Movie Nation

You’ve got a gambling/Internet crime and betrayal thriller starring the red hot Justin Timberlake and a back-to-being hot Ben Affleck. It’s opening the same weekend as the ballyhooed (with justification) “Gravity.”
Selling it, getting the word about “Runner Runner” out would seem to be vital.
But 20th Century Fox isn’t previewing “Runner” for critics. Well, they are, but only on the Wednesday night pre-opening. That’s very late, after print deadlines. I’ve been asking around, and nobody (perhaps the late, lamented and once influential “trades” in LA) is getting to see it early.
Not exactly a vote of confidence, and certainly no way to build goodwill for a movie that probably needs some of that to compete against an Oscar contender that is also sure to be a blockbuster.

What’s Roger’s rule? Nobody ever “hides” a movie they’re proud of.

The bar has been raised in the “uplifting” immigration drama just enough that you’ve got to try harder and show more than “This worthy soul from Norway/Guatemala/Vietnam/Albania went through X, Y and Z to get to this country.” That tale is tired.
So “The Citizen” throws us this curve ball. Suppose the kindhearted, handsome foreigner who only wants the chance for a better life in America is a Muslim from Lebanon. Suppose the day he gets into the country, thanks to its then-lax “Green Card Lottery” rules, is Sept. 10, 2001. How might that complicate a fairly cut-and-dried storyline?
Not enough.
Egyptian star Khaled Nabawy is Ibrahim Jarrah, who tells a little white lie to the customs guy as he hopefully shows off his Green Card application and enters the United States. His cousin was to meet him at the airport, but doesn’t. No worries.
Within hours, he’s made a new friend — helping a lovely American woman (Agnes Bruckner) whose junky boyfriend has gone berserk on her at the Brooklyn hotel they’ve all checked into. As awkward as that situation is, they still manage to “meet cute.”
“Lebanon, that’s Qaddafi, right?”
“That would be Libya.”
“So, you speak Persian?”
“That would be Iran.”
Diane shows him the sights, in return for his help. They make plans to hang out some more, only to wake up to a radically different world the next day, September 11. Ibrahim, who comes off as a “That can’t happen,this is America” idealist, is caught in a roundup of Middle Eastern folks who recently entered the country. That’s where his white lies got him.
But Diane keeps asking about him, despite having just met the guy and despite his decision to keep this as platonic as possible. And when he gets out, she’s there to help him find work and hunt down his American dream.
Since the first scene in “The Citizen” is in a courtroom where William “Die Hard” Atherton is facing off with Cary Elwes to decide Ibrahim’s fate, we know that his challenges and tests are far from over. He befriends a homeless guy, who robs him. He intervenes when skinheads mug a young Jewish guy, and winds up in the hospital.
By the time we reach the third act, which is where the trial we’ve been teased plays out (at great, boring length), “The Citizen” has exhausted its supply of immigration cliches and our patience.
The most moving, most chilling scenes in it are actual 9/11 footage, the clouds of ashes descending on everyone in lower Manhattan that fateful day. There’s nothing concocted by this script and the filming of it that comes close to those moments.
The rest of the film is simply a shrug, not a hint of emotion, little to suggest Ibrahim’s fervent desire to be here, nothing to stir us with his apparently dispassionate idealism.
With America debating immigration reform — Who should get in, and why, and “How many is too many?” — that automatic sympathy for someone who wants to be here is not enough to make “The Citizen” pass muster.

MPAA Rating:PG-13 for thematic elements and brief violence
Cast: Khaled Nabawy, Agnes Bruckner, Rizwan Manji, Cary Elwes, William Atherton.
Credits: Directed by Sam Kadi, written by Sam Kadi and Jazmen Darnell Brown
A Monterey Media release.
Running time: 1:38

