Reel News: Week of April 30 — Avengers, Joyful Noise, New Year’s Eve

Theatrical Releases This Week

Marvel’s The Avengers
Director: Joss Whedon
PG-13; 127 min
Trailer

Marvel Studios presents Marvel’s The Avengers-the Super Hero team up of a lifetime, featuring iconic Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins. (Synopsis by Marvel)

Check out my review on The Dagger later this week.

DVD Releases This Week

Joyful Noise
Director: Todd Graff
PG-13, 1 hr. 58 min.
Trailer

The small town of Pacashau, Georgia, has fallen on hard times, but the people are counting on the Divinity Church Choir to lift their spirits by winning the National Joyful Noise Competition. The choir has always known how to sing in harmony, but the discord between its two leading ladies now threatens to tear them apart. Their newly appointed director, Vi Rose Hill (Latifah), stubbornly wants to stick with their tried-and-true traditional style, while the fiery G.G. Sparrow (Parton) thinks tried-and-true translates to tired-and-old. Shaking things up even more is the arrival of G.G.’s rebellious grandson, Randy (Jeremy Jordan). Randy has an ear for music, but he also has an eye for Vi Rose’s beautiful and talented daughter, Olivia (Keke Palmer), and the sparks between the two teenagers are causing even more heat between G.G. and Vi Rose. (Synopsis by the Official Site)

A deeply unlikeable attempt at riding the “Glee” bandwagon to church. In the hands of a less talented cast, this would have been unbearable. As it stands, it is barely passable for fans of gospel music.

New Year’s Eve
Director: Garry Marshall
PG-13, 1 hr. 57 min.
Trailer

New Year’s Eve celebrates love, hope, forgiveness, second chances and fresh starts, in the intertwining stories told amidst the pulse and promise of New York City on the most dazzling night of the year. (Synopsis by Warner Brothers)

Warning: Enjoyment of this film depends on your tolerance for tooth-numbing sweetness. To top it off, the cast seems to be stranded in New York with no discernable script. What passes as humor (baby montage?) will do little more than push you one step closer to diabetes. Rumor has it watching this is what actually killed Dick Clark.