By Chris Kavan - 04/11/13 at 11:22 AM CT
Last week was one of the better weekends for 2013 thanks to the strong performance from Evil Dead and Jurassic Park 3D. This week we have two very different kinds of movies stepping up to the plate - one a biopic of a legendary sports figure the other is the latest entry in a long-running horror parody franchise. Will success follow or are we due for a lull this week until Tom Cruise comes to our rescue?
42 Biopics have done well - Lincoln, in particular, comes to mind as a recent example of a great biography (even if it covered a limited period of time. 42 takes the stage as the story of Jackie Robinson - the history-making Brooklyn Dodger who broker the color barrier in baseball. Although a veteran of TV, this is the first major film role for Chadwick Boseman - the supporting cast should help him out including Harrison Ford, Lucas Black, Christopher Meloni and Alan Tudyk. This movie has the potential to be big because it appeals to many fans - fans of drama, baseball and of history. This is more a kind of film I watch on my own rather than in theaters, but other than a 1950 film, Robinson's story has been woefully overlooked. I hope they do the man and his story justice.
SCARY MOVIE 5 The last time this franchise reared its head, it was 2006 and, I'm sorry, but the longer you wait between sequels, usually the worse the film turns out. Everything I've seen about Scary Movie 5 reminds me of the terrible parody movies that somehow keep getting made - Date Movie, Disaster Movie, Epic Movie, etc. - it's like they take a bunch of pop culture references, throw in a random assortment of "horror" moments and call it Scary Movie. Stupid cameos from Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan aren't helping things. I hope beyond hope that audiences will ignore this film with impunity - but, somehow, these terrible movies do just enough business to keep getting made. The franchise is dead - I wish they would have let it go with a shred of dignity intact, but, alas, that doesn't seem to be the case here.
TO THE WONDER I have to mention the latest film from Terrence Malick, even though it's only going to be a limited release. One, for a man known to take a long time between projects, this one is coming out pretty much right after Tree of Life and, just like that film, is sure to divide audiences between artistic beauty and WTF did I just watch. Granted, I was bewildered by Tree of Life so I'm not going to rush out to this one but it should be interesting to see where it winds up in terms of opening theater numbers.
I, for one, an holding out until next week until watching anything new but there is a chance this week will still hold some decent numbers. We'll have to wait until Sunday for sure - and I'll see you back then.
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