CinePhillyist

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend.

A Prairie Home Companion - An odd idea for a movie, this is a fictionalized account of the final live broadcast of Garrison Keillor's award-winning radio/stage show (don't worry - the show hasn't really ended), written by Keillor and directed by cranky old Robert Altman. So to enjoy it you'll probably have to be a fan of both Altman and Keillor, who are both sort of acquired tastes. On the other hand, because it's an Altman film, it's loaded to bursting with stars, including Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Lindsay Lohan, Kevin Klein, Woody Harrelson, John C. Reily, Tommy Lee Jones, and Keillor himself. And most of them are playing performers in the show, which will include plenty of silly backstage shenanigans to go along with the onstage comedy. So this is probably a pretty fun movie.
Trailer
Showing at: Ritz at the Bourse

Sir! No Sir! - A documentary about the rarely-discussed anti-war movement within the military during the Vietnam War. An interesting and controversial topic, especially given our current situation in Iraq, which many people have compared to Vietnam. Bound to be fascinating and riling, regardless of how you feel about these situations.
Trailer
Showing at: Ritz Five

Most Likely to Rule: Sketches of Frank Gehry - A documentary about the famous and rather controversial architect Frank Gehry, perhaps best known for the insanely surreal and beautiful Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Director Sydney Pollack had never made a documentary before, but he was still the obvious choice to work on this film, since he's a long-time friend of its subject. His portrait focuses on Gehry's work and life, and on the creative process itself, by using Gehry's scribbled sketches of oddly curved and swirling buildings as a jumping-off point. Sounds totally fascinating to us.
Trailer
Showing at: Ritz Five

Cars - Pixar's latest animated film. At this point, that's really all you should have to hear to make you want to see it. Their track record has been perfect so far - the Toy Story movies, A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles - not a bad movie in the bunch. Unfortunately, the ads for this one aren't very promising. It looks like a pretty boring and unfunny story about a hot shot, stuck-up, anthropomorphized race car named Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) who ends up getting stuck in a small town in the middle of nowhere, and there learns the true meaning of friendship and family amongst the town's population of lovable, wacky, anthropomorphized cars. Uck. Still, like we said, it's Pixar, so it can't be that bad. And as usual there's an incredible number of talented actors and celebrities in the voice cast, including Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt, Larry the Cable Guy, Cheech Marin, Tony Shalhoub, George Carlin, John Ratzenberger, Michael Keaton, Richard Petty, Jeremy Piven, Bob Costas, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jay Leno, and Mario Andretti. So we're giving it the benefit of the doubt.
Trailer
Showing at: The Riverview, the Bridge

Most Likely to Suck: The Omen - This movie, as you probably already know, has actually been in theaters for a few days now, having taken advantage of a handy connection between a date and an important number in the film, and gotten itself released on 6/6/06. It's a remake of the 1976 horror classic of the same name about a young boy who turns out to be...well, a bit of a troublemaker, let's say. The ads for this one suggest it's quite similar to the original, but it's getting very bad reviews, and remakes tend to be pretty crappy, so we're giving this one the old Suckeroo.
Trailer
Showing at: The Riverview

Image Credit: IMP Awards 2006