Only three new releases to report this week. One is a guaranteed blockbuster, one is counter programming for the young teen girl audience, and one is a re-release of a British comedy from the 1970's.
I, Robot. First up is the latest Will Smith action vehicle. This has me worried, I am a big fan of the work of Isaac Asimov, and this film does not seem to be in line with Asimov's stories, outside of the three laws. When I see Asimov, I don't think summer blockbuster. What gave me a small glimmer of hope for the project is the director, Alex Proyas. He has directed The Crow (my personal favorite film) and Dark City (Roger Ebert's pick for best film of 1998)., a couple of excellent films. Hopefully he can reign in the "blockbuster" mentality and deliver a story better than what I am glimpsing in the commercials. I did learn that this movie was based on a pre-existing script called Hardwired, that, after getting the rights to the Asimov story it was rewritten to include Asimovisms from his story, I guess so the could use the title. I'm a little disappointed that Asimov would be exploited like this, since I had read that an excellent script had been written by Asimov in the 70's. Anyway, I hope to like this, but I'm not holding my breath.
A Cinderella Story. Next we get a modern day set re-telling of the Cinderella story, this time starring Hilary Duff. I am clearly not in their target audience, and I haven't been paying terribly close attention to the marketing, but what I have seen didn't look too good. It hasn't gotten much good early notice, but I hope it does well.
Monty Python's The Life of Brian. The local arthouse will be screening this movie this week. It is being re-released to theaters as a direct result of the popularity of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. This is a very funny movie about Brian, the boy born in the next manger over from Jesus, and because of this proximity, he is always being mistaken for the Messiah. This, of course, leads to much hilarity. The Python troupe strikes again, after delivering arguably one of the funniest films of all time with Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Hopefully I'll get to catch this on the big screen this week.
Anyway, that is all for the new releases this week. Until next week!
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