Welcome to another installment of ‘The Fridays of Summer,’ 2009 edition, where the weather is hot but most reviews are decidedly lukewarm. This weekend’s mainstream lineup is oddly similar to the previous one, including an animated comedy-adventure for kids (last week there was “G-Force”) , a horror flick ( “Orphan”), and a rom-com nobody cares about (“The Ugly Truth”). Okay, scratch that last one; actually, “Funny People” is a probable standout for both box-office bang and bang-for-your-buck enjoyment. On the indie side of things, plenty of options abound on both sides of the fiction line.
Outside magical echoes of ‘Harry Potter’ or piggish tendencies of ‘G-Force,’ this weekend’s market should be wide open for whatever flavor people feel like partaking. This is similar to last Friday, with ‘G-Force’ replacing ‘Ice Age’ as incumbent kid-friendly feature for “Aliens in the Attic” to face off against. Meanwhile, in Grownup Land, despite some middling reviews, “Funny People” should have no problem besting the killer of “The Collector” and delivering a solid performance at least somewhere approaching the Apatow-standard $30 million opening range. Wouldn’t it be sad if “The Ugly Truth” has a better opening?
Worst things first: “Aliens in the Attic,” a partially-animated family adventure directed by the guy who brought us ‘The Honeymooners’ of 2005 (starring Cedric the Entertainer and the inimitable Mike Epps) opens wide this weekend and chronicles the exploits of the Average American Family ™ trying to protect their summer home from ‘illegal aliens’ from Mars. Originally entitled “They Came From Upstairs,” and apparently very good at avoiding being reviewed with a current 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes for lack of reviews, this movie doesn’t have much to recommend it beyond Ashley Tisdale fans seeing her possibly expand her ‘High School Musical’ persona, or non-Tisdale fans seeing themselves expand as she struts around in a bikini. Oh, and Kevin Nealon (“Weeds,” but really ‘SNL’) for you other weirdoes.
Next up wide, we have “The Collector,” who has not been collecting too many great reviews, based on the Tomatometer’s fairly dismal “33% Fresh” rating. Directed by “Saw” screenwriter Marcus Dunstan and originally planned as a “Saw” prequel until producers axed the idea, ‘The Collector’ follows the story of handyman and ex-con Arkin, played by Josh Stewart (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”) who aims to repay a debt to his ex-wife by robbing his new employer’s country home. Expect the typical maze of lethal inventions the hero must navigate to… save the family he planned to rob? If you still think torture-porn is cool, get to it.
Last but actually best to open wide, we have ‘Funny People’, Judd Apatow’s third feature film, which features many of his regular cast (wife Leslie Mann, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill) but also longtime pal Adam Sandler (“You Don’t Mess with the Zohan,” “Bedtime Stories”) as well as Eric Bana (The not-so-incredible Hulk) and Jason Schwartzman (any Wes Anderson movie). This morality-tale influenced dramedy promises more dramatic elements than seen in Apatow’s previous films. It tells the story of a very successful yet self-involved stand-up comedian named George Simmons (Sandler) who learns that he has an incurable blood disorder and is given less than a year to live. When he meets Ira Wright, a struggling comedian played by Seth Rogen (“Pineapple Express”), they become friends and help each other figure out what the hell is wrong with them both. And that’s only two-thirds of the movie! It’s certainly not a perfect film, but you certainly could do a lot worse and regardless, we recommend it. With a ‘65% Fresh’ rating on RT, some but not a ton of other reviewers agree. We expect this film to be considered better as time goes on because, except for those that seem to really hate it (i.e. Rex Reed), people seem pretty satisfied with its comfort food-like mix of raucous comedy and heartwarming modern fairytale.
In Limited Release, there’s a whole slew of choices. The indie circuit this weekend is fairly rich if uneven. The picture that probably is most emblematic of that sentiment is the sometimes brilliant, but chaotic vampire love story by South Korean auteur Park Chan-Wook called “Thirst.” Its visually stunning at times and highly ambitious, but exhaustively long and like four pictures crammed into one. We didn’t love it.
But, if you’re looking for a sui generis work, this is definitely your pick, but its certainly not a perfect film and sometimes outright maddening in its incongruity. Its riotously absurd, but also a sprawling mess. Still some critics seem to be largely dazzled and aren’t necessarily recognizing its fairly obvious deficiencies as it has a 78% RT rating overall. We’re hoping for his next outing Chan-Wook can reel it in a little bit more and find more cohesion, but we do at least appreciate the effort and ambition.
After that you have the ostentatious Danish WWII film “Flame and Citron,” which looks like the picture Tarantino should have made with, “Inglourious Basterds” minus the boring parts. Our review said, it was “stylish and somber,” but we still gave it a strong B+, and it has a exemplary 83% RT rating too.
Next up you have “Adam,” the Fox Searchlight film that looks dangerously fey, and part of the trend of obnoxious quirky indies, but turns out to be an a fairly decent rom-com without too many egregious cloying cliches. We thought it was an OK effort largely due to the strong lead actors Hugh Dancy and Rose Byrne, and critics seemed to think the same as it only scored a 60% RT rating.
Following that Sundance flick you have the Dardenne Bros. latest, “Lorna’s Silence,” that we were very eager to see, but unfortunately missed. These guys have obviously won two Palme d’Ors within the span of six years — an impressive feat — so expectations are vaguely high, and critics seemed to agree, that while emotional bleak, it was another gripping film by these sibling and the picture earned a very high 88% RT score. Still, its something we’d like to see if we can find the time.
In the documentary world, the pseudo-thriller, “The Cove,” about the illegal dolphin/whaling industry in Japan has received very high marks with a 94% RT Rating and while our score wasn’t quite that high, we did feel it was still a compelling documentary worth watching and perhaps one of the most vital documentaries of the year so far. -Joe Sedita [top image via Movieline]
