Opening Films

by Inlander Staff & r & THE DEPARTED


Martin Scorsese returns to form in this gritty remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Mou gaan dou. Set in contemporary Boston, the story's premise is that the cops have a rat (Leonardo DiCaprio) in mobster Jack Nicholson's Irish gang, and Nicholson has one (Matt Damon) infiltrating the cops. Suspicions within both camps run rampant, and raw violence is never very far from center-screen. Solid acting from all, tragedy of Shakespearean proportions, and an eclectic rock soundtrack. (ES) Rated R





THE OMEN


Ave Satani is the tune from The Omen that won an Oscar. Ominously full of chanting people and troubling fake Latin, the music became an instant identifier of this Cold War-era, decapitation-featuring film. The Antichrist is going to come to earth, and he's going to embody himself as an evilly petulant little boy living in a high-placed political family. See the film and then guess which real-world politician little Damien might have grown up to be. It's going down (to Hell!) at the Garland at midnight this weekend. (MD) Rated R





EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH


It's sexually charged burnout-makes-good hysteria when a bunch of retail flacks hear that the sexy chick (Jessica Simpson) has a thing for over-achievers and will only date the employee of the month. Good to see Dax Shepherd still pretending to be Zach Braff. Nice little niche he's got going. Rated PG-13





TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE BEGINNING


Wasn't one of the scary things about the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre (not the remake -- there was nothing scary about that) that we didn't know why crazy-ass Leatherface was walking around chain-sawing people? Didn't that make it seem like it could happen here (anywhere) too? Well, the producers of TCM: the Beginning want to take all that nameless terror away from us, promising to tell the story of how homeboy became the murderer he is. Rated R