There are four new wide releases this weekend, none of which are going to make any money, and the summer is going to get sadder and sadder for the people in Hollywood whose jobs depend on making people go to the movies.
“Get Him to the Greek” is a fairly solid R-rated comedy from the director of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” focusing on the hedonistic rock star character from that movie. It’s a spin-off! Like on TV! It’s OK, not great.
“Splice,” which played at Sundance, is a squirmy, giddy, insane suspense-horror-dark-comedy thingee in which Adrian Brody and Sarah Polley are scientists who make a creature. Terrible things ensue. Most of the reviews have been positive, but those who don’t like it really, really don’t like it.
And hey, two of Hollywood’s Shameful Secrets®! It’s been a while! “Marmaduke,” based on the comic strip that no one has ever cared about, has Owen Wilson as the voice of the dog, who doesn’t talk in the comic strip, but who cares? “Killers” is about Katherine Heigl finding out her perfect husband, Ashton Kutcher, is a professional hitman who’s now being targeted himself. “Marmaduke” actually screened for press in a few major cities, but “Killers” was kept under lock and key until today. Review to come. In the meantime, at Film.com, I imagined an R-rated “Marmaduke” and speculated on the pitch meeting for “Killers.”
For “Eric’s Bad Movies” at Film.com, I hit “The Island of Dr. Moreau,” which is alarmingly similar in theme to “Splice,” although “Splice,” sadly, does not contain an obese Marlon Brando being followed by a tiny doppelgänger.
“What’s the Big Deal?” focused on “12 Angry Men,” from 1957. In the process of writing that column, I got to wondering how many directors have been nominated for Best Director Oscars for their first films, like Sidney Lumet was for “12 Angry Men.” So I compiled a list and wrote it up at Cinematical. Trivia is fun!
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