'Pelham' hopes to take 1, 2, or 3

By Sarah Sluis

With so many good films piling up in theatres, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (3,074 theatres) and Imagine That (3,008 theatres) may have a tough time making waves at the box office. While Pelham has a shot at number one, prognosticators estimate the film will pull in roughly $20 million--the same amount The Hangover and Up should settle at. Reviews for the film have been middling, as it requires some suspension of disbelief to get on board with the characters and plot. The New York Times' A.O. Scott enjoyed watching Denzel Washington and John Travolta "barreling through every clich and nugget of corn the script has to offer with verve and conviction. Even when you don't really believe them, they're always a lot of fun to watch," while Michael Rechtshaffen found "the sleek new edition isn't as transporting as it should have been." Pelham's no runaway train, but it just can't quite pull everything off.

Imagine That has received barely a blip in marketing, usually a sign that the studio has little faith in the film, but our reviewer Kirk Honeycutt found the banter between Eddie Murphy and child actor Yara Shahidi top-notch. He commends the director, Karey Kirkpatrick, for "[knowing] how to entertain children while amusing adults," and "[using] Murphy much better than many past directors, not letting him run away with the film, but forcing him to work with the story and his character." For some reason, Variety pegs the potential audience as moms and girls (which might explain why marketers abandoned it), but it seems like the kind of film a whole family would enjoy. That is, unless watching Eddie Murphy being chastised for being an absentee father is a bit too squirm-inducing for most dads.

On the specialty front, festival favorite Moon, directed by David Bowie's son Duncan Jones, opens in New York and L.A. "[A] meditation on the conflict between the streamlining tendencies of technological progress and the stubborn persistence of feelings and desires that can't be tamed by utilitarian imperatives," as summarized by A.O. Scott," the film has been commended by critics for its minimalism, which they also view as something of a fault. "There may simply have been too little in Parker's script to play with beyond a couple of plot twists," FJI's Chris Barsanti noted.

Also opening in New York and L.A., Food, Inc. provides a rundown of the organic, local, anti-agribusiness movement. I blogged about the documentary last week, and recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more, or become more fervently devoted to, the food movement.

On Monday, I'll recap to see if Pelham will be able to debut above holdovers The Hangover and Up, and if Imagine That will manage to exceed the modest expectations set by Paramount.