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Full Slate at the Village 8

The old saying is there's a lot of leeway in a three-way but even that gets tested in The Other Woman , which opens Friday at the Whistler Village 8.
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The old saying is there's a lot of leeway in a three-way but even that gets tested in The Other Woman, which opens Friday at the Whistler Village 8. On the surface it's about a girl (Cameron Diaz) who falls in love with a guy (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), only to find he has a wife (Leslie Mann). So the scorned women become instant best friends then uncover and befriend another other woman (Kate Upton in a bikini) so all three can plot revenge.

Directed by Nick Cassavettes (The Notebook and Alpha Dog) The Other Woman shows signs of promise thanks to the acting skills and other assets of its three central females, but ultimate this one is sunk by a highly implausible script that toys with real craziness and slapstick comedy but never manages to get the dosage right. Leslie Mann is always good and the Kate Upton bikini shots might be enough to trick some dudes into checking this out on a date night but believe me, it's a trap.

The other old saying is if it ain't broke don't fix it and Trailer Park Boys 3: Don't Legalize It takes that to the bank. Canada's beloved trio of miscreants hit the road in this one, and journey to Montreal and Ontario in a flick hung on the premise that if Ottawa legalizes marijuana that will be the end of Ricky's new super-slick grow-op business. So the boys band together to convince the Canadian government to do the wrong thing. Isn't it ironic, eh?

With a 9th TV season coming down the pipe and this third movie sequel the Boys are definitely not reinventing the bong with this one but true fans should eat it up like a second bag of M&Ms. If anything Don't Legalize It should be a good teaser for The Boys' stand up performances at Pemberton Music Festival this summer (where they will presumably meet Snoop Dogg and collide two long-established weed universes in one single quasar-puff of awesomeness).

Speaking of awesomeness, Grand Budapest Hotel is also playing at the Village 8. That's the new Wes Anderson flick, a slapstick-ish tour de force from one of the most creative auteurs of the past 25 years. This one is must-see if you like your popcorn with a side of intelligence and wit and beautifully conceived mise en scene.

Heaven is for Real is some kind of religious miracle story based on a bestselling non-fiction book of the same name and starring Greg Kinnear (Stuck On You, Little Miss Sunshine). I haven't seen it (no desire to, either) but apparently one of the greatest revelations is that Jesus looks like a young Kenny Rogers. I knew that song The Gambler was too good to be penned by a mere mortal.

Speaking of Heaven, pour some on the block for Paul Walker, the Fast and Furious star who tragically died in an auto accident last November. Irony sucks sometimes because Paul was, by all accounts, a very kind and charitable person and not that bad of an actor either. Brick Mansions, opening Friday, stars Walker as a good-hearted cop working the beat in a futuristic dystopian Detroit slum who has to team up with a drug dealer (the RZA) to save a young woman and maybe an entire city. There were no pre-screeners but director Luc Besson usually dishes up tolerable action flicks (even though his career seemed to peak with 1997's The Fifth Element). Paul Walker's last screen appearance is said to be another Fast and Furious flick set for release in spring 2015. RIP to true class act.

Johnny Depp also has a film out, Transcendence, but we'll have to get to that next week...