Weekend Forecast: 8/29/08
By Craig Kennedy - August 28th, 2008; 12:40 am
Three better choices for your weekend than any of the new releases
Ladies and gentlemen, I present the worst week for new releases I’ve seen since I started doing the Weekend Forecast 70 some weeks ago. Do yourself a favor. Skip all of these and just go see Trouble the Water, Man on Wire or Vicky Cristina Barcelona instead. Not convinced? Read on:
Opening wide:
- Traitor (Wed. 8/27) A good cast including Don Cheadle and Guy Pearce in yet another story about a CIA man (Cheadle) infiltrating a terrorist cell. What separates this one from Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies is that Cheadle himself becomes a terror suspect. The other thing is that I’ll be skipping it. Seriously, if the studio thought this thing was any good, they would’ve released it earlier in August or later in September. As it is, they’re burying it. You should too.
- Babylon A.D. Even director Mathieu Kassovitz (Gothika) has disowned this post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller. Vin Diesel stars as a mercenary who must escort a nun from Kazakhstan to New York because she may be the last hope for the future of our species. If our future includes more crap like this, I say let the world burn. On the bright side, Michelle Yeoh is along for the ride.
- College. R-rated Porky’s wannabe about three high school seniors who are recruited as fraternity pledges while visiting a college campus they hope to attend in the fall. Aimed squarely at people who are too young to get into R-rated movies but sneak in anyway and older people who are too stupid to know the difference.
- Disaster Movie. From the bar lowering morons who brought you Scary Movie, Date Movie and Epic Movie, it’s another Stupid Movie. Spare me.
Opening in limited release:
- Goal II: Living the Dream. In 2005, you dreamed the dream of becoming a professional soccer star. In 2008 you will live the dream of playing for Spain’s Real Madrid. Hopefully in a couple of years we’ll all awake from the dream entirely and put an end to crappy soccer dramas. Sign me up for Goal III: Taking the Dream out Back, Shooting it in the Face and Dropping it Down a Well.
- I Served the King of England. Bumped forward from last week (and mistakenly included in last week’s Weekend Forecast), this is the Czech black comedy from Jiri Menzel (Closely Watched Trains) about an ambitious waiter at on old-world Prague hotel and quite possibly the only new release outside of New York worth seeing.
Opening in New York:
- My Mexican Shivah (and SF). And you thought Mexican Jews were an underserved segment of the movie-going population!
- Sukiyaki Western Django (LA 9/12). This latest from Takashi Miike (Audition, Dead or Alive) was inspired by Sergio Corbucci’s spaghetti western Django. Two clans looking for the same legendary treasure plus one lone gunman whose skills are sought by both sides equal trouble. Not exactly an original concept, but spaghetti westerns were always more about original style than original story. The only troubling news is that Quentin Tarantino has a role.
- Year of the Fish. Rotoscope animated (ala Richard Linklater’s Waking Life and Scanner Darkly) riff on Cinderella has a young Chinese woman moving to New York only to get stuck working in a sleazy massage parlor run by her father’s cousin. Guaranteed to give your fairy tale a happy ending.
- Young People Fucking (LA 9/12) Also known as YPF for the faint of heart, it’s four couples, one threesome and five stories about relationships. A movie this provocatively titled is most likely to be all talk and no rock, right? Care to take any bets?
Opening in Los Angeles:
- Red. This revenge thriller already opened in NY and now it hits LA screens. Brian Cox plays a peaceful man driven to vengence for the death of his dog Red. For fans of Cox who have a stomach for the material, this is a better choice than most of the new releases. Catch the LiC review below.
Filed under: Weekend Forecast
Tags: Babylon A.D., Brian Cox, College, Disaster Movie, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, I Served the King of England, Jiri Menzel, Mathieu Kassovitz, Michelle Yeoh, My Mexican Shivah, Quentin Tarantino, Red, Sukiyaki Western Django, Takashi Miike, Traitor, Vin Diesel, Year of the Fish, Young People Fucking
Related Posts: - Weekend Forecast: 4/11/08
- Weekend Forecast: 3/7/08
- Weekend Forecast: 11/2/07
- Weekend Forecast: 11/20/08
- Weekend Forecast: 9/21/07
Ugh.
That Kassovitz bit, denouncing and disowning his own film… Ouch.
I Served the King of England, Sukiyaki Western Django and Red are the movies I’m interested in.
I’m actually glad there aren’t too many new films coming out this weekend, as I still need to see several such as Transsiberian, A Girl Cut in Two, Tropic Thunder and others… But, on the other hand, September 12th and the start of the fall movie season can’t get here soon enough.
Unreal.
YOUNG PEOPLE FUCKING is actually getting a general release outside of my area?
Um…WHY?
I reviewed it on site back in June. It’s no damn good. Don’t let the title mislead you. IT’S NOT A BIT SEXY.
