Weekend Movies: A Shot to the Head (Too Soon?)

Seeing the box office steam that the latest James Bond flick has been generating overseas for the last two weeks, it’s a very good thing that no other studio has pitted another nationwide release against it. All bow for Bond.

After a longer-than-expected wait, Daniel Craig is back as 007 in ‘Skyfall‘. My own opinion aside, the consensus from both the critics and (based on the box office so far) general audiences has been praise for Sam Mendes’ chapter in the James Bond series. The blend of Craig’s brutal Bond with the one-liner and gadget-filled basics seems to be what The People want. The movie opens on 3,505 screens, at least 300 of which are IMAX. The IMAX showings feature an “opened-up” aspect ratio of 1.9:1, just like June’s ‘Prometheus‘.

The only other big movie opening this weekend is Steven Spielberg’s historical drama ‘Lincoln‘, but it only debuts on 11 screens. Based on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s ‘Team of Rivals‘, which has been deemed the most accurate historical account of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, the film has also been similarly praised as a masterpiece. I would have liked to have a review of ‘Lincoln’ up for you by now, but a corrupt hard drive caused my press screening to be canceled at the last minute. Hopefully a replacement screening will be set up soon so that I can give you a review before its nationwide expansion next weekend.

A Chinese/Singapore/South Korean co-produced adaptation of ‘Dangerous Liaisons‘ gets a limited release this weekend. I don’t know much about the cast and crew, but seeing Ziyi Zhang of ‘Hero‘, ‘Crouching Tiger‘ and ‘Flying Dagger‘ fame gives it some credibility.

As if one foreign tale of promiscuity and seduction wasn’t enough, the Demark/Sweden/Czech Republic co-production ‘A Royal Affair‘ also opens limited today. From the adapter of the original ‘Dragon Tattoo‘ movies and starring Mads Mikkelsen, ‘A Royal Affair’ seems promising.

I’d never heard of ‘Nature Calls‘ until researching for this post, but the little indie comedy features a mostly stellar cast. Patton Oswalt, Johnny Knoxville (remember, I said “mostly stellar cast”), Rob Riggle, Patrice O’Neil, Darrell Hammond and Maura Tierney star in this dirty, vulgar and highly offensive summer camp flick.

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