Disney and director Guy Ritchie’s Aladdin is a blandly competent, flavourless film that has no reason to exist outside of making a quick buck from families and nostalgic millennials who’ll shell money out for anything based on an intellectual property they have fond memories of.
Will Smith
Sink your teeth into a cheesy love story as Stephenie Meyer‘s soppy vampire teen romance, Twilight, makes its way to DVD. Also out this week, Will Smith stars in Seven Pounds; the animated film Bolt speeds through New York City; and Ray Stevenson takes no prisoners in Punisher: War Zone.
Romance is in the air this week, along with some sadness and regret as Will Smith stars in the drama Seven Pounds. Also opening, with another take on romance, Jim Carrey stars in the comedy Yes Man, about a work-a-day guy who tries to change his life with one word: Yes. Plus, the animated children’s story The Tale of Despereaux debuts, while The Wrestler and Gran Torino open in select theatres.
Arriving this week, Will Smith plays a wanna-be reformed superhero in Hancock, Vince Vaughn is Santa’s no-good brother in Fred Claus, and don’t forget about A Colbert Christmas, the new special edition of 300, 24: Redemption, and Freaks & Geeks: Yearbook Edition.
Most of the film studios backed up this week, giving room for one of the big debuts of the summer: Will Smith starring as the handsomely unlikeable hero Hancock. Aside from his scruffy face, the only other big debut is the family movie Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, which stars Abigail Breslin as the sweet, adventurous writer.
Multiple book adaptations arrive on DVD this week, plus two films that focus on two drastically different visions of New York City. Enchanted is however the big release of the week, and happens to be one of the first big signs that Disney still knows how to make a great fairly tale come to life. Also arriving this week are those three book adaptations, including the vampire survivor tale I Am Legend, Academy Award nominee Atonement, and Love in the Time of Cholera.
This week at a theatre near you, one man fights to survive a world filled with vampires, Alvin and his chipmunk friends bust out some tunes, a teenager deals with her unplanned pregnancy, and a best-selling book gets the big-screen treatment.