Atlantic City Weekly

Hilary Swank in The Reaping

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A self-proclaimed movie junkie needs a little cinematic substance to keep her addiction alive. As an ardent film fan, I'm barely on life support this spring with the movie selections available. Other than the release of the brilliant Academy Award-winning The Lives of Others and the B-movie fun of Grindhouse, the pickings have been exceedingly slim.

Apocalypto Lite

Pathfinder isn't exactly horrible, but it is quickly forgettable. Imagine a B-grade combination of Mel Gibson's Apocalypto and Terrence Malick's The Lost World.

Taking an interesting topic, the Vikings' 10th century exploitation of the new world, the film is little more than an excuse to present a bunch of slice and dice battle scenes that are filmed with murky cinematography and a notable absence of emotional resonance.

The Norsemen were brutal conquerors who slaughtered the innocent native people or took them as slaves. A Viking child is the only survivor of a shipwreck, and is raised as a member of the Wampanoag tribe. He is called Ghost (Karl Urban). When the dragon ships of the Vikings return 15 years later, he tries to save his adopted people. What follows is a lot of slaughtered natives and a few moments of triumph for Ghost in the current trendy, "graphic novel" style. It's a movie that isn't interesting enough to be cringe-worthy.

Biblically Bad

Cringe-worthy is the appropriate catch phrase for The Reaping, a flick on the biblical plague side of the horror film ledger. For some inexplicable reason, the movie stars two-time Academy Award-winning actress Hilary Swank. Her gravitas as an actor keeps the movie from inducing the cringe-worthy moments until the final 15 minutes. Otherwise, the movie tosses in a kitchen sink full of classic fright moments -- the evil lurking child, devil worshippers, and a series of biblical plagues we haven't seen the likes of since Demi Moore in The Seventh Sign. I'll admit that flick was a guilty pleasure of mine. The Reaping, however, goes from barely tolerable to insufferable in the time it takes to unveil a stupid twist ending that seals the deal. The Reaping is the first film on my 10 worst list for 2007.

Dynamic Dinos

A trip back in time, narrated by Donald Sutherland -- and in glorious 3D -- salvaged a bad week of moviegoing. Dinosaurs 3D: Giants of Patagonia is an example of what the IMAX 3D format does to perfection. It is the perfect blend of scholarly information and totally cool dinosaurs brought to vivid life. Professor Rodolfo Coria, a world-renowned Argentinian paleontologist, expresses his passion for his craft as he reminds us that amateurs make most dinosaur discoveries.

Patagonia is a huge stretch of land in Argentina and Chile that is rich with the fossil remains of dinosaurs. The two covered in detail in Dinosaurs 3D are the plant-eating Argentinosaur (the biggest animal to ever walk the earth, longer than the blue whale) and the Giganotosaur, which is similar to, but much bigger than, the T-Rex.

Besides seeing the dinosaurs stomping around loudly and proudly, the film also provides some interesting facts. Professor Coria suggests that despite their small brains, there is evidence that Giganotosaurs hunted in packs. He adds they might have deliberately wounded the much bigger Argentinosaurs hoping they would die later from their wounds and provide a meal that way. The 40-minute film also supports the theory that a giant comet that hit the ocean near Mexico's Yucatan peninsula is the event that led to the demise of the dinosaurs. That strike is the big finale of Dinosaurs 3D. The film is rated G, but if you have a small child who is scared of loud noises, this film might not be suitable.

Note: Until April 28, when the IMAX box office reopens, all IMAX tickets are on sale at the Tropicana box office in the North Tower lower level.

To read more about movies and other topics covered by movie critic Lori Hoffman under her blog alias Moviejunkie, visit http://blogs.atlanticcityweekly.com/