New Movies In Theaters Sept 28th - Rotten Tomatoes

New Movies In Theaters Sept 28th - Rotten Tomatoes

The top-grossing movie of the week, in the $25 million range, is expected to be Hotel Transylvania, a bland, low-brow animated film which was produced by Adam Sandler and stars his voice and the voices of his usual group of relatives, cronies and hangers-on. The script was penned by another frequent Sandler collaborator, the guy who plays Triumph the Insult Dog, Robert Smigel. (3300 theaters, 55% positive reviews, PG rating.)

Second place ($15-20M) should go to Looper, a time-travel thriller which combines action and philosophy when a man (the ubiquitous Joseph Gordon-Levitt) battles his older self (the equally omnipresent Bruce Willis). Looper is rated R for several reasons, of which the most interesting is that Piper Perabo shows her breasts for the first time in a decade. That's one reason to check it out. Another good motivation might be the fact that 93% of the reviewers have raised their thumbs skyward. James Berardinelli, a very pragmatic reviewer not given to hyperbole, wrote, "Looper is a tremendous motion picture experience. Not merely a 'very good' one, but a great one." (2800 theaters)

The third new film in wide release this week is Won't Back Down, a PG chick-flick about inner city mothers determined to transform a failing school. Only 18% of the reviews have been positive, and the negatives have been quite contemptuous. Hollywood Reporter wrote: "The hot-button issue of public school reform gets unsubtle treatment in this pedestrian and insultingly tendentious drama." One caution. The reviews may or may not be misleading because I have gathered that the film's solution to our failing schools seems to be privatization, which is a liberal bugbear, and most film critics are liberals. That may explain the poor reviews, or the film may actually suck. Either way, you can probably find a better way to spend your twenty bucks. (It is expected to gross a feeble $6-7 million in 2500 theaters, putting it precisely on a parallel course with last week's bomb, Dredd.)

In limited release (335 theaters) will be something called Pitch Perfect, about which I know nothing, other than that it's a PG-13 musical comedy about college women in a cappella singing groups. The reviews have been surprisingly good, and 70% have been "fresh," although that is based on a mere 10 reviews. Both Variety and Hollywood Reporter cheered it on, with HR crowing that it is "an enjoyably snarky campus romp ... both wildly nerdy and somewhat sexy." This week's 300-theater trial run is supposed to whet our appetite for a major expansion, so don't look for it among the box office leaders until next week. Maybe.