Weekend Movies: Don’t Toy with Me

After a few congested weekends, this one takes a step back with just two new wide releases of mild interest. One’s a product-placing teenage horror flick and the other’s an R-rated shoot-’em-up.

The biggest release is the supposedly scary, PG-13 ‘Ouija‘. Just in time for Halloween, this completely clean and generic Michael Bay and Jason Blum production is perfect for teenagers who are too old to trick-or-treat and too young to get into ‘Annabelle’. From Hasbro, the picture serves as product placement for the supposedly satanic board game that allows players to speak with the dead. After a seemingly sweet girl unexpectedly commits suicide, her best friend (Olivia Cooke) sets off down a dangerous path using a Ouija board to crack the case.

Keanu Reeves returns to the big screen for the first time since last year’s flop ’47 Ronin’. Much like ‘The Equalizer’, ‘John Wick‘ tells the story of a retired badass who goes back to his old ways in order to take down a slew of bad guys. Word of mouth has it that ‘Wick’ is an entertaining over-the-top action flick that deserves to be seen – something that can’t be said about most movies from Summit Entertainment.

On the indie front is the Sundance favorite ‘White Bird in a Blizzard‘. Shailene Woodley stars as a kid who returns home from college and confronts the dark past she failed to accept as a child when her mother mysteriously disappeared. Eva Green, Thomas Jane, Christopher Meloni and Angela Bassett co-star.

Fellow Sundance 2014 entry ‘Laggies‘ also debuts in art house cinemas. Keira Knightley stars in the Lynn Shelton comedy about a twenty-something who escapes adulthood by returning home and hiding out amongst the teenagers, including Chloe Grace Moretz. Sam Rockwell and Mark Webber co-star, so what’s not to like about the prospects for this one?’

Finally, for those hipster Bill Murray fans out there, ‘St. Vincent‘ also expands nationwide this weekend.

2 comments

  1. Chapz Kilud

    I watched John Wick on IMAX and Ouija on ETX this weekend. As bad as Ouija was rated, I thought I got more out of my money than I did with John Wick. I really wanted to see White Bird in a Blizzard. Usually my theater would have limited release movies. But this time it didn’t. In fact the entire 700 miles radius in the east coast only had 1 theater playing that movie.

  2. Elizabeth

    It’s depressing that Ouija made that kind of money. I actually enjoyed Hasbro’s Battleship; to me it was obviously dumb fun. But this just seems like dumb with no fun. I’m going to hold out in the hopes that they make a Magic 8 Ball movie. They can then follow it up with a girl-friendly sequel for the Magic Date Ball.

    Can a Yahtzee movie be far behind?

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