filmland / By Charlie Myers

Faith and Religulous

Plus: Marky Mark and Edward Norton star in cheap throwaway nonsense

(Oct. 30, 2008) Previews

Opening on Halloween is The Changeling, a thriller set in the late 1920s based on a true story about a woman who claims that the child returned to her following a kidnapping is not her son. Directed by Clint Eastwood, Angelina Jolie stars as the mother, with support from John Malkovich and Amy Ryan. Seems promising. Rated R for some violent and disturbing content, and language. 140m. At the Broadway.

GALLERY >

From the offbeat writer/director Kevin Smith, Zack and Miri Make a Porno involves two platonic friends (Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks) who decide to make a porno flick to raise needed money. But when the clothes come off, will Plato go the way of all flesh? I’m crossing my fingers (or something). Rated R for strong crude sexual content including dialogue, graphic nudity and pervasive language. 101m. At the Broadway, Mill Creek, Fortuna and Minor.

In The Haunting of Molly Hartley, Molly’s (Haley Bennett, Music and Lyrics) 18th birthday present is the discovery of an awful truth about what her parents did in the past, and a new high school isn’t a solution. Co-starring Chace Crawford from Gossip Girl. Ah, Halloween. Rated PG-13 for strong thematic material, violence and terror, brief strong language and some teen drinking. 86m. At the Broadway, Fortuna and Mill Creek.

Reviews

PRIDE AND GLORY: I have just returned from 10 days in Portland, so it’s possible that I’m still experiencing some sort of time shift or cultural dislocation. But I could swear I’ve seen this film before with different titles and casts.

Pride and Glory falls all too easily into the crooked cops subgenre of the police film, which typically pits the more-or-less good cop against his corrupt brethren while throwing in complications involving family and/or long-time partners. Earlier this year, Pacino and De Niro danced to this tune in Righteous Kill while last year Mark Wahlberg gave us a preview of his current character in We Own the Night, which co-starred Robert Duvall and Eva Mendes.

The narrative has not improved with repetition. Here, Jon Voight is NYPD chief Francis Tierney, who has two sons and a son-in-law in the force: elder son Frannie (Noah Emmerich) who is a precinct commander, his younger brother Ray (Edward Norton) and Jimmy Egan, a cop in Frannie’s precinct married to Ray’s sister Megan (Lake Bell). It’s relatively clear early on who are the good guys and bad guys, so the main interest in the film has to do with character interactions in relationship to family, professional loyalty and ethics.

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