CLOVERFIELD
In 2006, J.J. Abrams, the big-idea guy behind TV's Lost and Alias, had his first big idea for the big screen: America needs a Godzilla! Not the Matthew Broderick adaptation, but, like, something totally new -- and uniquely American! So what does he do? He has five NYC hipsters throw their friend a going-away party, has a monster attack the city, then has his director film the chaos using nothing but handheld digital cameras, as though the hipsters feel compelled to chronicle the event rather than, you know, run for their lives. (LB) Rated PG-13
MAD MONEY
We were looking forward to this being Jim Cramer's silver screen debut (as a superhero hopefully, with world-saving-ly high blood pressure and stock advice that deflates evil-doers' portfolios in a single fiscal quarter), but no, it's another female empowerment drama featuring three actresses dead-set on ruining their careers. Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes (who never should have had a career in the first place) hatch a hare-brained scheme to knock off "the most secure bank in the United States." One or two of them also find love. (LB) PG-13
THE SAVAGES
Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney play siblings who bicker, in amusing and depressing ways, about moving their cantankerous dad (Philip Bosco) into a nursing home. Dementia doesn't exactly make for escapist fun, but the characters of Hoffman (disheveled but increasingly responsible) and Linney (superficially together but anxiety-ridden) complement each other well. (MB) Rated R
JIMMY CARTER: THE MAN FROM PLAINS
Jonathan Demme has put his camera on one man several times before, with iconic results (David Byrne in Stop Making Sense, Neil Young in Heart of Gold, Spalding Gray in Swimming to Cambodia), and here he follows former president Jimmy Carter as he toured last year in support of his controversial book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. This film is about the 83-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner's dogged pursuit of social justice, but it's also about book tours, the nasty tone of our politics and a place called Plains. (TSM) Rated PG
