March 27th’s New Releases

Alright here is a quick rundown of what is coming out this week.

Monsters Vs Aliens

Easily the biggest release this week. In Monsters Vs Aliens it turns out the government has been collecting monsters over the years and keeping them at a secret compound. When the planet is attacked by a group of aliens it is up to the captured monsters to make a task force to take them down. It looks to be a fun little romp that takes a lot from the serialized monster and alien movies of the 50s. Voiced by an all-star cast such as Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Rainn Wilson, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Colbert (as the President!), Kiefer Sutherland, Will Arnett, Amy Poheler, Paul Rudd, Renee Zellweger, and John Krasinksi. Wow, that’s a huge amount of star power.

It looks like this one is going to be worth it. 3d graphics, a great trailer (with a featured Superbowl spot), a brilliant cast, and what appears to be just general overall fun. This should be a big weekend draw, probably coming in at over the $50 million dollar mark. It has a broad appeal and it is a movie that looks to take advantage of the digital 3d tech very well.  There is no doubt this movie will be the number one movie of the weekend.

12 Rounds

There is a game that I played when The Marine trailer came out, where Kevin and I counted the number of times Jon Cena jumps out of flames. According to the trailer it appeared pretty much the whole movie was him jumping out of something that was exploding. I never saw the movie, but 12 Rounds looks to be cut from the same cloth. In the trailer I saw before Miss March last week Kevin and I counted the number of explosions and the times he was jumping out of them. We will just say it’s a bit obscene.

12 Rounds follows one Detective Danny Fisher who’s girlfriend has been kidnapped by someone from his past. He has to go through 12 challenges to save her.  Think Saw but with less horror and more  wrestlers jumping out of explosions and you have the gist. As you can probably see, I’m a very biased person, but this movie looks kind of stupid to me. Maybe I’m judging a book by it’s cover, but I can’t see Jon Cena going the route of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. He just lacks the charisma that Johnson has. It will be interesting to see how this one plays out over the week.  The Marine only made about $7 Million in theaters it’s first weekend. I don’t see this one doing too much better. I’ll be nice and say $10 Million for the weekend.

The Haunting in Connecticut

I think I’ve made it clear to many people that I’m tired of the slew of horror films that have been coming out lately. I’m not completely opposed to the genre. I’m just tired of its own tired machinations. Here we have another Amityville clone.  A family moves to a Victorian style New England home only to learn of it’s unsettling history and it’s scary nature…stop me when you’ve heard this before.  The reviews of this one seem to be pretty unanimous, it’s a very cliched but good for a decent scare at times. Which is something I’m hearing way too often from these movies.

If you are a big fan of the standard horror genre this one will probably be right up your alley. If you are tired of the same stuff over and want a little more originality go rent a classic horror film that you know gave something new to the genre.  Expect this one to outdraw 12 Rounds, but still be smashed by Monsters vs Aliens. I’ll estimate a $12 million dollar weekend gross.

P.S. If you want to know what I consider a newer horror film that was good and changed the genre a bit rent, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon.  Some good scares at the end, but overall just a great look at the slasher/horror genre.