Hey All,
Well I would like to do this sort of post on Mondays to let you know (anyone out there, ha?) what films are coming out in the coming week.
This is really the 1st weekend of new films coming to theaters in the 09. January as most of you know is a schizophrenic month in Hollywood. You have the typical dumping ground movies and than the prestigious films finally expand to a theater new you.
Ok what's coming out :
Bride Wars - 20th Century Fox is trying to reclaim the magic they had almost the same time last year with 27 Dresses. Though that movie came out over Martin Luther King weekend. That was a movie I kind of enjoyed. Hey you can't beat Katherine Heigl. She's beautiful and talented and funny. Plus, Ed Burns and James Marsden had great supporting roles. In Bride Wars, 2 women in some typical movie fashion end up having the same day for their wedding. Thus the bride wars break out. To me it looks ok and I may wait and rent this one. The one thing it has going for it is the 2 leads. Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway in the same movie may make this a sleeper hit. It's too bad there aren't more movies out there for actresses like Rachel Getting Married which showed that Anne Hathaway can act. With the recent holidays there really hasn't been a romantic comedy in awhile. But wait this is more of a kitchen sink comedy. One gets orange tanned and the other gets her hair dyed blue for revenge. Yawn! The one thing ironically this is missing is the funny male lead to make it ok for men to go see this with their girlfriends. One last thing - this was one of the many movies shot in Boston in the past few years. In April-June of 2008 for those keeping track. It is directed by Gary Winick who did 13 Going On 30, Charlotte's Web and Tadpole.
The Unborn - This looks fricken scary. I mean The Exorcist scary... Hold The Phone! This is rated PG-13!!! Why bother?! I mean come on all the stuff in the trailers and tv ads looks like rated R stuff to me. So does this mean we'll get the watered down version in theaters and have to wait for the typical DVD Unrated version "Too Scary To Show In Theaters." David S. Goyer directs. He's done Blade: Trinity and the much better The Invisible both of which he directed. I believe The Invisible suffered the same fate: PG-13 in theaters and "Unrated" on DVD. Gary Oldman somehow found his way into this. Must be due to David S. Goyer having the story credit for both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Odette Yustman is the main reason to see this. She is utterly gorgeous and was great as Beth in last year's Cloverfield. At some point I would like to do a rant on PG-13 horror, but I will get into the gist of it here. Obviously, PG-13 means more people can see a film($$$$$) and who else but little teenyboppers love them some horror films. Well, there's a huge mass of people who are diehard horror fans that get jack shit. To make a simple blanket statement I would say that most of the great R rated horror films go straight to DVD. Or get very limited theatrical release. Will we ever get R rated horror films that aren't in the silly Saw series?.......Ironically, this film is being released by Rogue Pictures who last year put out 2 rated R films that were well received by certain groups of fans- Doomsday and The Strangers.
Expanding this weekend are in my opinion the films to really seek out and see. They are :
Gran Torino - Clint Eastwood's 2nd directorial effort from 2008 that is a throw back to Dirty Harry. This looks amazing and fresh. I am sure that those of you that may be reading this already know what this is about.
The Reader - Kate Winslet stars as a secret Nazi guard who has a sexual relationship with a 15 year old boy who reads to her amongst other things. Stephen Daldry directs. He brought us the magnificent Billy Elliot. Word is that this is the better performance from Winslet. Also, I hear there is some fine work from Ralph Fiennes as well as the adult version of the 15 year old.
Last Chance Harvey - I think this will expand to probably Boston only this week. This looks like Before Sunset for the older crowd. I saw the preview for this and fell in love with its premise and sense of real time bonding and spending time together to get to know someone. This one stars 2 acting titans - Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson.
Che (part 1 & part 2) - In an unprecedented move, at least to me, this film is being divided into 2 parts showing at the same time on the same weekend. Total running time I heard is 4 hours and 20 minutes. Sadly, this has been missing from most Top Ten Lists and Golden Globe nominations. Benicio Del Toro stars and is directed by the extremely busy Steven Soderbergh. Soderbergh also has The Girlfriend Experience and The Informant (with Matt Damon) coming out in 2009.
Movies That Were Released This Weekend Last Year :
Mad Money (remember this one with Diane Keaton and the only movie that Katie Holmes has been in since she married Tom. Oh wait she was in something else. Oops!)
The Bucket List (expansion from Oscar consideration release)
In The Name Of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (Uwe Boll's latest "masterpiece" with Jason Statham. Why?)
First Sunday (my 2008 Worst Film of the Year)
What Is Kristofor Going To See This Weekend :
Gran Torino and The Reader.
Thanks,
Kristofor
PS Let me know if you see any of the movies I listed here. I want to hear your reviews/thoughts/opinions on them.
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