It’s a smallish week for movie releases, providing a necessary breather for those of us trying to stay on top of everything — honestly, if there had been another ten openings this week, I suspect I might be on the top of a building with a rifle right now.
Lucky for everyone in my neighborhood, there were only five, and these are they:
“Crank: High Voltage”: It’s three months later, he’s not dead any more, and there are plenty of new people to kill. Also, Amy Smart is the best sport ever. Screened at the last possible minute, though I can’t imagine why.
“The Education of Charlie Banks“: Fred Durst’s directorial debut (yeah, “The Longshots” was released first, but produced after this one) explores the delicate relationship between a nervous preppie (Jesse Eisenberg, doing his Jesse Eisenberg thing) and the sociopath (Jason Ritter) who helps him learn about life. The “Raging Bull” poster in their dorm room? It’s a metaphor!
“17 Again”: Matthew Perry turns into Zac Efron, develops radically different bone structure, terrifies his family. I think. Rad liked it; Adam loathed it.
“State of Play”: Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck play a journalist and a politician with a thorny personal history in Kevin Macdonald’s Americanization of the acclaimed BBC miniseries; Adam found it well-meaning but sort of unnecessary.
“Sugar“: Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s excellent American baseball movie — which isn’t a baseball movie at all, when you get right down to it — deserves the largest audience it can possibly get. So, sure, let’s call it a baseball movie. Whatever sells tickets.
Right, that’s this week covered. Now, back to the screener pile …
Okay, I’ll buy Jason Statham’s heart still beating. But what about the fact that all of his bones would have been shattered at the end of the first movie? Were they replaced with adamantium (or whatever)? Can we look forward to a hyper-kinetic Crank/Wolverine crossover?
Amy Smart: “I saw this video on YouTube where a guy’s parachute didn’t open and he fell 14,000 feet and he survived, so I guess that’s possible.”
Jason Statham: “Yeah, it’s fucking possible, sweetheart, because it fucking happened to me too!”
… so, no luck on the Wolverine crossover, but there is a fairly overt reference to “King Kong vs. Godzilla”. Which is more or less what you’d expect from a “Crank” sequel.
Ahhh, so they did end up sneaking a last minute screening without alerting most people….how sad. Probably for the best, not one of the better movie franchises…
I paid money to rent the Digital Versatile Disc of ‘In the Name of the King’. Why? Because some things simply need to be done.
Having said that, it was better than ‘Twister’. But not as good as ‘Postal’.
Amy Smart is just beautiful and sexy, i want to marry a woman like her someday`.”