Cinderalla ReDuxOne of the trailers preceding “A Cinderalla Story” showing this weekend was yet another project starring “Cinderella’s” Hilary Duff. This upcoming film’s called “Raise Your Voice.” In “Raise,” the love interest is Oliver James, who fans of this genre will remember as the beau in the Amanda Bynes (another ‘tween favorite) vehicle “What A Girl Wants.” If these movies are all blending together for audiences, it’s because most of these base their foundations on extraordinarily similar premises. Even the above-average “Mean Girls” offers up an “outsider” who longs to be in with the “in-crowd,” but whose thoughtfulness, creativity and quirkiness hold her as unique and special to the potential prince. This is certainly the case in “A Cinderella Story,” which fares better than Duff’s earlier film “The Lizzie Maguire Movie.” Sure, there are moments of the absurd – the overplayed stepmother and stepsisters. Keen-eyed viewers may recognize one of the “evil” over-the-top stepsisters as long-time “The Nanny” star Madeline Zima – she was little blondie sweetheart “Gracie.” The seven and five year olds in the BeansTalk audience group enjoyed the film and it wasn’t quite as burdensome on the adults as most of its ilk.

Robotic: Unfortunately, this action thrilled, inspired by an Isaac Asimov short-story collection directed by “Dark City’s” Alex Proyas, "I, Robot" starts out with a distracting queerly thought-out opening sequence. Granted, Will Smith is a beautiful man, but the film opens with clearly homoerotic lovingly shot glimpses of his body. Smith portrays a paranoid detective in the year 2035 and the opening shows him waking up. He shifts to sit on the edge of the bed, the camera from the foot of the bed holds on his crotch, his muscular legs, his ample six-pack-abs and chest. But all of this leads to a nearly embarrassingly posed nude shower scene, in which Smith is statue like (replete with standard position), as the water beats down on him. This really has little to do with the film in which robots are quickly becoming an every home household item. Smith’s character begins investigating what he alone believes is a crime perpetrated by a robot. The action sequences are adequate and the acting good, but on the whole, it’s a fairly predictable premise.

BeansTalk Observation: If Johnny Depp and Ben Affleck could have a baby, it would be Skeet Ulrich.