Weekend Movie Forecast: <em>The Other Guys</em> Vs. <em>Middle Men</em> - Photo Gallery

<em>Talladega Nights</em> might not have been a good movie, but Adam McKay has still written some of Will Ferrell's best ones (<em>Anchorman</em>, <em>Step Brothers</em>). And honestly, anyone who could get that crazed genius Jody Hill a show on HBO is O.K. in our book (we're not sure how season 2 of <em>Eastbound and Down</em> is going to play out, but we're just excited that Kenny Powers is back). Today McKay and Ferrell's newest movie <em>The Other Guys</em> comes out, and we're hoping it's as good as it has the potential to be. Ferrell plays a forensic accountant who is partnered up with a trigger happy cop, played by Mark Wahlberg, in order to crack a case that would make these embarrassments respectable again. Along for the ride is a great supporting cast including Samuel L. Jackson, Dwayne Johnson, the great Steve Coogan, and the always welcomed Michael Keaton.<p></p>Reviews have been pretty good, with the worst reviews (two stars) coming from unfunny people like A.O. Scott from <a href="http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/movies/06other.html?ref=movies">The Times</a> who says: "Once again, and for the first time in a while, Mr. Ferrell uses his big body, his quick mind and his infinitely fungible voice to yoke disparate and ridiculous traits into a brand new and yet instantly archetypal comic character.<p></p>"When it operates in this nonsensical zone of verbal riffing and broad slapstick (the most inspired example of which is a brawl at a funeral conducted in respectful whispers), <em>The Other Guys</em> provides some pretty good laughs."

<p>You know you're getting old when movies start coming out about the history of the internet, and mister, we've got two coming out. The first one, <em>Middle Men</em>, drops today and tells the story of a businessman (the starting-to-get-annoying Luke Wilson) who helps out two degenerates who have developed a way to buy and watch porn online. This indeed was a huge development and one which warrants a big-budget movie complete with fancy camera tricks and cued up Rolling Stones songs. Although the second movie of the two, <em>The Social Network</em>, looks like the more respectable one (it's frightening how Fincher almost legitimizes Facebook in a few minutes), <em>Middle Men</em> looks to be the fun one.</p><p></p>Reviews have actually been pretty good, with some dissent coming from Keith Uhlich at the <a href="http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/film/87913/middle-men-film-review">Time Out New York</a> camp who says: "At the center of the shitstorm, standing untouched and confident, is Luke Wilson, whose phenomenal performance as a family man undone by sexual and financial temptation is more than this movie deserves.<p></p>"Wilson, his face in a perpetual basset-hound droop, his forlorn eyes darting more apprehensively by the second, gives you a sense of every conflicted beat of Jack’s journey through hell and back. He’s as profoundly changed man by the end as Ethan Edwards is in <em>The Searchers</em>; it’s a shame that he’s stuck in a sub-Scorsese theme park."

<p>What time is it? It's <em>Cairo Time</em>! That's right people, it's time for another indy that follows a heterosexual pair who fall for each other but are already married (think <em>In the Mood For Love</em> or basically any Wong Kar-Wai film). The film follows 40ish fashion magazine editor Juliette as she goes to Cairo in order to meet up with her beau, problem is beau not there, beau sent hot BFF in his place. The two wander around Cairo, seeing the sights, and fall silently in love. Prepare yourself for an hour and a half of sophisticated <em>yearning</em>.</p><p></p>Reviews have been pretty good with Karina Longworth from <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-08-04/film/bad-dialogue-in-culture-clash-romance-cairo-time/">The Village Voice</a> saying: "A seductive (yet chaste) exotic-man-reinvigorates-middle-aged-wife's-libido fantasy, <em>Cairo Time</em> spends a lot of screen time putting Clarkson in contrived situations to hammer home the culture-shock theme.<p></p>"Happily, writer-director Ruba Nadda's emphasis on body language ultimately trumps the clumsiness of her script. Intimate lensing turns tiny gestures—a hand on the small of a back, a friendly kiss that misses its target—into major landmarks, and the chemistry between the two leads sustains the movie's jet-lagged, heat-dazed spell."

<p>What happened to suspense thrillers anyway? They were all the rage in the '90s and have basically been trumped by horror films and action movies as of recently. Honestly, when was the last time you saw a movie about a rich girl who was kidnapped and thrown into the back of a van and tied to a bed, who had to figure out a way to get out of the situation? The answer to that question could be "a couple of minutes ago" because <em>The Disappearance of Alice Creed</em> comes out today.</p><p></p>Reviews have been good, with Noel Murray from <a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-disappearance-of-alice-creed,43861/">The A.V. Club</a> saying: "<em>Alice Creed</em> is a clever little contraption, even though it runs into the problem that a lot of twist-heavy suspense movies have: Once it’s spooned out all its surprises about two-thirds of the way through, it loses a lot of its entertainment value. Still, as long as the ride lasts, it’s a wild one.<p></p>"With strong performances and the careful rendering of efficient modern kidnapping techniques, Blakeson finds ways to make good use of his assets: three talented actors, a few evocative locations, and a script that springs like a mousetrap."

