Opening wide next Friday, February 26th, are the Kevin Smith-directed buddy-cop comedy Cop Out and the horror remake The Crazies. Here are the trailers:
| 26 March Friday | ||
|---|---|---|
Hot Tub Time Machine | Well that's self-explanatory... A bunch of dudes get whisked back to the '80s in a hot tub. |  |
How To Train Your Dragon | More like how to train your human... A Viking teen discovers dragons aren't as bad as they're cracked up to be. |  |
| Bluebeard A wife-killing aristocrat marries again in an update of the French fairytale. | Limited | |
| Chloe A wife hires the wrong woman to test her husband's fidelity. | Limited | |
| Dancing Across Borders A documentary follows a young man's journey from a village in Cambodia to center stage in America. | Limited | |
| THe Eclipse A widower falls for a woman with a psychotic ex-boyfriend. | Limited | |
| Lbs. An overweight man heads into the wilderness to drop excess weight. | Limited | |
| Leaves of Grass An academic (Edward Norton) returns to investigate his brother's murder.. | Limited | |
| Waking Sleeping Beauty A documentary unleashes the secret behind Disney's most creative years.. | Limited | |
| 31 March Wednesday | ||
The Last Song | Hannah Montana falls in love... MMiley Cyrus falls in love on the beach in a romance from Nicholas Sparks. |  |
| 2 April Friday | ||
Clash of the Titans | The Gods must be crazy... Perseus must save Zeus from Hades in an update of the 1980s cheesefest. |  |
Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too? | No answer yet... Four couples struggle with marital issues in the tropics. |  |
| Breaking Upwards A couple orchestrates a strategic breakup in an autobiographical romantic comedy. | Limited | |
| Don McKay Don McKay (Thomas Haden Church) proves you can't go home again. | Limited | |
| The Greatest Grief-stricken parents receive an interesting gift from their deceased son. | Limited | |
| Leaves of Grass Edward Norton is a twin looking for his brother's murder. | Limited | |
| The Thorn in the Heart Michel Gondry makes a documentary about his aunt that uncovers a new facet of his family life. | Limited | |
| The Warlords Jet Li becomes part of a vigilante trio that saves peasants during the Taiping Rebellion. | Limited | |
| 9 April Friday | ||
Date Night | A night to remember... Tina Fey and Steve Carell are a married couple having a heck of a time surviving a night away from the kids. |  |
| After.Life A young girl wakes up on a mortician's table questioning whether or not she's really dead. | Limited | |
| The Black Waters of Echo's Pond Four friends play an old board game that makes the Ouija board look like child's play. | Limited | |
| Everyone Else A vacation tests a new couple's staying power. | Limited | |
| La Mission The love of a father (Benjamin Bratt) is tested when his machismo way of life is threatened by his son's secret. | Limited | |
| Letters to God A dying boy's letters help a mailman find his way. | Limited | |
| The Square An Aussie noir follows a bored bloke who gets mixed up with a sexy but dangerous beauty. | Limited | |
| When You're Strange: A Film About The Doors Mr. Mojo Risin' raises questions in a rockumentary about the influential '60s band. | Limited | |
| Who Do You Love Leonard Chess takes center stage among the legends he helped create in a drama about an ulikely mover and shaker. | Limited | |
| On The Horizon | ||
| Kick-Ass Kids dress up like superheroes and kick some, well, you know. | April 16, 2010 | |
| A Nightmare on Elm Street One, two...Freddy's coming for you. | April 30, 2010 | |
| I Love you Phillip Morris Love is in the air for Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor. | April 30, 2010 | |
| Iron Man 2 Stark back for some more solid action. | May 7, 2010 | |
| Robin Hood Russell Crowe stars as the folk hero. | May 14, 2010 | |
| MacGruber Another movie based on an SNL sketch heads to the big screen. | May 21, 2010 | |
| Shrek Forever After Donkey is back. | May 21, 2010 | |
| Sex and the City 2 The girls are back in town. | May 27, 2010 | |
| Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Jake Gyllenhaal slips into the role of the video game hero. | May 28, 2010 | |
| Get Him to the Greek Russell Brand reprises his role as lothario pop star Aldous Snow. | June 4, 2010 | |
| Marmaduke The Great Dane wreaks havoc in theaters. | June 4, 2010 | |
| The A-Team The boys graduate to the big screen. | June 11, 2010 | |
| Kung Fu Kid Jackie Chan mentors Jaden Smith in an update of The Karate Kid. | June 11, 2010 | |
| Toy Story 3 Woody and Buzz take the gang on a whole new adventure. | June 18, 2010 | |
| The Twilight Saga: Eclipse Jacob and Edward clash over who will protect Bella from Victoria. | June 30, 2010 | |
| The Last Airbender M. Night unites the elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water. | July 2, 2010 | |
| The Expendables Slyvester Stallone recruits the top 80's action badasses. | August 13, 2010 | |
