{Tower Heist opened in Seattle on Friday, November 4 and is playing at the Metro, The Meridian, The Majestic Bay, and Thornton Place Theaters}

There are a lot of reasons to suspect Tower Heist may be the latest overly engineered star-vehicle that seriously screws up a beloved beloved genre for a new generation of fans. There are occasional moments of excessive seriousness (all involving Ben Stiller). Plus a few spots where things threaten to stall. But in the end, it's an entertaining romp that's worth a look. I know - I couldn't believe it either. Almost makes me want to go double or nothing next week with the new Adam Sandler flick. Hey, I said almost....

Tower Heights certainly has some laughs, but overall I felt it owed more to the heist genre than that of slapstick comedy. An allegiance the film declares from the start with soothingly familiar "we're up to no good music". Trust me - you'll know it when you hear it. It's definitely a positive sign. You can think of it as one of the Ocean's 11 films - perhaps with less attractive people. With Casey Affleck in the mix to force the comparison.

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{The Help opened in Seattle on Wednesday, 8/10 and is playing at the Metro, Oak Tree Cinemas, Majestic Bay and AMC Pacific Place} 

I am one of the only women on earth who hasn’t read Kathryn Stockett’s amazingly popular book, The Help, so I have no idea how close this film adaptation is to the beloved story or not—but I guess I’ll find out shortly when there’s either tons of outrage or tons of applause.

But honestly I can’t imagine anyone being outraged (except maybe some rich white ladies who grew up in Jackson, Mississippi during the 60s), since The Help does its job as an empowering dramedy well, with enough heart and substance to make it better than what you’re expecting.

The story revolves around recently returned from college Eugenia (the amazing Emma Stone, stuck with some atrociously bad curly hair) annoyingly nicknamed “Skeeter,” who would rather take a low-paying job answering cleaning advice letters at the local paper than engage in the time-honored Jackson tradition of hunting for an eligible husband.

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{Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 opened in Seattle on Friday, July 14 and is playing at the Majestic Bay, the Pacific Science Center IMAX®, the Cinerama, and other area theaters}

THE END of Harry Potter is here. And as I’ve said before, I’m not a huge fan. But Amie! You’re nerdy. And you love supernatural things. And you heart the crap out of reading. All this is true, but the first 5 HP books (won from a work contest many years ago) sit dust-covered and untouched on my bookshelf.

See, Harry Potter is one of those things where every single person and their brother’s brother said some variation of this to me, “OMFG they are so amazing you will totally love them read them all right now whatiswrongwithyou?” - which is the best way to make sure I NEVER do something. So instead of reading, I just went ahead and cheated by seeing all the films. And while there were a few moments I appreciated, they kind of all blended together and I just wasn’t that impressed.

So I wasn’t really expecting to be blown away by this, but I joined in the hype just because it was fun. And on the day of the press screening for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, I had to go ahead and post this smartass tweet:

Which naturally totally screwed me, because I ended up pouring out some serious waterworks over the course of 2 hours and 5 minutes. So I’ll just say it: this movie surprised me.

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{Larry Crowne opened in Seattle on Friday July 1 at the Metro, the Meridian, the Majestic Bay, and Thornton Place}

When I first saw the trailer for Larry Crowne, I was overjoyed.  I'll admit taken on its own, it looked like the sort of over-the-top annoying saccharine nonsense that gets made when a big star writes, directs, produces and stars in his own romantic comedy. But then I realized that it must be the "what if they met years later?" mashup of Forest Gump and Pretty Woman I've been waiting forever for Hollywood to wise up and make. It was a heavy blow indeed when I realized that wasn't the storyline at all! Probably akin with what my friends described to me a few years back when they realized the characters in Sweeney Todd weren't going to stop singing anytime soon. Though at least presumably that situation had a bloody catharsis thing going on providing some sort of release..

In terms of likely box-office success Larry Crowne definitely has three things going for it - Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, and an unchallenging plot. Unfortunately, to be a really great film that's not going to be enough. In short: it's a basic romantic comedy that had me seriously groaning by the end.  Actually pretty close to the beginning, though I was laughed enough that I was distracted for a bit from how treacle stuffed the entire enterprise was.  If you love, love, love Hanks and/or Roberts I don't think there's anything here that's gonna change your mind.  So don't be too scared of seeing it.  It's not like either of these folks is turning in a performance likely to shock or offend their core constituencies (Jim Carrey inThe Cable Guy this is not). Lots of folks are going to dig this film, don't worry - I won't judge you if you're one of them. But for me I'd have to suggest seeing last week's Bad Teacher first - at least they were reaching for something.

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With the 2011 Academy Award nominee announcements coming this week on Tuesday at 5-freaking-30-am, you'll want to catch up on all the films getting Oscar buzz - (well, I mean, IF you're anywhere near as big a film nerd as I am you'll want to). And hey - planting yourself in some theater seats is a good way to spend a Sunday, non?

