filmland / By Charlie Myers

‘Hulk’ of Crap

Plus: The Shyamalyster says it’s us versus the trees

(June 19, 2008) Previews

Opening Friday, June 20, is a new version of Get Smart directed by Peter Segal (50 First Dates). Maxwell Smart, played here by Steve Carell, began life in a TV series created by Mel Brooks that ran from 1965 to 1970 with Don Adams as Agent Smart. Chipping in as Agent 99 is Anne Hathaway and in the role of Agent 23, Dwayne Johnson, who seems to have dropped “The Rock” from his moniker, perhaps in a move to a more sensitive masculinity. The cast also includes Terence Stamp and Alan Arkin as the Chief. Will this version of the spy spoof add up to anything? It seems to have potential. Rated PG-13 for some rude humor, action violence and language. 110 m. At the Broadway, Mill Creek, Minor and Fortuna.

GALLERY >

The Love Guru stars Mike Myers as an American raised by gurus in India. Hoping to cash in on the spirituality business, he moves back to the States in order to find gullible people to pay for his brand of self-help. His biggest test comes when he has to mediate a marital dispute between a Maple Leafs hockey player and his wife, who is revenge-dating an L.A. Kings star played by Justin Timberlake. Adding frosting to someone’s cake, Jessica Alba is the Maple Leafs’ owner. No doubt, gullible people will pay to see this film. Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content throughout, language, some comic violence and drug references. 88 m. At the Broadway, Mill Creek, Minor and Fortuna.

For viewers looking for a different sort of film — and who wouldn’t be? — The Visitor stars Richard Jenkins (the dead father in Six Feet Under) as a burned out college professor in Connecticut who travels to Manhattan to deliver a paper at a conference. He discovers that his city apartment has been taken over by a drummer from Syria and his Senegalese girlfriend. The unlikely friendship that develops between the three is the film’s subject, along with the consequences of illegal immigration. The film is directed by Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent). I saw this film in Portland and thoroughly enjoyed it. Rated PG-13 for brief strong language. 108 m. At the Broadway.

Reviews

THE HAPPENING: If you think of tree leaves shaking in the wind as a spiritual bit of nature, you might reconsider after seeing M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film.

Since the release of The Sixth Sense in 1999, a film I greatly admired, Shyamalan has taken his lumps from audiences and critics alike. His 2006 film Lady in the Water, in particular, garnered a lot of negative reviews and didn’t generate a lot of audience. Maybe for Hollywood you’re only as good as your last film, but I’ve found a lot of things to value even in Shyamalan’s “lesser” or less successful efforts, and while I had some mixed feelings about The Happening, the good things easily dominated.

For one thing, one of the elements I’ve most admired about Shyamalan’s films is his visual style: the way he creates clarity and mystery at the same time by how he focuses on everyday images and mystifies them. Here, bushes, grasses and trees swaying in the wind become objects of potential terror even on a completely sunny day. This is one film where I really regret seeing the trailers, because the opening scene in Central Park would have been much more effective had I been totally unprepared.

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