This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The Cricket would love to tell you about all the movies coming out this weekend. Unfortunately, the powers that be declined to show most of them to him.
Of the seven new titles playing today in Salt Lake City-area theaters, only two of them were screened for local critics.
One of them, and the likely box-office champ this weekend, is "The Visit," in which writer-director M. Night Shyamalan returns to the horror genre, with disappointing results. Two teen siblings (Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould) are sent to spend a week with the grandparents they've never met, and find them (Peter McRobbie and Deanna Dunagan) to be creepy, to an increasingly disturbing degree. Shyamalan employs the found-footage style (the older sibling is supposedly filming a documentary), which exposes the holes in his screenwriting.
There is something fascinating opening at the Broadway this week: "The Prophet," an animated adaptation of Kahlil Gibran's classic book. A poet (voiced by Liam Neeson) is released from house arrest, and on his journey among the people he imparts pearls of wisdom. Each of these essays are taken from Gibran's poetry, and visualized by a different animator — a varied group that include Tomm Moore ("Song of the Sea"), Nina Paley ("Sita Sings the Blues") and Bill Plympton. Fans of Gibran's book will thrill to this cinematic companion piece, while newcomers will find this a beautiful introduction.
Also opening this week: The sexy thriller "The Perfect Guy," starring Sanaa Lathan and Michael Ealy; the comic romance "Learning to Drive," starring Patricia Clarkson and Ben Kingsley; the Christian drama "90 Minutes to Heaven," starring Hayden Christensen and Kate Bosworth; the Chinese-made adventure "Wolf Totem"; and the Mexican animated tale "Un Gallo con Muchos Huevos."