Box Office Outlook: Not Just for Pros Anymore

By Katey Rich

Well, it's almost spring, which means it's time for another Will Ferrell sports comedy. And the Oscars are over, which means it's once again OK to release respectable material, especially if that respectable material is just a wee bit too cheesy for anyone to mention come the end of the year. And there you have our weekend outlook, which is considerably less grim than the last one, especially if you love watching Will Ferrell run around like a buffoon or Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson fight over the same guy. Oh, come on, who doesn't love that?

SEMI-PRO. Opening in 3,121 theatres. You've gotta hand it to Will Ferrell-- even when he's starring in what seems like the same sports comedy over and over again, he has some great character names. We've gone from Ricky Bobby and Chazz Michael Michaels to Jackie Moon, the owner of a Michigan semi-pro basketball team that's about to be absorbed, and disbanded, by the NBA. To save his team Moon decides they must win that year's chamionship, and brings in a wizened veteran (Woody Harrelson) to shape up the team, which includes one legitimate star (Andre Benjamin). A slew of supporting players also stop by, including Tim Meadows, Wil Arnett, David Koechner and Rob Corddry.

For the most part, no one is particularly happy to see Ferrell return to the sports arena. "Semi-Pro is a comedy divided against itself," writes our Ethan Alter, complaining about the discrepancy between Ferrell's outsized character and the other actors on screen. The Washington Post is disappointed with Ferrell himself, calling his performance "halfhearted, disconcertingly crude and only occasionally amusing." And the Chicago Tribune calls director Kent Alterman to task, writing, "Alterman has no knack for setting up a visual gag, setting a tone, establishing any sort of rhythm." The Village Voice concedes that the movie is "semi-funny" but also credits the cast: "the movie's stocked with terrific, fleshed-out characters." But Variety laughed its head off: "By turns riotously silly and casually clever, with the occasional outburst of inspired lunacy."

PENELOPE. Opening in 1,196 theatres.. This long-delayed fantasy stars Christina Ricci as the daughter of a wealthy family who is cursed with a very unusual facial feature-- a pig's nose. The curse, like most fairy-tale curses, can only be lifted when she meets her true love "of her kind." Her blue-blood parents, of course, assume this means another rich boy, so they bring in parades of suitors, all of whom panic when they see Penelope's face. Sick of living her life in captivity, Penelope strikes out on her own, and becomes a worldwide celebrity-- and, naturally, finds true love (with James McAvoy of all people). Reese Witherspoon produced and also stars, along with Catherine O'Hara, Peter Dinklage and Richard E. Grant.

For all its minor charms, Penelope pretty much failed to win over any critics. Our Lewis Beale might have liked it the best of anyone, but he joined many other critics in calling it Tim Burton-lite. "All of this is told in a magical, fairy-tale style with just the right leavening of humor...it's just that Penelope, for all its good intentions, is a case of too little, too late." Peter Travers at Rolling Stone is far more terse: "Penelope is dead on arrival." Stephen Holden at The New York Times calls it "a muddled, charm-free fairy tale," while the Minneapolis Star-Tribune scoffs, "This little piggy should have stayed home."

THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL. Opening in 1,166 theatres. Based on Philippa Gregory's best-selling historical novel, The Other Boleyn Girl tells the famous story of Anne Boleyn and her less-famous sister Mary, both of them mistresses and one of them a wife of England's King Henry VIII. Mary (Scarlett Johansson) becomes the king's lover first and has two of his children, but the more ambitious Anne (Natalie Portman) swoops in and takes the king for her own, with the intention of becoming queen. History buffs will remember that her plan didn't turn out too well for her in the end. Jim Sturgess, Kristin Scott Thomas and David Morrissey also star.

I wasn't crazy about this overblown drama, but most critics were just fine with it. Our David Noh writes, "Peter Morgan, who proved he knows from royalty in his script for The Queen, has fashioned a fast-paced, competent adaptation which Brit TV director Justin Chadwick has lensed with verve." Owen Gleiberman at Entertainment Weekly fell hard for Portman's performance: "There's a bold new authority to the actress' sensuality. She sparkles with deception, daring to flaunt passion as well as ambition." Rex Reed at the New York Observer is enamored with the talented credits in front of and behind the camera, and notes, "The cast works hard, if somewhat erratically." But Carrie Rickey at the Philadelphia Inquirer is a little harsher: "Scenes are milked not for their emotional texture but confrontational pow, which gets exhausting." She also hilariously notes the most important aspect of the film, at least from a feminist standpoint: "Outside of The First Wives Club and porn movies, it's so rare to see plural females on screen that Portman and Johansson may be forgiven for seizing their roles as lapsed vegans might lamb chops."

BONNEVILLE. Opening in 101 theatres. Road trip! In Bonneville, three ladies of a certain age (played by Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates and Joan Allen) hit the road between Idaho and southern California to deliver the ashes of a deceased husband to a wicked stepdaughter (Christine Baranski). Along the way they learn things about themselves, about America, and about every other thing you usually learn about in the road movie.

Most critics couldn't even muster the energy to properly pan this drama. "For Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates and Joan Allen to headline a female buddy movie filled with clichs and stock characters says a lot about the kinds of scripts they're being sent these days," sighs our Lewis Beale. Lisa Schwarzbaum at Entertainment Weekly looks for the expected Thelma & Louise nod, doesn't find it, and credits that as "exactly why the tires are so low on this creaky vehicle." And Aaron Hillis at the Village Voice is willing to call a spade a spade: "Couldn't be more dull-humored or predictably maudlin without just calling itself The Bucket List 2." But Andrew Sarris at The New York Observer throws us all for a loop, with not exactly praise, but not scorn either: "At the very least, Bonneville deserves to be seen as a challenge and a rebuke to our supposedly youth-obsessed age."

CITY OF MEN. Opening in 75 theatres. OK, stay with me now. City of God was a movie, about the slums of Rio de Janeiro. It was so successful it was turned into a TV show, called City of Men, which followed two boys from the film as they grew up. And now the TV show has been turned into a movie of the same name. Fernando Meirelles, who directed City of God and went on to direct English-language The Constant Gardener, is back as a producer here.

The critics are all thrilled to see these two boys back on the screen. Our Kevin Lally credits the performances by the two actors, writing that they "fully deserve their shot at the big screen in the colorful and engaging City of Men movie." Newsday thinks the movie is a little flashy, but concludes that it "somehow wins you over with its steady, underlying flow of intimacy and compassion." Variety favorably compares it to City of God, calling it "a lighter but also more emotionally satisfying take on the lives of favela gangstas." And the Arizona Republic takes comfort in the fact that the film is willing to be optimistic: "The film is heartbreaking as it shows kids making all the wrong choices for all the wrong reasons, yet ultimately hopeful as it dares to portray a less-bleak future for at least some of its characters."