This weekend offers up a few new films hoping to reach the top of the box office and be the first to unseat Avatar, like Lost in Space did to Titanic so many years ago. Do any of them have what it takes? I really don't think so, but we'll know in a few days. It's funny, for as good as Avatar has been for the box office and for the few good films so far this year, I cannot help but feel a little blah about the year so far. I know the early months of each year are usually littered with cast-offs, but this year seems particularly off. Odd. Hopefully things will pick up soon.
Dear John. (2010, 108 minutes, PG-13, romance) The latest Nicholas Sparks adaptation is upon us. Channing Tatum is the John of the title, a soldier who meets Amanda Seyfried's Savannah, thus sparking a romance that will be interrupted by war. The trailer shows them falling for each other very quickly, only to have that love tested by his deployment to the Middle East. I am guessing this deployment (multiple deployments?) keeps the star-crossed lovers apart for some time. They stay in each other's lives through letters, hence the title. I cannot say I am excited for it, but I do like Amanda Seyfried and director Lasse Hallstrom has been involved in some interesting films over the years.
From Paris with Love. (2010, 95 minutes, R, action) Last year director Pierre Morel found surprising box office success with Taken, the Liam Neeson revenge thriller that had been made a year or two prior. He is seeking to follow up that success with this new action film featuring a bald John Travolta as a wisecracking CIA operative and Jonathan Rhys Myers as a low-level analyst inexplicably assigned to work with him in an attempt to stop a terrorist attack in Paris. It looks like a lot of fun. Not necessarily great or even good — but all I want is a fun action romp.
Frozen. (2010, 94 minutes, R, horror) Open Water on a ski lift, Jaws of the sky — both phrases I have seen used to describe this movie and both seem to be accurate. Adam Green, the man behind the excellent slasher Hatchet (and upcoming sequel) has turned his eye to something a little more realistic and even more frightening. I am not sure something like this could actually happen, but it is scary idea. It centers on a trio of snowboarders who are going up the mountain for a last run when the lift shuts down, the lights go out, and the temperature begins to drop. What would you do?
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dear john made more than double that amount! but good predicitons.