By CHRISTY LEMIRE

“The Last Exorcism” is one of the scariest movies to come along in a long time — until the last five minutes or so, when it completely falls apart.

Really, that’s about how quickly it all collapses. Director Daniel Stamm’s faux documentary starts out with deadpan delivery and a dry sense of humor, then it turns riveting, then truly frightening, then just plain silly. It’s like it morphs from being a Christopher Guest movie to “The Blair Witch Project” — as if writers Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland didn’t know where to go, so they went over the top.

Until then, the filmmakers keep you guessing as to what’s real and what’s imagined, what’s a disturbing mental disorder and what’s actually demonic possession. And the fact that this Eli Roth production uses all unknown actors helps us get sucked into this eerie world.

Evangelical Louisiana preacher Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) has been performing exorcisms for the past 25 years but he knows they’re all a sham. He long ago lost his faith — if he ever had any, that is — and for a while has had no qualms about taking money from true believers in the name of supporting his own family. But now, with his conscience weighing on him, he decides to let a camera crew come behind the scenes to expose his tricks as he “performs” one last exorcism.

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Jennifer Aniston stuck in second tier with new flop

By Gregg Kilday and Kim Masters

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The moviegoing public’s on-again, off-again love affair with Jennifer Aniston hit another troubled patch during the weekend as her latest comedy, “The Switch,” opened to a dispiriting $8.4 million.

From the start, there was concern within the Aniston camp that the offbeat comedy, which also stars Jason Bateman as a surprise sperm donor, was a tricky sell. “Switch” was produced independently for about $19 million by Mandate and Bona Fide Prods. As filming began, Miramax picked up domestic rights for about $6 million. Then the movie nearly became an orphan when Disney decided to sell Miramax to an investment group headed by Ron Tutor.

Ultimately, Disney agreed to distribute the title for a fee through its Touchstone label. Sources claim that the studio promised the “Switch” team it would give the movie the same level of support that helped turn Sandra Bullock’s romantic comedy “The Proposal” into a hit last summer but that Disney’s ad buy ultimately fell short of that mark. There was even talk that Aniston confronted Disney marketing head M.T. Carney about the issue.

Neither Aniston’s representatives nor Disney would comment on the situation. But a source close to the film said Aniston, who served as an executive producer with her producing partner Kristin Hahn, “was ferocious and tireless on behalf of the movie and is to be greatly admired for that.”

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Phil Spector documentary gets OK from killer’s son

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - One of Phil Spector’s sons has praised a documentary that depicts the convicted homicidal music producer as a sociopath and a narcissist.

 The film, “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector,” is based on a 3-1/2-hour interview conducted for the BBC before the music icon’s first trial for murdering a struggling actress at his mansion in 2003.

A witty Spector regales director Vikram Jayanti with the stories behind his biggest productions, such as the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” and Ike and Tina Turner’s “River Deep Mountain High.”

Complete versions of 21 songs that Spector produced are often played over courtroom footage, sometimes with chilling effect such as when John Lennon’s “Woman is the Nigger of the World” accompanies testimony relating to his victim, Lana Clarkson.

But for the most part, Spector considers himself a lifelong victim, abandoned by a father who committed suicide, bullied at school, and disrespected by the music industry.

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By CHRISTY LEMIRE

Mere words cannot describe how awesomely gnarly “Piranha 3D” is, how hugely entertaining, and how urgently you must get yourself to the theater to see it. Like, now.

This is not a joke, by the way. This movie is a complete blast. To borrow a phrase from the kind of B-horror flicks to which “Piranha 3D” is such a loving and effective homage: Run, don’t walk.

Like “Snakes on a Plane,” which came out in the dead of summer four years ago, “Piranha 3D” knows exactly what it is and does exactly what it should do. It’s about piranhas … in 3-D. Do you really need to know anything else?

It’s cleverly knowing without collapsing into parody. It makes great use of its extremely random cast, including Elisabeth Shue in an unusually bad-ass role as a sheriff, Ving Rhames as her deputy and Jerry O’Connell as a Joe Francis type. Christopher Lloyd has one great scene in full-on, crazed Christopher Lloyd mode as the resident fish expert. The second you see Eli Roth — playing the emcee at a wet T-shirt contest, no less — you know some hideous fate will befall him. And then there’s Richard Dreyfuss, who makes a very cute cameo off the top. That’s all we’ll say.

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“Vampires Suck” really does suck

By Frank Scheck

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) – Parody specialists Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer have found their formula and are sticking with it despite what any of the rest of us might think. The duo, responsible for such stinkers as “Date Movie,” “Epic Movie” and “Disaster Movie,” now have turned their puny sights on the rabid pop culture phenomenon of sexy vampires.

Or rather, just the “Twilight” series, as “Vampires Suck” would be more accurately titled “Twilight Sucks.” Ignoring such contemporary bloodsucker-themed hits as HBO’s “True Blood” and the CW’s “The Vampire Diaries,” not to mention stalwarts like Dracula or the works of Anne Rice, this witless Fox spoof instead merely provides an unfunny scene-by-scene retread of the first two movies in the hugely successful franchise.

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“Switch” satisfies despite shaky premise

By Kirk Honeycutt 

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Despite a virtually unplayable premise, “The Switch” overcomes this handicap to turn itself into a friendly, offbeat romantic comedy.

Bright spots come in performances by Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman as the leads, with Jeff Goldblum and Juliette Lewis adding sparkle in the roles of best friends. The Miramax/Disney film will have to rely on the actors’ drawing power if it wants to score midlevel box office grosses when it opens on Friday.

In a year of comedies dealing with artificial insemination, from “The Back-Up Plan” to “The Kids Are All Right,” “Switch” certainly takes the least plausible angle on the subject. The film imagines that Bateman’s Wally, a Wall Street investment guru, has been in love with Aniston’s Kassie forever, but because she has put him in the “friendship zone,” he won’t admit this to anyone, including himself. When she decides to get pregnant, he is more than willing to provide the sperm, but Kassie prefers to go shopping for the perfect sperm donor.

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