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NEW MOVIES!  AUGUST 3 - AUGUST 9, 2010

AFTER.LIFE (dir: Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo, R) – Liam Neeson plays a mortician who can talk to his corpses or something. Christina Ricci plays a naked corpse who must accept that she's dead before she can really be dead. Or something. Whose idea was this?

DIARY OF A WIMPY KID (dir: Thor Freudenthal, PG) – It's always nice when a movie for kids appears that isn't totally unbearable. This adaptation of the popular books about the pitfalls of junior high might even amuse a few parents.

ENTRE NOS (dir: Gloria La Morte / Paola Mendoza, Not Rated) – After dragging her two kids to New York from Colombia at the request of her husband, a young mother is left alone in Queens when he goes to seek work in Miami.
THE GHOST WRITER (dir: Roman Polanski, PG-13) – While Roman Polanski may not be so great at keeping his hands off underage girls, he's really great at making cracking thrillers. In his latest, Ewan McGregor is hired to ghost write the memoirs of Pierce Brosnan, a former prime minister. And of course he has to go dig up troubling secrets that put his life at risk.

I NEED THAT RECORD! (dir: Brendan Toller, Not Rated) – This amateur hour documentary takes a look at the sad state of independent record stores in America. They're headed for extinction and, while that's sad, nearly everyone in this movie comes off as a whiner with a chip on their shoulder. Oh, yeah. That's why people don't like to go to those stores. Itunes never looks at you with a sneering gaze when you download your Mariah Carey, does it?

IP MAN (dir: Wilson Yip, R) – This bio-pic of the dude that taught Bruce Lee how to fight is already being talked about as one of the best martial arts movies EVER. The guy who plays him, Donnie Yen, is being mentioned in the same breath as Jet Li and, yes, even Bruce Lee himself.
KICK-ASS (dir: Matthew Vaughn, R) – The director of LAYER CAKE shows off more of his stylish filmmaking with this comedic take on superheroes. A group of rag-tag amateurs join forces to fight drug dealers and are not afraid to let a little arterial spray fly. Bloody, funny and fairly subversive.

THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA (dir: Judith Ehrlich / Rick Goldsmith, Not Rated) – This documentary tells the story of Daniel Ellsberg, the guy who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971. Man, it would've been fun to see the look on Nixon's face, you know? Anyway, surprisingly Daniel Ellsberg is not buried in the end zone of Giants Stadium but just hanging out writing books and being a righteous old dude and a great American.

NINJA'S CREED (dir: Babar Ahmed, PG-13) – A female assassin is sent to America to kill the last living heir to a Himalayan kingdom, and ends up falling in love with the soldier assigned to protect her. Or something. Eric Roberts movies aren't supposed to make sense anyway. Probably the most notable thing here is that this is sadly the last film of Pat "Mister Miyagi" Morita.
*NOLLYWOOD BABYLON (dir: Ben Addelman / Samir Mallal, Not Rated) – After Bollywood and Hollywood, no film industry is kicking them out like Nigeria's rising Nollywood scene. Cheaply made, usually featuring an inspiring Christian message and, my apologies, always unintentionally hilarious, these movies are crazy popular all over Africa. This cool documentary goes to the sprawling metropolis of Lagos to meet some of the key players like director Lancelot Imasuen.

OPEN HOUSE (dir: Andrew Paquin, R) – Hey, it's Sookie and Vampire Bill. Hopefully this El Cheap-o horror movie is better than season 2 of TRUE BLOOD.

PRODIGAL SONS (dir: Kimberly Reed, Not Rated) – Returning home for a family reunion can be very stressful, as this documentary proves. It can't help that you left town as Paul, the high school quarterback, and you're returning, after gender reassignment surgery, as Kimberly the filmmaker.

^A PROPHET (dir: Jacques Audiard, R) – This electrifying prison movie follows a young, illiterate French Arab man who gets caught up in the Corsican mafia behind bars and soon finds himself becoming a key player in the prison. This won every Cesar award they make and was nominated for the Oscar for Foreign Language Film and it won the jury award at Cannes. Geesh, just watch it already, okay?

* = GREG's PICK OF THE week!         ^ = Bart's pick of the week!

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