This Week in Film: March 21st 2008

If you're a fan of Christopher Guest comedies, you can catch an ensemble cast including Woody Harrelson, David Cross and Cheryl Hines star in the mockumentary The Grand, about a high-stakes poker tournament, which is completely improvised by its actors. As Kingpin once showed, there is nothing in this world better than Harrelson playing a dirtbag.

Owen Wilson returns to the screen in the Judd Apatow/Seth Rogen production Drillbit Taylor, playing a low-rent playground bodyguard hired to defend a group of high schoolers. It also stars Danny McBride from Hot Rod, whom I think is one of the funniest up-and-coming guys out there right now. A bit of trivia: John Hughes (credited here as Edmund Dantes) wrote the original story back in the early 90s and you know a movie's gotta be good if it's been gestating in the studio system for almost 20 years.

A great cast of actors like Pierce Brosnan, Chris Cooper, Rachel McAdams and Patricia Clarkson star in a 1940s-era crime drama entitled Married Life, which has been netting good reviews from critics.

Acclaimed French Canadian director Denys Arcand returns with Days of Darkness, starring Marc Labreche as a civil servant who spends his time imagining himself as the lead character in his own made-up adventures.

Former Mighty Duck Joshua Jackson stars in Japanese director Masayuki Ochiai's Shutter, which should appeal to those who enjoy their movies cooked with b-grade acting and rehashed horror plots.

Throughout the month of March at Pacific Cinematheque, the film series Envisioning Russia: A Century Of Filmmaking presents a group of classic Russian cinema for your viewing pleasure. This week includes a newly restored print of Sergei Bondarchul's epic, 7 hour long War and Peace and New Wave auteur Marlen Khutsiev's 1967 film July Rain. Visit www.cinematheque.bc.ca for more details.

Over at Cinema 319 on 319 Main St. on March 27, The First Weekend Club presents screenings of the films Radiant City and Away From Her. Tickets are $10 in advance. www.firstweekendclub.ca

From March 27-April 6 you can catch the 20th annual Vancouver Jewish Film Festival. Tons of Jewish-themed films are screening and festival passes cost $130. Get more info at www.vjff.org

Also, the first 130 people who come to the VJFF Box Office (At 41st and Oak) to show proof of purchasing a ticket to this year's fest will receive a free pass to the sneak preview of Helen Hunt's heavily-awaited directorial debut Then She Found Me, also starring Bette Midler. Hunt and Midler in the same movie - this, my friend, must be the salad days.