This column will introduce you to the most popular movies that are coming out in theaters this weekend and why you should go see them.
What movie will you see this weekend?
Logan
Reasons to see this:
Nope. This is not about the great Logan James that we know and love. This is about the Wolverine, that we know and love. Logan takes place in the near future, where he must care for Professor X while saving a young mutant from evil forces. Sounds like he has his claws full. Ba-dum-tss. Starring in this comic book action flick are Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Stephen Merchant, Doris Morgado (2 Guns), Dafne Keen, and more. James Mangold is the director of this flick. Mangold’s last four directorial films were Knight and Day, 3:10 to Yuma, Walk the Line, and Identity. Now go ask Logan if he wants to see Logan this weekend.
The Shack
Reasons to see this
Drink every time you read “the shack”. The Shack is about a grieving man who receives an invitation to meet with God at a place called The Shack. Starring in The Shack are Sam Worthington, Octavia Spencer, Tim McGraw (who wrote a song for The Shack soundtrack, Radha Mitchell (Silent Hill), and more. The director of The Shack is Stuart Hazeldine. Hazeldine wrote and directed the movie Exam. Don’t shack up in your place this weekend. Get out to the theater to see…..The Shack.
Table 19
Reasons to see this:
An ex-maid of honor attends a wedding, even after being dumped by the best man. However, she is seated with random guests at Table 19. Starring in this dramedy are Anna Kendrick, Lisa Kudrow, Amanda Crew (Silicon Valley), Stephen Merchant, Craig Robinson, Tony Revolori (The PROTEJAAAY from The Grand “Pudabest” Hotel), and more. Jeffrey Blitz is the director of this wedding flick. Blitz has directed episodes of The Office (US), Rocket Science, and the documentary Spellbound. Not invited to any weddings this weekend? Then go see Table 19 in theaters.
Welcome to your normal Sunday edition of Working the Weekend with Luke. Just a few things on the agenda today as I’ll take a look at a couple of new shows coming to FOX this fall and I continue my trilogy countdown with #9.
One of the nice things about working at a TV station is that the network sends down a disc with all of the nice, long trailers for their upcoming programming and even put a few episodes on there just so we know exactly what we’re dealing with when talking to our advertisers. I recently took a look at the upcoming shows for FOX and it’s clear that the big show coming this fall for them is Gotham, which takes a look at Jim Gordon as the new guy on the force in Gotham as he encounters young Bruce Wayne. The trailer looks pretty cool and they’ve got a nice cast, a nice touch with Donal Logue being Gordon’s partner. But there’s two others that I think are going to be pretty nice and I was able to preview some full episodes, so I just want to chat about those for a minute.
GRACEPOINT
This is billed as a 10-part mystery event. It’s based off of the UK show Broadchurch and its star, David Tennant, is the star here too as the new and brooding detective on the force. He’s joined by the woman whose job he basically stole, who is played by Anna Gunn in her return to television after all the success of Breaking Bad. The story is all based around the death of a 12 year old boy whose body is found on the beach. They get to that shit quickly too. I don’t think it was more than fifteen or twenty minutes in before I saw the body, so they get right after it. Since nothing like this has ever happened in this small community, it’s almost as if everyone in town is now a suspect, from the boy’s dad, played by the awesome Michael Pena, to the creepy old lady in town, played by Jacki Weaver, who you might recognize from Silver Linings Playbook. Then there’s the minister who used to date the mother and my personal favorite, the guy who runs the boat rental service, played by Mr. Nick Nolte.
I watched the first two episodes and I’m almost pissed at myself for doing it, because now I have to wait a little while before I get to a new episode. Even watching those first two, you think you may have it figured out, but then something else happens that changes your way of thinking and then you think it’s somebody else. I’m really digging the writing, the acting, and really just the whole thing in general. I’m jacked for this one.
