This weekend, you might want to catch up on anything you’ve missed. After Lewis’ Best Actor win for the NYFCC, Lincoln establishes an interesting race for the Best Actor Oscar. Lewis, who might just be the best actor alive today, could be the only person to win three Oscars for Best Actor. Nicholson has two with a supporting win, but no one’s topped this feat yet. Tarantino’s Django is also floating around some smaller markets if you’re into the whole pre-Civil War histrionics. The Master is still one of the better films of the years and is worth catching even if only for Phoenix’s performance. If you’re looking for something lighter, this has been a banner year for animated films. The majority of them have been smart, pithy, with minimal three-dimensional gimmickry. The best thus far have been ParaNorman, Wreck-It Ralph, Madagascar 3, and Frankenweenie.
And, if you’ve caught each of these, you might just want to prepare for next Friday’s release of The Hobbit. Sure, it’ll only set you up for another Peter Jackson trilogy (it was one book, no?), which will stretch the story further than it needs to go, but you’ve got to admire Jackson’s talent with visuals.
If you’re adventurous, this weekend brings Bill Murray as FDR in Hyde Park on the Hudson, a movie that confirms Murray’s desire to be seen as a dramatic actor. He’s had his moments. He was earnest in the otherwise hilarious Moonrise Kingdom and pretty good in the decade-old Lost in Translation, but there’s something about him that seethes comedy. I haven’t been able to watch any part of Hyde Park without expecting FDR to leap from his chair in search of a gopher, ghost, or groundhog.
End of Watch, a film about police officers, drug cartels, and confiscated money, gets a re-release this week, hoping to prime itself for Oscar season.
And then there’s the reminder that Gerard Butler peaked in 2006 with the highly mediocre, yet visually stunning 300. In the last six years, he has left a wake of hackneyed, sloppily contrived movies and shared the spotlight with actresses like Jennifer Aniston and Katherine Heigl. Their success on television has never really translated to movies, and Butler’s pairing with them only provides generic romantic comedies that are neither romantic nor funny. But, if you’re hoping for a resurgence, check out Playing for Keeps (currently running at 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, a feat accomplished last year by the incomparably bad Bucky Larson).
Butler is a former soccer player. He’s a Lothario. He coaches his son’s soccer team, and he needs to decide whether or not to grow up. Choosing immaturity = sleeping with every soccer mom around. Choosing adulthood = choosing Jessica Biel – another harbinger of bad movies.
