By Sarah Sluis
Following two weeks of horror movies tailored to fright-seeking audiences, three diverse films enter the pack, setting the stage for the busy end-of-year season at the box office.
DreamWorks Animation releases its third animated film of the year, Megamind, to 3,954 theatres, including almost two hundred IMAX locations. "There's something for everyone in this redemption tale, romantic comedy and affectionate tribute to pop-cultural tropes," critic Frank Lovece enthused. The family comedy's broad appeal should lead to an opening weekend of around $50 million, more than the studio's How to Train Your Dragon but less than Shrek Forever After.
Audiences looking to repeat the laughs of The Hangover may end up with just a headache when they catch Due Date (3,355 theatres), the Zach Galifianakis/Robert Downey Jr. road trip comedy directed by The Hangover's Todd Phillips. "Due Date, with its bickering, abrasive cross-country travelers, runs out of gas well before the blessed event finally arrives," critic Kevin Lally complains, noting that the "so-called comic situations are more vicious and unpleasant than funny." Despite the tepid reviews, the comedy's connections to The Hangover should entice viewers, giving it an opening in the neighborhood of $30 million.
Tyler Perry fans will see the director take on a more serious tone in For Colored Girls (2,127 theatres), an adaptation of a 1970s black feminist play. According to critic David Noh, Perry "turned the play into the weepiest, Oprah-ready soap-fest imaginable," and his "tin ear for dialogue" only makes the "overwrought" moments worse. An ensemble cast of black women, including Janet Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg and Thandie Newton, should draw audiences, as will Perry's name, but any Oscar hopes for this film appear to be slim.
The true-life story of Valerie Plame Wilson, whose identity as a spy was revealed in a game of political hardball, is revealed in Fair Game (46 theatres). Naomi Watts pays Plame, and Sean Penn her husband. According to critic Daniel Eagan, the drama "faces an uphill battle at the box office," and once it gets into the fallout of the incident, "the filmmakers don't give viewers much of a chance to make up their own minds about what happened."
The prolific documentarian Alex Gibney strikes again with Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer (2 theatres), which Eagan dubbed "a must for political junkies." Releasing only in New York, the profile of the state's former governor should drum up heavy business.
The Australian Western Red Hill stars Ryan Kwanten ("True Blood") and will make its debut in 5 theatres. "Strong performances and taut direction," according to critic Maitland McDonagh, make the movie "never less than watchable," and offers audiences "the appeal of familiar genre conventions with a twist.
Word on the street is that Academy voters seeing screenings of 127 Hours have fainted�a claim that brings to mind the horror movies of yesteryear. Opening in 4 theatres, James Franco stars in a "virtual one-man show," according to Lally, playing real-life hiker Aron Ralston, an adventurous outdoorsman who survived being trapped under a rock by cutting off his own arm. Director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) turns "a most unpleasant predicament into a brisk, visually exciting and�dare we say it?�entertaining movie experience."
This week's films represent the next couple of months to come�plenty of crowd-pleasing material along with awards-seeking films.
Next week, look for coverage of the Amazon Film Festival, as I report from Manaus, Brazil.