RED BAND SOCIETY
The next show I watched was Red Band Society, quite the switch from Gracepoint. Here, we’re based at Ocean Park Hospital in LA. The big name here is Octavia Spencer, who won an Oscar for her role in The Help, and she plays the role of a nurse at this specialty hospital. Basically, what this show is going to be is The Breakfast Club for sick kids. The narrator is a 12 year old boy who is in a coma, which is interesting enough in itself. You’ve got the bitchy cheerleader who needs a new heart (no symbolism there), but is low on the donor list due to her problems with drugs. Then you’ve got the kid that’s missing a leg, a fate that his new roommate will soon share due to his cancer. Throw in the token black kid and the weird girl with the eating disorder and all that’s missing is Principal Vernon. All joking aside, the pilot was pretty solid. It’s billed as a drama, but it’s certainly got the comedic elements in there as well, and I can tell you that the emotional moments that I’ve seen and the ones that are sure to come really do get at you a little bit. If this is done correctly, it could be really good.
TRILOGY COUNTDOWN
#10-THE INFERNAL AFFAIRS TRILOGY-If you missed this one, click HERE.
#9-THE NAKED GUN TRILOGY
The Naked Gun, The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear, The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult
Straight from the files of Police Squad, number 9 on my list of favorite trilogies belongs to The Naked Gun. Back before O.J. rode the white Bronco to hell, he starred beside the late great Leslie Nielsen in three unbelievably hilarious flicks. I remember watching the first one when I was about ten and I don’t know if I’d ever laughed so hard. It’s hard to believe that as a younger man, Leslie Nielsen made his living as a dramatic actor. Go ahead, Google it. I’ve been thinking all day about what to write for this, but nothing I could ever say would be as great at what’s in the video below. So just go ahead and click and we’ll leave it at that. Love this shit!
Check back next weekend for #8. Any thoughts or memories of The Naked Gun? Comment below or follow me on Twitter and tweet @THElukenorris. But before I go, here’s your Beverly Hills, 90210 clip of the week. Yesterday, I gave you the meeting of Brandon and Dylan. Now witness the intro to the crazy that becomes Brenda and Dylan.
Lamb Mannerheim’s faith is shaken after a plane crash burns two-thirds of her body, and she shocks her small-town congregation when she publicly renounces God and sets out to experience the worldly pleasures of Las Vegas.
Diablo Cody has been more hit than miss for me over the years. JUNO was pretentious, douchey, and overwritten so much it actually seemed unique and watchable. JENNIFER’S BODY was way better than it deserved to be, which isn’t saying much but I really don’t get some of the hatred towards that film. YOUNG ADULT, on the other hand, was fantastic. It was obvious Diablo had grown up as a writer and delivered one of the best dark comedies I had seen in a while. Is she ready for the director’s chair? Let’s see.
I’m pretty certain that I’m never going to like Julianne Hough. From her way-too-old-to-be-a-high-school-girl performance(?) in FOOTLOOSE to her dizzy-yet-innocent annoyance in ROCK OF AGES, the woman constantly rubs me the wrong way. It doesn’t help any matters here when her character is basically just a mash-up of the two women she played in the aforementioned films. She’s just a small town lady who isn’t allowed to dance, or wear shorts. She wants to stop fearing God and move to a big city and sin a whole lot. This after surviving a plane crash and winning a huge settlement. Her skin graphs and scars leave her even more fragile than most little girls in Vegas. Cody could have really made Hough into one of those fish-out-of-water cliches the moment she turns up in Sin City but holds off and makes her likable, if only for the first third of the film.
Russell Brand, another guy I can stand less and less as the world turns, shows up as a Las Vegas bartender with a good heart and some funny one-liners. Octavia Spencer is angry, then drunk, then sweet, then all-knowing and wise as Loray, another good-hearted Vegas local.
Here’s the problem with PARADISE – it’s too sappy. It was nice for Diablo Cody to grow up so quickly as a writer but somewhere down the line she forgot that mid-career plateau and skipped ahead to the rainbow cheesiness and pukey happy endings. Her direction is decent enough, I suppose, but none of it matters when the writing isn’t up to par.
There’s no connection with the three leads of this film. Hough, Brand, and Spencer take all of 15 minutes to become lifelong best friends and manage to rush all the drama of those relationships into a solid hour. Trying to get a feel for all three characters and what their history is seems fake, forced, and useless.
By the time you figure out that this isn’t a romantic comedy a couple things happen. My first reaction was “Hmph….. That wasn’t as predictable as I thought.” And then “But what was the fucking point?” Kudos to Cody for not giving Hough a musical scene (kinda). The constant dread that she’s going to break out in a song and dance is unbearable with this woman.
