Engaging Culture

Get Him To The Greek – This movie could be confused for “Forgetting Sarah Marshall 2″, but it’s not. That’s because it exists in some alternate universe where Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) is a Rock-and-Roll icon. I didn’t find him funny or entertaining in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and, from the looks of the Red Band Trailer, I won’t find this outing funny either. I actually enjoyed Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Despite the raunch that I’ve come to expect from comedies these days, at its heart it had a sweet romance that I fell for. Plus Jason Segel puts himself so far out there (metaphorically and quite literally) that you are forced to go on this emotional roller-coaster with him. And it’s a fun ride. But Get Him to the Greek looks like it has all the raunch with none of the heart that makes me love some of Judd Apatow‘s movies. I think it will do fairly well with the college aged and teens whose parents don’t know better than to let their kids go see this movie. But it looks far too juvenile and lacks the substance that I want from a movie. Predicted score: 45

Killers – I’m torn by this movie. The trailer makes it look like a fun date movie that both sexes might even enjoy. Let’s face it, we’ve seen good Katherine Heigl (Knocked Up) and we’ve seen bad Katherine Heigl (The Ugly Truth), which one this incarnation is will soon be seen. And Ashton Kutcher is… And now the producers have come out saying that the film won’t be screened for critics. This is usually a company’s way of shielding themselves from getting bad press before the movie even comes out. That way, with no one to warn them, the unsuspecting public will be lured in by tricky marketing schemes and give the movie a good opening. But soon enough word-of-mouth will bring the film crashing down. A very similar movie will be coming out in just a few more weeks starring Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise called Knight and Day. I think that Killers will end up being killed by Knight and Day. Predicted score: 63

Ondine – Colin Farrell scoops up the title character (Alicja Bachleda) in his fishing net and thinks she is a mermaid. According to legend, this Ondine is unable to gain a soul unless she marries a man and bears his child. So there’s your plot, a watery tart looking for a soul vs. a skeptical Irish fisherman. Sounds laughable, but the trailer feels dirty because it shows the gritty reality of this kind of life. I think director Neil Jordan (The Crying Game, Michael Collins) will be able to join the stark reality with the fantastical, to make this a great film. Check out the trailer and see what you think. But I’m giving it a Predicted score of 82.

What movie do you think will be better? Which do you think will make more? Are you excited about any of these upcoming movies?

I love wasting numerous hours diving into the movie stats heaven that is Box Office Mojo. I get lost as I look for patterns and make predictions. One of the only things I like about sequels is doing this kind of prediction, and for new movies, I can make comparisons to other movies in the same genre. If you are a movie geek like me, check it out and look at the fun things I found out about this weekend’s openings and one from next week.

Shrek Forever After – The saga of that lovable green ogre adds what is its final chapter, and not a moment too soon. Each Shrek film has increased its opening weekend revenues: Shrek (42.3 million), Shrek 2 (108 million), Shrek 3 (121.6 million). I find it hard to believe that Shrek 4 can keep this upward trend in motion. Statistically, Shrek 2 was the peak of the series. It grossed over 120 million more than Shrek 3 despite lower opening weekend numbers. I think most fans of the series were disappointed with the third film and aren’t expecting much from this final installment. Therefore, I predict that it will barely pass the $100 million mark in its opening weekend.

MacGruber – Saturday Night Live is a great TV show. It is filled with current cultural happenings and has endured for 35 seasons and nearly 700 episodes. It has spawned several feature films, but none of them has met with particular success, The Blues Brothers and Wayne’s World are the only ones that have cracked the 50 million mark. Critics have given MacGruber mixed reviews, saying that the film is very crude and feels a bit like it was thrown together with duct tape and paper clips but many conclude that despite it’s shortcomings it is very funny. I think that MacGruber will be the best SNL adaptation of the past decade… Oh, wait, it’s the only one of the past decade besides The Ladies Man.

