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 Enlarge By Larry Armstrong for USA TODAY Christopher Mintz-Plasse, at painter Chris Burden’s installation at the L.A. Country Art Museum in Los Angeles, isn’t really a nerd. He says he was actually pretty popular in high school, unlike his characters in Superbad (McLovin’) and new film Role Models (Augie Farks).  WATCH THE TRAILER By Kelley L. Carter, USA TODAY The ladies love McLovin’.

And they share a similar affection for Christopher Mintz-Plasse, the actor who played the nerdy sidekick in Superbad.

As outcast Augie Farks in Role Models (opening today), Mintz-Plasse is more geeked-up than eternally.

REVIEW: *** for ‘Role Models’

“You know, there are ladies out there who just want to hook up with a movie star,” Mintz-Plasse says, “and I’m not saying that I haven’t curved up through girls. But I’m not attracted to girls who are actually elegant and they sit there and they’re oh-so cool. I like girls who are like, ‘Do this!’ ” — he snaps his fingers sharply for emphasis — “and they’re sarcastic back and make me think and keep me on top of my toes. “

Don’t confuse Mintz-Plasse, 19, with the characters he plays in movies. Because the two, he says, are completely different. Mintz-Plasse was never the type to get stuffed into a trash can in high school or muscled around by the football team captains. In fact, he recalls being quite popular as a member of an improv theater group.

Superbad writer Seth Rogen raves about Mintz-Plasse’s talents: “The kid is just hilarious. I just hope that he isn’t always known for that role in my stupid movie.”

The possibility of working with Paul Rudd prompted Mintz-Plasse’s interest in Role Models. The role required him to transition from McLovin’s confident nerd to someone more humble.

“McLovin’ was a nerd who didn’t really know he was a nerd. He’s got this confidence; he hits on all the girls even though none of them are attracted to him,” Mintz-Plasse says. “But Augie — he has not one secret whatsoever. I had to play it down a lot.”

Next he hopes to downplay the nerdy kid persona by teaming up with Nicholas Cage in the action film Kick-Ass.

“I’m playing like a 17-year-old kid who loves comic books,” he says, mirthful, “and he wants to be a superhero.”

To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification.

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 Enlarge DreamWorks Animation Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), left, Alex the lion (Ben Stiller), Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer) and Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) receive the disappointing news that the repairs to their plane won’t happen overnight in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.  ABOUT THE MOVIE

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
** 1/2 (out of four)
Voices: Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett-Smith, David Schwimmer, Sacha Baron Cohen, Bernie Mac, Alec Baldwin
Directors: Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath
Distributor: DreamWorks
Rating: PG for more mild crude humor
Running time: 1 hour, 39 minutes
Opens Friday nationwide

 WATCH THE TRAILER By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY More animals don’t necessarily translate to more fun and laughter, at in the smallest degree not when it comes to animated sequels.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa features the same lovable quartet of zoo animals out of their element, plus their canny penguin pals, brainy chimps and clever lemurs. But it adds dozens more creatures into the mix and moves the action to the African plains. Unfortunately, things also perceive less original. At times, the story and the setting, in a line with a few key characters, seem intended to conjure up Lion King associations.

INTERVIEW: What Jada Pinkett Smith says about animals, kids, love

The main characters, former denizens of Central Park Zoo, are still missing and at odds in their new habitat. This spell around, Alex the lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer) and Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) hop on a plane constructed by the wily penguins, joined by King Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen) and his associate/cousin, Maurice (Cedric the Entertainer).

The first flight of Air Penguin inadvertently lands in Africa instead of returning to New York. Here, the four main animals encounter their fanciful counterparts and experience culture shock as they meet legions of their own species. There are a few cute moments featuring Marty and his lookalike fellow zebras and the neurotic Melman discussing the illness patterns of giraffes. Alex is touchingly reunited through his mother and father. Gloria lives expanded, entertaining the attentions of hot-to-trot hippo Moto Moto (will.i.am), who seems to be channeling Barry White.

Cohen’s lemur king is funnier than in the first film and his eccentric personality better developed. The least interesting and most caricatured roles are belonging to man, particularly Nana, a tough granny from Brooklyn who had a small part in the first film. She’s back, on safari, again wielding her handbag as a loaded weapon.

