In Theaters: April 11th, 2014

There are three wide releases coming this weekend!  And it's a very special weekend.  Read on to find out why!

Draft Day

this is the 2nd time this year Kevin Costner has been on a movie poster, dressed up, tie loosened, squared up to the camera, filling the frame, object in right hand, with the word "day" in the title.  Coincidence?  Definitely.

I know very little about the NFL.  The trailer for this movie tries to be as informative as possible, and it does a very good job of it.  From the trailer I learn that it takes place in Cleveland, the title obviously refers to the day the NFL teams draft from the college teams, Kevin Costner's character is under a lot of pressure to do something amazing, and he ignores whatever conventional wisdom has been used before.  I am impressed because that is a lot of information to get across in two minutes.  It only leaves one question: why is this exciting?  Why is it worth making a movie over it?

Ivan Reitman is a director from the old world.  He had a lot of success in the late 80's and early 90's with movies like Ghostbusters, Dave, and Kindergarden Cop (and Ghostbusters 2).  After that, however, his resumé gets less consistent without any particular type of movie shining through.  But then Kevin Costner is an actor who peaked in that era too, isn't he?  And he's been able to remain quite valid.

The writers have done - well one of them is literally credited with nothing before this.  The other is credited with three television episodes for two different shows.

So we have two people that are very new to this field and two others who are riding the line between valid and has-been.  And they're making a movie about an old dog franchise manager bringing fresh faces into his team.

Is life imitating art or is art imitating life?

This is not a philosophy blog.

Oculus

If you read much of this blog you know I don't care for horror films much.  This looks like a strong candidate to be one of those movies that aims for a layered story but instead is just convoluted.

The writers and the director are the team responsible for the short film upon which this feature is based.  And as far as I can tell that is the only qualification they have.

Horror movies are a staple of film school weirdos.  I don't think anyone knows why.  And it's a fair bet this director simply emerged at the top of the weirdos and that is how he got produced.

I don't have much hope for this one.

Rio 2

I think this movie looks really dumb, but a lot of that has to do with my personal distaste for Jesse Eisenberg.  And Anne Hathaway.

Rio 2 is from the same director as Ice Age, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, and Rio.  So if you liked the first one you'll like the second one.  But if you don't like Jesse Eisenberg (or Anne Hathaway) then you probably won't.

      The one.  The only.  Big Shot Critic

And the reason this weekend is special is because all these films come out on my birthday!  Woo-hoo!