The weather has been warming up coast to coast and this Memorial Day weekend is perfect for lounging about in the sun, as “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” and “Sex in the City 2” don’t exactly get us excited to sit in a dark theater. “Sex” opened Thursday, giving it a head-start on the long weekend, so it should easily sashay to the #1 spot at the box-office over the weekend. “Prince” opened overseas last week to mediocre returns. Luckily there are some great options this week at the art-house. Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s fans in NYC have reason to celebrate, as the “Amelie” auteur’s latest, “Micmacs,” opens on a few screens today. Otherwise, George Romero’s latest zombie flick “Survival of the Dead” and a “Breathless” re-release should keep film lovers busy over the holiday. Enjoy!
In Wide Release: Jerry Bruckheimer substitutes video games for theme-park rides, hoping to turn “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” into a “Pirates of the Caribbean”-style Hollywood blockbuster. Jake Gyllenhaal finally gets his action-hero makeover as Dastan, a rogue prince battling against evil forces trying to get hold of an ancient dagger that can give its owner the ability to control time. The film opened overseas last week to a poor critical reception and poor box office, so Gyllenhaal probably doesn’t need to head back to the gym too soon in preparation for a sequel. We reviewed the film earlier this week, finding it a cluttered, boring mess utterly devoid of the charm and humor necessary to pull off this kind of material. Gemma Arterton, Ben Kingsley and Alfred Molina also star in the Mike Newell (“Donnie Brasco,” “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”) directed picture. Rotten Tomatoes: 41%, Metacritic: 48.
“Sex in the City 2” transports the great glittery gang to Abu Dhabi, where their New York City bacchanalian lifestyle becomes a little lost in translation. The cluttered sequel also has to contend with the humdrum married life of Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her paramour Mr. Big (Chris Noth). With a running time of two and a half hours and dialogue about as fresh as a week old cosmo, the series is starting to feel very irrelevant. Check out our review here for the lowdown, but if you’re going to see this one over the weekend, you’ve probably already made up your mind and we can’t do much to convince you otherwise. RT: 14%, Metacritic: 27.
In Limited Release: Returning with his first film since 2004’s “A Very Long Engagement,” Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s latest marvel “Micmacs” hits cinemas this weekend. The film harkens back to the heavy whimsy of his justly adored “Amelie”and should please fans who were disappointed by the relative seriousness of “Engagement.” Jeunet stocks his film full of renowned French actors such as Danny Boon, André Dussollier (a favorite of Alain Resnais), Nicolas Marie, Jean-Pierre Marielle and Yolande Moreau in the tale concerning two friends who devise a plan to take down two large weapons manufacturers. Of course the story makes room for all sorts of romantic and fantastical characters and a concise plot breakdown is next to impossible, but we gave it a shot in our review from TIFF last year. “Micmacs” expands its limited release next week. RT: 82%, Metacritic: 67.
A leftover from the 2009 Cannes Film Festival that is limping into theaters is “Agora,” by a filmmaker we like, Alejandro Amenábar (“The Sea Inside,” “The Others,” “Open Your Eyes,” which was remade as “Vanilla Sky” was never very good to begin with). Starring an actress we admire, Rachel Weisz, and others we like Max Minghella and Oscar Issacs (though his people are very letigious, watch it), still, we saw the the swords and sandals epic at Cannes and it sort of bored us to tears. Its exorbitant running time has been reduced — it now clocks in at 127 minutes instead of the what-felt-like-a 4 hour slog at the Croisette — and it has smart, feminist contours to it (Weisz plays famous female philosophy professor and atheist Hypatia of Alexandria), but overall, we still couldn’t give it much of a thumbs up. Critics seemed to enjoy it slightly more than we did giving it a 63% RT score. Metacritic gave it a paltry 53.
George Romero continues his very prolific streak of the past several years with “Survival of the Dead.” The famed horror director had projects stuck in development limbo for most of the ’90s, but recently has been able to make one of his patented low-budget satirical zombie films every couple of years. This latest, which premiered on VOD a month ago, takes us to Plum Island, an untouched refuge in the midst of a zombie apocalypse where two families fight to stave off the undead and find a cure for their possessed kin. We posted our review this morning, finding it to be a minor entry on Romero’s resume, but if you’re game, an absolute blast nonetheless. RT: 33%, Metacritic: 45.
Also out in limited release, Jean-Luc Godard’s seminal French New Wave classic “Breathless” gets a small 50th anniversary re-release. Featuring a brand new 35mm print, the electrically-charged and still-vibrant film should look better than ever on the big screen. This is a perfect opportunity if you’ve never seen this magnetically alive picture, and we certainly recommend catching it in cinemas while you can.