We have two movies on tap this week, with a kid-centric return to Camelot, and a psychological thriller in which Matthew McConaughey gets to go into an intense brooding mode. Get ready for The Kid Who Would Be King and Serenity.
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.
Judging a book by its cover, the premise of The Kid Who Would Be King is so silly that under normal circumstances there is little chance that I would anticipate a positive critical response. It's a story about a modern day kid finding Excalibur and leading fight against the evil Morgana and all sorts of baddies and evil things. There are more ways for this to go wrong than right.
Then again, the trailer had some highlights, with a few laughs here and there, and then you see Joe Cornish's name attached and all of a sudden we've got something cooking. Cornish helmed the immensely enjoyable Attack The Block (90%) while also helping to pen Ant-Man (82%) and The Adventures of Tintin (74%). It sure looks like he brought his skills to The Kid Who Would Be King, which has come out of the gate hot with critics. It's sitting at 89% with 28 reviews posted, and many writers are using words like "charming," "likable," and "refreshing". Thankfully early reviews will save my prediction because there's no way I'd have gone this high without them.
If movies have taught us anything, it's that when you want to get off the grid, the best thing to do is move to a remote-ish coastal town populated by a lot of other really good-looking people. I feel like I've seen some approximation of this scenario time and time again, and in Serenity we have Matthew McConaughey as a troubled soul whose ex-wife tracks down to kill her new husband.
The film trailer delivers some suspenseful moments, and the whole thing definitely has the feel of a flick that will keep you guessing. These can work out well with critics, though you do have to toe the line between creepy/intense and off-the-rails confusing. I suspect director Steven Knight mostly makes Serenity work, and it helps that the cast is superb - featuring Anne Hathaway, Djimon Hounsou, Diane Lane and Jason Clarke in the supporting cast. Still, there appears that there be enough confusing double-crossing that I wouldn't be surprised if some critics are turned off.
There was only one movie on the docket last week, and I was on target with my prediction. Admittedly the critics gave me a head start on Glass (Predicted: 33% Actual: 35%), with the early reviews trending negative. Things didn't improve much over the course of the week, and we are once again left wondering whether or not M. Night Shyamalan is actually a good filmmaker or not. After a run of stinkers, he bounced back with Split (76%) and The Visit (66%), but has now once again taken a dive off the critical cliff. It isn't a good look for the guy who's already so polarizing.
We'll be back next time around with Miss Bala. It's gonna be a Rotten Week!
