1. Jack Reacher (Paramount, 3,352 Theaters, 130 Minutes, Rated PG-13): So, the problem with this film is not that Tom Cruise is trying to play a bad ass. He’s starred in the Mission Impossible films, and he had bad ass moments in all of them.

The problem is that he is playing a character described in the novels the film is adapted from as being a 6’5″bruiser. No matter what you think of Cruise’d acting skills, there’s no way the 5’7″ actor can pull off looking almost a foot taller.

Of course, the last time Cruise was criticized for being miscasted as a popular literary character–Lestat in Interview With a Vampire–he acquitted himself quite nicely. So, maybe the same will happen here.

2. This Is 40 (Universal, 2,912 Theaters, 134 Minutes, Rated R): Judd Apatow is billing this as the “sort-of sequel” to Knocked Up. “Sort-of” is right. Outside of Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann (Apatow’s wife) as Pete and Debbie and Maude and Iris Apatow (Apatow and Mann’s daughters), the only other person from the original cast is Jason Segel, who, if I recall correctly, had little or no contact with either Pete or Debbie in the orginal film. IMDB doesn’t show either Seth Rogen or Katherine Heigl, who played Debbie’s sister, in the cast list.

But it appears that this film is trying to attract the same audience. Good luck with that. Ilike Apatow’s work, but Knocked Up focused on a bunch of 20-something stoners goofing around until life butted in. This is about a pair of 40-year-olds dealing with the fact that they are on the cusp of not being able to be called young and beginning to be called old. I don’t see a lot of cross over in those audiences.

1. Act Of Valor (Relativity, 3,039 Theaters, 111 Minutes, Rated R): If you’ve seen any marketing for this film, you’ll know that one of the biggest marketing aspects for the film is that the cast consists of active-duty Navy Seals in the cast.

My response? So what?

Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against the brave and intelligent men who serve in the Navy Seals. They brought down Bin Laden and did it so well that it looked easy. They are my heroes.

And if I have any terrorist overlord to take down, they’ll be first on my contact list. But their skills in stealth combat has no bearing on their acting abilities. I assume their work experience does add an air of authenticity, but this authenticity would be better served if they wrote or directed the film. As it is, it’s just a flimsy gimmick.

2. Gone (Summit Entertainment, 2,186 Theaters, 94 Minutes, Rated PG-13): When her sister goes missing, Jill knows exactly what happened. The serial killer who kidnapped her years ago has returned and is out for vengeance. Problem is, Jill has no proof of this and no one else believes her. Jill must face her tormentor and rescue her sister—alone.

This film would be annoying to me on so many levels, all tied to the plot. Why wouldn’t the serial killer just come after Jill? I mean, why other than then the film would only be an hour long–if that? I know they are trying to set up that the killer is trying to mess with Jill’s mind, but serial killers typically don’t work that way.

And why wouldn’t the police believe her? She escaped from a serial killer, right? Would it kill the cops to check on the killer’s whereabouts?

3. Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds (Lionsgate, 2,132 Theaters, 111 Minutes, Rated PG-13): No, this isn’t a list of the charitable contributions Perry has made with his Madea money. He’s not THAT arrogant (I think).

No, this is the latest film from Tyler Perry and it marks a bit of a change of pace for him. He is in the lead role, but not in drag. He plays a successful businessman who’s life is turned around when he meets a struggling single mom who works on the custodial staff where he works. He is inspired to take action to close the distance between the working rich and the working poor.

In other words, this is a fairy tale. If this election period has taught us anything, it’s that the rich care about anything, it’s only getting richer.

4. Wanderlust (Universal, 2,001 Theaters, 98 Minutes, Rated R): If Good Deeds provides an idealistic look at the recent economic turmoil, then this film provides a more archaic, if not just as unrealistic, approach to the subject matter.

Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston play Manhattanites who lose their jobs and have to seek cheaper ways to live. They eventually settle on that bastion of the 1960s Free Love movement, the commune.

Communes do still exist today, but more often than not they are created for economic reasons rather than just so everybody can have sex with one another.

The film is written by David Wain and Ken Marino and directed by Wain. They have been involved in a lot of great projects in the past, all the way back to The State. So I got to have faith that they will make this film pay off even though it is a stretch.

1. Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark (FilmDistrict, 2,760 Theaters, 99 Minutes, Rated R): If you are wondering why it took so long for Hollywood to come up with a film with this title, well, obviously, you’ve never seen the 1973 TV movie of the same name that starred Kim Darby.

