Your Weekly Guide to New Movies for February 23, 2007
By Edward Douglas -

Greetings and welcome back to the Weekend Warrior, your weekly guide to the weekend's new movies. Tune in every Tuesday for the latest look at the upcoming weekend, and then check back on Friday for final projections based on actual theatre counts.

(If you have anything to say about anything written in this column, feedback and Email is always welcome, and almost always responded to.)

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THE BATTLE CRY!

I've never been so happy to be wrong on my opening weekend prediction for a movie as I was when I realized that Mark Steven Johnson's Ghost Rider was going to make well over the $38 million I predicted and possibly even set a new Presidents' Day record.

Sure, I was a bit nervous when I found out that Sony wouldn't be screening the movie for anyone before opening, because instinctively it tells you that the studio doesn't have confidence in the work done by the filmmaker. Being the most expensive movie to get this treatment, it's no wonder that the decision was questioned but with over $50 million in the bank, it's obvious now that it wasn't done due to the quality of the movie, as much as a desire to let the fans see the movie without the baggage of reviews. While I personally don't think that Ghost Rider is a great movie--you can read my review here--it's also not a terrible movie and for better or worse, it does capture the feel of the comic book. The thing is that everyone who wrote about the movie in the last few weeks (including myself) just assumed the worst because it wasn't being screened, when Sony probably just knew that they had a cool-looking movie that would appeal to a certain audience that already wanted to see the movie.

As reviews came in, my editor pointed out what's probably obvious from the money the movie made or the main polls on Superhero Hype! or Rotten Tomatoes that Ghost Rider is the kind of movie that critics hate but normal moviegoing audiences like, love or at least appreciate. With that in mind, it seems logical not to screen the movie for critics early and frankly, even any negative word-of-mouth won't do much damage as Ghost Rider will probably be #1 for the 2^nd weekend in a row.

It'll be interesting to see where things go from here. Obviously, as a critic and movie writer, it's important that I get to see movies before writing about them, and if this trend continues, there's going to be far less movies to write about with any kind of informed opinion. Then again, this recent pattern allows critics and writers to focus on smaller movies that really need to get the attention that a positive review can give it, rather than the big budget high-profile movies that are guaranteed business regardless.

What's important is that like Fantastic Four (which also got bad reviews), the success of Ghost Rider is proving that the interest in superhero/comic book movies is still very high and the success achieved by Ghost Rider will mean that other projects based on comic books will move forward. Maybe DC and Warner Bros. will realize that they can do cool things with their second and third string heroes and start rolling out those long-awaited Flash and Green Lantern movies soon… or better yet… Aquaman!

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THE WEEKEND PREDICTIONS: (final update 2.22.07)

TW	LW	Title	Weekend (in millions)	Change	# Of Theaters	Average	Week
1	1	Ghost Rider	$20.2	-55%	3,620	$5,580	2
2	New	The Number 23	$17.7	N/A	2,759	$6,415	1
3	2	Bridge to Terabitha	$13.8	-39%	3,139	$4,396	2
4	New	Reno 911!: Miami	$11.8	N/A	2,702	$4,367	1
5	3	Norbit	$8.7	-48%	3,145	$2,766	3
6	4	Music and Lyrics	$8.2	-40%	2,955	$2,775	2
7	New	The Astronaut Farmer	$7.8	N/A	2,155	$3,619	1
8	5	Daddy's Little Girls	$6.5	-46%	2,111	$3,079	2
9	6	Breach	$6.1	-42%	1,493	$4,086	2
10	New	The Abandoned	$3.0	N/A	988	$3,036	1
			Est. Weekend Total $103.80	Est. Avg. Drop-Off -45%		Est. Average PTA $4,017

February ends with more of a whimper than a bang after a slammin' Presidents' Day weekend. Although Sony's superhero hit Ghost Rider is likely to remain on top, there are four new movies that will try to sway audiences away from the returning movies. The strongest of them is probably Jim Carrey's latest venture into drama, starring in the Joel Schumacher thriller The Number 23, which looks like a cross between Ashton Kutcher's The Butterfly Effect and Will Ferrell's Stranger Than Fiction. Even with Carrey's once formidable box office track record, it's going to be hard for this movie to best the superhero action movie in its second weekend, since it's such a strange premise with limited appeal. (Update: Even despite terrible reviews that should keep anyone from seeing the movie, this thriller seems to have the most interest among moviegoers this weekend. Go figure.)

