Other Crap

ROTTEN TOMATOES: Movies Opening This Week

• Duplicity. Big names Julia Roberts and Clive Owen in a labyrinthine comedy/thriller about corporate espionage. 52% positive reviews. 2400 theaters.
  
• I Love You, Man. Apatow-style comedy with Paul Rudd and Jason Segal. 78% positive reviews. 2500 theaters.
  
• Knowing. The latest high-concept film with Nic Cage. What's different? This time he can see 20 seconds into the future instead of ten. Actually I don't know, but it does involve preventing predictions from coming true. It was directed by the guy who did Dark City and Teh Crow, so it ought to look good, if nothing else. 3000 theaters. Only four reviews online.
  
• The Great Buck Howard. 50 theaters. 73% positive reviews. Unfocused dropout answers an ad for a personal assistant to a celebrity performer, finds out that it's a carny-level mentalist played by John Malkovich. Several reviewers absolutely fell in love with this movie, and it's probably your best bet if you love material which strays from the beaten path.

  If you want to see it, let's hope you can find it. I can't, because the 50 theaters in the distro plan don't include any up here in Hicksville. Of course, we don't really have any theaters as you conceive of them, but onest in a while ol' Farmer Ed sets up some chairs in his barn and projects one on a haystack. I was kinda lookin' forward to this week because the snow has melted, so we don't have to share the barn with our sled dogs, and we can watch without wearin' our parkas. But this week Ed got confused. Y'see, sometimes he thinks it's the 1960s, and this is one of those times. He's showing The Parent Trip with Hayley Mills. He loves that film. On his bad days, Ed has imaginary conversations with Brian Keith.
  

This week's wig-off: Malkovich easily tops Nic Cage for the silliest hair style. And that's like beating Mark McGuire in a home run derby.