Weekend Forecast: 4/11/08
By Craig Kennedy - April 10th, 2008; 12:01 am
Pick of the Week: Young@HeartÂ
It’s a pretty brutal week for new releases. Here’s what’s going wide:
- Prom Night. Horror movie about a maniac stalking and killing studio executives who green light PG-13 rated remakes of old horror movies. Oh wait, no that’s not it. What? Never mind. I’ve already lost interest.
- Smart People. You’ve got Dennis Quaid as your prickly professorial type whose an expert at Victorian literature, but clueless when it comes to living life. Ellen Page is his overachieving daughter destined to follow in his footsteps. Thomas Hayden Church is the slacker brother who moves in and teaches everyone a little something about something. Sound familiar? Yeah, I thought so too. Good cast though.
- Street Kings. David Ayer, the screenwriter of Training Day and 73 other movies about bad L.A. cops directs this story co-written with James Ellroy (L.A. Confidential, The Black Dahlia)…about bad L.A cops. Keanu Reeves stars as an LAPD vice detective out to find his partner’s killers. Forest Whitaker is the captain trying to steer him clear of Internal Affairs captain Hugh Laurie.
And the limited releases:
- Bra Boys. Documentary about some warring surf gangs near Sydney, Australia. Narrated by Russell Crowe.
- Chaos Theory. Ryan Reynolds is an efficiency expert… who learns… how not to live… like… an efficiency expert. Or something. Also with Emily Mortimer.
- Dark Matter. An ambitious Chinese science student comes to America to get his Ph.D., but learns it takes more than intelligence to get ahead. Also with Aidan Quinn and Meryl Streep. Yeah, well Armond White liked it.
- Remember the Daze. It’s 1999 and the last day of school for a bunch of suburban high school kids. Basically a valentine to high school that wastes some good performances by a handsome cast of young actors including Amber Heard, Melonie Diaz, Katrina Begin and Brie Larson. Think TV sitcom with drugs and swearing. Used to be called The Beautiful Ordinary which is a 47% better title than Remember the Daze which is only 3% better than This Movie is Ass.
- The Take. John Leguizamo is an armored car driver who is hijacked, forced to participate in a robbery and then shot in the head. Later he tracks down his attackers. Also with Rosie Perez. I’m sorry, I tried to make that sound interesting for 20 minutes and I failed.
- The Visitor (Expands 4/18). From the director of The Station Agent, Richard Jenkins (the dad in Six Feet Under) plays a man whose life his changed by a chance encounter with an illegal immigrant couple in New York.
- Young@Heart (Wed. 4/9). Here it is. The movie you should see this weekend.
And here’s what’s opening in New York
- The Dhamma Brothers. Documentary about prisoners in a maximum-security prison in Alabama who get involved in an Eastern meditation program.
- Body of War (Wed. 4/9). Documentary about Tomas Young who signed up for the US military on September 13, 2001,was paralyzed by a bullet in Iraq and returned home to become an anti-war activist.
Filed under: Upcoming
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I woud love to see Young@Heart as well as Smart People, as unoriginal as it may be, I am a sucker for a good cast.
My weekend is worse than yours, I get Rambo, yay.
I really like Hugh Laurie, and I thought Ayer’s Harsh Times was better than anyone else seemed to, so I’m going to check Street Kings when I get the chance. Smart People may at least allow me to continue to dream that Alexander Payne and Dennis Quaid will one day work together, though my Sarah Jessica Parker tolerance is low.
It seems Young@Heart may be hitting a theatre about 90 minutes away in a few weeks, so I’m hoping to get a chance on that, same theatre is also showing Contempt as well as a Mitchum retrospective. Too bad our gas situation is reaching Mad Max proportions or I’d be up there more often.
So as for what I may actually see this weekend it may be some mixture of Street Kings, 4 months 3 weeks 2 days, and Shine a light.
Eh, I’m in for Street Kings. In the midst of watching Tarkovsky and Bergman and trying to wrap my mind around some of the more obscure Coen works, I just get that guilty pleasure itch going. The reviews aren’t completely in the dumps on this one, and even though Keanu is in it (how in the world is he still working?), I’m game.
Young@Heart probably won’t show up in my neck of the woods for another few weeks, if ever.
Street Kings has a special screening tomorrow but I do not think I am going to see it, maybe when it is officially released in SA, but I am not going out of my way to catch it.
When I saw a trailer for Dark Matter, it looked like a cheesy direct to DVD B movie. I’m hoping that it was just a poor trailer because the premise sounds alright. I’d like to check that out if I get a chance.
Smart People might be ok, despite Ellen Page. I do like Thomas Haden Church sometimes so it might be worth it.
And strangely enough, Boston has Body Of War but not Young At Heart. Go figure. Not much else going on. I’ll probably stay home and watch something here.
Same thoughts as you about Street Kings, Evan. I find myself actually considering it after initially writing it off. That it comes from a James Ellroy novel should mean something after L.A. Confidential, but I did not like The Black Dahlia at all.
