Opening This Weekend!!

[ayaa1977]

September is indeed the dumping ground for the studios. Last week All about Steve opened, which is a film that was shelved since 2008, apparently to cash on the success of Sandra Bullock's The Proposal and Bradley Cooper's fame from The Hangover. The trailer looked brutal and critics say it is the lowest film in Sandra Bullock's career and that says something. Rotten Tomatoes gives it 6% and metacritics gives it 17%. Even the poster looks retarded.

This weekend two more films opened to a grim response from the critics community. The first one is Whiteout with Kate Beckinsale, a thriller set in the Antarctic. This one stands at 4%@RT and 33%@metacritics. Too bad because I was mildly interested in this one. The second film is a legal thriller with Michael Douglas Beyond Reasonable Doubt. This one is receiving a perfect score of ZERO@RT and 35%@metacritics.

In a brighter note 9 is opening this weekend too and it is getting a significantly better reviews (56%@RT and 60%@metacritcs). So it is not much but it is something.

Further down the road, Diablo Cody/Megan Fox's horror comedy Jennifer's Body is getting unfavorable scores from all the 5 reviews that are posted on Rotten Tomatoes, and if that doesn't change that would be the biggest blow for me personally.  

[animatedude]

whatever this September holds,it's more interesting than the whole summer.if we are talking US release dates,you get,Gamer,Extract,9,Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,Jennifer's Body,The Informant! and Surrogates.this is more diverse and interesting than the last 3 shit months.

September developed a reputation for being dumping ground for the studios which is not entirely true,September is also becoming a period for movies that studios think they are not going to compete very well with summer blockbusters or for movies that studios isn't sure of or for movies that not worth dumping in a busy fall.so they release the movie in September,if it fails,they can dump the DVD around Christmas.

so basically you get a diverse interesting line up,September is becoming interesting year after year i must say.

[ayaa1977]

I never said this month's releases aren't interesting, I just stated the fact that it's a dumping ground, and your post elaborated on that and further proved my point. However, chances are the shittiest films of the year will end up released in this period of time, and those will overshadow the good ones that are accompanied them.

Anyway, I find that the period that follows Toronto's Film Festival a period of good releases so that is a sliver of hope, No Country for Old Men and Slumdog Millionaire the last two Oscar winners premiered there, so we'll have to wait and see. 

[animatedude]

yeah i must say i'm so looking forward to this fall...

[ayaa1977]

I will start with the US releases:

The Informant!
Soderbergh and Damon, of course it will be good. The majority of the critics say so with 75%@RT by now. It is not a film that would make lots of money neither it is expected to be awards contender, but it looks a lot of fun especially as satirical look at whistle-blowers film.

Jennifer's Body
This Megan Fox/Diablo Cody's combo of horror comedy is banned by critics, with 33%@RT. Either Ms. Cody started to feel the critical backlash after Juno's honeymoon, or she is just a one hit wonder. May be horror comedy is just not her forte, and with Megan Fox grabbing the media attention with her shenanigans, this film is doomed at the gate. Still even if it is a train wreck I would see it one way or another.

Love Happens
Aaron Eckhart and Jennifer Aniston stars in a romantic drama directed by a first time director Brandon Camp. I am only intrigued because of Aaron Eckhart's presence. It is getting 48%@RT which is neither great nor bad for a film of this genre.


There is also limited release/Oscar material film: Jane Campion's Bright Star. I am not the biggest fan, I never felt like checking out The Piano or A Portrait of a Lady her most famous works, and I don't think I am going to start now.

As for the GCC releases:

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatball
So far this film is loved universally and anonymously by the critics community with 100%@RT and it is expected to do well considering that its modest budget (estimated between $30-50 millions). I am not sold on this one, if it is not Pixar I usually don't go all gaga about animated films, at least not anymore. It is opening simultaneously in the US and the GCC.

District 9:
The late summer phenomenon that surprised everyone. Over a $100 millions in the US and still rolling.

Dil Pole Hadippa
First big Bollywood release in weeks and it marks a comeback for Rani Mukherjee and second big release for the Hot! Hot! Hot! Shahid Kapur. It looks like fun but I don't that the pairing of these two is a great one because frankly she looks older than him. 

There are also the lukewarmly received Management staring Jennifer Aniston and Steve Zahn, Michael Winterbottom's Genova, and first of a series of Salman Khan's  films Wanted.

Bahrain Eid releases are not clear and may be Animatedude can report about them.     

[animatedude]

will report bokra inshallah.

i think i'm going to watch "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatball" tomorrow,i'm excited it's getting very good reviews.i didn't expect all these negative reviews forJennifer's Body tbh.i look forward to Bright Star because it got very good reviews in the last few months.

all in all i'm excited and can't for this fall,i think it's going to get way way much better..

[animatedude]

i don't quite understand why they have to wait until Eid to release big movies! first,who goes to cinema on eid day?! second,if there's a good time they release big movies then it's the last 10 days of Ramadan cos families are out shopping for Eid so it's better to get their money now before they run out of money on Eid.

