We could have a record-breaking Thanksgiving on our hands. Not only is Breaking Dawn, Part 2 bound to hold over well, all three of the week’s new releases have the potential of blockbuster openings. The most likely recipient of high attendance is Rise of the Guardians. Family films should do very well on a holiday that sees families coming together. Red Dawn is likely to be the weakest entry, but after the less-than-expected debut of Breaking Dawn, Part 2, young adult and teen audiences may be compelled to check out a different film over the weekend. Life of Pi is the biggest question mark. The film has had a stellar preview, but will enough audiences know what the film’s about or care enough to check it out. This could be like last year’s Hugo, a mediocre debut and a satisfying, if unexceptional run at the box office. It could also be a huge hit.
Individual Commentaries
Wesley Lovell: The Thanksgiving weekend is always fairly packed, but this year seems especially strong in terms of potential Oscar contenders. It was also fairly hard to pick just two films as a personal choice. Peter J. Patrick: Looks like a busy week for Oscar watchers with Ang Lee’s highly anticipated Life of Pi opening wide and both the fun sounding Hitchcock and more austere Rust and Bone opening in limited runs. Tripp Burton: Thanksgiving weekend is always home to some of the non-prestige Holiday films, but this year in addition to Red Dawn and Rise of the Guardians we also get the highly-anticipated, awards-baity Life of Pi. I think the limited releases look much more interesting.
S: Support (Writing, Music, Editing, Cinematography)
C: Creative (Production Design, Costumes, Makeup)
T: Tech (Sound, Visual Effects)
A: Animated Feature
D: Documentary Feature
F: Foreign LanguageFilm
All ratings are on a scale of 0 to 10 (with 0 being no interest / no recommendation, and 10 being absolute interest / recommendation).
The Avoid rating follows the same 0 to 10 format with 10 being the highest recommendation that you avoid the film at all costs.
Each Person selects a “Pick of the Week,” some weeks may have more than one, some may have none at all. This is the movie(s) among all releases that each would recommend above all others.
Leave a Reply