On the other hand, 20^th Century Fox's Reno 911!: Miami brings the cops from the Comedy Central show to the big screen, which should bring in much of the college age audience that opt out of Carrey's movie. Though it looks to get the widest release, it's not likely to make a strong play for the top spot, likely settling for a fourth place opening between $10 to 13 million.

A decent movie that might be a harder sell is Warner Bros.' The Astronaut Farmer, starring Billy Bob Thornton, which is likely to appeal to older adults, though its PG rating could help it bring in some of the family audience, even if its moderate theatre count and odd premise might keep it out of the Top 5 against stronger returning fare.

After Dark Films, who won over many horror fans with their After Dark Horrorfest last November, give one of the movies, The Abandoned, a wider theatrical release into close to 1,000 theatres with the help of Lionsgate. Without any star power or name director, it's likely to wind up towards the bottom of the Top 10. (Update: The final theatre count is under 1,000 as opposed to 1,250 from earlier this week, so there's a good chance, this won't even get into the Top 10, fighting for that place with Because I Said So.)

Last but not least, Michael Apted's historic drama Amazing Grace will open in close to 750 theatres with a big push towards churches, though it's likely to end up outside the Top 10 with just over $2 million.

(Oh, and if you don't feel like you've already seen the entire movie from the many clips, Disney's Wild Hogs will be sneak previewed on Saturday night in 800 theatres for those who can't wait a week to see it.)

Last year, Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion shocked everyone as it took in $30 million over the weekend following Presidents' Day, while the other new movies, The Weinstein Company's animated Doogal and the crime drama Running Scared ended up with less than $4 million each. Still, with the continued success of family films like Eight Below and The Pink Panther and other returning movies held up well to bolster the Top 10 to an impressive $95.4 million for the weekend. That number shouldn't be too hard to beat this weekend.

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THE CHOSEN ONE:

STARTER FOR 10 (Picturehouse)
Starring James McAvoy, Ian Bonar, Dominic Cooper, James Corden, Benedict Cumberbatch, Charles Dance, Alice Eve, Raj Ghatak, Rebecca Hall, Julian Hensey, Elaine Tan, Catherine Tate, Simon Woods
Directed by Tom Vaughan (debut); Written by David Nicholls (author of the novel)
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Rated PG-13
Story: Brian Jackson (James McAvoy) is always trying to show off his vast knowledge, so when he's accepted to Bristol University, he thinks he'll finally be able to show everyone how clever he is. Instead, he winds up getting himself into trouble, falling hopelessly in love with two very different girls (Rebecca Hall, Alice Eve) and trying to make a name for himself on the school's "University Challenge" team.
INTERVIEW with James McAvoy

This is a movie that didn't really grab me at first, but on watching it a second time, it really started to grow on me. It's obvious that the filmmakers were heavily influenced by the ‘80s movies of John Hughes, and there's something about Scottish actor James McAvoy (The Last King of Scotland) that makes his characters immediately likeable, but the movie's worth seeing because it has a lot of funny situations and characters, the best of them being Benedict Cumberbatch as the snotty leader of Brian's "University Challenge" team. It certainly likes to wear its ‘80s influence on its sleeves, particularly with its soundtrack, which includes a number of tunes from The Cure, given to them by Robert Smith, who was a fan of the novel. It's probably not nearly as strong a piece of dramatic work in terms of ‘80s university dramas as last year's The History Boys (which also starred Dominic Cooper), but it's a strong debut with a great cast of fairly inexperienced talent. For instance, Rebecca Hall appeared in Christopher Nolan's The Prestige last fall, this was her first movie, and she's terrific as one of Brian's two love interests. It's highly probable that this movie will appeal more to women, both teens and older, than men, though guys old enough to have remembered the ‘80s will certainly relate to some of Brian's predicaments, which makes this a great date movie.

