The Weekend Blend

By Josh Tyler: 2006-06-30 00:00:00

This weekend will be dominated by Superman Returns. Moviegoers have already forgotten about Sandler’s one week success in Click. While Superman is not going to sniff Spider-Man’s box office totals, it’s opening day receipts indicate that it will easily eclipse last year’s Batman Begins, a film which grossed a healthy $205 million. It’s likely that anything else released in Superman’s wake will end up lost in the shuffle. A shame really because there’s at least one other movie out there this weekend that might be worth your time.

But who cares about how good a job Hollywood execs are doing at lining their own pockets, here’s our usual look at what’s opening and worth your time this weekend.

6/30 – 7/2

Limited Releases(Opening in fewer than 500 theaters.)
There are two limited releases of note this weekend. Remember the Comedy Central show Strangers with Candy? You’re not alone, few do. It was the story of an old whore who goes back to high school. Seriously, not that funny. For some reason, it’s been made into a movie, a movie which has been done for some time but struggled to get distribution. This weekend it finally gets released in a couple of arthouses. Odds are even there it won’t be noticed. More interesting is the indie documentary Who Killed the Electric Car; it opened this past Wednesday. The title’s pretty clear. Whatever happened to those electric cars anyway? Conspiracy theorists will probably love it, but the facts look sound enough that it’s not drifting into Oliver Stone territory. If you hate the oil industry (and who doesn’t), you may want to check Electric Car out… assuming you can find it.

The Devil Wears Prada (Opens in 2,847 theaters.)

The Devil Wears Prada stars Anne Hathaway in the story of a small town girl and her first job in the big city. Her boss is played by Meryl Streep, and she’s a raging bitch. Cinema Blend’s own Lexi Feinberg compared her to Cruella de Ville, and loved the movie. The trailers have really had something, and even guys seem interested in watching Streep rip out Hathaway’s heart and stomp on it. Prada’s getting great reviews, not just from our own Miss Feinberg, but from everywhere. Last I looked it had a 78% rating at RottenTomatoes. That’s a pretty good sign. Unfortunately, Prada is being eclipsed by an even better movie, an absolute must see.

Superman Returns (Opens in 4,065 theaters.)

You won’t want to miss Superman Returns, a movie that’s not just another comic book flick or the resurrection of a cultural icon, but an amazing, masterful film. X-Men director Bryan Singer takes the helm and creates an updated, lush, homage to the great work of Richard Donner in Superman I and Superman II, but then takes his movie further to completely eclipse Donner’s work. The movie is a basically a direct sequel to those original movies, with Superman returning to Earth after an absence of 5 years. He returns to find a world that forgotten him and a Lois Lane that’s moved on without him. Brandon Routh is fantastic as both Superman and Clark Kent, some say even better than Christopher Reeve. It’s not an action movie, so get that right out of your head. Instead, it’s a great movie that happens to have some action in it. To me, that’s even better. Whether you’re into superheroes or not, don’t miss Superman Returns this weekend. The world needs Superman.

STILL IN THEATERS AND WORTH YOUR TIME: Cars, Nacho Libre

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