Everyone waits until the year is over to compile their “Best of whatever” movie lists. This has become a mundane practice. Time for a bit of a change, kids.
Usually a nostalgic act will get the crowd behind them. We see it all the time in sports; when a once great player – who may have lost a step or two, conjures up the talents that led to their greatness, and puts them on display for at least one more night. Well, that’s what Adam Sandler tried to do. And let’s just say that perhaps someone may need to quietly walk away from the court (on-screen) and learn how to work from the sidelines (writing & producing). Now, the team behind Rock of Ages…feel free to stay as long as you can keep it up.
The new releases for the respective week will have a capsule review at the end of the column. An updated list comes out every Monday. Here’s how things are shaking up so far in 2012:
1. Chronicle
2. The Cabin in the Woods
3. The Avengers
4. Red Tails
5. The Grey
6. Game Change
7. The Secret World of Arrietty
8. Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax
9. Friends with Kids
10. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
11. The Raid: Redemption
12. Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds
13. Big Miracle
14. Think Like a Man
15. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted
16. Brake
17. Rock of Ages
18. Mirror Mirror
19. 21 Jump Street
20. Snow White and the Huntsman
21. This Means War
22. God Bless America
23. The Three Stooges
24. Gone
25. Blue Like Jazz
26. American Reunion
27. Jeff, Who Lives at Home
28. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
29. Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best
30. Prometheus
31. Hysteria
32. The Dictator
33. Safe
34. Searching for Sonny
35. The Hunger Games
36. John Carter
37. Wrath of the Titans
38. Dead Dad
39. Underworld: Awakening
40. The Devil Inside
41. The Five-Year Engagement
42. Downtown Express
43. Sound of My Voice
44. Project X
45. Men in Black 3
46. Piranha 3DD
47. Dark Shadows
48. The Raven
49. Silent House
50. That’s My Boy
51. Darling Companion
52. Bully
53. What to Expect When You’re Expecting
54. Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding
55. Lockout
56. The Woman in Black
57. The Vow
58. Man on a Ledge
59. The Lucky One
60. Contraband
61. The Samaritan
62. Act of Valor
63. 4:44 Last Day on Earth
64. Safe House
65. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
66. The Pirates! Band of Misfits
67. Kill List
68. Chernobyl Diaries
69. Haywire
70. A Thousand Words
71. Joyful Noise
72. Battleship
73. Wanderlust
Not Screened: One for the Money, Casa De Mi Padre, Chimpanzee, Moonrise Kingdom, High School
It’s overly clichéd and that’s why it’s, at times, brilliant and amusing. The seamless mash-up of songs (Extreme’s “More Than Words” fuses perfectly with Warrant’s “Heaven”) really project out an energy that will not only please the generation that lived and died on every lyric, but will easily attract the ones that followed (Generation Mess haha). Yeah the storytelling is pieced together similar to a stoned-out 1982 Aerosmith album, yet the performers’ stage presence is just so damn charismatic that you get lost in the scene. Credit some of that to the solid cinematography and choreography on the steady stream of musical numbers. And realize this, the filmmakers are not trying to create something profound here; they just want to construct an entertaining scene based off the clichés from that decade.
So much time is put into the casting of an Adam Sandler flick. And that rings true for the latest cameo-laced Happy Madison production, That’s My Boy. Too bad not enough thought was put into the script. Aside from Sandler calling upon one of his many amusing voices from his ‘90s comedy albums, this just seems underwritten and uninspired. Actually, it also feels kind of late to the raunchy party as well. Put it this way: there’s low-brow juvenile comedy; and then there’s creative low-brow juvenile comedy. Sadly, this is representing the latter part of that statement.
Releasing this week: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Brave, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
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