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Film Now Playing

Opening This Week:

THE BOYS ARE BACK—Scott Hicks (Shine) directed this comedy-drama about a sports writer (Clive Owen) reconnecting with his sons after the death of his wife. With Laura Fraser, Emma Lung, and George MacKay. Amherst

THE BURNING PLAIN—Screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga (Babel, Amores Perros) moves into the director’s chair for this convoluted, time-shifting multicharacter drama centering on an adulterous wife (Kim Basinger) and a younger woman (Charlize Theron) trying to escape past guilt in reckless sexual behavior. Reviewed this issue. Eastern Hills

LAW ABIDING CITIZEN—Revenge thriller. You know the formula: nice people are gruesomely killed so that you can get your kicks watching the survivor self-righteously slaughter the perps after the lily-livered courts let them off. Starring Gerard Butler, Jamie Foxx, Colm Meaney, and Bruce McGill. Directed by F. Gary Gray (Friday). Flix, Maple Ridge, Market Arcade, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Transit Drive-In

THE STEPFATHER—Remake of the classic 1987 satirical chiller about a psychotic in search of the perfect family, whose inevitable disappointments turn murderous. Starring Dylan Walsh, Sela Ward, Penn Badgley, and Amber Heard. Directed by Nelson McCormick (Prom Night). Flix, Maple Ridge, Market Arcade, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE—Director Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich) and novelist Dave Eggers’ adaptation of the classic children’s book by Maurice Sendak, about a boy who becomes ruler of an imaginary world filled with giant beasts. Starring Max Records, Catherine Keener, Mark Ruffalo and the voices of James Gandolfini, Paul Dano, Catherine O’Hara and Forest Whitaker. Reviewed this issue. Aurora, Flix, Maple Ridge, Market Arcade, Regal Elmwood, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria, Sunset Drive-In, Transit Drive-In

ETC:

ANCHORMAN—SNL-derived comedy, which means the premise of newscasters at a 1970s television station resist the addition of a woman to their team takes a back seat as the goofy lead character (Will Ferrell) sucks up all the oxygen. Director Adam McKay achieves a few surreally inspired scenes worthy of Monty Python, but Steve Carrell as a dim-bulb weatherman steals the movie. Sat. midnight. Amherst Theatre, 3500 Main St. (834-7655) www.dipsontheatres.com.

INKHEART (2009)—Adaptation of the popular children’s book starring Brendan Fraser as a bookbinder with the power to make the books he reads aloud come to life. Co-starring Eliza Bennett, Paul Bettany, Helen Mirren, Jim Broadbent, Andy Serkis, and Sienna Guillory. Directed by Iain Softley (K-PAX). Sat 8pm; Tue 7:30pm. Fredonia Opera House, 9 Church St. Fredonia (716-679-0891) www.fredopera.org.

KEVIN SMITH FESTIVAL—Six films from the pride of Red Bank, New Jersey, including Clerks, Clerks II, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. (See movietimes for dates and times). Fri-Sun. Riviera Theater, 67 Webster St., North Tonawanda (692-2413)

LOLITA (1962)—Charged with filming Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial novel whose plot concerns a middle-aged European’s seduction of an American “nymphet,” Stanley Kubrick rewrote most of Nabokov’s screenplay and went his own way. The film might best be understood as a satire on the bourgeois America that Kubrick abandoned to live in England. Starring James Mason, Peter Sellers, Shelley Winters and Sue Lyon. Presented as part of the Buffalo Film Seminar. Tues 7 pm, Market Arcade Film and Arts Center, 639 Main St. (855-3022).

THE ROOM (2004)—Already a midnight hit in Los Angeles, this berserk melodrama by the multiuntalented Tommy Wiseau is the best so-bad-it’s-good film since the heyday of Edward D. Wood Jr. It has its dull patches, but by no means should you leave before the ending. Sat. midnight. Hamburg Palace Theatre, 31 Buffalo St, Hamburg (649-2295) www.hamburgpalace.com