Week of 2/20 - fashion, cheerleaders, prison... and Tyler Perry's actually interesting!

spout — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 20:10:31 GMT

NEW TO THEATRES 2/20

1. Madea Goes to Jail - Watch the trailer. Until today, I thought Tyler Perry's Madea was like a kooky update of Jim Varney's Ernest P. Worrell. (Considering Ernest Goes to Jail, can you blame me?)

Then I started looking into Tyler Perry, and even though I don't think his movies are for me, he seems like a really interesting guy. Two quotes from him on Wikipedia really caught my eye:

1) "I know my audience, and they're not people that the studios know anything about."

2) "Did you know you can't say 'Jesus' in a sitcom? They told me that and I was like, You gotta be kiddin' me...God has been too good to me to go and try to sell out to get some money."

I was impressed to learn that Tyler Perry's been writing plays since he was 18, and according to Wikipedia, by 2005 his plays earned $75 million in ticket sales! Who knew? Madea Goes to Jail itself was a stage play in 2006, and a filmed version has already appeared on DVD. Has anyone seen that?

2. Fired Up - Watch the trailer. Teen comedy, whooooooo!

Two randy football players avoid summer football camp by becoming cheerleaders.

3. Eleven Minutes (limited) - Watch the trailer. A documentary about fashion designer Jay McCarroll trying to set up an independently-produced runway show.

NEW TO DVD - 2/17

1. Quarantine - Watch the trailer. This one looked pretty thrilling to me. An inner city apartment building is subjected to a government quarantine, but what's infecting the victims?

2. Body of Lies - Watch the trailer. Kevin Buist from FilmCouch saw this and didn't love it. Here's his review.

3. Choke - Watch the trailer. Kevin Buist wasn't crazy about this one either, so maybe he's just a big fuddy-duddy. Listen to his review.

4. Changeling - Watch the trailer. This was getting a lot of Oscars buzz until everyone actually saw it. Oh well, Clint Eastwood made a winner with Gran Torino.

5. High School Musical 3 - Watch the trailer. Well, I'm sure that whatever this movie's supposed to do, it does it well. Does anyone else think 'Corbin Bleu' sounds like a gourmet meal?

6. Righteous Kill - Watch the trailer. Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro are in the same movie for only the third time. Since the first two movies were Godfather Pt. II and Heat, this third time is most definitely not 'a charm.'

7. Midnight Meat Train - Watch the trailer. Here's another dose of Bradley Cooper for everyone who's crushing (or man-crushing) on him from He's Just Not That Into You. Myself, I have a bit of a man-crush on the villain, who's played by tough-as-nails Vinnie Jones.

8. How to Lose Friends and Alienate People - Watch the trailer. Simon Pegg starts working for a pompous fashion magazine. Also stars Kirsten Dunst, Megan Fox, Jeff Bridges and Danny Huston -- all people I like. The movie didn't get very good reviews, though...

I'm looking forward to Simon Pegg teaming up with Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz) again, and I'm glad he's playing Scotty in the new Star Trek movie.

Coming Soon

Week of 2/20 - fashion, cheerleaders, prison... and Tyler Perry's actually interesting!