Not much to see on the silver screen

With the weather getting a bit cooler, it’s the perfect time to stay indoors and head to the movies.  But what is out worth seeing?  Sadly, not too much.  This weekend I plan on going to Fame (Tancharoen, 2009), Surrogates (Mostow, 2009), and possibly something scary like Jennifer’s Body (Kusama, 2009) or The Final Destination (Ellis, 2009).  Unfortanetely, I haven’t even bought my tickets yet and I am already not optimistic for any of these movies.  Fame is at a depressingly low 27% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and Surrogates, although at a higher rating of 43%, really isn’t doing that well either.  I usually don’t even bother looking up the ratings for horror films because they rarely receive good ratings.  I simply go, knowing that it’ll be fun and hopefully somewhat scary.  

But why are there no good movies out? 

Ok, ok, there are some good choices in theaters right now but most of them I already saw.  Of the more recent films to be released, I have seen: Adam (Mayer, 2009), The Informant! (Soderbergh, 2009), Inglourious Basterds (Tarantino, 2009), and The September Issue (Cutler, 2009).  And I recommend all four of them if you have not already seen them.  But you don’t just have to take my word for it.  Adam, a film about a young man with  Asperger's Syndrome who falls in love with his neighbor, is at 64% on Rotten Tomatoes and was hailed by top critc Tom Long of The Detroit News as a film that “offer[s] a story that's both sweet and tart, unique and familiar.”  The Informant!, the hilarious true story of Mark Whitacre, an employee for ADM who became a spy for the FBI to expose price-fixing at his compnay, is currently at 75%.  After receiving rave reviews at TIFF, it was described as  “A bait-and-switch film that promises caper comedy with silly hair and dated-fashion costumes, [that] ends up with something that's much weirder - a marshmallow-light corporate satire,” by The Globe and Mail critic, Liam Lacey. Inglourious Basterds, after 34 weeks at the box office, is still riding high in terms of ratings, standing at an impressive 88% and was reviewed by the Rolling Stone’s critic Peter Travers who stated that “for anyone professing true movie love, there's no resisting it.”  And I already gave my review of The September Issue here.  It was wonderful and great fun and I am so glad to see that it is at an 84% on Rotten Tomatoes - a good percent for any film, especially a documentary with such a niche audience.  

So I shall indeed be heading to the theaters this weekend, despite a lack of anything really amazing to see.  And of course I will be posting reviews of the films I see, even if they are dreadful.  

What can I say?  I’m just a sucker for the movies…