In Theaters: May 23rd, 2014

Two wide releases this weekend!  Including one you will not want to miss.

Blended

Think of it as a prequel to Yours, Mine and Ours.  Before the Ours.

This actually looks kind of funny to me.  Both leads play single parents who go on a blind date with each other that doesn't go well.  Later, both families are vacationing in the same place (seemingly by chance, but it is a movie)!  From there the two main characters probably fall in love.

I'm not sure what else to say.  It's not like this duo has never been in the same movie before.  They've co-starred in four films starting with 1998's The Wedding Singer.

Director Frank Coraci is known for a couple other Sandler films including The Waterboy and Click, as well as Kevin James films Zookeeper and Here Comes the Boom.

I honestly have no trouble recommending this UNLESS you are only planning on one movie this weekend.  Because if that's the case you should definitely skip this (unless you don't want an action movie) and see . . .

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the genuine article, the real deal, the official bananas.

For this follow-up to X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), X-Men: First Class (2011), and The Wolverine (2013), BRYAN SINGER returns to direct.  Yes, the prodigal son has returned.  After eleven years of wandering among kryptonite, nazis, and beanstalks, Bryan Singer returns to where he started it all.  

You see, sometimes movies are put into production because it just sounds like a good idea.  But most of the time movies are put into production (greenlit) because another similar movie came before and was successful.  The current trend of superhero movies - and lots of them - started with Bryan Singer and X-Men fourteen years ago.  All of the "greenlighting" of superhero movies can be traced back to X-Men in 2000.  Bryan Singer is the one who started it all.  And he started it well.

After X-Men he went on to do X2: X-Men United (2003) which to date is one of the most loved superhero films!

After that he kinda jumped ship since he always wanted to direct a Superman movie and he got his chance with 2006's Superman Returns.  But enough with the history lesson.  He's back!

In 2012 The Avengers came out and now everyone wants their superheroes from different movies to come together in the same movie.  For Sony that means Spider-Man spin-off movies, Sinister Six and Venom.  For Warner Bros that means Batman and Superman come together in 2016.  For Fox the answer was staring them right in the face and IT.  WAS.  BRILLIANT.

They already had an "old" X-Men cast and a "young" X-Men cast.  The meeting about what to do next could not have gone very long.

Days of Future Past is a major fan-favorite storyline from the original comics.  I should emphasize it is a MAJOR FAN FAVORITE.  Like, when I heard that was the title of this movie I literally freaked out.  In the story the X-Men from the future (what's left of them) send someone back to warn the X-Men of the past about a key event that they can change to fix the future.  Pulling out this bit of source material right now for these movies may be the best production decision ever made.  I am so not even kidding.

This movie is also my pick for the biggest movie of the year.  Early reviews are in, by the way, and they are very positive.  I already have my ticket.  Where's yours?

      The one.  The only.  Big Shot Critic