Spiderman will clearly be the biggest draw this weekend unless you are part of the millions of Katy Perry fans who have never been able to afford to see her live. In that case, you can watch her story unfold before your very eyes. Or, you could check out Oliver Stone’s most recent film in which he explores various levels of corruption and reminds us that we’re all uber-violent and filled with hate.
The Amazing Spider Man: I’m not going to argue that the last Spiderman franchise that ended by wasting one of the most popular characters in comic book history doesn’t require a reboot. In fact, I’d like my money back, my memory erased, and those two hours refunded to me as lay on my deathbed. I’m probably not going to flock to see the darker, grittier imagining. Andrew Garfield seems a solid choice as does Emma Stone as the often elided Gwen Stacy. However, I’m not sure if I want to see Spiderman as a laboratory experiment gone wrong. I’m not sure that I can believe his father and uncle’s respective deaths were part of a grand conspiracy. All in all, the graphics and special effects for this first installment will be superior to those in the Tobey Maguire franchise, but, given the time between, that is expected.
Savages: If this movie had been released in the early nineties, I probably would have been shoving my way into a crammed theater to see it. However, Oliver Stone hasn’t really been relevant since Natural Born Killers and maybe even Platoon. His movies are ripe with wonky conspiracy theory, overdramatized caricatures, and skewed political agendas that masquerade as poignant but are more similar to conjecture. The football sequences in Any Given Sunday are superbly entertaining, but the not so subtle analogy of players and livestock is a bit overdone – as is Cameron Diaz’s character. It might actually be the only post-Scent of a Woman in which Al Pacino’s gesticulations are outdone by the rest of the cast. Wall Street 2 is a mere vehicle for contemporary relevance and Alexander might have been the silliest thing I’ve ever seen. Savages promises to be brutal, most likely contains some sort of random twist, and highlights the depths of corruption, but I’ll have a hard time giving money to the Stone machine.
The Magic of Belle Isle: I’m not sure even Morgan Freeman could save this quotidian tale. He’s a writer who’s lost his inspiration – most likely from seeking it in a bottle of Jack Daniels – until a family shows him the silver lining in the remaining twilight of his life. A hundred dollars says he also narrates.
Katy Perry: Part of Me: While I can tolerate Perry more than the likes of Miley Cyrus, Nicky Minaj, Justin Beiber, or Lady Gaga, I’m uncertain about the interest in her life story. Perhaps the 3D will make her rather strict religious upbringing more exciting, but I’m not sure whether or not this movie is better suited for a Behind the Music special or two. It seems sad that other artists have failed where Madonna succeeded. I’m not really a fan of the contemporary Madonna, but her Truth or Dare documentary offered a stylized film of real trials and tribulations. This in turn took her symbolic sex appeal and humanized her, showing emotion, dedication, and frustration.