Stuff playing around town:
Blue Valentine @The Egyptian
Somewhere & Rabbit Hole @The Harvard Exit
The King’s Speech & Black Swan @The Guild 45th
True Grit & The Fighter @Majestic Bay
127 Hours @Regal Meridian 16

Stuff you can watch on DVD or VOD:
Inception
The Social Network
The Town
Toy Story 3
The Kids Are All Right
The Ghost Writer
Winter’s Bone
Please Give

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{Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 opens in Seattle 11/19 and is playing at the Metro, the Neptune, the Majestic Bay, Pacific Place, IMAX® at the Pacific Science Center, and the newly re-opened Cinerama}

As anyone who pays even slight attention to these things knows, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 is just a set-up for the LAST HARRY POTTER MOVIE EVER (queue shrieking teenage girls), so it’s one long 146 minute tease with a huge cliffhanger at the end, and you won’t find out what happens until next year….unless you read the books, that is.  Since I’m assuming almost everyone in the audience HAD read them, I guess it shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone there that 3 people die within the first 20 minutes, although the hysterically sobbing girls next to me seem to suggest otherwise.

Anyhoo, HP & the DH showed some promise initially, starting out with a bang in the form of the Potter kids organizing the removal of Harry to a safe house in the country, juxtaposed against a long table of gothy villains led by creepy no-nose Lord Voldemort. All the “volunteers” change into Harry doppelgangers (which leads to some obligatory laughs), while the bad guys discuss some mumbo-jumbo about how Voldemort’s wand won’t work against Harry’s so he needs a new one (HELLO FORESHADOWING)—and oh yeah, they murder someone too and feed them to a snake.

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{Inception opened in Seattle Friday, July 16 and is playing at the Metro, The Neptune, The Majestic Bay, The Big Picture (Seattle) and Thornton Place IMAX®}

I was a little nervous going in to this; mostly because Director Christopher Nolan’s lockdown on any and all information left us with a vague teaser trailer that made me think of the “tuning” in Dark City – but I needn’t have worried: Inception is mind-blowingly AWESOME.

The breakdown: Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) are “extractors”, hired to thieve secrets from people’s dreams, and are contracted by one of their former victims to try something new: inception, AKA planting an idea instead of stealing one.

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Not that there was ever any question Pixar would deliver an awesome third film in the Toy Story series, but just in case you were worried: Hey you guys! Pixar delivered an awesome third film with Toy Story 3.

This time around, little Andy is all grown up and headed off to college, and has to decide what to do with his beloved Woody, Buzz, Jessie, Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head, Ham, Rex, and Slinky. Andy tosses Woody in the "college" box to take with him, and then throws the rest in a trash bag to take up to the attic. After a misunderstanding and a near death-by-trash-truck experience, the toys get sent to Sunnyside Daycare where they meet the loveable, purple strawberry-scented Lotso Huggin’ Bear…or so we think.

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Putting aside SIFF madness for the moment (don’t worry; the TIG team will have plenty to say about the festival in the coming weeks) – this weekend offers a lot of new releases that I think are worthy of your theater time.

North by Northwest @Central Cinema: Of course I’m going to recommend that you head up to the hill this weekend to see the impeccable Cary Grant play Roger O. Thornhill in Alfred Hithcock’s North by Northwest. Thornhill’s mistaken for a government agent and gets pulled into a web of intrigue, spies, and of course – a beautiful woman (Eva Marie Saint). This one’s best known for its climax atop Mount Rushmore, but I love every second of it.

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{Clash of the Titans opens in Seattle on Thursday, April 1 and is playing at AMC Pacific Place, The Metro and the Majestic Bay}

The 1981 original Clash of the Titans came out at exactly the right time for me to worship it with fangirl enthusiasm, as I was already familiar with Ray Harryhausen’s awesome stop-motion animation via Jason and the Argonauts and two Sinbad movies that played over and over on channel 11. Adding to my adoration was the fact that I was also starting to discover Greek & Roman mythology: stories that my 10-year-old brain absolutely LOVED.

If you haven’t heard, the argument that people who study mythology always bring up about this story is that there aren’t any actual Titans in it. And it’s true – the Greek Titans ruled before the Olympians featured in both versions, and the Kraken is actually a sea monster from Norwegian and Icelandic legend. No matter; I was a sucker for the 1981 film the second the music swelled over the opening credits.

So on to the "remake" – and I put quotes around that because I’m not sure what this is, really. I read that Director Louis Leterrier (the man responsible for The Incredible Hulk and Transporter 2) is a big fan of the original, and tried hard to make sure this was an homage to it instead of a bastardization – so sorry, Louis, but you failed.

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