Anyone with more than a passing interest in Judd Apatow's career will note how there's a curious call-back to one of Apatow's earlier works in this most recent of his productions, with the credits for Step Brothers in the exact same scrawled, stretched-out font as his comedy Freaks and Geeks. Freaks and Geeks, though, featured teens who often spoke and acted like adults; Step Brothers features adults who constantly speak and act like children.

The credit-font's evocation of an earlier Apatow work is an omen for the rest of Step Brothers, in fact, with Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly recycling and amplifying their rivalry from Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (also directed by Step Brothers helmer Adam McKay) but without that film's plot structure, surreal wit or inspired mockery (and celebration) of NASCAR culture; instead, Step Brothers seems constructed -- or, rather, contrived -- solely to create a circumstance where Ferrell and Reilly can act like idiot man-children and riff to their great amusement. That, however, is not the same thing as riffing to the amusement of the audience. ...

College professors rule! Well, at least the one that Richard Jenkins plays so well in Tom McCarthy's The Visitor (Overture Films). The comedy-drama expanded to 18 theaters in its second week of release and averaged $9,055 per-screen to remain in the #1 position, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. Check the film's web site to see where it will be opening in the next couple of weeks (click on "in select theaters now").

Debuting indie films did not fare so well, judging strictly by per-screen averages, but it's notable that Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (Rocky Mountain Pictures), opened on more than 1,000 screens and made $2,997 per location for a total of more than $3 million for the weekend. The doc follows Ben Stein as he chases down Ferris Bueller ... oops, wrong movie! This one's about "intelligent design" in the classroom.

Opening on just one screen, Anamorph (IFC Films) grossed $3,000. Willem Dafoe stars as an NYPD detective investigating a serial killer. Critics were not kind: Anamorph scored just 28% positive at Rotten Tomatoes. David Hudson at GreenCine Daily rounds up pertinent quotes.

Two other holdovers did better as they expanded their runs. Young At Heart (Fox Searchlight), the "elderly folk chorus that sings modern rock songs" documentary, increased its theater count to 33 and averaged $4,393 per screen. Hou Hsiao-Hsien's gentle drama The Flight of the Red Balloon (IFC Films) proved its appeal beyond New York City, making $3,572 per-screen at 11 locations.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for the film The Visitor (click on the image for a larger version), which has already played a number of festivals (Toronto, Sundance) and marks the sophomore effort for writer-director Thomas McCarthy, whose Station Agent was all sorts of warm and toasty. In The Visitor, Richard Jenkins stars as a boring economics professor who travels to New York City for a conference. But when he unlocks the door to his seldom-used NYC apartment, he realizes two other people are living there. That's nice. In his review from Sundance, our own Scott Weinberg noted: "The result is a movie with a message, sure, but it works even better as a touching look at a lonely man who finds some warmth, friendship and affection in the most unexpected of places: His own forgotten apartment." The Visitor arrives in theaters (in limited release) on April 11.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for the upcoming comedy Step Brothers (click on the image for a larger version), and damn it if I'm not ridiculously excited about this film. Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly re-team with director Adam McKay (Talladega Nights) for a flick that just tugs at the heart strings inside all of us. I'd say it's inspiring -- almost earth shattering -- but then again, I don't want to get your hopes up too much. They should be up, though, but at a level where you can still reach them -- kinda like a cookie jar. Step Brothers tells the tale of pampered best friends whose single parents fall in love and decide to get married. Admit it, you know you secretly dreamt of that happening to you growing up -- except in my fantasy, my best friend was Alyssa Milano and, well, use your imagination.

Co-starring Adam Scott, Mary Steenburgen and Richard Jenkins, and produced by some dude named Judd Apatow, Step Brothers arrives in theaters on July 25.

Production/distribution company Overture made their first deal at Sundance this year by picking up the rights to Ferris Wheel, a drama produced by and starring Charlize Theron, as Erik Davis wrote. They were also involved in exciting news that came out around Cannes: the reuniting of Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro for Righteous Kill. Now Overture has made a splash at Toronto by securing Thomas McCarthy's immigration comedy/drama The Visitor very late Monday night, as reported by Variety's Dade Hays.

Thomas McCarthy is a veteran actor who has found steady work in both television and films. His directorial debut, The Station Agent, won accolades from many after it premiered at Sundance in 2003. Erik Davis was not a fan of the film, as he related when reporting that McCarthy had signed the deal to make The Visitor one year ago. (I haven't seen either film, so I am completely neutral.) Obviously, though, McCarthy has plenty of fans.

The film was touted as a prime acquisition target by columnist Patrick Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times before the festival; the bidding "kicked off not long" after The Visitor's gala public screening on Friday night, according to Variety. Blogging about the deal for Variety, Anne Thompson commented: "A lot of people wanted the picture but weren't willing to overpay for it. Overture stepped up for what will surely be a marketing challenge."

The great supporting actor Richard Jenkins stars in The Visitor as a lonely professor who visits his long-unused Manhattan apartment only to find an undocumented couple living there. John Anderson's Variety review says: "A film that is a combination immigrant/resurrection tale, Visitor tilts toward the soulful rather than the political and could be this year's humanistic indie hit."

• Christa McAuliffe: Reach For The Stars - Massachusetts native Christa McAuliffe has become quite inseparable from the image of the ghastly tendrils of smoke hanging over the Florida sky after the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded in January 1986, but she's also remembered as a schoolteacher who never stopped teaching. It is this second image on which first-time filmmakers Renée Sotile and Mary Jo Godges focus, going beyond blindly reverent fluff and digging into the humanity that made the loss of McAuliffe and the subsequent grounding of the Shuttle so much of a tragedy. With a warm, comforting narration by Susan Sarandon and a note-perfect song track by Carly Simon (whose tapes McAuliffe brought aboard Challenger), the film captures the spirit of exploration and discovery through McAuliffe's example, and not by just stating she was a shining star we should all try hard to emulate.
 

Remaking the minor 1977 comedy Fun With Dick And Jane was a sensible enough idea. The original film, which starred George Segal and Jane Fonda as downsized yuppies who turn to armed robbery to survive, was not really memorable enough to become evergreen and therefore fixed in our minds as un-toppable. It was one of those movies, like Cold Turkey or First Family, that attempted to blend social relevance and situational humor, but managed to miss as many times as it hit with both. Segal and Fonda had a decent enough chemistry, even if they had to forge it themselves thanks to a scattershot (and racially insensitive) script by old school TV guy, Jerry Belson. It was also handicapped by a tragic lack of focus by C-stringer Ted Kotcheff, the man whose later feature directing highlights were the necro-yukfest Weekend At Bernie's in 1989 and the wacky Alzheimer's adventure Folks! in 1992.