Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 41

Feb 12 2009 Post-Gazette E-mail: Phone: 412-263-3859 Web: Questions about delivery or service? Call 1-800-228-NEWS (6397) Mag Movies Ar enter AinMent life fri A febr A 13, 2009 Section Derek Mears as Jason prepares to slice and dice some fresh victims in the horror film the By Barbara Vancheri Pittsburgh Post-Gazette In the Sophie Kinsella book of a Rebecca Bloomwood is a wily shopaholic and excuse machine (about why she cannot pay her credit card bills). In the big-screen comedy of the same name, Rebecca Bloom- wood is a ditsy clothes horse who, looking for some champagne and a gin-and-tonic at a formal dinner, ducks into the kitchen. Where, of course, the chef promptly hands her a tray of food so she can play waitress to the guests at her table. Although not unusual for a book to differ from a movie, redemption on film seems straight out of a show self-help segment designed for our troubled economic times. Cannot have laughs without the lessons, I guess.

Isla Fisher, the Amy Adams lookalike from and is Rebecca, a magazine writer who stumbles into a tryout with a financial publication. run by the dreamy Luke Brandon, played by Hugh Dancy and here looking like a cross between a young Colin Firth and Hugh Grant. financial experience consists of dodging bill collectors and calculating sale prices in her head. All of a sudden, expected to write knowledgeably about store card APRs, or annual percentage rates (like Rebecca, I can Google). tracks Rebecca as she tries to keep her head above water and, in the grand tradition of and other chick flicks, falls under the seductive sway of her boss.

Fisher may not be as wide- eyed as doppelganger Adams, but she brings a sweetness and innocence to Rebecca. However, the character becomes the toast of the international financial world in ridiculously short time, and SEE REVIEW, PAGE D-2 Fabulous fashion in cover weaknesses Joss return to television has been plagued by problems production shutdowns, a replacement first episode and a lousy Friday night time slot but none of that will matter to fans of past work the Vampire if turns out to be fantastic. So, is it? If were from a producer without a track record, the answer would be an unqualified But because Whedon, reviewers and viewers may be more willing to go along for the ride and see if it leads to a better show than the one that premieres tonight. (9 tonight, WPGH) awful, but neither is it remarkably good. a passable hour of entertainment that shows potential to improve but flails and confuses (and occasionally bores) from the start.

Eliza Dushku (Faith on stars as Echo, an who is part of a secret organization that sends out its employees to complete often illegal jobs. For every mission an Active is imprinted with a new personality suited to the task. Afterward, their memories are wiped. (Aspects of the concept are similar to Own Worst but is different enough.) Whedon created a new premiere episode because there were with the first pilot, he said in July, but episode resolve such concerns. It begins with a scene of Echo signing up to become an Active with SEE DOLLHOUSE, PAGE D-5 more bewildering than thrilling of a Starring: Isla Fisher (above), Hugh Dancy Rating: PG for some mild language and thematic elements MOVIE REVIEW tuned in ROB OWEN Owen visits the set of Page D-5 By Barbara Vancheri Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Writer Victor Miller says the call went something like this: making a lot of money.

rip it Not Halloween the holiday but the 1978 John Carpenter indie about a boy who kills at age 6 and, 15 years later, escapes and goes on the loony loose again. The low-budget movie, starring Jamie Lee Curtis as a besieged baby sitter and Donald Pleasence as a psychiatrist, made more than $50 million (in dollars, $165 million plus). And that is how the the franchise and its devil spawn, Jason Vorhees, were born in 1980. Miller recounted that at a Sept. 13, 2008, reunion excerpted on a new DVD, the 13th Uncut Deluxe (Paramount, Miller figured the formula was simple: Randy teens who are outside the help of formal authorities, plus some sort of evil that transpires before the movie opens.

