New Movie Friday

"The Rite" - Anthony Hopkins, Ciaran Hinds, Colin O'Donoghue
A priest (Hopkins), known as a specialist in exorcism, is possessed by a demon. This is getting some good press and the trailer is sufficiently creepy but I usually steer clear of exorcism-related movies altogether. Quite frankly they scare the crap out of me. If you see it, let me know what you think.

"The Mechanic" - Jason Statham, Ben Foster, Donald Sutherland
A hitman (Statham) takes on an apprentice (Foster) who has a connection to one of his past targets. Does anyone else feel that Ben Foster might be an actual serial killer? He's just so good at playing angry, disturbed characters that kind of freak me out. He's a terrific actor, obviously, I'm just saying it wouldn't surprise me if 25 years from now we find out there's a mass grave in his backyard. Anyway, hitman movies can be quite good but this one, a remake of a Charles Bronson flick, looks awfully cliche to me.

"From Prada to Nada" - Camilla Belle, Alexa Vega
Two upper class sisters are forced to move to the slums of East LA when their father dies. I saw this trailer a few months back, I think before "Harry Potter 7", and I almost choked myself to death to get away from it. It was like being stabbed in the ears. Movies like this remind me of how thrilled I am not to have a pre-teen daughter.

"Biutiful" (limited) - Javier Bardem
Centers around an every day father and husband (Bardem) who happens to have the ability to speak to the recently deceased. So basically Miles from "Lost" gets a family and his own movie. But seriously, Bardem, one of the very best in my book, scored an Oscar nod for his role here and I'm interested in checking out the performance. I've heard the movie isn't as good as the acting, though.

Chin up, friends! Good things are just around the corner. February will bring a few solid choices and March will kick start what will be a great movie year!