It’s time to look at upcoming movies, because there sure isn’t much to get excited about at the multiplexes this week. Focus is a fizzle of a con film, and The Lazarus Effect is the umpteenth revisiting of a dopey something-else-came-back-from-the-dead plot. Also, Donald Glover gets killed off really early. SPOILER!
Fifty Shades of Grey might own the weekend again, even as the audience drops off dramatically. The good news is that we’ve got plenty of new films coming in–although we’re not too proud of our favorite trailer that we saw this week…
Superfast!
The idiots who gave you the useless parodies of Meet the Spartans and The Starving Games are back–but we laughed at least five times during this trailer, which is more than we laughed during all of Meet the Spartans and The Starving Games. The giant taco above was one of those moments, though, so you might question our enthusiasm for the idea of parodying the Fast/Furious movies. At least we can take comfort in knowing this is a cast of unknowns, so most actors know to run from these things…
Insurgent
Maybe it’s really called Insurgent: Divergent, or Divergent: Insurgent, or Insurgent: One of Those Divergent Movies. We’re not sure, but here’s the final trailer, and they’re just giving up and selling it as a superhero movie. …
Nightlight
Here’s an upcoming R-rated horror movie from Lionsgate, and we didn’t really think we’d ever get excited over another handheld shakeycam movie, but this one looks pretty promising. We’d go see this tale of misadventuring teens in a multiplex. Also, bonus points for making the typography bounce around, too. That was disconcerting…
While We’re Young
It wasn’t that long ago that Ben Stiller was still young enough to be pursuing his dreams in Walter Mitty. Now he’s doing another somber indie turn where he’s an aging documentary filmmaker who’s feeling old because of young rival Adam Driver. We’re still a little confused, because the younger characters act more like the New Age types in NYC who are all safely into their sixties–and still into the ’60s…
Love & Mercy
And speaking of the ’60s, here’s something for the music geeks out there who know that the Beach Boys were just as important (and spectacularly screwed up) as The Beatles and The Stones during that turbulent decade. Paul Dano looks really amazing as the emotionally-addled Brian Wilson, who went nicely nuts while leading the Beach Boys through an era of lovable pop hits. This movie looks at his mental breakdown, and tries to give us a breakdown by replacing Dano with John Cusack to play an older Brian later in the movie. We’re not sure that’s working…