First, there’s the sensation of speed — propulsive, thunderous, metal-rending momentum. The perfectly-titled “Rush” is fast cars passing in a blur, extreme close-ups of valves, pistons, nerve-wracking gear-changes and rubber meeting the road. And it’s about the men with the courage and lightning quick reflexes to master all that.
Ron Howard, re-teaming with his “Frost/Nixon” screenwriter, the Oscar-darling Peter Morgan (“The Queen”), and thanks to sterling efforts from his regular editor, Daniel P. Hanley and Danny Boyle’s favorite cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle (“Trance”, “Slumdog Millionaire”) has turned Formula 1 racing into moving, surround sound art.
Yes, it’s a thoroughly entertaining and gutsy rendition of the sexiest era in F1 and its greatest rivalry — the dour Austrian Niki Lauda vs the swaggering Brit, James Hunt. But it’s just gorgeous, heart-pounding, maybe the best looking and certainly the best-edited Howard film since his masterpiece, “Apollo 13.”
The casting is on-the-nose. The Spaniard Daniel Bruhl (“Inglorious Basterds”) is the very picture of the intense, rodent-toothed “Sour Kraut” Austrian, Lauda — a man who is arrogant, blunt and all “risk assessing” business, on and off the track. Chris “Thor” Hemsworth has the cocksure smirk of a party animal off the track, a hunter-killer on it, embodying James Hunt’s ever-wandering eye for the main chance.
Their competition was fierce and unpleasant. And in every scene, the insults and edginess set off sparks.
“You’re RELENTLESS,” Hunt complains. “Thank you,”Lauda replies.
They get under each other’s skin, never more than in that epic 1976 season during open-wheeled racing’s deadliest era.
For Hunt and Lauda, there was no moment to savor the champagne in the winner’s circle, no opportunity to get into the other’s guy head could be passed up.
“That wind you can feel is me breathing down your neck.”
The players — Hemsworth and especially Bruhl — get across fear, respect and contempt, often in a single look or gesture, no mean feat.
The film briskly takes us through their pre-F1 rivalry, then onto the racecourses from Britain to Japan as they seek that fast ride that will give each a chance of beating the other. Lauda isn’t much to look at, something Hunt never tires of telling him. That means no matter how much the rock star each becomes, Hunt always seems to have gotten to that lovely groupie first.
Olivia Wilde slings a mean Brit accent as Hunt’s model-girlfriend, Suzy Miller, and Alexandra Maria Lara is the German beauty who melts Lauda’s cold, cold heart.
But Howard & Co. have fun with the romances, as no moment of sexual congress (bombshell Natalie Dormer makes an appearance) is complete without symbolic cuts of pulsing, pounding engine parts in sync with the sex.
It’s a playful movie with a pithy message — “A wise man gets more from his enemies than a fool does from his friends.” If there’s a fault to it, it might be that racing fans get little sense of the violently varied racecourses, the tracks — Monaco, Spa, Nurburging — made famous by that earlier classic of the genre, “Grand Prix.” And as much as the film makes the races cinematic, the filmmakers are hard-pressed to improve on the in-your-face grit and gravel of Fox TV’s outstanding NASCAR coverage.
But “Rush” is a fine and fun film tribute to the milieu, the men, women and machines in a sport that was never deadlier or more glamorous than its Disco Decade incarnation.

MPAA Rating:R for sexual content, nudity, language, some disturbing images and brief drug use
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Bruhl, Olivia Wilde, Alexandra Maria Lara, Christian McKay, Natalie Dormer. 
Credits: Directed by Ron Howard, written by Peter Morgan.
A Universal release.
Running time: 2:00

