This Weekend, Watch This
A comparison of the new releases for February 10, 2012
By Curt David
February 10, 2012
BoxOfficeProphets.com
More likely than not, each weekend there is a movie that you have never heard of in the theaters. I'll save you the hassle of researching every movie, by comparing the new releases for each weekend in this column. Then, I'll tell you which movie to watch.
For the weekend of February 10th, the new movies in wide release are Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Safe House, Star Wars: Episode 1, and The Vow.
| Journey 2: The Mysterious Island | Safe House | Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace | The Vow | WINNER (1 point per category) | |
| Clearest Title | Sounds like a sequel, but I don't remember Journey 1. | This really could be any genre. | This sounds like a 3D reboot scam. | This really could be any genre. | Star Wars has the best name recognition of any movie ever made...point for George Lucas. |
| Best Genre and Rating | Family Action:
Rated PG some adventure action, and brief mild language. | Action/Thriller
Rated R for strong violence throughout, and some language. | Sci-fi/Action
Rated PG for sci-fi action and violence. | Romantic Drama
Rated PG-13 for accident scene, sexual content, partial nudity, and some language. | I like the variety of genres. Each movie will get 1/4th of a point. |
| Cleverest Tagline (out of 5 stars) | "Believe the Impossible. Discover the Incredible."
Boring tagline. 1/5 | "No One is Safe"
Makes the title seem ironic. 3/5 | "Every generation has a legend. Every journey has a first step. Every saga has a beginning."
Longest tagline ever. 2/5 | N/A.
What? This round would have been easy to win! | Safe House wins the best tagline point. |
| Best Part of Trailer | Ooooh, it's a sequel to Journey to the Center of the Earth! | It looked decently suspenseful. | You get to see Star Wars in 3D. | Engaged couple loses memory, has to fall in love again. | Please don't take my guy card away, but Safe House let me down, and The Vow actually was engaging. Point for the chick flick. |
| Coolest Lead Actor | Dwayne Johnson from Fast Five, The Scorpion King, and aka The Rock. | Denzel Washington from Training Day, Man on Fire, and Remember the Titans. | Ewan McGregor from Moulin Rouge, Big Fish, and the Star Wars trilogy. | Rachel McAdams from The Notebook, Mean Girls, and Wedding Crashers. | Shoot, while I like Rachel a lot, I'll give Denzel the point to try and earn back my manhood. |
| Best Cast | Michael Caine (Dark Knight), Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical), and Josh Hutcherson (THE HUNGER GAMES!!!) | Ryan Reynolds (The Proposal) and Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air) | Liam Neeson (Taken), Natalie Portman (Black Swan), and the voice of Frank Oz (voice of Yoda, Miss Piggy, Cookie Monster, etc.) | Channing Tatum (Step Up), Jessica Lange (Tootsie), Scott Speedman (Underworld), and Sam Neill (Jurassic Park) | THE HUNGER GAMES!!!! Opening March 23rd! Point for Journey 2. |
| Best Street Cred For the Production | Director Brad Peyton also directed Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore. | Director Daniel Espinosa also directed Easy Money. | Director and Writer George Lucas has also written and directed all things Star Wars. | Director Michael Sucsy was on the crew of Deep Impact and Jungle 2 Jungle. | George Lucas has to win the point here, even if this film is over a decade old. |
So out of a maximum of 7 points per movie, Safe House and Star Wars: Episode 1 each score 2 and 1/4 points, while Journey 2 and The Vow each score 1 and 1/4 points.
You may interpret this column for your own movie preferences. For example, if you are a teenage girl or like The Hunger Games based on its literary merit like me, feel free to watch Journey 2. However, if you are still on the fence, please read the following conclusions from the scientific data gathered in this column.
Conclusion 1: On paper, Safe House and Star Wars are the best movies to watch this weekend, but since we all already saw Star Wars, I'm going to go ahead and declare Safe House the winner.
Conclusion 2: While I am admitting my love of some chick flicks, I really liked Rachel McAdams' Morning Glory.
Conclusion 3: And here is my gripe of the week. In every Internet article on the best Super Bowl commercials, I hardly saw any love for The Voice's hilarious commercial with Betty White. Just because it was advertising the show after the Super Bowl, doesn't mean it should be disqualified for (and I'm just going to go ahead and declare it) the best Super Bowl commercial of the year!