This Week in Film: April 25 2008

Two high-concept comedies open this weekend, the first has Tina Fey making her leading lady debut in Baby Mama, starring as a businesswoman who, when discovering she is infertile, hooks up with a trailer trash-type surrogate mom, Amy Poehler, in order to have her baby. Co-Starring Greg Kinnear, Sigourney Weaver and Steve Martin, it's been getting mixed reviews but fans of Fey and Poehler's work on 30 Rock and SNL should enjoy it nonetheless.

The other big comedy is the sequel to one of the biggest stoner comedies ever, Harold & Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay. Kal Penn and John Cho return in the title roles, this time running from government agents after trying to sneak a bong onboard their flight to Amsterdam. Neil Patrick Harris returns as himself and former Daily Show correspondent Rob Corddry makes an appearance. It's been said that if you enjoyed the first movie, there would be no reason not to enjoy this one.

Opening at Tinseltown is Helen Hunt's directorial debut Then She Found Me, based upon the novel by Elinor Lipman, co-starring Bette Midler, Matthew Broderick and Colin Firth. Hunt headlines this romantic comedy as a schoolteacher who gets involved with Firth, the father of one of her students, after her husband (Broderick) leaves her. More stress is added when a talk show host (Midler) comes forward, professing to being her real mother.

From the director of The Station Agent comes the much-acclaimed comedy-drama The Visitor, starring Richard Jenkins as a college professor who travels to New York for a conference, only to find a young couple living in his apartment. The film has been receiving incredible reviews and it's playing exclusively at Fifth Avenue Cinemas.

On April 26 at the Centre for Performing Arts, the yearly Crazy8s Film Festival screens this year's crop of 8 short films made by 8 filmmakers on a budget of $800 in a time period of 8 days. It starts at 7 p.m. and tickets are available at Biz Books, on-line or at the door. Check out www.crazy8s.cc for more details.

All this week at the Vancouver Film Centre is a special series showcasing four documentaries examining life on the streets: The Forgotten Woman, Bevel Up: Drugs, Users and Outreach Nursing, Carts of Darkness and It Was A Wonderful Life. Different films play on different nights so make sure to check out www.vifc.org for showtimes.

Playing at Cinematheque this weekend is the double-bill of Alain Resnais' 1963 film Muriel, starring Delphine Seyrig and Jean-Luc Godard's classic 1967 film La Chinoise in a new 35mm print and on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, Luchino Visconti's 1960 epic Rocco And His Brothers, screens. Go to www.cinematheque.bc.ca for more details.