Alec Baldwin plays the malevolent Makunga, whose manipulative character bears a sound resemblance to Lion King’s conniving Scar. The late Bernie Mac (who stars in Soul Men, also out this week) plays Zuba, Alex’s stern father.

While the cast of characters has grown, the story still focuses on the value of friendship. The plot expands to include familial and romantic love, and to celebrate diversity and uniqueness.

Though it doesn’t add anything new to the genre, Madagascar 2 is amusing buoyant fare.

And with few current movies aimed at very young audiences, this menagerie offers more potential for humor and visual panache than, say, a movie about Chihuahuas.

To mention corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for the sake of verification.

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 Enlarge By Tracy Bennett, Warner Bros. Pictures Anne Hathaway is Agent 99 and Steve Carell is Maxwell Smart in Get Smart.  TOP RENTED MOVIES

1. Journey to the Center of the Earth
2. The Strangers
3. The Incredible Hulk
4.  Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
5. The Happening

 Source: Home Video Essentials, Rentrak Corp.

By Mike Clark, USA TODAY The 2008 film version of the beloved TV spy comedy Get Smart is out on DVD. Also new: a collection of Westerns from famed director Budd Boetticher and a box set of vintage Howdy Doody TV shows.

The Films of Budd Boetticher
* * * * out of four, 1957-60, Sony, unrated, $60

Director Boetticher’s five Randolph Scott Westerns at Columbia each were shot in 18 days, give or take. The movies are given their due in succession this splendid set from fans Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood and Taylor Hackford.

Back story: Scott’s taciturn protagonists often had melancholy pasts, while the villains (Richard Boone, Claude Akins, Lee Van Cleef, Skip Homeier, James Coburn) were superb. My order of preference: The Tall T (1957); Ride Lonesome (1959); Comanche Station (1960); Decision at Sundown (1957); and Buchanan Ride Alone (1958, still pretty good). Two non-Columbias are not here: Seven Men From Now (1956; on DVD) and Westbound (1959; not on DVD).

Extras, extras: Eastwood and Quentin Tarantino in 2005’s documentary A Man Can Do That; commentaries.

Howdy Doody
* * * *, 1949-60, Mill Creek, unrated, 40 episodes, $30

You needn’t love it — or its occasional political incorrectness — to bow to this five-disc set’s awesome archival value. But yes, I love it.

Back story: We’ve had Howdy VHS-DVD predecessors, but the kinescope quality here is excellent and the programming skews toward the earlier prime era. You get: Bob Keeshan (later Captain Kangaroo) as Clarabell; Judy Tyler’s Princess Summerfall Winterspring; Howdy foil Buffalo Bob Smith saying “Bouncin’ Buffaloes”; Chief Thunderthud originating “Cowabonga” and putting a “um” on every word (”Sant-um Claus-um”); Bob shilling for Kellogg’s edible grains; Colgate toothpaste busting “Mr. Tooth Decay.”

Extras, extras: Twilight interviews of Smith and other personnel; a 32-page glossy booklet; two anniversary broadcasts; 1960’s final show.

Transsiberian
* * * 1/2, 2008, First Look, R, no extras, $29; Blu-ray, $35

If you love vintage choo-choo mysteries — design Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes or Carol Reed’s Night Train to Munich or the original The Narrow Margin — one of the year’s standout sleepers to date is for you.

Back story: A protracted China-Mongolia-Russia railway trek offers snow and ice out the window plus feelings of claustrophobia inside. Even before sex, drugs and deceit become factors, it’s an atmosphere ripe to unravel the lives of missionaries whose marriage is shaky. As the husband, Woody Harrelson is cast against type, although the standout performance is arguably Emily Mortimer’s as the wife. Why arguable? Because Ben Kingsley (wily Russian detective) belatedly dominates much of a juicy narrative.

