REPUBLIBOT WEEKEND MOVIE PREVIEW: Movies Opening 12-04-09 (and 11-25-09)
Hi and welcome to this week’s Republibot Weekend Movie Preview. I want to quickly apologize for missing last week and am grateful that you have decided to give me one more chance. I would like to reiterate, though, for those just joining us, I‘m not really reviewing anything here. Unless stated otherwise I’ve not seen any of the movies in this “Preview”. I am really just thoughtlessly passing judgment on films that are scheduled to open this week and that I haven’t researched at all. All of the film information in these previews, including the plot summary, has been pulled from the Opening This Week page of IMDb (http://www.imdb.com/nowplaying/). In this week’s installment we are taking quick looks at: Armored, Brothers, and Everybody’s Fine – among others…
So, take a deep breath and get prepared for frustration and exasperation at me as you make the jump.
Armored
Director: Nimród Antal
Stars: Columbus Short, Matt Dillon, Laurence Fishburne
Studio: Screen Gems
The Plot: A newbie guard for an armored truck company is coerced by his veteran coworkers to steal a truck containing $42 million. But a wrinkle in their supposedly foolproof plan divides the group, leading to a potentially deadly resolution.
The Republibot Take: Columbus Short? What kinda name is that? Nimrod Antal? He can’t be American and if he is he had very mean and unloving parents. Matt Dillon is okay. So is Laurence Fishburne. This movie looks like it is right out of the factory. Stamped out by underage Asian kids working 18 hour days in an asbestos infested building. With a faux designer label appended just as it goes to market, “With a Twist”.
I guess making these kinds of movies are a good business plan, they can be pulled off relatively economically, they make their money back and do well in post theatrical markets. Who am I talk, really – I mean I am on record as saying that I would love to have my own company that basically makes low budget movies that rip off big budget movies and hit DVD the same time they hit release and have similarly sounding titles. Seriously, that would be a blast company to have. But, even if I did have that company I don't think I would ever feel comfortable greenlighting a movie a called “Armor Car” about a newbie guard talked into stealing a shipment of something valuable, except something unexpected happens and throws everything in the air.
I don’t think that would be very fun.
This gets a Sci-fi Quotient of zip.
Brothers
Director: Jim Sheridan
Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman, Tobey Maguire
Studio: Lionsgate
The Plot: Sam Cahill (Maguire) returns from being held as a prisoner-of-war in Afghanistan to find that his ex-con brother (Gyllenhaal) has become the man, of sorts, of the household where Sam's wife, Grace (Portman) had been living under the assumption that she was a widow.
The Republibot Take: Oh joy. The only thing I am surprised about for some reason is that this doesn’t star Naomi Judd or Jennifer Lopez in the Natalie Portman role. We could throw in Morgan Freeman in a elderly friend of the family that could either be sympathetic and help the embattled wife or actually be the true mastermind behind the scenes.
Can you tell I am not really feeling it this week? There are a
- Republibot 1.0's blog
- Login or register to post comments
Comments
2 January 2009
2 hours 28 min
Definitely Church, if you are willing and are in a market in which it is already playing. It has not opened in my market yet, so until it does, the point is kinda moot for me.
27 December 2008
5 hours 22 min
Oh, please! Would you? That'd be great! Still got my email address?
30 January 2009
5 hours 52 min
I can probably do that.
27 December 2008
5 hours 22 min
Maybe if you ask real nice, Church'll write us a review of the movie?
2 January 2009
2 hours 28 min
I would like to see it definitely - but I think I am to the point of my life where very intense film experiences that deal with very personal stories (which seems this does) are more easily handled as a private screening type of situation (ie home theater/dvd).
I am much more willing to brave the big theaters for spectacle and less demanding content and even then rarely in the evening when the crowd can be large and loud.
I am becoming a grump recluse in my aging.
27 December 2008
5 hours 22 min
Hey, Church! Great to see you again! Long time, no hear! Whatcha' been up to?
30 January 2009
5 hours 52 min
It's probably not quite as grim as you've heard (I may be compromised from hearing accounts of the set-dressing, lots of which didn't really show up) but it's a wonderfully bleak movie. Bonus: it features the best child actor since Sixth Sense.