Opening Films

by INLANDER STAFF & r & & r & DEATH RACE & r & & r & Jason Statham stars in a high-octane remake of the paranoid classic of '70s science fiction. A NASCAR driver wrongly imprisoned is given a chance at freedom if he can just win Death Race, a competition where convicts try to murder their way to the finish line. Expect this one to have conspicuously less pathos and social commentary than the original, but a hotter co-pilot. (LB) Rated R





THE HOUSE BUNNY


Written by the same people who brought you Legally Blonde, this is a carbon copy with a Girls Next Door/Hugh Hefner twist. Anna Faris (of Scary Movie fame) stars as a Playboy Bunny who gets kicked out of the mansion and becomes a housemother at a sorority full of freaks and weirdos. She teaches them to be glamorous and shallow. They teach her to be human. Touching. Faris might be worth a few laughs. (JS) Rated PG-13





THE LONG SHOTS


Ice Cube's a football fanatic and loser who needs a break. He also needs a lesson in gender roles. He'll get both when his little niece proves to have better pigskin skills than any of the little twerps on the Pop Warner (or whatever) team he's coaching. "Inspired by a true story," so you know it'll be filled with Disney clich & eacute;s. (LB) Rated PG





HAMLET 2


Steve Coogan (Tristram Shandy) plays a high school teacher who saves his theater program by writing and staging a truly awful musical sequel to Shakespeare's tragedy. Somehow that involves a gay men's chorus, a dancing Jesus, Satan kissing the U.S. president and plenty of acid. (MB) Rated R





HENRY POOLE IS HERE


Luke Wilson is Henry Poole, a guy drinking himself through a lifetime of hopelessness. His life changes when his eccentric, devout Catholic neighbor thinks she sees Jesus' face in a hard water stain on the side of his stucco house. Soon other people start seeing it, too. (LB) Rated PG





THE ROCKER


Shades of Pete Best! When a drummer is kicked out of an '80s metal band just before they get their big break, he becomes bitter and remains that way 20 years later. But when his nephew asks him to sit in as a drummer in his band for one night, old dreams come alive. Rainn Wilson overacts as the drummer, and Teddy Geiger underacts as the new band's singer-guitarist. Very few clich & eacute;s remain unturned; many comic opportunities are lost. (ES) Rated PG-13





AMERICAN TEEN


Following five teenagers -- archetypes of various cliques -- through their senior year of high school in economically depressed Warsaw, Indiana, the documentary won Nanette Burstein the directing award from the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. (LB) Rated PG-13