The Weekend In Movies: Once Is It.

The first weekend I'm out of town in nearly three months and there's one hell of a cinematic lineup upon us. I'll be playing catch-up next weekend when all of these are playing (as well as Pottermania along with Spider-Man 3 in IMAX) giving me one hell of a busy weekend.

Once (Odeon) -- FINALLY opening in Victoria -- after some confusion on whether the Vic or the Odeon was going to open it -- is this universally acclaimed Irish musical film about an unlikely friendship over the course of song in Dublin. The trailer is enough to make you fall in love with movies again, and here's hoping it will find an audience in the music-loving city of Victoria.

La vie En Rose (The Vic Theater) -- The life of Edith Piaf from beginning to end, in this much anticipated french import that is garnering Oscar talk for lead Marion Collitard (who you may have seen last year as Russell Crowe's ridiculously hot love interest in A Good Year) who disappears into the part.

The Transformers (Odeon, Silvercity, Caprice, University 4) -- Again, fuck Michael Bay. I should be either munching popcorn or suffering through this Bay picture sometime this week to get a glimpse of a whole lot of visual effects blowing up on the screen. There have been some good reviews (Ebert himself gives it 3/4) to go along with the bad ones, so who knows.

Licence To Wed (Silvercity, Odeon) - With a whopping 10% on the Tomatometer and some crushingly unfunny TV spots, this "comedy" with Robin Williams and Mandy Moore about pre-marital shenanigans will mostly appeal to the morons that forgot that Knocked Up was still in theaters. As much as I admire director Ken Kwapis (who has directed many episodes of the U.S. version of "The Office" along with "Freaks and Geeks"), this may just be another Beautician and the Beast for the guy.

Also:

The long-awaited release of David Lynch's nightmare epic Inland Empire is playing at UVIC Cinecenta on Friday and Saturday. If you miss this show, the DVD will be out in early August, but theatrical Lynch is just not the same.

Ken Loach's heartbreaking Irish film The Wind That Shakes The Barley is also at Cinecenta on Sunday, and you must check it out, but you might want to plan ahead if you're going to get there by car and don't like construction.

What else you should be seeing:

If any of the above don't interest you, how about seeing the little animated masterpiece known as Ratatouille this weekend? This great Pixar film did well last weekend and I'm hoping will continue to wow audiences as its theatrical release continues.

If you're still looking for a laugh, Knocked Up is STILL bringing in audiences and should be the first film you think about seeing if you even have an inkling to see Licence To Wed. Oh, and it is doing another week at the beloved Star Cinema in Sidney.

Also, Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix has been pushed (smartly) to Wednesday, to grab a few more dollars before every Pottermania. A midnight show is scheduled at the Capitol for Tuesday night, and perhaps Silvercity Tillicum will announce one soon as well.

UPDATE (9:18pm): There will also be a midnight show at the University Cinemas 4, but still no word on whether or not Silvercity will pony up. If they're smart and want to make a few grand, they will.

Jason
efilmcritic.com