Bahrain Eid releases are:

Dana cinema: they released "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" today which i think is the only movie they have this Eid,the cinema reaches a new low with releasing one movie for Eid and guess what? there was no water in the bathrooms today.

Seef cinemas: they released "Orphan" today but for Eid day it's quite confusing as the posters say something else than what it says on their website but i think they are gonna release:"District 9","Ong Bak 2","Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" (shared with Dana cinema?,i dunno) and "Bandslam".

it's either "Inglourious Basterds" is being butchered or they are gonna release it next weekend.

[ayaa1977]

Dana has been in a slippery slop for a while. It is not that they release bad films, it is just that the management and the staff seems careless about improving their service and keeping their customers happy, so you go there because you have to watch a certain film which plays their exclusively not because you want to. Their website is even shittier than the Seef website. It is now became mainly a refugee for +1 year old Egyptian films that caters mainly for "your beloved" fellow citizens, and they don't release new films on weekly basis like the rest of multiplex around the world. Even freakin' Haagen-Dazs closed down in that godforsaken mall.   

[animatedude]

lol,i thought i'm the only one who misses Haagen-Dazs.Dana mall is a clear example of a good spot with big potential ruined because it's run by monkeys.

believe it or not i've exchanged hate emails with the boss of a Dana cinema over the years,it's that bad.i called them a few months ago asking them why you are not updating your website? and they were like "the guy is responsible for the website is on vacation" lol.

i think they will close down at some point after BCC cinema opens this month.

[ayaa1977]

i think they will close down at some point after BCC cinema opens this month.

Not unless they lose the exclusivity they have with their releases. Probably that is why they are so careless and crapy. They have a good product and they know it.

As for Haagen-Dazs, you have two branches, as I recall, in Khobar. When you are in Bahrain, try Marble Slab Creamery in BCC or in Seef,  it is really great.  

[animatedude]

i think they will close down at some point after BCC cinema opens this month.

Not unless they lose the exclusivity they have with their releases. Probably that is why they are so careless and crapy. They have a good product and they know it.

As for Haagen-Dazs, you have two branches, as I recall, in Khobar. When you are in Bahrain, try Marble Slab Creamery in BCC or in Seef,  it is really great. 

good point but guess what? they've been losing their "exclusivity" to Seef cinema for years.the only thing that keeps them going in this business is because they rely on Fox and Sony major releases.well,Fox didn't have a big hit for a long time and their major releases are slowly moving to Seef cinema.

i'm not sure if we still have Haagen-Dazs in al Rashid mall,in Riyadh i'm sure it closed down,at least the one i know in front of Gazzaz closed down.it's a shame,i used to love Haagen-Dazs a lot,even before it opened in Saudi,i used to buy their products  from Safeway but now i've completely forgotten about them..

btw,have you ever been to SAR cinemas? it's the best in Bahrain,so far.it's small hidden cinema in albuday.it's all Bahrainis and Europeans in there,it's a place that no Saudis know about except me lol

[ayaa1977]

i'm not sure if we still have Haagen-Dazs in al Rashid mall,in Riyadh i'm sure it closed down,at least the one i know in front of Gazzaz closed down.it's a shame,i used to love Haagen-Dazs a lot,even before it opened in Saudi,i used to buy their products  from Safeway but now i've completely forgotten about them..

btw,have you ever been to SAR cinemas? it's the best in Bahrain,so far.it's small hidden cinema in albuday.it's all Bahrainis and Europeans in there,it's a place that no Saudis know about except me lol

I haven't been to Rashid Mall since last year so I don't know whether it is there still. Khober for me is a hob lately, I land there on Sama or Nas, rent a car and off I go to the Causeway. But I am pretty sure I saw one on Khober's waterfron the last time I was there. We have a sole branch in Jeddah located in one of the hottest malls Redsea Mall which is where all the "cool kids" hangs out so obviously I don't like to go there more often. God help us if they allaw cinema in Saudi Arabia they will fuck it up for the rest of us.

As for SAR cinema I've heard of it but I don't know its exact location. For a small country, Bahrain is a big maze when it comes to driving around. I don't like annoying viewers no matter what nationality they are, I would not mind to be alone in the dark as long as I get to watch my film without interruption.

[animatedude]

oh you should go to al Rashid Mall soon,i was shopping there today and i literally wanted to blow myself up..

[ayaa1977]

oh you should go to al Rashid Mall soon,i was shopping there today and i literally wanted to blow myself up..

Thanks but no thanks! I am good without.

P.S. Just made it to my# 1000 post, yippee!!! 

[ozzylogic]

oh you should go to al Rashid Mall soon,i was shopping there today and i literally wanted to blow myself up..

Thanks but no thanks! I am good without.

P.S. Just made it to my# 1000 post, yippee!!! 

Congratulations! Keep the spam coming!