This Weekend, Watch This
A comparison for the new releases for June 8, 2012
By Curt David
June 8, 2012
New movies are released into theaters every weekend. How do you decide which movie to watch? Some people could pick a movie based on the title (Surprisingly, Freaky Friday, Saturday Night Fever, and Any Given Sunday all have different genres). Some people watch trailers (misleading), some people listen to their friends (friends can be idiots), and some people only go to the movies if their Hollywood crush is on the screen (one week until I can see Catherine Zeta-Jones on screen again!).
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 June 8th, the new movies in wide release are Madagascar 3 and Prometheus.
| Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted | Prometheus | WINNER
(1 point per category)
|
| Clearest Title | This is the third Madagascar film. | What is this word? | Madagascar 3 clearly has the clearest title. Point. |
Best Genre
and Rating | Animation:
Rated PG for some mild action | Action/Horror:
Rated R for sci-fi violence including some intense images, and brief language. | Two different genres and ratings. Well done. 1/2 point each. |
Cleverest Tagline
(out of 5 stars) | N/A
0/5 Booo. | “They went looking for our beginning. What they found could be our end.”
4/5 Intriguing. | The sole tagline will get the sole point this round. |
| Best Part of Trailer | I tried not to smile, but I did. I laughed too. | The premise seems simple, but the trailer made it feel suspensefully epic. | I didn’t want to see Prometheus til I saw the trailer. Job well done. Point. |
| Coolest Lead Actor | The voices of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, and Jada Pinkett Smith. | Charlize Theron from Monster, The Italian Job, and Snow White and the Huntsman. | Charlize Theron is a woman of substance. Point. |
| Best Cast | The voices of Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer, Andy Richter, Martin Short, Frances McDormand, and Jessica Chastain. | Noomi Rapace (Sherlock Holmes 2), Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class), and Patrick Wilson (Phantom of the Opera) | The one with live actors will win the point for best cast this round. |
Best Street Cred
For the Production | Writer and Director Eric Darnell has also written and directed the other Madagascar movies. | Director Ridley Scott has also directed Gladiator, American Gangster, Thelma & Louise, and Alien. | Ridley Scott is the man. Point. |
So out of a maximum of 7 points per movie, Prometheus scores 5 and 1/2 points and Madagascar 3 scores 1 and 1/2 points.
You may interpret this column for your own movie preferences. For example, if you liked Madagascar 2, feel free to watch the third one. 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, Prometheus is the best movie to watch this weekend.
Conclusion 2: One day my roommate said he loves Charlize Theron because “she is a woman of substance. She picks diverse roles, like the Italian Job.” I asked, “And what other movies has she been in?” And he said, “I don’t know.” Haha. I agree she’s a woman of substance, and I also argue that my roommate just thinks she’s hot.
Conclusion 3: I made a quiz on boxofficeprophets.com this week! Each week in this column I list movies with similar sounding titles. Do you know which movie each week was released the earliest? Check it out here: My Movie Quiz!
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