This Week's New Movies: Will "The Mechanic" Do "The Rite" Thing?

Yes, we're still slogging through the post-New Year movie doldrums, with little relief in sight, but there are two Oscar-nominated performances getting a limited release this week.

"The Mechanic"
Jason Statham stars in this remake of the Charles Bronson classic about a hitman who takes a young upstart, played by Ben Foster, under his wing.

"The Rite"
Based on a true story (aren't they all?) about a young seminary student sent to the Vatican to attend exorcism school, where he meets a strange old priest played by Anthony Hopkins.

"Biutiful"
Javier Bardem stars is this powerful film from Alejandro González Iñárritu, about Uxbal, a hustler who who deals on the fringes of Barcelona's black market. When he is diagnosed with cancer and finds himself in a mad scramble to get his affairs in order tso that his two kids will be cared for when he's gone.

"127 Hours"
James Franco stars in the true story of the guy who ultimately cuts off his own arm to escape the boulder that has him pinned deep in a canyon in the Utah desert. Nominated for Best Picture, Best aActor and four other Academy Awards.

"From Prada to Nada"
It's a modern Latina take on Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility," in which two young women learn only after their father's death that they are in fact poor, and are forced to move in with their blue collar aunt.

"Ip Man 2: Legend of the Grandmaster"
Kung fu grandmaster Ip Man moves his family to Hong King, where he hopes to open a school where he can teach his special brand of Wing Chun martial arts. But first he must prove his mettle in a series of battles with local masters.

"Kaboom"
Director Greg Araki's latest is a comic sci-fi saga about a bisexual film student who starts dreaming about a pair of beautiful women, which is fine until he starts seeing them in real life.

George Lucas Was Just Kidding About That End of the World Thing

Breathe easy, George Lucas fans. Your hero is not crazy after all.

Or is he? The legendary director raised eyebrows Wednesday when actor Seth Rogen recalled a recent conversation with Lucas where the movie maker said he believed the world was going to end in 2012.

"George Lucas sits down and seriously proceeds to talk for around 25 minutes about how he thinks the world is going to end in the year 2012, like, for real. He thinks it," Rogen told the Toronto Star.

But it turns out Lucas wasn't "for real" after all. In fact he says -- through a spokesperson since he's George Lucas -- that he was totally kidding.

"He was not serious when he talked about the end of the world in 2012," Lynne Hale told Wired after speaking with Lucas.

Leaving it there would have been just fine but the rep couldn't do that.

"He is an adamant believer that the world is flat, that Stonehenge was built by aliens, and that the sun revolves around the Earth," the rep said. "These are among the many subjects he commonly discusses at length with Elvis, who he's going to digitally insert into Indy 5 along with a roster of famous dead actors."