Starter for 10 opens in select cities on Friday.

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THE ASTRONAUT FARMER (Warner Bros.)
Starring Billy Bob Thornton, Virginia Madsen, Bruce Dern, Tim Blake Nelson, J.K. Simmons
Directed by Michael Polish; Written by Mark and Michael Polish (Northfork, Jackpot, Twin Falls Idaho)
Genre: Adventure, Family, Comedy, Drama
Rated PG
Tagline: "If we don't have our dreams, we have nothing."
Plot Summary: Charles Farmer (Billy Bob Thornton), a family man dismissed from the NASA space program decides to build a rocket in the barn of his ranch, a dream which looks likely to cost his family their home, as the project is being eyed warily by the FBI and the Dept. of Homeland Security.
Of Note: The Polish Brothers return after four years with a movie that will appeal more to mainstream audiences than their last few flicks.
REVIEW

Analysis: The last time we saw Polish Brothers, Mark and Michael, they had released their quirky indie drama Northfork in the summer of '03, but it came and went from years without making back its under $2 million production budget. One has to assume it did better on DVD and cable, though, as their work is well known among cinephiles. For their fourth film, they have major studio backing in the form of Warner Bros., and a stronger premise and script, which allowed them to get a stronger, more impressive cast, including Oscar winner Billy Bob Thornton and Oscar nominee in Virginia Madsen (who also co-stars with Jim Carrey in The Number 23 this week).

Thornton has yet to really prove himself as a box office draw, because his career has been so erratic from highs like Bad Santa and Friday Night Lights to lows like Waking Up in Reno and Levity, movies that didn't even make $300,000. Thornton also has starred and made a number of movies in the past few years that have gone directly to cable and video, which is never good for an actor who is thought to be at least a B-level star. Who knows why movies like the R-rated Bad Santa hit big while his remake of Bad News Bears, The Ice Harvest and last year's School for Scoundrels, all of which had him playing similarly cranky characters, weren't able to find the same audience, but it probably comes down to premise and marketing. The Astronaut Farmer has Thornton playing the nice family man, a role more in line with the coach he played in Friday Night Lights, which could help interest older audiences. His co-star Virginia Madsen also hasn't really proven that she can get people into theatres, since her only post-Sideways film had her starring opposite Harrison Ford, who is a proven box office draw.

Although the premise of a farmer building a rocket in his barn is a bit strange, Warner Bros. has done a decent job selling the movie on its strengths, such as its similarities to space-faring films like Apollo 13 and Space Cowboys. It's not nearly as quirky or difficult to palate as the Polish Brothers last few movies, and it's only the second PG movie to enter the market in months, so it could snag some of the audiences who went to see Disney's Bridge to Terabithia this past weekend. Really though, it's more likely that the movie will do a lot of its business based on strong word-of-mouth from its opening weekend as people tell their friends about it. Opening in just 2,000 theatres, expect a moderate opening and decent legs as it offers a safer film experience than some of the other choices.

COMPARISONS

Why I Should See It: Should be more solid storytelling in the Polish Brothers tradition.
Why Not: Those looking for a weird, stylish movie like Northfork are likely to be disappointed by what's a far more mainstream adventure-drama.
Projections: $7 to 9 million opening; $25 million total.

