Movie-O-Meter: Tilda Swinton Plays a Vampire, Cameron Diaz Flops, and Our Take on Paul Walker’s Final Film

Capsule reviews of the weekend’s new movies. Should you see it, wait for DVD, or skit it altogether? We lay it out below. 

SEE IT NOW!
1. Only Lovers Left Alive:  Jim Jarmusch jumps on the played-out vampire shtick with his own brand of moody, slow-paced atmospherics. However, he was smart enough to cast a thoroughly dynamic pair of leads (Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston) to portray his depressed, achingly bored immortals. Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%

2. The Railway Man: The continued on-screen suffering of Colin Firth shows no signs of abating. Here, he plays a former WWII POW, still haunted by his torture, given the opportunity to confront his primary tormentor many years later. Also with Nicole Kidman (welcome back, Nicky!), as his well-intentioned wife. Rotten Tomatoes Score: 65%

WAIT FOR DVD
1. Hateship Loveship: I guess we’re still waiting for the definitive film adaptation of the work of the great Alice Munro. This one features the talented Kristen Wiig as a quiet, lonely woman hired as a caregiver to a somewhat wild young woman (Hailee Steinfeld), who cruelly sets up her nanny with her drug-addled father (Guy Pearce). Rotten Tomatoes Score: 50%

2. The Quiet Ones: A horror flick with an age-old premise: A British scientist (Jared Harris) and a group of his students attempt a scientific examination of a troubled young woman (Olivia Cooke), and unwittingly unleash the proverbial “terrible forces” in the process. Given the filmography of the main producer, Tobin Armbrust (The Woman in Black, Let Me In), you can expect what we in the biz might call “gentle” scares more than outright terror. Rotten Tomatoes Score: 39%

SKIP IT!
1. Walking With the Enemy: The enemy in question here involves the Nazis, so no argument there, but in its bumbling execution, the story of a young man who disguises himself as an SS officer in order to locate his family, leaves, as they say, much to be desired. With Jonas Armstrong, Hannah Tointon, and Sir Ben Kingsley as the compromised Regent of Hungary who’s faced with some horrible decisions. Rotten Tomatoes Score: 26%

2. Brick Mansions: An action flick featuring some of the last work of the late Paul Walker, who plays an undercover cop in a particularly rough and walled-off section of Detroit. He decides to take a huge risk by helping an ex-con (David Belle) locate and save his girlfriend from the clutches of a ruthless drug lord (RZA). Based on the buzz, you can expect lots of choreographed stunts involving Walkder amidst a fairly brain-locked script. Rotten Tomatoes Score: 36%

3. The Other Woman: Along with flowers and sunshine, spring brings us dunderheaded revenge comedies such as this one featuring Cameron Diaz as a woman who discovers her boyfriend (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is, in fact, married to someone else (Leslie Mann). The two ladies join forces when they discover he’s actually cheating on both of them with yet another blonde beauty (Kate Upton). Thank you, Nick Cassavetes, for remaining so predictably banal. Rotten Tomatoes Score: 25%

Consult last week’s Movie-O-Meter here.