A variety of movies coming to rent or see at theaters this week, some good, some bad…

New this week in Theaters (Friday): “Bridewars”, “Not Easily Broken”, “Revolutionary Road” (limited), “Gran Torino” (Grand Rapids)

New this week on DVD (Tuesday): “Pineapple Express”, “Righteous Kill”, “Babylon A.D.”, “Bangkok Dangerous”, “Disaster Movie”, “The Wackness”

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MY TAKE ON WHAT’S NEW ON DVD: Okay, I know I’m one of the few people who actually liked the Pacino/DeNiro movie “Righteous Kill”, but if you listened to most critics and waited to rent it, now’s the time to see it.  

The other five movies I haven’t seen but have varying levels of concern: “Pineapple Express” is a stoner/action/comedy that was well received by some audiences and critics, “Disaster Movie” is another farce by the producers of all those other recent spoof movies, “The Wackness” got some good reviews by the limited audiences that saw it… it also has a *pot* plot.

And then there are the box office stinkers “Babylon A.D.” and “Bangkok Dangerous”, yes the second was #1 the week it opened, but there was nothing else in wide release that week, audiences for both movies dropped signigicantly the 2nd week at the theater and by the way scored very low on most reviews.

Looking for other rentals?   Check out these movies:
“The Dark Knight” (9.5 / 10)
“Eagle Eye” (8.5 / 10)
“Wanted” (8.0 / 10)
“Burn After Reading” (8.5 / 10)
“Traitor” (7.5 / 10)
“The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian”

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MY TAKE ON WHAT’S NEW IN THEATERS: 2 Oscar contenders, a romantic comedy aimed at the ladies, and a romantic drama.  “Gran Torino” was filmed in Detroit and Clint Eastwood has said its his last acting appearance, although he plans to keep directing, Eastwood has received several nominations for his acting in “Gran Torino”.   “Revolutionary Road” is a drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslett, it also has been nominated for some awards.  “Bride Wars” is the light-hearted “date” movie of the bunch about two friends Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway who dream of having their weddings at the same hard-to-book location.    I’ll have a review of “Bride Wars” later this week after a press screening.   “Not Easily Broken” is a movie I haven’t heard much about, but its about a couple and how a life-changing event tests their relationship. 

MY REVIEWS OF MOVIES CURRENTLY PLAYING IN THEATERS: 

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“Marley & Me” holds on to number one, “Doubt” moves into 8th place, “The Day the Earth Stood Still” moves down one spot to 9th place, and one of my favorite movies of the year: “Slumdog Millionaire” moves into to the top 10 for the first time.  

“The Spirit” followed up its poor opening weekend by dropping to 13th (losing 49% of its audience) during a weekend with no wide releases (that’s a red flag movie go-ers !!!).

There were 27% fewer people ($130 million) at the movies over the New Year’s weekend compared to the big Christmas weekend ($179 million).

TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated): 
1. “Marley & Me” - $24.05 million
(2nd week at #1, lost 34% of audience from last week)

2. “Bedtime Stories” - $20.32 million
(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 26% of audience from last week)

3. “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” - $18.40 million
(2nd week, was #3 last week, lost 32% of audience from last week)

4. “Valkyrie” - $14.04 million
(2nd week, was #4 last week, lost 33% of audience from last week)

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This is a good week to play catch up with all the movies that have released on DVD/in theaters the last 2 weeks because there isn’t much this week…

New this week at Theaters: “The Reader” (Woodland Mall - Grand Rapids)

New this week on DVD: “The Duchess” (last Saturday), “Eagle Eye” (last Saturday), “Ghost Town” (last Saturday), “An American Carol”, “Surfer, Dude”, “Towelhead” 

 MY TAKE ON WHAT’S NEW IN THEATERS: There’s only one new movie in theaters this weekend… actually in one theater in the Grand Rapids market… at Woodland Mall… that’s the World War II-era period piece with Kate Winslett ”The Reader”, I haven’t seen it, but critics says Winslett’s performance is award worthy.

MY REVIEWS OF MOVIES CURRENTLY PLAYING IN THEATERS:
“Marley & Me” (7.5)
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (9.5)
“The Day the Earth Stood Still” (6.5)
“Four Christmases”  (7.5)
“Twilight”  (7.0)
“Australia”  (7.9)
“Quantum of Solace”  (7.5)
“Role Models”  (7.5)
“Slumdog Millionaire”  (9.5)
“The Boy in the Striped Pajamas”  (7.5)
“Changeling”  (9.5)
“What Just Happened”  (6.5)

MY TAKE ON WHAT’S NEW ON DVD: There’s only two movies to recommend this week - the high-octane action thriller “Eagle Eye” that I really liked… or the well reviewed period piece “The Duchess” with Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes.. that I haven’t seen yet.