Also out on DVD this week:

Get Smart
* * 1/2, 2008, Warner, PG-13, $29/$35 editions; Blu-ray, $36

This retread of TV’s lucrative spy-farce franchise continues Steve Carell’s recent mild-or-worse streak that began with Evan Almighty and Dan in Real Life, after the more distant funnier comedies that launched his big-screen stardom. Relatively painless as summer comedies go, though not exactly bound for an extended shelf life, Get Smart is of mild interest for contrasting co-star Anne Hathaway’s appealing turn as a comic/romantic foil with her current triumph in Rachel Getting Married (strictly, one of the year’s landmark performances). This in like manner offers another example of how resourceful Terence Stamp (as KAOS heavy Siegfried) is, renewing his career more than four decades after Billy Budd and The Collector, speaking of movies that really do take rock lives.

When Did You Last See Your Father?
* *1 /2, 2008, Sony, PG-13, $29

Writer/poet Blake Morrison’s memoir sparked the latest in a much-trod-upon movie genre about sons dealing through irascibly impossible fathers and gnawing memories of their transgressions near the cessation of dad’s life. The great Jim Broadbent plays a rural English physician who has too-periodically abused his high standing with boorish mien. Colin Firth, an actor who has carved a successful course of life out of not being relaxed on screen, is his ball-of-nerves son, who is much more worldly and an aspiring man of letters. Because it deals with the effect of complex memories adhering adult psyches, you can’t say the movie lacks depth. Yet it does lack the ultimate oomph of director Anand Tucker’s 1998 Hilary and Jackie, which was stirring enough to come out of nowhere to win two Oscar nominations for performances.

Pro football collections

•5 Greatest Games: Pittsburgh Steelers (1975-2006, $40): Have you ever wondered why you be able to Google “Terry Bradshaw discography” and find erudition about vocals and LPs by the former Steelers quarterback? Well, celebrity breeds celebrity, as you’ll see from the original broadcasts of Super Bowl wins IX, X, XIII and XIV, in addition to Super Bowl XL (without Bradshaw).

•10 Greatest Games: Dallas Cowboys (1972-1996, Warner, $50): On a geographical level alone, Texas is big enough to mandate 10, so we start with five Super Bowl victories from VI to XXX (1972 to 1996) plus five other games. Also from Warner: three Washington Redskins’ Super Bowl wins (1983, ‘88, ‘92); a Tennessee Titans trio; plus histories of the Cleveland Browns and, out Tuesday, New England Patriots, each $27.

Due Tuesday: The complete Sopranos plus other vintage TV; MGM’s budget-busting Quo Vadis; Mart Crowley’s venom-tongued The Boys in the Band

To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification.

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 Enlarge By Doug Hyun, The Weinstein Co. Bernie Mac, left, and Samuel L. Jackson get their groove back as Motown singers who reunite in Soul Men.  ABOUT THE MOVIE

Soul Men
* * 1/2 (out of four)
Stars: Bernie Mac, Samuel L. Jackson, Sharon Leal, Sean Hayes, Adam Herschman
Director: Malcolm Lee
Distributor: Dimension Films and Metro Goldwyn Mayer
Rating: R for pervasive language and sexual content, including nudity
Running time: 1 hour, 43 minutes
Opens Friday nationwide

By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY It doesn’t play without ceasing like the likeliest pairing, but it works surprisingly well. Samuel L. Jackson and the after the proper time Bernie Mac make a winning duo in the bawdy buddy road-trip picture Soul Men.

The material doesn’t consistently do justice to their talents, but the movie is worth seeing against their chemistry and for the Motown-infused soundtrack.

VIDEO: Check out a cut from ‘Soul Men’

The comic role of a washed-up backup singer is a departure for Jackson, though lately he has shown that he can pull off almost any part.

Watching the charismatic Mac is bittersweet. Dedicated to Mac and Isaac Hayes, the film closes on a poignant note, with Mac musing about his life and career in comedy. In addition to Mac and Hayes, the movie brings to mind the recently deceased Levi Stubbs, lead chanter of the Four Tops.

Floyd (Mac) and Louis (Jackson) were two-thirds of a popular trio in the 1960s and ’70s. Not quite the Pips, closer maybe to the Miracles, Floyd and Louis found themselves standing in the shroud cast by lead chanter Marcus Hooks (John Legend). Marcus launched a solo career, attaining fame and fortune, while Floyd and Louis paired up instead of a while as Soul Men. Their subsequent split was bitter. Floyd went on to success in the car wash business, while Louis’ life went seriously downhill, including a stint in prison. A couple of decades elapsed without their speaking to each other.

