Trailer Hitch
By Eric Hughes
March 17, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse – Opens June 30th
Now being released at a feverish pace by Summit Entertainment, the third chapter in The Twilight Saga, Eclipse, will hit theaters at the end of June, just seven months after New Moon opened to a disgusting $142.8 million – or about $73 more than its predecessor, Twilight. It's no mystery that these movies are huge. Heck, Brendan Fraser vehicles like the incredibly awful looking Furry Vengeance have the Twilight franchise to thank for giving Summit the freedom (read: money) to make pretty much whatever they want. Eclipse is bound to as big, if not bigger than, New Moon, and then we have at least two more Twilight movies to look forward to, as the cash grabbing decision has already been made to split Twilight's final chapter, Breaking Dawn, into two movies.
Surprisingly, Eclipse – my favorite of the Twilight books – will be released in IMAX, but not 3D. You'd assume based on 2010's slate, and the bevy of 3D movies that permeated 2009's box office, that the title would at least go the Alice in Wonderland route by being transformed from a 2D movie to a 3D feature in post. Based on Alice's stunning $100+ million opening weekend, it's a safe bet that Breaking Dawn will be in 3D.
As for the trailer to Eclipse, it's a bit of a bore. Summit could have spliced in footage from New Moon and I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. Bella is still struggling with whether to become a vampire, she still loves Edward but is swooned by Jacob, Edward and Jacob still hate each other and Jacob finds the time to walk around shirtless in the woods. Yep, it sure is another Twilight movie!
I do like the addition of Bryce Dallas Howard to the cast. In Eclipse, she replaces Rachelle Lefevre as evil vampire Victoria with the shock of red hair. I've always found her work in films as a bit underrated, so it'll be interesting to see what she brings to the character.
Grade: C
Shrek Forever After – Opens May 21st
The best part about the new Shrek movie, Shrek Forever After, may be that it promises to be the final chapter in the venerable franchise. Then again, the Friday the 13th franchise promised a similar thing to moviegoers around movie four by titling it The Final Chapter. Here we are 25 years later and Jason Voorhees is still slaying horny teenagers at Camp Crystal Lake (and, well, in space) by appearing in seven additional movies. Based on the fact that its 2009 reboot scored the franchise's biggest opening weekend - $40.5 million to date, we may very well have additional Jason movies to look forward to.
But back to Shrek. The green ogre was hilarious in his debut, and even funnier in Shrek 2. Every once in a long while the sequel is better than the original, and I could make that case for the Shrek franchise. But whatever the case, we all detested Shrek the Third (I actually couldn't stomach the whole thing). And several years later, the bad taste it left in my mouth seems to still be there, making me anticipate another Shrek chapter as much as I would a dentist appointment.
Am I biased, or is the trailer to Shrek Forever After simply unfunny? There comes a point when enough is enough, and I think Shrek has reached that point. In the new movie, an overworked Shrek makes a deal with Rumpelstiltskin to exchange any day in his life for a day off to relax. Turns out Rumpy chooses to remove the day Shrek was born, leaving Shrek struggling to exist in a world where Donkey and Fiona et al. have no idea who he is. Lord Farquaad is still alive and Puss in Boots is a lazy fat cat. (So, Garfield?).
Props to DreamWorks for shaking up the Shrek formula. But I, at least, have had enough.
Grade: D
Please Give – Opens April 30th
In Please Give, Catherine Keener fills in for a role she was designed to play. That of a loving mother and wife who must contend with a number of important issues in her life: her business is a shame (buy furniture on the cheap and mark it up at her trendy store), her daughter is too materialistic, her husband (Oliver Platt) is beginning to doubt her (and fall for a woman played by Amanda Peet) and her neighbors are considerably less than pleasant. Then there's the homelessness and poverty going on right outside her door. Just don't do as Keener does in the trailer by offering a man money who is simply waiting to get into a restaurant.
Please Give has a quirky-fun feel to it, and appears to tread around the issues surrounding Keener's character without being too heavy handy with some of the movie's preachier subjects. I doubt you need to see something like Please Give in theaters. It instead has a nice Saturday afternoon rental quality to it.
Grade: B-
Just Wright – Opens May 14th
In Just Wright, Queen Latifah stars as a physical therapist who lands the client of a lifetime in a big-time NBA player (Common). Latifah, who enjoys her work and performs it with dignity, finds herself in an unexpected tug-of-war when she realizes she's falling for the baller.
It sure is nice to see Queen acting again, even if it's in your standard Hollywood romcom. She shines in the scenes she's in and adds an unmistakable brightness to her movies. Save for some voice work in Ice Age 3, Queen took a break in 2009 to pursue other interests. Earlier this year, she was one of the seemingly hundreds of celebs in February's Valentine's Day, a Love Actually-esque movie that didn't sit so well with critics.
Grade: C-