In Theaters: 03.28.08

For a second last week I thought people would actually go see Drillbit Taylor. But the moment passed and now word is out that it kind of… sucked. The lack of good movies meant Horton Hears a Who! would end up on top again for its second straight week. However, this week brings in some actual competition like Kimberly Peirce’s long awaited follow-up to Boys Don’t Cry (Remember? It’s the movie that ended up being a total pun because Hillary Swank was the boy — so boys actually didn’t cry). There’s also the new Jim Sturgess/ Kevin Spacey/ Kate Bosworth card flipping drama, 21.

Gambling movies used to be sort of fun, stuff like Oceans 11, The Cooler, or even Casino Royal (why not?). That’s what the creators of 21 were looking to bring back this week but they forgot that fun element. 21 is based on a real life story of a group of MIT students (and professor) that hatch a plan to rip off some Vegas casinos with a little card counting. The story’s main focus is on Ben Campbell, an MIT student who just got into Harvard Med but is having trouble raising the moolah needed to get in. Kevin Spacey plays Professor Micky Rosa who needs an extra counter in order to put his plan into action. Ben, reluctant at first, ends up joining the crew and then things turn sour. I guess all those MIT smarts don’t translate into commonsense. The main problem with the movie seems to be it’s transformation from book to movie. Most of the true to life elements were replaced by fabrications which ended up becoming even more dull than the original nonfiction story. Instead of 21 I would go with a better Kevin Spacey film to save yourself a few bucks. Maybe something like Seven or American Beauty when he’s at his best.

Run, Fatboy, Run is Friend’s star David Schwimmer’s first attempt at making a full length motion picture and from what’s been said so far, it shows. I’m not even quoting the reviews it’s been receiving. No, that would be too easy. I heard this out of Schwimmer’s own mouth when I was watching Conan O’Brien the other night. He didn’t come right out and say “my movie sucks” exactly, but he did say he would like to redo plenty of things. I’ll give him points for being honest at least. With that said, I’m embarrassed to say that I’ll probably find myself watching this on HBO some lonely afternoon. Can’t wait.

We’re at the last STOP on this party train (my final attempt at petty humor). Stop-Loss was actually something I discovered only a few weeks ago. The fact that Joseph Gordon-Levitt was on a big poster at my local Cineplex was what drew me in initially. Then I read the small print about it being from the same director as Boys Don’t Cry. Plus I don’t mind Ryan Phillippe, I thought he did an admirable job in Breach last year. So with all these things combined I naturally thought Stop-Loss could be a generally good film (I didn’t think it would be great because the poster made it look like a jeans ad for Levis — see above). I think if you were excited to hear about all the same things I mentioned you could do a lot worse this weekend. The timing couldn’t be any better considering the state of America at the moment. However, this looks like a prime rental more than anything else.

Last week I promised to talk about Superhero movie but I’m going to break that promise for the sake of my sanity. I’m just trying to figure out why they are retreading old water. Didn’t Epic Movie already cover this?