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Weekend Movie Forecast: Jackass 3-D Vs. Red

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It seems like only yesterday when every kid with a video camera and a few dumbass friends started filming themselves getting concussions because of a certain TV show about a bunch of older boys with a video camera doing really dumb shit. Ten years later, we have the release of the group's newest film, Jackass 3-D and it's amazing they're all still alive to see it. None of the Jackass movies really felt like movies, but more like hanging out with some of your old degenerate friends from high school, meaning fun for the night but not necessarily something you want to turn into a routine.Reviews have been ambivalent across the board, with Manohla Dargis from <a href="http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/10/15/movies/15jackass.html?ref=movies">The New York Times</a> saying: "It just might be that Americaâs favorite jackasses, having played around with sharks in their last big-screen effort (Jackass Number Two of course), have this time actually jumped one, and in 3-D no less."At times Mr. Knoxville and his pals seem to be exploring, with degrees of knowing and naÃ¯vetÃ©, some of the same surrealist terrain described by Luis BuÃ±uel in his memoir, 'My Last Sigh.' (Although in truth only Mr. Jonze, who shows up in a fat suit and under a schmear of latex, seems genuinely knowing.) BuÃ±uel extolled Surrealism partly for its 'aggressive morality based on the complete rejection of all existing values'. The Surrealists were responding to church and state, among other forces, while here the guys are reacting to, well, someone sticking something in the nearest hole. But the menâs raucously playful, uninhibited and affectionate engagement with one anotherâs habitually unclothed bodies can seem like a spit in the face (and elsewhere) to the outside worldâs homophobia."

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Sometimes, directors choose to cast an ensemble of great, established actors in order for us to relish in their dramatic skills and the dynamic that plays between them. Every once in a blue moon however, a director will cast an ensemble of experienced actors in a film way below their caliber in order for the audience to become giddy at their out-of-character shenanigans while simultaneously giving the actors themselves a chance to say "we're like you, we can have fun too!" This didn't work out so well with a film like say Mars Attacks! but maybe Red will pull it off. The film collects an impressive stable of older, experienced and dignified actors (Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, and Brian Cox) and places them in what looks to be like a lowbrow spy film. The plot involves four of the CIA's top agents who stumble upon too much information (is that possible when you're working for an intelligence agency?), and end up being framed in one of the biggest conspiracies in U.S. history. When's the film about the small conspiracy that just kind of messed up one person's life going come out?! We imagine these four get their names cleared and become heroes, while maybe learning a little something about themselves in the process.Reviews have been fairly positive, with Tasha Robinson from <a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/red,46378/">The A.V. Club</a> saying: "Thereâs a touch of smirking apathy to everything Bruce Willis does these days, an attitude that reads as âIâve already won the Hollywood game, but I guess I can keep playing for everyone elseâs sake.â It can be a winningly intimate feeling that weâre all just hanging out with the actor himself, like old buddies. It can also be tremendously frustrating: In Red, he barely bothers to change his facial expression or vocal inflection.""Part of it is cheap thrills, of course; this is a capable, experienced cast with extensive acting chops, and itâs trashy fun watching them descend to the level of the material, which has Mirren in a sleek ball gown, capably letting rip with a 50-caliber machine gun, and Malkovich toting around a giant, squeaky stuffed pig."

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So apparently they all can't be winners. Today sees the release of Clint Eastwood's newest film Hereafter, and it's not quite getting the same reception as Eastwood's last six or so movies (really an impressive streak for an autumn-season actor). The film stars Matt Damon as a blue-collar American (like the ones from Sarah Palin speeches) who, along with two other characters, has been touched by death in some way. The three lives intersect in strange ways as they all attempt to discover what happens in....THE HEREAFTER!Reviews have been pretty bad for an Eastwood movie (the Academy loves this guy), and the general consensus is he should stay grounded in reality. J. Hoberman from <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-10-13/film/saint-clint-s-hereafter-meets-timothy-carey-s-greatest-sinner/">The Village Voice</a> asks: "Is Americaâs last cowboy icon prospecting for more Oscar gold? Taking for his map an original screenplay by British docu-dramatist Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost/Nixon), Eastwood rides a sleepy burro deep into IÃ±Ã¡rritu territory. Multiple story lines cross international borders to mix personal tragedy with post-9/11 existential terror: Hereafter is a mawkish mondo mistico, obvious, schematic, and sometimes subtitled."Hereafter is not just a stretch for Eastwood, itâs a contortion. The irrationality of the premise is exceeded only by the strategic irrationalities of the plot. Clumsily self-inoculating against the charge of spiritual baloney-ism, the movie introduces a formerly atheist scientist (Marthe Keller) amassing anecdotal proof of life after death. âThe evidence is irrefutable,â she assures the telejournalist while hinting darkly that an ill-defined religious conspiracy is preventing the happy news from reaching the rest of the planet."

