In Theaters: 03.21.08

Easter is unlike almost any other holiday weekend we go through in a year. Normally holidays mean big name movies because people have time off to go and see them. Both this year and last year there have been O.K. releases at best. Grindhouse was really the only one worth seeing when comparing the two. To put it lightly this week’s releases are bad. Drillbit Taylor, Shutter, and Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns are all class B movies and it shows.

The big story of the week is Judd Apatow’s spotless record becoming, well, tarnished. Some may argue that the Dewey Cox story is really the first blemish but critically speaking it did fairly well. Despite featuring the ultra-cool Owen Wilson and Apatow’s own wife, Leslie Mann, it looks like the film is going to fall flat on its face. After watching a few scenes it all looked a bit forced unlike other Apatow produced films where the main focus is on improv humor. Drillbit, on the other hand, is mostly script humor which normally needs to be accompanied by an “x” funny factor. It really isn’t the end of the world for Apatow considering he will probably release at least a few hits by the end of the year. This is just simply not one of them.

I’ll be honest; I didn’t really look into Shutter all too much. Normally I would just ignore a movie like this and write about something a little more interesting and a little less conventional. This week has left me no choice but to watch the trailer and read the synopsis. Joshua Jackson (from Dawson’s Creek fame) returns to the mysteries of ghostly death after a short break (his last film on the subject was the Wes Craven thriller, Cursed in 2005). After getting married, he and his wife Jane start to find ghostly creatures crawling around their photos. Once again American cinema fails to come up with unique ideas and instead opts to look overseas. This time it’s from Thialand and according to the synopsis this proves “that Japan and Korea don’t hold a monopoly on Asian horror.” Instead I think it should read “this proves that America doesn’t know how to make good horror films anymore.”

Tyler Perry has basically stated he doesn’t care about making good films for the general public. He knows his audiences he says, and that’s something studios don’t know a thing about. Then Rotten Tomatoes this week listed movies that paved the way for Tyler Perry and basically killed his theory. His objective is honorable but his films aren’t nearly as important to the African American community as, let’s say, Spike Lee. Anyway, you know the drill with these movies. There is the crazy huge family with the over the top dad followed by an undertone that ends the movie on a half serious note. Skip worthy at its pinnacle.

This is the week to catch all the movies you missed since many of them may be leaving theaters shortly. I would say No Country for Old Men is on its last breath (considering you can buy it on DVD now) and There Will be Blood is starting to whine down. Looking into next week you can expect to see some talk on Run, Fatboy, Run and Superhero movie.