filmland / By Charlie Myers

Humboldt County Sucks

Plus: Hurricane Gere devastates the coast of Diane Lane

(Oct. 2, 2008) Previews

A slew of films open locally on Friday, Oct. 3. The western Appaloosa follows two gunman (Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen) hired to take down a tyrannical rancher (Jeremy Irons). Rated R. 114m. At the Broadway. An American Carol is a comedy about a documentary filmmaker who wants to abolish the Fourth of July. Rated PG-13. 83m. At the Broadway and Mill Creek. In Blindness, all but one woman in a town lose their sight — w/Ruffalo, Braga and Sandra Oh. Rated R. 120m. At the Broadway.

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Two people in their 20s meet club-hopping in NYC and begin a relationship in Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Rated PG-13. 90m. At the Broadway, Fortuna and Mill Creek. How to Lose Friends and Alienate People is a comedy based on Toby Young’s book. Rated R. 110m. At the Broadway and Fortuna. Flash of Genius is based on the true story of Robert Kearns’s fight with Detroit over his invention of the intermittent windshield wiper. Rated PG-13. 119m. At the Broadway. Beverly Hills Chihuahua is a live-action comedy about a Chihuahua lost in Mexico and how she gets home, with voices of Drew Barrymore and Placido Domingo. Rated PG. 91m. At the Broadway, Fortuna and Mill Creek.

The Eureka Library film series (all Hitchcock) begins Oct. 7 with Rear Window (1954) hosted by Charlie Myers — 6:30 p.m. at the Main Library.

Reviews

EAGLE EYE: Eagle Eye gets better performances than it deserves from its cast, but this has become boringly familiar and I’ve come to believe that screenwriting is now the weakest link in major commercial releases. The film follows the standard summer film strategy: cast a popular up-and-coming actor (Shia LaBeouf), put him opposite a very good but lesser known actor (Michelle Monaghan), throw in an old pro (Billy Bob Thornton), push the pace and hope no one notices or cares about the weak script.

To while away the time, a number of homilies did come to mind while watching the film: it’s not paranoia if they’re really after you; you live by the computer, you die by the computer, strict constructivism will come back to bite Republicans; and so on.

The film begins nicely with seemingly unrelated scenes beginning with an American bombing of a Muslim funeral before settling in to the main story involving Jerry (LaBeouf) and Rachel (Monaghan). Jerry holds down a minimum wage job in a copy store, but when he discovers his bank account suddenly has a whole lot of money, he enters a North By Northwest universe of the naive innocence thrust into grave danger. Sharing this twilight world is the divorced Rachel, who is forced to be Jerry’s accomplice through death threats againt her son (off at a music camp).

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