1. Knowing (Summit Entertainment, 3,332 Theaters, 130 Minutes, Rated PG-13): It’s funny, this is the film that is in the most number of theaters this week, but it is the one I would like to see the least.
No slight against director Alex Proyas. He still gets a lot of good will from me for The Crow and Dark City. But my feelings for this film come more from the concept and the lead actor.
The concept deals with the series of numbers found on a piece of paper in a time capsule. The numbers can be determined, using math, to have predicted the greatest disasters of the past. There is one more series of numbers and one more disaster, which our hero has to stop.
Yes, people love these kind of prognostications. Just look at all the books and specials about Nostradamus that exist. But the fact that the film makers, if not as a plot point at least by raising the connection in our minds, are tying in tragedies such as 9/11 and Katrina to their piece of popcorn fluff. That just doesn’t seem right to me.
And, yes, I am not a fan of Nicolas Cage. Granted, he has won an Oscar and he has been pretty good in a number of things, but most of the time just annoys the heck out of me. He’s an actor with a lot of quirks and I find the quirks irksome.
2. I Love You, Man (Paramount/Dreamworks, 2,711 Theaters, 104 Minutes, Rated R): The problem with Judd Apatow using the same actors over and over again, “The Apatow Repertory Players” as I like to call them, is that if more than one of these actors are cast in the same film together, you automatically think Apatow must have a hand in it. This isn’t the case here.
Yes, this stars Paul Rudd, Jason Segel and several other actors from Apatow’s hits, but Apatow’s name is nowhere to be found in the credits. So, buyer beware!
The film is a “bromantic comedy” about a man without any male friends who tries to find one to act as the best man at his wedding.
3. Duplicity (Universal, 2,575 Theaters, 125 Minutes, Rated PG-13): I love how most of the press surrounding this movie is about Julia Roberts and if she will be able to keep being the number one female movie star considering her age.
I kind of find this sexist. I mean, Burt Reynolds, Sylvester Stallone and Tom Cruise all were top box office draws. They all got older, but the reasons they fell out of favor were due more to their career choices than their age. Julia Roberts is still making interesting films with great casts. If she continues her good run at the box office or not, it will have more to do with that than her age.