Both films are haunted house flicks, only now instead of a young housewife (played by Darby) being taken over by demons, it’s a little girl (Bailee Madison) who is sent to live her father (Guy Pierce) and his new girlfriend (Katie Holmes).

Of course, being that this is co-written by Guillermo del Toro, there will be some sick twists (the demons feed on human teeth in order to stay alive), but this is essentially a remake of a film that wasn’t all that original in the first place. Don’t know how that will go over at the box office.

2. Colombiana (TriStar, 2,614 Theaters, 107 Minutes, Rated PG-13): I am immediately distrustful of any revenge flick that is rated PG-13. I mean, who wants to see kid-friendly payback? But Hollywood being what it is, and wanting to make sure the teens can get in to see the film, this will be a PG-13 revenge flick.

Zoe Saldana plays a Columbian woman whose parents were murdered when she was a little kid. She has devoted her life to tracking down the people who killed her family, all the while working as an assassin for her uncle.

The fact that Saldana’s character is not an innocent adds a bit of flavor the the genre. Not that it needs flavoring, revenge films always are in demand. Should be interesting to see how well this one does.

3. Our Idiot Brother (The Weinstein Group, 2,614 Theaters, 90 Minutes, Rated R): Paul Rudd is an actor who is just as at home in goofy comedies such as The 40-Year Old Virgin and Wet Hot American Summer as he is indie flicks such as The Oh in Ohio  and  The Shape of Things. This film seems to fall somewhere in between.

Rudd plays the titular brother whose well-meaning intrusions into his family’s lives has unexpected results.

There is a pretty strong cast surrounding Rudd, but will it be enough to make the dual nature of the film work?

Morris is primarily known as one of the premier documentary directors of our time thanks to his work with the films The Thin Blue Line, Fast, Cheap And Out Of Control and the Academy Award-winning The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara. This film will be his first non-documentary film since 1991 ‘s Dark Wind.

1. Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (Warner Brothers, 3,705 Theaters, 82 Minutes, Rated PG): The conceit behind this franchise is that dogs and cats have been waging a secret war behind their master’s backs for years. Not just chasing each other around the neighborhood, but actually hi-tech war with hi-tech weaponry and so on.

Depending on your point of view, that concept could be either delightfully silly or painfully stupid. If you believe the former, then this week is for you because the silliness has been amped up a few levels.

The dogs and cats put their differences aside when faced with a common threat–a hairless feline that goes by the name of Kitty Galore. Kitty wants to conquer the world, something that will be bad for both cats and dogs.

If you think of this movie as silly fun, give it a try. If not, then don’t. But you kids will probably giggle at it all the same.

2. Charlie St. Cloud (Universal. 2,720 Theaters, 99 Minutes, Rated PG-13): When you are most famous for a Disney musical such as High School Musical trilogy and your second most famous work is Hairspray, like Zac Efron is, then trying to carve out a real, lasting, non-musical movie career will be hard.

But is having your next film be Ordinary People meets Ghost meets Nicolas Sparks-esque romance the right choice? I guess we’ll find out this week.

Efron plays a young man who lost his brother to a drunk driver. He keeps his brother’s spirit alive by playing catch with his ghost. A woman enters his life and might possibly be able to draw him out of his seclusion. But will he lose her too?

I’m not a big fan of films that mix the heartwarming with the morbid, but who knows if I am alone in this one or not. It all depends on whether or not Efron’s fans will like this genre I guess.

3. Dinner for Schmucks (Paramount/Dreamworks, 2,911 Theaters, 110 Minutes, Rated PG-13): In my opinion, Steve Carell and Paul Rudd, either separately or together, can do no wrong. I haven’t yet seen a role from either them that they haven’t been the best part of.

And this film seems to play to their strengths–Carell as a socially awkward guy who is a nice guy at heart and Rudd as slightly smarmy smart-Alec who is a nice guy at heart and reveals himself as such by the final reel.

Remade from the 1998 French film, Le Diner de Cons, it features Rudd as a budding young executive who hopes for promotion will be improved is he brings the weirdest, most socially maladjusted person to his boss’ weekly dinner party. Carell’s character, an IRS employee who makes art out of taxidermied animals, fits the bill.

Betty White is having an interesting career revival. At a time when most actors her age are out of the public eye, she is busier than ever. And her cult career resurgence my make her into a movie God.

In a proposed remake of the 1977 George Burns/ John Denver comedy Oh, God! that is. Deadline New York is reporting that producer Jerry Weintraub is shopping the idea of a remake around to studios, suggesting White for the role of God and Paul Rudd in the John Denver role.

