A SoCal gang doc, an Elmore Leonard adaptation and a Hitchcock retake

This week, a strong international lineup stacks up alongside some domestic B-movie madness and traditional...

“Of Time and the City”
British filmmaker Terence Davies is something of a directorial Daniel Day Lewis — projects few and far between and mass critical swooning each time one does roll around. (Our own Aaron Hillis, who recently got to speak with him, is no exception.) His first film since “The House of Mirth” in 2000, this nonfiction serenade/love letter to his beloved hometown of Liverpool didn’t nab any prizes at its unveiling in Cannes, merely a quiet critical consensus that it was yet another underappreciated masterpiece. Much more than a teary-eyed scouser bemoaning the decline of his childhood digs from cultural mecca to post-industrial slum (he has never been to Anfield and thinks the Beatles were crap), Davies quietly narrates over a wealth of found footage dating back 50 years, eulogizing a whole way of life that passed under the wheels of a cultural revolution with barely anyone noticing.
Opens in New York; opens in Los Angeles on January 30th.

“Outlander”
The undisputed jewel of the much-maligned “soldiers versus creatures” subgenre is, of course, the “Predator” franchise, with the simple yet elegant crux being that the titular antagonist is so cool and so badass that only Arnie and Aliens can kill it. (Well, Danny Glover, too, but never mind that!) Perhaps that’s why director Howard McCain has corralled no less than Jesus (Jim Caviezel), Hellboy (Ron Perlman) and former Secretary of State Warren Christopher (John Hurt) to do battle as Vikings with the Moorwen tribe of predators in this sci-fi/action extravaganza, raising the stakes in this oft-imitated, rarely improved genre. Alien warriors, Vikings, and kitchen wenches in the same film? Yes, please!
Opens in limited release.

“Underworld: Rise of the Lycans”
With packs upon packs of CG werewolves and an off-screen love triangle that would embarrass a daytime soap, this prequel has a little something for any viewer to sink their teeth into. Michael Sheen returns in the role of Lucian, the young Lycan who rises to the rank of pack leader and leads a rebellion against their oppressive vampire masters, led by the cruel prince Viktor (Bill Nighy). Gone from the first two films are Sheen’s real-life ex-wife Kate Beckinsale and, surprise surprise, director Len Wiseman (the guy she left Sheen for in the middle of the first movie). Instead, former “Tomb Raider” model Rhona Mitra slips into the skintight leather catsuit as Viktor’s vampiric daughter Sonja, while the series’ veteran production designer Patrick Tatopoulos determines just the right placement of the smoke machines in his feature directorial debut.
Opens wide.

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