Friday movie roundup – Oct. 5

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The wide releases this weekend are nothing to write home about — but then again, why would you be writing home about movies anyway? That expression is outdated. “Nothing to blog about,” that’s the new expression. This week’s new releases are nothing to blog about. And yet here I am, blogging about them. Sigh.

“The Heartbreak Kid” is passable but not great, a semi-desperate attempt by the Farrelly Brothers to recapture their old “There’s Something About Mary” magic. It has its moments.

“The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising” is a dumb fantasy flick that’s too vague and action-less to be interesting to kids or adults.

“Feel the Noise” stars a guy who used to be in a boy band, and it’s about rapping or something. It wasn’t screened for critics. A pox on it.

In limited release but gradually expanding is a much better film, “Into the Wild,” a true story about a privileged youth who went off a-wanderin’ through this great land of ours, living off the fat of the land and eventually residing in a broken-down bus in the Alaska wilderness. No good can come of that, as you may well imagine.

Finally, in limited release but just as mediocre as many wide release films is “December Boys,” noteworthy primarily for co-starring Daniel Radcliffe in his first film role as a muggle.

Also, not that you care, but I saw like a billion movies last week, and another half-billion this week, and I am waaay behind on writing the reviews. The nice thing about seeing movies a few weeks before they open is that I can write the reviews early and get them out of the way. The bad thing about it is that I rarely actually do that, preferring instead to procrastinate the writing until it piles up as it has done now. So I have GOT to catch up this weekend, or there’s going to be trouble. These movies aren’t going to review themselves, people!

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