Terminator Salvation

What’s the story: If this is how the end begins, wake us when it’s over. We caught Terminator Salvation last night, and about the nicest thing we can say is that it’s better than X-Men Origins: Wolverine. For those of you who haven’t seen the ubiquitous trailer—and be thankful if you haven’t, since it gives away the entire movie—Christian Bale stars as John Connor, all grown up and leading the Resistance in its struggle against the machines; you might want to check the postage on Mr. Bale, as his performance is one of the all-time great mail-it-in efforts. The same can’t be said about Sam Worthington, who plays a mysterious antihero named Marcus Wright (oh, hell, since it’s in the trailer anyway: he’s a machine, too!), and does yeomanly work amongst the giant killer robots. If you're looking for some fireworks over the holiday, we guess you can do worse than Terminator Salvation. At the very least, director McG knows how to blow stuff up real good.

Who should see it: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

What’s the story: The sequel to Night at the Museum finds Ben Stiller returning to the scene of one of his biggest hits, as a security guard who watches museum exhibits come to life. With its goofy special effects, broad comedy and silly premise, Battle of the Smithsonian looks like the type of film we would have loved in the fifth grade. Expect it to make mucho cash.

Who should see it: Sasha and Malia Obama.

The Girlfriend Experience

What’s the story: Steven Soderbergh’s Godardian take on the life of a high-class escort just so happens to be one of the better films we’ve seen this year. With a jumbled narrative that would make Quentin Tarantino blush and a riveting lead performance from a porn star (that would be Sasha Grey, the amazingly beautiful blank slate, as the escort), The Girlfriend Experience is proof that Mr. Soderbergh has no rivals when it comes to skill behind the camera. Does he have to make everything look so easy? If you’re a fan—and frankly, who isn’t?—you’d be wise to check this one out. (It’s also still available via On Demand until May 28.)

Who should see it: Ashley Alexandra Dupre.

Dance Flick

What’s the story: To answer your question: Yes, they are still making Wayans brothers movies. Though this one is from director Damien Dante Wayans, nephew of Damon, Keenan Ivory, Marlon and Shawn. As you can probably tell from the title, Dance Flick is a spoof of dance films done in the vein of Scary Movie. We’d be lying if we said the trailer didn’t make us chuckle, but don’t take that as a sign of quality.

Who should see it: The Fly Girls.

The 46-year-old director, responsible for such seminal films as Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Out of Sight, Erin Brockovich, Traffic, the Oceans franchise and the recent sprawling epic Che, laughed. “We continually have these fantasies that technology will solve whatever societal problem we have that every generation buys into. I just wish it was being used to solve the really big problems. You wonder if the ability of all the people in the Sudan to Twitter would finally tip the world into taking some significant action to stop genocide, then you’d think it was a good use of technology. If the ability to be in constant communication and the ability to connect to anybody anywhere in the world hasn’t resulted in the solving of a problem like that, than what is it for?”

The Girlfriend Experience reflects some of these anxieties, as well as others that come with living in the modern world. It follows Chelsea, a high-class call girl (Ms. Grey, in her mainstream film debut) for five days in the fall of 2008, during that tumultuous period before the presidential election, and before our economy really started to crumble. Chelsea lives with her devoted personal-trainer boyfriend (Chris Santos), and she makes enough money that she can breeze into any Soho shop and buy at will. (Take that, Pretty Woman!) But she’s ambitious; she wants to expand. Enter the Internet and all of its accessibility and sleaziness (look for an awesome cameo by former Premiere critic Glenn Kenny). “It’s changed the business a lot,” Mr. Soderbergh said of porn and the Web. “It enables them to work entirely on their own. There isn’t a fetish that exists that doesn’t have a site for people to surf.” But The Girlfriend Experience is also about money—where to get it, how to keep it and mostly how to spend it.

Mr. Soderbergh, who has been living in Chelsea (the neighborhood) since 2002 with his wife, Jules Asner, spent 16 days with a skeletal crew, a lightly written script by Brian Koppelman and David Levien and a cast of mainly unknowns (with the exception of Ms. Grey), who were given instructions to improvise. “It’s really fun, because you don’t know what you’re going to get with this kind of controlled improvisation. It’s like hands-free directing,” Mr. Soderbergh said. “You give them a goal and you give them some bullet points, other than that there are no real answers. You’ve hired them because they are close to the character they are portraying.” (Indeed, in one pivotal scene, Chelsea is interviewed by real life journalist Mark Jacobson.)

The Girlfriend Experience features a glamorous yet still kind of spookily sleek New York City, with lots of posh restaurants and pristine penthouses that all seem to hum and run on money and loneliness. “People have asked why I showed so many exteriors,” he said, getting up to pour himself a glass of orange juice and to gesture out the window at the streets below the office of Magnolia Pictures, which is releasing the film. “As a filmmaker there’s such an incredibly rich tradition of New York filmmaking so when you’re starting out, you feel a little anxious. Like, what are you going to do after Sidney Lumet or Martin Scorsese or Spike Lee? Like, what is your New York going to be?”

