By Chris Kavan - 08/29/19 at 12:15 AM CT
With summer winding down, Labor Day Weekend is upon us - and it tends to be one of the slowest holiday weekends for Hollywood. While there are two new wide releases opening, both are coming in under 1000 theaters and neither have been given any kind of advertising push. Thus Angel Has Fallen looks to lead the weekend once again, but I'm not expecting it to deliver much in the way of excitement. As for our new films, one looks to be an inspirational story of a solider overcoming his injuries while the other is a horror/thriller with an excellent cast but almost no buzz behind it. Neither film looks to have much of an impact on the box office, which is going to end summer on a quiet note.
DON'T LET GO Blumhouse has made a cottage industry turning low-budget horror into medium to monster hits. And the company has a pretty darn good track record, helped by the fact that most of their films are just entertaining. Don't Let Go has a solid cast - David Oyelowo, Mykelti Williamson, Brian Tyree Henry, Alfred Molina and Storm Reid lead the way. Oyelowo plays the grieving Jack Radcliff, whose family has just been murdered. Oh so he thinks, until he receives a call from his niece (Reid), who died in the murders. Much like Frequency before it, the hook here is that somehow Jack is being connected with the past - and he starts to piece together the mystery of what happened in hopes of preventing the tragedy. Time travel is always tricky and judging by the early critical response, the film plays more like a standard cliche cop film than a mind-bending thriller. But I have faith the cast keeps things interesting but with little to no advertising push, a spot in the top five may be the best it can hope for.
Pretty much just creeping in because this is the first I've even seen, Bennet's War is the kind of uplifting film that honest Christians should get behind. The film follows Marshall Bennett (Michael Roark), a soldier in the Army Motorcycle Unit who suffers a devastating injury. Despite his condition, he is determined to support his family and does so by becoming a motocross racer. I'm not sure this is the film we need to cover the issue of PTSD that affects a too-large portion of our veterans but, hey, if you like racing - let's see what Bennet's War can do for you! Also, it has Trace Adkins, y'all - so get your country fix today. Surprisingly this is releasing in more theaters than Don't Let Go - but I'm guessing that's not going to make this even half as popular and I have a feeling this film is going to be little watched and little known. Heck, I had to add it to the database today just to talk about it, that's how popular it is.
I don't expect it to be a very exciting weekend despite the extra day off for most people. Everyone wants to get out and have one last bit of fun - and movies don't factor in much for this holiday. I'll still be back Sunday with the breakdown.
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