Box Office Blitz!

This is a big weekend for new movie releases. After a few weeks of big movies trickling into the theaters the studios are going to try and take advantage of the long holiday weekend and lonely Jews on Christmas with a bunch of big releases.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
D: Jake Kasdan
C: John C. Reilly, Jenna Fischer, Tim Meadows, the Apatow Gang
Be sure to look out for The Beatles being played by Paul Rudd (John), Jack Black (Paul), Justin Long (George), and Jason Schwartzman (Ringo). There is also, Frankie Muniz as Buddy Holly and Jack White as Elvis. Second, actual rock stars making cameos.
I’m just happy this Judd Apatow produced (he also co-wrote with Kasdan) movie is finally coming out, maybe now they can cut the shit with the over the top promotional campaign. It has been insane; John C. Reilly on TRL, really?!?!? They have been pushing this movie so much I was beginning to see Reilly’s face in my sleep. Can you imagine how bad it would have been if Will Ferrell was in this one? I think even Apatow realized how sublimely ridiculous it has been, which is why we got this gem.

Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
D: Tim Burton
C: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Sacha Baron Cohen, Alan Rickman
Tim Burton brings this Stephen Sondheim musical, about a wrongly imprisoned barber in Victorian England out for revenge, to the big screen. After Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Big Fish, and Planet of the Apes, I have little faith in Burton (who used to be one of my favorites). I am interested to see if he returns to form working with this dark and bloody material. I have no idea what to think about the prospect of Johnny Depp singing, but I did hear him describe his singing voice as a little bit David Bowie, so that works. Also, Depp really can do no wrong in my book (and that’s after seeing The Libertine). And then there’s Alan Rickman; I would vote for Rickman for President, Article 2 of the Constitution be damned!

National Treasure: Book of Secrets
D: Jon Turteltaub
C: Nicolas Cage, John Voight, Helen Mirren, Diane Kruger, Ed Harris, Justin Bartha, Harvey Keitel
Not content with finding treasure worth enough money to end world hunger, save the rainforest, cure AIDS, stop global warming, and pay for all of Lindsay Lohan’s blow in 2007 (A LOT!). Cage and gang are back for another whacky treasure hunt; this time with Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth, and The President’s Book of Secrets.

Charlie Wilson’s War
D: Mike Nichols
C: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams
Based on George Crile's book about the CIA's largest and most successful covert CIA operation, the arming of the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan. The operation was engineered by Charlie Wilson (Hanks) a liberal Texas Congressman and a rogue CIA Agent (Hoffman). The pair manipulated the US Government and a host of foreign officials in order to assist Afghani rebels in their fight against the Soviets in the ‘80s at the end of the Cold War.

Fun Fact: Those rebels funded and armed by Wilson and Co. went on to become the military arm of the Taliban. You know those wild and crazy guys that protected Osama Bin Laden. Ouch.