Here to take a look at the films coming out in wide and limited release this coming weekend. I’ll give you my thoughts to help you decide what’s worth checking out.
- Heaven is for Real (on 04.16.14) – I can hardly believe that this is actually a real movie, let alone that I even watched the trailer. They play it up almost like a mysterious tale about a kid communicating with ghosts, but then it really just slips into the super sweet sentimentality that you’d imagine based off of this title. It really just seems like pandering to the specific demo it’s going after, so I’m sure it’s hitting some right notes there but otherwise, it looks pretty stupid.
- Transcendence – This directorial debut of Wally Pfister (long time cinematographer for Christopher Nolan) has an interesting premise for sure. After being shot and entering a coma, an artificial intelligence researcher has his conscience downloaded into a computer system by his wife in an attempt to preserve him. Of course, this leads to issues when his conscience takes advantage of his potential. While the premise is interesting, I’m not positive it’s going to be a winner. I could easily see it falling apart or at least not living up to its potential. If nothing else it should have the high quality look that we’ve come to know from Pfister’s work and the cast has enough interesting players to make for a decent ensemble.
- Bears – Every so often one of these nature docs come to theaters. They always look quite majestic and capture the beauty of nature. I also never actually watch them. While the bear cubs frolicking in the snow look pretty adorable, I can’t imagine watching this movie when there’s so much out to watch. I’m sure it would be nice to watch something real (assuming Disney didn’t just prod these bears into submission) but it’s just not going to make my to watch list. This is narrated by John C. Reilly though which is pretty cool.
- A Haunted House 2 – Shaking my damn head. The only good thing to say about this movie is that the trailer is a merciful 1 minute and 12 seconds. I don’t think I could watch much more of this. I just rewatched Requiem for a Dream, and although Marlon Wayans’ character is the most underdeveloped he is quite good in the part. Can’t he do something more like that (or at least a decent comedy)?
- Fading Gigolo – This comedy is about a middle aged man played by John Turturro (who also wrote and directed) who is wrangled into becoming a prostitute by his friend Murray (Woody Allen). It kind of looks like this could easily be a Woody Allen movie if the style and writing was more to his taste. Because he’s in it I can’t help but bring that to mind and it becomes a knock to it. As it is, I’m not really sure what this movie is trying to achieve beyond Turturro sleeping with Sharon Stone and Sofía Vergara. He seems to fall for one of his clients, and maybe this could be a nice representation of middle aged people falling in love but the trailer just seems a bit lost. I’d be willing to give it a shot to see if the movie holds up better than it’s leading on.
See where it’s playing in theaters here.
