This weekend saw a remake climb to the top of the charts. Prom Night proved that there is continued life in the remake market and that Hollywood will not stop turning them out anytime soon. As for the film's artistic merits? Is it possible for merits to be negative? This movie was terrible, from its conception to its execution it fails on all counts. Hopefully, poor word of mouth will spread and this will die a quick death, at least until the inevitable unrated DVD comes out. I suggest that you do yourself a favor, if you haven't seen this, don't bother. Instead of this surefire regrettable movie, go check out the vastly superior The Ruins.
Besides the abomination that is Prom Night, two other films that just reached screens across the nation clawed their way into the top ten. First up, and landing in a distant second, is the Keanu Reeves cop-thriller Street Kings. This is a film that fully embraces its R rating and made sure that it couldn't be edited down to PG-13. Reeves stars as a corrupt LAPD vice detective whose eyes are opened to the corruption around him as he investigates the murder of a former partner. It is definitely entertaining, but it is way over-plotted and under-written.
The third new film came in way down at number seven, which is probably all that it deserves. The film is Smart People, and it wants to come off a lot smarter than it actually is. Its central character is a self absorbed, pompous ass played by Dennis Quaid, who does a fine job leading the cast through the paces. Unfortunately, the script and lackluster direction don't really deliver the goods.
For the most part, the rest of the films did pretty well this weekend. But, as is the case every week, one film has to get the short end of the stick, and this week's winner is The Ruins, falling 58% from last week. It's too bad, the film is very good, is actually scary, and has a nice dose of gore. So, we watch this flounder while a film like Prom Night tops the weekend. Oh well, better luck next time.
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