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The Day the Earth Stood Still – Opens December 12th

Keanu Reeves will get back into his sci-fi groove with the December release of The Day the Earth Stood Still, itself a remake of the 1951 cult classic. In it, Reeves will be Klaatu, a humanoid alien who warns leaders on Earth that they must end their violent conflicts with one another or face destructive consequences. Even though Reeves appears a bit silly in the make-shift interrogation room, answering questions with that familiar, monotone voice we have definitely heard from him before – only this time he is appropriately acting alien, because he should – the rest of the trailer, including co-star Jennifer Connolly of course, is particularly appetizing. Highlights include a gigantic orb growing out of the sea, the destruction of an entire football stadium and a city skyline fading to black – all connected through blaring (yet catchy) rock music.

On a side note, the box office battle between this and the adaptation of literary vampire hit, Twilight, should make for an interesting mid-December weekend for number crunchers, much like David and company here at BOP. The Day the Earth Stood Still was originally scheduled to be released this summer, but production delays pushed it back to its present date.

Grade: A-
Also expected to be released on this date: Twilight, Seven Pounds, The Reader, Defiance, The Kings of Appletown

Hotel for Dogs – Opens TBA

Is it just me, or does Hotel for Dogs' score, heard here at the trailer's onset, sound eerily similar to the one used in all of the Harry Potter adaptations? Well anyway, comparisons between both films end there as Hotel for Dogs' plot is revealed to be a little less...fantastic. In the Nickelodeon comedy, Emma Roberts (Julia's niece), Jake T. Austin and others star as a group of youngsters who (secretly) care for a number of stray dogs in an abandoned building. The kids are inventive enough, finding unique ways to feed mass quantities of food to their adopted pooches and elaborately getting rid of their waste (they've for sure given new meaning to the term "doggy bag"). They're even cunning enough to outsmart the adults (Lisa Kudrow and Don Cheadle), i.e. the demographic always thwarting the harmless fun of younger humans in any given kiddie film. I'm not exactly targeted by the movie execs to enjoy this feature, but tweens will certainly eat it up.

Grade: C-

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