This week's new movie releases - May 20, 2011

Hard to believe, but only one major movie will be dominating the North American box office this weekend. That flick is "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides", of course. The Rob Marshall-directed fourth installment in the popular series will hit 4,000 theaters Friday.

Johnny Depp returns once again as Captain Jack Sparrow, who sets out to find the Fountain of Youth. Also on board are Penelope Cruz, Ian McShane, Geoffrey Rush and Keith Richards. BTW, "On Stranger Tiders" will also open in 402 IMAX theaters worldwide.

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'Death Race' web reviews

Fans of Jason Statham will likely enjoy Paul W.S. Anderson's new action flick "Death Race," in which the actor plays a prisoner who's forced to participate in a deadly race for freedom. Joan Allen, Ian McShane, Tyrese Gibson and Natalie Martinez co-star. While the nation's top critics didn't really give the flick a warm welciome, let's see what the online film fans have to say about it. (I will post my review later on today)

• Brian Orndorf at Collider: "Visually, 'Death Race' is as hackneyed a film as can be. Performance-wise, it's in REM sleep."

• Cinematical's James Rocchi: "Anderson seems to take every chance he can to aim the camera through other elements -- smoke, glass, water, flame, iron bars, dust, and so on -- to capture the focus of the shot, and while that device is hardly a hallmark of greatness, it's lively."

• Josh Tyler at CinemaBlend: "This isn’t a particularly smart movie, but it’s a fun movie, and one that delivers on the car killing mayhem it’s supposed to. Paul W.S. Anderson may have a lot of flaws as a filmmaker, but the man knows cheap thrills, and he delivers them here."

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