CinePhillyist

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

I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With - Jeff Garlin plays a rather pathetic Chicago actor who lives with his mother, and who, in the opening scenes of the film, gets dumped by his girlfriend, loses a part to Aaron Carter, and leaves an Overeaters Anonymous meeting to go to an ice cream parlor. When he falls for a girl there (Sarah Silverman), it could mean things are looking up, or are just about to get worse. This sounds like it might be an amusing romantic comedy, especially if you're the kind of person who likes Sarah Silverman. Sadly, we are not that kind of person, so we're skipping this one.
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Showing at: Ritz at the Bourse

King of California - In writer/director Mike Cahill's debut feature, Michael Douglas plays a father who comes home to his daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) after a two-year stint in a metal institution and drags her into his latest wild scheme: the search for gold left behind by Spanish missionaries, which he says is buried under the southern California suburbs. Sounds like it could be interesting, but reviews are mixed, so this one is a toss-up.
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Trailer
Showing at: Ritz at the Bourse

Trade - A 13-year-old girl (Paulina Gaitan) from Mexico City is kidnapped by sex traffickers, and her 17-year-old brother (Cesar Ramos) sets out on a quest to save her, finding an ally in a Texas cop (Kevin Kline) who lost some of his own family to sex trafficking. Sounds like a big, sensationalistic message film, like Traffic, and we can't say we like those. Also, the reviews are not good. Avoid!
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Trailer
Showing at: Ritz at the Bourse

Into the Wild - Based on a true story, and a bestselling book by Jon Krakauer, this film examines the adventures that a top student and athlete experiences when he decides to give up all his money and possessions and hitchhike to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Sounds like one of those dull, painful, inspirational/message pieces, but the film's cast includes Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt, Catherine Keener, Vince Vaughn, and Hal Holbrook; it was directed by Sean Penn; and it's getting pretty excellent reviews, so we can't not recommend it.
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Showing at: Ritz Five

The Jane Austen Book Club - The love lives of five women and one man, who all meet as part of the titular club, begin playing out like a 21st century version of Austen's novels. Ugh! Gag us with a spoon. The film stars Maria Bello, Emily Blunt, Kathy Baker, Amy Brenneman, Maggie Grace, Marc Blucas, Hugh Dancy, and Jimmy Smits, and it's relatively fresh, so if you're into this kind of thing, it might not be awful. You'll pardon us if we don't come with you, though.
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Showing at: Ritz East

Feast of Love - Here's another one we have to "Ugh" to. It's a modern version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, with a bunch of the residents of a tight-knit Oregon neighborhood (including Greg Kinnear, Selma Blair, and Radha Mitchell) start getting into complicated romantic entanglements with each other - all while Morgan Freeman looks on, for some reason. The critics are generally negative on this one, and so are we.
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Showing at: UA Riverview

Most Likely to Suck: The Game Plan - Wow, there are a lot of terrible movies coming out this weekend, aren't there? This is the awful-looking Disney film where a star quarterback played by the Rock has his world turned upside-down when the cute young daughter he never knew he had shows up on his doorstep. There's also a cute dog involved. We're practically gagging over here! It's The Pacifier all over again!
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Showing at: UA Riverview, The Bridge

The Kingdom - Now here's a film that looks pretty interesting. After a deadly attack on American forces in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, an FBI special agent (Jamie Foxx) leads a secret team of U.S. counter-terrorism investigators into the city to find the culprits, but their presence is unwelcome, they're stalled by bureaucracy, and the attackers may be after them next. Plenty of acting talent in this one, too: Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper, and Jason Bateman. Unfortunately, the freshness rating is sitting at about 50%, so this one could go either way.
Trailer
Showing at: UA Riverview, The Bridge

Most Likely to Rule: Directors in Focus: Ken Russell - The I-House's program of Ken Russell films started on Thursday, but continues tonight with a screening of The Music Lovers (a biopic of Piotr Tchaikovsky with Richard Chamberlain as the famous composer), which is preceded by an introductory reading by Joseph Lanza from his new book Phallic Frenzy: Ken Russell and His Films. The title of the book should give you an idea of what you're in for with Russell's films: frenzied surreality and overt sexuality. Saturday night the I-House will conclude the program with a screening of Russell's insane film adaptation of The Who's rock opera, Tommy. We've never seen Lovers, and we can't say we're a huge fan of Tommy, but these screenings are still bound to be more exciting and more interesting than any of the new stuff coming out this weekend, so they get Most Likely to Rule.
Showing at: The International House

Image via MoviePoster.com