Action
Rod Lott
Too bad Nicolas Cage had to sell off his comic book collection a while back, because he could've used a refresher course on Ghost Rider, the Marvel Comics character he’s now played twice. I'm in the minority that found the 2007 original to be deeply flawed fun, and I think the same of this sequel, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, yet I still think about the lost opportunity both represent.

OKG7 things to do
Gazette staff

It likely has nothing on The Price Is Right’s Plinko, but no game turns 20 years old without being fun. With the educational Brain Quest series hitting that anniversary, it’s set to make a 5 p.m. Tuesday stop at Full Circle Bookstore, 1900 Northwest Expressway, to stage a quiz show. Whether you want to play or watch, admission is free. Call 842-2900 or visit fullcirclebooks.com.

Tuesday

Horror
Rod Lott
With Vile, we may have a new cinematic achievement: the first torture-porn film to open with a quote from Gandhi. Take that with a grain of salt — or perhaps the box of kosher salt poured into the wounds of some sad bastard by some demented madman in the prologue.

OKG7 things to do
Gazette staff
When the board game Clue became a movie in 1985, it hit theaters with one of three endings. With its musical adaptation, The Stage Door, 601 Oak in Yukon, puts that to shame with 216 possible solutions! Audience members will be given cards repping the game’s characters, weapons and rooms. Get a Clue at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday, through Nov. 11. Tickets are $9-$12. Call 265-1590 or visit stagedooryukon.com.

Friday-Sunday, ongoing

Action
Rod Lott
Fifth in the increasingly slick but decreasingly lucid franchise, Resident Evil: Retribution had potential to be the best entry since the 2002 original. After all, returning director Paul W.S. Anderson (The Three Musketeers) has positioned so many elements from the previous films that it seemed set up to play like a greatest-hits package. Instead, the result is baffling.

Drama
Rod Lott
Nearly every scene of the made-for-HBO Game Change, I recall from John Heilemann and Mark Halperin's excellent nonfiction book of the same name. But the movie directed by Jay Roach (of the Austin Powers and Meet the Parents franchises) tells only half — maybe even just one-quarter — of the story, ignoring the 2008 presidential-campaign narratives of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards for the one it finds most compelling: that of Sarah Palin and John McCain, and not the other way around.

Thriller
Rod Lott
From 1971, Wake in Fright is a lost film recently and literally rescued from near-oblivion. While I can’t say I was familiar with it before its Drafthouse Films re-release, I’m glad it was saved. To have lost a work this good would have been a blow.