After two crazy weeks filled with five new wide releases each, we have a quieter slate of new releases ahead, with just three new movies set to hit the big screen. We’ve got another attempted hit on a President, a game of hide and seek gone horribly wrong, and a Christian-heavy flick. Get ready for Angel Has Fallen, Ready Or Not, and Overcomer.
Just remember, I’m not reviewing these movies, but rather predicting where they’ll end up on the Tomatometer. Let’s take a look at This Rotten Week has to offer.
Secret Service Agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) has had a bit of an up and down career. First he stood there as the President’s wife careened off a cliff to her death only to save the day when Koreans laid waste to the White House in Olympus Has Fallen (49%). Then he was on hand when terrorists pulled out all the stops to raze the world’s leadership in London Has Fallen (26%). Now he’s on the run after being framed for an attempted assassination attempt on the next President. The bad guys simply won’t stop coming at our top guy, and the new adventure is titled Angel Has Fallen.
Ric Roman Waugh directs after helming Shot Caller (66%) and penning Snitch (56%). These kind of action movies are decent popcorn flicks with very little backbone. That’s the hallmark of the Has Fallen franchise, and they do well at the box office with the first two films earning almost $300 million at the box office. That being said, they really don’t do all that well with professional critics, and I expect that it winds up with a Rotten Tomatoes score similar to those of its predecessors in the series.
Getting married and meeting your spouse’s family can be hair-raising and nerve-wracking on it’s own. Now imagine that family also decides that on your wedding night they’ll be tracking you down hunter-killer style throughout their mansion with the sole intent of icing you before daybreak. Not exactly a perfect honeymoon or grounds for trust later on down the line when it comes to family get-togethers, but such is the set up for the new thriller Ready Or Not.
This new horror/dark comedy has the Le Doma family playing the part of the stalkers, being bound to an ancient tradition of killing new members of the family. They also look woefully out of their depth on that front, leading to what looks like a lot of laughs. It’s doing great out of the gate with a cool 100% score with 16 reviews registered. Critics are heaping praise on the style, script and scares. It will drop over the course of the week, but this one looks like a win.
Alex Kendrick writes, directs and stars in Overcomer, which tells the story of a high school basketball coach who turns into a track coach to help a struggling athlete overcome (get it?) obstacles on her way to a championship. How do they do it? A little bit of practice and a whole lot of prayer. It’s heavy on the Christian themes, and this movie has a very specific target audience.
Kendricks’ other films include War Room (33%), Courageous (33%), Fireproof (40%) and Facing the Giants (14%). All all of them have a very strong Christian influence, and all underwhelmed critics. I can’t imagine this latest will be any different. The movie notes read like an After (Sunday) school Special and nothing more.
I had a nice run last time around with four of the five movies falling within ten percent of my predictions. The Angry Birds Movie 2 (Predicted: 75% Actual: 76%) well outpaced the original (44%) and landed as a critical win. That’s rare to see from the second movie in a series, but this one had a new crew at the helm and they churned out a visually pleasing film that did better with the story than the original.
With Blinded By The Light (Predicted: 92% Actual: 90%) I had a head start, but all the same it will go down as one of the best reviewed wide releases of the year. The story of one British man’s love of Bruce Springsteen and how it helped him grow as a writer while also creating a wedge with his family is an unlikely story, but it landed with critics in a big way.
Good Boys (Predicted: 80% Actual: 80%) was a prediction that hit right on the nose. The “Superbad in Middle School” vibe was a hit with reviewers, with an appreciation of the movie’s sense of humor a common thread in a lot of the write-ups. It’s not easy for comedies like this to finish with such an excellent score.
I ticked up Where’d You Go, Bernadette (Predicted: 50% Actual: 43%) just a tad from where I wanted to originally score it (41%) because Richard Linklater directed it, and I tend to give his work the benefit of the doubt because of his track record. I should have just stuck with my original call. That being said, it still counts as a predictive win, with critics just not clicking with the adaptation of the best selling novel of the same name.
Finally, 47 Meters Down: Uncaged (Predicted: 24% Actual: 50%) was a miss. If anything, I thought 24% was going to on the high side and I almost guessed a score in the low-teens. It all just looked so bad. But the reviews ended up split down the middle.
Next time we’ve got Don’t Let Go. It’s gonna be a Rotten Week!