When Marcus dies, they are asked to take part in a tribute at the Apollo Theater. Floyd, now solitary, persuades the down-and-out Louis to re-team for the special event, and the cantankerous pair embark on a road trip.

Too much of the comedy feels worn out. Worse, the least funny gags are used more than once — such as the ill-advised gunplay that ends up wreaking havoc on Floyd’s beloved Caddy. Then there are the tired jokes about Viagra, bad hips and other maladies of those past their primes.

There are tasteless slapstick bits as well considered in the state of some gross-out humor amid the profane camaraderie of Mac and Jackson.

Following on the heels of a banal scene in which a fire-arm misfires, the pair fall into an impromptu song and toss up and down on the side of the road. It’s just a few engaging minutes, nothing improve. But it’s rigid to resist. One gets the impression that Mac and Jackson enjoyed their time together as much as audiences will.

To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification.

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 Enlarge Lionsgate Repo man cometh: Anthony Head, right, and Pavi Largo, center, are out for organs.  ABOUT THE MOVIE Repo! The Genetic Opera * out of four Stars: Alexa Vega, Paul Sorvino, Anthony Stewart Head, Sarah Brightman, Paris Hilton
Director: Darren Lynn Bousman Distributor: Lionsgate
Rating: R for strong bloody violence and gore, language, some drug and sexual content
Running time: 1 hour, 37 minutes
Opens Friday in select cities

 WATCH THE TRAILER through Claudia Puig, USA TODAY The biggest mystery about Repo! The Genetic Opera is why the grisly Goth-horror symphonious is opening the week about Halloween.

The second-biggest mystery is why this unfunny, unscary, preposterous bloodbath about organ transplants is opening at all. And why did a serious singer like Sarah Brightman auspice on and donate her pipes to this infernal, self-indulgent misfire?

Director Darren Lynn Bousman must have hoped to make a cult favorite along the lines of Rocky Horror Picture Show. And since he directed SawsII, III and IV, perhaps out of professional courtesy he didn’t want to open on the same day as the most recent installment of the franchise. But such a macabre affair would seem to have a short shelf life.

Its derived production design seems influenced by Tim Burton.

It’s 2056, and an epidemic of voice failures has made transplants big business. As the operations grow more popular, surgery becomes a rank symbol and fashion mention. Only the coolest people sport designer body parts and organ upgrades. Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino), the malevolent head of GeneCo., offers complaisant financing. But miss one payment and the Repo Man (Anthony Stewart Head) comes a-calling, knife in hand.

Paris Hilton plays a surgery addict, adding a bizarre glam factor. through forgettable tunes, from generic power pop to overbearing heavy metal, Repo! makes hackneyed observations about genetic engineering.

For illustration: “The reality is: My legacy is not up to my genes/My destiny will always exist up to me.”

Photographed in a murky style ostensibly to feel futuristic, the movie is a convoluted mess, rife with sado-masochism. As if that weren’t enough, viewers must slog through a sappy conclusion, accosted by more of the most banal songs imaginable.

Repo! might have been an SNL or MADtv skit, but as a movie, it should be repossessed by its financiers.

To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification.

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Download Instantly:
List all available downloads and previews.

Plot Summary:
A harrowing and frightening thriller about a man who has everything he’s ever loved stripped away from him; and to earn his life and family back, he must external aspect obstacles of mystical origins, endure countless tests of his faith, struggle with his own sanity, and explore the depth and the power of his soul.

Starring:
Paul Walker | Linda Cardellini | Malcolm Goodwin | Tony Curran | Bob Gunton | Cory Cassidy | Shawn Hatosy | Aaron Hughes | Chuck Robinson | Alex Sol | Lambert Wilson | Warren Louis Wiltshire | Ty Wood | Onalee Ames | Lisa Anne Durupt |

Directed By:
John Glenn |

Stills gallery for this movie is here.