Friday Flicks: Can ‘Green Lantern’ Make Ryan Reynolds an Action Hero?

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François Duhamel / Warner Bros. Pictures / AP

Blake Lively, left, and Ryan Reynolds are shown in a scene from "The Green Lantern."

Grab some popcorn! NewsFeed’s Glen Levy brings you the movies you should check out (or avoid) this weekend.

Green Lantern

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Tagline: In Brightest Day. In Blackest Night

There’s plenty riding on Green Lantern for its star, Ryan Reynolds, and the studio behind this week’s summer blockbuster, Warner Brothers (for the record, TIME is part of that corporate family). The 34-year-old Canadian heartthrob hopes to show that he’s not simply a rom-com lead (the dismal Definitely, Maybe and The Proposal being unfortunate additions to the Reynolds resume) while Warner wants more than the successful Batman franchise on its hands with Harry Potter about to bow out for good. No wonder that British veteran director Martin Campbell got this particular gig, then, for he expertly helmed the 2006 James Bond reboot, Casino Royale, and not only showed that Daniel Craig could pull off the role with aplomb, but made a ton of money at the box office to boot.

Will all involved in Green Lantern be popping the champagne corks come the end of opening weekend? Quite possibly, as there’s not much in the way of competition at the multiplexes. As for the actual film, Reynolds plays Hal Jordan, yet another of those arrogant but gifted pilots, who is new to the Green Lantern Corps, a mysterious group that most closely resembles a secret police that patrols the planets (he must be good as they don’t usually let humans join). One green ring and an empowering lantern later and we’re off. Soon enough, Hal will encounter a love interest closer to home (Blake Lively) as well as the requisite bad guys (Peter Sarsgaard, who will never look more ridiculous, as Hector Hammond and Mark Strong as Sinestro, who might just be getting groomed for a sequel.)

The last time an action movie (of a kind) was based around Reynolds, it was the taut thriller Buried, which flopped in spectacular style. The irony is that it was easily his finest performance to date (and considering he spends the movie in a coffin, that’s no mean feat). But if Green Lantern does show off his action (if not acting) chops, and reward the considerable investment in him and the franchise, he’ll bury any doubts surrounding his capacity to carry a movie.

(MORE: See more on Green Lantern in TIME’s Summer Entertainment Preview)

Mr. Popper’s Penguins

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Is it a compliment, insult or mere inevitability that when you hear that Mr. Popper’s Penguins has been released, you assume that Jim Carrey is involved? If that’s the case, your instincts are correct, though it may surprise you to learn that it’s taken 83 years to bring Richard and Florence Atwater’s kids book to the silver screen. Even Carrey wasn’t pulling his silly faces schtick back then.

But this isn’t a straight adaptation. Popper is not so much a house-painter but a divorced guy who treats his own children much like his (now late) father treated him: shabbily. And Popper’s got more issues to deal with than mere neglect after being left half a dozen penguins in his father’s will. “I don’t like you. I don’t need you. I don’t want you in my life!” he says at one point to the penguins, but it equally applies to his estranged family. You can see where it’s headed: by learning how to take care of this unexpected gift, he might just figure out how to appreciate his real loved ones (though don’t be too surprised if it’s the birds who somehow impart their wisdom upon Popper).

And though director Mark Waters is a smart choice (see Mean Girls for more), the days of Carrey being in the Oscar frame for The Truman Show, seems, while not as old as the source text here, a very long time ago.

NewsFeed’s Flicks Pick: Surely the best blockbuster of 2011 with the word ‘Green’ in it (we’re still recovering from The Green Hornet), Green Lantern gets the green light.

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