Though the entertainment media was shy about reporting it, the Christian-themed marital drama Fireproof (Samuel Goldwyn) was an enormous hit, parlaying its modest $500,000 budget into a $33 million in church-group cash. But has there ever been a blander troubled marriage than the one between the protagonist (Kirk Cameron) and his wife? Cameron turns to a 40-day, faith-driven handbook to patch up the relationship, but if he went easy on the Internet porn and washed a dish every once in a while, he'd have no problems…
Director Neil LaBute has made six features since his galvanizing debut In The Company Of Men, but does he have anything left to teach us? His overheated racial melodrama Lakeview Terrace (Sony) has an intriguing premise about a black cop (Samuel L. Jackson) who harasses an interracial couple (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington) that moves in next door. But before long, LaBute's reliably misanthropic view of humanity hijacks the movie, then pushes it completely off the cliff in the ridiculous final act…
The brooding cop drama Pride And Glory (Warner Bros.) rotted on a shelf for years, in spite of a cast led by Edward Norton, Colin Farrell, and Jon Voight. And with good reason: It's a dreary, joyless slog through cop-movie and family-melodrama clichés. A tormented detective (Norton) investigates a corrupt cop ring led by his out-of-control brother-in-law (Farrell)…
The almost perversely non-commercial '70s-style social-issue drama The Lucky Ones (Lionsgate) originally boasted a nifty marketing hook in six songs from country mega-stars The Dixie Chicks. Alas, the Chicks pulled their songs, leaving Neil Burger's scruffy road movie about an unlikely friendship formed by Iraq War veterans Tim Robbins, Michael Peña, and a limping Rachel McAdams to die a quicker death at the box office…
The good news: RocknRolla (Warner Bros.), a colorful gangland comedy starring Tom Wilkinson and Gerard Butler, is the best Guy Ritchie movie yet, and a big rebound after his execrable Revolver. The bad news: It's still a Guy Ritchie film.