City Times takes to the multiplexes to find out what’s in store for movie buffs this week

Capitalism: A Love Story

FROM THE DESK of Michael Moore - director of the controversial but award-winning 2004 feature-length documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 - comes this week’s most-anticipated release, Capitalism: A Love Story.

Starring Moore, the film provides an in-depth critique on the subject of corporate dominance in the U.S. and the rest of the world. The script also touches on the roots of the recent financial crisis.

Deborah Young, reporting from the film’s premiere at the Venice International Film Festival earlier this year, writes in her review for The Hollywood Reporter that it is a, “typical Moore oeuvre: funny, often over the top and of dubious documentation, but with strongly made points”. The 127-minute feature has received a mostly positive response from critics and audiences alike.

The Informant!

FILMMAKER STEVEN SODERBERG’S recent satirical political comedy The Informant! stars Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, Joel McHale and Melanie Lynskey.

Penned by Scott Z. Burns, the script is based on the true story covered in American journalist Kurt Eichenwald’s 2000 book of the same name. The protagonist of the film is Mark Whitacre (Damon), a bipolar high-level executive, who blows the whistle on a price-fixing scam his company is involved in.

In her review for The Hollywood Reporter, Kirk Honeycutt rates the film as a “comedy about corporate fraud, malfeasance and a mental disorder that never quite succeeds as a comedy.” However, the 108-minute film has received a mostly positive response from critics and online reviewers.

Fifty Dead Men Walking

2008 CRIME THRILLER Fifty Dead Men Walking, based on the memoirs of Martin McGartland, finally makes it to local screens this week. Directed by Kari Skogland, the film stars Jim Sturgess, Ben Kingsley, Rose McGowan and Kevin Zegers.

Set in 1987, the plot follows an undercover informant within the Provisional Irish Republican Army (Sturgess) who works for the British Police. His cover is soon blown and the Irish see it fit to kidnap and torture him for his perceived betrayal.

Andrew Pulver from The Guardian reviews the 117-minute film as “an effective, if cinematically unambitious, enterprise, emphasising the suspense-thriller elements”. The movie has received an average to positive response from audiences.

Also opening this week are horror flicks Stagnight and actress Renee Zellweger’s Case 39, Catherine Zeta Jones’ romantic comedy The Rebound along with Hindi films Ajab Prem ki Ghazab Kahani and director Madhur Bhandarkar’s Jail.

davina@khaleejtimes.com