At the movies this weekend

At MovieTowne, Invader’s Bay, and Cinemas 8, Trincity Mall, you can take your pick of movies such as Apocalypto, Norbit, The Number 23, Daddy’s Little Girls, Primeval, Amazing Grace, Ghost Rider, 300, Smoking Aces and Music and Lyrics, among others at various showtimes starting at noon on most days.

At the Fabulous 5 group which includes the Globe cinemas in Port-of-Spain, Chaguanas and Princes Town, Palladium in Tunapuna, and National in San Fernando, you can catch 300 until next Wednesday.

For those of you who still prefer the old drive-in type atmosphere, Kay Donna in Valsayn is showing Zodiac and Number 23. For lovers of Bollywood movies, New Deluxe in San Fernando is showing Salamm-E-Ishq.

Here are details on some of the movies showing this weekend:

After the Sunset

Analysing the movie After the Sunset Pierce Brosnan is not bad. He’s still a hottie and he’s charming onscreen. It’s got Brosnan, Brett Ratner and Salma Hayek all teaming up for this huge film.

The heist itself is a backdrop to the actual story, which is the romance between Brosnan and Hayek and between Harrelson and Naomie Harris.

The planning of the heist and its execution are sort of pushed aside to make room for developing a friendship between the master thief (Brosnan) and the FBI man (Harrelson) who is obsessed with taking him down.

The mechanisms that go into planning the heist in this movie are remarkable.

What humor there is in After the Sunset comes from setting Harrelson and Brosnan up for assorted ‘are they or aren’t they” gay jokes. And other than one scene where the two men have a battle with a shark (the shark lucks out because he’s in and out of the movie extremely quickly), every bit of the dialogue and circumstances of the film spells the heist/buddy/romance movies that were released over the past decade or two.

Brosnan’s done this character before and seems to go through the paces without difficulty. He’s handsome, charming, and capable of doing this role in his sleep. Thankfully he doesn’t do that, as that would have been the film’s proverbial last straw.

And Woody Harrelson as an FBI agent? That’s a bit of casting against type if there ever was one. Harrelson plays the agent as a bumbling idiot, with Pierce Brosnan and Salma Hayek constantly getting the upper-hand in all situations, which might be what attracted Harrelson to the role. Sure there’s a twist at the end, but overall Harrelson’s FBI agent is a totally unrealistic character that would have been better suited to the rank of a sheriff trainee or other such member of the law enforcement community.

Salma Hayek’s lasted as Brosnan’s love interest/accomplice. A totally one-dimensional character that fleets in and out of scenes in increasingly less clothing.

APOCALYPTO

Starring: Rudy Youngblood, Dalia Hernandez, Jonathan Brewer, Morris Birdyellowhead, Carlos Emilio Baez, Ramirez Amilcar, Israel Contreras, Israel Rios, Mar?a Isabel D?az, Espiridion Acosta Cache, Iazua Larios.

Genre: Action, Adventure

Synopsis: This is a heart stopping mythic action-adventure set against the turbulent end times of the once great Mayan civilisation.

When his idyllic existence is brutally disrupted by a violent invading force, a man is taken on a perilous journey to a world ruled by fear and oppression where a harrowing end awaits him. Through a twist of fate and spurred by the power of his love for his woman and his family, he will make a desperate break to return home and to ultimately save his way of life.

PRIMEVAL

Starring: Dominic Purcell, Orlando Jones, Brooke Langton, Jurgen Prochnow

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Synopsis: The high-stakes adventure follows a news producer (Purcell), reporter and cameraman (Jones) who are dispatched to South Africa to track down and bring home alive a legendary 25-foot crocodile known as Gustave. However, their quarry proves far more elusive and deadly than they anticipated, and their situation turns even more perilous when a feared warlord targets them for death. In one of the most remote places on earth, a bloodthirsty serial killer has claimed over 300 victims and is still at large.

Now, inspired by the true story of the world’s most prolific killer, comes this nail-biting horror-thriller that follows an American news crew determined to capture this terrifying murderer alive.