filmland / By Charlie Myers

Shyamalan: A Ding-Dong

M. Night makes the most boring movie of the year. Plus: Twilight!

(July 8, 2010) Previews

The summer of 3-D continues with Despicable Me, a CGI cartoon based on a story idea from a Spanish animator, written by an American, rendered and directed by French animators. The despicable one is Gru, voiced by Steve Carell, an evil genius with many minions (cute ones) and a scheme to steal the moon. When part of that plan leads to adopting three orphan sisters (also cute) … well, let’s just say plans change. Rated PG for rude humor and mild action. Opens Friday at Fortuna, Mill Creek and the Broadway (in 3D).

Predators is another sequel to Predator, the 1987 tale of the hunt for a bloodthirsty alien. Robert Rodriguez serves as producer with Hungarian Nimród Antal directing. Adrien Brody leads a group of mercenaries (including Laurence Fishburne and Topher Grace) dropped on the Predators’ home planet. Who’s being hunted this time? Rated R, you can guess why. Opens Friday at the Broadway and Mill Creek.

Solitary Man has Michael Douglas as the solitary car dealer Ben, who’s estranged from his wife (Susan Sarandon) and generally having a hard time. Co-writers/directors Brian Koppelman and David Levien also wrote Rounders and Ocean’s Thirteen, which may explain why Steven Soderbergh produced. Rated R for language and some sexual content. At the Minor.

The Arcata Theatre Lounge seems to have settled on cult and pop classics to draw in summer viewers. Friday they offer the unrated version of Team America: World Police, a crass send-up of action movies and world politics written by South Park‘s Trey Parker and Matt Stone and done with marionettes.

Saturday, it’s a true cult classic (and one of my faves) Repo Man. The directorial debut of Alex Cox is a punk rock sci-fi tale of aliens and car repossession with Emilio Estevez as Otto, a young punk learning the repo ropes from old timer Bud (Harry Dean Stanton).

Sunday, take a theme park ride with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, a rollicking high seas adventure directed by Gore Verbinski, with Johnny Depp perfectly cast as the pirate Captain Jack Sparrow.

Wednesday’s Sci-Fi Pint and Pizza night goes Italian with a pair of ’60s sword-and-sandals flicks: Son of Hercules: The Land of Darkness and Colossus and the Amazon Queen. Do Roman gods qualify as sci-fi?

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