RA: Renters Anonymous - June 24th, 2008

Posted by Trevor

June 24, 2008

This Week: June 24th, 2008

10,000 BC - 5.9/10 - Trailer
From the title you can guess that this is a film about cavemen and the beginnings of our species with a special Hollywood twist. Don’t expect this to be anywhere near historically accurate. Our main character is a hunter-gatherer for a local tribe who soon has his lover kidnapped by an unknown tribe on horseback. He quickly sets off with a group of warriors to rescue his lady, soon coming across many other tribes with the same predicament. Once reaching the camp of the unknown tribe, they realize that this tribe is way more advanced than anyone could ever dream. Unfortunately this film has gathered negative reviews, with Richard Roeper calling it the worst movie of 2008 so far. So I guess lots of special effects don’t help this film and is probably the film you should avoid picking up off the shelf this week.

The Spiderwick Chronicles - 6.5/10 - Trailer
This film is based on the bestselling children’s novel’s of the same name. A young boy finds a field guide that talks about faeries, goblins and other magical creatures, which is great until this book turns out to be of the non-fiction kind. Now the boy must protect himself, his family and most importantly the book from the ogre Mulgarath who needs the book to rule over all faerie-kind. It looks like children’s books are the new source of material for movies these days, but without the popularity of Harry Potter or the power of The Lord of the Rings, this film doesn’t stand up to well. If you’re young or have read the series of novels, than you’ll probably be the few who catch this film, for the rest of us, just keep on looking down the aisle for a different movie.

Definitely, Maybe - 7.3/10 - Trailer
Ryan Reynolds stars with Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) in this romantic comedy/drama about a little girl who is trying find out why he married her mother and why they are now getting divorced. To make things a little bit more fun, Will (Reynolds) decides to create a mystery game and tells his daughter stories of the women he has come across in his life and she must guess who was the woman that became her mother. Of course some details and names were changed in these stories as to not give everything away in the beginning. I think Reynolds has the ability to pull off this kind of role, and Abigail is a great little actress. Unless you’re a single guy, I think you’ll be watching this one pretty soon.

Charlie Bartlett - 8.2/10 - Trailer
When Charlie Bartlett (Anton Yelchin) moves from private school to public school, he soon becomes the school’s secret psychiatrist for the student body. I think we’ve all seen a trailer or two for this film since it was being constantly pushed back, the trailers kept playing in the theaters. Unfortunately once they finally decided to release the film it couldn’t even make enough to cover it’s production budget of $12 million. About half of the critics enjoyed the film but more than half of the general public thought it was decent. I don’t think you’ll be missing a lot if you skip the film, but if you do decide to pick it up, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Persepolis - 8.2/10 - Trailer
This is an animated film, but don’t let that discourage you, this film won the Jury Prize at Cannes and it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The film itself is based on the autobiographical graphic novel of the same name which tells about a young girl coming of age during the Iranian Revolution. This isn’t just an animated film, it’s a good film with meaning and soul. The film is receiving great reviews and is on my critics top ten lists. I think this might be a film for everyone, but don’t expect the film to be off a child like nature even though it’s animated.

Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs
This a follow up to the previous Futurama film Bender’s Big Score where at the end, Bender creates a giant tear in the universe which apparently amounted to nothing happening (at least for a little while). If you watch and enjoy the series, you probably know more about the movie and will be renting or purchasing this film as soon as you wake up. If you’re not a fan of the show, then I doubt you’ll want to watch this film.

My Rentals:

Persepolis - I love animated features that are of a more serious nature, and with all the praise this film has been receiving, I’m definitely renting this.

Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs - I’ve seen everything Futurama and I’m really happy that the show has come back, even if it is in straight-to-DVD film form.

With all the new releases this week what are you planning on watching?