Man, this has been a rough week. Ebola, and like other things. And as a result I am listening to the “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” soundtrack by Neil Diamond on endless repeat and I don’t care who knows. Luckily, the theater is filled with a bunch of mid to low budget fare this week. And hopefully Big Shiny Robot! can help do ourr part in letting you know what to see.
This BSR! Weekend Movie Preview is for the weekend of October 10, 2014. Per usual, before we get started, a quick disclaimer. I write these over my lunch at my day job, 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.
Join us this week as we preview “The Judge”, “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”, “Dracula Untold”, and a whole ton of others.
The Judge (2014)
R 141 min – Drama
Director: David Dobkin
Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Billy Bob Thornton
Summary: Big city lawyer Hank Palmer returns to his childhood home where his father, the town’s judge, is suspected of murder. Hank sets out to discover the truth and, along the way, reconnects with his estranged family.
Thoughts: Early reviews aren’t good and I probably agree with most of them, even having not seen the movie at this time. It looks like a very cynical attempt to court Academy votes. But even when you do that, you still got to have a good movie, and unfortunately this looks more like a generic Lifetime Channel movie, just with less women stuff. Also, I like this trailer much better than the real one.
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (2014)
PG 81 min – Comedy | Family
Director: Miguel Arteta
Stars: Steve Carell, Jennifer Garner, Ed Oxenbould, Dylan Minnette
Summary: Alexander’s day begins with gum stuck in his hair, followed by more calamities. Though he finds little sympathy from his family and begins to wonder if bad things only happen to him, his mom, dad, brother, and sister all find themselves living through their own terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
Thoughts: Ughhh… this week is not looking good for good movies. What is even more depressing, I just read that Henson Company is behind this. My heart is broken.
Dracula Untold (2014)
PG-13 92 min – Action | Drama | Fantasy | Horror | War
Director: Gary Shore
Stars: Luke Evans, Dominic Cooper, Sarah Gadon, Art Parkinson
Summary: Facing threats to his kingdom and his family, Vlad Tepes makes a deal with dangerous supernatural forces – whilst trying to avoid succumbing to the darkness himself.
Thoughts: This could be so bad that it’s good, or so bad that it is just really, really bad. I think the chances of it being actually good is only about 7.8%. Full disclosure – I really liked “Van Helsing”. Are you kidding? That movie is awesome. Steampunk weaponary. Evil larval bat babies. Deflowering monks. And Kate Beckinsale in a tight bustier and a bad gypsy accent. Pure gold, baby, pure gold.
Addicted (2014)
R 105 min – Drama | Thriller
Director: Bille Woodruff
Stars: Sharon Leal, Boris Kodjoe, John Newberg, Tyson Beckford
Summary: A gallerist risks her family and flourishing career when she enters into an affair with a talented painter and slowly loses control of her life.
Thoughts: This looks like an episode of the “Red Shoe Diaries”. All it needs is David Duchovny to start the movie by reading a letter that sets up the plot. Or whatever the story engine is for this.
Whiplash (2014) – [Limited]
R 106 min – Drama | Music
Director: Damien Chazelle
Stars: Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons, Melissa Benoist, Paul Reiser
Summary: A promising young drummer enrolls at a cutthroat music conservatory where his dreams of greatness are mentored by an instructor who will stop at nothing to realize a student’s potential.
Thoughts: This is what I know for a fact. You cannot be recognized as the best in the world at something you do without a ton of pain, sacrifice and unending practice. What you do has to come first to everything else that you are. That is why I am not the best. And this movie looks like it lays it out pretty clearly.
St. Vincent (2014) – [Limited]
PG-13 103 min – Comedy
Director: Theodore Melfi
Stars: Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy, Naomi Watts, Jaeden Lieberher
Summary: A young boy whose parents just divorced finds an unlikely friend and mentor in the misanthropic, bawdy, hedonistic, war veteran who lives next door.
Thoughts: The word on this film is mediocre, but solely based on this one clip I am in love with it.
