astronaut farmer Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Five wide releases this weekend, and perhaps the final frame in which we're offered little but studio holdovers and lost causes. Dig into a haunted house story, a historical drama about abolitionists, a family-friendly inspirational piece, a Jim Carrey psycho-thriller and the big-screen debut of some very silly police officers. (And don't forget about the Oscars tonight!)

The Abandoned -- 3 positive / 8 negative at RottenTomatoes.com.

Pro: "Rallies in the end and has a satisfying, fittingly unsettling conclusion." -- Staci Layne Wilson, Horror.com

Con: "A punishing dose of zombie Chekhov for lifetime Fangoria subscribers." -- Jim Ridley, L.A. Weekly

Pro: "It's the pervasive sense of fatalism and decay that saves Cerda's debut feature from being yet another poky haunted-house chiller." -- Ken Fox, TV Guide

Con: "Reflects a filmmaker so lost in the details of his creation, he's neglected his obligation to forward momentum." -- Brian Orndorf, eFilmCritic.com

Bonus! "A fairly uninteresting story told in exceedingly spotty fashion." -- Scott Weinberg, Cinematical

Amazing Grace -- 52 positive / 23 negative at RT.com.

Pro: "This biopic of abolitionist crusader William Wilberforce gains much of its own force from the supporting characters." -- Josh Larsen, Sun-Times

Con: "A movie about the slave trade with hardly an African face in sight." -- Michael Booth, Denver Post

Pro: "As a portrait of political engagement, the movie is substantial and absorbing." -- Gary Thompson, Philadelphia Daily News

Con: "It's hardly compelling viewing." -- Desson Thomson, Washington Post

The Astronaut Farmer -- 61 positive / 40 negative at RT.com.

Pro: "Shows just how much you can accomplish with $12 million and more imagination than most big-studio releases can muster these days." -- Lou Lumenick, New York Post

Con: "Should be grounded for the twisted lesson it tries to impart." -- Claudia Puig, USA Today

Pro: "Works precisely because it's bereft of modern cinema's cynicism." -- Robert Wilonsky, Village Voice

Con: "It's one of those movies that yearns for a time that never really existed and ends up a chilly museum exhibit." -- Bill Muller, Arizona Republic

Bonus! "What makes the movie special are the personal touches." -- Jeffrey M. Anderson, Cinematical

Happy Oscar weekend, everybody! There's still time to finalize your Oscar picks -- if you need help, check out Moviefone's Oscar predictions (but don't blame us if you don't win, because free will is a powerful thing). And if you still haven't entered an Oscar pool, wander on over to our Movie Madness pick 'em game; judging by how good some of you box office predictors are, one of you is bound to win the 42-inch plasma TV. I can't win, because I'm not eligible, and no, I'm not bitter about that AT ALL. And now, on to the weekend's box office:

The Number 23: It's more than just Michael Jordan's number -- there's a whole school of thought surrounding 23, which apparently shows up everywhere if you know where to look: It's the number of chromosomes each parent contributes to a child's DNA, the number of times Julius Caesar was stabbed, etc. Jim Carrey stars as a guy who reads a thriller about the phenomenon and becomes obsessed with it, spending all his time not only imagining himself as the novel's protagonist and worrying he might be capable of murder, but also doing lots of math. Though it's certainly not your typical Carrey comedy, the man's always a big draw, and this seems like the film to give Ghost Rider a run for its money.
Get showtimes & tix | Watch the trailer | Count down Carrey's best

Reno 911!: Miami: The dunderheaded cops of Comedy Central's hit TV show (well, it's not about to rival American Idol, but it's a hit according to cable TV standards) storm the big screen in a comedy in which they have to save a convention center from terrorists. Jack Bauer they are not. I wasn't able to see this film, but my colleagues did, and they thought it was the bee's kneees. (Translation: hilarious.) It'll play well to young adults and teens, the same folks who made Borat -- which was also based on a cable TV show -- a success, so watch out. This may be the biggest thing to happen to Reno since the Great Reno Balloon Race.
Get showtimes & tix | Watch the trailer | Watch a clip

The Astronaut Farmer: Admit it, when you were a little kid, you wanted to be an astronaut -- because, as John Cusack points out in The Sure Thing, you get "all the Tang you can drink." In this feel-good film, Billy Bob Thornton plays a guy who never outgrew that dream; but when a crisis forces him to drop out of the Air Force, he starts building a rocket in his backyard. It's no lawn chair and balloons, but this crazy kid might be onto something. Astronaut Farmer is rated PG, and technically it's a family film, so in theory it should take some of Bridge to Terabithia's audience; but there hasn't been a ton of marketing for this film, and despite some positive reviews it may have a hard time taking off. (Sorry.)
Get showtimes & tix | Watch the trailer | See photos

Also Opening Wide: The Abandoned, a horror movie set on a remote farm in Russia. It could surprise, given that horror tends to do well; but there aren't any big names in this one, so I'm guessing it'll hover just under the top five.

Here we go. Earlier this week my colleague Tommy said I told him I planned to "dominate" this weekend, which I would like to say here and now is a total lie and a big, fat jinx. Thanks, man. So come all ye faithful box office predictors, it's all you this weekend. Deadline: Saturday at 2pm. And have fun watching the Oscars!

1. Ghost Rider
2. The Number 23
3. Bridge to Terabithia
4. Reno 911!: Miami
5. Norbit

POST: What's your weekend top five prediction?

POST: What do you think of these movies?

No, Warner Bros. hasn't discovered a pair of genius filmmakers in Warsaw. Instead, the studio has extended its relationship with Mark and Michael Polish, a writer-director team that just happens to consist of identical twins. The brothers first got attention in 1999 with their debut feature, Twin Falls Idaho, in which they starred as Siamese twins. The film was well-reviewed, and praised by Roger Ebert for its willingness to discard a focused plot in favor of "meditation on the situation of its characters." Though the years since then have been somewhat lean for the Polishes -- Jackpot (made for $400,000) and Northfork received mixed reviews and were barely seen -- their upcoming feature The Astronaut Farmer has a cast full of stars, and is so well-regard by WB that they've shifted its distribution from Warner Independent to Warner proper, and will be giving it a wide release early next year.

Clearly WB has confidence in the brothers, so much so that it just bought two new projects from them (both of which will be co-written and co-produced by Mark and Michael with the latter directing, as is the case with all their collaborations). The first, entitled Loot, is "a heist movie set in Middle America that a follows a group of blue-collar workers who pull off jobs during tornado season." The second, which sounds completely awesome, is called How Time Flies, and "is a cause-and-effect look at a world where time travel becomes accessible to the common man and how fragile reality can become." Given the style and content of the brothers' projects to this point, it's likely How Time Flies will focus much more on emotions and personalities than the sci-fi side of the story, which means the movie could be something very original (!) indeed.