OPENING THIS WEEK:
Rings The Ring was one of the few respectable American remakes of a foreign horror flick. As a matter of fact, it was so scary that it gave me a temporary phobia of just about everything circular, including hula hoops and libertarian logic. Fourteen years later, I guess some sort of reboot is in order, although revisiting the tale of the killer videotape at this late date raises its own set of challenges – like appealing to a teenage audience that has no idea what in the hell a videotape is in the first place. The gist of the plot is that our VHS MacGuffin has become an object of fetishization to an obsessed cult, which is sort of like finding out there's an offshoot of Scientology that worships pogs. But get this: Careful watchers discover that there's another sinister video hidden within the sinister video! Yep, it's like a murderous Easter egg on a DVD. What's a DVD, you ask? Precisely. (PG-13)
The Space Between Us As further proof that Gary Oldman will do anything, here he is providing adult supervision in a tale that's been described as a "Romeo and Juliet in space." The young protagonist is a fella who was born on Mars to a single mother who promptly died, leaving her offspring to reach the age of 16 having met only 14 other human beings. (You know, just like Stacey Dash!) His love interest is a girl living in Colorado but named Tulsa, with whom he strikes up an online relationship. In place of disapproving parents is the troubling detail that Mars Boy can't live on Earth, because his sensitive organs couldn't take it without going splooey. Wait a minute, what's Gary Oldman doing in all this? Watching the movie head for its fifth scheduled release date and hoping the check doesn't bounce. (PG-13)
ALSO PLAYING:
The Eagle Huntress Morgan Spurlock and Daisy Ridley executive-produced this documentary about a Kazakh girl living in Mongolia who dreams of becoming her nation's first female eagle hunter. (Speaking of which, where's that Falconer movie, Will Forte?) The doc's exciting climax will have the audience rooting for the young woman and her eaglet to catch and kill their first fox. And then they'll all go back to bitching about A Dog's Purpose. (G)
Kaabil In one of two Indian imports that got a simultaneous and very quiet release last week, the rape of a blind woman inspires her also-blind husband to seek revenge. Originally developed under the working title Isabelle Huppert Is a Big Ol' Wuss. (NR)
Raees That other Indian flick I alluded to is a crime drama set against the backdrop of Prohibition-era Gujarat. The New York Times praised the movie's suspense quotient while opining that it probably had too many songs. Hey Ben Affleck, that must have been what went wrong with Live by Night! (NR)
