It’s time for the post-summer doldrums, with only one new wide release this weekend, and one aimed at a specific demographic. Everyone else can just stay home.

“Resident Evil: Afterlife” — one of Hollywood’s Shameful Secrets® in that it was not screened for critics prior to opening — is the fourth film in the series and easily better than parts two and three. (I think it’s better than the first one, too, but I’ve been told that I’m wrong about this.) It was filmed in legit 3D and looks pretty spiffy. A lot of what happens is silly, but at least you can see it.

I finally wrote my review of “The American.”

I spent last weekend in Telluride, Colo., attending the utterly charming Telluride Film Festival. I reviewed “Never Let Me Go” for Film.com. For Cinematical, I reviewed “Black Swan,” “Tabloid,” and “The First Movie,” and wrote a piece describing a first-timer’s impressions of Telluride.

This week’s edition of “Eric’s Bad Movies” at Film.com was about “Wing Commander,” a video-game-based turd from 1999. I wrote about my experience with this movie in my end-of-2009 inventory:

It was also during this time [when I was suffering from a major depressive episode] that I tried to do some work by watching “Wing Commander,” starring Freddie Prinze Jr., for Eric’s Bad Movies. I learned that I can’t do Eric’s Bad Movies in this frame of mind. “Wing Commander” is terrible, no question. But watching it, I couldn’t think of anything funny to say about it. All I could think about was how much I hated watching it. And if you’re going to watch a bad movie without being able to make fun of it, well, what’s the point? Rather than distract me from my depression, it added to it. I still want to do “Wing Commander” for Eric’s Bad Movies, but it will be a while before I can muster the strength to watch it again. In the meantime, you’ve won this round, Mr. Prinze Jr.

Eager to prove my victory over Mr. Prinze Jr., I watched “Wing Commander” again last week and this time succeeded in writing an “Eric’s Bad Movies” column about it. It’s not the best “Eric’s Bad Movies” I’ve ever written, but at least I did it. I WIN.

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Listen to “Movie B.S. with Bayer and Snider,” a weekly Internet radio show featuring Jeff Bayer and Eric D. Snider, at PDX.fm. It’s live at 11 a.m. (Pacific) every Friday, then downloadable as a podcast. Ignore the iTunes “explicit” tag; we always keep it PG.

Dad finds last photo of firefighter son, taken as the son rushed toward the WTC on 9/11. http://bit.ly/9utzq1

@BriguySalisbury Your constant talk of Austin movie-watching parties and shenanigan-having parties makes me jealous. Please stop having fun.

@ranielle I heard that LEVERAGE is moving away from Portland for its next season. Is that true?

Hey, Portlanders! @BestWorstMovie is at the Hollywood Theatre, and you should watch it! http://bit.ly/cjHTrC

The Onion’s first post-9/11 issue is some of the sharpest, most effective satire I’ve ever read. http://onion.com/abTuyg

Since Labor Day weekend is usually pretty slow at the box office, Hollywood tends to put out movies that aren’t particularly worth seeing anyway. Or maybe the mediocrity of the movies is why Labor Day weekend tends to be slow. Who knows/cares? Either way, the quality trend is bucked this weekend, as everything new is actually pretty good.

“Machete” (review at Film.com), a movie based on a trailer based on a type of movie that once played at a type of theater, is over-the-top exploitation fun. It’s what “The Expendables” was in some ways trying to be, right down to the presence of Steven Seagal.

“Going the Distance” is also surprisingly good, given that it’s a romantic comedy starring a real-life couple. (It’s Drew Barrymore and Justin Long. I think they’re “on again, off again.” I’m not on Facebook, so I can’t check their current status.) The movie is funny and realistic, but still romantically satisfying. It’s easily the best rom-com I’ve seen this year, though I admit that isn’t saying much.

“The American,” starring George Clooney as a hitman, is also quite engaging, though it is NOT an action movie. It’s a slow, contemplative character study. Do not be misled. Also, I haven’t written my review yet. But I liked it.

In limited release, the Sundance hit “Animal Kingdom” will make you fall in love with hardcore Australian criminals all over again.

At Film.com, I wrote an article explaining “Machete” to aliens who have just arrived from space, and I transcribed the pitch meeting for Shyamalan’s “Devil.” “What’s the Big Deal” was about the early German talkie “M.” “Eric’s Bad Movies” is off this week because…

…I’m at the Telluride Film Festival! This is my first visit to the small but important fest tucked away in the mountains of Colorado, and so far I love it. (Except for the dearth of wi-fi and vending machines in the hotel, though neither of those are the festival’s fault.) I don’t know if I’ve ever been anyplace that was more physically beautiful than Telluride. The weather is perfectly sunny and clear, too, which I’m told is not necessarily always the case.

Oh, and there are some movies here. More on that later.

Since I was going to be gone on Friday, Bayer and I pretaped “Movie B.S. with Bayer and Snider.” (We did that once before, too, but I’ll NEVER TELL which episode it was.) The pretaping led to some delightful time-travel shenanigans, as we had our old pal Dawn Taylor on as a guest, and also appeared on her show, “Ham-Fisted Radio,” which went out live after we taped “Movie B.S.” Enjoy, won’t you?

Subscribe to “In the Dark,” a weekly e-mail with the latest movie reviews, DVD releases, and other pertinent info.

Listen to “Movie B.S. with Bayer and Snider,” a weekly Internet radio show featuring Jeff Bayer and Eric D. Snider, at PDX.fm. It’s live at 11 a.m. (Pacific) every Friday, then downloadable as a podcast. Ignore the iTunes “explicit” tag; we always keep it PG.