If you want the real deal, rent BODY HEAT, THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING, DANGEROUS LIAISONS, OUT OF SIGHT, LAUREL CANYON, STORMY MONDAY, CHICAGO or some classics like GILDA or DUEL IN THE SUN.
Or get some fried chicken, make some margaritas and settle in for a steamy night with pay per view programming.
YOUNG PEOPLE FUCKING (aside from some of the acting) is a complete waste of time.
You have been warned………
My review of “I Served the King of England” has gone missing. The only way I will ever write a new one is if I see it again, or if it opens in SA or something.
What happened to it, Nicky?
Disowning his own flick … that’s gotta be harsh.
Also, I guess I don’t get rotoscoping … what does it bring to the table that either animation or live action does not? Seems like either a cheap way of animation or some sort of way to abstract us a bit away from the actors portraying the characters.
I’ll be seeing Elegy this weekend, as I haven’t seen it yet. I’ve also got Things Behind the Sun from Netflix, so there will be at least one night of DVD watching.
I am interested in I Served the King of England too, but probably won’t get to it this weekend unless the weather is really bad and I have to stay indoors. :-)
I saw a TV trailer for Babylon AD the other night that was so quickly edited and slapped together, it was obvious they were hiding a lot of bad movie there. I like him as an actor, wish he had a better experience directing stateside.
I admit a weak spot for the cast of Traitor, but I haven’t seen much good said about it.
Nick, what did you think of I Served the King of England generally? I was curious about that one.
Red sounds interesting, after perusing the opening of Craig’s review.
YOu missed Hamlet 2, no?
:-)
Good point, K. Bowen. Hamlet 2 just might be one of the better fare this weekend. Or not.
I think Hamlet 2 is one of those comedies that you pin the “comedy is subjective” label on. It didn’t do much for me beyond some memorable moments by Steve Coogan, but that doesn’t mean others won’t find it hilarious.
I succumbed to that same weak spot for Traitor, Joel, and you might have read my thoughts on it in the Watercooler. I think it could have achieved more.
I want to see Red and am still waiting for Trouble the Water. I have to admit, Year of the Fish makes me raise an eyebrow in interest.
And they think AMERICAN CAROL is going to have some kind of credibility. Yeah, good job guys! A conservative fantasy from the people who brought you EPIC MOVIE, DATE MOVIE, SUPERHERO MOVIE, and DISASTER MOVIE!
How many more of these can they make? Oh yea…SCI-FI MOVIE is due next year. Somebody stop them.
I wrote my review at a friend’s house and put it on a memory stick so I could work on it at home, and now the memory stick is gone. It has never happened to me before, and I am afraid I just cannot muster up the energy to write another review.
Although I was expecting more from it , Joel, I still enjoyed it quite a bit. It’s worth checking out indeed. Especially since there is not much else opening this weekend for you guys either.
I love that you wrote a review at a friend’s house instead of socializing with said friend.
That’s dedication.
I love the dedication too. The trailer for I Served looked good, so I might check that out if I get a chance, Nick.
Thanks for the comments on Traitor, Daniel. I missed your Watercooler comment on it but I’d say you’re a bit more positive than some of the other reviews I’ve seen. Netflix queue it is.
I feel your pain Nick. I’ve recently lost reviews for both Wall-E and Grocer’s Son. The last one was a missing memory stick. Ah well, live and learn.
Rick, I don’t know and honestly when I watched the trailer for Fish, it just looked like badly compressed video half the time. On the other hand, when done well (as it was with Linklater), I think it can be an interesting bridge between real and imagined.
I Served the King of England is about all from this batch I want to see. There are a few pickups I haven’t gotten around to as well. Hamlet 2 is still on the table, though my enthusiasm wanes by the day.
I think that’s a wise choice, Joel. For now it’s probably best to check out the Portland arthouse offerings or just watch the vastly superior The Siege instead.
I had hoped that VCB would be in town this weekend, but it’s not looking like it. May have to drive up to NW Arkansas to see that one or Elegy. The husband wants to see Hamlet 2, so I imagine we’ll go experience it in all of Steve Coogan’s selectively funny glory. May catch Kung Fu Panda at the dollar flick, too, but I’d suspect it’ll mostly be a Netflixing and (egads) reading weekend.
Didn’t you say a while back you might have an opportunity to catch Man on Wire?
Also. have you started reading Sandman yet?
The real question is: has everyone started reading Sandman yet?
OK, so you know what I was saying in that other thread about the right movie, right time? The opposite is also true, and unfortunately marred my experience of the in-all-likelihood-actually-fabulous Man on Wire.
