Three new films release this weekend, two go wide, one releases in limited engagements. The weekend dominator will be the third film in the Twilight Saga as it’s been called (so people don’t mistake the title for some other film). Its only competition is M. Night Shyamalan’s latest, an adaptation of the popular anime series Avatar (title not used for obvious reasons), so they use the Avatar subtitle: The Last Airbender. Love Ranch is the limited release.
Consensus
We agree 100% on the following: Twilight: Eclipse: The only film we could agree on: that we won’t be watching it and that it’s not an Oscar contender.
I’m not really a fan of M. Night Shyamalan. The last films of his I saw turned me off his questionable “talent”. However, this is the only real alternative to Twilight for me and my friends, so we’ll probably see it. The visual effects at least don’t look too bad.
Thoughts
I’ve been too disappointed by Shyamalan’s films in the past to waste any more time on him unless the reviews approach those of The Sixth Sense, his only really good film.
Thoughts
For some reason, I keep giving Shyamalan the benefit of the doubt, so I may pop this in down the road someday.
Thoughts
Ordinarily, I would say that I wouldn’t watch a movie based on a Nickelodeon Saturday morning cartoon, but the ads for this have been intriguing and it looks pretty epic. Ultimately, it depends on what kind of reviews the movie receives.
Can you really go wrong with Helen Mirren? Probably not. The film looks interesting enough, but what it’s doing releasing over the July 4 weekend is a mystery to me and gives me the distinct impression that it might not be good.
Thoughts
Looks like another strong performance from Helen Mirren but I’ll wait for reviews to determine if this is something I want to go out of my way to see or wait for the DVD.
Thoughts
Two great actors and a fun premise.
Thoughts
While I like Helen Mirren and have missed Joe Pesci’s presence over the years, this just looks painfully bad.
5 responses to “Looking at the Weekend #14: July 2-4, 2010”
Peter J Patrick
Per Roger Ebert:
“The Last Airbender” is an agonizing experience in every category I can think of and others still waiting to be invented. The laws of chance suggest that something should have gone right. Not here. It puts a nail in the coffin of low-rent 3D, but it will need a lot more coffins than that.
Not that he was any kinder to Love Ranch:
Judging by its fictional portrait in “Love Ranch,” the Mustang Ranch outside Reno, Nev., must have been a bordello that one would pay to get out of. What a dreary, godforsaken place it is, a few double-wides surrounded by barbed wire and spotlights, filled with unhappy hookers and wretched johns, and presided over by a cheerless madam and her goombah husband.
Well, if it’s Last Airbender of Eclipse, I’m going to Last Airbender…if only for the effects. I couldn’t give a crap less about the film itself…I mean, from the trailer the performances look pathetic, so I’m not expecting anything good.
I would like to retract my Undecided for “The Last Airbender.” The movie has a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, with all critics (so far) declaring it one of the worst movies ever made.
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