Getaway PG-13
Though originally reported to be a remake of the 1972 film The Getaway, this story is anything but. In an effort to save his kidnapped wife, Brent Magna (Ethan Hawke) must get behind the wheel of a Shelby Mustang Super Snake and follow orders from a mysterious man (Jon Voight) who demands that Brent obtain an unobtainable package in a race against the clock. Brent is aided by the car’s owner—a computer-savvy girl known simply as The Kid (Selena Gomez)—and by Voight’s omnipresent voice as a character wirelessly linked to the car, able to see and hear everything Brent does and says. The film has stealthily avoided early screenings, but it can’t avoid the buzz surrounding Gomez as the world’s most unlikely hacker and Hawke portraying a squint-happy driver. (Lisa Miller)
One Direction: This is Us PG
After competing in Britain’s “X Factor” and placing third in the finals, boy band “1D” (as affectionately known to teenyboppers) proved itself an ongoing phenom, and received a recording contract from show creator and judge Simon Cowell. They didn’t disappoint, going on to sell 13 million albums worldwide. Ever enterprising, Cowell, in producer mode, wrangled Supersize Me director Morgan Spurlock to follow the lads during their six-month, 100-show tour, culminating at the Los Angeles Staples Center. Hailing from working class families, the object is to show them for the regular, humble, grateful fellows they are. The film succeeds by eliminating all footage of partying, womanizing and imbibing, while inserting many shots of their mums, all bursting with pride, and now living well, thanks to their hard-working sons. (L.M.)