| Paranormal Activity 2 Demons got a lot of possessin' to do. | October 22, 2010 | |
| Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 It's the beginning of the end. | November 19, 2010 | |
| Tron Legacy The game gets a reboot. | December 17, 2010 | |
| Thor Another Marvel character makes it to the big screen. | May 6, 2011 | |
| Green Lantern Ryan Reynolds's tries on the superhero's green tights. | June 17, 2011 | |
| Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 It's the end of the end. | July 15, 2011 | |
| The First Avenger: Captain America The Avenger Initiative is almost complete. | July 22, 2011 | |
Shutter Island 61
| The Departed (2006) | 86 |
| The Aviator (2004) | 77 |
| Gangs of New York (2002) | 72 |
| Bringing Out the Dead (1999) | 70 |
| Kundun (1997) | 72 |
While Shutter Island may not be among Scorsese’s best films — in fact, it’s his lowest-scoring film from at least the past 22 years (Metacritic’s database contains only a few of his films prior to 1988) — most reviewers generally enjoyed the new thriller, with some reservations. Several critics felt that the film escaped the confines of its genre to become something bigger and more profound. The Onion A.V. Club’s Scott Tobias concluded, "Shutter Island may initially seem like a nerve-jangling genre piece in the Cape Fear mold, but it’s more like Scorsese’s The Shining, a horror show where it’s sometimes hard to tell the haunted from those doing the haunting." Similarly, Lawrence Toppman of the Charlotte Observer described the film as an exploration of "psychological or physical cruelty," much like earlier Scorsese films like Kundun, The Age of Innocence or Raging Bull. Reviewers also had praise for Scorsese’s craftsmanship — especially as manifested in the film’s atmosphere and tension — and almost universally lauded the cast and the music (though the San Francisco Chronicle panned the "ludicrously ominous" soundtrack).
Some critics, however, partially dismissed Shutter Island as a relatively minor work in Scorsese’s career, either because of the genre or because of the result. The Chicago Tribune’s Michael Phillips, in fact, opined that Scorsese overcompensated for the film’s pulpy subject matter by "overcooking the stew," with the result being nothing more than "mazelike fun and games, without the fun." Many reviewers also faulted the film’s intentional misdirection (there are red herrings aplenty, according to reviewers) as frustrating and found the story confusing, "overplotted" and "incomprehensible" (New York Observer’s Rex Reed), or even "weird" (the Washington Post’s Ann Hornaday).
And almost everyone noted the film’s inconsistent pacing and unwieldy length (it clocks in at nearly two and a half hours): New York’s David Edelstein was not the only critic to deem Shutter Island a "long slog." However, the film’s strong payoff in the form of its final twist — which works "shiveringly well," according to Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman, redeemed the journey in the eyes of some reviewers. As Rick Groen wrote in The Globe and Mail, "Not often in movies is the destination so much better than the journey."
The Ghost Writer 76
| Oliver Twist (2005) | 65 |
| The Pianist (2002) | 85 |
| The Ninth Gate (1999) | 44 |
| Death and the Maiden (1994) | 72 |
| Bitter Moon (1992) | xx |
Polanski’s 55-year career is filled with critically-acclaimed thrillers, and The Ghost Writer looks like it will join that list, even it it doesn’t rank among his very best. When critics weren’t busy discussing the director’s ongoing legal problems, they found a lot to like, starting with the performances of McGregor and Brosnan, whose "verbal duels make for a dazzling game of cat-and-mouse," according to Peter Travers of Rolling Stone, who added that "even the smallest roles are expertly played." Many critics, like Entertainment Weekly’s Lisa Schwarzbaum, found the paranoia-laced film "well-made," and reviewers enjoyed the "verve and vitality" (Time Out New York) and glimpses of "that old Polanski magic" (Village Voice) that the director brought to what otherwise would be standard genre material. Several critics also called the film a "mature" or "adult" thriller, suggesting not sexual situations but a more cerebral, less action-driven example of the genre.
However, don’t go into The Ghost Writer expecting "profundity" (Time Out New York) or even a coherent ending (Village Voice). The Hollywood Reporter’s Kirk Honeycutt similarly found the movie both "superficial" and shallow, "hypnotic" to sit through but unable to "bear close scrutiny" once its final images fade. And Variety’s Derek Elley didn’t share his colleagues’ overall approval of the film; he found Polanski’s adaptation of the novel too literal, McGregor’s performance "weak," and the film itself lacking tension.
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