Now, the article stresses that these are just actors that Weintraub is suggesting for these role in order to entice studios to bite on the project. Odds are that White or Rudd haven’t even been officially contacted for roles in the film, let alone signed on.

But wouldn’t you want to see Betty White coming as God to Paul Rudd? Seems like a can’t miss prospect there.

Is that much talked about Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy ever going to happen? In the ironic wake of having seen Anchorman 2 showing up on a couple of “movies that are never going to happen” lists on other websites recently, it’s looking better than it has in a while that the sequel will be going before cameras early next year.

Anchorman‘s director Adam McKay spoke with MTV’s Movie Blog, telling them that while some of the holdup in getting a sequel moving has been financial, it hasn’t been negotiations over salaries for the cast.

It’s a tricky movie because everyone went and did really well after it, so everyone’s prices went up and everyone’s time got a little more valuable. But at the same time, graciously, Steve and Paul and everyone agreed to cut their price to come and do [the sequel], which you don’t see very often in Hollywood — and cut their price substantially. But even with that, it’s just a budgetary thing with Paramount in terms of how much they’ll give us to make it.

The first Anchorman was made for just $26 million and sold $85 million in tickets at theaters and found a further audience thanks to home video. McKay thinks that a second film could be even more successful for the studio.

Austin Powers didn’t make a ton of movie in its first go-round and then it caught fire in the next one. We’re hoping they’ll look more at that sort of projection.

Of course, the second (and third) Austin Powers flicks repeated a lot of the jokes found in the first film, but it sounds like instead of finding more things to do in the 1970s, a second Anchorman film will move the channel 4 news team of Will Farrell, Christina Applegate, Steve Carell, Paul Rudd and David Koechner in to the next decade.

That’s loosely what the idea is. [The '80s angle is] more the frame of it. We have this other, bigger, crazier idea that’s really more what it’s about, which I can’t say. Our thinking was there’s just no way the second one is going to be as good as the first, because the first one is the first one. So our idea is if we’re going to do a second one, we better go for it and try some insane stuff and we’ll be enjoying it and that way it can’t be half bad.

An Anchorman sequel seems like a no-brainer to me. The cast had a great chemistry, and it is evident that the film was a labor of love for everyone involved. So much so that in addition to the DVD release, a second disc entitled Anchorman: Wake-Up Ron Burgundy was cobbled together from out-takes and storylines cutout from the finished film. Best Buy also released an exclusive bonus disc that contained a further 30 minutes of cut footage. If the cast is willing to take paycuts, they’re not making the movie as a quick payday. If Paramount were to give the go-ahead for Anchorman 2, I expect that they will wok just as hard.

1. Knowing (Summit Entertainment, 3,332 Theaters, 130 Minutes, Rated PG-13): It’s funny, this is the film that is in the most number of theaters this week, but it is the one I would like to see the least.

No slight against director Alex Proyas. He still gets a lot of good will from me for The Crow and Dark City. But my feelings for this film come more from the concept and the lead actor.

The concept deals with the series of numbers found on a piece of paper in a time capsule. The numbers can be determined, using math, to have predicted the greatest disasters of the past. There is one more series of numbers and one more disaster, which our hero has to stop.

Yes, people love these kind of prognostications. Just look at all the books and specials about Nostradamus that exist. But the fact that the film makers, if not as a plot point at least by raising the connection in our minds, are tying in tragedies such as 9/11 and Katrina to their piece of popcorn fluff. That just doesn’t seem right to me.

And, yes, I am not a fan of Nicolas Cage. Granted, he has won an Oscar and he has been pretty good in a number of things, but most of the time just annoys the heck out of me. He’s an actor with a lot of quirks and I find the quirks irksome.

2. I Love You, Man (Paramount/Dreamworks, 2,711 Theaters, 104 Minutes, Rated R): The problem with Judd Apatow using the same actors over and over again, “The Apatow Repertory Players” as I like to call them, is that if more than one of these actors are cast in the same film together, you automatically think Apatow must have a hand in it. This isn’t the case here.

 Yes, this stars Paul Rudd, Jason Segel and several other actors from Apatow’s hits, but Apatow’s name is nowhere to be found in the credits. So, buyer beware!

The film is a “bromantic comedy” about a man without any male friends who tries to find one to act as the best man at his wedding.

3. Duplicity (Universal,  2,575 Theaters, 125 Minutes, Rated PG-13): I love how most of the press surrounding this movie is about Julia Roberts and if she will be able to keep being the number one female movie star considering her age.

