1. Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (Sony/Columbia, 3,119 Theaters, 90 Minutes, Rated PG): Wow, there is a lot of movies coming out this week. I thought the fall was when movies were supposed to taper off. I guess not.
This film is based in the popular children’s book about a scientist who comes up with a cure for the world’s food problems–he can create food out of thin air. Unfortunately, the thin air in question is in the upper atmosphere and the result is food raining down upon the Earth.
This film has one eclectic voice cast. Take a look at this: SNLers Bill Hader, Andy Samburg, Will Forte and Laraine Newman (doing “Additional Voices”), Anna Faris, James Caan, Lauren Graham, Benjamin Bratt, Bruce Campbell, Al Roker, Neil Patrick Harris and Mr. T.
Yes, I said Mr. T. Yes, THAT Mr. T.
This cast seems like it would be more at home in an episode of The Love Boat written by Hunter S. Thompson.
2. Jennifer’s Body (Fox, 2,701 Theaters, 102 Minutes, Rated R): It’s not every Oscar-winning screenwriter who chooses as her sophomore effort a teen horror flick about a demonically possessed cheerleader. But not every Oscar-winning screenwriter who is Diablo Cody.
It is a bold choice to follow up Juno with a film of this sort. Juno succeeded because behind the at time too hip for its own good dialogue there was a lot of heart. The only kind of heart you find in a horror movie is ones that have been plucked from the chest of an unsuspecting teenager. So it is natural to expect sort of a letdown.
And a let down is what we’ll get if the final product is anything like the script FilmBuffOnline Head Honcho Rich Drees reviewed here. I hope for the best because I am one of the few not hoping for a Diablo Cody backlash, but it doesn’t look good.
3.The Informant! (Warner Brothers, 2,505 Theaters, 108 Minutes, Rated R): Boy, don’t the trailers to this one look good? It seems like it will be a goofy caper comedy about a less than bright informant trying work undercover at his place of business.
Problem is, I got the same feeling when I saw the trailer for Burn After Reading–that it would be a wacky caper comedy about a bunch of less than bright people trying to blackmail a government employee. But that film was only partly that before taking a dark turn in the second half and finishing with one of the worst endings to any movie of all time.
This one is directed by Steven Soderburgh, an auteur on the level of the Coen Brothers, but written by someone else. So there is a good chance this will remain consistent in tone and won’t end with two people in a room discussing what happened to the characters we spent two hours watching.
4. Love Happens (Universal, 1,898 Theaters, 109 Minutes, Rated PG-13): Okay, we have a kid flick, a horror film, and a comedy. Now all we need is a nice romance film to make the week complete.
Well, look what we have here! A romance! How convenient!
It is a little depressing to see Jennifer Aniston, on of my “Top 5”, starring in an adult aimed romance. But I guess we all mature eventually, don’t we?
The film is about a widowed self-help guru who meets a new woman with whom he’s is attracted to. However, this new romance stirs up some unresolved feeling regarding his deceased wife.
