So what’s out there this week. Well today we’ll take a look at the films scheduled to be released this week including Spike Lee’s latest with Denzel Washington, yet another low budget horror movie and Larry the Cable Guy gets his own flick . Read on…
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Here’s what’s scheduled to hit theaters this week. Want to know more, just click on the title for film info including a full cast list. Want a closer look, just click on the poster to watch the trailer.
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Spike Lee makes a generic thriller? The film pits criminal Clive Owen battling wits with cop Denzel Washington. A botched heist leads to a hostage situation stand-off. Seems like a rather odd choice for Lee going where many have gone before. Still with Washington, Owen, Jodie Foster and RazorFine favorite Chiwetel Ejiofor this one’s got some definite star power (sadly though last year’s Flightplan did too). Written by first timer Russel Gewitz. Can Lee breathe life into such a well-worn tale?
Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector
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The one-joke redneck blue collar comedian gets his own film playing a health inspector(?) teamed up with a rookie partner (Iris Bahr) trying to uncover the cause of food poisoning at all the top restaraunts while wooing (can a cable guy woo?) a waitress (Megyn Price). Can he Get ‘er done? Does anyone care? Written by the team of Jonathan Bernstein and James Greer who gave us Max Keeble’s Big Move (yeah, I don’t remember it either). For Arrested Development fans both David Cross and Tony Hale are credited with small parts in the film.
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Yet another horror flick stuck into the winter season. This one is about teens who play an online video game known as “Stay Alive.” As they play those who end up dying in the game start dying in real life (if you can refer to anything as retarded as this as real). Of course they keep playing deciding the only way to survive is to beat the game and the evil Blood Countess. Yeah. Written and directed by William Brent Bell (Sparkle and Charm) and starring a cast of nameless teen actor monster food that you’d expect from a flick like this.
American Gun (opens Wednesday in limited release)
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Intertwining tales of “how the proliferation of guns in America dramatically affect and shape the very day lives of its citizens.” The stories include a gun shop owner (Donald Sutherland) and his granddaughter (Linda Cardellini), a single mother (Marcia Gay Harden) with a troubled son (Christopher Marquette), a high school principal (Forest Whitaker) and an A-student (Arlen Escarpeta). Written and directed by first-timer Aric Avelino. Early comparisons to recent Academy Award Winner Crash and early reviews have been just as divisive.
l’enfant (Los Angeles and New York only)
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Blegian film in French and presented with Enlish subtitles about theives and new parents living off the bounty from their heists and decide to auction of the child as a new way to make some easy money. Written and directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne the film won the Golden Palm at Cannes but the film is getting a very narrow US release (Los Angeles and New York only). We’ll have to see how it does and if it can survive long enough to make the art house circuit across the country.
Lonesome Jim (New York only)
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Steve Buscemi (yes, that Steve Buscemi) steps behind the camera for this one to direct the story of Jim (Casey Affleck) a down on his luck twenty-eight year-old who leaves New York and moves back home to Indiana to live with his dysfunctional family and begins a relationship with a local woman (Liv Tyler) and her son. Sounds like it could be a little too sappy, but Buscemi’s odd touches might make this worth seeing (for example the cast list includes a character named Evil). As a side note Tyler sure seems to love those Affleck boys (she played the love interest to Ben in both Armageddon and Jersey Girl).