Thanksgiving Forecast: Two turkeys and a Fantastic Fox

Most of the new stuff is opening today in advance of the Thanksgiving holiday so we’re rolling out the Weekend Forecast a day early.

Opening Wide:

• Fantastic Mr. Fox. Wes Anderson’s clever and charming adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic story has been quietly playing in about 4 theaters for a few weeks now, but today it jumps into over 2000 theaters and it’s about goddamn time. Since the other wide releases are trash, this one gets top billing for the week. Read the LiC review from AFI Fest here.

• Ninja Assassin. Korean pop star Rain is a ninja assassin…hence the title. It’s produced by the Wachowskis and it’s directed by James McTeigue (the guy who did V for Vendetta) so it could be some kind of crazy martial arts fun. On the other hand, it’s getting killed at Rotten Tomatoes even by a lot of critics you’d expect to go for this kind of thing. Yeah, I’ll pass.
• Old Dogs. Special thanks to all you assholes who lined up to see Wild Hogs a couple of years ago to the tune of $168 million at the US box office. You’re also to blame for keeping shows like According to Jim on the air year after year. F yourselves.

Opening in limited release:

• The Road. This year I give thanks that I don’t live in a desolate post-apocalyptic wasteland as written by Cormac McCarthy. Viggo Mortensen isn’t so lucky. Senior Variety critic Todd McCarthy took a giant dump on The Road when it premiered at the Venice Film Festival, but subsequent critics have been much more positive. I think we can all agree McTodd mostly sucks so I’m still looking forward to this one. However, as directed by John Hillcoat who most recently brought us the uncompromisingly bleak and depressing The Proposition (no, not the uncompromisingly bleak and depressing Sandra Bullock romantic comedy…that was The Proposal) to the big screen replete with flies and bad teeth, I worry The Road could be an overload of despair. With the current depressing state of the world and the inevitable onset of the holiday blues, it might all be too much. I’m game, but I just might have to hit the cocktail lounge immediately afterward.
• The Princess and the Frog. If you live in New York or Los Angeles and really want to see Disney’s The Princess and the Frog before its wide release on December 13, you can but it’ll cost you $50 per ticket plus $2 if you order online. For that price you get the movie and you get to meet the Disney princesses and engage in 3 1/2 hours of Disney backstage shenanigans and all manner of Disney tomfoolery. 50 clams! For that kind of dough you could probably get a hummer on Hollywood Boulevard from a girl (or guy) who’d let you call them Snow White for crapsakes.
• Me and Orson Welles. Richard Linklater’s tale of a teenager (Zac Efron) who lucks into a small role in Orson Welles’ 1937 Mercury Theatre production of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar debuted at Toronto back in 2008 to decent notices but was seemingly stuck in distribution limbo for ages afterward. Christian McKay (pronounced Mick-Kye apparently) supposedly gives a terrific performance as Welles. I wonder if it’ll be good enough to earn him a supporting actor nomination.
• The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (11/27). Rebecca Miller, writer, actress, director, daughter of playwright Arthur Miller, and wife of Daniel Day-Lewis, adapts her own novel starring Robin Wright (Penn) as a woman whose confidently comfortable lifestyle is turned upside down when her husband (30 years her senior) moves them to a Connecticut retirement community. Alan Arkin, Blake Lively, Maria Bello, Keanu Reeves, Monica Bellucci, Julianne Moore, Winona Ryder and Zoe Kazan also star.

Opening in NY:

• Home (11/27). Here we have a French comedy drama starring Isabelle Huppert as the matriarch of a happy middle class family living in the middle of nowhere next to an unfinished and unused highway. When highway construction suddenly resumes, the delicate balance of their idyllic lifestyle is thrown into turmoil.

Coming to Los Angeles:

• Red Cliff. It’s probably not exactly what people expect for John Woo, but I loved it.
• The Sun. Sam Juliano loved it.

This has been making the rounds for a couple of days, but I didn’t have a spot for it until now. This week’s musical sponsor is The Muppets with their version of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody:

Filed under: Weekend Forecast