Well, the blockbuster season has officially begun. Are you ready for a steady stream of big hit hopefuls? I know I am (whether or not any of them pay off). This week's big release suffered a blow when it was leaked some weeks ago, but the studio is hoping that the leak will not hurt the box office receipts. The weekend will also see the arrival of a couple counter programming options if big budget action is not to your taste.
The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. (2009, 100 minutes, PG-13, romantic comedy) How to say this tactfully... I don't have a lot of interest in seeing this movie. At the start of the year, I vowed to cut back on the number of movies I saw. I didn't do that because of a dwindling love of movies, it has been more of an attempt at being selective. Of course, it did not start out so well, but the past few weeks have offered up such fare as Obsessed and 17 Again, which I have found easy to bypass. Now we have another offering that does not stir the interest bug inside me. This is a romantic comedy take on A Christmas Carol, the twist being instead of greedy old Scrooge, we get womanizing Matthew McConaughey, and instead of a tour of his greedy past, we get a look through his past girlfriends and how they relate to the "one that got away." It strikes me as wholly mediocre and easily avoidable. The cast also includes Michael Douglas and Jennifer Garner.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine. (2009, 97 minutes, PG-13, action) Here is the movie everyone has been waiting for, well a lot of people anyway. Earlier this year an unfinished workprint got out and has been making the rounds all across the web. It is going to be interesting to see if that leak will have any impact on opening weekend. I am looking forward to the film, although I am not setting my expectations too high. It is hard to get that excited following the big disappointment that was the third X-Men movie. Hugh Jackman has done a fine job providing one of the main story threads for those three films however and it will be interesting to see how he does as we take his story back to the beginning. Hopefully it will not be as screwed up as I fear it might be. The cast includes Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Ryan Reynolds, and Taylor Kitsch. It was directed by Gavin Hood, an interesting choice considering that his last two films are the Oscar winner Tsotsi and Rendition.
Article comments
1 - Bob
Good article on 2009 box office info.