New Movies In Theaters This Week - Rotten Tomatoes

New Movies In Theaters This Week - Rotten Tomatoes

There is only one new film in wide distribution, the movie adaptation of 21 Jump Street, which will do very well because it's the only game in town and because it also seems to be pretty damned funny. (86% positive reviews; 3100 theaters; expected to gross $30+ million for first place at the box office.) It's rated R for crude and sexual content and pervasive language.

Three new films will appear in arthouse distribution and are not expected to crack the top ten:

Casa de mi Padre (382 theaters). Critics generally feel that Will Ferrell's Spanish-language movie is much too long to support its limited premise. (A skill Will must have learned in SNL sketches.) 39% positive reviews. It's rated R for "bloody violence and language," thus breaking Scoopy's prime directive, which goes as follows: if you are going to get an R anyway without tits, throw in plenty of tits, because you'll still get an R. No film has ever received an NC-17 for showing breasts. In this situation, the tits are free.

Jeff, Who Lives at Home (254 theaters). Off-beat comedy with Jason Segal. "On his way to the store to buy wood glue, Jeff looks for signs from the universe to determine his path. However, a series of comedic and unexpected events leads him to cross paths with his family in the strangest of locations and circumstances. Jeff just may find the meaning of his life...and if he's lucky, pick up the wood glue as well." Strangely enough, Jason Schwartzman is not in this film, although it sounds like his kind of movie. I guess Segal picked up the Jason S slack. This film got some decent reviews: 73% positive. It's rated R for "language and drug use," thus also violating Scoopy's prime directive.

Seeking Justice (230 theaters) features the latest over-the-top performance from Nic Cage. Critics didn't like it - 28% positive reviews. It sounds like another violation of the prime directive because it's rated R for "violence, language, and brief sexuality."

Oddly enough, each of this week's films is rated R, and not one of those Rs was justified by the word "nudity." That's kind of depressing.

Next week is the 800-Pound Gorilla, aka Hunger Games, which is expected to be in every theater in the world and even acted out by some street mimes outside of any theater too crowded to accommodate the teeming throng at the gates.