Movies opening this week

The Astronaut Farmer (Billy Bob Thornton, Virginia Madsen, Max Thieriot, Jasper Polish, Logan Polish, dir. Michael Polish)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
I think that sometimes critics, in their zeal to decry anything formulaic or manipulative, forget that a movie with a positive outlook that makes you feel good can be worthy of praise if it's made well and accomplishes those tasks in an honest and entertaining fashion. Despite its occasional dips into sentimentality, this is exactly such a film, and all the more refreshing given that it comes from the Polish brothers, whose indie projects have gotten increasingly esoteric. This is a family film, an upbeat film, an inspirational film, and it succeeds at all of those things, and that's not something to belittle. Wide release

The Number 23 (Jim Carrey, Virginia Madsen, Danny Huston, Logan Lerman, dir. Joel Schumacher)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
As Nathan Lee notes in his hilarious review, this movie was a lot more fun to write about than it was to watch. Wide release

Reno 911!: Miami (Thomas Lennon, Robert Ben Garant, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Cedric Yarbrough, dir. Robert Ben Garant)
Yes, this is basically just an overextended version of the TV show, which itself is just a series of loosely connected sketches. Yes, it runs out of steam even at barely 80 minutes. Yes, it's pretty much Police Academy with better jokes. But it's very funny, and it's actually got one virtuoso single-take set-piece that's alone worth renting it on DVD, at least. Wide release

Seraphim Falls (Pierce Brosnan, Liam Neeson, Michael Wincott, dir. David Von Ancken)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
It's nice to see more Westerns getting made, especially ones as gritty and engrossing as this one (at least until the end). It's good that this is a decent movie, too, because it'll probably have to carry the torch for its entire genre for the next few months or even until next year, depending on when the next example of this sadly underproduced genre gets made. Opened limited Jan. 26; in Las Vegas this week