6/10 – 6/12 After last weekend’s box office shocker in which the much vaunted Ron Howard Oscar contender Cinderella Man flopped onto the scene at a dismal #4, just about anything could happen this weekend. Common sense suggests that Mr. and Mrs. Smith is going to make money hand over fist, but these days absolutely nothing seems certain.

At the least, it’s safe to say that the Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie vehicle is the only legitimate attention contender this weekend. High Tension should get some looks from horror fans, Shark Boy and Lava Girl will no doubt draw in a few kids (and perhaps knock some of the wind out of Madagascar), and Honeymooners will um… be in theaters; but none of those movies packs the potential punch of the Smiths.

Here’s a look at what’s opening in theaters this weekend:

Misc. Limited Releases

(Opening on fewer than 500 screens.)
Spirited Away taught me that anime can be palatable when it’s ripping off good Western stories and since Howl’s Moving Castle is from the same people, I’m at least a little interested. Debuting in 36 theaters this weekend, it looks like a very odd Wizard of Oz knockoff, and I like some of the imagery I’ve seen from it. If you can get past those oversized Japanese character eyes it might be worth a glance in an arthouse near you. If the art district is your determination, there’s not much else debuting that I’d recommend. There’s a long list of limited release openers hitting one or two theaters in New York, but the majority of them are the quickly forgotten fare that may not ever make it anywhere outside the Big Apple. Howl’s Moving Castle is the only indie with buzz, keep your eye fixed there.

The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3-D

(Opens in 2,665 theaters.)
If you ask me it's a blatant rip-off of The Neverending Story, but here's what Rafe has to say about this Bastian knockoff: To be honest I could go without a trailer for this movie and still want to see it. The name reminds me of that Treehouse of Horror episode where Bart and Lisa get super powers and become “Stretch Dude and Power Girl”. The names even work in the Stretch Dude/Power Girl theme song. Unfortunately I’m pretty sure this Robert Rodriguez flick will not entertain as much as “The Simpsons”. In fact, the best thing this film seems to have going for it is the 3-D effects which, while not as immersive as James Cameron’s Ghosts of the Abyss style 3-D, do add a marketable gimmick to the movie, a gimmick that was a lot of fun for Spy Kids 3D. This is probably worth a look if you have young kids who are easily entertained, after all it was partially created by Rodriguez’s son Racer. - Rafe Telsch

The Honeymooners

(Opens in 1,912 theaters.)
It makes a lot of sense to me that an old sitcom with an all white cast living in the projects would be remade by Cedric the Entertainer. I think that’s the right direction to go if you’re going to movie-ize The Honeymooners. But, isn’t spousal abuse kind of looked down upon? Aside from making the cast black, I don’t quite see how you can update a movie like this. If you’re going to try they’ve gone the right route by using modern stereotypes in place of a bunch of rather outdated ones, I just don’t think it can possibly be funny. It might even be insulting. For awhile it looked like the movie was going to be buried or end up straight to video, so I’d wager that I’m right on that. Avoid The Honeymooners.

High Tension

(Opens in 1,323 theaters.)
I’m not a big Horror genre fan, but I’m a little curious about High Tension. By all accounts it’s your basic brutal grindhouse flick. What’s curious is the way they’ve imported it. It isn’t an English language film, so the usual policy is either to dub it or subtitle it. Now in the case of a sleezy Horror film, I’m all for dubbing. I like subtitles because it maintains the nuances of the actor’s original performance, but this is a bloodbath, I don’t care much about performance nuance. I’d rather focus on whatever it is they’ve got lurking in the shadows than read lines of text. What’s odd here is that rather than choose one or the other, they’ve reportedly chosen both. The word is that High Tension is half-dubbed and half in subtitles. No, they didn’t run out of dubbing budget, it’s intentional. If you check the movie out and let me know if the rumors are true.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

(Opens in 3,424 theaters.)
The week’s widest release sports two of Hollywood’s biggest (and best looking) names. The premise is a winner, though the execution is a bit mediocre. Mr. and Mrs. Smith pits a husband and wife against one another when each discovers the other is a competing spy. I’d watch Angelina Jolie play statue for two hours, getting the chance to see her try and kill Brad Pitt is a real bonus. The chemistry between them is electrically charged and screenwriter Simon Kinberg’s dialogue keeps things blisteringly competitive. The action is a little tired and the movie ends with a whimper, but that doesn’t kill the film’s basically fun vibe. I had a good time with Mr. and Mrs. Smith when I saw it a couple of weeks ago, and you will too. Anything with Angelina Jolie in it is not to be missed… unless she makes Tomb Raider 3. Till then, enjoy the Smiths.


STILL IN THEATERS AND WORTH YOUR TIME: Crash, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Cinderella Man, Madagascar