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time – I’m not sure what to think about this movie. I’ve never played the game, and 16th century Persian history doesn’t exactly get my engine revving. However, I want to like this movie. I want it to be the next in a line of successful adventure movies from Disney like National Treasure and Pirates of the Caribbean, but video game adaptations have never fared well at the box office. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is currently the only one to ever gross more than $100 million. I think that statistic stands to be broken, but I’m afraid it still won’t be as successful as Disney hopes.

Another fun little factoid. Both of the films opening to wide release next week were shot in Morocco. One is supposed to be 16th century Persia and the other is modern day Abu Dhabi, but I guess to our undiscerning Western eyes, all deserts look the same. I had no idea that Morocco was wild about movies but it’s good to know.

I added my predictions for this week’s new releases. “Shrek: The Final Frontier”, “McGoober”, and next week’s Estrogen fueled, “Whiny White Women 2.”

Ridley Scott brought us Alien and Blade Runner. Brian Helgeland brought Man on Fire and Mystic River from the page to the screen. And Russell Crowe starred in A Beautiful Mind, Cinderella Man, and 3:10 to Yuma. You would think that if these three joined forces, the result would be phenomenal, I mean Helgeland and Crowe worked together on L.A. Confidential, and Scott and Crowe teamed up to create the epic Gladiator. But their forthcoming collaboration, Robin Hood, looks less than stellar to me.

Three years ago when I first heard about this movie, I thought the idea was good. The plan was, as far as anyone on the outside could tell, to tell the story of Robin Hood as if he were some sort of double agent, by day he would be the dutiful Sheriff of Nottingham, just a guy doing his job. But in the shadows, he would be Robin Hood. The movie would be called “Nottingham”, and in it, Robin Hood would battle the excesses of the opulent government by working from the inside to bring it down. Originally, Russell Crowe was slated to play both Robin Hood and the Sheriff which would concur with that plot line. That looked like a good idea for a movie, it was something that I’ve never seen before. But then last February, the story broke that the film would be called simply Robin Hood, the lead character would no longer be the Sheriff, and that Crowe would no longer play the role of the sheriff, but only Robin Hood. Also Scott said that the plan was to give the sheriff a very minimal role, because he’s not the villain, instead the black hat goes on the entire country of France.

At that point I was confused and disappointed and stopped reading the news about new cast members and seemingly a half a dozen rewrites because I was sure that they had relied on their collective past successes and simply taken the easy route to making several million dollars. After all, people will line up to watch this film simply because of the star power. They lost the nerve to bravely do something unique and intelligent, wanting instead to simply sell tickets. After watching all the previews and featurettes and interviews, I can’t even muster enough excitement to put together a good prediction. I’m just expecting two hours of Gladiator in tights. It may be the best most expensive Robin Hood film yet… but it’s still the same old story we’ve seen dozens of times.

You can watch the trailer below if you’d like. Personally, I’m gonna pass on this one, and if I go see anything the week of its release, I’ll probably take my wife to see Letters to Juliet or Iron Man 2 for the second (or third) time. Predicted score: 63
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Most people expect to see movies geared at the feminine coming out on Mother’s Day. Well, unless mom is watching Iron Man 2 like millions of other people on Mother’s Day, she really can’t miss. I already told you about Babies, the new documentary, but now director Rodrigo Garcia (Nine Lives) is coming out with a new film about the unfolding drama of the intersecting lives of three women who are each affected in some way by adoption.

In Mother and Child, a 14 year-old girl has sex, gets pregnant, and gives up her baby for adoption. We meet this woman forty years later in the present day, her name is Karen (Annette Bening), and she is bitter and emotionally closed off having never gotten over giving up her child. She is caring for her dying mother and after mom dies, she is left alone with her guilt and pain. As you might expect, we also meet the daughter that she gave up at 14, her name is Elizabeth (Naomi Watts). She is now a beautiful and successful lawyer. Finally, we meet Lucy (Kerry Washington) who is having trouble conceiving with her husband, and is turning to adoption to help her create the family she desires.

