No New Releases last week because no film was wide released. But this week we have two films about predators preying on youths for you to enjoy.
1. IT (Warner Brothers, 4,103 Theaters, 135 Minutes, Rated R for violence/horror, bloody images, and for language, Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer at press time: 90% Fresh [165 Reviews]): In this day and age where everything old is new again and we have gotten to the point where even remakes are being remade, it’s not surprising that this Stephen King adaptation would be redone. But it does beg the question as to what this film can offer that the 1990 ABC four-hour miniseries could not.
Well, for one, this is just the first of two planned movies, so there will be the same amount of time to tell the story. Two, films obviously offer more to a subject than a network television adaptation could. Not just being allowed to show more gore, but also in better production values as well.
The trailer is suitably creepy, so good that even a horrorphobe such as myself is interested in seeing the film. The great reviews might just put me over the edge and get me to go see it in the theater.
2. Home Again (Open Road Films, 2,940 Theaters, 97 Minutes, Rated PG-13 for some thematic and sexual material, Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer at press time: 35% Fresh [52 Reviews]): If you saw the ads for this film and thought it looked like Something’s Gotta Give, The Holiday and It’s Complicated, that wasn’t a coincidence. Those films were written and directed by Nancy Meyers and this one was written and directed by her daughter, Hallie Meyers-Shyer. So, if you hate those films, here’s a whole new generation of them for you not to enjoy.
The film focuses on Reese Witherspoon, a single mother who is turning 40. As we all know, 40 is the official age where your life starts sucking and you should start researching retirement villas because your life is just about over (two major qualifications to look for: one, the don’t beat their patients and two, pudding night isn’t always tapioca).
Reese’s character staves off the eventual and inevitable decline in her quality of life when three strapping young men move into her guest house. Joy seeps back into her miserable, soon-to-be old hag existence when she sleeps with one or more of them.
The film plays to Soccer Mom fantasies and College Bro MILF fantasies. I am in neither demographic, so this film is way not for me. I’ll just avoid it and soak in its message that I have, for the last five years, been mistakenly under the impression that my life had any value.
Next week, the New Releases deal with mothers and assassins. See you then.
