New Movies In Theaters This Week - Rotten Tomatoes

New Movies In Theaters This Week - Rotten Tomatoes

It looks like there are two watchable movies:

The Ides of March (78% positive reviews, 2000 theaters) is George Clooney's R-rated political drama which stars Clooney and red-hot Ryan Gosling. I have been very enthusiastic about Clooney's more serious work behind the camera (and Leatherheads has its moments). Since he deals with ideas rather than action or comedy, he attracts a relatively small audience, but a discriminating one. And his films deal with important ideas in an accessible and engaging way, without being excessively ideological, which makes them a good watch even when you disagree with his point of view. You all know he's a dyed-in-the-wool liberal, but he wisely made his charming slimebag character a liberal, thus avoiding the easy targets and making the film about the process rather than specific issues. Very smart move.

You've already seen many ads for Real Steel (69% positive reviews, 3300 theaters), the PG-13 film about fighting robots. It's essentially a stereotypical boxing picture which has been sanitized for your protection: Rocky with robots and a schmaltzy father-son dynamic. Wolverine plays the down-on-his-luck boxer who gets a second chance with a robot surrogate.