Looking for other rentals? 

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He doesn’t wear a cape, but he does wear sunglasses and a hood… Tim Robbins is a fed-up resident turned vigilante taking on the overwhelming powers of noise in New York City.

That sounds like a good concept right?

Yeah, but the movie doesn’t do it the justice Robbins’ character sets out for as he puts the hurt on car alarms and other noise makers in the Big Apple. 
I do like the idea behind this movie… that, the trailer and a recommendation from a well-respected national film critic had me looking out for it in the video store.

While I like the obsessed vigilante of Robbins breaking in to cars and turning off their car alarms… first cautiously and then brazenly as he becomes “The Rectifier”… the movie doesn’t hold up throughout.

There are a couple points in the second-half of the movie (more…)

 Do you remember what it was like the first time you saw all those cool effects for the first time when seeing “The Matrix” (1999)? 

Okay, we’ll this isn’t totally like that, but pretty close as far as awesome action and effects that push the limits a little bit more… there’s no groundbreaking like “bulletime”, but there are some very cool visuals!!!
 This is easily one of the best action movies of 2008… the action is great, the stunts are cool, the storyline isn’t too complicated to follow and even the minor characters are well developed.

But - parents beware - it does have an “R” rating for a reason.

James McAvoy fits the role of Wesley perfectly, going from dorky to death defying… Angelina Jolie is cool as the female assasin that McAvoy first encounters… and Morgan Freeman is solid as the leader of the group with a complexity that he pulls off with ease.  The supporting cast is convincing as well.

‘Wanted” is very much like “The Matrix” as (more…)

I’ve heard all the hype from the critics.. I just don’t get it, yes this movie had funny moments, but its not the funniest movie of the year… not even top 3 !!!

Yes, the movie had a lot of funny one-liners… but all but one or two were in the trailers and clips shown on tv or the internet to promote the movie.  I forgot to add this to my Birthday Wish List… please Hollywood - stop putting the only funny parts of a comedy in the trailers and previews… or stop making movies than only have enough funny moments for the trailers!!
 Robert Downey, Jr. was good, Ben Stiller was okay, Jack Black was okay, Tom Cruise was pretty funny, Steve Coogan was okay, and Matthew McConaughey was good.

The story was okay… the cinematography and editing was good… but there was nothing GREAT that made the movie better.

Again, most of the funny stuff was in the trailers… unlike “Role Models”,  ”Step Brothers”, and “Burn After Reading”… where there were more than just the funny lines in the previews to keep you laughing throughout.

THE BOTTOM LINE: There’s a lot of stuff in this movie that would be funnier to people working in the business… I guess that’s why so many critics and people in the movie industry think this movie is so funny. Its kind of like how those of us in the local tv news think “Anchorman” (2004) is so funny and anyone who works in an office thinks that ”Office Space” (1999) is funny.  But since I don’t know all of the inside jokes of this movie… and knew most of the jokes before I ever saw the movie… I have to give it 6.5 out of 10.

“Tropic Thunder”

(2008) (rated: R for pervasive language including sexual references, violent content and drug material)
(1 hr, 47 min)

Starring: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr.,  (more…)

 Here’s another remake to add to the list of movie remakes that only the visuals are better than the original.

Its been 57 years since the original doomsday alien invasion movie came out… and since then movie making technology has grown in leaps and bounds, and we’ve seen some pretty good movies in the sci-fi genre, including “The Matrix” that put Keanu Reeves - the main character of this movie - on the worldwide map.  ”The Day the Earth Stood Still” is pretty good, it just isn’t a GREAT sci-fi movie.

Visually, the movie is really good, but the storyline is not stunning.  It really shouldn’t be classified as a thriller, because although I was wondering what they would do next, I was never worried what would happen next - the movie was flat.

Reeves as the alien messenger Klaatu was typical Reeves in Sci-Fi - he’s good playing those stoic pale looks with limited lines and even though the movie starts with a sort-of backstory of his character, there still isn’t much depth to this character.  Reeves’ Klaatu is very similiar to the “agents” of “The Matrix”.

Jennifer Connelly is good as the female lead, scientist Helen Benson, but her performance doesn’t jump off the screen either… even as she tries to get control of her step-son played by Jaden Smith (Will Smith’s son).

