Movies opening this week

Fool's Gold (Matthew McConaughey, Kate Hudson, Donald Sutherland, Alexis Dziena, dir. Andy Tennant)
A.O. Scott's recent lament of the sorry state of the romantic comedy, pegged to the release of this movie, is maybe a little too they-don't-make-'em-like-they-used-to nostalgic for my taste, but certainly the genre has pretty much bottomed out, thanks in part to McConaughey and Hudson, both of whom were at one time promising actors. This movie isn't even particularly romantic, instead spending far too much time focused on its incomprehensible treasure-hunt plot (a scene in which the main characters explain how they found the treasure is mind-numbingly nonsensical), and indulging in much more violence than is appropriate for such a light diversion. Its pretty scenery, both in locations and actors, is all it has going for it, and even that gets old after nearly two hours. Wide release

Kurt Cobain About a Son (documentary, dir. AJ Schnack)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
I saw this movie back in June at CineVegas, and it was one of my most highly anticipated films of the festival. I'm a huge Nirvana fan, but I found this movie to be a big disappointment. Fans won't find it particularly illuminating; the images that Schnack matches to Cobain's narration don't bolster anything that Cobain says, and although they are occasionally pretty they quickly become repetitive. I'm all for taking the documentary in more experimental, less conventional directions, but I think this is a case where a straightforward approach would have worked better. Opened limited Oct. 3; in Las Vegas this week