CinePhillyist

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

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Two friends and roommates in Communist Romania in the late '80s find themselves with a problem: one of them is pregnant and needs an abortion, but abortions are illegal. They find a man who will perform one anyway, but he won't accept money, and demands an "alternate" commodity instead. Eeww. This is getting great reviews, but it also sounds like a tough, disturbing film, so keep that in mind.
Trailer - Freshness
Showing at: Ritz at the Bourse

Youth Without Youth
Francis Ford Coppola's long-awaited return to the director's chair takes the form of a low budget film adaptation of a novel by Romanian author Mircea Eliade (which makes this the second movie with a connection to Romania this weekend - weird). The story follows a seventy-year-old scholar who, when he is struck by lightning, finds his age reversing and his mind growing more and more brilliant. "Now determined to understand the origins of language and consciousness, the fugitive professor leads authorities on a wild chase through Romania, Switzerland, Malta, and India." Sounds unique, that's for sure! Tim Roth, Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, and Marcel Iures star. Being a huge fan of Coppola's work, this Phillyist was very excited about this film, but the critics say it's confusing, muddled, and not very good. Ouch. That's disappointing.
Trailer - Freshness
Showing at: Ritz at the Bourse

Most Likely to Suck: Fool's Gold
This looks like a Romancing the Stone kind of a deal; a romantic comedy/action adventure flick about a surf bum (Matthew McConaughey) who loses nearly everything he has, including his marriage to Tess (Kate Hudson), trying to find a legendary treasure. But when he finds a key clue to the whereabouts of the treasure, he convinces Tess' new boss, a billionaire with a yacht (Donald Sutherland), to help him. Unfortunately, his mentor-turned-nemesis (Ray Winstone) has also set out to claim the prize. It sounds cliched and stupid, and that's indeed just about what the critics are saying about it. We'd say skip it.
Trailer - Freshness
Showing at: Roxy Theatre, UA Riverview

The Hottie and the Nottie
The plot of this romantic comedy vehicle for Paris Hilton actually vaguely resembles that of The Taming of the Shrew. Hilton plays a hot young thing who refuses to go out with the adoring Nate until he finds a date for her ugly best friend, Jane. So he helps Jane with a life-changing makeover and, we can only assume, ultimately falls for her instead. It's not the lowest critically rated film coming out this weekend (that honor goes to the unfortunately titled Fool's Gold), but it nearly is. We're actually not really sure why anyone would want to see this, and if you are such a person, we don't know what to say to you.
Trailer - Freshness
Showing at: UA Riverview

Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights - Hollywood to the Heartland
A film documenting the performances and the back-stage and behind-the-scenes shenanigans that took place during a thirty-day, thirty-gig comedy tour that featured Vaughn serving as emcee to a host of renegade comics that included John Caparulo, Ahmed Ahmed, Bret Ernst, and Sebastian Maniscalo. Reviews are mixed, but it sounds like fun to us.
Trailer - Freshness
Showing at: UA Riverview

Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins
Martin Lawrence plays an extremely successful host of a TV talk show with a ten-year-old son and a beautiful reality TV star for his fiancee. Everything seems to be going great, but when he returns home for his parents' 50th wedding anniversary, he finds that his family isn't cutting him any slack for his superstar status, and he must take stock of the man he's become. Besides Lawrence, the film also stars Louis C.K., Cedric the Entertainer, Michael Clark Duncan, and James Earl Jones. That's quite a cast, but reviews are mixed, and we've always hated Martin Lawrence's brand of comedy, so we can't say we're interested.
Trailer - Freshness
Showing at: UA Riverview, The Bridge

Most Likely to Rule: Aelita, Queen of Mars
The I-House is doing one of their really cool silent film screenings with live musical accompaniment, and this time it's a Soviet sci-fi flick from 1924 with a score by Philadelphia composer Gene Coleman, performed by Coleman and his Ensemble Noamnesia, and featuring guest artist Anthony Jay Ptak on the coolest instrument ever, the theremin! The film is about a radio engineer from Moscow who finds himself on Mars supporting Queen Aelita in a popular uprising against her father, the king. But of course the whole thing is really an allegory for revolution in Russia. Sounds like an awesome way to kill a Saturday night to us.
Showing at: Sat, 8PM, The International House

Image via ERBzine