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What’s opening Friday, April 18? 1 out of 3?
It’s still April, meaning that the movie selection is still a bit iffy at the moment, but there is at least one very promising movie this week - and at least one candidate for next year’s Razzie awards.
88 Minutes: Can a thriller fronted by Al Pacino really be THAT bad? Well, the movie has been sitting on the shelf for more than a year. And the critics’ quotes go like this:
“The picture easily snatches from Revolution the prize as Al Pacino’s career worst.” - Variety.
“For sheer silliness, nothing in 88 Minutes tops the fact that (Alicia) Witt’s English ex-con husband boasts the ridiculously fanciful name Guy LaForge, presumably because ‘Fakey McMake-Believe’ was already taken.” - Slant Magazine.
“88 Minutes plays like a script Tom Cruise rejected back in the ’90s” - New York Press
But hey, the revered critic Andrew Sarris liked it, saying “88 Minutes will add a little more luster to a career that has not been adequately appreciated perhaps because of the suspiciously seductive power of a little man with an outsize talent.”
Is Sarris crazy? Or is everyone else? You can be the judge if you wish.
The Forbidden Kingdom: From that peerless director of martial arts flicks, Rob Minkoff, who brought us Haunted Mansion and the Stuart Little movies. Jet Li and Jackie Chan team up for the first time, but the picture is geared toward the younger set. Whether that’s good or bad remains to be seen.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall: The consensus was that the Judd Apatow factory had a screw loose with Drillbit Taylor, but things seem a little tighter this time around, with some very positive reviews for this comedy about a guy having a hard time getting over a breakup with his girl. Since the girl looks an awful lot like Kristen Bell, I sympathize. This is the movie I’m most looking forward to seeing.
Unfortunately, conflicts with my other duties prevented me from screening any of these this week. On Friday, I will instead preview the highlight of the moviegoing year for me: The classic film series at Victoria Theatre in Dayton.
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Comments
By Kim H
April 17, 2008 12:20 PM | Link to this
Yeah - not too excited about this week’s releases. Sarah Marshall is the one that I am most interested in though - hopefully it’s not one of those where you’ve seen everything that is good about it once you’ve seen the trailer. May be a good weekend to break out some of those DVD’s that are taking up all of that space and see if I really need to keep all of them! Looking forward to hearing about the Victoria schedule - and to Indiana Jones coming out on May 22 - woo hoo!