This Weekend, Watch This
A comparison for the new releases for November 9-11, 2012
By David. Curt David.
November 9, 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, Lord of the Rings, Lord of the Flies, and Lords of Dogtown 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 (My alphabetical actress crush list... R is for Rachel Nichols).
More likely than not, each weekend there is a movie that you have never heard of in 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 November 9th, the only new movie in wide release is Skyfall. Since I can’t compare the movie to any other movie, I’ll give you an interesting Bond fact in each row.
| Skyfall | Interesting Bond Fact |
| Clearest Title | Title isn’t clear, but marketing makes it clear it’s a James Bond film. | Ian Fleming created the character James Bond, and named the character after the American bird expert James Bond. |
Best Genre
and Rating | Action
Rated PG-13 for intense violent sequences throughout, some sexuality, language, and smoking. | 15 of the 23 official James Bond films have been rated PG, and every one since 1989 has been rated PG-13. |
Cleverest Tagline
(out of 5 stars) | 007
3/5 - Not sure if this is a tagline, but each poster has those numbers in the shape of a gun, clever enough. | Some of the better taglines from other Bond films, “Nobody Does It Better,” “You Know The Name. You Know The Number,” “No Limits. No Fears. No Substitutes,” and “His Bad Side is a Dangerous Place to Be.” |
| Best Part of Trailer | Seems like a perfect James Bond movie. | Well-reviewed franchise. Only six of the 23 James Bond films failed to get certified fresh by Rotten Tomatoes. |
| Coolest Lead Actor | Daniel Craig from Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, and Layer Cake. | Coolest lead actor in the franchise? Sean Connery. Bring on the hate mail, I’m sticking to this opinion. |
| Best Cast | Judi Dench (Shakespeare in Love), Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men), and Ralph Fiennes (Harry Potter) | You may already know this, but Jane Seymour, Christopher Walken, Benicio del Toro, Sean Bean, Halle Berry, Teri Hatcher, and Judi Dench have all been main characters in Bond films. |
Best Street Cred
For the Production | Director Sam Mendes has also directed American Beauty, Road to Perdition, and Jarhead. | I didn’t know what to write here, so I googled searched “James Bond street cred,” and found an article titled, “Judi Dench is a Dame with Street Cred.” I can’t argue with that. |
So out of a maximum of 7 points per movie, Skyfall wins all 7 points.
You may interpret this column for your own movie preferences. For example, if you want to see an animated movie instead, feel free to watch last week’s Wreck-It Ralph. 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, Skyfall is the best movie to watch this weekend.
Conclusion 2: Did you know there were actually 25 James Bond films!?, but the 1967 film Casino Royale and the 1983 film Never Say Never Again don’t count as “official” James Bond films, because they weren’t produced by Eon Productions (but due to some James Bond film rights, they were allowed to be made).
Conclusion 3: Judi Dench is a dame with street cred.
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