THE NUMBER 23 (New Line)
Starring Jim Carrey, Virginia Madsen, Danny Huston, Logan Lerman, Rhona Mitra, Maile Flanagan, Patricia Belcher, Lynn Collins, Mark Pellegrino, Tara Karsian
Directed by Joel Schumacher (A Time to Kill, The Phantom of the Opera, Phone Booth, Batman & Robin, Veronica Guerin, Bad Company); Written by Fernley Phillips (debut)
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Rated R
Tagline: "First it takes hold of your mind...then it takes hold of your life." (But you could say that about any of Joel Schumacher's movies.)
Plot Summary: When Walter Sparrow (Jim Carrey) finds a mysterious book called "The Number 23," he's convinced that it's about his own life and that it foretells his own death. As he tries to solve the book's mystery, he becomes obsessed with the number 23, which he starts to find everywhere.
Of Note: Jim Carrey and Joel Schumacher reteam for a heady psychological thriller. (Then again....)
Mini-Review: What should have been a cool and creepy thriller is neither cool nor creepy nor even particularly thrilling, but it's kind of amusing to watch Joel Schumacher trying his hardest to be David Fincher or David Lynch and failing miserably, mainly due to the weak material. The premise might be intriguing on its own, but the way the story drags along at a dull snail's pace with Carrey's lazy voice-over lulling us to sleep, you might wish that something interesting might happen. If that's not bad enough, there's the running story in the book he's reading, which is a poorly-written detective novel that isn't that much more interesting. After an hour of sheer boredom and repetition--even if you can deal with all the 23's, good luck figuring out what's up with that dog that keeps popping up everywhere for no apparent reason--it then tries to shove an awful twist at the viewer, spends another 15 minutes trying to justify it, before ending the whole thing with a terrible scene between Carrey and Madsen that's embarassing to both. The thing never climaxes nor does it ever try to climax, just plowing at an even keel that'll have you looking at your watch wondering why it stopped moving.Neither of the roles are particularly good for Carrey and if the rumors are true that he fired his agents over it, then they deserved to be fired at least 22 more times. Review: 2.3/10 (of course)

Analysis: After taking last year off, comic actor Jim Carrey returns for a psychological thriller that plays up to his proclivity towards being a dramatic actor, something he cultivated with 1998's The Truman Show and then built upon in successive years with movies like Man in the Moon and The Majestic. Although not all of those films were huge box office hits like his comedies, they were critically well-received, and The Number 23 looks a lot like Carrey's collaboration with Michel Gondry, Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, which opened three years ago to make $34 million. It also looks a bit like the New Line thriller The Butterfly Effect, the dramatic debut of Ashton Kutcher, which opened to $17 million in 2004 and went on to make $57 million. One would think with a bigger box office star like Carrey, that would be the low-end for The Number 23, except that Carrey's dramatic career really hasn't done well by him, except for maybe The Truman Show, for which he won a Golden Globe. When he returned to doing comedy with 2003's Bruce Almighty, it ended up being the biggest movie of his career.

For this psychological thriller, Carrey reteams with director Joel Schumacher (thanks everyone for reminding me of the crapfest that was Batman Forever... amazed any career recovered from that!) who is directing his first movie since the disappointing showing for his big budget musical movie based on Andrew Lord Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. It didn't do that bad, but it didn't bring in the type of box office expected for one of the longest running Broadway musicals, maybe because there was still so much backlash to Schumacher's earlier work like Batman & Robin. The once prolific director does have experience with dramas and thrillers, specifically courtroom dramas based on John Grisham novels like The Client and A Time to Kill, and he had a minor hit in 2003 with the thriller Phone Booth, starring Colin Farrell. If Virginia Madsen didn't have enough visibility from appearing in The Astronaut Farmer with Billy Bob Thornton this weekend, she's also Carrey's co-star in The Number 23, though she's not featured as prominently in the commercials for this one.

While the eerie tone of the commercials is going to bring in a lot of people, the biggest selling point is Carrey's presence, though this might be too weird a movie (much like Eternal Sunshine) to be another huge hit. Still, it should do moderately well this weekend, as it makes a play to take the top spot away from Sony's Ghost Rider. (Update: Reviews for the movie are terrible, but interest seems to be high among a wide variety of audiences.)

COMPARISONS

Why I Should See It: Jim Carrey returns to drama with a thriller that has an interesting premise.
Why Not: Looks like it could be a confusing mess and Schumacher is a bit hit or miss.
Projections: $16 to 18 million opening weekend; $40 million total.