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There are a few actors who can pull off both leading roles and character roles without anyone really taking notice. This is a great position for an actor because they don't have the pressure of bringing home box office bank with every movie they make, so they can make more interesting (albeit sometimes bad) films. One such man is the one and only <a href="http://gothamist.com/2010/03/18/sam_rockwell_actor.php">Sam Rockwell</a>, who frankly could be in anything he wanted to be in and probably still own it. In Conviction, Rockwell plays Kenny, who is in prison for a crime he may or may not have committed. His sister, played by Hilary Swank, spends 18 years of her life going through college and law school in order to bail her brother out of prison. If only all of those wrongly imprisoned men had sisters like that!Reviews have been respectable, with Keith Uhlich from <a href="http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/film/89853/conviction-film-review">Time Out New York</a> saying: "After her brother, Kenny (Rockwell), is imprisoned for a murder he didnât commit, Massachusetts housewife Betty Anne Waters (Swank) stops at nothing to prove his innocence. You might say she hasâ¦conviction! If that shockingly unclever play on words already has your eyes rolling, then youâd best avoid this lumpy, based-on-a-true-story slab of uplift. For those of us with a love of actorly indulgence, though, the film is a treasure trove, filled with enough molten-gold performances to gild a thousand Oscars."

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Probably the most unrepresented group in all of film is Australian Aborigines, so it's nice when a film like Samson and Delilah comes along and has Aboriginal characters in a narrative movie rather than as the subject of some documentary. The film follows two teenagers who fall and love and flee there town after a tragedy occurs. They wonder through the Australian desert with nothing but each other and the hope of finding a way out. It sounds kind of like Romeo and Juliet meet Gerry (minus the ending).Reviews have been pretty good, with Andrew Schenker from <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-10-13/film/love-blooms-against-a-harsh-aboriginal-outback-in-samson-and-delilah/">The Voice</a> saying: "A deglamorized couple-on-the-run story, Warwick Thorntonâs Samson & Delilah doubles as a portrait of a tiny Australian aboriginal community. When nascent couple Samson (Rowan McNamara) and Delilah (Marissa Gibson) receive simultaneous beatingsâhe from his brothers in retaliation for his own act of aggression, she from the village elders after her grandmother dies under her watchâthey steal a truck and head out for (white) civilization, setting up shop beneath an overpass."Against such a backdrop, Samson and Delilahâs becomes an unlikely coupling, their love story enacted more through ritualized gesture than words, like the two lobbing pebbles at each other, or Delilah washing away her loverâs wounds. The spiritual here is every bit as powerful as the physical."

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Also opening today is the mobster movie (we can't get enough of those) Down Terrace, which follows a father and son who've recently gotten out of jail only to find the crime ring has fallen into chaos. If this sounds like another bad mob movie, you might be right, but its being billed as a comedy, so at least they're trying for something. Reviews have been decent, with Elizabeth Weitzman from <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/2010/10/15/2010-10-15_short_reviews_two_escobars_down_terrace_carmo_hit_the_road_carlos_legacy_.html">The Daily News</a> saying: "Good-looking but poorly structured, director Ben Wheatley's uneven debut appears much more serious than it actually is. Strong performances and understated cinematography help balance the self-conscious editing, but ultimately the entire affair feels false."The overblown script - co-written by Wheatley and star Robin Hill - descends swiftly into the hell that is one British crime family's life, as they struggle to maintain some semblance of control. You can guess how that goes, or you can watch the entire thing done far better in the recent Animal Kingdom, which will soon be out on DVD."

