This week's movie releases (Rotten Tomatoes)

This week's movie releases (Rotten Tomatoes)

This is always one of the most active weeks of the year, in that all the holiday releases get downsized to limited release, to be replaced by prestige Oscar releases and some of the really disappointing films that just get dumped into January, where they are not taking up important space.

American Sniper is Clint Eastwood's latest, a true story about one of the deadliest of the Navy Seals, a sharpshooter who did several tours in the Middle East. (3555 theaters, 7.6 at IMDb, 74% positive reviews, rated R without nudity, 6 Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor)

Paddington (3300 theaters, 97% positive reviews, PG) is a children's movie about the beloved little bear.

The Wedding Ringer (3000 theaters, 18% positive reviews, rated R for "crude and sexual content, language throughout, some drug use and brief graphic nudity," but I don't know who gets naked or what they show) is a film about a best-man-for-hire service that ... oh, who cares? It's a gimmicky Kevin Hart comedy with 18% positive reviews, not Henry the fucking Fifth. That's pretty much all the info you need.

Blackhat was obviously aspiring to be a taut and timely thriller, but didn't make the cut, so got dumped into January. "Set within the world of global cybercrime, Legendary's Blackhat follows a furloughed convict and his American and Chinese partners as they hunt a high-level cybercrime network from Chicago to Los Angeles to Hong Kong to Jakarta." RT summarizes the reviews as follows: "Thematically timely but dramatically inert, Blackhat strands Chris Hemsworth in a muddled misfire from director Michael Mann." (2500 theaters, 32% positive reviews, rated R without nudity)

Foxcatcher is the one which earned Steve Carell an Oscar nomination. Official blurb: "FOXCATCHER is a psychological drama directed by Academy Award nominee Bennett Miller (MONEYBALL) and starring Golden Globe winner Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Academy Award nominee Mark Ruffalo, Academy Award winner Vanessa Redgrave and Sienna Miller. The film was written by E. Max Frye and Academy Award nominee Dan Futterman. FOXCATCHER tells the story of Olympic Gold Medal-winning wrestler Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum), who sees a way out from the shadow of his more celebrated wrestling brother Dave (Mark Ruffalo) and a life of poverty when he is summoned by eccentric multi-millionaire John du Pont (Steve Carell) to move onto his estate and train for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Desperate to gain the respect of his disapproving mother, du Pont begins "coaching" a world-class athletic team and, in the process, lures Mark into dangerous habits, breaks his confidence and drives him into a self-destructive spiral. Based on actual events, FOXCATCHER is a gripping and profoundly American story of fragile men who pinned their hopes for love and redemption on a desperate obsession for greatness that was to end in tragedy." (700 theaters, 87 % positive reviews, 7.4 at IMdb, rated R without nudity, 5 Oscar nods including director, actor, supporting actor, and original screenplay)

Spare Parts (440 theaters, 40% positive reviews, PG-13). Official blurb: "SPARE PARTS is a true life story about four Hispanic high school students who form a robotics club under the leadership of their school's newest teacher, Fredi (GEORGE LOPEZ). With no experience, 800 bucks, used car parts and a dream, this rag tag team goes up against the country's reigning robotics champion, MIT. On their journey, they learn not only how to build a robot - they learn to build a bond that will last a lifetime."

Box Office:

The Weekend Warrior thinks Wedding Ringer will take first over the 4-day weekend with about $25M, followed by American Sniper with around $21M. He pencils in Paddington for $15M (4th), and Blackhat for $13M (5th). Entertainment Weekly disagrees strongly on American Sniper. They believe it will kick some serious ass, easily taking first place with about $50M on its opening weekend. $20M vs $50M? I've never seen that large a discrepancy among the various prognosticators. It'll be interesting to see if one of them is correct, or they split the difference.