After last week’s Michael Jackson extravaganza “This Is It” stormed the box office and scared the pants off of Halloween moviegoers with real undead action; the holiday season kicks off in earnest this weekend. Four films hit wide this weekend hoping to make a dent in wallets before shopping season with “Disney’s A Christmas Carol” the only one likely to produce serious receipts at the box office.
In Wide Release: Robert Zemeckis returns to the creepy motion-capture animation of his “Polar Express” film with “Disney’s A Christmas Carol.” Jim Carrey stars as Scrooge and various other ghosts in the film in what is sure to be a virtuosic performance, hopefully Zemeckis is able to breathe life into the images on screen, as these films usually feel more artificial that straight-up animation. You can catch the flick in 3D and Imax, to double the sensory overload, but what we’re really hoping for is the Dickens’ story, told well, with a believable and touching Jim Carrey performance. Time will tell whether this will be an enduring holiday classic but with a supporting cast that includes Gary Oldman, Colin Firth and Bob Hoskins, we’re hoping for the best. Rotten Tomatoes has a fresh rating of 61% with Metacritic chiming in with a score of 62. Honestly? One of our people saw it, but since Disney was more than happy to send 5,000 promotion links, trailer, posters, images, etc. but refused to respond to screening reviews until it was too late, we decided to simply not run one. Yup, take that.
Director Grant Heslov packs a huge punch of starpower in his new film “The Men Who Stare at Goats.” George Clooney, Ewan MacGregor, Jeff Bridges, and Kevin Spacey crowd the marquee in this military farce based on the book by Jon Ronson. MacGregor plays a reporter who delves into the world of secret psychic regimes in the Iraq War. Based on the cast and a funny trailer we’ve been anticipating this one for the better part of the year. We first got a chance to see the film at Toronto and found plenty to like, but our most recent take left us cold, with an unfocused and unfunny film. The cast alone will probably get some folks in the seats, but don’t go expecting “Three Kings”-style quality here. The film has a fresh rating of 58% at RT and a 57 score from Metacritic.
Richard Kelly’s third feature “The Box” finally hits screens this weekend after having its release date constantly shifted and pushed back for a year. After the major fiasco that was “Southland Tales,” the “Donnie Darko” auteur needs a hit, but we’d settle for a decent film. Cameron Diaz and James Mardsen star as an ordinary couple in 70’s middle America who are given a box with a single red button in it. Push the button and they receive one million dollars, but at the expense of the life on someone they don’t know. Of more interest that the premise for most Playlisters, members of the Arcade Fire contribute to the soundtrack, which should be released in the future. We’re hoping for a tight little thriller to make us believe in Kelly again, but this may be his last chance to have studio success and his chances don’t look great so far. “The Box” has a not-so-great 43% rating from Rotten Tomatoes and 45 score from Metacritic. We haven’t run our review yet, but give it an hour. Essentially it’s a convoluted mess, as per usual, but not as outrageously bad as “Southland Tales,” which we guess is something…
Finally, in wide release, comes “The Fourth Kind” from director Olatunde Osunsami. Milla Jovovich stars in the modestly budgeted pseudo-documentary fright flick about a small Alaskan town whose residents are disappearing at an alarming rate. Don’t expect this one to put a stop to the ongoing massive success of “Paranormal Activity,” it will probably hit DVD before that one is done theatrically. The weird cast also includes Elias Koteas and Will Patton. Currently the film is 26% fresh at RT with a 37 score from Metacritic.
In Limited Release: We’ve been hearing about “Precious: Based on the Novel PUSH by Sapphire” pretty much nonstop since Sundance. The Oprah-endorsed film stars newcomer Gabourey “Gabby” Sidibe as Precious, an overweight sixteen year old pregnant for the second time by her abusive father, trying to overcome a life no one would ever want. We first saw the film at Cannes, finding it overrated but decent, albeit with very strong performance from Sidibe and Mo’nique, as Precious’ terrifying mother (though even then we said it had Lifetime Movie tendencies. Our impressions of this manipulative ghetto horror show haven’t changed much since then, although the deafening hype and self-aggrandizement of director Lee Daniels threatens to streamroll any good sentiments we have towards the picture. A more recent review we ran basically called it a counterfeit con job full of garish, overdone style. This one should be expanding nationwide fairly quickly, particularly as Oscar season grinds along its merry way. Rotten Tomatoes awards the film with an 86% fresh rating while Metacritic gives it a score of 67.
A couple of years on from his Oscar nod for “Into the Wild,” Hal Holbrook is still kicking with “That Evening Sun.” First-timer Scott Teems directs Holbrook as a Tennessee widower who escapes from the nursing home his son admitted him to, only to find his farm taken over by a bitter rival. Think “Gran Torino” meets “Shotgun Stories,” which actually sounds pretty awesome. If this material is handled with care, we could be in for a nice, atmospheric little drama and with Holbrook in the lead role, a lovable crank of a hero. The film has a 60% fresh rating at RT and a 76 score at Metacritic [ed. Saw this earlier this year, but failed to write a review, sadly. It’s a winning little indie, we’re glad it finally got released and Hal Holbrook is excellent in it].
Documentary filmmaker Chris Smith (“American Movie,” The Yes Men”) returns this week with “Collapse.” The film’s subject, Michael Ruppert, is a former Los Angeles police officer turned reporter who predicted the current economic crisis in a self-published newsletter “From the Wilderness.” Taking cues from Errol Morris, Smith interviews Ruppert in a straight-on politely confrontational style, letting the viewer come to their own conclusions about his subject’s controversial statements. We hope to get a look at it soon, but Rotten Tomatoes has it at 83% fresh with a Metacritic score of 79.
Finally, in limited release comes “Endgame” from director Pete Travis. There isn’t much buzz surrounding the picture, but the apartheid-themed drama has a cast that includes William Hurt, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Jonny Lee Miller. At the very least, it should be a step up from Travis’ last film 2008’s “Vantage Point.” The film has a 67% fresh rating from RT but Metacritic has never heard of it.
