Friday, October 8, 2010

Popcorn Pick 10-8-10

Two new releases this week, both look unsatisfying: Life As We Know It, starring Katherine Heigl and Transformers' Josh Duhamel, is a romantic dramedy about a mismatched pair assigned to take care of a baby girl after the parents pass away. Fans of Heigl will surely flock in droves, but the film is utterly predictable. The other new release is Disney's Secretariat, with Diane Lane and John Malkovich, about an underdog racehorse who won the Triple Crown. Unique in that racehorse movies are rare these days, but they're rare because no one cares.
So I'm gonna choose an old movie that you may have missed these last few weeks. If you saw Gone Baby Gone, you know Ben Affleck is a competent director, even if you're not a fan of his acting. He follows up that brilliant crime drama with what appears to be another one: The Town, set in his native Boston about a band of bank robbers, one of whom falls in love with a young teller they kidnapped and wants to go straight. The glittery, awards-friendly cast includes Affleck himself, Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker), Jon Hamm (Mad Men), and Rebecca Hall (Vicky Cristina Barcelona). Affleck also co-wrote, making it his brainchild.