IN THEATRES: FRIDAY, MARCH 29TH, 2011

Sucker Punch

The summer season officially begins this Friday. Why, you ask? Because, Zack Snyder returns to the big screen with his latest, original film, "Sucker Punch." Emily Browning of "The Uninvited" and "Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events" fame stars as Babydoll, a young woman admitted to an institution which causes her to create a dream world, in order to escape her harsh reality. She calls on the aid of other fellow, female patients with the likes of Abbie Cornish (Sweet Pea), Vanessa Hudgens (Blondie), Jena Malone (Rocket) and Jamie Chung (Amber). Snyder's forte is clearly creating visually intriguing films on a massive scale, so expect something along the lines of what he did with "Watchmen" and "300" and less along the lines of his debut feature, "Dawn of the Dead." What has me concerned the most is the level of acting that might be going on here. But that's merely an educated assumption on my part, based clearly on Snyder's body of work. Here's hoping Snyder continues to grow as a Actor's Director because he clearly has the technical side down pat.

 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules

The other major release of the week is the sequel to last year's sleeper hit, "Diary of a Wimpy Kid." The movies are based on the popular kid's book series, of the same name. The sequel focuses on the sibling relationship between the main character, Greg and his older brother, Rodrick, as their parents try to get the two to bond better. The original film was lauded by the general public but for me, the humor and cleverness that film was going for, ala "The Adventures of Pete and Pete" didn't quite hit the mark. But I still am interested in the sequel, in hopes that the kinks are worked out this time around.

I Saw The Devil

Showing exclusively at the Music Box Theatre this week is  Jee-woon Kim's (Tale of Two Sisters, The Good, The Bad and the Weird) gore-filled, revenge thriller, "I Saw The Devil." Much like other cult, revenge, Korean flicks (Oldboy, Sympathy for Lady/Mr. Vengeance), the film is hard to watch due to the graphic and overwhelming nature of violence on display. Min-sik Choi (Oldboy) plays a serial killer who takes the life of a detective's (Byung-hun Lee) pregnant fiancee. The cat and mouse games that follows is horrifying and even a tad comedic, albeit in a very dark sense of the word. Yet, another hit from South Korea, that is not to be missed. As long as you can handle it.

TO VIEW TRAILERS CLICK ON FILM IMAGE.