PREVIEW WEEKLY - FRIDAY MAY 15

Grand Readership,

Back to being on schedule! This week holds the high profile follow up to THE DA VINCI CODE, ANGELS AND DEMONS and two other smaller pictures in THE BROTHERS BLOOM and MANAGEMENT. ANGELS AND DEMONS will be hard pressed to oust STAR TREK, but then again, THE DA VINCI CODE saw wild success. Who can blame the audiences, frankly. If the only TOM HANKS I'm going to get anymore is packaged by RON HOWARD and inspired by DAN BROWN... well, I have no choice but to take it! BROTHERS BLOOM has some quiet hoopla around it - and feels like it could be a sleeper hit of sorts. MANAGEMENT won't do much, but will be a nice alternative to for the non-blockbuster crowd... Enjoy!


ANGELS AND DEMONS (DIR. RON HOWARD)

There isn't much to say about ANGELS AND DEMONS - at least in the sense that many have already made their mind up about this picture. Either you're a TOM HANKS fan or a DAN BROWN fan (or less likely a RON HOWARD fan) or for some reason just refuse to buy into the STAR TREK buzz. ANGELS AND DEMONS is a direct follow up to THE DA VINCI CODE; ROBERT LANGDON (TOM HANKS) is back - this time alongside EWAN MCGREGOR and the two are charged with tracking down a mysterious but imminent threat in the ILLUMINATI. The trailer is more a less a step by step of the plot and the cliff hanger device couldn't be more transparent. Still, DAVID KOEPP wrote the screenplay - and he's helmed so many monster hits he's in a league of his own. Like I said, you know whether or not you're going to see it... but as for me, I couldn't be less interested.


THE BROTHERS BLOOM (DIR. RIAN JOHNSON)

THE BROTHERS BLOOM sort of snuck up on me. There has been some buzz, mostly good, and it's packaged with some talented young stars in RACHEL WEISZ, ADRIEN BRODY and MARK RUFFALO. I haven't seen ROBBIE COLTRANE in a while and am eager to see what he brings to the table (seldom be the instance where he's let me down). The writer/director RIAN JOHNSON previously gave us BRICK - a well-received but puzzling picture deemed a detective noir but set among teenagers. THE BROTHERS BLOOM opens in limited cities this week and gets a wider release on MAY 22. Definitely for the quirkier crowd - we'll have to wait and see if it's a picture everyone should check out.


MANAGEMENT (DIR. STEPHEN BELBER)

MANAGEMENT is writer/director STEPHEN BELBER's first role in such a title - and I have to say it looks promising. Starring STEVE ZAHN, JENNIFER ANISTON and WOODY HARRELSON, there's enough appeal in those three to get me off my couch. Let's hope ZAHN fares better in this than his earlier entry this year, SUNSHINE CLEANING, but his failure in that was more a lack of screen time than anything else. ANISTON hasn't overdone it lately, which is perhaps a sign of maturity on her part or perhaps a lack of interest on the studios part. Whichever it is, the script seems clever enough to justify choosing... and any opportunity a women gets to make out with WOODY HARRELSON is always, at least, an interesting choice. Sadly, not much of a chance at the box office- but that it's getting a release says a lot about it. I'd check it out if you're a fan of any of the above, otherwise, waiting for the in-home release would be far from criminal.