THIS WEEKEND - Periodically a movie comes along that looks perfectly forgettable, if not downright bad, yet the critics surprise you by raving about it. Case in point: Barbershop, a comedy that takes place over one day in a South Side Chicago barbershop. Ice Cube leads a cast that includes Cedric the Entertainer and rapper Eve, making her acting debut. An astounding 46 out of 55 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes are positive. A.O. Scott of the New York Times writes: "The movie's quiet affirmation of neighborhood values gives it an honest, lived-in glow." (Barbershop is rated PG-13.) Salon's usually cantankerous Charles Taylor admits the movie has "a sentimental, preachy side," but goes on to say: "What makes "Barbershop" so likable, with all its flaws, is that it has none of the pushiness and decibel volume of most contemporary comedies (it's nothing like the frenetic bash the trailers make it appear to be). Sitting in a barbershop listening to the neighborhood characters try to out-B.S. one another should be relaxing, a chance to put your feet up and give vent to your gripes, and that's what the movie is." It sounds roughly comparable to Smoke, the Paul Auster-penned movie starring Harvey Keitel and William Hurt -- only with more humor and less philosophical heaviness. I wasn't planning on seeing Barbershop, but the positive critical reaction has me intrigued. On the opposite end of the quality spectrum is Stealing Harvard, starring Jason Lee and Tom Green. Apparently the plot involves Lee and Green trying to steal the money to pay tuition to Harvard for Lee's niece. Why a comedic talent like Lee, best known for his saracastic wit in Kevin Smith's films, would want to co-star with Green is a mystery. 35 out of 38 reviews dismiss the film -- with extreme prejudice. I've seen the previews for this movie multiple times and haven't laughed once. Opening in wider release -- or at least wide enough to finally play in Iowa City/Cedar Rapids -- is One Hour Photo, which features Robin Williams as a psycho photo shop employee who becomes a little too enamored with one of the families whose photos he processes. Williams playing his third nutjob in a row, after Death to Smoochy and Insomnia, is a little troublesome. But the reviews have been mostly positive, and at least he's exploring his dark side a bit, rather than trying to make the world a better place. Does anybody really want to see Patch Adams again?

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PLEASE PARDON THE DUST - No, I'm not just being lazy with my posts...CinemaScoped is currently under construction. I'm working to add links to all of my archived film reviews, articles, and essays. I plan to finish up this weekend and get back to blogging Monday. I should be able to get some comments posted tomorrow morning on this weekend's new releases though. Thanks for your patience.

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EMINEM AND OSCAR? - If you've been ignoring or simply refusing to believe the buzz surrounding rapper Eminem and his upcoming movie 8 Mile, well, it's time to hop on board the hype train. In his report yesterday from the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), where 8 Mile debuted, Movie Poop Shoot's Jeffrey Wells praised the first-time actor's portrayal: "Is Eminem's performance as good as tipsters have been claiming? He's better than good -- he's got the kind of natural, unforced charisma that makes you want to study him every moment he's on-screen. But the movie doesn't give him a wide range of emotions -- he mostly plays either angry and guarded, or guarded and angry -- or ask him to dig deeply within and reveal the inner needy child, so the likelihood of acting awards isn’t all that high." Roger Ebert similarly assessed Eminem's performance, though with considerably less glowing prose, in his midterm report on the 27th annual TIFF: "Eminem emerges from the film as a grungy, sympathetic proletarian, although in his next film he could stand to lighten up a little." The movie is based on Eminem's own rough upbringing and ultimate escape from a lower-middle class section of Detroit; the title refers to the road that divides the black part of Detroit from the white suburbs. Eminem's alter ego is named Jimmy Smith (a.k.a "Rabbit"), and the movie starts with him moving back into his destructive mother's (Kim Basinger) trailer. Wells says the movie "rigorously avoids those emotional, spirit-lifting plot turns that movies about kids with musical talent have been known to resort to – i.e., ending up with a record contract, winning the heart of a girl who worships him, etc." I'll be honest, I was initially skeptical about this movie when I first heard about it six months ago or so. Not being a huge fan of Eminem's music, I wasn't all that excited about seeing him act. And what about Curtis "L.A. Confidential-Wonder Boys" Hanson opting to direct? It seemed to me a terrible career move at the time. Then something interesting happened -- I saw the first trailer, and, frankly, it blew me away. (Judging the book after reading a few pages and not from the cover, what a novel idea?) Eminem's acting (for what a few glimpses in a trailer are worth) seemed solid, and the overall tone was gritty and unflinching. It also featured one of the best uses of a song in a trailer -- "Cleaning Out My Closet," a track off Eminem's new album that is also his latest single. It's one of the darkest, unsparingly angry articulations of childhood anger I've ever heard -- and it's catchy to boot. Imagine Sylvia Plath recording a rap album with Dr. Dre as her producer. The second trailer only encouraged my enthusiasm for 8 Mile. It focuses more attention on Jimmy's musical talents than the first one, and showcases an even better track called "Lose Yourself," which will be featured on the movie's soundtrack. 8 Mile opens November 8 and also stars Brittany Murphy and Mekhi Phifer.