RENO 911!: MIAMI (20^th Century Fox)
Starring Carlos Alazraqui, Mary Birdsong, Robert Ben Garant, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Thomas Lennon, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Niecy Nash, Cedric Yarbrough, Terry Swarsden, Paul Rudd, David Wain, Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black, Nick Swardson, Joe Lo Truglio, Paul Reubens, David Koechner
Directed by Robert Ben Garrant (debut, upcoming Balls of Fury); Written by Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garrant (The Pacifier, Taxi, Herbie: Fully Loaded, Night at the Museum, Let's Go to Prison), Kerri Kenney-Silver (writer of the show)
Genre: Comedy
Rated R
Plot Summary: The men and women of the Washoe County Sherrif's Department travel from Reno to Miami for a Sherrifs' Convention, but when their credentials are lost, they end up being the only police officers available to stop a local crime lord after he unleashes a bioterrorist attack on the convention.
Of Note: The wacky cops of the hit Comedy Central show "Reno 911!" come to the big screen in their first feature-length adventure.
REVIEW

Analysis: "The State" may have been the funniest sketch comedy shows on cable back in its days on MTV, and half the members of the team wound up in L.A. where they created the show "Reno 911!" which has been even bigger on Comedy Central. It started out pretty much like a spoof of the FOX reality show "Cops" transplanted into Reno, but after four seasons on the network, all of the characters have been brought to the big screen with a convenient R-rated movie, which means they won't have to blur and bleep things like they usually do on the show. (And in the case of Lt. Dangle's ass, that's not necessarily a good thing.)

While shooting the television show, director Robert Ben Garrant and his writing partner Thomas Lennon (who plays the aforementioned Sgt. Dangle) have had quite an amazing career in the movie business as screenwriters, penning a number of hit family films including Vin Diesel's The Pacifier, Lindsay Lohan's Herbie: Fully Loaded and most recently, the Ben Stiller mega-blockbuster Night at the Museum. They've also had a few failures like Queen Latifah's action-comedy Taxi and last year's R-rated Let's Go to Prison, though this year they're maintaining more control over their movies, as Garrant takes the directorial reigns for this movie and for the upcoming Balls of Fury.

Since most of the characters are from the show, the movie's going to be appealing to the same college-age crowd who watches, though they're joined by Paul Rudd, who's best known for his comedic turn in movies like Anchorman and The 40-Year-Old Virgin after teaming up with the other half of The State for Wet Hot American Summer. (He also produced and stars in their upcoming anthology comedy The Ten, which comes out in August.) Longtime fans of The State are likely to be thrilled by the fact that the entire group has been reunited in Reno 911!: Miami as the East Coast members like Michael Ian Black, Mike Showalter and David Wain all make cameos.

Obviously, the main audience for this movie will be the same college crowd who watches the show, but there's a pretty solid historical record for movies similar to Reno 911!, the most famous one being the Police Academy series, which spawned six movies released between 1984 and 1989 (and then a really bad seventh movie in 1994). Those movies literally made less money with each successive release where the first movie made $81 million and the last official one making $11.5 million total. There's also the Broken Lizard troupe's Super Troopers, which got a similar release in 2002 in about 1,000 fewer theatres than Reno, and it made $7 million its opening weekend without the tie-in to a long-running television show. A number of other TV comedy groups have tried to make the transition to movies and in some cases, like Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy, their attempt didn't fare so well. For many years, characters from "Saturday Night Live" would have their sketches expanded into movie form from Wayne's World and Night at the Roxbury to Superstar, but in some ways, Reno 911!: Miami owes more to MTV shows like Jackass: The Movie and its sequel or the recent comedy blockbuster Borat, Etc.

To drive-up interest and awareness in the movie, Comedy Central ran a marathon of episodes of the show this past weekend interspersed with tons of promos for the movie, so anyone who watched Comedy Central over the weekend knows that the popular cops are coming to the big screen. It probably didn't hurt that 20^th Century Fox attached a trailer for the movie in front of Borat, Etc., which means that many fans of raunchy comedy will know about the movie as well, though it looks more like one of those movies some might wait to see on DVD.

