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As if Idris Elba didn't have enough trouble with the Dunder Mifflin branch in Scranton. As Charles Miner on NBC's "The Office," he is a no-nonsense executive looking for a replacement for Michael Scott and shaking up the paper-company staff,
In "Obsessed," rated PG-13 and opening in theaters today, he plays Derek Charles, a successful and happily married asset manager who is stalked by a temp worker. Nothing comic about that.
Beyonce Knowles, in a nonÂsinging role, is his wife, and Ali Larter, the crazy woman. It wasn't previewed for critics in time for a review, but "Fighting" and "The Informers" were.
Shawn MacArthur (Channing Tatum) is a lovable lug with the neck of a wrestler and a grudge the size of his home state of Alabama. He is also a rising star in the world of bare-knuckle fighting in New York.
When the movie opens, he's barely surviving and peddling counterfeit goods on the sidewalks. A soft-spoken scam artist named Harvey Boarden (Terrence Howard) targets him but, after seeing his toughness and tenacity, invites him to brawl in an illegal fight.
Shawn seems to be invincible and impervious to serious injury as Harvey dangles bigger wagers and opponents at each juncture. As is often the case, a romance, the ultimate fight, a fat fortune and a chance at a new life or disastrous defeat are on the line by the end.
Directed and co-written by Dito Montiel ("A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints"), "Fighting" stages brawls in back alleys, a community hall, an Asian pleasure palace and fancy digs still under construction.
They're beat downs, with heads squeezed by legs, chokeholds and bodies slammed against or through floors, pillars or glass, all set to pounding drum music.
"Fighting" looks and sounds authentic, with the blare of car and pedestrian noises and a slice of New York where sidewalks are choked with goods for sale and everyone's got an angle. However, more attention seems to have been paid to the brawls than to the dialogue (some of which seems improvised or makes the leads inarticulate) or background of the main characters.
As he did in "Stop-Loss" and the first "Step Up" movie, Tatum combines his physicality with sexiness and an awe-shucks nice guy appeal. He and Howard complement each other, but I wanted more fessing up and less fighting, despite the title.
PG-13 for intense fight sequences, some sexuality and brief strong language.
Web site: fightingmovie.net
What are the chances of two movies set in 1983 and starring Jon Foster opening a week apart? Slim to none, but that's the case with "The Informers" coming on the heels of "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh" starring Foster as Art Bechstein.
Foster, as a tan drug-dealing child of privilege, is slightly better in this adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' collection of short fiction. But, in trying to offer a snapshot of hedonistic Los Angeles, "The Informers" feels as dated as "Dynasty," and its hindsight is obvious and intrusive.
Its main fault line lies in the number of unsympathetic characters, from cheating spouses to child abductors.
The large, impressive ensemble, which includes Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, Mickey Rourke, Amber Heard, Austin Nichols and Lou Taylor Pucci, has just a single person the audience may root for, and he is played by Brad Renfro. But since the 25-year-old Renfro died in 2008 of an accidental drug overdose, his presence is more haunting than helpful.
"The Informers," directed by Gregor Jordan and written by Ellis and Nicholas Jarecki, is self-conscious in its observation about the passing of an era.
At one point when an ailing sunbather (who we know is dying due to tell-tale signs of AIDS) asks for more sun, another character says, "There's no more sun." We get it, but it probably would play better on the page.
And that goes double for a passage in which Foster's Graham Sloan confesses: "I need someone to tell me what is good, and I need someone to tell me what's bad." Consider it done.
R for strong sexual content, nudity, drug use, pervasive language and some disturbing images.
Web site: theinformers.com
