This Rotten Week: Predicting Home Again and IT Reviews

IT and Pennywise

The Summer's over and we're ready for the Fall's set of flicks. It doesn't take hot weather to put quality stuff on the big screen. Let's take a look at IT and Home Again. Just remember, I'm not reviewing these movies, but rather predicting where they'll end up on the Tomatometer. It's going to be a Rotten Week!

I read IT and it scared the shit out of me. I saw the miniseries when I was a mere preteen, and it scared the shit out of me. Now I'll go to the theater for the theatrical treatment IT deserves and IT will assuredly scare the shit out of me. That's the effect a creepy-ass, killer clown can have on you and why Pennywise makes for the horror character we all need.

The Loser's Club hits the screen this weekend, fighting against the evil plaguing Derry, ME since time almost unknown. It appears they hit it out of the park with this one with the flick looking scary as hell in every aspect.

Director Andy Muschietti has some experience in the horror realm with Mama _(64%) and is drawing off insane source material with this one. Look, we've all long thought clowns were the creepiest of modern day customer folk walking among us. So when we get one crawling out of sewers killing innocent kids it doesn't take a leap to assume we're going to be scared. _IT is here and hopefully it stands to save Stephen King's name after the Dark Tower debacle.

Home Again

There's no more realistic setting than a (presumably) very rich, hot young mother of two suddenly finding love with one of the hot young aspiring filmmakers she lets live in her guest house after moving back to Los Angeles. If you've seen this scenario once, you've seen it a thousand times. Such is the case in Home Again in which Reese Witherspoon begins dating the dude she had a one night stand with after he and his buddies crash in her pad. Of course the guys instantly bond with her kids and are just all around 10's in the personality department.

This looks like your classic rom-com doomed to fail. It's too unrealistic to appeal to any critical mass and too generic to hit any kind of massive appeal. The only thing going for it is Witherspoon's perennial hotness and even that isn't good enough. It worked for her in Big Little Lies when surrounded by a wealth of talent and story (and where she was legit great, the persona worked in a drama setting). This isn't the same kind of project.

I get what everyone was going for here: old woman meets young guy and sparks fly. This just won't sell with the critical crowd.

Recapping last week:

Well, this isn't a good look. _Tulip Fever _(Predicted: 49% Actual: 11%) was a huge miss/bomb that I should have seen coming considering the release date alone. When your movie hits theaters during Labor Day weekend it means you either suck/ stink/ blow or some combination of the former. Such was the case with a love story set against the backdrop of a speculative run on tulips in the 17th century. How could I have ever thought this would finish close to the middle of the Tomatometer? Not many critics saw it (27 total) and those who did could barely keep their eyes open. Most used the word "boring" in some shape or form in their review and I should have seen that coming from the trailer. I should have seen it coming.

Next time around we've got All I See is You, American Assassin and Mother!. It's gonna be a Rotten Week!

Doug Norrie

Doug began writing for CinemaBlend back when Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles actually existed. Since then he's been writing This Rotten Week, predicting RottenTomatoes scores for movies you don't even remember for the better part of a decade. He can be found re-watching The Office for the infinity time.