The fall movie slate kicks into high gear this week with new offerings from a bunch of veterans. Whether its some quasi-raunchy comedy, animation from a big studio or well, Tyler Perry, we've got a bunch of big movies coming out, and the Rotten Watch is here to step in and predict what critics will think, without having to actually watch anything.
Let's take a look at what this Rotten Week has in store for the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer.
Due Date
Todd Phillips is the man. Bored? Pop in Old School (60%) for the fiftieth time. Have a couple of hours to kill? Let's cue up The Hangover (79%) again and again and again. Need a quick laugh without having to get into the plot? Starsky and Hutch (64%) or Road Trip (58%) are good for what ails ya. I mean this guy is the king (for me at least) of the rewatchable flick.
Obviously not all critics are on board with his level of humor. Each has a frathouse mentality with just enough story to get by. But as much as I love T-Phil, Due Date has me more than a little concerned. In all of Phillips's other films, the laughs were palpable just from the trailer. Here they seem canned and forced. And while I'm reluctant to give a straight opinion just based on the trailer, there are some warning signs here.
Zach Galifianakis and Robert Downey Jr. could be the 21st century John Candy and Steve Martin, but I doubt it. And when the jokes fall a little flat just in the advertising, what happens throughout the whole film? I've got a bad feeling here. While it won't be a stinker, I don't think Due Date will be up the Phillips' usual rewatchability standard. The Rotten Watch for Due Date is 46%.
Megamind
There aren't many bad DreamWorks movies. I mean, sure it's no Pixar. Pixar is the bully on the block in the animation field, but if Pixar is the Scott Farkas, DreamWorks is most definitely the Grover Gill. The animation studio routinely cranks out positively reviewed movies with its fair share of celebrity voices to boot.
Megamind features Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, Tina Fey, and Jonah Hill as the voices of those in the superhero world figuring out their places in society. Isn't voice work great? Just have to show up for the free money. No risk, all reward.
But where will Megamind stand in the DreamWorks stable? Todd McGrath is at the helm and he's been at the head of some lesser DW flicks, Madagascar - 55% and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa - 64%. While those aren't failures, they're not How to Train Your Dragon (98%) or Kung Fu Panda (89%) either.
I think the latest DW addition lands somewhere in the middle of the studio's previous fare. The Rotten Watch for Megamind is 71%.
For Colored Girls
We've been down the Tyler Perry road before and it is paved like a minefield, with dog turds littering the ground in between explosives. Perry makes bad movies plain and simple. The critical apex of his career is I Can Do Bad All By Myself (60%). After that, some lowlights include Madea Goes to Jail (26%), Meet the Browns (30%), Why Did I Get Married (46%), and Diary of a Mad Black Woman (16%). So yeah, he blows.
In For Colored Girls, Perry teams up again with Janet Jackson in an adaptation of Ntozake Shange's play "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf." Pretty uplifting stuff for the relatively comedic (term used loosely) director.
Some early reviews are in and they follow suit with the rest of Tyler Perry's directing career. Bad. I wouldn't have gone high with this score anyway, but having some people trash the movie ahead of time always help with the line setting. The Rotten Watch for For Colored Girls is 25%.
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Recapping last week: I said before that horror movies were't the Rotten Watch's bag. And while I knew Saw (Predicted: 36% Actual: 9%) was in the crappy range, I didn't imagine it would be the worst of the franchise. Nine percent is in the epically awful category and while I know Saw fans exist, this is an embarrassing way to finish off the series.
Next week McAdams tries to save Ford and Keaton, aliens are back again, and Denzel tries to stop a train. It's going to be a Rotten Week!
