Grand Readership,
Welcome back to another PREVIEW WEEKLY - this one for the un-exciting week of APRIL 10! We have a DISNEY picture with widespread appeal and yet another sloppy-comedy. If I thought LAST weekend was time to catch up on rentals or missed flicks, I didn't have the foresight to see this one coming. Alas - be picky, be choosy - I'd just about avoid them all! Enjoy! (and if I'm way off, don't be timid, remind me)
HANNAH MONTANA: THE MOVIE (DIR. PETER CHELSOM)
WALT DISNEY isn't shy about milking the cash cow that is HANNAH MONTANA/MILEY CYRUS. It was barely a year ago that her 3D concert film launched (to moderate success) and this film feels like a natural progression and features (for better or worse) the autobiographical tale of MILEY CYRUS' two identities. If you haven't been paying attention, one is a teen-pop-phenom and the other is a quiet country gal. As awful as this sounds on paper, CYRUS has an enormous following, so she must be doing something right. A DISNEY bomb is rare and this should please millions and rival FAST AND FURIOUS for the top spot at the box office.
OBSERVE AND REPORT (DIR. JODY HILL)
Those who know me, know I've been on record calling for a sabbatical from SETH ROGEN for months. Everything he touches feels instantly played and if I'm forced to sit through another picture with a thousand awkward ROGEN glances, I just might keel over. It isn't a promising sign that DIRECTOR JODY HILL'S entry to TV via the HBO series EAST BOUND & DOWN was a disastrous six episode stint. I'm a huge ANNA FARRIS fan - but can't imagine her presence saving OBSERVE AND REPORT, although I do suspect she's already regretting adding this to her resume. Doesn't have a chance at the box office and hopefully we can all forget this ever happened.
DRAGONBALL EVOLUTION (DIR. JAMES WONG)
There is little reason to think DRAGONBALL will be a success on any level - although it's foreign appeal may skew the box office figures. Still, JAMES WONG gave us FINAL DESTINATION (and the third one of the series), so he's proven he can handle the launch of a franchise. Having said that, the effects look amateur at best, the cast is a mess and the plot couldn't be more irrelevant (and recollects a level on nonsense not realized on screen since the MORTAL KOMBAT films). Seems to be a sure case of material that should have remained in it's original genre(s).
ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL (DIR. SACHA GERVASI)
At first glance one may think this the Canadian version of SPINAL TAP. But alas, ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL is no mockumentary, but a compassionate portrait of a Canadian metal band that never made it big, despite claims of influence on Metallica and Slayer (among other smash hit metal bands). Here we follow what could be a final European tour and the recording of yet another album, on which rides the celebrity hopes of the now-fifties rockers. Frankly, a story about a group of people who, through either luck or lack of talent, never became hits doesn't seem like a good sell considering the multitude of current global crisis. If it peaks your interest, you're already ahead of me and from what people have been saying, you won't be disappointed.
