Friday movie roundup – Sept. 18

Your best bet this weekend, or at least the one that I can vouch for, is “The Informant!,” starring Matt Damon as a naive Midwesterner who blows the whistle on corporate malfeasance. It’s a jolly, goofy film with some real surprises (unless you already know the true story it’s based on).

I’m also hearing very, very good things about the animated film “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” which currently boasts an 87% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes. It was screened for critics, but I couldn’t attend. (It was one of THOSE DAYS.) I would take my colleagues’ word for it, though.

“Jennifer’s Body,” a horror comedy written by Diablo Cody (of “Juno” fame), has lots of blood, scattered laughs, no scares, and not much point. The story is bleh. It sure is peppered with new slang, though!

“Love Happens” (review at Film.com) is crap.

Tyler Perry’s “I Can Do Bad All by Myself” opened last weekend as one of Hollywood’s Shameful Secrets, and I reviewed it for Film.com. It’s mediocre.

In limited release is a lovely and pleasant comedy called “Amreeka,” about a Palestinian woman and her teenage son moving to suburban Illinois. The emphasis isn’t on race relations so much as the importance of family and the inherent goodness of most people. It’s definitely worth looking for if it comes to your major metro area.

Oh, and Eric’s Bad Movies at Film.com was a little late in getting posted yesterday, but it’s there, in case you missed it. It’s “Stone Cold,” starring Brian Bosworth. It’s about bikers.

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