With four outstanding films and one pretty good movie, this weekend at the movies could be one of the best in recent memory.
One of the presumptive Best Picture nominees arrives with Ben Affleck’s Argo, the greatest horror movie of the Halloween season lands with Sinister, Kevin James gets in the ring for his students in Here Comes the Boom, Colin Farrell and Christopher Walken do black comedy in the stellar Seven Psychopaths and finally, Mary Elizabeth Winstead announces her place on the Academy’s Best Actress list in Smashed.
Argo: It’s official. Affleck is an astounding director. The helmer is also the star of this little known true story of the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis. Six Americans managed to escape and the movie tells the tale of how a CIA agent (Affleck) worked with Hollywood to stage a fake film, head into Iran to “scout locations” and rescue the U.S. citizens. Our Argo review states that the film is a Best Picture frontrunner.
Seven Psychopaths: A stellar cast including Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell and Christopher Walken star in this crime-comedy caper that is about as perfect as a movie of its type can be, as we report in our Seven Psychopaths review. What happens when a pair of dog-nappers take the Shih Tzu of a deranged gangster? It’s both funny and horribly violent… in the best of ways.
Here Comes the Boom: James does his comedy thing in a pitch perfect way as a high school teacher who hits the ring as an MMA fighter trying to get funds to save his good friend’s (Henry Winkler) music program. Our Here Comes the Boom review finds the film predictable, but still quite hilarious and heartwarming.
Sinister: The horror movie to see this Halloween has arrived. Ethan Hawke is a true crime novelist who through his drive to have another successful book, sends his family into terror as they are being haunted -- and taunted -- by an unknown force. Check out our Sinister review for more.
Smashed: Winstead may not be a front-runner for Best Actress, but in Smashed, she establishes herself as one of those who deserve to be in the category of the five that are nominated. Rarely does a getting sober movie capture all the emotional ups and downs of that difficult task, as we explain further in our Smashed review.
