Weekend Outlook: Santa's Coming To Town With Lions and Old Men

By Katey Rich

After last weekend buoyed the fall season with the first really successful box office run since Labor Day, can it be replicated? There's nothing on remotely the same mammoth scale as Bee Movie, and nothing opening as wide with the same critical success as American Gangster. Still, a handful of solid contenders are coming out to play, and American Gangster and Bee Movie will likely continue their successful runs this time around. And it's been three weeks since the last wide-release horror movie, which obviously means it's time for another, though this one seems to have come completely out of nowhere. All in all the weekend looks a little mediocre, save a few limited-release gems. But don't be surprised if the box office suggests otherwise.

FRED CLAUS. The first Christmas-themed release of the season (occupying the same release slot that Elf did in 2003) stars Vince Vaughn as Santa's slacker older brother, making a living as a repo man in Chicago while saintly Nick (Paul Giamatti) works up in the North Pole. When Fred finds himself in dire financial straits, Nick brings him to the North Pole to earn some cash in the workshop. At the same time an efficiency expert (Kevin Spacey) shows up threatening to shut the whole place down if the elves don't work on improving the bottom line. Hijinks ensue, brotherly bonding occurs, Christmas is threatened but, yes, eventually saved. Miranda Richardson also stars as Mrs. Claus, with Rachel Weisz as Fred's girlfriend Wanda, Elizabeth Banks as Santa's sexy helper, and John Michael Higgins as a romantically frustrated elf.

I never thought Christmas could come too early, but Fred Claus seems to have made grinches out of a lot of us. "Like getting that Christmas toy that looked so exciting in the commercials but then really wasn't fun after you unwrapped it and started playing with it," wrote our always-hilarious Frank Lovece. I pretty much agreed in a review I wrote for CinemaBlend.com: "If there were a way to fall for Fred Claus, I would have found it." (I'm a sucker for Christmas movies, OK?) Lisa Schwarzbaum at Entertainment Weekly is wonderfully pithy in her C-graded review (and a woman after my own heart): "Doled out with little confidence about what adults want from a jingle-bell comedy (we want Elf!), and even less about what engages a kid (they want Elf!)" Kirk Honeycutt at The Hollywood Reporter aptly points out that the movie is waaay too long (115 minutes!) and even calls the whole thing "misanthropic." Not exactly what anyone has in mind to get them in the Christmas spirit.

LIONS FOR LAMBS. The first film released by United Artists since Tom Cruise took over the studio, Lions for Lambs is director Robert Redford's first film in seven years, since the critically-lambasted The Legend of Bagger Vance. Redford is tackling politics here, using three interconnected stories to examine the Iraq War. Meryl Streep plays a veteran journalist interviewing a cocky, pro-war senator (Tom Cruise), Derek Luke and Michael Pea are soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan, and out in California, a college professor (Redford) holds court with a student (Andrew Garfield) in a discussion about the war. Redford is a notorious Hollywood leftie, so you can pretty much guess where the political sympathies here lie.

Believe it or not, Lions for Lambs has an even lower Rotten Tomatoes rating than Fred Claus does, 30% compared to Fred's 37%. "Never takes a genuine stand for or against anything, except to fall back on the same platitudes politicians spout," writes our Daniel Eagan, a particular "ouch" considering the film's tagline: "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything." Anthony Lane, in classic New Yorker form, manages to work two highbrow references into a single sentence: "Sadly, unless you are Jean-Luc Godard, the sight of your characters discussing the political ethics of their own actions is unlikely to ravish the eye, and Lions for Lambs is most charitably described as Ibsen with helicopters." Call me crazy, but doesn't "Ibsen with helicopters" sound a lot cooler than Lane means it to be?

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. Opening on only 23 screens this weekend, and expanding out later this month, No Country is still easily the most talked-about release of the week. The latest from Joel and Ethan Coen is an adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name, a grim crime thriller set in desolate West Texas. Llewellyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is an ordinary man who comes across a briefcase packed with cash at a crime scene, and makes off with it. Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) is a soulless hit man on Moss' every move, and Sheriff Ed Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) tries to take Moss under legal protection while shaking his head at the sinister doings. Woody Harrellson also appears on Moss' tail, and Kelly MacDonald plays Moss' wife, who goes into hiding whem Moss goes on the run. 

The remarkable thing about No Country is not who's praising it but who's not. Nearly all the major critics have spoken since the film screened at the New York Film Festival last month, and the general consensus is "Wow." Sasha Stone at AwardsDaily.com made a great point the other day about the reviews coming forward for this one: "It is inspiring some of the freshest, [most] beautifully written reviews I've seen from critics in a good, long while. It takes a special film to bring it out.  When you have to write about  so many films all year long, it takes a good one to lift them out of their groove." A.O. Scott's review in the New York Times epitomizes that great writing (it's really worth it to read the whole thing, but here's an excerpt): "No Country for Old Men leaves behind the jangled, stunned sensation of having witnessed a ruthless application of craft." Rex Reed quibbles with the ending before issuing the rave, "Without question, the best movie ever made by the eccentric Coen brothers [...] Yes, I guess I have to admit it's a masterpiece." Our Lewis Beale had a few qualms of his own but nothing but praise for Bardem: "The performance is so malevolently fine-tuned that one sequence in particular [...]  seems destined to join Robert De Niro's "You talkin' to me?" scene in the creepazoid hall of fame." Peter Travers at Rolling Stone has nothing but unreserved praise: "An indisputably great movie, at this point the year's very best." Andrew Sarris at the New Y ork Observer is a notable exception to the praise (Anthony Lane being the other); Sarris readily admits that he's in the minority, but still likens No Country to "a quick in-and-out visit to hell."

I wrote about No Country a while back during the New York Film Festival and also showered it with praise, but the more I think about it, the more it might be my favorite film of the year. The much-discussed ending, which is definitely unlike any other cat-and-mouse thriller, doesn't detract at all from the spectacular tension that's built up before it. And Javier Bardem's performance simply remains one of the best I've ever seen, unrelentingly chilling and malicious, mesmerizing throughout. I've been captivated by the discussion of No Country's Oscar chances, and while I believe that the film's violence may repel some viewers, this deserves to finally be the Coens' chance for the big prize.

P2. This is a movie that wasn't remotely on my radar until literally a week ago, but it now seems to be contending for the audience that's already seen Saw IV and is ready for the next horror challenge. It's a simple story about a woman (Rachel Nichols) leaving her office late on Christmas Eve who is stalked and threatened by a parking attendant (Wes Bentley). Pretty straightforward stuff, but hey, aren't the best horror movies the simplest?

Unfortunately it doesn't seem P2 quite reaches those lofty horror ranks. Critics seem a little split on whether this one is dumb and fun or just dumb, but most settle on the latter. Kirk Honeycutt at the The Hollywood Reporter takes issue with the parking garage setting: "In this dull and static setting, they struggle to introduce action and novelty." The Chicago Tribune calls it misogynistic, and adds "Mostly we just want the whole thing to end." Elsewhere in Chicago, though, Roger Ebert credits P2 as part of an outstanding season for movies: "It's such a good season that even the slashers are superior." And Horror.com apparently found exactly what they were looking for: "There's also a welcome touch of black humor, and buckets of blood and guts." Perhaps Andrew Sarris' "quick in-and-out visit to hell" description of No Country would be more apt here?