In Wide Release: It’s all about the kids this week as Spike Jonze’s long-delayed, feverishly anticipated “Where The Wild Things Are” finally hits cinemas.
Though the $80 million plus (some estimates put the production with reshoots around $100 million) picture that’s not necessarily for kids has been pegged to open at a modest $25 million.
Jonze brings the beloved Maurice Sendak book to the screen with the help of McSweeney guru Dave Eggers, who co-wrote the screenplay. For those that had a deprived childhood, ‘Wild Things’ is the story of a rowdy boy Max, who, feeling neglected and misunderstood at home, escapes to where the Wild Things are. He then develops affection and understanding with the emotionally troubled creatures who decide to elect Max their leader. We posted our review yesterday, finding it to be a $100 million art movie that deserves to be adored. We’re happy to see Warner Bros. take risks like this and feel very certain that it will pay off eventually. Young actor Max Records plays the lead alongside Catherine Keener, Mark Ruffalo and the voices of James Gandolfini, Paul Dano, Catherine O’Hara, Forest Whitaker and Chris Cooper. Yeah Yeah Yeah’s frontwoman Karen O handles the music alongside some very talented collaborators. You probably already have tickets for this, but if you’re curious, Rotten Tomatoes gives the movie a 64% fresh rating while Metacritic scores it at 68.
Gerard Butler follows up last-month’s blink-and-you-missed-it “Gamer” with another actioner in “Law Abiding Citizen.” This time he is backed-up with a little more starpower as Jamie Foxx portrays a prosecutor who, in exchange for testifying against his accomplice, offers a criminal a lighter sentence. Problem is, they killed Butler’s family and the once kind and gentle family man is about to light a fire up everyone’s ass involved in the whole broken system of justice. The trailer looks ludicrous and the dialogue laughable, but this could be a dumb crowd-pleaser for the two leads, both of whom could use a hit at the box office. F. Gary Gray (“Friday,” The Negotiator”) directs the film, but the scores are pretty terrible. It sits currently 17% fresh film on RT with a score of 42 on Metacritic.
Also in wide release this weekend, low-budget horror flick “The Stepfather.” Sounds exactly like you’d expect: disgruntled teen returns home from military school to find her mother shacked up with a new man with a mysterious past. Dylan Walsh of “Nip/Tuck” fame plays the titular character with Sela Ward and Penn Badgley also starring. Probably not screening this one for critics as neither Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic have any reviews up yet which probably means it’s the big turd that it smells like from afar.
In Limited Release: The blaxploitation tribute “Black Dynamite” directed by Scott Sanders opens today on around 70 screens. Michael Jai White stars as the bad mutha Black Dynamite who plots his revenge on “The Man” who murdered his brother, pumped heroin into orphanages and soaked the ghetto in malt liquor. We saw the movie earlier this week and found it cheeky and mostly clever, but the joke wore thin over the 90-minute running time. The film is 83% fresh at RT and has a 67 score from Metacritic.
Following up “Paris, Je T’Aime” is another city-based omnibus film, “New York, I Love You.” After the success of ‘Paris’ the creators have decided to amp up the starpower for this version with Allen Hughes, Mira Nair, Natalie Portman, and Brett Ratner among the directors. If that wasn’t enough to get you in a seat, the cast includes Shia LaBeouf, Bradley Cooper, Orlando Bloom, Christina Ricci, and many, many more. We’re concerned about the production company’s cash-grab as they decide to expand this to a full-on series with multiple cities in the works. We’ve seen it and it proves to be predictably mediocre apart from a couple inspired moments, notably the Portman and Anthony Minghella-scripted segments. The film(s) have a 50% fresh rating from RT and a 57 score from Metacritic. Not a particularly inspiring rating.
Getting quite a bit of good buzz is Chilean film “The Maid” from director Sebastian Silva. Winner of multiple film festival awards including the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema at Sundance, the film stars Catalina Saavedra as a maid trying to cement her status in a household after 23 years of service. We’re really looking forward to checking this one out soon. With rising economic prosperity, the Chilean film scene is one to watch in the future. “The Maid” is currently 100% fresh at RT and has an 87 score at Metacritic.
Also hitting in limited release this weekend: the always-great Alred Molina headlines “Little Traitor” from director Lynn Roth. Molina plays a British Sergent who engages in a friendship with a young boy growing up under British occupation in 1947 Palestine, just before Israel becomes a state. Reviews aren’t great though: 17% fresh at RT and no score yet at Metacritic. John Leguizamo and Harvey Keitel star in “The Ministers,” a gritty NYC crime thriller that will probably be on the shelves at Blockbuster by the time you finish reading this. The Franc. Reyes directed film appears to have not been screened for critics yet.
If you’re in New York, you’ll want to make sure you catch the Eli Kazan retrospective at Film Forum that began last Friday, but kicks into its final two weeks this weekend. All the classics have been there, “East Of Eden,” “On The Waterfront” (you’ve seen them plenty) and films that haven’t played yet are touchstones like “Splendor In the Grass,” with a young Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty, “A Streetcar Named Desire” (which you’ve presumably seen enough by now), the hard-to-see Marlon Brando as Mexican peasant revolutionary, “Viva Zapata!” with Anthony Quinn, the also-rare “A Tree Grows In Brooklyn,” Andy Griffith’s amazing performance in the fame-grubbing, “A Face In The Crowd,” that also features the fetching jailbait debut of Lee Remnick (Patricia Neal is also oddly attractive in this one), and “Wild River” that features Remnick again and post-car accident ex-angel face Montgomery Cliff who soldiered on with a mangled face until he finally died in 1966 from years of substance abuse. This second phase of his career was famously dubbed the “longest suicide in Hollywood history” (poor guy).