Opening This Week - August 15

The Expendables 3 (2014)

126 min - Action | Adventure | Thriller
Metascore: 35/100 (11 reviews)
Barney augments his team with new blood for a personal battle: to take down
Conrad Stonebanks, the Expendables co-founder and notorious arms trader who is
hell bent on wiping out Barney and every single one of his associates.
Director: Patrick Hughes
Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Antonio Banderas
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THE BUZZ: You can assemble a team of action-genre chestnuts to take out dictators, rogue agents,
and arms dealers, but what can they do about Internet piracy? That's become the main question facing
Barney Ross and company as they head out on their third, apparently final mission; a copy of the movie
leaked at the end of July and was downloaded hundreds of thousands of times during its first 24 hours
online (and torrents are still readily available). Undoubtedly someone close to Sylvester Stallone has
pitched their idea for a mercenaries vs. torrenters script.
Let's Be Cops (2014)
104 min - Comedy
Metascore: 31/100 (12 reviews)
Two struggling pals dress as police officers for a costume party and become
neighborhood sensations. But when these newly-minted "heroes" get tangled in a
real life web of mobsters and dirty detectives, they must put their fake badges on the
line.
Director: Luke Greenfield
Stars: Jake Johnson, Damon Wayans Jr., Rob Riggle, Nina Dobrev
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THE BUZZ: Since it's arguable that movie stars don't matter anymore, why not cast two emerging
actors in a male-fantasy comedy about impersonating the law to see if it clicks? You could go with Seth
Rogen and one of his pals, but that's a lot of salary up front. Since Damon Wayans Jr. and Jake Johnson
have built a fair amount of recognition from "New Girl"'s success so it's not much of a gamble to put
them in a spin on the buddy-cop formula. Not to mention that they come across like guys-next-door and
that's what this concept is all about. A scant two years after the ill-timed The Watch, it's interesting to
see Fox releasing another movie that seems a bit socially irresponsible.
The Giver (2014)
94 min - Drama | Sci-Fi
Metascore: 58/100 (8 reviews)
In a seemingly perfect community, without war, pain, suffering, differences or
choice, a young boy is chosen to learn from an elderly man about the true pain and
pleasure of the "real" world.
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Director: Phillip Noyce
Stars: Brenton Thwaites, Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Taylor Swift
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THE BUZZ: This adaptation of Lowis Lowry's celebrated children's novel (which belongs to a loose
collection of four books) takes certain liberties with its source material: Jonas is aged up by several
years; Rosemary, more of a conceptual character in the novel, was fleshed-out and red-lip lined by
Taylor Swift for the movie. Scheduled for the waning days of summer vacation, it's tricky to gauge how
the picture will be received. The Weinstein Company doesn't specialize in this genre or wide releases,
and the release date itself isn't a sign of utmost confidence. And then there's the whole dystopian-
future fatigue to consider, right? I believe in Jeff Bridges as a mentor and Meryl Streep as a conflicted
villainess, so the story will be completely watchable regardless of how it stacks up against Ms. Lowry's
words and ways.
Frank (2014) - [Limited]
95 min - Comedy | Drama | Mystery
Metascore: 73/100 (15 reviews)
Jon, a young wanna-be musician, discovers he's bitten off more than he can chew
when he joins an eccentric pop band led by the mysterious and enigmatic Frank.
Director: Lenny Abrahamson
Stars: Michael Fassbender, Domhnall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Moira Brooker
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THE BUZZ: Michael Fassbender wearing a giant fake head ... how dare any filmmaker deny us the
pleasure of seeing Fassbender's second most famous body feature?
The Trip to Italy (2014) - [Limited]
108 min - Comedy | Drama
Metascore: 77/100 (13 reviews)
Two men, six meals in six different places on a road trip around Italy. Liguria,
Tuscany, Rome, Amalfi and ending in Capri.
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Stars: Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Rosie Fellner, Claire Keelan
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THE BUZZ: Chances are the TV series and first film's popularity have only grown since they've become
streamable, so an Italian pilgrimage with Scott and Rob probably won't be their final adventure. Like
any couple, Platonic or otherwise, they've even begun to look alike.
Life After Beth (2014) - [Limited]
91 min - Comedy | Horror | Romance
Metascore: 56/100 (13 reviews)
A young man's recently deceased girlfriend mysteriously returns from the dead, but
he slowly realizes she is not the way he remembered her.
Director: Jeff Baena
Stars: Aubrey Plaza, Dane DeHaan, John C. Reilly, Molly Shannon
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THE BUZZ: A decade after he co-wrote I Heart Huckabees (David O. Russell's most under-rated film),
Jeff Baena returns to filmmaking with another offbeat, original story and a turn in the director's chair.
Something would have to go seriously awry to not derive pleasure from watching Aubrey Plaza, Dane
DeHaan, John C. Reilly, and Molly Shannon reanimating this story.
Jake Squared (2013) - [Limited]
100 min - Comedy | Drama
A filmmaker sets out to make a new project in order to figure out how he's screwed
up every relationship he's ever had.
Director: Howard Goldberg
Stars: Elias Koteas, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Virginia Madsen, Kevin Railsback
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THE BUZZ: This Hollywood Reporter review is one of the most fair-handed negative critiques of a movie
we've read in a while -- it also makes us want to see Howard Goldberg's experimental indie.
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