Movies opening up this weekend of March 30, 2012 are: Wrath of the Titans, Mirror Mirror, Bully and Goon.

Wrath of Titans

The sequel to 2010’s mega-hit Clash of the Titans finally hits theaters, but this time without any of the baggage that saddled the initial installment which was trying too hard to be the second BIG HIT 3D movie out of the gate after Avatar, instead of realizing that it was more than ok just being a great popcorn flick to pass the afternoon with.

After the craziness of the battle with the Kraken, Perseus just wants to relax and take care of his kid. Unfortunately, being a demigod son of Zeus just does not let you do that, you know something will pop up eventually. Seems like the Gods are losing control of the imprisoned Titans, and turnaround is fair play as the Titans end up overpowering the remaining Gods. Dare we say, there is battle!

It’s great and campy fun, battles between the Gods galore, it’s great popcorn flare that won’t disappoint! Well worth going to the theaters to enjoy!

Mirror Mirror

The classic story of Snow White gets retold by director Tarsem Singh, who previously directed such movies as Immortals and The Cell. The Evil Queen rules over her captured Kingdom, forcing Snow White and several courageous dwarves to fight together to reclaim her birthright and to win her Prince. As expected, it’s visually stunning in much the same way that Tim Burton imbues his films. it’s weird and twisted and funny. Both Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen and Armie hammer as the Prince – eat up the scenery, hamming it up and stealing the show. Phil Collins daughter Lily does a great job as Snow White and a great cast of “little people” bring the seven dwarfs to life.

Bully

A documentary about the issue of bullying, a crisis of epic proportions across the nation. This movie follows the lives of 5 kids and families affected by bullying over a year, including the families of 2 kids who committed suicide because they couldn’t deal with the bullying that was a normal, everyday part of their lives. It’s an in-your-face film that can’t help but shock you. You won’t be able to leave this film without feeling rage at the stupidity of it all, and fight for the change that the film preaches. It’s an important film that should be required viewing.

Goon

Doug Glatt (played by American Pie’s Sean William Scott) gets signed on to play for a minor hockey league team. He lacks any hockey skills or ability to skate, what he is good at is fighting, he can kick the crap out of a guy no problem, which is why they signed him on. Doug is the team enforcer, the guy who is tasked with intimidating and fighting members of the other team who might otherwise take cheap shots and hurt his teammates. He’s the guy you slap the uniform on when you need protection. Based loosely on the autobiography of hockey enforcer Doug Smith, it’s a great rags to riches story of a guy who is a star only when he uses his fists. If you’re a fan of the classic Paul Newman film Slaps Sot, you’ll love this movie!

Opening up this weekend of March 23, 2012 are The Hunger Games and The Raid: Redemption.


The Hunger Games

Based on an extremely popular young adult’s book, one that fans obsess over and promoted in association with the last Twilight release, you’d be forgiven for thinking this is another hot mess like Twilight is – crap masquerading as entertainment pandering to teen girl fantasies of sparkly vampires that take them away from everything bad in their lives. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

North America has gone through some disaster and re-emerged as the nation of Panem. The Capital of the nation is surrounded by 12 districts, each full of citizens struggling to survive day by day. Each year, each district has 2 of it’s children (aged 12-18 years of age) chosen to compete in the Hunger Games in the Capitol. The prize for the winner, prestige for them and their family, extra food for the people in their districts. For the loser, death. Only one person can survive the Hunger Games – it’s a fight to the death. Children against children till only one is left standing.

Now, does this sound like sparkly vampires crying tears of blood to you?

This is a kick-ass movie that will blow away everything else at the theaters. It’s a mix of Running Man, Battle Royale and bits of Romeo & Juliet for fun. The cast is amazing, and Jennifer Lawrence proves that early reviews praising her in Winter’s Bone were not a fluke. It’s action packed, fun and over the top. Highly recommended! While you’re at it, pick up the book by Suzanne Collins also, you’ll love it!

