine Heigl from Grey’s Anatomy) at a nightclub and they have sex after drinking a lot. Can this mismatched couple find love amidst an unplanned pregnancy and Ben’s immaturity? The film also has a well-developed side plot as we follow the travails of Alison’s married sister, Debbie (Leslie Mann, who’s married to Apatow), and her husband Pete (an excellent Paul Rudd) as they struggle with a troubled marriage. The film is full of surprising touches. A small example is the scene where Alison stops her car in traffic and kicks Ben out. No one behind Alison’s car honks and no one takes note of Ben as he walks in the middle of the heavy traffic; the scene is left to the two main characters. Knocked Up is a deceptively engaging film. Rated R for sexual content, drug use and language. 139 m. At The Movies, Mill Creek and the Minor.

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