Here’s my how-to guide on how NOT to see the film:
–At a substandard art house theater that hasn’t yet grasped the more sophisticated exhibition concepts like getting a print that isn’t totally washed out and/or scratchy, providing un-muddied sound or, say, lining up a movie with the screen so that the subtitles are consistently readable and the entire film is not shown at a tilt
–When you’re cramming it into a super-busy weekend and are preoccupied by all the things you’ve just done and all the work you have to somehow manage to do while also enjoying a slew of once-in-a-lifetime family gatherings and dinners with old friends and too much personal drama
–At a late show after having too much pasta and way too much Cabernet Sauvignon
–Sitting on the front row next to jennybee’s maternal unit, for whom you have just bought an overpriced ticket and who (not being a movie person and being someone prone to going to sleep an hour earlier) spends 95 percent of the movie dead asleep, snoring, waking up and apologizing for falling asleep before falling instantly asleep again, and moving around dramatically in her chair trying to find a comfortable position before finally (unconsciously, and much to her later embarrassment) letting loose with a monstrously loud and prolonged Yawn to End All Yawns in the film’s final moments.
As it was, under these conditions, I found the film quite a letdown. I wanted to be captivated by the animated storytelling bits from our protagonist, but I often just found him arrogant and offputting. It seemed to just drag on and on. The structure of it rarely engaged me–maybe because we know it comes off fine?–and all the talking heads going over every detail 30 years later just felt sort of spliced together in a really choppy way that gave me much more information than I wanted to know about the event whilst being simultaneously confusing and hard to follow. Having so much, but not all, of the film in black and white just struck me as a bit pretentious. I thought it had moments of greatness and beauty, and parts I really liked, but could have been more tightly told in a fascinating 30- to 40-minute short.
But, like I said, I saw it under *really* bad conditions, and I’m at least 60 percent sure I’d feel differently if I saw it again. It’s likely a quite well-crafted, lovely and transcendent film like everyone else seems to agree.
As for Sandman, my friend wants me to read it, but does not want me to remove his copies from his cat-fur-covered bachelor pad, so we’re at an impasse until I break down and buy them myself.
In the meantime, I’m not taking Mom to any more movies.
Oh man, that sucks. Obviously it pains me that you were not transported to magic land. What a disappointment on your part!
Certainly the odds were against your enjoyment, but that’s not to say it would’ve worked any better for you under any other circumstances. It’s true Petit has quite an ego on him which is normally something that turns me right off. I suspect that he’s part elf and he managed to charm me anyway.
Ah well, I hope you don’t think any less of me for trumpeting it so loudly.
On second thought…maybe I don’t want you to read sandman… :)
My other, non-sleeping companions (sitting further from my mother) still enjoyed the film and thanked me for insisting we see it, so I think I’m probably just a victim of circumstances. You didn’t lead me astray, and we helped add an extra $40 or so to its box office, so no regrets allowed.
I’ll love Sandman. Outside of Beowulf, I don’t think I’ve ever read any Gaiman I didn’t love.
Watchman’s taking me longer than usual to read, but it’s pretty dense with stuff, both visually and conceptually. I don’t read a lot of graphic novels, but it’s an interesting process, so different from reading a regular novel.
Sandman I think is a little more approachable than Watchmen, though it might take a while to get into. As Gaiman sort of found his voice, the early tone of the first couple story arcs have kind of a horror bent. That element is always there, but it takes on a much richer fantasy tone as it goes along. Very much fascinated by the nature of stories and storytelling.
Good stuff.
Wow, jennybee, what a waste of a film. Sorry.
If you read Sandman, stick with it for a good 12 issues before you make up your mind about it. Takes a little while for Gaiman to find his groove.
Beowulf is fairly awful. You can’t feel bad for not liking that one.
That sucks about MoW, jennybee. However, I think it’s fine to have a less-than-impressed reaction to the film, if only because you are literally, literally the first person I have seen or read that was not blown away by it, including me. Nice change of pace.
Has anyone seen Transsiberian? I saw it yesterday and, um, liked it very, very much.
I haven’t caught it yet. It’s been reduced to one show a night at the bargain theater so I’d better movie fast.
I did read the Man on Wire review over at the Onion AV Club, written by Noel Murray (who coincidentally lives here in Arkansas), and he gave it a B-, saying that while he thought the story was interesting, he wondered if maybe these guys were the type you run into at a party and can’t, for the past 30 years, talk about anything else. At the time I read it, before I saw the movie, I thought it was unnecessarily snarky and that he probably just didn’t get it, but after my experience, I can see where he’s coming from.
Transsiberian looks scary. Count me out unless it’s super good.
I didn’t read Mr. Murray’s review, but to me one of the moving things about it was precisely how the participants were still so moved by the experience 30 years later. Not all of them, but mainly the French.
Jennybee, it keeps the pulse racing well enough, but it didn’t leave me shaking with fright, if that’s what you mean.
Without saying too much, I’ll just call it a marriage between A Simple Plan and Strangers on a Train.
I’m seeing Transsiberian this weekend… I’m looking forward to it, especially after hearing Daniel’s response to it.
Jennybee, that’s a truly awful, sad story about your experience with Man on Wire. I’m very sorry to hear about such a viewing.