Kill the Messenger (2014) – [Limited]
R 112 min – Biography | Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller
Director: Michael Cuesta
Stars: Jeremy Renner, Robert Patrick, Jena Sims, Robert Pralgo
Summary: A reporter becomes the target of a vicious smear campaign that drives him to the point of suicide after he exposes the CIA’s role in arming Contra rebels in Nicaragua and importing cocaine into California. Based on the true story of journalist Gary Webb.
Thoughts: This is the Jeremy Renner that I like. Less action star, more morally conflicted character actor type. I am remain totally unenthused by him as Hawkeye in “The Avengers”, didn’t care for him in “Mission Impossible 4”, thought he was wasted in “The Bourne Legacy”. But I loved him in “American Hustle”, And it looks like he is in his real element in this.
One Chance (2013) – [Limited]
PG-13 103 min – Biography | Comedy | Drama | Music
Director: David Frankel
Stars: James Corden, Alexandra Roach, Julie Walters, Colm Meaney
Summary: The true story of Paul Potts, a shy, bullied shop assistant by day and an amateur opera singer by night who became a phenomenon after being chosen for — and ultimately winning — “Britain’s Got Talent”.
Thoughts: I find it interesting that for every bit of love I have for British film and comedy, that the real brits that I have spent actual time with in the real world, very few of them like me back. Anyway, this looks good.
I Am Ali (2014) – [Limited]
PG 111 min – Documentary | Biography | Sport
Director: Clare Lewins
Stars: Muhammad Ali, Muhammad Ali Jnr, Hana Ali, Maryum Ali
Summary: Unprecedented access to Muhammad Ali’s personal archive of “audio journals” as well as interviews and testimonials from his inner circle of family and friends are used to tell the legend’s life story.
Thoughts: The impact that Ali had on the world, especially in the 60s and 70s cannot be overestimated. For someone like me, part chinese growing up in Oklahoma in the late 60s and early 70s, he was one of the few people of color that grownups didn’t whisper about just out of earshot of us kids. He was and is a phenomenally beautiful and inspiring man.
Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead (2014) – [Limited]
R 100 min – Action | Comedy | Horror
Director: Tommy Wirkola
Stars: Vegar Hoel, Ørjan Gamst, Martin Starr, Jocelyn DeBoer
Summary: If the worst day of your life consisted of accidentally killing your girlfriend with an axe, chain-sawing your own arm off, and watching in horror as your closest friends were devoured by a zombified Nazi battalion, you’d have to assume that things couldn’t get much worse. In Martin’s case, that was only the beginning.
Thoughts: Ok, full disclosure – I really liked Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. It had everything the bad taste sections of my brain love: it was clever, it was dumb, it had great make-up effects, it had a weird and slightly off kilter back story, and it had Gemma Arterton. This looks fun, too.
The Overnighters (2014) – [Limited]
PG-13 90 min – Documentary | Drama
Director: Jesse Moss
Stars: Keegan Edwards, Jay Reinke
Summary: Broken, desperate men chase their dreams and run from their demons in the North Dakota oil fields. A local Pastor risks everything to help them.
Thoughts: We are all only months away from destitution and homelessness.
The Devil’s Hand (2014) – [Limited]
PG-13 86 min – Thriller
Director: Christian E. Christiansen
Stars: Rufus Sewell, Alycia Debnam Carey, Adelaide Kane, Leah Pipes
Summary: When young girls start to go missing within a religious cult, older followers fear a long-told prophecy while the younger members suspect abusive elders are killing them off.
Thoughts: Ooooh… Rufus Sewell. What happened to him? There was a time when he was like the next big thing. The new Gabriel Byrne. But he just kinda faded away. Only to reappear in lame stuff like this.
Now, it’s your turn – if you have seen any of these movies, let us know your thoughts in the comments, especially “The Hero of Color City”. No way it can be as bad as it looks, but I am hoping so hard right now, I might burst a blood vessel in my brain.