Another weekend and another set of reboots and remakes. This week Hollywood has its sights set squarely on that most distinguished of decades, the 1980s. Classic family film “The Karate Kid” returns in high gloss fashion, while “The A-Team” amazingly makes their first trip to the silver screen. We imagine that most of the international audience will be busy watching the World Cup, so this could be one of the milder weekends at the box office this summer. In limited runs: the Sundance fave “Winter’s Bone” is released, alongside the period drama “Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky” and the surprisingly engaging documentary “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work.”
In Wide Release: Frankly we’re sad that “The Karate Kid” wasn’t remade into a “Footloose” style Broadway musical first, but we’re used to disappointment. Will and Jada’s super-spawn Jaden Smith takes over the Ralph Macchio belt while Jackie Chan steps into the role made famous by the late Japanese icon Pat Morita. Chan’s previous attempts to market himself as a family comedy star rather than martial arts hero have been tepidly received at best, but test scores for the film are said to be among the highest in Sony Pictures history. The critics at-large are not as easily swayed with Rotten Tomatoes giving it a 58% rating while Metacritic’s score is 65.
Even though the 90s golden age for big screen TV remakes has passed (“The Brady Bunch Movie,” The Addams Family” anyone?) Hollywood still manages to push something through the system every once in a while. Around this time last summer we had “Get Smart,” a surprise hit that surely helped pave the way for this week’s “The A-Team” from director Joe Carnahan (“Narc“). The update of the cheeseball 80’s action show stars Bradley Cooper, Liam Neeson, Sharlto Copley, and Quinton Jackson as the former Special Forces soldiers who must go rogue in an attempt to clear their name after being framed for war crimes. We posted a review earlier today, finding the film to be fun and completely mindless with another impressive performance from “District 9“‘s Copley. RT: 50% Metacritic: 45.
In Limited Release: Our top pick this week hands down is “Winter’s Bone” from director Debra Granik. The film, winner of the Grand Jury prize at this year’s Sundance, follows an impoverished 17-year old girl in the Ozarks determined to find her meth-head father who put the family home up as bail and skipped out of town. Bleak indie fare in the middle of a dumber than dirt summer season? Sign us up! Young actress Jennifer Lawrence is a revelation as the hardheaded daughter, with John Hawkes and Dale Dickey rounding out the cast. Several Playlist writers have caught the film (check out our collective review here) and we’re in agreement that it’s one of the best films of the year so far and a welcome dose of award season medicine in this sickly season. RT: 100% Metacritic: 91%.
A refreshingly unflinching celebrity documentary “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work” arrives in a limited run today. The film offers a glimpse at an entire year in the legendary comedienne’s life as she willingly discusses her career and personal life, from her love of plastic surgery, her fallout with Johnny Carson, her husband’s suicide, winning “Celebrity Apprentice” and everything in between. We posted a review yesterday, finding a surprisingly raw and compelling documentary that is as far away from a fluff piece as you could imagine. RT: 90% Metacritic: 81.
The other Coco Chanel film (you know, the one that doesn’t star Amelie) finally gets a stateside run starting this weekend. “Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky” tells the story of the fashion designer’s romance with the composer provocateur Igor Stravinsky following his exile after the Russian Revolution. She puts his family up at her country villa, supposedly to give him a quiet place to work, but with her own lover recently deceased, her feelings grow for the composer. We recapped our review from the Montreal Cinemania festival here, highly recommending the film for the fantastic chemistry between the lead actors and resisting the very real temptation to dive into cheap soap opera. RT: 56% Metacritic: 54.
Also out in limited run: We’re hoping to get a chance to check out the South African crime flick “Gangster’s Paradise: Jerusalema.” The film tells the story of the rise of a criminal kingpin during the fall of Apartheid . Metacritic: 66.” The documentary “Reel Injun” tracks Hollywood’s portrayal of Native Americans throughout film history. RT: 83% Metacritic: 58. Four low-income NYC families are followed as they enter a charter school lottery for a chance at a better education for their children in the documentary ” The Lottery. RT: 60% Metacritic: 57.
Get Smart is from summer 2008.