What movies are opening today?
Tragically, the only major release this weekend is the critically reviled comedy Couples Retreat, starring Vince Vaughn and Jason Bateman. (As of this writing, it has a toxic 9% rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes.) The more favorably reviewed horror flick Paranormal Activity is opening in Cincinnati, West Chester, and Columbus, and it’s the only new film I’ll be out to see this weekend. Critics’ thoughts on these new releases — plus share your moviegoing plans — after the jump.
Part of me thought that the PG-13 Couples Retreat might have been worth seeing as a hard-R comedy in the style of The Hangover or Wedding Crashers. However, A.O. Scott of The New York Times writes: “An R-rated version of this mess would be only more gratingly dishonest as it tried to hide its weak sentimentality behind a fig leaf of vulgarity.” The Washington Post says it “coasts on comic fumes, relying on colloquialisms, foreign accents, racial stereotypes, lemon sharks, Speedos and inopportune erections to supply the funny.” It’s not only the vulgar, unfunny comedic stylings, but even the pace: “Everything takes too long, and the slapstick sequences are particularly lethargic,” says NPR. The only favorable reviews the film garnered are nonetheless rather tepid, such as the faint praise from James Berardinelli that Couples Retreat is “not unpleasant.” Find showtimes for Couples Retreat.
Paranormal Activity was shot in a week for $15,000, and is being touted as this decade’s answer to The Blair Witch Project. Paramount is releasing the film based on demand generated from its website. The film opens this weekend in Cincinnati, West Chester and Columbus. Entertainment Weekly writes, “With its this-is-really-happening vibe, Paranormal Activity scrapes away 30 years of encrusted nightmare clichés. The fear is real, all right, because the fear is really in you.” Roger Ebert says it’s “an ingenious little horror film, so well made it’s truly scary.” The A.V. Club’s Nathan Rabin laments, “The film loses some of its grimy verisimilitude toward the end, but it’s nevertheless a surprisingly effective low-budget shocker with a sensibility as current as the latest viral videos, yet rooted in the suggestive, less-is-more atmospherics of Val Lewton.” Find showtimes for Paranormal Activity.
I’ll be back with a review of Paranormal Activity on Monday. In the meantime, what movies are you planning to see this weekend? What movies have you seen lately?
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