filmland / By Charlie Myers

Return to Allentown

Plus: Why so angry, Sam L. Jackson? Wait, I don’t want to know.

(Sept. 25, 2008) Previews

Following a screening at the Wild Rivers Film Fest, the locally shot Humboldt County opens commercially on Friday, Sept. 26. The story involves a medical student who finds himself in the midst of marijuana farmers. In Humboldt? No way. Rated R for drug content and language throughout. 97m. At the Broadway and Minor.

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Eagle Eye features Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan under the evil control of an unseen woman who tracks their every move. Kind of creepy. Co-starring Billy Bob Thornton. Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence, and for language. 118m. At the Broadway, Mill Creek, Fortuna and Minor.

Based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks, Nights in Rodanthe finds Adrienne (Diane Lane) and Dr. Paul Flanner (Richard Gere) attracted to each other when trapped together by a storm. Don’t blow it, Richard. Rated PG-13 for some sensuality. 97m. At the Broadway and Mill Creek.

A firefighter (Kirk Cameron) agrees to enter a faith-based counseling program in a last ditch effort to save his marriage in Fireproof. Rated PG for thematic material and some peril. 122m. At the Broadway.

Reviews

MY BEST FRIEND’S GIRL: One of two “romantic” comedies opening locally last weekend, My Best Friend’s Girl tries hard for a new twist on an over-exposed genre. With rare exceptions, though, such films just can’t escape the cycle of boy meets girl, boy gets girl despite obstacles, boy screws up and loses girl (okay, sometimes the girl screws up) and finally boy regains girl, usually improbably, after enduring the tortures of love lost.

This version’s attempted twist is to go down the Judd Aptow path (but not too far) whereby love is achieved by increasing the volume and quantity of insulting language and crude behavior. Dane Cook is initially quite effective as Tank, a bad-date-for-hire guy who makes the dumped loser look good by contrast. But it’s ultimately a one-note performance.

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