This Week at the Movies

Okay guys, this is my first weekly look-ahead so I'll briefly explain why I am doing this.  This will be my thoughts/reflections on the films coming out this weekend and how I think they will do.  I'll also explain why you should or should not see them.  That's pretty straightforward now that I'm rereading this so I don't even know why I typed that.  Moving on...


A Good Day to Die Hard

I am a big fan of the Die Hard series, but I'm not an idiot.  Every movie series needs to end at some point (COUGH, Fast and Furious. COUGH, Star Wars. COUGH, Indiana Jones. COUGH, Paranormal Activity. COUGH, Madea. You get the point).  I was a fan of Die Hard 5, but I think that was a good spot for it to end.  Not to say I don't like Die Hard.  I just think when people pay to see the 6th installment of a film, it encourages Hollywood to continue with the notion that sequels are what makes cinema great, and it's not.  Quite the opposite, actually.  Enough film philosophy, though.  I'll go see Die Hard because I'm a fan of the series and I have fun with every film (minus Die Hard 2).  While this film debuted with a 7.6 on IMdB, I'm still a little skeptical about this one, for a number of reasons.  Mainly because we're getting this smack dab in the middle of February.  Every now and then, we get that surprise film placed in an odd time of the year (Looper comes to mind), but February action movies usually flop.  I hope I'm wrong on this one, but that's a fact.


Safe Haven

The poster makes me gag.  I have negative interest in watching this.  Bear with me for a moment as we discuss my problem with 99% of romantic films: They give women unrealistic expectations of men.  All romantic movies do is give women false hope that there is a perfect man out there for them.  That's all I'm going to say because quite honestly, I don't feel like wasting my time talking about this garbage film. I don't expect this film to be praised by critics in any sense, and it is purely a cash cow for Hollywood, as they strategically released it on Valentine's Day.  Folks, I have watched almost 500 films to date and I can tell you I have only watched one good romantic film, (500) Days of Summer.  Watch that one and be done with that genre.  Seriously.




Beautiful Creatures

I don't know much about this film, probably due to the poor marketing of it.  I won't rip it to shreds like I did Safe Haven because, believe it or not, I am a fair dude.  However, this doesn't seem like my cup of tea (I don't even drink tea, that's gay, but you know what I'm saying).  This will probably draw in a big tween crowd, and I expect it will do well at the box office. Critics?  Probably not.  But I can't know for sure, because the marketing for this film is so damn weak.










Escape from Planet Earth

There's not much I have to say about this film either, except it will be a breath of fresh air because of the lack of kid's films that have been released lately.  I may be wrong on this, but I think Rise of the Guardians was the last big kid's movie, and that was a while ago.  We've resorted to bringing back Monsters, Inc., a second time to satisfy the younger moviegoers.  So many R-rated films have been released in the last few weeks, which has led to a drop in attendance for younger kids.  I don't know much about this film but I'm happy to see that there's something for children coming out this week.


This weekend should be a good weekend for the box office.  With Valentine's Day right around the corner and a wide variety of films being released this weekend, I think we can expect a good turnout.  Thanks for reading and stay tuned for next week's post!

-Kevin A. Millward