With Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Third and Pirates of the Caribbean 3 clogging up most of the screens, it’s hard to believe there’s room for anything else, but here’s what’s new this week in wide release:
- Knocked Up: From Judd Apatow (40-Year-Old Virgin, Freaks and Geeks [TV]). A slacker (Seth Rogan) hooks up with a hottie (Katherine Heigl) one drunken evening and she gets pregnant. Wacky Odd Couple hijinks ensue. This one might actually be pretty funny. At least it’s a rare R-rated comedy so there’s some reason to be hopeful.
- Mr. Brooks: Kevin Costner is Mr. Brooks, businessman, philanthropist, father…serial killer. It sounds like a potentially promising career rebound for Costner until you realize Demi Moore is the detective pursuing him and Dane Cook is crowbarred in as a photographer who gets caught in the middle. Suddenly what looks promising starts to look like a mess.
- Gracie: Apparently in the 1970s, Elisabeth Shue was blazing the trail for young female soccer players in New Jersey. Me? I was blowing up battleship models with firecrackers and setting plastic army men on fire. It’s now 2007 and Elisabeth Shue is in a movie about a girl blazing the trail for female soccer players in New Jersey in the 1970s. Her brother Andrew (the one from Melrose Place who always looked like he was saying “Duh?”) is in it and it’s directed by her husband Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth). My question is: where’s the movie about me blowing shit up and setting it on fire?
In limited release:
- Pierrepoint: The true story of England’s last executioner. Respected and admired for his speed and humanity finishing off the Nuremberg criminals, his popularity takes a turn for the worse when capital punishment begins to lose favor in England.
- Day Watch: Sequel to the Russian supernatural-fantasy-action film Night Watch. What, no Afternoon Watch?
- Crazy Love: Man meets girl. Man stalks girl. Girl is blinded when man hires 3 men who throw lye in her face. Man does 14 years in prison. When man is released, man marries girl. A documentary. Crazy.
Opened last week in NY, this week in LA:
- The Golden Door: Italian film about a Sicilian family struggling to get a foothold in New York in 1913.
- Paprika: Latest from animator Satoshi Kon (Tokyo Godfather, Millennium Actress) about a psychiatrist who develops a machine that allows her to enter her patient’s dreams.
Living in Cinema 
I’m seeing Knocked Up. Apatow is responsible for and or involved with some of the best TV comedy I’ve ever seen (Larry Sanders, Freaks and Geeks). 40 Year Old Virgin was also quite funny, though I’m not a huge Steve Carrell fan (he finds one note in whatever he’s in and sticks to it). Seth Rogan, on the other hand, is an ace.
I expect this to be better than Virgin, but even if it was just as good, that would be fine. I also predict that Knocked Up, if its as good as many are saying, to go through the roof in terms of box office. I think audiences, not just film snobs, are looking for something tangibly human that doesn’t have a 3 at the end of the title.
Or maybe I’m just hoping that’s what they’re looking for.
The season is ripe for an adult-oriented comedy and this is it. Assuming it’s actually funny (and I’ve heard it is) and it manages to get people’s attention in spite of Spidershrekpirates, I think it will do really well.
I think audiences are already a little burned out on blockbusters and horror, so an honest-to-god adult comedy should be a welcome relief. I imagine this one will have an OK opening weekend and then show legs over time. Let’s face it…Seth Rogan and Katherine Heigl shouldn’t have any problem carrying their own weight but the aren’t the marquee-name actors that ensure a $40 mil (or more) opening weekend.
Then again, I didn’t expect 40 Year Old Virgin to catch on so what do I know?
My biggest concern about it is Knocked Up is over 2 hours long. Is that really neccessary? If a movie is good, there is no such thing as too long, but I like a comedy that gets in, does its business and gets back out. We’ll see.
The critics are right about Knocked Up. It’s wonderful, and Rogen gives an iconic comedy performance, nailing the 20s something beer crazed manchild (I know more about this type than I would care to admit.) At 130 minutes, its long but not overlong, it adds to the film’s shaggy charm. There’s a difference between Knocked Up and Virgin’s length: the third act gear shift to drama works here, and doesn’t deball the film like it did Virgin (I’m sorry, I can’t get over the naivete of waiting til marriage to fuck in that movie.)
Knocked Up is within spitting distance of Apatow’s wonderful TV work. Here’s wishing him a long and productive career in the movies.