New To Theatres This Weekend – May 9, 2008

Posted by on May 9th, 2008   Filed under: New Releases

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Well it’s the second week of the summer season, and already people are predicting the first major dud of the year. Speed Racer seems to have been getting a lot of mixed reviews, and the marketing has a lot of people divided, but while I will admit that it’s very possible Iron Man will continue to dominate the box office this weekend, I am still very curious to see what The Wackowski Brothers have in store for us. The romantic comedy What Stays in Vegas starring Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher is also likely to do some decent business, while David Mamet’s Redbelt may pick up some stray viewers as it expands to a semi-wide release. In select theatres this weekend we have the controversial film The Babysitters, about a teenager who turns a babysitter business into a call girl service for married fathers, and The Fall, Tarsem Singh’s fantastical follow up to The Cell.

The Babysitters (limited)
Before the Rains (limited)
The Fall (limited)
Noise (limited)
Redbelt (expanding)
Speed Racer
What Happens in Vegas



  • Goon

    The theater for Speed Racer was nearly empty. It’s going to bomb large…

    here’s the review i wrote of it for flixster. Shocking yes, but I had a blast. Mock away:

    “I went to see this to subject myself to visual torture, and ended up smiling at least once every minute. You either ‘get it’ or don’t. This is a kids film that takes itself seriously at some points and yet knows how ridiculous the whole thing is. The Wachowskis, after two extremely bloated and pretentious Matrix sequels, seem like complete strangers here – putting together this adrenaline filled silly Crayola explosion where John Goodman kicks the crap out of ninjas, Matthew Fox from Lost dons a funny black leather getup, the soundtrack rocks my socks off, cars kick each other and an over the top underboss racer named Snake Oiler captures my heart. Even the kid and his stupid monkey make me smile. The critics are crapping on it, the theater was nearly empty (oh man, this is going to bomb large), but at some point during this thing I just bought into it and realized it knew exactly what it was doing, and I admired it for its balls. It’s hard to claim this movie is actually going over anyone’s head, but I do think a lot of critics clearly missed the point or simply couldn’t get past the over the top visuals. Certainly not for everyone by any stretch, but I admire this film a whole hell of a lot.

    And I’m not kidding either. “Speed Racer” just may be ahead of its time.”

  • Goon

    here’s a fan review from SomethingAwful I found appropriate as well

    “Oh.

    My.

    God.

    I spent the last few months building up my hopes for this movie, against all odds and the trend that movies like it usually sucked major ass. I kept telling myself that I would go for the stylization of the movie, the colors and HD ultra-high resolution effects. I went into this movie excited, but clenching my teeth at the lamefest that was most-likely to follow.

    Dear Wachowski Brothers,

    Thank you for not following the trend of everyone else. Thank you for hiring people based on talent as opposed to popularity, your screenwriters, your actors, and especially your compositors. Thank you for making Hot Wheels: The Movie. Thank you for making Burnout: The Movie. Thank you for taking everything that made the original whacky/lame Speed Racer good and wholesome and earnest, then injecting it with pure AWESOME! You sirs, have just accomplished a feat that no other has survived; you made a great movie with a monkey as a key character(Well, Pete Jackson did that too, but not like this). You made a movie that makes the real world seem disappointingly colorless… and slow. Jesus don’t get me started on how slow the world seems after coming out of your movie. I suppose I should also thank you for making a movie that makes tripping balls in public an appealing idea to me. This, coming from a guy who doesn’t touch ANY sort of altering substances, alcohol or the like. The colors, Mike. The COLORS!

    Does your movie fall into the category of astonishing drama or story-telling? Probably not. It is not the greatest contribution to cinema and the arts that has ever been, no sir. However, you’ve taken two hours of my time, and in return you’ve provided me with a more thrilling sensation of speed, color, beauty, and excitement than I will likely get from a movie for some time to come.

    I hope that the audiences that follow me into those theaters sees your movie with open minds, accepting it as digital art with real humans in it. I hope the full meaning of why one shot looks cartoony and the next ridiculously realistic is apparent to them. I hope this effort you’ve put forth earns you the money you deserve, so much fucking money!!

    “Greatest movie EVAR?”… not really. But it’s definitely up there. Most fun I’ve had sitting in a theater for two hours? It’s up there, too. And I think that’s what you were aiming for. Good work, Wachowski Brothers and Army of Compositors.

    Good work.”

  • I am not aware of when Speed Racer gets released here, but I am definitely looking forward to it! From the first visuals I thought it looked likea no-holds-barred extremeostity into fantastical colors and crazy effects, and from all the bad/good reviews I have read, it seems to be exactly that. If this keeps its promise as far as trippy visuals go, I am going to let John Goodmans silly moralizing (I am just using this as an example of lame dialogue that may/may not actually be present in the piece) slide away into oblivion.

  • For some reason Henrik, I have a suspicion you’ll like it. I don’t know what it is, just a feeling I guess.

  • I certainly hope so. It comes around here June 20th.

  • I can already see that the ‘critical consensus’ through RottenTomatoes and otherwise is not the reality among many people that see it. Everyone on imdb.com for example, gives it a 1 or a 10. I went to what I would normally consider a cynical movie forum and people are gushing over how they’re kids again. I found reviews on smaller non-RT websites like popmatters.com and see 10/10 reviews.

    Can there be such a thing as a ‘cult blockbuster’ ?

  • Me, Sean and Greg caught it at the drive in last night. It was so cold out, we decided against staying for Drillbit Taylor.

    Anyways, you’ll hear our thoughts on the next podcast.

  • Goon

    I’m not sure a cold night at the drive-in would make the setting for a positive Speed Racer experience.

    I’m thinking of going to catch this in IMAX this afternoon….