ROTTEN TOMATOES: Opening This Week

ROTTEN TOMATOES: Opening This Week

A shitload of flicks opening this week.
There are five new films in wide release:

• Bedtime Stories: 3700 theaters; 15% positive reviews. Adam Sandler plays a lovable uncle whose bedtime stories to his niece and nephew start to come true.
  
• Benjamin Button: 3000 theaters; 75% positive reviews. Possible Oscar candidate directed by David Fincher. Brad Pitt stars in this epic fantasy about a man who is born 80 years old and lives his life backwards.
  
• Marley and Me: 3500 theaters; 50% positive reviews. Family film about a beloved pet.
  
• The Spirit: 2500 theaters; 15% positive reviews. Graphic novel adaptation. Some of the harshest reviews in memory.
  
• Valkyrie: 2700 theaters; 62% positive reviews. Tom Cruise tries to kill Hitler, as directed by Bryan Singer. Geez! Who will the internet hate-boys root for? Will they be pulling for the single worst human being in the history of the 20th century, or will they root for Hitler?
  

There are other choices among more limited releases, either new or expanding, most of them potential award candidates.

• Revolutionary Road: only three theaters, 67% positive reviews. DiCaprio and Winslet try to breathe life into a now-tired 1961 frown-fest novel about suburban angst.
  
• Doubt: 1300 theaters; 75% positive reviews. Based on a play which won the Puliter Prize and Tony Awards
  
• Frost/Nixon: 200 theaters, 89% positive reviews.
  
• Grand Torino: 84 theaters, 72% positive reviews. Directed by Dirty Harry.
  
• The Reader: 116 theaters, 54% positive reviews. Another frown-fest misfire for Kate Winslet, this time featuring her as a statutory rapist!