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Tropic Thunder

A bunch of neurotic Hollywood actors go on location in a Southeast Asian country to shoot the testosterone vehicle Tropic Thunder, but things go postal when some locals decide to start taking pot shots before the war flick wraps. While the central conceit seems borrowed from Severance, audiences and a lot of critics have been lapping up this irreverent flick. Laughs are guaranteed — at some point. Starring and directed by Ben Stiller, comic energy is added by Jack Black, Nick Nolte, Tom Cruise and especially Robert Downey Jr — as a pompous Aussie Oscar winner who has his melanin darkened to get inside his black character.

Blindness

A contagion of sightlessness breaks out in an unnamed city, and pretty soon it’s clear that nothing can stop it. A doctor (Mark Ruffalo, who was simply excellent as a serial killer-hunting cop in Zodiac) is infected and sent to a prison-based concentration camp for the newly blind. His wife (Julianne Moore) miraculously avoids infection, and the film concentrates on her tactical response to social breakdown and atrocities as she fakes blindness to stay with her beau. From Fernando Meirelles, director of The Constant Gardener, the film has not been so well-received, especially by those who have read Jose Saramago’s book. The Los Angeles Times blinked, calling it an “overly long car commercial crossed with a scare-mongering public service announcement.”

I’m Not There

Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Christian Bale and three others (including the late Heath Ledger in his third-last role) star as a Bob Dylan-like character who travels through a wild variety of settings corresponding to major events in Dylan’s life or impressions thereof. Director Todd Haynes (Poison, Velvet Goldmine) is offering a sophisticated gift to music fans and particularly fans of Dylan with this one, though only the most devoted of the legendary folk singer’s following will understand what Haynes is getting at. Most of it.

Ca$h

This French production might be the first movie to send audiences running for the exits out of sheer confusion. But there are reasons to stay. Cash (Jean Dujardin) is a charismatic criminal whose nefarious colleagues — and even girlfriend — cannot be trusted, and that’s before cop Valeria Golino (Hot Shots!, Leaving Las Vegas) turns up in plain clothes looking for trouble. The ever-entertaining Jean Reno plays a top thug whom Cash turns to for his next vengeful enterprise, perhaps to his regret. Similar in visual style to the Ocean’s Eleven remake and its sequels, Ca$h aims to please.

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