9/23 – 9/25 September is sweating out it's last few drops of bad movies this weekend to make way for better stuff like Serenity starting next. With a weak box office it should be an easy win for Jodie Foster, but big box office doesn't mean Flightplan is worth seeing. Read on to find out if it is.
Sneak Preview (Opening in 400+ theaters.)
Every once in awhile a movie studio will debut their film a few weeks early at a single showing in a big block of theaters around the country. This isn’t a press screening, or a promotional screening really, after all you have to pay to get in. But the Cameron Diaz comedy In Her Shoes will show up for a single engagement this Saturday in a theater probably somewhere near you. Fox is trying to generate buzz in advance of the film’s official release October 7th. I’ve done my duty, you know it’s happening, now avoid it like the plague. Cameron Diaz isn’t just annoying, she’s utterly unfunny and barely belongs in drama let alone sister versus sister comedy. Stay far far away from In Her Shoes this weekend, and in the weeks to come.
Expanding Nationwide
As most of you probably know (no thanks to me), Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride opened in extremely limited release last weekend, and in the process scored a massive, $80,000 plus per-screen average. This weekend is your chance to see it, as it at last expands nationwide into 3,204 theaters. It’s not as good as Nightmare Before Christmas, but Burton is a master of stop-motion entertainment and you won’t want to miss it.
Misc. Limited Releases (Opening in fewer than 500 theaters.)
It’s a big limited release weekend, as the early Oscar baiters like unsafe with underage children director Roman Polanski’s Oliver Twist pop up in one or two theaters. There are hardcore fans of the artful dodger interested in this one-hundred and seventeenth incarnation of the classic Dickens novel, but I’m not one of them. Hasn’t this story been done enough? It’s getting to be nearly as cliché as Pride and Prejudice (coming yet again this fall to a theater near you). Instead, keep an eye on David Cronenberg’s flawed yet interesting film A History of Violence as it debuts in a scant 14 theaters. It’s not perfect, but at least it’s free of porridge.
Roll Bounce (Opens in 1,625 theaters.)
When I asked our cracked up reviewing staff for volunteers to cover this, no one responded. Then I realized I didn’t even care. This is a roller-rink comedy starring the formerly little rapper known as Bow-Wow, and absolutely no one is going to see it. In fact, most of you probably wouldn’t even know it existed if I hadn’t gone and mentioned it in this column. My apologies for that.
Flightplan (Opens in 3,424 theaters.)
Jodie Foster stars in this taut thriller with a stupid ending. It’s the story of a mother, whose daughter vanishes on a plane in mid-flight. The strange thing is that no one on the plane remembers seeing her kid. Is she crazy, or stuck in some sort of vast, terrorist conspiracy? With a different ending this could have been a really great movie. But, like this year’s other airplane thriller Red Eye it drops the ball in the final act, this time with plotholes big enough to fly a jumbo jet through. Still, it’s worth paying to see for sharp cinematography, Sean Bean and Peter Sarsgaards, and to watch Jodie Foster discriminate against bearded Arabs. In the drab month of September, Flightplan is a decent diversion.
STILL IN THEATERS AND WORTH YOUR TIME: The 40 Year-Old Virgin, Lord of War
