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This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replying the story in its archived form does not constitute a re-publiccation of the story.
The Informant
The Informant represents a return to more commercial fare for Steven Soderbergh after his last two films (a largely improvised experimental film about a prostitute and a two-part four-and-half hour biopic on Che Guevara). Starring a portly Matt Damon as Mark Whitacre, president of Archer Daniels Midland’s BioProducts Division, the film is a comedy that tells the (somewhat) true story of the highest-level corporate executive to ever turn whistleblower. Whitacre is an upwardly-mobile family man when he decides to rat-out his employer (and himself) for price-fixing to FBI Agent Brian Shepard (Scott Bakula). Shepard, who is at Whitacre’s home for an unrelated reason, is taken aback by his confession. But he moves swiftly to bring him into the fold and immediately sends him to work with a wire on. Much to the FBI’s surprise, Whitacre isn’t the least bit concerned for his own welfare (whether it be personal or professional). In fact, he’s having the time of his life.
Read the full review here.
The Box
Based on Richard Matheson’s short story Button, Button, The Box stars Cameron Diaz and James Marsden as Norma and Arthur Lewis. The Lewis’ are an upper middleclass couple; she’s an English teacher at an upscale prep school while he works at NASA with hopes of entering their astronaut program. However, their idyllic live begins to unravel when he is passed over as a potential astronaut and she is informed that faculty members will no longer receive discounted tuition for their children. In the midst of this upheaval they are presented with an unusual opportunity. A man arrives on their doorstep with a box and an offer. The box is nothing more than that; a wood box with a button on top. Press the button and receive a million dollars. Oh, but there is one caveat: someone somewhere, whom you don’t know, will die. Will they press the button? Will they not press the button? At the risk of revealing too much, one of those choices would make for an extremely anticlimactic (not to mention brief) film going experience, now wouldn’t it?
Read the full review here.
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant
Is your child too old for Goosebumps but not quite ready for the sexual tension and romanticized domestic abuse metaphors of Twilight? Then perhaps Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant is for you…because I have no idea who else it could conceivably be for. Chris Massoglia stars at Darren Shan a quiet and bookish adolescent. He is best friends with Steve (Josh Hutcherson) a young adult of a slightly more trouble-making variety. When the two receive a flyer touting a touring freak show (Cirque du Freak) they immediately decide to attend. (Hooray for grass roots marketing!) Upon witnessing the show, they quickly realize they’re in the presence of something a bit more “other worldly” than originally expected. Steve, who’s obsessed with vampires, instantly recognizes the show’s final performer as the “famous” vampire Larten Crepsley (John C. Reilly). He instantly wants to abandon his humdrum life and become a vampire. However, through a serious of machinations which are as mundane as they are unmemorable, it’s Darren that becomes a (partial) vampire thereby leaving Steve bitter and unfulfilled.
Read the full review here.
Everything’s Fine
One’s opinion of the new Robert De Niro film Everybody’s Fine will depend largely on one’s opinion of sentimentality. De Niro plays recent widower Frank Goode. His children are grown and living in different cities; he now spends his days alone and meticulously maintaining his lawn. He’s eagerly anticipating his kids all returning home for their first visit since their mother’s funeral when they all mysteriously, one-by-one, back-out. Sensing something is amiss, he sets out to make a surprise visit to each one. However, a lung condition brought on by a lifelong factory job prevents him from flying so he must travel by ground. As he systematically tracks his children down, he finds that one is unaccounted for while the others are living lives that are not quite what he’s been lead to believe. The film is dysfunctional family mystery, of sorts, as Frank attempts to figure out where his son David (Austin Lysy) is and why his kids have been lying to him.
Read the full review here.
Also out on DVD today:
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