TAGGED AS: Certified Fresh
This week at the movies, we’ve got spy suspense (The Debt, starring Helen Mirren and Sam Worthington), lunar scares (Apollo 18, starring Lloyd Owen and Warren Christie), and marine mayhem (Shark Night 3D, starring Sara Paxton and Sinqua Walls). What do the critics have to say?
The Debt promises a return to the twisty, morally ambiguous intrigue of Cold War-era spy movies. And critics say it mostly delivers; the film boasts an outstanding cast and scenes of white-knuckle tension that help to alleviate its occasional lapses. Helen Mirren stars as a retired member of an elite Mossad unit that tracked down a fugitive Nazi war criminal years before. However, it turns out the case wasn’t quite as closed as they thought, and revelations from the past reverberate in the present. The critics say The Debt is clunky in spots, but its outstanding cast and smarter-than-average script keep things on track.
It appears the folks behind Apollo 18 were afraid that critics wouldn’t be over the moon for their film, and so it heads to theaters without being screened. Two astronauts are sent to the moon on a secret mission, only to discover that Earth’s only satellite is overrun with deadly parasites. Hey, everyone, stop playing Dead Space for a minute and guess that Tomatometer!
There’s something fishy going on with Shark Night 3D, since it wasn’t screened for critics prior to its release. Sara Paxton stars as a party-hearty young woman whose trip to her family’s lake house is ruined when a school of sharks are discovered to be prowling the waters. Once again, it’s time to play Guess the Tomatometer! (And be sure to check out this week’s Total Recall, in which we run down some of cinema’s scariest marine life.)
Love Exposure, an action/comedy about a devout Catholic teenager who engages in street fights and illicit photography, is at 93 percent.
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, starring Andy Lau in a martial arts mystery set in Seventh Century China, is at 89 percent.
I’m Glad My Mother Is Alive, a drama about a teenager who becomes obsessed with his birth mother, is at 83 percent.
Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life, an unconventional biopic about the legendary French pop star Serge Gainsbourg, is Certified Fresh at 77 percent.
Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles, a documentary about mysterious street art that has appeared in various cities over the course of decades, is at 67 percent.
Love Crime, starring Ludivine Sagnier and Kristin Scott Thomas in a thriller about a manipulative business executive who matches wits with a young up-and-comer, is at 52 percent.
A Good Old Fashioned Orgy, starring Jason Sudeikis and Leslie Bibb in a comedy about a group of 30-something friends who decide to hold a naughty theme party, is at 30 percent.
Seven Days In Utopia, starring Robert Duvall and Lucas Black in a drama about a promising golfer whose life changes under the tutelage of an eccentric rancher, is at 10 percent.