The Raid: Redemption

If we believe Roger Ebert, this film will blow away HUNGER GAMES this weekend, it’s supposed to be that good. While I doubt that happens in North America, no doubt that elsewhere (internationally, such as in Asia and Indonesia – where it was made) it’ll do crazy good. Either way, it won’t take away from this film that’s supposed to be one of the greatest action movies of the last 20 years. It’s been compared to the films of John Woo, The Matrix, The Dark Knight and a few other classics in that it makes violence almost an art form, something to be appreciated.

A SWAT team gets trapped in a 15-story apartment block while trying to bring down a ruthless gangster, Now that same gangster offers lifelong sanctuary to every other punk in the building in exchange for the heads of the SWAT team members. They must fight their way out to survive.

So, when you don’t get into The Hunger Games this weekend because it’s sold out, see this!

Opening up this weekend of March 16, 2012 are Casa de mi padre, 21 Jump Street and Jeff, Who Lives At Home.

Casa de mi padre

Telenovelas are essentially Spanish soap operas, the difference being that they eventually come to an ending, usually after an extended run typically lasting less than a year. Like soap operas, they tend to be over-dramatic and a bit “cheezy”. In Casa de mi padre, Will Ferrell decided to do a homage to telenovelas much the same way that Scary Movie was a homage to slasher and horror movies.

Ferrell plays Armando Alvarez, a man who must save his father’s ranch from a powerful druglord.

It should be mentioned that the film is ENTIRELY IN SPANISH, Ferrell learned the language as best he could in the weeks leading up to filming. Of course, there’s subtitles. The film was made in 24 days for a cost of only six million dollar (what they spend on lunches for a normal movie) with another eight million dollars on advertising and PR.

Does it work? Not really. It’s essentially an 8-minute Saturday Night Live sketch stretched out to 84 minutes, it gets tiresome after about 10 minutes. There’s not much to it. That being said, expect many more movies like this to come out. There’s no way that this movie can’t make money. At the TOTAL cost of fourteen million dollars, including promotion, it’ll make it’s money back opening weekend no problem. When you add on DVD/blu-ray sales and international box-office, it’ll end up being one of the most successful movies of the year. Studios much rather put out 50 movies like this a year than one movie like John Carter, for the same money spent – they have MUCH much less risk and a much higher return on investment. For this movie, we won’t even mention how it taps into the growing Spanish market in the US, that will make it do huge!

21 Jump Street

Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum star in this remake of the popular 80’s TV show 21 Jump Street that brought Johnny Depp to national attention. Like most TV-to-movie adaptions, they’ve decided to do this as an action-comedy rather than as a straight cop-drama like the original show was. Usually with these type of adaptions it’s hit or miss, and rather than being homages to what made the original series work, they’re just making fun of them. Hill and Tatum play 2 youthful looking cops who become members of the secret Jump Street unit. As part of the unit, they both go undercover in a local high school posing as students, trying to investigate a dangerous drug ring. Going back to high school is a much different experience than they expected and hilarity ensues.

It sounds like a ridiculous concept, and early trailers promoting this movie did not make it look great, but apparently the movie is great fun. Channing and Tatum are a great comedic team and will keep you laughing throughout the movie. The decision to make this into a comedy, actually ends up being an inspired choice. More than just being a dumb remake about an old TV show, it’s about “what if” you were forced to confront the same issues you did when you were younger, but faced with the knowledge that you have now.

So not only does this movie work, but it’s damn funny as well!

Jeff, Who Lives at Home

Brought to you by the Duplass Brothers, the guys who did both Cyrus and Greenberg, comes this story of a guy who’s a bit of a loser who still lives at home, despite the fact that he’s way too old. jeff, played by Jason Segel (of How I Met Your Mother fame) spends most of his days playing with himself or getting stoned (or both). His brother, played by Ed Helms (of The Office fame) thinks that his wife is cheating on him. Not much happens during the film. Jeff shops for glue. His brother ends up stalking his wife to see if anyone is doing anything with her that they shouldn’t. It’s amusing, but not over the top, kind of like a depressing Woody Allen film. If you’re into that kind of thing you’ll love it, but otherwise, don’t bother.