Movies This Week: Tangled Hornet's Nest of Faster Burlesque Drugs
Do you like to spend part of Thanksgiving Day watching movies? Are you able to wrest the television set away from football fans, or do you prefer to sneak out of the house for a late-night escape to the nearest movie theater? Many of us like to enjoy the four-day weekend with as many films as we can pack into it.
Austin has a variety of big Hollywood movies opening in theaters today, just in time for the holiday weekend ... and some indies are still around to enjoy too. I know I'll be at a theater at least once for something, but I haven't picked out the specifics yet.
Movies We've Seen:
Tangled -- The latest "princess" movie from Disney is based on tower-bound Rapunzel ... but unlike other Disney fairy-tale films, this one is in 3D and doesn't use hand-drawn animation. Still, Mike Saulters says it's an excellent film you won't want to miss, and tells us why in his review. (wide, in 2D and 3D)
Other New Movies:
Burlesque (pictured at top) -- Christina Aguilera and Cher team up in a movie that people keep calling Showgirls 2. And ooh, I see Kristen Bell is in it too, and Stanley Tucci! I admit to a certain guilty curiosity, and in fact I'm sorry the movie didn't screen for press since Don was dying to review it and (he doesn't realize) I was going to make him take me to the screening. But I'm not an Aguilera fan, and today's reviews say things like "weak imitation Bob Fosse" (Karina Longworth), so I don't feel inclined to make the effort to catch this in a theater. (wide)
Faster -- Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson stars in this revenge thriller with Tom Berenger and Billy Bob Thornton and ... zzzzz. I can't seem to find this at all interesting, I'm not sure why. (wide)
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest -- The third and last (so far) installment in the Swedish trilogy that began with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo hits Austin today. I've become increasingly less interested in the movies as the series continues, but Marc Savlov's review in the Austin Chronicle tempts me to check this one out in a theater. (Arbor)
Love and Other Drugs -- My first reaction on seeing the trailer was "Oooh! Oliver Platt and Hank Azaria in the same movie!" My second reaction was, "Wait, who are all these other people and why are they so boring? I want more Oliver Platt!" I should probably just go revisit the first season of Huff. Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal are the actual stars of this film about an ambitious pharmaceutical rep and a woman fearful of her longterm health, set in the 1990s. Yeah. Wonder if Huff is on Netflix Watch Instantly. No. Damn. (wide)
Break Ke Baad -- This week's new Bollywood film at Tinseltown South is about a couple's post-breakup relationship. (Tinseltown South)
Our Picks This Week:
Chip: This week I'm kicking off my big end-of-year DVD watching spree. The Netflix announcement of a streaming-only plan (yay!!!) was accompanied by a big price hike in the mailed physical artifacts plans (boo!!!). The price changes (I'll pay $24/mo for 3 discs at a time, Blu-ray included) kick in for current subscribers at the end of the year. Might be time to renew my membership at the (locally owned) corner video store.
Debbie: What better way to enjoy Thanksgiving holidays with family and friends than seeing the latest installment of a family favorite, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1? Check out Jette's review for her thoughts on the latest installment. I hope that I'll break my streak of dozing off during the third act of almost every HP movie -- remember the human chess scene?
Don: It's impossible to get my family members to agree on a movie to watch, so I'm not likely to see any films with them during the holiday weekend. However, next week I'm planning to see The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, the final film based on Stieg Larsson's trilogy of Swedish-but-not-at-all-Swedish crime novels. If the third film is as entertaining as the first two, it's definitely worth seeing.
Elizabeth: I'll be continuing our tradition of watching 1947's Miracle on 34th Street (my dad refers to it as the one with "the real Santa") on Thanksgiving evening. Then while everyone else is shopping on Black Friday, we're planning to see HP 7.1.
Jette: The choices for tonight alone are amazing: Alamo Ritz is showing both Marwencol (my review) and the always-wonderful Sunset Blvd., and I am tempted by the Weird Wednesday midnight screening of Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, which features Jeff Bridges circa 1974. And next week, Alamo Village's Digital Classics series continues with the holiday-appropriate It's a Wonderful Life (Mon. through Thurs.) Thinking we might catch Four Lions (Mike's review) over the weekend, as well.