Starting Out In The Evening

by DOUG NADVORNICK

Even without dialogue, the opening scene in director Andrew Wagner's terrific Starting Out in the Evening is rich in meaning. New York novelist Leonard Schiller (Frank Langella) sits before his typewriter, hands folded in front of his face, deep in thought. He's formulating the next lines to write in a novel that apparently doesn't want to be written. But he has other things on his mind too. How did a once-promising literary career that put Schiller in the middle of New York's bustling literary scene go awry? And how can he guide his soon-to-be 40-year-old daughter Ariel (Lili Taylor), whose ticking biological clock keeps sending her back to a man Schiller despises? Full Story

by THE INLANDER

21

A based-on-fact, Hollywoodized story about the fellow (Kevin Spacey) who masterminded, along with a group of MIT students, a plan to take Vegas for large sums of money. They succeed, they get caught, things go awry, then turn bad. Fresh from his lead role in Across the Universe, Jim Sturgess puts on a solid American accent and acts convincingly frightened when casino heavy Laurence Fishburne turns tough. (ES) Rated PG-13 Full Story

by INLANDER STAFF

CARAMEL

Five women gossip at the local beauty shop, then go out and enjoy sweet, sticky things: There's the beauty having an affair, the not-so-much-a-virgin about to be married, the responsible one who has cared for others and now has a love of her own, the repressed lesbian and the would-be movie star. If this weren't set in Beirut and shown with subtitles in Arabic, it'd be an Oprah-power chick-flick box office smash. What does that say about our viewing habits? (MB) Rated PG-13 Full Story

by LUKE BAUMGARTEN

Metalocalypse / My Adult Swim Thesis

(Cartoon Network, Mondays, Midnight)

Confession time: I'd never seen Metalocalypse before April 30. I probably would have never watched it if the oddest thing hadn't happened. Upon arriving at work two days prior, characteristically late and generally unkempt, I found the office buzzing about me. Glances. Whispers. "Dude, did you get your mail?" someone asked. "You gotta burn me a copy," said another. "Check your box," came a third. I'd been sent a Metalocalypse screener. One episode. "DethWedding." "Ah! He got the album too!" came a fourth voice as I opened the package, narrating the scene for the benefit of those not looking over my shoulder. Full Story

by LUKE BAUMGARTEN, MICHAEL BOWEN, ANN M. COLFORD, JACOB H. FRIES, MICK LLOYD-OWEN, TAMMY MARSHALL, TED S. McGREGOR JR., DOUG NADVORNICK, JOEL SMITH and KEVIN TAYLOR

Last year's summer movie season was all about sequels. This year, sequels make token appearances. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is the third film in the Mummy series. There's another Star Wars film, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and there's a second Incredible Hulk. But the sequel that most movie fans are excited about is Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the fourth in the series and the first since 1989. Harrison Ford is now 65, but actually doing movie stunts. Many fans will be pleased. Full Story

Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay

by LUKE BAUMGARTEN

I found a bit of common ground with two nervously giggling, high-school-looking stoners with whom I shared a theater last Friday morning. We all thought Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay was funny. I didn't expect it, but there it was. Full Story

by MARTY DEMAREST

Grand Theft Auto IV
Rated Mature; 360, PS3
4 Stars

OK, Mom and Dad: Your kids are either playing it or watching somebody who is. Don't worry about them. Just fire up Grand Theft Auto IV. This will only take a moment. (Unless you like it.) Full Story

by ED SYMKUS

The unwritten rule in Hollywood (actually it's probably written all over the place, in big black boldface script) is that once you hit it big, you've got nothing left to do but outdo yourself. So there sat the Wachowski brothers, wondering what to direct after they imagined, then brought to life, a world that we'd never seen on the screen in their Matrix trilogy. Both in their early 40s, they'd no doubt watched Speed Racer on TV when they were kids. It's obvious that they like the idea of fast-moving vehicles – think about that wild fistfight atop a barreling 18-wheeler in The Matrix Reloaded — and they now have the clout to make anything they damn well please. Full Story