Friday, July 25, 2008

Now Playing: American Teens and Hibernating FBI Agents

The Bat doesn't have much competition which should give it an easy second week of lucrative chaos at the box office. Crazy that it's only the second week of release, right? It feels like it's been out forever. After just 7 days in theaters it's already the #3 film of the year. It only has super-men Indiana Jones and Iron Man as true peers now. They're both enjoying life as $300+ million grossers but Batman will vanquish them soon enough.

L I M I T E D
American Teen - the trailer for this buzzy documentary makes it look like an endearingly awkward and fun Breakfast Club riff on high school 'types'. Is the buzz warranted?
Boy A takes a much bleaker view of those difficult adolescent years. It's about a boy getting out of juvenile after many years inside the system from a crime as a child.
Brideshead Revisited -Emma Thompson returns to costume drama. That's all I need to know. How about you?
Man on Wire -a documentary about the "artistic crime of the century" when a Frenchman rigged a high wire between the twin towers in New York in the 70s.

W I D E
Step Brothers Will Ferrell doesn't own enough homes yet so he's made another comedy for you. It's his 14th film in the past 4 years. John C Reilly is his partner in comedy this time.
X-Files: I Want to Believe We all thought this franchise was long over. Consider it a Hollywood lesson relearned: Franchises never die. They only hibernate.

E X P A N D I N G
Son of Rambow, the festival hit, has added a few dozen theaters this week. I still haven't seen it. Did it warrant all that original hoopla? Say the word in the comments if you've seen it. It's the only real expansion. Otherwise, the superheroes are staying put on their screens.

15 comments:

Peter Chan said...

Son of Rambow: Cute, with a decent payoff.

Anonymous said...

american teen is not that good. I saw it for free through a membership and all I can think off is how pissed I would be if I payed 12 bucks for it.

Basically a semi longer version of mtv's True Life: I'm a high school senior.

Maybe dvd, maybe.

whitney said...

Thank God franchises never die! No matter how bad the X-files movie is, I'll see it and all see all it's sequels and they will make me so so happy.

What a geek....

-whitney

Hayden said...

American Teen kinda looks like The Breakfast Club meets MTV's True Life. Ick. I've heard each of those stories so many times now that I kinda wanna throw a brick at the next person who tries to force-feed me "high school reality." It's so 2005.

Anonymous said...

Agreed Whitney.

X-Files releases my inner nerd. I've seen it. I've loved it. I've pointed out its continuity problems with the series to my friends who rolled their eyes. Yeeeeaaaahhhh!

russ said...

I agree with Peter about Son of Rambow. Starts out somewhat off but grows on you quite a bit with a surprisingly satisfying ending.

Alex F. said...

Son of Rambow was thoroughly enjoyable. It's too bad more people haven't seen it. I'm still pretty impressed that those two kids are non actors.

Anonymous said...

Son of Rambow. I haven't seen this, but I'm planning on seeing The X-Files. How does Son of Ranbow, compare to The X-Files? These are two different genres.

Anonymous said...

I choose not to believe in this new version of Brideshead Revisited.
To me, there is something decidedly icky about truncating the incredibly complex story to cram it into a feature-length running time, especially the way they seem to have done.
Perhaps if I squeeze my eyes shut and repeat to myself "Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews; Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews" over and over, I will drift to my beautifully tragic 11-hour-long happy place, where no remakes may reach me.

Dr. S said...

I really did love Son of Rambow. I didn't know much about it when I saw it here (it came out in England in April), so I went to it with some friends and didn't have many expectations. And I thought it was just hilarious, and shot in a lovely way to boot.

Catherine said...

Yeah, I'll back up the Son Of Rambow plaudits. It's sweet and genuinely funny.

chris said...

Son of Rambow is wonderful. The French kid steals the show.

Danielhardy23@gmail.com said...

Son of Rambow is a sweet, funny, imaginative movie. It's got a lot in common with 'Be Kind Rewind' in terms of plot and themes, though it manages to have more of a story, and relationships that actually evolve, so doesn't feel as completely lightweight and disposable. (Not that I'm hating on Be Kind Rewind, just that it completely dissolved from my brain once it was over.)

The kids make it work, and it's very well directed, with a definite Rushmore vibe in there too. And yeah, the french kid steals the show.

Middle-P said...

american teen really is a mash up of the breakfast club and an mtv true life, but if you allow yourself to really feel for these kids, it is a powerful film. like the breakfast club, it is no godfather (or should i say dark knight...jk) but it is something that can be enjoyed i you aren't expecting it to change your life.

TravelAway said...

I just watched American Teen over the weekend and I was really impressed! It opened on friday and Im really glad I was able to catch it!

It totally reminded me of Breakfast Club, but a modern day one!

I totally related to the story and the characters; I could emphasize with their trials, tribulations, heart breaks, first loves, and anxiousness to leave highschool, but yet the fear of entering college.

I highly highly recommend this one guys!!
I even found the teens' Facebook bios at: americanteenthemovie.com