New Movies: Tears or Fears?
Sep 25, 2008You’re going to have to flip a coin with your date this weekend—do you go see the action thriller, or the weepy romantic beach movie? And if neither of those thrill you, you can always chose between a Spike Lee’s WWII film, an Iranian way dramady, and a fanciful tale of sex addict who gets all choked up in restaurants. This week’s new movie offerings are nothing if not diverse.
Steven Spielberg is the executive producer on Eagle Eye —that could be one of the reasons it is getting the biggest release this weekend (more than 3,300 theaters) and why it will probably be number one. It’s a race-against-time thriller starring Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, Rosario Dawson, Anthony Mackie and Billy Bob Thornton. Playing on paranoia about modern technology, you might never want to use your cell phone or the internet again. It’s rated PG-13.
Tear-jerking romance novelist Nicholas Spark’s latest movie, Nights in Rodanthe, re-teams Richard Gere and Diane Lane in an intense love story that mostly occurs at a breathtaking inn on a South Carolina beach. You either love or you hate Nicholas Sparks films, which include Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember and The Notebook. If you’re in the former camp, take along plenty of tissues. If you’re a hater, you’ll score major points by sitting through this with a fan.
Miracle at St. Anna is Spike Lee’s latest offering, and he’s ambitiously attempted a WWII period piece, perhaps in response to his very vocal disappointment that Clint Eastwood didn’t include enough black soldiers in Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima. Miracle explores a modern day criminal mystery that is related to Buffalo soldiers trapped in an Italian village during WWII. The Touchstone Pictures release (a Disney company) is releasing in 1,100 theaters.
Tim Robbins, Michael Pena and Rachel McAdams star as three soldiers who recently returned from Iraq in The Lucky Ones. By chance, they end up on a road trip together, each with his or her own goals in mind. Of course it’s a trip of discovery. It remains to be seen whether or not theater audiences are finally ready for Iraq war movies. None have performed really well, especially the spate that were released this time last year. Lionsgate is hedging its bet by opening the film in only 400 theaters.
The same could be said for Fox Searchlight, which is also opening the very quirky Choke in 400 theaters. It will, of course, go much wider if audiences can warm up to the dark comedy about mothers and sons, sexual compulsion, and the sordid underbelly of Colonial theme parks, not to mention the possible progeny of Jesus Christ. Sam Rockwell and Angelica Huston star.
Fireproof is another option this weekend, playing mostly to the Christian crowd. It’s the story of a fireman, played by Kirk Cameron, attempts to save his marriage by trying something called “The Love Dare.” Christian principles of course come into play, as did Cameron’s own principles when shooting the film. It seems he made a commitment to his real life wife that he would never kiss another woman, and had issues filming the kissing scene with his co-star, Erin Bethea. So they dressed Cameron’s wife up as Bethea, and voila! Kissing accomplished. More than 800 theaters will be showing the film this weekend.
There is a long list of indies opening in major markets this weekend as well, including All Roads Lead Home, The Amazing Raquela, Humboldt County, Forever Strong, Obscene, Shoot On Sight, Smother and Whaledreamers. Who says there’s nothing good to see at the movies these days?
