Well, Clash of the Titans sucked (Prediction 68%, Actual: 36%). It wasn't as bad as Last Song (Prediction 31%, Actual 13%), but it was worse than Why Did I Get Married Too (Prediction 37%, Actual 38% - So that's a boo-yah!).  Last week I said I would go and see Clash in the theaters because it looked like 3-D bonanza.  But then I read Josh's review in which he spent about a thousand words vomiting all over the production.  I think I'll save my hard earned dough.  Overall, I'm happy with last week's predictions as it's usually easy to see Miley Cyrus and Tyler Perry clunkers coming from a mile away, and if anything, I gave them a little more respect than deserved.

Movies like Clash of the Titans are hard to get a handle on from trailers because the effects tend to dominate in the teaser's couple minutes of screen time.  It's difficult to know how those effects will translate to the big screen (in this case they didn't), and if the story blows, then all is lost.  Oh well, you win some and you lose some. 

Date Night I can think of two reasons why critics might not totally love this movie.  Their names are Steve Carell and Shawn Levy.  Wait, before you scroll down to the comments section and begin the weekly berating I usually receive, let's stop and take a look at these two guys.  They're big names, sure, but what do critics think of them?  Let's start with Carell.  He's starred in four movies: The 40-Year Old Virgin, Evan Almighty, Dan in Real Life, and Get Smart.  His average critical reception in those is 63% and if you de-virginize him it's only 47%.  That is far from great.  We tend to think of Carrell as this “can't miss” kind of guy, but it's mostly from his run on television as Michael Scott. On film he's far from perfect.  And then we have one Mr. Shawn Levy, director extraordinaire.  My main man Shawn is the genius behind such masterpieces as Night at the Museum, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Pink Panther, Cheaper By the Dozen, and Just Married (that doesn't include his producer credits which are equally grizzly).  His resume is kind of like some financial guy who worked for AIG, Lehman and did a stint in Madoff's offices.  Sure he made a buck or 10 million, but at what cost?  Can he really look himself in the mirror?  These movies stink.  Levy hasn't had one thing he's been attached to score over 50%.  That's actually pretty tough to do.  Like, it takes some serious effort.  Now, this said, I still think Date Night is going to be pretty good.  I loved the trailer and think that Carell and Tina Fey (actually critically capable) were made to act in movies together.  The supporting cast is strong and who doesn't love a little case of mistaken identity?  My Rotten Tomato formula is telling me to go low, low, low (like 45%) here, but I'm going to get away from the math this week.  Is that smart?  Probably not, but my gut is telling me something.  And if you've seen my gut, you know it's tough to ignore. I'm going to give Date Night a chance and bump it up a bit.  The Rotten Watch is 72%

Poll Where do you think Date Night's Rotten score will end up? 0 - 20% 21 - 40% 41 - 60% 61 - 80% 81 - 100%   Results

 
Since this is a relatively slow week, in term of releases, let's look back at some of my wins and losses since starting this column.  I think of wins as being within 15%.  Clear losses are when I was off by around 30%.  And for those you thinking that is too much wiggle room, I challenge you to pick a random movie (that you've seen!) and take a stab at its Tomatometer score.  See how you do and then remember that you've seen the movie and probably read stuff about it.  Overall, I've made predictions for nineteen movies and gotten pelted by about 14 tomatoes.  Let's see how I've done. 

Wins: Hot Tub Time Machine (-1%), Why Did I Get Married Too (-1%),  Chloe (-2%), Brooklyn's Finest (-5%),  Wolfman (-8%), She's Out of Your League (-11%), How to Train Your Dragon (-14%)

Having three movies within 2% is other-worldly.  I did a little back flip over each of them.  The rest were nice surprises. 

Losses: Ghost Writer (-39%), Clash of the Titans (-37%), Valentine's Day(-33%), Cop Out (-31%), The Crazies(-29%), Our Family Wedding (-29%)

I can't kill myself over Clash of the Titans or The Crazies because those both kind of came out of nowhere in the “really bad” or “really good” categories respectively.  But the rest were huge errors.  Besides Ghost Writer, the others looked so freaking awful and yet I still held out some kind of weird hope for them.  I'm working to turn off the “dumb” area in my brain.

  In next week's edition I'll Kick Ass at a Funeral.  It's going to be a Rotten Week!