Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit | Ride Along | Devil's Due | The Nut Job
Only one serious entry for your consideration this week, although Kevin Hart's inexplicable star power and the people who go see any horror movie, regardless of how shameless a ripoff of The Omen it appears to be, will probably result in three new entries in the Box Office Top Ten.
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
I'm always excited when a promising-looking movie comes pre-packaged with a sub-title. It means the only thing standing between it and sequels is box office performance. And if that promising movie doesn't turn out the way I hoped, I can always ignore the sequel as easily as if hadn't been made. Covered this one in a Psychic, so I won't delve too deep here.
Ride Along
Buddy cop movies just keep getting churned out seemingly on the strength of how well Hollywood thinks the tandem of actors will play audiences. I'm not sure they even commission a script before green-lighting anymore. Needless to say, this one looks about as strong as Grudge Match did (which is to say "not very"), but the actors play better with the current generation than Stallone, De Niro, and Arkin, so sadly, it will probably fare better, regardless of a 19% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Devil's Due
Similar to romance movies, horror has become a wasteland of a genre because we as the audience don't expect more. The proliferation of "found footage"-style movies means, they can be made for just a few million dollars and have very little financial risk to the studio involved. Until people start being discerning enough to avoid dreck like this, keep expecting maybe 1 in every 20 horror movies to be worth a crap.
The Nut Job
With 99% accuracy, I can tell you the production meeting pitched the title of the movie, and the fact that it would be a literal heist, and ended there. Its current 12% on Rotten Tomatoes would indicate critics were harder to fool than the studio executive who greenlit it.
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
I'm always excited when a promising-looking movie comes pre-packaged with a sub-title. It means the only thing standing between it and sequels is box office performance. And if that promising movie doesn't turn out the way I hoped, I can always ignore the sequel as easily as if hadn't been made. Covered this one in a Psychic, so I won't delve too deep here.
Ride Along
Buddy cop movies just keep getting churned out seemingly on the strength of how well Hollywood thinks the tandem of actors will play audiences. I'm not sure they even commission a script before green-lighting anymore. Needless to say, this one looks about as strong as Grudge Match did (which is to say "not very"), but the actors play better with the current generation than Stallone, De Niro, and Arkin, so sadly, it will probably fare better, regardless of a 19% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Devil's Due
Similar to romance movies, horror has become a wasteland of a genre because we as the audience don't expect more. The proliferation of "found footage"-style movies means, they can be made for just a few million dollars and have very little financial risk to the studio involved. Until people start being discerning enough to avoid dreck like this, keep expecting maybe 1 in every 20 horror movies to be worth a crap.
The Nut Job
With 99% accuracy, I can tell you the production meeting pitched the title of the movie, and the fact that it would be a literal heist, and ended there. Its current 12% on Rotten Tomatoes would indicate critics were harder to fool than the studio executive who greenlit it.