Your Weekly Guide to New Movies for March 16, 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.)

THE BATTLE CRY!

Recently, a bunch of entertainment newspapers decided to run with stories about how critics today are out of touch with the public. We've seen it a number of times in the last few months with the success of comedies like Wild Hogs and Eddie Murphy's Norbit, both which were trashed by most of the critics who saw them, but did extraordinary amounts of business nonetheless. There's also movies like Ghost Rider, which wasn't even shown to critics before opening because Sony expected them to savage it, and even though that proved to be the case, it set a new opening record for Presidents' Day weekend.

What one starts wondering when these allegations arise is whether or not in fact reviewers are supposed to be in touch with the public to begin with and whether they're supposed to be judging a movie based on whether moviegoing audiences from every demographic might find it fun or entertaining or worthy of their movie dollars. Usually, you can rarely tell with these sorts of things, unless for some reason, you're somehow in touch with every person from the 9-year-old girl to the 70-year-old man. Since few people (let alone critics) are, it means that critics really can only rate the movie based on the quality of what's on screen, rather than trying to determine whether it will be popular, which should really be a moot point when reviewing a film. Reviews are there to give you an overview of the movie and let you know what's good or bad about it, then let you the reader decide whether that movie is for you or something you're not into. Or at least that's the way it should be.

For instance, if you're a fan of mindless physical comedy, you're probably not going to find many film critics who share your tastes, so you have to determine whether what you see in the commercials and trailer is funny enough to warrant your money. You can certainly understand why studios are especially hesitant at showing horror movies to critics, because that's a genre that has a built-in fanbase who just want to be scared and aren't necessarily concerned with the quality of the filmmaking it delivers.

Now imagine if you will, not only having to watch a movie critically but also having to watch it trying to determine whether people will want to see it or if it will be popular. That's the dilemma I constantly face while watching movies, because I have to watch it critically and judge it based on its quality, but also watch it as an "everyman" and try to determine who might like the movie, who might see the movie and how much money it might make at the box office on any given weekend. It leads to some very schizophrenic thinking indeed, especially since I've learned that my tastes don't always match that of the moviegoing public. Movies I like or love often bomb or don't do well (see The Astronaut Farmer) but movies that I loathe (like Wild Hogs) often end up bringing in big business. But that doesn't mean that all critics should be forced to watch movies like anyone else. There are different criteria in determining the quality of a film and everyone's criteria is different. The better critics are able to understand different genres and understand what's important for that genre to work and in the case of comedies and humor, almost every single person has different tastes.

It's probably something to think about the next time you're watching a movie, whether you're a critic or a movie fan. Wearing someone else's shoes for a while (figuratively not literally) can certainly be enlightening for either camp and in doing so, maybe someday there won't be nearly as big a divide between critics and moviegoers.

DEAD SILENCE (Universal)
Starring Ryan Kwanten, Amber Valletta, Donnie Wahlberg, Bob Gunton
Directed by James Wan (Saw); Written by James Wan and Leigh Whannell (Saw, Saw II, Saw III)
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Rated R
Tagline: "You scream. You die."
Plot Summary: When a newlywed bride is brutally killed on her honeymoon, her husband Jamie (Ryan Kwanten) returns to their hometown of Ravens Fair, a creepy place purported to be haunted by the ghost of Mary Shaw, a murdered ventriloquist. Once home, Jamie needs to investigate and solve the mystery of his bride's death to absolve himself of the crime that most people think he committed.
Of Note: The team that created Saw returns with a gothic ghost story that should offer lots of scares for horror fans.
INTERVIEW (with James Wan)
Analysis: When James Wan and Leigh Whannell's low-budget debut feature Saw opened over Halloween weekend in 2004, there was already a lot of excitement among horror and genre fans, but when it made $18 million its opening weekend in just 2,315 theatres, a new franchise was born, one that has gone on to make a lot of money for distributor Lionsgate. After making the first movie, Wan remained involved with the franchise by working with Whannell on the stories for the next two movies, but by the time Saw II came out for Halloween '05, he was already working on a new horror film, his tribute to '60s gothic horror films like the ones that came out of England and Europe. It's somewhat of a risky move since Saw was considered such a cool original premise and Dead Silence might not be as immediate to anyone older horror fans who'd be familiar with the films of Hammer Films and Italian horror-meisters like Dario Argento and Mario Bava. Fact is that none of those movies have ever been as popular in this country as home-grown horror like the Friday the 13^th or Halloween series. Still, there are plenty of elements that will appeal to the fans of Saw, like the prominent puppets that appear in the commercials and trailer, and the premise of a dead woman returned to kill others, which is similar to the 2003 horror-thriller Darkness Falls. The big difference is that this is helmed by a horror filmmaker who has gained some respect after Saw.

The cast really is nothing special, starring Ryan Kwanten of the WB show "Summerland" and Fox's recent Flicka, as well as Amber Valletta, who oddly, also appears in Sandra Bullock's Premonition this week, and Donnie Wahlberg, who also starred in the horror sequel Saw II. Horror fans probably won't care too much who is or isn't in the movie, since it's more about the look and feel and whether or not they find the commercials scary or just think that this is a Saw knock-off trying to capitalize on that franchise's success. Certainly, fans of the original Saw will be interested to see how Wan has developed as a director since making his first and only movie, but younger moviegoers might not feel the need to rush to see this in theatres.

