This Weekend, Watch This
A comparison for the new releases for January 30 - February 1, 2015
By Curt David
January 30, 2015
BoxOfficeProphets.com
For the weekend of January 29th, the new movies in wide release are Black or White, The Loft, and Project Almanac.
Also, this is my final week campaigning for Andy Serkis to be nominated for Box Office Prophet’s 2015 Calvin Awards (see last year's here) for Best Actor. Since the awards are voted on by BOP contributors, I hope they read my column this week and figure out the subliminal messages I include in the table below.
| Black or White | The Loft | Project Almanac | WINNER (1 point per category) | |
| Clearest Title | A movie about colors? VOTE | A movie about architecture? ANDY | A movie about a geography project? FOR | Yeesh. These titles don’t sound appealing. 1/3 point each. BEST ACTOR! |
| Best Genre and Rating | Drama
Rated PG-13 on appeal for brief strong language, thematic material involving drug use and drinking, and for a fight VOTE | Thriller
Rated R for sexual content, nudity, bloody violence, language and some drug use ANDY | Sci-fi
Rated PG-13 for some language and sexual content FOR | Three different genres! Nice. 1/3 point each. BEST ACTOR! |
| Best Plot (in haiku form) | White guy adopts girl She’s black. Her fam wants her back Fights, laughs, tears, and love VOTE | Guys have affairs here Secret place til she breaks in Exposes them all ANDY | Teens find time machine Have fun. There’s consequences Moral decisions FOR | I feel like I’ve seen these plots before, maybe? 1/3 point each. BEST ACTOR! |
| Best Trailer | PROS: Good cast. Looks like an inspirational movie, but you’re not sure based on the trailer
CONS: Maybe none if the movie turns out to be how you expected it to be VOTE | PROS: Could be cool to try and figure out the thriller mystery as you watch
CONS: Will be tough to root for the main characters, who are cheating scumbags ANDY | PROS: Looks much much better than you would think about a low-budget teen movie about time traveling
CONS: None, if you like a low-budget teen movie about time traveling FOR | Oh gosh, none of these trailers swept me off my feet, but none were unwatchable. 1/3 point each. BEST ACTOR! |
| Coolest Lead Actor | Kevin Costner from Dances with Wolves and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. VOTE | James Marsden from X-Men and Enchanted. ANDY | No one I recognize yet FOR | Kevin Costner wins this point! BEST ACTOR! |
| Best Cast | Octavia Spencer (The Help) and Anthony Mackie (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) VOTE | Karl Urban (Star Trek), Wentworth Miller (Prison Break), and Eric Stonestreet (Modern Family) ANDY | No one I recognize yet FOR | The first two movies split this point. BEST ACTOR! |
| Best Street Cred For the Production | Writer and Director Mike Binder also wrote and directed The Upside of Anger and Reign Over Me. FOR THE LOVE | Director Erik Van Looy also directed famous Belgian films. VOTE FOR ANDY | Director Dean Israelite also directed short films. FOR BEST ACTOR | And I guess Black or White will win this point as well. PLEASE! |
So out of a maximum of 7 points per movie, Black or White scores 3 and 5/6 points, The Loft scores 1 and 5/6 points, and Project Almanac scores 1 and 1/3 points.
You may interpret this column for your own movie preferences. For example, if you’re like me and actually found Project Almanac the most interesting, feel free to watch that. 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, Black or White is the best movie to watch this weekend.
Conclusion 2: Each week I give a gold star to the movie with the best tagline. Gold stars all around to all three taglines. Black or White’s “There’s more to family than what you see,” The Loft’s “The right place to do wrong,” and Project Almanac’s “Today is better the second time around.”
Conclusion 3: Cough. Andy Serkis. Cough. Best Actor. Cough Cough. Calvin Awards. Cough.