Happy Black Friday!! May the joy of the holy spirit of commerce be with you this day. Also, hope your Thanksgivings went well. It is my favorite holiday, basically because all I have to do is show up and eat. No responsibility. All holidays should have that as the foundation.
This BSR! Weekend Movie Preview is for the weekend of November, 28, 2014. A quick boilerplate disclaimer first. All of the film information presented here, including the plot summary, has been pulled from the Opening This Week page of IMDb (http://www.imdb.com/nowplaying/). I have not seen any of these movies at the time of this writing (except for one this week).
Join us this week as we preview “Horrible Bosses 2”, “Penguins of Madagascar”, and some others.
Horrible Bosses 2 (2014)
R 108 min – Comedy
Director: Sean Anders
Stars: Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Charlie Day, Jennifer Aniston
Summary: Dale, Kurt and Nick decide to start their own business but things don’t go as planned because of a slick investor, prompting the trio to pull off a harebrained and misguided kidnapping scheme.
Thoughts: I will not see this in the theater. But I will watch it repeatedly on STARZ/Encore. And I will be ashamed of that. But, that is just life you know.
Penguins of Madagascar (2014)
PG 92 min – Animation | Adventure | Comedy | Family
Directors: Eric Darnell | Simon J. Smith
Stars: Tom McGrath, Chris Miller, Christopher Knights, Conrad Vernon
Summary: Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private join forces with undercover organization The North Wind to stop the villainous Dr. Octavius Brine from destroying the world as we know it.
Thoughts: If the rest of the movie is even half as playful and funny as this 4 minute clip, I am all in.
The Imitation Game (2014)
PG-13 114 min – Biography | Drama | Thriller | War
Director: Morten Tyldum
Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Allen Leech
Summary: English mathematician and logician, Alan Turing, helps crack the Enigma code during World War II.
Thoughts: The early critical response is mixed to good on this. I am not a big Cumberbatch bandwagoner, but this is the kinda movie he was built for, so my expectation is that at least his performance will be top notch.
Before I Disappear (2014)
93 min – Drama
Director: Shawn Christensen
Stars: Shawn Christensen, Fatima Ptacek, Emmy Rossum, Paul Wesley
Summary: At the lowest point of his life, Richie gets a call from his estranged sister, asking him to look after his eleven-year old niece, Sophia, for a few hours.
Thoughts: I was fully prepared to hate this movie at the beginning of the trailer, but by the end I think I started to come around to a little bit of interest. Hopefully, it is less cliché than it appears.
Remote Area Medical (2013)
Documentary
Directors: Jeff Reichert | Farihah Zaman
Summary: A documentary on the annual three-day “pop-up” medical clinic organized by the non-profit Remote Area Medical (RAM) in Bristol, Tennessee’s NASCAR speedway.
Thoughts: This looks super interesting. Hardy to be snarky of generosity.
The Babadook (2014)
93 min – Drama | Horror | Thriller
Director: Jennifer Kent
Stars: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Daniel Henshall, Hayley McElhinney
Summary: A single mother, plagued by the violent death of her husband, battles with her son’s fear of a monster lurking in the house, but soon discovers a sinister presence all around her.
Thoughts: One of us will have a review up of this by the end of the weekend hopefully. I have heard nothing but good things about it.
Antarctica: A Year on Ice (2013)
PG 91 min – Documentary | Adventure | Biography | Drama
Director: Anthony Powell
Stars: Anthony Powell, Genevieve Bachman, Michael Christiansen, Tom Hamann
Summary: A visually stunning chronicle of what it is like to live in Antarctica for a full year, including winters isolated from the rest of the world, and enduring months of darkness in the coldest place on Earth.
Thoughts: Pure insanity. See this in a double feature with “Penguins of Madasgacar” to get the full picture.
Let us know what you thought of this week’s flicks in the comments. Let’s argue about it. That would be fun.