Three big studio flicks go wide this week, and what do you know - all of them were screened for critics, even the horror remake! Someone, make a note of the date. Reviews of all three are all over the place, but in sum: Failure to Launch is either astonishingly sharp and well-acted or meh; The Hills Have Eyes is really, really violent; The Shaggy Dog is either cute or stupid (the latter if you're mature, or at least think you are). Details follow.
- Failure to
Launch: I can't possibly express to you how odd it is it to read a dozen or so reviews
of this movie, back to back.
You go from Robert's "at least it
doesn't suck," to Stephen Hunter's declaration that the film is "the only American comedy in
a long time that could be called Wilderan in its concept and execution"; from Roger Ebert, who hates the movie
so much that he resorts to a story of being bitten
by a Kubrick donkey, to your friend and mine, Mick LeSalle, who praises Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker for their rare willingness to "go out of their way to project
thought and emotion in concentrated doses." I mean, honestly. What's a girl to think? There are mixedopinions all the time, but this is insane.
