US theaters seem to collectively be taking a breath this week, in anticipation of bigger weeks to come, with just two new releases going wide, the animated 3D “Despicable Me” for the kids, and the live action, non 3D “Predators” for everyone else. Any other week we suspect the latter would be a smaller b- release and the former a pale Pixar me-too, but as it stands both should benefit from a relative lack of competition for their core audiences right now, with “Toy Story 3” having done the majority of its business after 3 weeks, “Knight and Day” tanking, and the box office domination of “Twilight: Eclipse” meaning teenage boys are feeling unusually underserved at their local multiplex. In indieland, expect “The Kids Are All Right” to do all right and hopefully get the kind of per-screen average that will justify the film’s expansion in later weeks to find a much broader audience.
In Wide Release:
Is it just us, or is “Despicable Me” a rather un-buzzed about animated release? Perhaps it’s just us, as the premise (a dastardly evil mastermind-type delights in destructive schemes until the arrival of three orphan girls who look on him as a father figure) and Apatovian voice cast (how else should one collectively describe Steve Carrell, Kristen Wiig, Ken Jeong, Will Arnett, Jason Segal and Russel Brand?) actually sound kinda fun. By and large, critics seem to agree that, while it may not escape Pixar’s long shadow, this Universal/Illumination Entertainment production has plenty of its own going on. RT 88%, Metacritic 74.
Getting a somewhat surprising shot at being a hit, considering its (reportedly) relatively low budget and schlocky provenance, Nimrod Antal’s Robert Rodriguez-produced “Predators” gets a very respectable 2,669 screen release. The film details a rag-tag bunch of convicts, killers and outlaws (Adrien Brody, Danny Trejo, Alice Braga and Topher Grace among them) forced to fight for survival having been dumped on planet Predator. Were Antal’s fears about tackling the franchise justified, or does the film live up to the surprisingly effective promotional clips and trailers? Well, we enjoyed it, but other critics were sniffier: RT 72%, Metacritic 47.
In Limited Release: We’ve already raved about “The Kids are All Right,” so suffice to say it’s our pick of the week and a film you should definitely try to seek out if you can. The cast (Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, Josh Hutcherson and Mark Ruffalo) is superb, as well they should be with at least half those names being bona fide indie royalty already, and the grounded performances keep the story of a lesbian couple and the upheaval caused when their kids seek out their sperm-donor father, from ever becoming soapy. There’s little dissent among critics too: RT 93%, Metacritic 84.
Also playing in select (ie. not many) theaters is comedy/documentary “Winnebago Man” in which filmmaker Ben Steinbauer pursues accidental internet celebrity Jack Rebney and ends up making a film that is as much a comment on his own motives and personality as it is about Rebney’s. Its flaws aside, we liked it and so far critics agree: it gets an RT score of 93%, though bear in mind that’s only from 14 reviews.
“The Girl Who Played with Fire,” the second Swedish film adaptation of author Stieg Larsson’s “Millennium” trilogy also opens in limited release. Proof positive that not everything foreign is good, this sequel, in our humble opinion, improves a little on the first film, but that’s not saying much. The books are great fun, however, and seem right up director David Fincher’s alley, so this is one case where (smelling salts at the ready) we suggest you wait until the US remake comes out, if the endless casting speculation hasn’t put you off by then. RT 61%, Metacritic 70
“[Rec] 2” supplies some much-needed excessive parentheses in this week’s release titles, and not much else. The sequel is nowhere near as effective as the original, but since there are no RT or Metacritic scores for this film yet, you’ll have to take our word for it, and avoid this hodge podge of ‘found footage’ like the plague it depicts.
Also gracing a smattering of screens are: “Red Alert: The War Within” – that rarest of beasts: a serious Bollywood film with no singing or dancing or (one presumes) crash zooms, which details the true story of a good man’s descent into terrorism; “Around A Small Mountain” – French new wave alum Jacques Rivette’s Jane Birkin-starring biopic of author Raymond Roussel; and a reissue of “Grease” in inevitable sing-a-long format, about which we literally have absolutely nothing to say.