He clearly relished how fast the shoot was, and the ease of being able to dash anywhere with his crew and shoot so quickly and unobtrusively he could film hundreds of people crossing the sidewalk unaware (not so easy when you’ve got Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon on set, we’re guessing). “It’s tapping into the enthusiasm of the amateur,” he said. “I’ve definitely seen student films with more lights than what we used.”

Ms. Grey is a fascinating presence onscreen; where one would expect to see an actress emote, she’s mesmerizingly opaque. “People are interested in this movie because of her, not me,” said Mr. Soderbergh. “Believe me, we’re in awe of her status of porn diva. If I’d cast someone who had never been in front of a camera or a traditional actress, there wouldn’t be this kind of discussion.” He said he first became aware of her when he read about her in LA Magazine a few years ago. “She seemed like a new breed. I hadn’t heard anybody in that industry talk the way she talked. She was a mold-breaker and she’s only 21. She’s very ambitious and very, very, savvy. It will be interesting to watch people try and wrap their minds about what she does. Because she does very extreme stuff! It’s like … seriously extremely stuff.” (Go on, Google it if you don’t already know.)

The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and Mr. Soderbergh said that Grey Goose Vodka, which was set to sponsor the after-party, pulled out when they found it was Sasha who starred in the film. “Stolichnaya stepped in which is great but I was thinking, come on! Vodka and porn, that’s an American combination! I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head. “Our whole country is still confused about sex. It’s everywhere but people are still upset about it.” He pointed out the discrepancy between prostitution being illegal while women in the adult film business have sex for money, too – just in front of a camera. “It’s a larger question…are we ever going to have laws that are rooted in the way the world actually is and has been forever and will continue to be? It’s time to have laws for the way people act - not the way we want them to act.”

And, speaking of legislation, last month Mr. Soderbergh testified at a congressional hearing to discuss piracy and the movie industry. Che, he said, was “killed” in Latin and South America because it had opened earlier in Spain, which he said is the hub for piracy. “It’s a real problem,” he said. “It’s shocking. They don’t realize the amount of theft going on. When I testified I said, you have to understand that it’s the equivalent of an automaker saying that between the assembly line and car lot 25% of the cars were disappearing.” He sighed. “That’s what’s happening. Also, remember, that this is a good business. It generates like $13.5 billion a year, and it’s one of the things that America is still understood to be the best at.” He grinned “I’ve long since given up being embarrassed about working in the entertainment industry.”

The Girlfriend Experience is technically Mr. Soderbergh’s 20th film, though it’s the 19th film to be released; The Informant, starring Matt Damon will be in theaters this fall. Where does he find the time? “I work a lot because I like to work a lot,” he said. “It’s probably harder on my wife than anyone else. But she knows that’s sort of my metabolism. I won’t slow down—one day I’ll just stop. I’ll go out and do something else.” Like what? He grinned. “Maybe instead of whining I’ll get involved with some cause or activity that’s trying to improve somebody’s situation somewhere,” he said. “Instead of just looking at the paper and going, ‘Oh, God, that’s so sad.’”

svilkomerson@observer.com

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

What’s the story: For a movie that has spent the last few months dodging one publicity landmine after another—reshoots, bad buzz, online leaks—we weren’t the least bit surprised to read that the outbreak of swine flu negatively affected Wolverine’s box office in Mexico. While we won’t say the film is cursed, we can only imagine a swarm of locusts is just around the corner. As for the plot … you know the drill: Hugh Jackman stars as the titular mutant and fights with Liev Schrieber’s Sabertooth and Danny Huston’s General Stryker while stuff blows up really good. For The Observer's take, check out Sara Vilkomerson's review here.

Who should see it: Magneto.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

What’s the story: Counterprogramming at work! While all the boys are busy sharpening their claws at the showings of Wolverine, New Line hopes that the girls go see Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner meet-cute in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. Don’t expect too much though: The film, a romantic comedy version of A Christmas Carol, looks like straight poison. Not even the presence of Lacey Chabert—presumably still trying to make “fetch” happen—and the always-welcome sight of Breckin Meyer (Clueless for life!) can get us excited for this mess.

Who should see it: Kate Hudson.

The Limits of Control

What’s the story: It wouldn’t be the first weekend of summer without a little indie goodness. Enter Jim Jarmusch’s The Limits of Control, the director’s first effort since taking Bill Murray on a deadpan road trip in Broken Flowers back in 2005. Mr. Murray makes an appearance here as well (along with other famous faces like Tilda Swinton, Gael Garcia Bernal and John Hurt), but the real star of the show is Isaach de Bankolé, a frequent Jarmusch collaborator seen most recently gritting his teeth on this season of 24. We’ve found Mr. Jarmusch’s work to be hit or miss, and unfortunately it sounds like this film—the story of a mysterious loner on a dreamlike quest—fits into the latter category. The Limits of Control has a 19 percent Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and our own Rex Reed called it “pure, undiluted crap.” Hmm, what time is Wolverine showing again?

Who should see it: Ghost Dog.