The Heartbreak Kid
The frontrunner for this weekend reunites a team of people who all helped launch each other into fame. Bobby and Peter Farrelly helm The Heartbreak Kid, with Ben Stiller as their star for the first time since There’s Something About Mary. For the Farrelly’s this is a big landing, because have they never since achieved the same sort of popular success as Mary. For Stiller, it’s almost a reemergence. Not that he’s been gone, but, his output has decreased – aside from Night At the Museum, Stiller didn’t have any other starring vehicles last year, a poor follow-up to 2004-2005, when he was all over the place. I’m not a huge Still fan, but the funniest he’s ever been was in a Farrelly movie, so hopefully they can replicate that here. Honestly, if I end up seeing this one, it will be more for the beautiful and talented Michelle Monaghan, who’s popped up in a lot of projects I enjoyed (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Mission: Impossible 3, most recently), and will hopefully save what looks to be an unjustly lackluster adaptation of Gone Baby Gone later this year. She’s a pleasure to watch doing almost anything, so hopefully the Farrelly’s will let her stretch her comedic chops here, and not leave all the laughs to Malin Akerman. The screenwriters are an odd mix here – Scot Armstrong has a long and commercially strong comic resume, while Leslie Dixon has a much more varied and arguably less promising background. The Farrelly’s involvement is expected and more or less welcome, and who knows how much newcomer Kevin Barnett contributed? Overall, it’s a nice mix, but at first glance I begin to wonder if we might have too many cooks… The previews here are funny, every bit as indicative of bad taste รก la Farrelly as anything else they have done, but they are starting to wear thin on me. It also looks like Monaghan’s role is unfortunately firmly supporting, with Akerman’s obnoxious tendencies making up the majority of the interactions. All that said… it’s the Farrellys. There will be some laughs, and people will know what to expect going in.
The Seeker: The Dark is Rising
I know nothing. I know it’s yet another adaptation of a young adult fantasy novel (RE: The Golden Compass, The Chronicles of Narnia, Eragon… god damn you, Harry Potter), and that makes me immediately cautious. I know nothing about the books they are based on. From an initial glance at the cast, I recognize only Christopher Eccleston, which tells me nothing, really. Director David Cunningham is unknown to me. The biggest plus this one has going for it is the presence of screenwriter John Hodge. Cause he adapted Trainspotting. And now he’s doing… a kid’s(ish) movie? I don’t get it either. This genre is the fad right now. It’s like zombie movies 12-18 months ago. When it rains, it pours. I probably won’t drop the money, so let me know how it is.
Once again, the best-looking option this weekend is a limited release, but this one is really limited…
Michael Clayton
I admit that this one doesn’t look like it’s anything too special, but if you let George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson and Sydney Pollack all chew the same screen, you’re going to have my attention. It really does seem like a pretty straightforward legal thriller, but I’m holding out hope that something spectacular attracted those three talents and Tilda Swinton, other than a nice hefty paycheck. Writer-director Tony Gilroy is helming for the first time, but his screenplays are promising – all three Bourne movies… and we won’t hold Armageddon against him. This one opens in New York, L.A. and Toronto this weekend, but the rest of us should see it next week.
Next week, a sequel to a period piece, inspiration sports blah, blah, blah, Tyler Perry, and yet another depiction of New York’s underbelly dominate the wide releases. Major markets get some slightly varied options in limited release, including an interesting-looking remake and a quirky comedy about a blow-up doll.
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