The Monuments Men | The Lego Movie | Vampire Academy | A Fantastic Fear of Everything | After the Dark
The Monuments Men
| Look, it's time to admit I whiffed on this one. I'll still probably see it just for the loaded cast, but any time a studio doesn't do advance screenings for a movie with said loaded cast, it's about the worst sign there is. Combine that with the troublesome release date pushback to Dumpruary, the early return of 32% on Rotten Tomatoes, and this one's looking like a promising premise and cast that will just never quite get off the ground. Given a filmography 4 movies deep for Clooney as a director, with only one dud in there (Leatherheads), I'm surprised to see this one headed that way as his fifth. |
The Lego Movie
| I think we may have finally seen the end of Frozen's dominance, as this one looks pretty darn watchable and with an impressive voice cast to boot. "Come with me if you want to not die" signals the sort of winking in-jokes the movie can have with the adults while still entertaining the kids. The whole thing looks like a send-up of the unlikely hero genre, and once you've got Morgan Freeman doing voice work, it's really hard to go wrong. I usually don't go in for kids' movies, but I could be talked into this one, and it only has 40% to do with the inclusion of Batman. |
Vampire Academy
| I'll admit that any pun involving "sucks" with vampires instantly turns me off to your project. But seriously guys, "They suck at school" was the best you could do? Another one that the studio refused to screen for critics and dropped in February (noticing a trend?), the trailer for this doesn't even tell me what the plot will actually be. She mentions being sworn to protect her friend, so I can assume her friend comes into danger, maybe? But from whom it leaves a mystery. It's never a good sign when even the guy making the trailer figures his best shot is to just roll up all the sassy dialogue into a two minute ball. |
A Fantastic Fear of Everything
| It looks like Simon Pegg went a little too high concept for his latest comedy and forgot to bring the comedy. The trailer's got the requisite girl playing a ukulele for a stock indie movie, and it's got underwear jokes for being a stock British comedy. It just doesn't like it will ever fully decide which it wants to be more. Throw in the pretty damning initial 36% on Rotten Tomatoes, and this one looks like a stay away. |
After the Dark
| I'm going to have to wait a while for this one, since I'm not lucky enough to live near a theater showing it, but if you do, I don't think you can watch that trailer and not want to see it. It currently holds a 80% on Rotten Tomatoes with only 10 reviews, but even the two negatives call it "smugly clever" and "not completely without merit". I've got a soft spot for post-apocalypse films, but one that wants to dwell on the apocalypse itself sounds like a pretty interesting angle. If it's brought down, it'll be by the performances with only James D'Arcy having anything resembling a full resume. Either way, I can't see it being forgettable. |