filmland / By Charlie Myers

The Boring Alien

Keanu Reeves arrives on Earth, tranquilizes filmgoers

(Dec. 18, 2008) Previews

Opening Friday, Dec. 19, is Seven Pounds, which reunites director Gabriele Muccino and Will Smith, both from The Pursuit of Happyness, in a tale about an IRS agent, depressed by the death of his wife, who decides to help seven people before he commits suicide. But the suicide is put on hold when he falls in love with Emily (Rosario Dawson), a woman with a heart condition. Rated PG-13 for thematic material, some disturbing content and a scene of sensuality. 124m. At the Broadway, Fortuna and Mill Creek.

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Based on the 2005 biography by British humorist Danny Wallace, Yes Man is a Jim Carrey vehicle about a man required by a self-help course to say yes to everything for a year. Just say yes to drugs? Co-starring Zooey Deschanel. Rated PG-13 for crude sexual humor, language and brief nudity. 104m. At the Broadway, Mill Creek, Fortuna and Minor.

The Tale of Despereaux is a computer-animated film about two rodents and a servant girl who seek to revive a fairy-tale land that has slipped into a depression. Featuring the voices of Matthew Broderick, Dustin Hoffman, Emily Watson, Kevin Kline and a host of others. Rated G. 100m. At the Broadway, Fortuna and Mill Creek.

Cadillac Records is a narrative recounting of Chess Records, the Chicago label famous for its rhythm and blues artists. Adrien Brody stars as the label’s founder with Mos Def as Chuck Berry and Beyoncé Knowles as Etta James. Rated R for pervasive language and some sexuality. 109m. At the Broadway.

Reviews

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL: Forget California girls, I wish they all could be Jennifer Connelly. She may not be a surfer, but the character she plays in The Day the Earth Stood Still, Dr. Helen Benson, is brainy, attractive, sensitive, a single mom raising a stepson with a full-time job as an astrophysicist, and she seeks to understand the alien Klaatu (Keanu Reeves). Unfortunately, she appears to be about the only person on Earth who wishes to do so, a recipe for doom if I ever saw one.

Billed by publicists as a “reinvention” of the 1951 film of the same title, this version unfortunately lacks much invention or imagination. The flying saucer of 1951 becomes a sphere, the landing site is now New York’s Central Park rather than D.C., and the threat of annihilation by atomic warfare becomes the imminent environmental destruction of the planet thanks to human indifference to earth-friendly practices. As Klaatu says to Helen, “If the Earth dies, you die. If you die, the earth survives.” Make that a realistic threat and you have the ultimate eco-terrorist.

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