Movie Releases, 3/17

After a long wait, V for Vendetta finally arrives. The original release date was last November, and a number of reasons were given for the push--the first was because of the July London bombings. Then, in Entertainment Weekly, producer Joel Silver said it was moved because it wasn't finished. Hopefully, it has nothing to do with reshoots or massive editing. I wasn't too excited about this back then--the trailers were pretty awful. Now, they've gone back and marketed this better. I think the push was an extremely wise choice, because now even I want to see it. The Wachowski Brothers scripted from the comic book by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, and long-time second unit director James McTeigue gets his feature debut. Natalie Portman will probably set off a trend of women trying to look sexy bald. She might be one of the only women in the world who can do it.

Also arriving this weekend--Amanda Bynes in She's the Man. This is one of those ridiculous premises where suspension of disbelief takes a huge beating. Here, she's taking over for her brother at college while he whisks off to London. The comely Bynes still looks like a girl even after the "transformation." Still, there's a shot this could be funny, but I'm not banking on it.

And here's a movie I think is going to be really funny: Thank You for Smoking. Aaron Eckhart plays a tobacco lobbyist is what is sure to be a fun dark comedy. Well, I hope. This has a huge cast including Maria Bello, William H. Macy, Adam Brody, Katie Holmes, Sam Elliott, and well, just a ton more. Ivan Reitman's son Jason directs.