This weekend I’m planning on Smart People and Planet B-Boy, possibly Street Kings and The Grand, which I skipped last week. Chances are I won’t make all of them anyway, but oh well.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul Int’l Film Festival kicks off next Thursday, 4/17. Opening night is The Visitor, followed by a Saturday screening of Young@Heart and also Son of Rambow with director and producer present. Too bad I’m going to be in Vegas from Thursday-Mon. Curses! Also going to miss Tuya’s Marriage and Momma’s Man on the first weekend. So yeah, I’m thinking about next weekend already.
Also, on Monday I might check out His Girl Friday as part of a screwball comedy series that’s been going on for a few weeks. Tuesday night is a screening of Standard Operating Procedure followed by Q & A with Errol Morris. Then Wednesday night is The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly as part of the UA 90th Anniversary Film Series.
And where to fit in the Milos Forman series that’s been playing all month at the Walker Art Center? I’m not attending his sold-out appearance and discussion this Saturday night.
Needless to say, my head is swimming with all of these converging opportunities. This must be what it’s like in L.A. and NYC all the time. How do you keep up?
Daniel, you have by far the best possible line-up of options for the week so beyond a guilty pleasure, why exactly would you see Street Kings? Maybe you know something I don’t, but I nearly fell asleep during the trailer. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this movie at least 5 times already since the 1970’s.
Young@Heart and The Visitor would top my list if they were opening here, but it doesn’t look like they are. My best bet may be the Counterfeiters.
Haha, yeah SK would definitely be nothing more than a guilty pleasure, Joel, and chances are it wouldn’t even be a pleasure. I kind of have a weak spot for L.A. crime stories, but as you point out I don’t know how this would offer anything new.
Absolutely see The Counterfeiters if you have a chance. I can recommend that without hesitation, both as an important story and a sharply made film. It’s not your typical Holocaust movie.
Dennis Quaid is terrific in Smart People. Deserves to be remembered come January, but probably won’t be.
Thanks for the recommendation, Daniel. Appreciate the input.
As for guilty pleasures, I admit I’d normally be more open-minded about this one considering the cast but it’s got Keanu starring, which is never a good sign.
Smart People. It’s the cast that has me intrigued. I don’t mind a recycled plot so much if the characters and cast are good.
I can’t get behind Street Kings, though it could be part of a multiplex sneak-in situation if the timing is right.
For those of you in NY, Body of War made a pretty good impression at AFI…where I missed it of course. I’m just saying.
Justin, do NOT read the plot synopsis to Dark Matter either on the Dark Matter website or ComingSoon.net. They pretty much outline the entire movie beginning to end.
Thanks for the heads up, Craig. I generally try not to read too much about a movie’s plot if I plan on seeing it. Likewise, if I’ve seen a trailer that basically outlines the entire movie, even if I was previously interested, I’ll most likely pass on it. That’s a big peeve of mine. I like my previews to be only slightly more revealing than teasers.
I’ll be sucking at the teat of Joe Dante at the New Beverly this week.
Craig, you better show up for the MOVIE ORGY!
Damn, you LA and Minneapolis showoffs have all the fun!
Here in SF we were even deprived the opportunity of beating to death Olympic torch bearers, in the name of Tibetan peace.
Sounds like you got it good sarte…
Christian, I’ll be there for The Movie Orgy, on top of whatever other Dante screenings I can manage.
lol, sartre. Nothing like the threat of a riot to make your voice heard. I love (LOVE) the Olympics, but I’m quietly cheering on the people disrupting it.
sartre, wasn’t it amusing to hear from the San Francisco “brass” how successful they were in depriving the protestors of disrupting the torch bearing? Yeah, I guess they were successful–since they went with a separate, secret route at the last minute and shorten the event dramatically. As usual, all eyes are on our city.
I agree Alexander, it was a very hollow “success”.
Well, they need to talk something up these days considering the pathetic state of the Giants minus Bonds and plus Zito. Bad timing, too, since the newness of AT&T Park is just now starting to fade away.
They just had the smallest crowd ever attend a game at the park. Zito is disappointing but the batters are the biggest problem.
Thank goodness for the Warriors.
Alexander and I sincerely apologize for this brief hijacking of the thread.
The Giants line-up is indeed quite depressing these days.
I refuse to apologize.
Just kidding, I apologize. ;-)
Dark Matter sounds interesting. Otherwise… eh…
Smart People, on paper, sounds like a cliched indie if there ever was one but there’s something about that trailer that kind of has me won over. At least for now.
Anyone interested in Street Kings should see Harsh Times. I know everybody wants to direct, but not everyone should.
All I can say about this week’s theatrical releases is… thank god There Will Be Blood came out on tuesday.
“Anyone interested in Street Kings should see Harsh Times.”
I understand that as a warning and not a recommendation? I’ve seen Harsh Times (didn’t like it but was impressed by Bale, as usual) and have decided not to go to Street Kings at this time. Ayer should definitely stick to writing, if anything at all.
In any case, you’re totally right about the wide releases this week.
“All I can say about this week’s theatrical releases is… thank god There Will Be Blood came out on tuesday.” Amen to that, brother.