New Movies to Crave: Can Puss in Boots Bring Down Johnny Depp, Justin Timberlake and The Bard?

By Chris Kavan - 10/28/11 at 11:31 AM CT

Survey says: Most likely. For one thing, there hasn't been a lot for families to sit down to lately, so an animated film, especially one featuring a hugely popular character from an already-popular franchise is sure to draw in that crowd.

1) So Puss in Boots, with Antonio Banderas taking on the slick feline, is joined by Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris and takes the Shrek sidekick and gives him his own prequel. You have to admit that Puss in Boots is probably the most interesting of the Shrek characters - whether he deserves his own film is questionable, but I can see why they made it. Simply because there has been a lack of quality family films, I see this doing surprisingly well.

2) Even though it borrows elements from other sci-fi stories, In Time still looks entertaining enough and it boasts young, big-name talent to hopefully draw in the coveted young adult crowd. Whether those names will be enough to drive this to more than middling numbers, we'll have to see. Reviews are on the tepid to negative side of things - not surprisingly given that sci-fi films usually don't fare as well - however, sci-fi films are usually entertaining, even the bad ones.

3) For those who liked Johnny Depp in the crazy, weird (but then what would you expect from a film based on the work of Hunter S. Thompson?) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, you'll probably get just as much as a kick out of The Rum Diary. As much fun as this looks, I also think it will only appeal to a select audience, diminishing its box office clout. Depp can bring in the crowd for something will mass appeal (Pirates of the Caribbean) but I see this doing a fraction of that.

4) Finally, Anonymous poses the question of who was really behind Shakespeare's plays - and throws in some political intrigue as well. Period pieces can either be spectacle or dreary affairs. It looks like this is a more balanced piece, but it has historians and scholars up in arms. If there's one thing that will bother me about films that are supposed to represent history - it's getting the facts wrong (see also: Braveheart). I'm no buff when it comes to classic literature or the Bard, but even fictional dramas can push things too far if its trying to bill itself as fact.

Four films with four very different audiences its trying to attract. My moneys on the animated cat.

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