Roger Ebert Movie Review

Weekend Box Office: April 18-20, 2008

The Forbidden Kingdom tops the box office with $21.4 million

Daily Box Office: Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Forgetting Sarah Marshall tops Wednesday's box office with $1.5 million

By Jim Emerson, editor What can compare with the white-knuckle suspense of uploading a file? "Deception," that's what. This is a movie jam-packed with all the thrills of watching that little progress bar grow and grow until it fills the alloted space in the pop-up box on your computer screen.

Chapter 27 / 1/2 (R)

By Jim Emerson, editor A movie like the dismal "Chapter 27" just makes you feel bad for, and about, everybody -- including the wretched souls who made the thing. It's bad enough that the creep who killed John Lennon didn't know what he was thinking when he did it. What about the people who made this movie about him?

Forgetting Sarah Marshall / ***1/2 (R)

By Jim Emerson, editor Jason Segel's penis probably would not sell a lot of tickets all by itself. Not that there's anything wrong with it, but most of us don't think of the co-star of "Freaks and Geeks," "Knocked Up" and "How I Met Your Mother" in that way. As wise men (and women) always point out, it's not the thing itself that matters, it's what you do with it. And what Segel does with it as star and writer of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" is magnificent. Between his brief nude scene at the very beginning (a humiliating, emotionally naked break-up and breakdown), and his even briefer final one (a welcome reunion of sorts), he discovers quite a lot about himself through his genitalia.

My Blueberry Nights / **1/2 (PG-13)

By Jim Emerson, editor That glistening orange dessert under the opening credits looks like the peachiest peach cobbler in the world, especially when it's overlaid with vibrant boysenberry-creme lettering. It makes your eyes and your mouth water.

Where in the World is Osama bin Laden? / ** (PG-13)

By Jim Emerson, editor In "Big Bird Goes to the Middle East," director and guide Morgan Spurlock takes us on a souped-up, vox-populi tour of TerrorLand, using cartoons, musical numbers and PlayStation graphics. No, it's not really a licensed "Sesame Street" spinoff, though it plays like one (and Spurlock really does resemble Big Bird). The official title is "Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?" (though "Terrorism for Dummies" must have been considered) and it's structured as a video game, with escalating international "levels" of apparent difficulty: Egypt, Palestinian Territories, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan.

Movie Answer Man: Scorsese shines light on stones

Q: How would you compare Scorsese's "Shine a Light" to "No Direction Home," the brilliant documentary Scorsese made about Bob Dylan a couple years ago? I am a huge Dylan fan, never been a big Stones fan. Can I appreciate "Shine a Light" without being a Stones fan? Steve Janowski, Niles A. Sure you can. One is a biographical documentary, the other a concert documentary, both true to their genres.