For some reason, the movie seems to be getting dumped by Universal, having been delayed for a while, then being released without a lot of advance hype, following the recent pattern of not screening it for critics. Granted, this isn't that busy of a weekend in terms of new releases, but the trailer only showed up a month back and it's being release into less than 2,000 theatres. Universal really hasn't made much of a name for themselves with horror, surprising considering that the studio was responsible for early horror classics like Dracula, Frankenstein and The Wolf Man. Their most recent horror hit was the supernatural thriller White Noise in early '05, but most of the time, horror films are shunted off to their horror imprint Rogue Pictures. Last year, they released James Gunn's Slither, an R-rated retro-horror film (much like Dead Silence) in a similar number of theatres without screening for critics, and it bombed badly. Dead Silence has some tight commercials that might offer lots of scares for modern horror fans but with no reviews and not many interviews (ala The Grudge 2), this might not reach out too far beyond them.

Comparisons:

Why I Should See It: James Wan flexes his love for classic horror with a movie that pays tribute to the gothic movies of the '60s and '70s.
Why Not: Am I the only one who thinks this looks a bit too much like Darkness Falls?
Projections: $8 to 10 million opening; $23 million total.

I THINK I LOVE MY WIFE (Fox Searchlight)
Starring Chris Rock, Kerry Washington, Gina Torres, Steve Buscemi
Directed by Chris Rock (Head of State); Written by Chris Rock (Head of State, Down to Earth, CB4), Louis CK (Down to Earth, Pootie Tang, "Lucky Louie", "Saturday Night Live")
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Rated R
Tagline: "In marriage, no one can hear you scream." (Now if there's something about screaming in the Premonition tagline, we'll have ourselves a trifecta.)
Plot Summary: Richard Cooper (Chris Rock) is a mostly happily married man except that his wife Brenda (Gina Torres) has stopped having sex with him, which just adds even more temptation when sexy former acquaintance Nikki (Kerry Washington) shows up at Richard's office to rekindle an old friendship that starts a lot of gossip around the office.
Of Note: Comic superstar Chris Rock remakes Eric Roehmer's French film Chloe in the Afternoon into a modern-day relationship comedy
REVIEW (Coming Soon!)

Analysis: It's been nearly two years since Chris Rock pulled the coup of starring in two Memorial Day blockbusters (The Longest Yard and Madagascar) so the only real way he could follow that up was to write, direct and star in a challenging film that merges his comic sensibilities into the premise from a '60s French film. While I Think I Love My Wife is loosely based on Eric Roehmer's Chloe in the Afternoon, a comedy about a married man resisting the temptation of a sexy colleague, it's really more about Chris Rock's normal brand of comedy that he's been doing since his early days doing stand-up.

After Rock's brief stint on "Saturday Night Live", he had a series of HBO specials that helped build him an audience before making the jump to movies. In 2001, Rock wrote and starred in Down to Earth, another remake (of sorts) of the film Heaven Can Wait, which did decently, and his directorial debut Head of State had a respectable opening four years ago. Other than those two movies and Rock's 2005 Memorial Day double play, he hasn't really been very consistent as a box office star. He produced the 2001 flop Pootie Tang and provided his voice for the Farrelly Brothers' foray into family films Osmosis Jones, both embarrassing flops. (He also starred in Neil LaBute's Nurse Betty, which didn't fare much better.) Teaming him with Anthony Hopkins in the Joel Schumacher's summer action-comedy Bad Company didn't help much, and it wasn't until he appeared in Madagascar and The Longest Yard where it seemed like Rock's career was getting back on track. (Of course, those movies had other things going for them, like Ben Stiller and Adam Sandler.) Rock wrote the movie with fellow stand-up and frequent collaborator Louis CK, who recently starred in his own HBO sitcom, but wisely, Fox Searchlight isn't marketing the movie as being from the writer and producer of Pootie Tang (gee, I wonder why).

In this movie, Rock is married to Laurence Fishburne's wife Gina Torres, who seems to have appeared on every single hit show on television, including "The Shield", "24", "Alias" and "CSI" but she's also a fave of sci-fi fans thanks to appearances in movies like The Matrix sequels and Serenity. (It's kind of atypical for her to play the unsupportive wife at home in this comedy.) On the other hand, who is better to play the foxy home wrecker Nikki than Kerry Washington, who first got attention as Ray Charles' wife in Ray and then Idi Amin's wife in The Last King of Scotland. (Both of her husbands won Oscars in their respective years, but when she appeared in Little Man, the Wayans Brothers just won a couple Razzies.)

