Weekend Movies: A Whole Lotta Fluff

The gods of Mount Olympus would be sorely disappointed with this weekend’s new movies.

Two months ago, I hadn’t seen a single advert for Brett Ratner’s $100 million tale of ‘Hercules‘, yet here it is. Starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, it’s the widest debut of the weekend on nearly 3,600 screens. The Rock plays the demi-god child of Zeus (and some mortal woman) who works as a hired hand on Earth. This telling, which is actually the second Hercules movie of the year, follows Herc as he tries to stop a villain from conquering a small but important kingdom. There’s no arguing that Ratner is typically a horrible filmmaker (which is probably why Paramount didn’t bother to screen ‘Hercules’ for many critics), but this version of the Greek myth has to be worlds better than Renny Harlin’s, right?

While Luc Besson has a decent fan base, he’s churned out a lot of mediocre movies. (‘The Family‘, anyone?) This weekend we get the Frenchman’s wild new action movie, ‘Lucy‘. Scarlett Johansson stars as an American student studying abroad. The picture hits the ground running when she accidentally gets caught up with the wrong batch of drug-pushing criminals. When things go sour, their drugs turn against them and cause Lucy’s brain to become unlocked. Instead of functioning on the standard 10% level, her brain activity kicks into high gear and opens up powers beyond anything the world has seen. Imagine a female version of Neo placed mixed with ‘Limitless‘ and ‘Transcendence‘. I’m not gonna lie, some crazy shit goes down, but it’s a fun ride.

I’ve been told that a better title for Rob Reiner’s ‘And So It Goes‘ would be “It So Blows.” Starring Diane Keaton (of course, she stars in all movies like this) and Michael Douglas, it’s the story of two unlikely older singles who are brought together when one of them direly needs the help of the other. This sounds like another title that the AARP would publicly brand with a stamp of approval.

Opening on 432 screens, Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias is trying to follow in Kevin Hart’s footsteps. ‘The Fluffy Movie‘ is the latest feature-length stand-up comedy special to hit the big screen. With the Latino market showing a lot of strength recently, ‘Fluffy’ could be a big hit, but I doubt this will get an acting career rolling for him.

Finally, Focus Features expands Zach Braff’s ‘Wish I Was Here’ to 625 screens across the nation. Get out there and see it!

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