COMPARISONS

Why I Should See It: "Reno 911!" is one of the funniest shows on television and the movie removes all the bleeps and blurs to really let loose!
Why Not: Many TV shows and skits that have attempted a transition onto film tend to lose something in the process.
Projections: $11 to 13 million opening weekend; $35 million total

THE ABANDONED (Lionsgate/After Dark Films)
Starring Anastasia Hille, Karel Roden, Valentin Ganev, Carlos Reig-Plaza, Jordanka Angelova, Kalin Arsov, Paraskeva Djukelova, Valentin Goshev, Anna Panayotova, Svetlana Smoleva
Directed by Nacho Cerdà (Aftermath, The Awakening,Genesis); Written by Nacho Cerdà, Karim Hussain, Richard Stanley
Genre: Horror
Rated R
Tagline: "Death never runs out of time."
Plot Summary: An American film producer travels to Russia, the homeland of her natural parents, to take over an abandoned farm after her mother's mysterious death. Once she arrives, she finds a man named Nikolai who claims to have been lured there for the same reason, to discover his past, and they suddenly find themselves stranded there, haunted by ghosts.
Of Note: One of the eight movies shown at the 1^st After Dark Horrorfest gets a wide release due to its popularity at the fest.

Analysis: Last November, new indie horror distributor After Dark Films decided to collect a number of horror films that have done the festival circuit or been planned for DVD release and gave them a one weekend only theatrical release as part of After Dark's Horrorfest. The festival didn't do so bad, the movies collectively earning $2.6 million in three days including a couple encores. After Dark has set up a fairly extensive run of movies in the coming year, kicking off with a regular theatrical release for The Abandoned with a bit of marketing aid from Lionsgate, who are one of the top studios for horror these days.

The Abandoned is the first really high profile film from Spanish filmmaker Nacho Cerdà, who isn't particularly well-known here compared to Spain, but he follows the tradition of other Spanish filmmakers who have made ghost/horror movies including Darkness and The Others, which were both released by Dimension Films. Of course, we can't forget Guillermo del Toro's pre-Pan's Labyrinth Spanish language film The Devil's Backbone either, though it never got nearly as wide a release as the other movies.

This is the second national theatrical release from Courtney Solomon's company after his own movie An American Haunting last year, which brought in $16 million. It's very likely that having the additional marketing muscle that comes with the Lionsgate will help this movie get a bit more attention than it might have otherwise, though it could also suffer the fate of the French horror film High Tension, which had far more buzz before its U.S. release. Lionsgate and After Dark are opening The Abandoned in just over 1,250 theatres nationwide (Update: Make that under 1,000!), though that might be a bit optimistic considering the lack of star power. The movie should do better in certain areas than others, but it could get crushed by the stronger draws of The Number 23 and Reno 911!: Miami.

COMPARISONS

Why I Should See It: It looks pretty creepy.
Why Not: Horrorfest seemed like the last chance of a theatrical release for most of those movies, so it's strange to see After Dark re-releasing this one into even more theatres just a few months later.
Projections: $2 to 4 million opening; $5 million total.

AMAZING GRACE (Samuel Goldwyn)
Starring Ioan Gruffudd, Albert Finney, Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Gambon, Romola Garai, Rufus Sewell, Ciaran Hinds, Youssou N'Dour, Toby Jones, Stephen Campbell Moore
Directed by Michael Apted (The World is not Enough, Enough, Enigma); Written by Steven Knight (Dirty Pretty Things)
Genre: Drama, Period, Historical
Rated PG
Tagline: "Behind the song you love is a story you will never forget."
Plot Summary: William Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffudd) faces opposition in Parliament when he follows his faith in trying to abolish the slave trade in England during the late 18^th and early 19^th century.
Of Note: Director Michael Apted (The World is Not Enough) and screenwriter Steven Knight (Dirty Pretty Things) take on a powerful story from England's history about the abolition of the slave trade with the help of an amazing British cast.
INTERVIEWS (with Michael Apted and Ioan Gruffudd)
Mini-Review: This is a film I really wanted to love, if only because it had one of the most amazing casts I've ever seen, including Albert Finney and Michael Gambon, each of whom could save a movie simply by showing up and saying a single line. The problem isn't the quality of the film which is brilliantly written, directed and acted and does an impressive job recreating the era, as much as the subject matter of the movie, which doesn't seem to be the type of topic that needs to be driven home at this point in time. Every man, woman and child probably know all about the horrors of slavery and the evils of the slave trade from their schooling, and at times, this movie seems needlesly preachy in what's essentially a one-sided battle that no one can possibly argue against i.e. slavery is bad. At this point in time, it's almost hard to believe that Wilberforce had as hard a time abolishing the slave trade as this movie depicts, but watching him fight this battle for two hours just doesn't make a very entertaining film experience. That aside, you could easily sit back and watch as Gruffudd and the amazing cast give performances that would make this film more useful in teaching drama school than in teaching social studies. Rating: 6/10