Mix and start knocking off the horny kids one by one. His admittedly awful working title was Night at Camp have the same ring, now does it? Jeannine Taylor and Kevin Bacon By Barbara Vancheri Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The thrill of the kill is gone. the gets a blood transfusion as the horror franchise is relaunched for audience. That means supplementing the slicing, slashing and arrows to the head with booze, bongs and bare-breasted women. Topless waterskiing, really? All that and a reinvention of Jason Vorhees, too.

He was a boy who drowned decades ago in Crystal Lake while horny camp counselors were otherwise engaged. After his mother went on a murderous rampage, Jason emerged from the deadly waters to become a seemingly indestructible killer. After a brief nod to 1980, the new the shifts to the present day, when a half-dozen campers venture into the woods looking mainly for marijuana plants. They find the pot, but Jason (Derek Mears) smokes the interlopers, apparently dispatching all but one young woman named Whitney (Amanda Righetti). When her brother, Clay (Jared Padalecki), shows up six weeks later, he clashes with a group of college-age partyers heading for a snazzy vacation home.

He searches for Whitney while Jason does a little horrifying hunting of his own. Marcus Nispel, who directed the remake of Texas Chainsaw is back with another gory go-around. We get the creepy JPOV Jason Point of View predictable and unpredictable scares designed to make us jump, and a Jason who can sidle and skulk without a sound. Is it scary? At times. Is it fresh? No, although familiarity has its rewards, especially when Jason first spots the hockey mask that will become his serial-killer signature.

Is it funny? Only when Aaron Yoo from and and Infinite is on screen. Will it make you nostalgic for the original with Kevin Bacon, Harry Crosby and creepy Betsy Palmer? Yes, but only if as old as Jason. Will the prove critic-proof? You can bloody bet on it. Post-Gazette movie editor Barbara Vancheri can be reached at or 412-263-1632. Days of gory glory long gone for the SEE HORROR, PAGE D-5 the 1 2 Starring: Derek Mears, Jared Padalecki.

Rating: for strong bloody violence, some graphic sexual content, language and drug material. MOVIE REVIEW Greg Harry Lennix as Boyd and Fran Kranz as Topher prepare Eliza Dushku as Echo for her next engagement in FREAKY FRIDAY Another scary success inspired Jason to draw first blood in 1980 PG movie editor Barbara Vancheri and Allan Walton, who onced blogged at How Awful About Allan, discuss the on the Rated PG podcast at By Barbara Vancheri Pittsburgh Post-Gazette And to think you despised bankers the bailout bigwigs, not the nice tellers at the windows because of bounced-check charges. Not that I would know anything about that. Just wait until you see a fast-paced, far-fetched thriller in which an international bank plays puppet master to foreign governments, hires assassins and turns the Guggen- heim Museum into a shooting gallery. All the good, old reliable movie villains have become passe or politically incor- rect, so screenwriters are casting about for other scoundrels.

Eric Warren Singer, head writer for animated was inspired by the infamous Bank of Commerce and Credit International, which cheated depositors in more than 70 countries out of $15 billion. As detailed in the 1993 book, Outlaw BCCI allowed Ferdinand Marcos, Saddam Hussein and Manuel Noriega to loot their treasuries, drug lords to launder money, and Pakistan, Iraq and Libya to acquire materials for nuclear weapons or poison gas plants. In an Interpol agent named Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) and a Manhattan assistant district attorney, Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts), are on the trail of a bank called IBBC, led by Jonas Skarssen (Danish actor Ulrich Thomsen). IBBC is a shadowy behemoth, telegraphed by the chilly blues, grays and glass of its buildings, behind all sorts of illegal activities. They range from murder to trafficking in weapons and, as one character says, control the debt, you control But not everyone, especially Salinger, who increasingly becomes a target of discredit and death.

At the same time, he is viewed with some suspicion because of an IBBC case from his past. have you crash and burn like you did two years Whitman tells him. Plot details in banking thriller fail to add up 1 2 Starring: Clive Owen, Naomi Watts. Rating: for some sequences of violence and language. MOVIE REVIEW SEE Thr PAGE D-3.