<p>Maybe it's because of this shitty war we're in but the golden age of war films has definitely ended. If the <em>Hurt Locker</em> is what we are to expect from now on it's a little disappointing. Not that it was bad or anything, but the nature of war has changed and so has the genre of War films. Well, perhaps just American War films, because today the film <em>Lebanon</em> comes out, and it's been getting amazing reviews.</p><p></p>The film won the Golden Lion at last years Venice Film Festival and everyone seems to love it, everyone that is except Scott Tobias from <a href="http://www.avclub.com/articles/lebanon,43865/">The A.V. Club</a> who says: "The Israeli war drama <em>Lebanon</em>, from first-time writer-director Samuel Maoz, takes place almost entirely inside a tank, following four IDF soldiers on the first day of the 1982 Lebanon War. The setting is its chief strength: a tight, dark, oppressively noisy tin can that often fogs with exhaust fumes, and at times seems like a moving coffin for the grimy, sweaty, frightened, ill-tempered men inside.<p></p>"Comparisons to the submarine classic <em>Das Boot</em> are unavoidable, but <em>Lebanon</em> has the edge in claustrophobic misery, even though the tank isn’t submerged 800 feet underwater. But the film’s visceral assault extends to the sledgehammer script, an amassment of unsubtle ironies and war-is-hell clichés that often reduce it to an amateurish theatrical stunt."

<p>OMG!! What could be better than <em>Step Up</em> and the Tatum of hotness contained within it? Well...nothing ladies, sorry. But <em>Step Up 3D</em> comes out today, and although it's Channingless this shit is in 3D, making it easier to live variously through the hotties onscreen because they'll be in your face the whole time!!! Plot: Nope. </p><p></p>For some reason Keith Uhlich from Time Out New York loved this, but the rest of the known universe of critics such as Mike Hale from <a href="http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/movies/06step.html?ref=movies">The New York Times</a> hated it. Hale says: "The rest of the film is business as usual, which means that every 20 minutes or so it grinds to a halt for another overproduced dance-crew routine. The dancers may be skilled, but their work has no meaning in terms of the story — it’s pure spectacle, and numbingly repetitive spectacle at that. (Sometimes the outcome of a “battle” matters to the plot, but the winners are always preordained.)<p></p>"In fairness, a lot of the filmmakers’ attention probably went to shooting the movie in 3-D (no after-the-fact conversion here), and the effect is unusually natural-looking and unobtrusive. Dancing, with its bodies moving behind and around other bodies, is a good fit for 3-D, though especially robotic movement still looks pasted on the screen. New Yorkers may be impressed by the scenes in which Washington Square Park, the East River bridges and the Grand Central Terminal concourse serve as backdrops — it really does feel just the tiniest bit as if you were there."

<p>So Joel Schumacher has had quite an interesting career so far. For every pretty good movie he's made (<em>The Lost Boys, Falling Down</em>) he's made an atrocious one (<em>Batman Forever, Batman and Robin</em>). Today his film <em>Twelve</em> comes out, and let's just say its in limited release and stars Chace Crawford and 50 cent. The film follows High School drop out White Mike as he reaches new found success selling drugs to his rich friends on the Upper East Side. Things get a bit crazy leading a double life and he gets further involved in shadyness (oh, poor little rich boy).</p><p></p>Reviews have been abysmal, with Stephen Holden from <a href="http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/movies/06twelve.html?ref=movies">The Times</a> saying: "<em>Twelve</em> is much more interested in gaping salaciously at the depraved, joyless lives of the denizens of Gotham 10021, as a television series based on <em>Twelve</em> might be called. But please don’t let it be made.<p></p>"This 95-minute movie is so overstuffed with characters, it would take a whole television season to sort them out and give them any depth. And even then, these people have so little on their minds that 13 hours might not do the trick. Jordan Melamed’s screenplay squanders so much time introducing them in the narrator’s sneering, derisive checklist of traits that it leaves even less room for character development. "

<p>Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell star in Howard Hawks's classic screwball musical comedy <em>Gentlemen Prefer Blondes</em>, being screened for one week only <a href="http://www.filmforum.org/films/gentlemen.html">at Film Forum</a>, which has a restored print. </p>

<p>This weekend at midnight, <a href="http://www.landmarktheatres.com/Films/films_frameset.asp?id=41169">The Sunshine screens</a> the beloved "rom zom com" (romantic zombie comedy) <em>Shaun of the Dead</em>.</p>

<a href="http://www.ifccenter.com/films/taxi-driver/">The IFC Center screens</a> <em> Taxi Driver</em> at midnight this weekend.