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Also opening this week is the documentary The Two Escobars which tells the extremely interesting ways that the lives of Pablo and Andres Escobar (not related) intersected. Pablo, as you hip, recreational urbanites probably know, was probably the most famous drug kingpin who ever lived. Andres was one of the most famous soccer players in Colombia who happened to play for a team that was funded by Pablo. Andres notoriously scored on his own goal during the world cup and eliminated his team, ultimately leading to his rumored murder. The documentary examines the way drugs, crime, politics, and sports were all meshed together in South America at the time, and it sounds like it should be a good one.Reviews have been very good, except for a disgruntled David Fear from <a href="http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/film/89847/the-two-escobars-film-review">Time Out New York</a> who says: "This is chewy stuff for an in-depth, Errol Morrisâish documentaryâso why do we simply get a great-man-of-sports portrait halfheartedly grafted onto an A&E biography? Itâs as if directors Jeff and Michael Zimbalist recognized that these South American icons shared a surname and worked backward from there; though connections are pointed out, merely flipping between former Pablo associates attesting to crimes and halftime-bumper segments does not a 360-degree study make."Even the admittedly thrilling gameplay footage and time-capsule news reports are couched in contexts that seem crudely sketched out. This is simply pop sociology, putting too much emphasis on the first word and displaying too facile an understanding of the second one."

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Opening to an amazing amount of praise is the film Carlos which follows Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, who was one of the most wanted terrorists in between the years of 1974 and 1994. The film is being divided into two parts (the running time was originally over five and a half hours and was shown on French TV), and the first one is being released tonight. This is the movie to see! Reviews have been unanimously positive (actually beating out The Social Network this week on <a href="http://www.metacritic.com">metacritic</a>) with David Fear from <a href="http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/film/89856/carlos-film-review">Time Out New York</a> waxing rhapsodic: "With so many elephants in the room, letâs kill one off right away: Though it runs an epic five-and-a-half hours (it was made for French TV), Carlos books like no film since Goodfellas. You will not be bored, ever. Indeed, youâll be swirled up in slam-bang cutting, 1970s radical chic and an unlikely (yet perfectly apt) postpunk score, featuring the bass lines of New Order and the Feelies, among others."Hesitantly, weâll add that a much shorter (and less interesting) version of Carlos will play at Lincoln Plaza. Skip it and commit to the one at IFC. The apex of director Olivier Assayasâs already impressive career, itâs a landmark of pop politics taken to extremes."

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Tonight at <a href="http://www.filmforum.org/films/heist.html#1015">Film Forum</a> as a part of their Heist series double feature they're showing Godard's classic Band of Outsiders along with the brilliant Melville's Bob Le Flambeur. The economy sucks, so you're better off seeing two movies that you know are amazing for the price of one. They're both classics and should not be missed.

Gothamist

Playing today at the <a href="http://www.bam.org/view.aspx?pid=2627">The BAM Rose Cinema</a> is Olivier Assayas' Paris at Dawn. The film follows Louise, a young wayward drug addict, lives in Paris with the much older Clement, who feebly attempts to give her life a boost by giving her auditions for jobs in television. Clementâs estranged son, Adrien, comes to visit and soon develops a relationship with Louise. Thematically similar to his first two films, Assayas instills his third with a greater sense of movementâand a deeper look at the alienation felt by those on the margins of society. Go to see Assayas's amazing directing and stay for the acting and score by John Cale.

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Tonight and Tomorrow at midnight at the <a href="http://www.landmarktheatres.com/Market/NewYork/NewYork_frameset.htm">Landmark Theater</a>, Sunshine at midnight proudly presents Tim Burton (via Henry Selick)'s The Nightmare Before Christmas. You better head over there early because teenage goth kids love this movie. Go see the beautiful stop motion animation and take in the great tunes on the big screen. Hell, just go to see what kind of people come out of the woodwork to watch it.

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Weekend Movie Forecast: <em>Jackass 3-D</em> Vs. <em>Red</em>