I kind of find this sexist. I mean, Burt Reynolds, Sylvester Stallone and Tom Cruise all were top box office draws. They all got older, but the reasons they fell out of favor were due more to their career choices than their age. Julia Roberts is still making interesting films with great casts. If she continues her good run at the box office or not, it will have more to do with that than her age.

1. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa: (3,900 Theaters, 89 Minutes, Rated PG): You have to hand it to Dreamworks. While Pixar might have the edge in terms of quality, Dreamworks has the edge when it comes to quantity. They have the lead when it comes to making sequels to their films between this franchise and Shrek.

This time, our animal friends are trying to get back to New York and their lives in the zoo. But, unfortunately, they end up in Africa instead, and find out their time in captivity has left them unable to relate to their wild relatives.

Of course, the best part of the last film were the penguins and, to a lesser extent, the lemurs. The creators have found a way to keep both in this second film.

2. Role Models (2,791 Screens, 99 Minutes, Rated R): On the surface, this seems like another Judd Apatow productions. After all, several of the Apatow Reperatory Players are in it (Paul Rudd, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Elizabeth Banks, Jane Lynch and Ken Jeong) and it deals with emotionally immature men put in a situation where they have to become grow up real quick–an Apatow trademark.

But Judd Apatow has nothing to do with this, at least as per IMDB. The crative forces behind this one come from the long gone but not forgotten The State.

The film deals with two overgrown adolescents who are sentenced to a “Big Brothers” like program in lieu of jail time. They soon find out that the kids they are supposed to mentor are more than a match for them.

3. Soul Men (2,044 Theaters, 103 Minutes, Rated R): This minor comedy might have came and went if it was for the untimely deaths of two of its stars.

Bernie Mac died on August 9th from complications of pneumonia at age 50, and Isaac Hayes, who appears as himself in the film, died only one day later from a stroke at age 65.

The coincidence of both men from the same movie dying only a day apart does cast an ominous pall of the film. And foe a film that is supposed to be a comedy, that is hard to overcome.

Strangely enough, the plot revolves around two back-up singers who reunite after the death of their old singing partner. Spooky.

On Friday, we reported on a Variety story saying that Ghostbusters 3 was in development at at Columbia Pictures. Now, we have an extra bit of confirmation from one of the original Ghostbusters himself–Harold Ramis.

Ramis e-mailed the Chicago Tribune to confirm the story. This is what he said:

yes, columbia is developing a script for GB3 with my year one writing partners, gene stupnitsky and lee eisenberg.  judd apatow is co-producing year one and has made several other films for sony, so of course the studio is hoping to tap into some of the same acting talent. aykroyd, ivan reitman and i are consulting at this point, and according to dan, bill murray is willing to be involved on some level.  he did record his dialogue for the new ghostbusters video game, as did danny and i, and ernie hudson.  the concept is that the old ghostbusters would appear in the film in some mentor capacity.  not much else to say at this point.  everyone is confident a decent script can be written and i guess we’ll take it from there.
best,
harold

This shows how quickly things change in Hollywood. Less than a month ago, Paul Rudd shot down rumors of an Apatow-involved Ghostbusters 3 in an interview with MTV.

MTV: Have you heard about the rumor recently that you’d star in a new “Ghostbusters” movie along with Seth Rogen, Steve Carell and Romany Malco?

Rudd: I’ve heard this rumor. A couple of days ago somebody asked me that, and that was the first I’d heard about it. It’s incredibly flattering to be in a rumor. I would do it in a second with those guys. But do you think it’s a good idea to redo “Ghostbusters”? It’s a classic.

MTV: Even if it’s a rumor, it’s a nice quartet of actors.

Rudd: [Sarcastically] I am really excited about it.

MTV: We’ve green-lit it right here.

Rudd: Excellent. When do we start shooting?

MTV: Are you going to do the Bill Murray role or Dan Aykroyd’s, or perhaps Rick Moranis?

Rudd: I’d like to be Sigourney Weaver. Or maybe we can mix in the sequel and I can do a Peter MacNicol thing. I remember thinking, “That’s the same guy from ‘Sophie’s Choice.’ ” It seemed so weird.

Of course, it seems that it is now a sequel/passing of the guard movie, so maybe Rudd will be more responsive to it. I would pay good money to see Paul Rudd interact with Bill Murray. Heck, for a Ghostbusters sequel with the blessing of the original cast and writers (Ramis and Dan Ackroyd wrote the original) and produced by Judd Apatow? WHo am I kidding, I’m there already!