CinePhillyist

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

Most Likely to Rule: Becket - Not a new movie, but a classic award-winner from 1964 starring Peter O'Toole as King Henry II and Richard Burton as Thomas a Becket. Yes, it's an historical costume drama, but it's anything but boring. Burton and O'Toole are both amazing, and the story is intense and moving - Henry and Becket start out buddies, but when Henry appoints Becket Archbishop of Canterbury, Becket finds religion and ends up clashing with his old friend, until finally the King orders his death. We're pretty certain there aren't any new movies coming out this weekend that will even touch this one, so why not head out and see it on the big screen as originally intended?
Showing at: Ritz at the Bourse

Most Likely to Suck: Because I Said So - We like Diane Keaton and all, but the corny poster for this movie makes us want to vomit, as does the totally dull, derivative plot summary: "An over-protective mother (Diane Keaton) tries to set her daughter (Mandy Moore) up with the right man hoping to help her daughter avoid the same fate as her." Another uncomfortable and lame romantic comedy. Blargh. Yeah, the director made Heathers, but he also made Hudson Hawk. AVOID.
Trailer
Showing at: The Riverview

Constellation - The story of "the lives and loves of an African-American family in the deep South." The cast includes Rae Dawn Chong, Lesley Ann Warren, Billy Dee Williams, Alec Newman, and Gabrielle Union. If it avoids the cliches of this kind of film, it could turn out to be quite good. Then again, as we write this it's currently sitting at 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. That's based on only 8 reviews, but still, it doesn't bode well...
Showing at: The Riverview

The Messengers - Another supernatural suspense thriller where the ghosts are only visible to a kid - well, two kids in this case. They've moved with their family from the big city to a little farm house in the middle of nowhere, and of course the place is haunted by dangerous ghosts, and the kids have to do their best to make the adults believe in this very real threat before it's too late. Looks like another bad, by-the-numbers horror flick - and the fact that there are no reviews on Rotten Tomatoes kind of confirms that opinion for us. (This would have been our Most Likely to Suck this week, except for the fact that we prefer a bad horror movie to a bad romantic/family comedy any day.)
Trailer
Showing at: The Riverview, The Bridge

Human Rights Watch Fest - All this weekend (in fact, it started on Wednesday) the International House is screening selections from the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival. As you might expect, that means films of all kinds, but all with a focus on human rights. Friday night is Black Gold, a documentary about the poor prices paid to coffee farmers, focusing specifically on the quest of one Ethiopian coffee collective to find buyers who will pay a fair price; Saturday night is Dreaming Lhasa, a fiction film about a Tibetan filmmaker who comes to New York to make a documentary about former political prisoners who escaped from Tibet, but finds herself falling in love with one of her interviewees and joining him on a quest to fulfill his mother's last wish - a quest which ends up teaching her a lot about Tibet, and about herself; and Sunday night is Iraq in Fragments, an award-winning documentary about ordinary Iraqi citizens trying to live their lives in a chaotic country. These don't exactly sound like a barrel of fun, but are no doubt important and thought-provoking films, so if you're up for that, give them a shot.
Showing at: The International House

Image via Soundtrack Collector