The movie’s message is actually not as heavy handed as it could be and is actually lost at some point… that humans are destroying the environment and they must make a change before the earth dies.  Its a clearer message in the original for the people of earth to stop their wars and fighting.  And at the end of this version, Connelly points out how humans can change - but it doesn’t have anything to do with the environment… its more about human nature.

THE BOTTOM LINE: There are much better sci-fi alien invasion (”Independence Day” (1996), “Signs” (2002), “War of the Worlds” (2005)) or sci-fi disaster movies available (”The Day After Tomorrow” (2004), “Deep Impact” (1998))… I give it 6.5 out of 10… the visuals are great but the story and the acting and/or the writing just wasn’t amazing.

“The Day the Earth Stood Still”

(2008) (rated: PG-13 for some sci-fi disaster images and violence)
(1 hr, 43 min)

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly, Kathy Bates, (more…)

The year in movies: 2008’s Biggest Surprises and Disappointments

This could be an annual list… we’ll see what you guys think about it… here it is, my list of biggest disappointments (bad) and surprises (good) in movies for 2008.

Biggest Disappointments of 2008:

 5. “Vantage Point”

This was hyped as one of the better movies in the first quarter of the year, but how quickly it was forgotten and tossed aside.

While the story was pretty good and the twists were solid, the device of showing the “event” over and over and over and over from different… “Vantage Point”s… got old… and old… and old.

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 4. Robert DeNiro movies

Sorry Mr. DeNiro, but “Righteous Kill” and “What Just Happened” - were not as good as I hoped they would be, and critics liked them even less than me… I really respect his work, but both movies were missing a little bit of something and had a little bit too much of something else… with DeNiro as the main ingredient these movies were entrees that couldn’t be served at a quality restaurant… and were better served as fast food.

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 3. “Appaloosa” 

Sorry Ed Harris, but I really wanted this movie to do better and be better than it was, I love westerns, but this missed the mark.

I really like the look and feel of the movie and the set pieces and costumes were great, so was Viggo Mortensen and Mr. Harris.. just not good enough to get past the slow editing pace of this movie.

I appreciate the interview though.

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 2. “Star Wars: Clone Wars”

I’ve said it before (My Birthday Wish List), and I’ll say it again… this movie should have been several half-hour tv shows like it was originally designed for… the story was okay, but should have been broken up.  Bottom line: please stop torturing the die-hard Star Wars fans with movies we think we need to see… weren’t the prequels enough ?

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 1. “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”

I’m probably safe in saying at this point… without spoiling…. what I didn’t like about this movie… but just in case…. you’ll have to click to read more… (more…)

This is a good week to play catch up with all the movies that have released on DVD/in theaters the last 2 weeks because there isn’t much this week…

New this week at Theaters: “The Reader” (Woodland Mall - Grand Rapids)

New this week on DVD: “The Duchess” (Saturday), “Eagle Eye” (Saturday), “Ghost Town” (Saturday), “An American Carol”, “Surfer, Dude”, “Towelhead” 

MY TAKE ON WHAT’S NEW ON DVD: There’s only two movies to recommend this week - the high-octane action thriller “Eagle Eye” that I really liked… or the well reviewed period piece “The Duchess” with Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes.. that I haven’t seen yet.

Looking for other rentals?
Check out these movies out on DVD:
“Wanted” (8.0 / 10)
“Burn After Reading” (8.5 / 10)
“Traitor” (7.5 / 10)
“The Dark Knight” (9.5 / 10)
“The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian”

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 MY TAKE ON WHAT’S NEW IN THEATERS: There’s only one new movie in theaters this weekend… actually in one theater in the Grand Rapids market… at Woodland Mall… that’s the World War II-era period piece with Kate Winslett ”The Reader”, I haven’t seen it, but critics says Winslett’s performance is award worthy.

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MY REVIEWS OF MOVIES CURRENTLY PLAYING IN THEATERS: 

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4 new movies top the box office… but “The Spirit” was almost invisible in its opening weekend.

The life story of a dog “Marley & Me” and the life story of a man who ages backwards “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” take first and third place, while Adam Sandler’s family movie was second and Tom Cruise’s nazi-era drama was fourth.

TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: 
1. “Marley & Me” - $37.00 million  (1st week)

2. “Bedtime Stories” - $28.07 million  (1st week)

3. “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” - $27.00 million  (1st week)

4. “Valkyrie” - $21.53 million  (1st week)

5. “Yes Man” - $16.45 million  
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 10% of audience from last week)

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