Capsule reviews of films opening this week:
"Gentlemen Broncos" — This latest comedy from the makers of indie sensation "Napoleon Dynamite" is so weird, so off, so simply wrong that even freakish nerd Napoleon would have a hard time lending it his catch word, "Sweet." The husband-and-wife team of director Jared Hess and co-writer Jerusha Hess, who followed "Napoleon Dynamite" with basically the same movie in "Nacho Libre," strain to mine another misfit story in like vein. Michael Angarano stars as an aspiring sci-fi writer whose story is stolen by his literary hero (Jemaine Clement). Clement is the lone highlight by virtue of being occasionally funny and not completely off-putting like the rest of the cast, which includes Jennifer Coolidge, Sam Rockwell, Mike White, Halley Feiffer and Hector Jimenez. The filmmakers wallow in such gags as explosive reptile defecation, gonad theft and projectile vomiting, delivering a chaotic, infuriating mess that will challenge the most-devoted of the "Napoleon Dynamite" faithful. PG-13 for some crude humor. 90 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.
_ David Germain, AP Movie Writer
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"House of the Devil" — Filmmaker Ti West's homage to low-rental 1980s horror scores points for restraint and attention to detail but defaults when the mortgage comes due with a bloody, pointless, uninspired climax. Newcomer Jocelin Donahue stars as a college sophomore on a baby sitting job for a creepy couple (Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov) who have devilish plans for her on the night of a lunar eclipse. The movie is 90 percent setup, some of it acutely observed and starkly evocative of the decade in which it's set, yet much of it as dull and forgettable as the big-hair '80s. At the end, when up jumps the devil and his followers at last, West's moderation vanishes in an instant, the movie collapsing into noisy, splotchy, gory mayhem, clumsily stitched together and obscured by strobe-light effects. For mood, it's a faithful flashback, but the movie's about as scary as something you saw again and again way back when. R for some bloody violence. Running time: 93 minutes. Two stars out of four.
_ David Germain, AP Movie Writer
Source: AP News
