Weekend Movies: Spies & Politicians vs. Old Folks & Goats

This weekend marks one of the last big pushes for summer. We get another ‘Bourne’ sequel and a Will Ferrell comedy that feels like an endless ‘SNL’ political sketch. I don’t think there’s any doubt as to which of these will draw a bigger audience.

In ‘The Bourne Legacy‘, Jeremy Renner plays Aaron Cross, another super-soldier secret agent with a beef against the CIA. This entry is set during the events of Matt Damon’s last ‘Bourne’ flick, ‘The Bourne Ultimatum‘. When a high-up in the CIA (Edward Norton) sees that Jason Bourne is about to uncover a load of CIA secrets, he starts burning all of the other unapproved programs to save his own ass should the puzzle pieces come together. That’s where Aaron Cross comes into play. Cross is part of a program that trained Jason Bourne. When Norton’s character purges Cross’ program from existence, Cross must do everything in his power to survive and get the CIA off his back.

Are you ready for a movie where Will Ferrell plays does his absurdly stupid George Bush impression for 85 minutes while Zach Galifianakis plays the only character that he’s capable of playing, a fellow idiotic adult male? In ‘The Campaign‘, the two play competing Senate candidates who run against one another. One of them is backed by money-hungry puppeteers who want to sell their district to China. Get ready for another Ferrell failure.

The director of ‘The Devil Wears Prada‘ (yawn) and ‘The Big Year‘ (yawn-yawn) is back at it with ‘Hope Springs‘, a dramedy that I assume must be made for grandparents. Tommy Lee Jones and Meryl Streep play an older couple who attend a rigorous marriage training camp that will probably shake their relationship a little more before perfectly healing it. That’s my guess. ‘Hope Springs’ also co-stars Steve Carell in an attempt to draw in some younger moviegoers.

Not screened for press in my region (but I wish it was) is ‘Nitro Circus: The Movie‘, in which Travis Pastrana takes his extreme sport road show to the big screen in 3D. If you saw the 3D X Games movie that ESPN pumped out a few years ago, you already know how amazing Pastrana’s crazy stunts appear on the big screen. Fan of extreme sports or not, this is bound to be 98 minutes of jaw-dropping spectacle.

As for the limited indie releases, Julie Delpy and Chris Rock appear in the sequel to ‘Two Days in Paris’, called ‘2 Days in New York‘. Delpy, who co-wrote the screenplays and directs, reprises her role from the earlier film. Since then, her character has dumped Adam Goldberg and is now dating Rock’s character. Guess what happens when family of a different cultural background comes to visit? Get ready for the shenanigans. (Yes, I’m being facetious.)

Remember that dumb movie called ‘Goats‘ thatI reviewed at Sundance? Well, now you too can be underwhelmed by this cliché of a coming-of-age flick. I really don’t recommend it.

Finally, I want to mention Spike Lee’s latest “joint” that also premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, ‘Red Hook Summer‘. Although I don’t always like Lee’s movies, I like what he tries to do and the way that he tries to do it. I’m always interested to see what he does next. Having said that, the unanimous buzz for this one at Sundance was hideous. A middle-class boy spends summer with his religious grandfather in the Brooklyn’s projects. I’m still interested, so if you smoke this joint this weekend, let us know what you think.

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