What a great weekend of new releases! Pixar’s “Up” (reviewed at Film.com) is just about as fine a production as you’re accustomed to from that brilliant bunch of computer nerds. And pulling you in the opposite direction is Sam Raimi’s twisted and scary — but PG-13 — “Drag Me to Hell,” whose trailers don’t do it justice AT ALL. I’d already seen the film when I saw the trailer, and the trailer still made me say, “Wow, I wouldn’t want to watch that.” (Side note to my mom: Wanna go see this when I’m home next weekend? You will love it!)
In limited release is “Departures” (review at Cinematical), a Japanese film that won the foreign-language Academy Award this year even though no one but Academy voters had heard of it. It’s a worthy entry, probably not what I would have voted for, but a good film nonetheless, about a man who returns to his hometown and gets a job working with a mortician.
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