CinePhillyist

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

Most Likely to Rule: Diva - The 1981 debut film from the director of the more recent Diving Bell and the Butterfly is about a famous opera singer who refuses to be recorded, and the fan who one night sneaks a tape recorder into her performance and tapes her anyway. Eventually the fan and the singer become friends, but there's also a labyrinthine plot involving two pairs of criminals chasing the fan, and a "brilliantly photographed" motorcycle chase through the subway tunnels of Paris. That sounds pretty crazy, but also pretty awesome. We're intrigued. It doesn't hurt that the film has an astounding 100% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It's practically a sure bet!
Showing at: Ritz at the Bourse

The Orphanage - Guillermo del Toro produces this gothic horror film from director Juan Antonio Bayona about a long-abandoned orphanage. A woman with happy memories of the place from many years ago returns to reopen it, but discovers it's haunted by a terrible secret from the past that begins to affect her seven-year-old son. Sounds a little familiar, but also pretty cool, and the reviews are good. We'd give it a shot.
Trailer
Showing at: Ritz at the Bourse

The Bucket List - Rob Reiner directs this comedy/drama about a pair of terminally ill cancer patients (Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman) who have little in common except that they each have a long list of things they want to do before they kick the bucket. So they decide to leave the hospital behind and live their last days to the fullest, and of course in the process forge a deep friendship and learn important lessons about life, etc. Looks pretty terrible to this Phillyist, and the reviews are mixed. But keep a look out for our review a little later on this morning.
Trailer
Showing at: Roxy Theatre, UA Riverview

First Sunday - This doesn't appear to be a direct sequel to the Friday movies, but it's also a comedy, it has a similar title, and the cast includes Ice Cube in the lead role, so we find it hard to believe they aren't at least vaguely connected. Anyway, the Cube and Tracy Morgan play a pair of best friends named Durrell and LeeJohn, respectively, who also happen to be bumbling criminals. When they discover they have only one week to pay a huge debt or Durrell will lose his son, they hatch a desperate scheme to rob the local church, but end up dealing with more than they bargained for. The cast includes Katt Williams, Keith David, and Chi McBride. The problem is, nothing we've seen in the ads has been the least bit funny, and the reviews are pretty terrible. We're thinking you should stay home and rent Friday again instead.
Trailer
Showing at: UA Riverview, The Bridge

Most Likely to Suck: In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale - It may look like an exciting epic fantasy adventure with an all-star cast (Jason Statham, Leelee Sobieski, John Rhys-Davies, Ron Perlman, Kristanna Loken, Matthew Lillard, Ray Liotta, and Burt Reynolds), but don't be fooled! We didn't put this thing on our list of least anticipated movies of 2008 for no reason. It's based on a video game (strike one), directed by Uwe Boll (strike two), and there's no freshness rating yet on Rotten Tomatoes (strike three). And that's without mentioned the fact that the plot summary, which we won't even bother repeating here, is just a list of epic fantasy cliches, and the samples of dialogue and acting that we've seen in the ads have been truly awful. Run from this one as if your life depended on it.
Trailer
Showing at: UA Riverview

The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie - We're betting most people fall into one of two categories with respect to this film: either they have kids who are of a particular age range and they have to go see this with them whether they like it or not, or they don't have kids in that age range and have no idea what VeggieTales is. For the benefit of the latter people: VeggieTales is a computer-animated show about a bunch of vegetables who teach kids important moral lessons via wacky adventures and silly songs. For the benefit of the former people: the movie you're going to see is about three lazy vegetables, each with his own endearing character flaw, who find a mystical artifact that is seeking three heroes to travel back in time to the 17th century to rescue a royal family from a dangerous despot. What do you think happens next? Anyways, critics seem to agree that while the film isn't particularly imaginative, it's also not particularly awful, so apparently you're not in for too much torture.
Trailer
Showing at: UA Riverview

Image via Internet Movie Poster Awards Gallery