ROTTEN TOMATOES: Opening Movies

ROTTEN TOMATOES: Movies opening this week

Harry Potter and The Latest Predictament - one zillion screens, 74% positive reviews. (Actually at least 4100 screens, maybe more, including IMAX 3-D)

Captivity - the latest in the torture porn genre. 1500 screens, 13% positive reviews. The BBC had this to say: "American cinema's obsession with torture spawns another celluloid sprog in Captivity, an abduction flick in the same blood-spurting vein as the Saw and Hostel series. Our victim is Jennifer (Elisha Cuthbert), a self-centred young catwalk model kidnapped by a hooded sicko with a penchant for psychological torment. Though less graphically unpleasant than some of its forbears, Captivity nonetheless exudes a nasty odour of misogyny. Director Roland Joffe, who made The Killing Fields, ought to know better than this." According to Arrow in the Head, who called the movie "a sinking turd" and "a highly flawed SAW clone," Elisha Cuthbert is naked, but blurred. He was, however, reviewing an earlier version and the film has since been significantly re-cut and parts have even beeen re-shot.

Talk to Me - 78% positive reviews, but making a limited arthouse run on 37 screens. Casi Lemmons is a terrific director, and her movies are not pretentious arthouse bullshit, even though that's the pigeonhole she gets stuck in for distribution. They have a lot of heart, and plenty of intelligence. Some day she'll make it on more screens, and somebody will notice how damned good her movies are. If anyone had ever seen The Caveman's Valentine, Samuel L Jackson might have gotten an Oscar.