17 Again

Plus: The Audition, Crank, Crimes And Misdemeanors and more

By Volcano Staff on April 16, 2009

17 AGAIN: An unhappy man in his late 30s is transported back to his body at 17 and gets a chance to fix things with his alienated family.  Zac Efron is a charmer as the teenager, and there is a completely unanticipated fanboy-fangirl romance that is comic genius.  Pleasant, harmless. (PG-13) Three stars — Roger Ebert


AN AMERICAN TAIL: The 1986 animated classic is this month’s installment of the Click! Family Fun Flick which features free admission, limited to the first 100 people.  Kids under 14 must be accompanied by an adult. (G) – Bill White


THE AUDITION: At the end of a long series of semi-final auditions, a new generation of American opera singers is chosen at the Metropolitan Opera’s annual National Council Auditions.  We go backstage, learn something about each one, and most of all, listen to them sing. (NR) Three stars – RE


CHE: Benicio Del Toro gives a heroic performance as the revolutionary Che Guevara, who fought with Castro to victory in Cuba and then by himself to eventual defeat in Bolivia.  The movie is neither a conventional biopic nor war movie; it is more about Guevara’s will, or obsession, to carry on.  Steven Soderbergh’s approach avoids the usual hero-outlined-by-sunrise conventions and shows the almost unendurable physical and mental conditions under which Che lived for years in the countryside. (R) Three and a half stars – RE


CRANK: HIGH VOLTAGE: Come on.  Jason Statham was dead at the end of the first one.  That was the whole point.  I guess the allure of a sequel is mighty powerful medicine. (R) – BW


CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS: This Woody Allen gem is part of The Grand Cinema’s Faith and Film Series.  All films start at 6:45 p.m. with a discussion to follow.  This week features Leonard Oakland – Professor of Literature and Film at Whitworth university. (PG-13) – BW


STATE OF PLAY: State of Play is a smart, ingenious thriller set in the halls of Congress and the city room of a newspaper not unlike The Washington Post. It’s also a political movie, its villain a shadowy corporation that contracts with the government for security duties and mercenaries in Iraq. The name is PointCorp. Think Blackwater. If an outfit like that would kill for hire, the plot wonders, would it also kill to protect its profits? Stars Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams. (PG-13) Three stars — RE