The Ugly Truth — Is this the revenge of Katherine Heigl? You may recall Heigl’s lament to Vanity Fair about her role in Knocked Up, in which she played a beautiful, successful but humorless control freak whom no right-thinking person could possibly imagine hooking up with a crude, slovenly schlub like Seth Rogen. Now Heigl has channeled her outrage over this terribly sexist piece of casting into the role of Abby Richter, a beautiful, successful but humorless control freak who hooks up with a far cruder and much more sexist character who happens to be played by dreamy Gerard Butler. Well done, Ms. Heigl! That’ll show ‘em!
Richter is the producer of a Sacramento morning show with plummeting ratings. Butler plays the show’s potential savior, Mike Chadway, a boorish public-access personality known for advising men to tap into their inner Neanderthal as a means of seducing women. Over Richter’s objections, Chadway joins the morning-show team, and before long he’s convinced her to let him advise her on her own love life. If you still can’t see where this is going, director Robert Luketic (Monster-in-Law, 21), who never met a high concept he couldn’t render even more obvious and sitcom-like, will be only too happy to lead you by the nose.
The movie might be entirely forgettable if not for Heigl’s valiant attempt at topping Meg Ryan’s famous restaurant orgasm from When Harry Met Sally, albeit with the aid of experimental vibrating panties. At least if her movie career falters, she can always fall back on endorsing a line of electronic underwear.
Orphan — After losing their unborn child, John and Kate Coleman (Peter Sarsgaard and Vera Farmiga) adopt a seemingly sweet little girl named Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) who is — all together now — not what she seems. “You’ll never guess her secret,” the trailers promise, but honestly we’ve heard some pretty good guesses already.
Shrink — Kevin Spacey’s latest attempt at getting back in our good graces (we still haven’t forgiven him for K-PAX) may actually play to his strengths. Spacey plays an L.A. psychiatrist to the stars whose own life goes to pot (literally) after a family tragedy.
G-Force — Walt Disney’s blend of live-action and 3D digital animation concerns a super-team of trained guinea pigs working for the government to stop a madman (Bill Nighy) from taking over the world. Wait a minute — wasn’t this one of Dick Cheney’s black-ops projects?
