Movie Preview: November 2011 - Page 2

November 9

There hasn’t been a mid-week opening in a while now (even if limited) so why not let it be for a man of such high acclaim as Clint Eastwood. Sure his last few films have been a mixture of snooze fests (Gran Torino, Changeling, Million Dollar Baby), the inexplicable (Hereafter), and occasionally accolade deserving (Letters from Iwo Jima, Invictus), the man knows what’s he’s doing most of the time. Hopefully J. Edgar can liven up his oeuvre with Leonardo DiCaprio as the titular head of the FBI. The trailer makes the film look like a cross between The Aviator and The Departed which is a huge step up in terms of entertainment value for Eastwood as of late. I hope it lives up to either of those films. Maybe it’s a case of working with a Dustin Lance Black (Milk) screenplay. All I know is Eastwood’s films could sure use the adrenaline.

November 11

When your marketing campaign consists solely of making sure you know it’s “From the Producers of 300” and features a no-name cast, save for Mickey Rourke, maybe you should also mention that it’s from the director of the cult classic The Cell, Tarsem Singh. Oh wait, they used that strategy for his last film, The Fall, and attracted absolutely no one. So now they’ve upped the gladiator-esque angle and made it look like a 300/Watchmen hybrid. The R-rating on Immortals is just about the only possible saving grace as it could be a guilty pleasure gore fest. Unfortunately, I’m suspecting that writers Charley and Vlas Parlapanides have only conjured up another 3-D borefest.

As if the date 11/11/11 wasn’t ominous enough, the producers of Grown Ups are promising to deliver an even worse film with Adam Sandler’s Jack and Jill. While he may have spoofed these types of films in Judd Apatow’s Funny People, we all know he’s never above actually making them. Now he’s back with director Dennis Dugan (single-handedly responsible for no less than eight Happy Madison efforts since his only good film Happy Gilmore back in 1996). Hard to believe that a man can make each film worse than the previous so repeatedly for 15 years and still find work. Must be nice to have friends in Hollywood who keep letting you ruin all of their own endeavors; not that they start out any better in the story stage. Now Sandler is playing his own fatter sister version of himself, making the audience want to puke “oy vey” in the process. Prepare to have your sense of good taste thrown out the window if you’re even considering sitting threw this dreck.

Article Author: Cinenerd

A Utah based writer, born and raised in Salt Lake City, UT for better and worse. Cinenerd has had an obsession with film his entire life, finally able to write about them since 2009, and the only thing he loves more are his wife and their two wiener dogs (Beatrix Kiddo and Pixar Animation). …

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