Alright, another weekend coming up which means we get another set of new movie releases at the theaters! This week there are 4 new movies coming out with somewhat polarized themes. You’ve got 2 R-rated, adult horror/action/thrillers: Grindhouse and The Reaping. Then there are 2 PG-rated, family friendly movies: Are We Done Yet? and Firehouse Dog. If you’re looking for a good comedy instead check out last weekend’s Will Ferrell movie, Blades of Glory. I’d highly recommend it. For this week though, I’d choose Grindhouse over the others, which would really get you 2 movies for the price of 1.

Also, it’s not too late to enter our contest to win a linkback.

Grindhouse
Director: Robert Rodriguez, Eli Roth
Starring: Kurt Russell, Rose McGowan, Danny Trejo
Rated: R for strong graphic bloody violence and gore, pervasive language, some sexuality, nudity and drug use.
Duration: 3 hrs. 12 min
Plot: Back-to-back flicks from Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. In Tarantino’s Death Proof, three Austin ladies out for a night on the town are trailed by Stuntman Mike (Russell), a scarred outsider with one killer car; in Rodriguez’s Planet Terror, a dancer (McGowan) and her ex-boyfriend (Rodríguez) are a town’s only real hope against an outbreak that turns everyday people into flesh-hungry aggressors.
My Take: Everyone is familiar with Quentin Tarintino and they are quickly become just as familiar with Robert Rodriguez following his work on Sin City in 2005. This movie looks pretty out there, just as you’d expect from these guys. I’m more interested in Death Proof than Planet Terror, but maybe that’s just because I’m more of a Kurt Russell fan than Rose McGowan. Either way, this looks worth seeing if you’ve enjoyed the past work of these directors.

The Reaping
Director: Stephen Hopkins
Starring: Hilary Swank, David Morrissey, AnnaSophia Robb
Rated: R for violence, disturbing images and some sexuality
Duration: 1 hr. 38 min.
Plot: Katherine Morrissey (Swank), a professor known for debunking miracles, heads to a small town in Texas to investigate occurrences that appear to be the 10 Biblical plagues.
My Take: I usually enjoy Hilary Swank (yeah Karate Kid IV!) and thrillers are always fun when they’re done right. From everything I’ve read and seen so far this had potential, but instead took a nasty turn down crap road. Critics are usually overly tough on films, but when it gets a D+ average from 10 reviews (NY Times, USA Today, EW, etc.) I’m likely to be cautious. The special effects will no doubt be great, but keep in mind that most “religous horror” films haven’t been so great in the recent years. Proceed with caution here.

Are We Done Yet?
Director: Steve Carr
Starring: Ice Cube, Nia Long, John C. McGinley
Rated: PG for some innuendos and brief language
Plot: Nick Persons (Ice Cube), his new wife (Nia Long), and her two kids (Allen and Bolden) leave the city behind for a fixer-upper in the ‘burbs — an investment which quickly turns from a dream into a nightmare for Nick, as the contractor (McGinley) working on the house bonds with everyone in the family … except Nick.
My Take: That tearing sound you hear is this movie ripping off every other movie ever made. It reeks of The Money Pit with the whole “buy a big beautiful house that turns into a well disguised disaster”. Then there’s the Funny Farm steal with the “let’s move from the city to the country, oh it’s wacky crazy out here for us city folk”. Maybe they thought those movies were too old for anyone in their target audience to have watched them. Shame on you.

Firehouse Dog
Director: Todd Holland
Starring: Josh Hutcherson, Bruce Greenwood, Bree Turner
Rated: PG for sequences of action peril, some mild crude humor and language
Plot: Rexxx, Hollywood’s top canine star, gets lost and is adopted into a shabby firehouse. He teams up with a young kid (Hutcherson) to get the station back on its feet.
My Take: Why’d they go with Re”xxx” for the dog’s name? Are they trying to go all subliminal sexuality on kids?! I doubt it, probably just one of a long string of bad decisions that lead to this film’s making. I’d recommend this movie for children and adults with a lobotomy. If you really need a kids’ movie this weekend and didn’t alright see it, I’d direct you to The Last Mimzy instead.

So there they are, your 4 new releases this weekend at the theaters. If you see any of them come back and let us know how they are. Have a great, movie-filled weekend.