1. Love the Coopers (CBS Films, 2,603 Theaters, 106 Minutes, Rated PG – 13 for thematic elements, language and some sexuality, Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer rating at press time: 23% Fresh [32 Reviews]): It seems like every holiday season, there’s a comedy about a dysfunctional family that gets together over the holidays. This film is this year’s entry.
What sets this one apart from the pack in the cast. You have Oscar winners (Alan Arkin, Diane Keaton, Marisa Tomei), Oscar nominees (June Squibb), Emmy winners (John Goodman), and blockbuster level actors (Ed Helms, Oliva Wilde, Anthony Mackie) and Amanda Seyfried. It would be almost impossible to have that collection of actors and not have a great film on your hands.
Unfortunately, if that Tomatometer score is any indication, they have achieved the impossible.
2. The 33 (Warner Brothers, 2,452 Theaters, 127 Minutes, Rated PG-13 for a disaster sequence and some language, Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer rating at press time: 35% Fresh [62 Reviews]): Surely we all remember the 2010 Chilean mine disaster, when 33 miners were trapped underground for 69 days before being rescued? It was all over the news of five years ago.
Well, this is the dramatization of that.We will see the accident, the safety failures, and the way the miners survived.
However, we already know hwe the film will end (SPOILER ALERT: It’s a happy ending) so a lot of the drama is gone. All we have left is to watch 69 days of suffering stuff into two hours. Is this something that you are really looking forward to see?
3. My All-American (Clarius Entertainment, 1,565 Theaters,118 Minutes, Rated PG for thematic elements, language and brief partial nudity, Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer rating at press time: 33% Fresh [18 Reviews]): Ah, the inspirational football film. It’s been a whole three weeks since we had one of those.
This film is based on the life of Freddie Steinmark, a promising defensive back on the national champion 1969 Texas Longhorns. Getting to that place of glory was a struggle, but not as big as the one he would face after that game was over.
Steinmark’s story veers off from the typical football tale, but not in a feel good way (SPOILER ALERT: It does not have a happy ending).