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REVIEW: CITY BY THE SEA - I voiced two concerns last week in my preview of City by the Sea, starring Robert DeNiro as a New York City homicide detective (Vincent LaMarca) trying to protect his druggie son, Joey, who is wanted for murder: 1) As Joey, James Franco's considerable talent would be wasted in a role that basically required him to look really grubby, hide in abandoned buildings, and make clandestine calls from pay phones. 2) Director Michael Caton-Jones and screenwriter Ken Hixon would cut out the heart of the movie's source material -- a 1997 Esquire article about the real Vincent LaMarca, his troubled son, and his infamous father who was put to death in the electric chair in 1959 for kidnapping and murdering a baby -- in favor of a more conventional Hollywood story; in other words, they'd forsake character development and dance around the complicated generational angst of this family in order to package it as a suspenseful crime thriller. Surprisingly, the movie almost made me forget both of these concerns -- almost. First, there's actually some substance to Franco's role. The movie opens with his strung-out character trying to hock a guitar on the now-dilapidated Long Beach boardwalk to score some drugs. After "getting well," as they say, Joey and a friend meet a dealer to get some more; a confrontation ensues and the dealer's bloated body is found the next morning washed up by the river. This first section of the film is wholly devoted to Joey and the event that sparks the rest of the story. DeNiro's character doesn't even appear until 15 to 20 minutes in, which I thought was a bold choice considering Vincent is really the central character of the story. It shows that the filmmakers wanted to make Joey a fully-rounded character rather than merely a cog to propel the plot forward. Franco has the same brooding sensibility that James Dean had (he got a Golden Globe nomination last year for playing Dean in a TNT original movie) and he brings some nuance here to the traditional strung-out son character. When he tells his mom (Patti Lupone) that he hates his life as a junkie and wants to get better, we immediately dismiss his claims just as she does because, like her, we've heard it all before (mostly in movies, of course). But Franco seems so genuinely fractured and beaten down that we can't help but sympathize with his character, even if we are just being conned by his charms. Slate's David Edelstein says it better than I can: "Franco is epically strung out: He doesn't have the dead eyes you see in most junkies; his burning orbs signal there's still a soul to save." I also credit Franco for being willing to get so dirty -- and by that I mean physically, though it applies to his character's emotional condition as well. He's so down-and-out that he makes Jared Leto in Requiem For A Dream look like he's going to his senior prom by comparison. You can practically smell the stink coming off him. As for my second concern, City by the Sea is a lot less formulaic and predictable than most critics give it credit for. In fact, up until the last half-hour or so, Caton-Jones stays focused on character over plot, showing how the LaMarca family is unable to break the cycle of anguish caused by Vincent's father. It's worth noting that DeNiro's character spends more time examining his life and the choices he has made -- like never really being a father to Joey after he and Joey's mother went through a bad divorce -- than he does playing cop, piecing together clues to try and prove his son's innocence. It may be the only time in movie history where a cop is told by his commanding officer to get off the case, take a week off, and the cop actually listens! Alas, the traditional crime movie machinations kick in -- the classic "partner killed" plot device is invoked, a drug dealer named Spider (William Forsythe) wants Joey dead for killing his employee -- all of which leads to an awkwardly-staged shoot-out finale that ties everything too neatly together. It ruins what was otherwise a fairly grim, intelligent character study on fathers and sons, and the difficulty of trying to escape one's past.

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SWIMFANS? - There are quite a few people in this country desperate for entertainment as Swimfan somehow managed to top the weekend box office with $12.5 million. My Big Fat Greek Wedding continued its upward trend with $10.5 million, good enough for another second place finish. City by the Sea, the crime drama starring Robert DeNiro, took third with $9 million. I saw City by the Sea late last night and will have a reaction posted this evening.

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