New movies
Burn After Reading
The gist: A goofball CIA operative's memoirs fall into the hands of two other goofball gym employees in a typical Coen brothers comedy yarn. R
Starring: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand and J.K. Simmons.
The buzz: Where have we seen this before? Perhaps in every other Coen movie? "From casting to conclusion, Burn After Reading plays like a greatest hits album; familiar, sublime riffs are somehow hamstrung by new arrangements," the St. Pete Times says. "Not bad, but not exhilarating."
Righteous Kill
The gist: Robert De Niro and Al Pacino try to outact each other as two detectives named Turk and Rooster who manly man their way through a case about some guy killing off really bad criminals. Why bother? R
Starring: De Niro, Pacino, 50 Cent, Donnie Wahlberg and Carla Gugino.
The buzz: Another one we feel we've seen done before, and seen done better. "Unable or unwilling to match the visceral chops and moral provocations of superior serial-killer chillers, Righteous Kill is content to be a twisty genre exercise," Variety says. "It's like Se7en as reimagined by M. Night Shyamalan."
The Women
The gist: A group of ladies with jobs way more compelling than yours gets into all sorts of drama when one of their husbands is caught cheating. PG-13
Starring: Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett Smith, Eva Mendes, Cloris Leachman, Candice Bergen and Bette Midler.
The buzz: Based on a play and a film from the '30s, it's lost a lot of punch since. "The movie is a feminist lesson instead of what it should have been (and once was): a tough, synthetic, high-gloss entertainment that wears its heart on its lacquered fingernails," Entertainment Weekly says.
Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys
The gist: A very convoluted story about rich people with Jerry Springer-type problems. PG-13
Starring: Kathy Bates, Alfre Woodard, Tyler Perry, Cole Hauser, Sanaa Lathan, Rockmond Dunbar, Taraji P. Henson, and Kadee Strickland.
The buzz: No reviews yet, but with Tyler Perry putting it together, it's got to be worth at least a matinee.
— Joshua Gillin jgillin@tampabay.com
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