Analysis: The odd man out this weekend might be this historic drama from filmmaker Michael Apted, which is getting a much wider release than these sorts of films tend to get for reasons that we'll discuss below.

In recent years, Apted has been keeping busy making a variety of films, the last one to be released being the 7^th installment in his documentary series 49 Up, but he also directed the first three episodes of the HBO series "Rome." Amazing Grace is his first dramatic film since making the thriller Enough with Jennifer Lopez, and though it could be seen as a period piece, it's more of an educational film about William Wilberforce, the religious man who helped abolish slavery in England despite facing terrible opposition from his peers.

Playing Wilberforce is Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd, who starred in a series of A&E movies about Horatio Hornblower, before playing Lancelot in Jerry Bruckheimer's King Arthur and his most well known role, that of Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic in the 2005 superhero movie Fantastic Four. His love interest is played by Romola Garai who's appeared in period films like Vanity Fair and Nicholas Nickleby, as well as the unfortunate Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, which opened two years ago against The Passion of The Christ. It also stars the very talented Benedict Cumberbatch (who also appears in this week's Chosen One, Starter for 10) and an amazing cast featuring the likes of the legendary Albert Finney, Michael Gambon, Rufus Sewell (The Illusionist), Toby Jones (Infamous) and Stephen Campbell Moore (The History Boys).

Traversing the line between religion and politics, an internal struggle that Wilberforce faced his entire life, the film is likely to be sold more based on its faith-based themes and its connections to Black History month, since there's likely to be an audience out there for that. Sam Goldwyn's last faith-based film was the football drama Facing the Giants, which opened in 441 theatres and made $1.3 million its opening weekend and more than $10 million overall. Amazing Grace is getting an even wider release into 736 theatres with a push in churches based on the idea that the movie deals with the origins of the famous hymn of its title.

In some ways, comparisons can be made to Steven Spielberg's 1997 movie Amistad, which expanded into 700 theatres after a limited release, though this is told more from the viewpoint of white British bureaucrats, which might be of less interest to American audiences. Then again, this being the weekend's biggest anomaly, it could end up being another surprise movie like One Night with the King ($4.1 million opening in 909 theatres) or End of the Spear ($4.2 million opening in 1,162 theatres), which both did well thanks to their focused marketing campaign. (Amazing Grace has the benefits of its director and cast to appeal to more than just the religious set.)

Comparisons: Amistad, Facing the Giants, One Night with the King, End of the Spear
Why I Should See It: This is a fascinating historic tale with an amazing cast.
Why Not: Who wants to be preached to?
Projections: $2 to 3 million over the weekend and around $6 million total.

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OTHER LIMITED RELEASES:

GLASTONBURY (THINKFilm) - Legendary filmmaker Julian Temple directs this documentary about the annual British music festival (sort of like their Woodstock) and featuring performances from the likes of David Bowie, Coldplay, Oasis, Primal Scream, The Velvet Underground and The Cure. It opens in L.A. at the Nuart Theatre this weekend.

