New movies this week
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
The gist: Peter Jackson returns to Middle Earth, this time indulging his artistic interpretation of J.R.R. Tolkien by releasing a three-hour first installment of a trilogy instead of just making two movies as originally planned. This one is about Bilbo Baggins falling in with a bunch of dwarves to go fight a dragon. There may be a few orcs and giant spiders in the way to pass the considerable running time. And what's this magic ring? PG-13
The cast: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Andy Serkis, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving and Christopher Lee.
The buzz: Mostly positive reviews, except for people who say the movie drags along. Those people obviously didn't read the book, and if they did, they certainly didn't enjoy it. "On balance, honor has been done to Tolkien, not least in the famous riddle game between Bilbo and Gollum, and some of the exploits to come will surely lighten the load," the New Yorker opines.
Opening Wednesday
The Guilt Trip
Seth Rogen plays an inventor who goes on a road trip with his mom, Barbra Streisand. There are no reviews yet, given its middle-of-the-week release, but we can only imagine the levels of raunch that may be reached here. Wait, no, look at the rating ... PG-13
— Joshua Gillin jgillin@tampabay.com
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