‘The Finest Hours’ and ‘Jane Got a Gun’ Open Today; Dancing Queen at Baja (Fri., 1/27/16)

1) The Finest Hours – Not content with just being cold, The Finest Hours tosses into the mix the added fun of being sopping wet! This wintry and watery tale is based on a book from 2009 that was sorta/kinda based on a true life event. It’s 1952 and a horrifying blizzard (naturally) strikes off the coast of Cape Cod (obviously.) There’s an oil tanker out there caught in the middle of it and is cleft in twain, leaving more than 30 sailors trapped on the half that has only hours to remain afloat. A handful of very dedicated Coast Guard men (four, to be exact) set out in a small boat to rescue them. Chris Pine stars with Eric Bana and Carey Affleck. Craig Gillespie directs from a screenplay by Scott Silver, Eric Johnson and Paul Tamasy. The Finest Hours is being released by Disney in regular format, Disney Digital 3-D, RealD3D and IMAX3D. If they had any guts, they’d make the theaters turn the air conditioning all the way up and every 20 minutes or so have ushers run down the aisles throwing buckets of water on the audience. Check Fandango for screens and times. (TH)

2) Jane Got a Gun – Natalie Portman plays a loving wife living in the wild west who turns to her ex-lover for help tracking down the band of desperadoes who have killed her husband. Joel Edgerton, Noah Emmerich and Ewan McGregor co-star. The real drama of Jane Got a Gun took place behind the scenes however. The original director was Lynne Ramsay with Portman and Michael Fassbender set to star. When he dropped out because of X-Men conflicts however Edgerton was recast in his role and Jude Law signed on to take Edgerton’s role. A week later Ramsay was fired and Gavin O’Connor took her place. But the next day Law left the movie saying he had signed on to work with Ramsay. Bradley Cooper took Law’s role, but then he dropped out because of American Hustle conflicts and was replaced by McGregor. The film was originally set to be released in August of 2014 but was pushed back a few times… and then the studio went bankrupt! The Weinstein Company picked up the distribution rights and now, finally, the film will see the light of day. Check Fandango for screens and times. (TH)

3) Dancing Queen will put people on the dance floor at Baja Bar & Grill. The disco/funk band takes the stage at 9 p.m. 1366 Old Freeport Rd., O’Hara Township.

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