Boston just had its first 70-degree day, and with the warmth of spring comes the magic of prom. In this case, however, prom isn't so much magical as murderous. Gasp! Opening this evening is Prom Night, a probably-not-so-Hitchcockian thriller we expect will be centered on lots of shots of a scantily clad, excessively frightened Brittany Murphy Spears Snow (it had to be one of those). The real horror of this genre is its tendency to drift toward the formulaic. More promising (if barely) is Street Kings, a cop thriller genre film that at least has Forest Whitaker, Hugh Laurie (swoon!), and Jay Mohr--all of whom we like individually, though we're not sure the Street Kings script will give them anything to work with. Critic Bill Clark "was halfway expecting Leslie Nielsen to make a cameo appearance as the coroner," and David Nusair concurs: "Street Kings ultimately comes off as an irresistible throwback to the unapologetically over-the-top actioners of the 1980s." Did we mention Keanu Reeves plays the main character? Talk about irresistible!

Speaking of prom (which we swear we were doing before that whole Keanu segue): Sarah Jessica Parker, whose Carrie Bradshaw character is famous for "innnteresting" prom-dress-wannabe attire, now stars in Smart People, which must be smart because it has a tweed-jacketed lit prof (Dennis Quaid) in it, and Juno Ellen Page too! Meaningless snarky comments totes make one a full-on genius, y'know.

In limited opening, our buddy Ryan Reynolds continues a stream of inexplicable Van Wilder follow-up roles as some kind of organization freak who learns through "Chaos Theory" (the movie's title--so clever!) that sometimes a little bit of randomness is okay. Continuing the streak of strangely science-related titles, Dark Matter tells an East-West story about science drama that doesn't quite touch on the black holes that may soon be swallowing us up. Make sure to see Prom Night before we all die!