Paula Patton is as bubbly as a freshly-popped magnum of champagne — always.
Flirtatious, girlish, yeah she’s married to her childhood sweetheart, now pop star of the moment Robin Thicke. But she still works it, on screen and off, especially when she’s late for her interview.
“VERY tight dress,” she explains with a giggle. “I almost died, getting into this thing.”
An L.A. baby who grew up across the street from the 20th Century Fox backlot, Patton might have spent a perfectly agreeable Hollywood career as a gorgeous second banana in mostly forgettable films such as “Just Wright”, “Deja Vu” and “Hitch.”
But then, on the backside of 30, she landed a key supporting part in one of the most acclaimed films of recent years — the Oscar winning “Precious.” She found “gentle life in her angelic character, an alternative-school teacher who tries to help Precious,” Moira Kelly noted in the Seattle Times. And Hollywood noticed, too.
“‘Precious’ helped me land ‘Mission: Impossible,'” Patton says. “Tom had seen it and liked it.
“You never know what got Hollywood’s attention. People are moved by different things you’ve done. ‘Precious’ certainly opened a lot of doors for me.”
She landed a leading part in the engaging African American wedding comedy “Jumping the Broom.” That hit led to work in the Denzel Washington/Mark Wahlberg actioner “Two Guns.” And “Precious” gave her a fresh chance to make a romantic comedy about a flight attendant who jets hither and yon, tracking down old boyfriends to try and land a fiance in time for her sister’s wedding. “Baggage Claim” wasn’t doable until Patton’s profile rose.
“I was dying to do it, but at the time, the studio went ‘Who IS this girl?’ They didn’t know me. They went another way, but the movie never got made. It fell apart…Meanwhile, these other films — ‘Precious,’ ”Mission:Impossible’ came out — and I had my child, my most IMPORTANT production. And they called me back.”
She “jumped up and down” when the chance to play Montana, the lovelorn flight attendant, returned. The not-lovelorn Patton was drawn to the script — full of supporting characters in the airline industry who help Montana get herself working on flights with the most eligible bachelors (Taye Diggs and Djimon Hounsou among them) from her past — “and I got Robin, my husband and my best friend, to read it out loud, and we both laughed.
“I really wanted something funny and clever and romantic, all the travel and the scheming that was involved. It was what I was in the mood for, you know?”
Montana is a “woman with a goal, and a plan,” Patton says. “She’s kind of old-fashioned, and she’s determined to be a lady about it. But she’s determined to have a date and a fiance by this wedding. How do you manage that, unless she gets some desperate guy in jail? Or needs a Green Card? I loved the way the movie tries to solve that problem — going back and revisiting the guys from her past that might have worked out, but didn’t.”
“Baggage Claim”, which opens September 27, should herald another busy stretch for the actress. She’s supposed to star in an “About Last Night…” remake, an African-American take on a hit romance from the ’90s based on David Mamet’s play “Sexual Perversity in Chicago.” There may be another “Mission: Impossible” turn for her — “I can’t say.” And with a little luck, there’ll be less attention by the tabloids for her and Thicke, now that the MTV Video Music Awards buzz has died down.
Thicke says that he “”cleared” plans for his overtly sexual hit “Blurred Lines” with her, and Patton has publicly shrugged off his Video Music Awards twerk-off with Miley Cyrus.
Her life, the 37 year-old says, has turned out a bit like her latest film. “You have to find happiness on your own, realize that success is what you decide it is,” she says. “And you don’t need a man to define you.The guy who knows you the longest, who knows your baggage, knows the number of guys you’ve been with (played by Derek Luke in “Baggage Claim”), all of that, may be the perfect mate. That’s a great Hollywood ending to a modern world romance.”

(Roger Moore’s review of “Baggage Claim” is here)

Yeah, “Battle of the Year 3D” bombed. $5 million? Screen Gems gave away more tickets than that trying to convince teen girls that Josh Peck is a movie star.

“Prisoners” rode very good reviews to a $20.4 million or so weekend. Considering its length, that’s very good.

“Insidious: Chapter 2” took a dive, “Wizard of Oz 3D” did great on a limited number of screens. “Enough Said” did staggering per screen numbers and should do well in wider release.

“The Family” lost very little audience and is closing in on $30, “Blue Jasmine” will clear that mark by Wed.

“Thanks for Sharing” didn’t do all that great.

With an all-star cast, serious subject and the blue-grey-brown color palette of fall, “Prisoners” is the movie that truly heralds a change in movie seasons. It’s two and a half hours long, very long for a thriller.

But that may be the only thing holding back this Hugh Jackman/Jake Gyllenhaal/Maria Bello/Viola Davis/Terrence Howard thriller. Great reviews should push it over $20 million at the box office. Box Office Mojo says so. 

The Box office Guru agrees. And that almost never happens.

I would be pleased if they both were on the low side. Good films, ambitious storytelling, need to be rewarded. Very hard for a non-3D picture that is shown fewer times during the day due to its length to do much better than $25. I say it’ll clear $20, but not $30.

The dance picture “Battle of the Year 3D” has plenty of hype in the teen girl department. I wonder if Screen Gems gave away to many tickets to this one, though. They’ve been screening it to teen girls for a month or more, several showings in cities like Orlando, a tour with Josh Peck (the marquee name, other than Rhianna-beater Chris Brown) to many cities. Will it pay of, or did they give away $200,000 in tickets (just guessing there) for nothing? Mojo figures under $10. The Guru is lowballing it further, figuring a measly $7 million is all it’ll manage. I think they both may be on the light side of things. It could hit the low to mid teens — $13-14. But who knows what teen girls will show up for? Middling movie.

“Insidious: Chapter 2” figures to lose most of its blockbuster opening weekend audience this weekend. The first film in the series made its money by sticking around for six weeks, losing little audience from week to week. This one? Worse film, worse reviews, front-loaded box office take. Figure it’ll come in second, low-to-mid teens,

“The Wizard of Oz 3D” is only opening on 318 screens, so it won’t impact the box office much. $5 million out of reach?

Finally, that dumping ground between summer blockbusters and fall awards contenders is behind us, the era of “Riddick” and “Getaway” and “Insidious: Chapter 2.”

