New This Week

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Colombiana

Directed by Olivier Megaton
Written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen
Starring: Zoe Saldana, Michael Vartan, Callum Blue

Summary: A young girl watches some mobsters murder her parents before here eyes. She grows up to be a ruthless assassin bent on tracking down their killer and getting her revenge.

The Word: How many times have we seen Luc Besson’s name attached to a revenge thriller? This time the avenger comes in the form of a young woman in Saldana (“Star Trek,” “Avatar”). With cast of otherwise un-notable actors, she’ll have to carry the show here to make the revenge just as sweet for the audience.

Rotten Tomatoes: 57% (mixed)

My Thoughts: Saldana’s a sizzling star and she will probably carry this film as far as a completely unoriginal action thriller could ever possibly go. Hopefully it’s just the beginning of her female action star days.

Recommendation: Reliable entertainment for sure, but in a cluttered August, it hardly stands out as must-see material.

Our Idiot Brother

Directed by Jesse Peretz
Written by David Schisgall, Evgenia Peretz
Starring: Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Emily Mortimer

The Word: “Our Idiot Brother” premiered to a generally positive reception at Sundance early this year. With a trio of actresses this strong and Rudd playing a character that stands out as genuinely different in comparison to his Judd Apatow roles, there’s reason for this alternative end-of-summer programming.

Rotten Tomatoes: 70% (very good)

My Thoughts: With a trio of actresses this strong and Rudd playing a character that stands out as genuinely different in comparison to his Judd Apatow roles, there’s reason to believe in this alternative end-of-summer programming. At the least, it should help prep our habits for the generally more sophisticated fall fare.

Recommendation: If you should make it out, this is probably your best bet.

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Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark

Directed by Troy Nixey
Written by Guillermo Del Toro, Matthew Robbins, Nigel McKeand (1976 teleplay)
Starring: Guy Pearce, Katie Holmes, Bailee Madison

The Word: The del Toro name is a big one these days, so even if he merely adapted the original TV special and produced the film, the odds are it’s going to still be imaginative. Nixey is a rookie director, but yet again, one with a great supervisor.

Rotten Tomatoes: 56% (bad)

My Thoughts: By far the most promising of the horror offerings this summer, but it’s hard to ignore a bump from January to August (from one awful month to the next awful month). Not sure what del Toro’s thing is with horror movies starring little girls and other-worldly spirits, but he deserves the benefit of the doubt, even after the film was moved from January to August.

Recommendation: Probably the most pure horror film of the summer for genre fans.

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Box Office Predictions

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Outside of two films, August has been an awful month for the box office, so don’t expect the summer to end on a high note. Believe it or not, The Help should continue to draw crowds and finish with another $15 million this weekend. Sadly, that’s good enough for first place; no film looks like it has quite enough to be a sleeper hit a la “Takers” last year.

The rest of the top-five finishers all project within $8-12 million. With horror generally doing well at the box office in late August and Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark looking like legit horror, I think it can manage $12 million. Next, I’m going to make a bolder choice and go with Our Idiot Brother. Paul Rudd has a good rep and the film is already getting a bigger release than expected, so I think $10 million is reasonable. That should be just a tad better than the $9-10 million for Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

With only Zoe Saldana, it’s hard to get too behind Colombiana, but as a revenge flick, it should manage $8 million at the least.

1. The Help
2. Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
3. Our Idiot Brother
4. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
5. Colombiana