Yes/No Detroit

There were two other movie screenings I could have attended last night, "Takers" and "The Expendables." However, I chose to see "Eat Pray Love," because I love Julia Roberts movies, and the trailer made it look interesting. It ended up being an overall decent film, albeit a very slow-moving one. Liz Gilbert (Julia Roberts, "Valentine's Day") is unhappy in her marriage to Stephen (Billy Crudup, "Public Enemies"), and after her divorce she decides to take a year-long trip around the world. She visits Italy, where she learns how to savor food; India, where she learns how to pray; and finally, Bali, where she learns how to love again. Although these are three radically different countries and cultures, Liz finds something meaningful in each experience, and by the end of her year she is once again refreshed and ready to take on life.

*By Liz Parker (Yes/No Films) and Elyssa Pearlstein ( A2-4U ) Liz Parker with Courteney Cox-Arquette, in Ann Arbor Scene from "Youth in Revolt" shot in Ann Arbor, summer '08 A few weeks ago, I was visiting with some friends in Ann Arbor and we decided to go to The Black Pearl on Main Street. Once seated, one of my friends (co-writer of this article, actually) asked me if the woman seated two bar stools down from us looked like Courteney Cox Arquette. I turned to look and was stunned – if it wasn’t Cox Arquette, it was definitely a really close look-alike. I thought that there was a good chance that it would be her since I knew that the movie she was starring in, “Scream 4,” had recently been filming in Ann Arbor. Our other friend thought that it wasn’t her; however, when fans started inching closer to her with cameras in tow, we knew that it was. Courtney graciously took pictures with us, and we left The Black Pearl a little bit starstruck. The question, then,...

After viewing the trailer for "The Other Guys" a few weeks ago, I was expecting the movie to be either really hilarious or really dumb. Unfortunately, it ended up being a mix of the two, although the audience seemed to be laughing during most of it. Terry (Mark Wahlberg, "Date Night") is sick of being "the other guy" - the guy who sits at his desk doing paperwork all day while the other policemen get to respond to calls and get all the glory. Terry was on his way to being a star policemen when he made the unfortunate mistake of shooting Derek Jeter, thinking he was an intruder at the ballpark, and so now he has to deal with his partner, Allen (Will Ferrell, "Step Brothers"), who would be content sitting at his desk and not doing any "actual" policework. When a case comes their way that may actually be big, however, they decide to step up and try to solve it; unfortunately, their boss (Michael Keaton, "Post Grad") tells them to...

There was a screening of "Step Up 3D" last week, but I had chosen to see "Charlie St. Cloud" instead, so I was glad when another screening was available for this week. This is the third film in the "Step Up" series, though I had only seen the original, which featured Channing Tatum as the main dancer. It didn't matter that I missed the second, as "Step Up 3D" can be considered a "stand-alone" film, and the 3D and the dancing in it were fantastic. Moose (Adam G. Sevani, "Step Up 2: The Streets") and Camille (Alyson Stoner, TV's "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody") are freshmen at NYU, and they are at an orientation tour when Moose spots a pair of Nike shoes he likes. When he follows the owner, he gets drawn into a street dancing competition, in which he competes and is spotted by another dancer, Luke (Rick Malambri, "Surrogates"). Moose had been a dancer in high school but is now determined to study ...

I went in to this movie not knowing much about it, except that it is based on the book, entitled The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud . Zac Efron is widely known for his roles in the "High School Musical" movies, so I was also wondering if he'd be able to pull off acting in a dramatic movie. His acting was average, but the movie itself was a pleasant surprise. Charlie St. Cloud (Zac Efron, "17 Again") seems to have it all - he's just graduated high school, he has a sailing scholarship to Stanford, and he has a little brother (Charlie Tahan, "Nights in Rodanthe") who adores him. All of that changes, however, after a fatal car accident, in which he survives but his brother does not. Charlie defers from Stanford, and we then flash-forward to five years later, in which he is working as the groundskeeper at the local cemetery where his brother is buried. He reunites with Tess (Amanda Crew, "Sex Drive"), a high school classmate of his who ...

I had chosen to see a preview screening of "Salt" over "The Kids are All Right" this past Wednesday, but it was still a movie I wanted to see, so a friend and I made the trek to Royal Oak, which is currently the only local theater that has it. I was expecting it to be fabulous because it had 96% on RottenTomatoes; disappointingly, however, it turned out to be a movie that is more of a "critics pleaser" and not the type of movies I like to see. Nic (Annette Bening, "The Women") and Jules (Julianne Moore, "Chloe") have a lovely life together with their two biological children, 18-year-old Joni (Mia Wasikowska, "Alice in Wonderland"), who is on the cusp of leaving for college, and 15-year-old Lazer (Josh Hutcherson, "Bridge to Terabithia"). Their children were conceived by the same sperm donor - technically Nic is Joni's mom and Jules is Lazer's, but the two kids refer to them collectively as their "Moms....