I’m not sure what it is about our society and adoption, it seems like the only time we hear about it is when Madonna or Angelina are pining after third-world babies or an unsatisfied parent sends their adopted son back to an orphanage in Russia. It’s always the sensational, negative, and shocking that gets the story. And while I don’t think that this film is addressing adoption with such prejudice or sensationalism, I don’t think it is giving the full picture of what adoption is really all about. I’m sure that this film will not do well at the box office, but the critics will love it, it gives a handful of female actors a chance to shine in hopes of winning Oscar gold. It will be weepy and filled with all sorts of emotional turmoil, but the one thing I don’t think it will have is insight into what adoption really feels like.

As Christians we are adopted, loved by a Father who cares about us. Adoption is a picture in scripture of redemption, that which is unwanted and useless becoming priceless and filled with worth. That is how we feel being adopted as His sons and daughters. But this movie isn’t about adoption, as much as it circles around that topic, it is about women. It is about the emotions that go along with motherhood. It is about three women who are looking for fulfillment in something that can never satisfy, and their struggle to pull their lives together. Maybe if I had a baby I would be happy, maybe if I knew my real mother everything would be alright, maybe if I could reunite with the baby I gave up in my teenage pregnancy, then I could be fulfilled. It’s all about the mess that we as sinful people make of life and family. It should give us a glimpse of our desperate need for help.
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Opening up alongside Iron Man 2 is a distinct new documentary, perfect for it’s Mother’s Day weekend slot. The film, Babies, is a documentary without dialogue. That’s right, Morgan Freeman’s voice won’t be telling you what to think. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the film’s French director, Thomas Balmes said, “I don’t want to do the work for the audience, I don’t want to tell them what to get out of the movie.” The movie however is not 2 hours of Anne Geddes photo shoots. Cuteness was not his goal. The film is poignant, funny and sometimes disturbing as it explores the first year of the lives of four infants being raised under vastly different circumstances.

The film takes a deep look at third-world child rearing techniques against our Western techniques. The San Francisco parents, are a model of progressive parenting, at-home birth, and vegetarian diet for their baby daughter, Hattie. That is a big difference from the more primitive and often hazardous conditions in Mongolia or Namibia, where the challenges aren’t choosing the right stroller or bouncy seat, but much more basic problems, like finding non-polluted water.

Balmes continues, “All the parents are doing totally different things, with totally different tools, to make sure their children are growing up in the best way possible.”

In another interview Balmes was asked, “Now that you’ve made the film, is there anything that… you would do differently as a parent?” his response to me sums up the purpose of this film and his hopes as the film-maker. “What happens between parent and child is so crucial, and I hope our film reminds people of that. Sometimes, with life happening, you can get a little lazy in developing a real relationship with your kids. I myself have. I hope Babies shows that no matter what their conditions are, wherever they live, these babies grow up happy as long as they are loved, and that this is universal.”

I hope all of you moms and dads have a happy Mother’s Day. I give Babies a predicted score of 78, you can check out the trailer for Babies below or see others clips and featurettes at TrailerAddict.com.
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With less than two weeks until this blockbuster makes its debut, I’m super stoked. I’ve been ready to see what returning Director Jon Favreau and Writer Justin Theroux (Tropic Thunder) have to offer since the moment I stepped out of the theater on May 1, 2008. It has been 2 years in the making and, if the trailers are any indication, the concerns of some fans about there not being enough action in the first movie have been addressed and conquered. I was pleased with the amount of action in Iron Man, because to me action is only a vehicle of the story, and Iron Man was full of dialogue and a great story. I have no reason to believe that they would throw that very lucrative formula out the window just to satisfy the cravings of a few teenagers who only want to see a movie full of pointless CGI fight scenes. Before I go much further, let’s watch one of the trailers together. If you want to see more, go to TrailerAddict.com for all sorts of interviews, viral videos, tv spots, and teasers.

Click here to watch trailer

So even though Marvel has only released a very basic plot summary, that doesn’t keep fanboys like me from postulating based on what I have been given. First of all, the trailer presents several new faces, so to avoid any confusion, let’s break the characters down. continue reading »