Rock certainly has a pretty strong fanbase that crosses over into many demographics, and while this looks like the kind of urban romantic comedy that has done fairly well in recent years, it's not necessarily geared towards African-American women in the same way as Tyler Perry's hit movies. Rather, Rock's movie is probably going to be have more of an appeal with guys, white, black, single or married, due to the subject matter, even though the ads don't really make it seem like a guys' film. Maybe it'll be able to get some of the married crowd on date night, but it's going to be a hard sell, especially with its R-rating which means that most of Rock's younger fans won't be admitted. Then again, with most of its humor being based on marriage and infidelity, there's a good chance that few moviegoers under 20 will be interested enough in the subject matter to try to sneak in. The movie just doesn't have as strong or relevant a premise as Head of State, nor does it have Bernie Mac, who probably helped with that comedy.

Really, this isn't a bad movie and quite an achievement for Rock, but it's just not being sold in the way that can help it find the audience that might be interested in it, and those who normally would be interested in Rock's humor probably won't be as easily sold by the ads, which don't look as funny as the movie actually is.

Comparisons:

Why I Should See It: If you're into Rock's sense and style of humor, this movie offers a lot of the same hilarious laughs as his stand-up act… and Kerry Washington ain't bad on the eyes either.
Why Not: Despite the R-rating, Washington doesn't get naked. Okay, I know that's a selfish reason not to see the movie, but c'mon, single guys need their fun, too!
Projections: $7 to 9 million opening; $25 million total.

The good thing going for the movie is that it's the only movie opening this weekend with a PG-13 rating, which means that the teen girls and women who might not have been as interested in last week's testosterone-driven 300 will have something to see this week.

Unfortunately, Premonition and the other two movies this week have to contend with 6 new movies opening next weekend, and this one certainly isn't strong enough to hold up of over the next few weeks even if by some fluke, it gets decent word-of-mouth. The fact that the movie has a 10% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, doesn't bode well for that happening, and my premonition is that it's gone from most theatres by April.

Comparisons:

Title	Release Date	Theater Count	Weekend Box Office (in millions)	Average	Total Box Office
The Lake House	6/16/06	2,645	$13.62	$5,147	$52.33
Crash	5/6/05	1,864	$9.11	$4,886	$54.56
The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood	6/7/02	2,507	$16.17	$6,449	$69.59
Murder By Numbers	4/19/02	2,642	$9.31	$3,495	$31.87
The Forgotten	9/24/04	3,104	$21.02	$6,773	$66.64
The Jacket	3/4/05	1,331	$2.72	$2,046	$6.30
Intersection	1/21/94	1,300	$7.82	$6,015	$20.64

Why I Should See It: Because Sandra Bullock's actually almost tolerable when doing drama.
Why Not: These kinds of movies can work if done well and intelligently, but very often, they just confuse and annoy viewers, especially if things don't turn out well for the characters.
Projections: $14 to 16 million opening weekend and less than $40 million total.

OTHER LIMITED RELEASES:

ADAM'S APPLES (Outsider Pictures) ­ Danish screenwriter Anders Thomas Jensen directs this comedy starring Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale) as a smalltown vicar who welcomes a neo-Nazi named Adam (Ulrich Thomsen) into the community and puts him in charge of caring for the church's apple tree. It opens at New York's Chelsea Cinemas on Friday, but in a few weeks, Mikkelsen and Thomsen also star in the upcoming drama After the Wedding, which was co-written by Jensen.
AMERICAN CANNIBAL: THE ROAD TO REALITY (Lifesize Entertainment) ­ Perry Grebin and Michael Nigro's documentary which follows two writers and the conception and making of their reality TV show, which quickly crashes and burns when they get involved with Kevin Blatt, the producer of the Paris Hilton sex tape. It opens in select cities on Friday. Mini-Review: It's hard to keep your jaw from dropping as you watch one of the most disastrous attempts at a reality TV show unfold before your eyes, and really, it probably couldn't happen to two nicer guys. Of course, that's probably what happens when you get in bed with someone like pseud-pornographer Kevin Blatt, who proves himself to be an *sshole of the highest degree whenever he's on camera. Still, as an insight into what goes on behind the scenes in reality TV, this is a very cleverly-assembled documentary, hard to believe at times, depressing at others, though a must see for anyone looking into breaking into television by taking the reality route. Rating: 8/10
BEHIND THE MASK: THE RISE OF LESLIE VERNON (Anchor Bay Entertainment) - If you ever wondered what goes through the eyes of movie serial killers like Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers, Scott Glosserman's horror-comedy stars Nathan Baesal as a killer influenced by his heroes to slaughter teenagers, as he's followed around by a documentary crew and he shares his plans for his night of terror. It opens in select cities on Friday. REVIEW (Coming Soon!)
CAFFEINE (Meurer Productions) ­ This British comedy centers around the quirky inhabitants of a London coffee shop called Black Cat Café includes the likes of Breckin Meyer, Katherine Heigl and Mena Suvari, the latter sporting British accents no less. This cross between "Friends" and "Couplling" opens in select cities.
TORTILLA HEAVEN (Archangel Entertainment) - Judich Hecht Dumontet's comedy about a tightly-knit Mexican community living in New Mexico and how it's disrupted when the image of Jesus Christ appears on a hand-made tortilla at a local establishment. Co-starring George Lopez, this comedy opens in select cities.

Copyright 2007 Edward Douglas


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