More photos from the Chicago set, courtesy of Brian Garfield: A post-apocalyptic Chicago Burnt-out car Shooting at someone/something A crew member surveys the wreckage

"Transformers 3" has been filming in Chicago over the past few weeks, including last weekend, when my friends and I were there visiting. Parts of Michigan Ave. has been roped off, and one of my friends was lucky enough to able to get a few pictures of the set: (photos courtesy of Joyce Tseng) Bridge being lifted up Looks to be some sort of racecar Filming by the Inter-Continental hotel, Michigan Ave. Big truck on the set According to IMDB , "Transformers 3" will be released on July 1, 2011. Shia LaBeouf returns as Sam, and Victoria's Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whitely will be replacing Megan Fox as Mikaela. Josh Duhamel, Patrick Dempsey, John Malkovich, Francis McDormand, and John Turturro also star.

I almost didn't get to see the screening of "Salt" because I won tickets from a marketing company but never received them in the mail. Luckily, a friend of mine had extra tickets, so I was able to attend. "Salt" is definitely one of the flashiest movies I've seen this year, but sometimes flashy can't always make up for lack of substance. Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie, "Wanted") is an agent in the CIA, whose cover is that she works for a financial institution. She's married to Mike (August Diehl, "Inglorious Basterds") and has an overall happy life - until, one day, she is accused of being a Russian spy. She immediately goes on the run, presumably to make sure her husband is safe, and the CIA agents chase after her, though it's obvious that she can outrun, out-shoot, and evade them very easily. Her colleague, Ted (Liev Schreiber, "Repo Men"), insists she's innocent, but as they chase her from city to city, he begi...

"The Way" was screened by Grace Hill Media, and the rep at the screening informed us that we were about the third audience in the United States who has seen this movie. We were then told that Emilio Estevez, the director and actor in the movie, would be around after the movie for a Q&A session. When Emilio stepped out after the movie to answer questions, he introduced another "special guest" - his father, Martin Sheen, who played the main character in the movie. Needless to say, having two acclaimed Hollywood stars in the house was a special treat, and I am glad that I liked the movie as well so that I can give it a positive review. Tom (Martin Sheen, TV's "The West Wing") gets a phone call one day that his only son, Daniel (Emilio Estevez, "D3: The Mighty Ducks"), has died in Europe while starting his journey on the Camino de Santiago in Spain. They hadn't been close since Daniel's mother died, but Tom is devastated nonetheless, ...

I was prepared to be dazzled by Inception because it had scored 100 percent on RottenTomatoes.com after early screenings, and my expectations were not only met, but exceeded. The Tomatometer rating has since dropped to about 90 percent, but don't let that put you off. Inception is the type of movie that I want to see when I go to the theater: one that is not only clever, but also mindblowing. Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio, "Shutter Island") is a trained thief of an unusual kind: he breaks into people's minds and steals information from them while they are sleeping. He misses his two children, however, and when he is offered a case by a businessman (Ken Watanabe, "Memoirs of a Geisha") who promises to get him back to the United States, he takes it. Instead of stealing information, though, he wants Cobb to use inception, and plant an idea into the head of Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy, "The Dark Knight"), heir to a massive business empire. Cobb's a...

The trailer for this movie made it look like it was going to be either hilarious or incredibly stupid. What it ended up being, however, was a mix of the two, and it definitely had some scenes that made the audience laugh hysterically. Tim (Paul Rudd, "I Love You, Man") is hoping to be promoted at his job at a financial company, and when his boss extends him a dinner invitation, he can't refuse. The only catch is this: each employee is to bring a "person of special talent" to dinner - aka, an idiot. When Tim literally runs into Barry (Steve Carell, TV's "The Office") after hitting him with his car, the two become friends of sorts, and Tim asks Barry to the dinner. Barry's specialty is making dioramas with dead mice dressed up in costumes, and Tim thinks that this "talent" of his will be just the thing to win Tim his promotion.

A lot of my friends were really excited about "The Last Airbender," as it's based off an animated television series called "Avatar" (unrelated to the movie). I haven't seen the animated series but the movie looked like it would be good, and it's 3D as well. However, as with many films these days, I ended up being disappointed. Aang (newcomer Noah Ringer) has been frozen in ice for the past century, until Katara (Nicola Peltz, "Deck the Halls") and Sokka (Jackson Rathbone, "Eclipse") find him. They soon figure out that Aang is an avatar, which means that he has the ability to manipulate air, water, earth, and fire. However, Aang ran away from his teachers, who were monks, before he learned to bend water, earth, and fire; therefore, he is only an "air bender." Sokka and Katara are from the Water Nation and they offer to find "water bender" teachers for him. The plot gets complicated because Prince Zuko (Dev Patel, ...