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Family comedy, zombie chiller to light up screen

By Lou Gaul Calkins Media Film Critic 4 min read

A television adaptation (“Bewitched”) a zombie chiller (“George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead”) and a family comedy (“Herbie: Fully Loaded”) are the top titles opening on this first weekend of summer. An awaited remake (“War of the Worlds”) will arrive on Wednesday. The new motion pictures (with release dates subject to change) playing at a theater near you include:

Now playing

– “Bewitched,” with Nicole Kidman (“The Hours”),Will Ferrell (“Elf”), Michael Caine (“Batman Begins”) and Shirley MacLaine (“Terms of Endearment”). In the overblown PG-13 romantic comedy, a self-centered actor inadvertently hires a real witch, who wants to be “normal” and find true love, to star in a remake of the vintage series “Bewitched.” The charm-challenged script contains too many feel-good encumbrances, but Kidman and Ferrell often light up the screen.

– “George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead,” with Asia Argento (“XXX”), John Leguizamo (“Carlito’s Way”) and Simon Baker (“The Ring Two”) running for their lives during this fright film. The title, which unfolds inside a walled city protecting humans from a fate worse than death, marks the Pittsburgh director’s fourth installment – after “Night of the Living Dead,” “Dawn of the Dead” and “Day of the Dead” – of his zombie franchise. Romero told Fangoria magazine that “Land,” like the previous walking-dead titles, is built on social commentary around the “idea of building a society on glass, and not caring about what’s going on around you – wearing blinders.”

– “Herbie: Fully Loaded,” with Lindsay Lohan (“Mean Girls”) in an updated version of Walt Disney’s “Love Bug” series about a supercharged Volkswagen Beetle. During this G-rated road trip, Herbie races against NASCAR favorites. Michael Keaton (“Batman”) and Matt Dillon (“Crash”) costar.

– “My Summer of Love,” with Nathalie Press and Emily Blunt as two working-class women in West Yorkshire who begin a relationship while spending a summer together. Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski (“Last Resort”) directed the R-rated import, based on the novel by Helen Cross.

– “Saving Face,” with Joan Chen (“Twin Peaks”) in a spirited romantic comedy about two Chinese-American women who meet, fall in love and then feel social pressures from those around them.

The R-rated picture marks the directing debut of Alice Wu.

Arriving Wednesday

– “War of the Worlds,” with Tom Cruise (“Collateral”) and Dakota Fanning (“Man on Fire”) in director Steven Spielberg’s mega-budget fantasy epic based on the H.G. Wells novel about space invaders destroying humans. Cruise plays a Newark blue-collar worker using his survival skills to protect his estranged wife and two young children from deadly aliens. Spielberg, who previously worked with Cruise on the futuristic hit “Minority Report,” has kept the cutting-edge visual effects under wraps.

At the buck$ office

The Caped Crusader delivered a profitable punch at the box office last weekend.

“Batman Begins,” starring Christian Bale in the title role, opened with $46.9 million. It was followed by the Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie action-comedy-romance “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” which grossed $27.3 million for a two-week total of $98 million. The Associated Press termed Hilary Duff’s “The Perfect Man” a “weak” draw. The family comedy grossed just $5.5 million in its opening weekend.

According to the Associated Press, the 10 top-grossing films last weekend were:

1. “Batman Begins” ($46.9 million)

2. “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” ($27.3 million)

3. “Madagascar” ($11.1 million)

4. “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith” ($9.7 million)

5. “The Longest Yard” ($8 million)

6. “The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3-D” ($6.6 million)

7. “The Perfect Man” ($5.5 million)

8. “Cinderella Man” ($5.2 million)

9. “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” ($3.2 million)

10. “The Honeymooners” ($2.6 million)

Coming soon!

The titles arriving on July 1 include “Rebound,” with Martin Lawrence in a basketball comedy, and “Fantastic Four,” with Jessica Alba in a superhero epic based on the Marvel comic.

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