This Week at the Movies

This week’s new releases are all pretty good – if not great – examples of either their genres or work by their filmmakers.

Paul Feig follows up his riotous sleeper “Bridesmaids” with “The Heat,” which is one of the rare examples of a female buddy cop movie.

The picture is funny without being hilarious and works primarily because a little more than half of its jokes stick.

In the film, Sandra Bullock plays a fussy, perfectionist FBI agent named Sarah Ashburn, who finds herself partnered up with loud and vulgar Boston cop Shannon Mullins (Melissa McCarthy) during her search for a ruthless drug dealer.

Much like “Bridesmaids,” Feig’s latest film does not deviate from formula in terms of plot. But the writing is not as snappy this time around and the absence of Kristen Wiig makes a world of difference.

That being said, it’s still often good for some laughs and works well enough as a by-the-numbers story of cops chasing criminals. The biggest laughs for me were during a sequence in which the partners spend an overnight at a dive bar. “The Heat” is funny enough and amiable enough to earn a recommend.

Roland Emmerich’s “White House Down” is completely ludicrous, utterly preposterous, formulaic as it gets and – admittedly – sort of fun. It’s certainly a step up from the misguided and ultra-gory “Olympus Has Fallen,” this year’s other White House under siege action drama.

This new film works slightly better due to the casting. I may have not believed a single moment of the film’s story, but the likability and energy brought to the proceedings by stars Channing Tatum, who plays a wannabe Secret Service agent, and Jamie Foxx - as the president of the United States – make it a little easier to swallow.

Without going into great detail, suffice it to say that Tatum just happens to be at the White House for a job interview when a right wing paramilitary group attacks. Tatum is in the right place at the right time to help Foxx’s President Sawyer hide out, load up on the ammunition and take out the baddies.

Scene after scene – including, but not limited to, a high speed car chase on the White House’s lawn during which rocket launchers are put to use – would be pretty hilarious if the film weren’t so well-paced and expertly made. The movie may be as silly as it gets for a summer movie, but it gets the job done.

Plus, “White House Down” is a marked improvement for Emmerich, whose “Independence Day” was a massive success in 1996, but who has recently produced some of these less encouraging titles: “2012,” “The Day After Tomorrow” and “10,000 B.C.”

It may not be the movie to turn this mostly average cinematic summer around, but it’s not half bad.

Even great filmmakers occasionally make minor movies. Last year, it was David Cronenberg’s “Cosmopolis,” which didn’t quite live up to the several masterpieces by the director that preceded it.

This summer, it’s Pedro Almodovar, one of the world’s most talented directors, who has made a movie that, while likable, doesn’t quite live up to his usual standards.

You can’t fault Almodovar in terms of ambition. “I’m So Excited” chronicles the misadventures of a crew and several of the passengers on board a plane with broken landing gear that is headed to Mexico City.

The director has indicated that the plot, which primarily involves the plane’s continuous circling to burn off fuel and the airline’s inability to come up with a solid plan for landing, is a microcosm of Spain’s economic collapse.

The picture is primarily set in first class, where several characters of obvious wealth get involved in hijinks with the plane’s two pilots and three stewards. The rest of the flight’s passengers and crew have been drugged to avoid panic as an emergency landing is planned.

The first third of the movie often feels aimless, but “I’m So Excited” picks up during a series of peculiar couplings between cast members and a funny musical number during which the stewards attempt to entertain their guests by lip-synching to the titular Pointer Sisters song.

“I’m So Excited” may not come close to ranking with Almodovar’s best work of the past decade, which includes “Bad Education” and “Talk to Her,” but it’s often funny and deftly utilizes color as the director is known to do. Even a minor work from Almodovar is better than much of what is being offered at your local multiplex.

“The Heat” is playing at AMC Loews Bay Terrace 6,” while “White House Down” is screening at Douglaston’s Movie World.

“I’m So Excited” is at Manhattan’s Sunshine Cinema and opens at Kew Gardens Cinemas on July 19.