This Weekend At The Movies

Labor Day weekend offered a cinematic smorgasbord of horrors that included bloodthirsty sharks, psychotic rednecks, nefarious extraterrestrials and Nazis. Happy Labor Day, by the way.

John Madden’s “The Debt” is a serviceable, but ultimately average, espionage thriller that relies heavily on the performances of its able cast.

In the picture, three retired Mossad agents (Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson, Ciaran Hinds) are faced with the repercussions of a secret they attempted to bury in the 1970s.

Much of the film is set in flashback mode, during which the agents (played in their youths by Jessica Chastain, Marton Csokas and Sam Worthington) attempt to carry out a mission involving the capture of Dieter Vogel (Jesper Christensen), a Nazi war criminal who has obviously been based on Josef Mengele, the infamous “surgeon of Birkenau.”

Of course, at the heart of the film is a love triangle, of sorts, between Rachel (Mirren, Chastain), David (Hinds, Worthington) and Stefan (Wilkinson, Csokas).

The cast rises to the occasion, even when the film’s story dishes out a few ludicrous plot twists and its characters’ decisions left me skeptical. Chastain, who was a scene-stealer in “The Help” and a force of nature in “The Tree of Life,” lends the film some emotional weight.

The flashbacks are the picture’s most compelling, but flawed, sequences. The three secret agents tie up their Nazi captive and keep him in an apartment in East Berlin. But Vogel manages to manipulate the trio’s emotions through methods that are pretty obvious and not particularly believable.

The violent finale is set in the late 1990s. The circumstances leading up to a final confrontation between two characters and the picture’s denouement left me slightly incredulous.

“The Debt” moves along quickly and features some fine performances, but it is ultimately a mixed bag.

On the other hand, the new film by David R. Ellis (“Snakes on a Plane”) delivers on all promises made by a movie titled “Shark Night 3D,” which is not to say that it’s any good.

In the film, a group of attractive, scantily clad Tulane University students head off for a weekend at a Louisiana swimming hole that is settled somewhere along a secluded section of the bayou.

The youths – an arrogant model, an athlete and his girlfriend, plucky local girl, two nerds and a party girl – soon find that they are being terrorized by two crazed locals and their pet sharks.

What’s that you say? Why are there sharks in the bayou? Wait until you hear the answer – then again, that would require you to see the film, an extreme move under the circumstances. 

“Shark Night” is a fish out of water tale. No, seriously - great whites fly out of the bayou and take out teens perched on trees and riding on water scooters.

To be fair, the film’s characters are slightly more developed than your average horror movie and there are a few decent scares.

It remains to be seen whether it will stand up against this November’s “Piranha 3DD.” You might just be better off renting “Jaws.”

“Apollo 18” is the latest edition to the pantheon of found footage horror movies.

Set in 1974, the film follows the final days of three astronauts sent to the moon on a seemingly routine mission. But it turns out the men have been sent to investigate some odd occurrences on the Earth’s sole natural satellite.

During a walk on the moon’s surface, one of the men’s suits is invaded by small spidery creatures. His skin is soon covered by dark splotches. His partner makes the case for heading home, but the duo is told by the Department of Defense that they will not be allowed to reenter Earth’s atmosphere.

The film’s first half is shot as a series of jerky, disorienting handheld clips that prevent us from learning much about its characters. The latter half of the picture is an improvement as the two men investigate the strange goings-on in a crater near their ship.

Director Gonzalo Lopez-Gallego makes a wise decision to keep the creatures mostly in the shadows.

“Apollo 18” breaks no new ground in the genre launched by “The Blair Witch Project” more than a decade ago. The film is more compelling than, say, “Paranormal Activity 2,” but it also suggests that this particular genre could be on its last legs.