Weekend Movies: Two of the Worst Films of Their Genres

Both of this week’s big openers fail at doing what they’re meant to do. The animated family flick is chock full of less-than-entertaining content and the R-rated comedy isn’t funny in the slightest. Mark this up as another weekend to catch up on the Oscar winners.

Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax‘ takes the screen with a great voice cast, including Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Ed Helms and Danny DeVito. Considering that the movie is titled after the Lorax character, it’s strange that the Lorax is hardly in it. While it’s a musical, Efron and Swift don’t have a single song. All are handed to Helms. But the worst part is the heavy-handed environmental and political slugs in the gut that will make your children stir-crazy during the 100% serious second half. You’ve been warned.

Todd Philips seems to be getting darker and darker with each film. Serving as producer, ‘Project X‘ only furthers this idea. In this unfunny found-footage comedy about three prick teenagers throwing the wildest party in hopes of losing their virginity and becoming popular, people die and hate crimes are made to look cool. But, according to the moral, it’s okay because the kids walk away popular in the end. Avoid ‘Project X’, the world’s longest montage, at all costs.

The limited release that I wish was opening wide is Focus Feature’s ‘Being Flynn‘. When I interviewed star Paul Dano at Sundance (yes, I just name-dropped), he said in a very polite way that this is Robert De Niro’s best work in a very long time. Based on the novel ‘Another Bullshit Night in Suck City’, it’s a comedic father/son drama written and directed by Paul Weitz. Here’s to hoping that it’s more like ‘About a Boy’ than ‘Little Fockers‘. Hopefully it will expand its platform release in the very near future.

Also opening is ‘Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie‘, a film that premiered at Sundance to less-than-positive reviews. Apparently, the movie is an Adult Swim show episode stretched very thin.

1 comment

  1. JM

    Robert De Niro died in 1997. But he went out like Scarface.

    Heat. Casino. Cop Land. Wag The Dog. Jackie Brown. Ronin.

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