This week is the tale of two movies, one awesome and one terrible.  Can you guess which one is which?  One is directed by a guy who doesn't seem capable of making a bad movie and the other directed by a guy who can't make a good one (at least not recently).  One looks amazingly artistic, intriguing, stunning and beautiful.  The other has a long-haired Nicholas Cage doing magic.  Let's take a look at what this Rotten Week has to offer.  

Inception The awesome cat is out of the soon-to-be award winning bag with Inception.  It has seventeen reviews in already including 4 ½ stars from CinemaBlend's Katey Rich, so I don't know how much more there is to say about the movie at this point.  But it is brilliantly clear that when Christopher Nolan makes a flick, there's a good chance it is going to be amazing.  His resume reads like a movie fan's wet dream with an average Tomatometer score of 88%.  That number is other-worldly (especially outside of the animated genre).   So predicting great critical consensus for Inception would have been a layup even if it weren't already sitting at 100% right now.  What is Inception about?  Besides dreams, who the hell knows and like Katey says in her review, “...the central concepts of Inception are too complicated and frankly ridiculous sounding to be clear from the mouth of anyone but Nolan and his characters.”  If a movie can be visually stunning and confusing as hell, then I am fully on board.  Will it stay at 100%?  Surely not.  But one funny thing that's bound to happen is some reviewers will walk out of the theater having no idea what they just saw.  Not everyone is as smart as you and I, movie critics among them.  But how that confusion plays out in the form of reviews will be interesting to see.  Is anyone out there willing to just say, “F#$% it, I don't get it.  That movie blows.”  Or will they cover up their dimwittedness with positive reviews that hide behind the visual effects?  It will be interesting to follow as they come out this week.  The Rotten Watch for Inception is 92%.

Sorcerer's Apprentice It wouldn't take a genius to predict this movie had a fair chance of being terrible.  The reviews already in for The Sorcerer's Apprentice are pretty awful and the trailer looks flashy but ultimately stupid.  That is pretty much a theme with John Turteltaub movies.  In fact, Turteltaub's resume kind of reads like Nolan's except the complete opposite.  He has such entries as National Treasure, National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets, The Kid and Instinct for a decade average of 34%.  Yikes.  Just by that metric we could say Turteltaub isn't even half as good at his job as Nolan, and The Sorcerer's Apprentice looks like it's going to keep his streak of fail alive. All you need to know about the movie is that it's based on a segment from Disney's Fantasia and Jay Baruchel's character is based on Mickey Mouse's role in the original animated feature.  I know, I laughed too when I read that.  The rest of the film looks like one, big glossy mess of special effects, weak story, cheesy one-liners and Nicholas Cage giving his standard “wise ass guy trying to do good” role that he's played countless times over the years. So Turteltaub strikes again with a flick hellbent on getting kids to the box office window with their reluctant parents in tow.  Kids will love the flash and bang aspects of the magic and parents will want to just make it all just go away.  The Rotten Watch for The Sorcerer's Apprentice is 18%.

Poll Which Rotten movie will have the highest final Tomatometer score? Inception The Sorcerer's Apprentice   Results

Recapping last week: Last week was a good one for the Rotten Watch even if I was a bit too optimistic on Despicable Me (Predicted 93% Actual 80%).  But Predators was a clear win (Predicted 71% Actual 65%) with Adrien Brody channeling his inner Schwarzenegger in the fight against those nasty aliens.  Next week Selena Gomez gets her Beverly Cleary on and Angelina Jolie goes on the run from her CIA cronies.  It's going to be a Rotten Week!