GRAY MATTERS (Yari Film Group) -- Heather Graham stars in Sue Kramer's debut romantic comedy as Gray, a pretty woman whose close relationship with her brother (Tom Cavanagh) gets somewhat strained when they both fall for the same woman (Bridget Moynahan). Opening in New York, L.A. and other select cities, this debut also stars Alan Cumming and Sissy Spacek as a sporty psychiatrist. Mini-Review: If the romantic comedy genre weren't bland and formulaic enough, now there's this growing lesbian romantic comedy subgroup in which the heroine suddenly realizes that she likes women more than she likes men, and hilarious confusion ensues. With Meg Ryan getting too old and Kate Hudson hopefully wising up a bit, it leaves the title role to be played by Heather "I'll take any role you throw at me!" Graham to pucker up and make out with Bridget Moynahan, who looks hotter than ever in scenes that have her wearing lingerie and less. The ridiculous plot doesn't matter much, because titilation aside, this is another formula lesbian romantic comedy that doesn't have half the heart of a Kissing Jessica Stein or Saving Face, instead relying on silly and often stupid situations that would never happen in real life, mixed with bad slapstick including a scene with Sissy Spacek scaling and falling from a climbing wall. (I kid you not.) As is always the case with this female-friendly genre, most of the men in the film are idiots. Fortunately, there aren't many of them with Alan Cumming getting the worst of it as a cab driver forced to dress as a woman to get into a lesbian club. (It's hard to tell if he's enjoying it or just playing along.) Never in my short career as a film critic have I ever wanted to climb into the screen and kill every single character as much as I did with this movie. Even when Graham and Moynahan take a bath together, something that would fulfill many a wet dream (pun intended), they're so annoying together that you want to throw a chainsaw or an electric curler in there with them. Rating: 2/10

PREMIUM (CodeBlack Entertainment) - Dorian Missick is Reginald "Cool" Coolidge, a struggling actor who reconnects with his ex-fiancée after three years and has to make one last ditch attempt to win her back when he learns she's engaged to be married in 36 hours. Pete Chatmon's romantic comedy opens in New York, Atlanta, Virginia and North Carolina.

THE TASTE OF TEA (Viz Entertainment) - The winner of the Audience Award at the 2005 New York Asian Film Festival, Katsuhito Ishii's quirky family dramedy opens for a run at the ImaginAsian theatre in New York on Friday. The family includes a housewife trying to return to work as an animator, a quiet boy who keeps falling for his female classmates and the youngest daughter Sachiko who is followed around by a much larger version of herself. Mini-Review (Coming Soon!)

THE WAYWARD CLOUD (IFC Films) - Tsai Ming-Liang's follow-up to What Time is It There? features the same man and woman from that movie meeting again years later at a time when Shanghai is undergoing a major drought. These days, he's a porn star, while she spends much of her time trying to steal water from public bathrooms. And it has musical numbers! It will open at New York's Anthology Film Archives on Friday for two weeks. Mini-Review: Having not seen the original movie but heard great things about Tsai Ming-Liang's work, it certainly was interesting to see how he straddles that fine line between Chinese art film and Asian porn with a movie that opens with a "watermelon sex" scene, and then explains it in an intelligent manner that has you nodding your head in understanding. Certainly, the way this quirky character drama breaks out into wacky flamboyant musical numbers, each one funnier than the last, is quite fun, as is the enjoyable relationship between the two main characters. Just as you're adjusted to the film's strange nature and everything's going well, the end up making out in the adult section of a video store, but that's rather mild compared to what happens after she gets home to find a passed-out Japanese porn actress in the hall. Where things go from there is so horrifying and deplorable that my enjoyment of the film's earlier quirkiness quickly soured, leaving me hurt and angered that something so charming in its first hour and a half could lead to such a disturbing and unwatchable ending. Rating: 6/10

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Next week, March kicks off with a number of big movies, including the highly anticipated return of David Fincher with the thriller Zodiac, Martin Lawrence, Tim Allen, John Travolta and William H. Macy go on a bike ride in Disney's Wild Hogs, and Craig (Hustle & Flow) Brewer returns with Black Snake Moan starring Samuel L. Jackson who has his own personal Christina Ricci chained to a radiator. Soon, everyone's going to want one.

Copyright 2007 Edward Douglas


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