The Weekend in Movies: Summer's Too Busy for Jim Carrey.

Honestly, people, why the hell do you want to see Shrek The Third? Pirates of the Caribbean? Fantastic 42? You all keep whining about how bad movies are and how you want to see better stuff, yet you keep emailing or coming up to me and asking about these lousy summer sequels, and completely ignore me when I recommend you try something a little different from your cinematic junk food diet. Are you THAT afraid to try something new once in a while?

There are so many great films playing in the city of Victoria this weekend, but none of you will see them. Instead, you'll ignore this post and go watch an Ogre yell at you for 90 minutes. Or you'll spend your dollars on a movie that has Steve Carell in it this time, since Jim Carrey was smart enough to realize you don't sequel-ize a God Comedy.

Victoria is slowly but surely getting its art house back, I'm noticing. With the success that the French Film Festival has been having over at the Ridge this past month, we have opened some great new films locally. I'm hoping the trend continues (and it does, we open the Irish musical "Once" on the 29th while the Oscar-worthy Edith Piaf film "La vie en Rose" screens on July 6th).

So what have we got this week:

A Mighty Heart (Odeon) - Wall Street columnist Daniel Pearl was abducted in Pakistan in 2002, and this story is about his wife, Mariane (Angelina Jolie) who risks great emotional pain to find him. This story is based on Mariane's autobiography about her husband Daniel, and the film is directed by British indie-guru Michael Winterbottom, who is no stranger to films depicting our post 9/11 hell (check out his 2005 film "The Road to Guantanamo" sometime).

Evan Almighty (Silvercity, Caprice, Odeon, Star) - Now Steve Carell is god. Bruce (Jim Carrey) is nowhere to be found. And now he has to build an ark by Mr. Morgan Freeman's request. There's just something so inherently wrong with this concept that I don't know where to begin. The trade reviews have been awful and only five year old kids have laughed at any footage (when I saw "Ratatouille" last week, The trailer is woefully unfunny, and it pains me to see Lauren Graham, now no longer Lorelai Gilmore, in such films like this.

1408 (Silvercity, Capitol) - The promotions for this film REALLY want you to know it's based on a story by Stephen King. Forget the fact that John Cusack, a wonderful and gifted actor, is in the lead, or workaholic Samuel L. Jackson is seen giving strong support in this story of a travel writer who decides to stay in a hotel room that has had a history of being haunted. The trailer certainly intrigued me.

Day Watch (Capitol) -- I still haven't seen the sequel to the Russian hit "Night Watch", a film which didn't do very well in these parts so I'm surprised that the Capitol 6 picked it up. This whole "Lights vs. Darkness" battle in Moscow is pretty big back home, and if you've seen and liked the first I very much recommend checking the sequel out on the big screen.

Live Free or Die Hard (Starts Wednesday at Odeon and Silvercity) -- Since these series blog posts go up on Thursday, I'll quickly mention Die Hard 4.0, a project that has been in production limbo for over a decade. Since Die Hard originator John McTiernan has shot himself in the foot with so many bad films over the year and thus not allowed to direct anymore (what a shame!), Underworld auteur Len Wiseman has been brought in to helm with the countless script rewrites over the years. And watch out for that Kevin Smith cameo!

Also:

Not much in the city this week for special or rep house screenings, but if you haven't seen the very good pro-shark documentary Sharkwater, you get a chance to check it out at UVIC Cinecenta on Sunday night. The doco very much changed my mind about those great white creatures, and it should for you too.

What else you should be seeing: Waitress, Paris Je'T'aime and Away From Her STILL rock on at the Odeon, the delightful Ocean's Thirteen is dealing aces everywhere, Knocked Up is still laughing up audiences all over town, while the war epic Black Book goes into its second weekend at the 'lil Vic Theater. And you tell me there are no good movies to see right now...

Showtimes, as always, at tribute.ca

Jason
efilmcritic.com