Gone are the days when we think of Josh Peck as “box office.” OK, not quite. “Battle of the Year,” hyped to the max, should do well this weekend. And the early reviews for that one are mixed.

But everything else is at least solid, entertaining, thought provoking enough to make this first Fall Film weekend a winner.

“Prisoners” is pulling very good reviews. A tricky, smart thriller that has terrific performances by Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Maria Bello, Paul Dano and Melissa Leo to recommend it — and a 2:30 running time to give you pause — this is a “Go See it” movie, a real palette cleanser after the Summer of (Mostly) Stupid.

Then there’s “Enough Said,” a Nicole Holofcener rom-com with a taste of the bittersweet. She doesn’t transform Julia Louis-Dreyfus, just lets her do her thing. One of the last credits of JAmes GAndolfini. Nice.

“Thanks for Sharing” is a sex addiction rom-com with a SERIOUS streak amidst its mockery. Very good work by Mark Ruffalo, Tim Robbins and Gwyneth Paltrow. Josh Gad and Pink are the comic relief, with Gad’s character somewhat undercutting the 12 step seriousness of it all. Decent, mixed reviews for this one.

And who doesn’t love “The Wizard of Oz”? It’s back on the big screen, in 3D. Take a kid, scare them a bit and give them a memory like the ones you have of this, the first great children’s movie.

Dance battle movies — “Step Up” and its ilk — have become the musicals of their generation. They may be formulaic in the extreme, generic in their romances and be peopled by character “types.” But they’re athletic extravaganzas celebrating great skill and the art of B-Boys and B-Girls.
They may wear the veneer of “street” and “edgy,” but parents appreciate how harmless they are.
“Battle of the Year 3D” touches on that, how the rest of the world has embraced B-Boy culture, but how they’re no longer perceived as cutting edge or “cool” in the U.S.
That worries the Sean Combs-like impresario, Dante (Laz Alonso).
“How long before hip hop isn’t cool?”
He’s got to protect his music, dance and fashion empire by putting American B-Boys back on top. He hires an old dance buddy, W.B. (for “Wonder Bread”), now a grieving, alcoholic ex-basketball coach (Josh Holloway of “Lost”). W.B. has to get himself up to speed on the current state of dance, then recruit and coach a “dream team” of the best of America’s best to take on the rest of the world, which has passed America by and long dominated the annual B-Boy Olympics known as “BOTY,” the Battle of the Year.
That team consists of assorted arrogant, chip on their shoulder show-offs, because that’s what it takes to succeed at this. Actual star dancers such as Do Knock and Flipz are mixed in with others, including singer Chris Brown.
And helping coach out is Jewish hip hop authority “Franklyn with a Y,” played by Josh Peck. He doesn’t dance himself. He’s Jewish, he explains.
“My people were not exactly ‘chosen’ to be B-Boys,” he cracks. But there are Jewish B-Boys. And combat vet B-Boys and gay B-Boys, all of whom try out for the team. They fight, they insult one another, they learn from a choreographer (Caity Lotz), they bond and you know the rest.
The director of the definitive documentary on the worldwide phenomenon “Planet B-Boy” co-wrote and directed this, and immodestly has characters watch that film and sing its praises. Very B-Boy of him.
Holloway cannot even hint at a real dance past, so the movie fakes that by having his coach run his guys through drills (in split screen sequences).
Peck, once of TV’s “Drake & Josh,” onetime star of “The Wackness, has a small supporting role but is given top billing. In this case, that means his every scene includes overly made-up and coiffed close-ups, all teen magazine posters in the making. It’s laughable.
But the singer and tabloid darling Chris Brown more than holds his own with this crew, apparently not even needing a dance double. The dance scenes — especially those involving teams from Germany, France and Korea — take the B-Boy moves to the next level, blending gymnastics and dance in some pretty spectacular ways.
And there plenty of easy, undemanding laughs, the best lines coming from Peck’s assistant coach.
“You look like a gazelle out there,” he praises his boss, “a gazelle with arthritis.”
Which, while it doesn’t describe the movie, does hit this genre right in the bulls eye. But then, the beauty of “Step Up” and all its tired imitators is that the audience they’re shooting for has no idea that there have been twenty or thirty movies exactly like this one that came before it.

MPAA Rating:PG-13 for language and some rude behavior
Cast: Josh Peck,  Laz Alonso, Caity Lotz, Chris Brown, Josh Holloway
Credits: Directed by Benson Lee, written by Brin Hill and Chris Parker, based on the documentary “Planet B-Boy.” A Screen Gems release.
Running time: 1:41