1. Goosebumps (Sony/Columbia, 3,501 Theaters,103 Minutes, Rated PG for scary and intense creature action and images, and for some rude humor, Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer Rating at press time: 73 % Fresh [53 Reviews]): The Goosebumps series, through its original run and its multitude of spin-offs, has numbered in 182 volumes. That could start a film franchise that would last all the way until your grandkids’ grandkids arrived on the scene.
However, adapting children’s/YA lit is a dicey prospect, which is why instead of getting one of R.L. Stine’s books adapted here, we get a high-concept that sort of adapts all of them.
Jack Black plays R.L. Stine (while not even looking a little bit like him) whose secret is that all the monsters in his books are real, kept prisoner in his original manuscripts. When some meddling kids set all the beasts out, he has to help collect them before they destroy the town.
2. Crimson Peak (Universal, 2,983 Theaters,119 Theaters, Rated R for bloody violence, some sexual content and brief strong language, Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer Rating at press time:69 % Fresh [84 Reviews]): Gothic horror set in crumbling mansions has been around for more than a century, with everyone from Edgar Allan Poe to Vincent Price having a hand in the genre. But the plot remains fresh with what every new creator brings to it. This one has the masterful Guillermo del Toro at the helm, and that’s good enough for me.
The story focuses on a young woman named Edith (Mia Wasikowska) who falls in love and marries Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston). Everything is idyllic until Edith moves in with Thomas and his sister, Lucille (Jessica Chastain) into the Sharpe mansion. The mansion holds a great deal of secrets, all which Thomas and Lucille want to keep from Edith, But what Edith doesn’t know might hurt her.
3. Bridge of Spies (Touchstone, 2,811 Theaters,141 Minutes, Rated PG-13 for some violence and brief strong language, Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer Rating at press time:92% Fresh [95 Reviews]): If you look at the ads for the film with its steel grey color scheme and history-lesson story line and you might think that this will be a movie too boring for even Tom Hanks to save.
No so fast. This is Hanks reuniting with Steven Spielberg, a partnership that has lent itself to a bunch of entertaining movies. And the film is co-written by the Coen Brothers, which should give it a little more zip than your typical biopic. And it co-stars Mark Rylance, one of the best actors Broadway has to offer. So the ads might be deceiving.
Hanks plays James Donovan, a Brooklyn lawyer tapped to negotiate the release of U-2 pilot Gary Powers back in the 1960s.
4, Woodlawn (Pure Flix, 1,500 Theaters,123 Minutes, Rated PG for thematic elements including some racial tension/violence, Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer Rating at press time:Not Applicable [Only 2 Reviews, one positive, one negative]): Four new releases this week. I take a week off and see what happens? Four films to cover.
This one is another one of those religious films that seem to pop up every week. This one comes dressed as an inspirational football film, where the main character has to overcome adversity to gain success on the football field. The adversity is racism and he overcomes it through the power of prayer.
It stars Sean Austin (no stranger to inspirational football films or religious movies), C. Thomas Howell and Jon Voight in roles ranging from “small” to “cameo” with the rest of the roles being portrayed by actors you never heard of.
