SCHOOL OF FILM & ACTING

The Leftovers

Summer’s just about over and while it has been a fruitful season for filmgoers, there’s hardly anything ripe to pick from this at this weekend’s box office. Taking a look at the new releases, barely anything gets our blood pumping. Normally mentioning the words “race to the death”, “former Playboy Bunny” and “Rocker” could conjure up some excitement but the films attached to both of those simple premises don’t live up to the high standards that have been set by this summer’s other fare. That being said, maybe it is time for a little mindless entertainment…and there are probably worse things than watching the delightful Anna Faris star in a comedy that’s not one of those Wayans Brothers Scary Movie travesties.

The House Bunny is a comedy that follows a discarded Playboy Bunny after she’s been kicked out of the mansion and fend for herself…she chooses to dispense her “hot girl wisdom on a hapless sorority…while they in turn, teach her about life”…or at least I think that’s how the pitch on this movie went. It doesn’t sound so bad…if completely innocuous.

Death Race pits Jason Statham in yet another slam-bang action fest. He’s a prisoner, he’s in a race…and guess what? The winner of the race isn’t supposed to die. Somehow Joan Allen got roped into this movie. Maybe it was a slow month for Oscar-worthy scripts when she decided to take the plunge. I could see this movie picking up some pretty decent box office numbers and even running away with #1 as it just seems like the kind of action flick that people flock to on slow weekends, though apart of me wishes people go catch Tropic Thunder instead.

Also new in theaters is the new comedy starring Rainn Wilson, The Rocker. I never thought I’d say the words Rainn Wilson and starring in the same sentence. In all honesty, this looks like a movie that Will Ferrell didn’t want. As much as people enjoy Rainn Wilson on the office, I’m not so sure he has the appeal to hold an entire movie on his shoulders. I’ll let other audiences and critics make the call because I’m saving these $12 for candy and comic books.

I could talk at length about the film The Longshots starring Ice Cube, but I don’t want to give it’s director Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst the satisfaction of any sort of credit for doing anything since his ability to sustain a career is one of the things I hate most about the Pop Culture world…that and he once cut me off driving down Sunset Strip.

That leaves us to the limited releases…and this is perhaps where the artistic ray of light shines down on us this weekend. In addition to a Cirque Du Soleil performance movie, The long awaited Hamlet 2, hits the big screen in selected cities and I’m pretty excited. Any film with a premise as off the wall as making a sequel to Hamlet with Jesus and Hillary Clinton at least deserves my attention. Though the buzz I’ve caught on the film is a little disappointing, I’m excited to let my own judgment do the judging.

So there you have it…it’s quite the diverse week at the theater. The only way to find out if it’s just a weekend of Hollywood dumping its leftovers is to make it out to the movies and see for yourself.

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