The Summer may not be over according to the calendar, but it’s over as far as Hollywood is concerned. We’ve only got one new wide release this weekend and it’s not even that big of a film. We’ve also got a limited release sleeper hit expanding to wide release, and an earlier film I hated but everyone else loved, coming back into wide release for a limited time.
Riddick
Before he made a name for himself driving fast cars furiously, 13 years ago Vin Diesel was a mysterious character named Riddick in a lesser known sci-fi thriller called Pitch Black. In 2004 the character got his own big budget movie in the critical and theatrical failure, The Chronicles of Riddick.
Riddick returns to the smaller scale that Pitch Black was and looks to try to recapture a similar feeling. I was unable to screen this one, but I’m hearing it may have gone too small scale and fails to really captivate the audience. The trailers still have me intrigued though and I enjoyed Pitch Black so I will be checking this one out sooner or later despite what the critical consensus is.
Trailer:
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Instructions Not Included
This Spanish language comedy drama has been a surprise hit, making almost $10.5 million its opening weekend despite only appearing in 347 theaters. I have not had a chance to see it yet, but it seems to be doing well. The plot is fairly familiar, involving a playboy type who gets stuck with an unexpected progeny. In raising his new daughter, he grows up a bit himself but his life with her is threatened when the mother suddenly shows up again. It may be doing as well as it is because there is a shortage of Spanish language films in our theaters, but it has some pretty good reviews as well so it might be worth broadening your horizons to check it out.
Trailer:
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Also worth noting, the generally loved (except by me) This is The End is coming back into 2,161 theaters for a limited time, because they can, even though it is out on DVD in less than a month.
Film Hamster 