You've probably heard a lot about Borat this week, but don't expect big box office performance from it. The movie's great, but it's not a mainstream film, and it was never intended to be one. The hype has gotten out of hand and it's 800 theater release means there's no way it'll be number one, or for that matter even break into the weekend's top 5. Instead, the big winners this weekend will likely be either Santa Clause 3 or Flushed Away, as Aardman and Tim Allen battle it out for family friendly supremacy.
But who cares how much money overpaid actors make off of the entertainment hungry masses. Here's our usual look at what's opening and worth watching this Friday in theaters around the country:
Limited Releases(Opening in fewer than 500 theaters.)
The critically acclaimed movie Volver rockets into 5 theaters on Friday. It's the new film from Pedro Almodovar, so of course it's being fawned over. In it, a mother returns to her home town to fix up problems she left behind. Maybe it's great, but I can't help but find myself utterly intrigued by the bizarre plot of a little movie called Zerophilia. It's the story of a teenage boy who hits puberty and finds that he turns into a woman every time he gets sexually aroused. Yeah, I had to read it twice too the first time I read it. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that this is one movie that'll never get a wide release.
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (Opens in 837 theaters.)
Sacha Baron Cohen brings the funniest character from his underground HBO series to the big screen by foisting him on unsuspecting Americans. There's a reason Borat currently holds a 95% fresh rating on RottenTomatoes. Here it is: It's really that funny. It's one of the funniest movies of the decade. Maybe one of the funniest movies of all time. It's not possible to overrate it, and even if it weren't all that funny it would be worth seeing just for its jaw-dropping finale. It'll offend you, it'll shock you, and it'll blow you away. This is one movie that lives up to the hype.
Flushed Away (Opens in 3,707 theaters.)
Wallace & Gromit creators Aardman abandon their traditional claymation format in favor of CGI for their latest bit of family fun animation. The result is their best movie to date. Flushed Away is the story of a family pet rat named Roddy who's flushed into the sewers and into a rat civilization. He has to find his way back home. Along the way he encounters hilarious, screaming, singing, surfing slugs, kung fu French frogs and their mime, and Toad kingpin bent on his destruction. It's an incredibly cute film and if you've got kids keeping you away from Borat, you can't go wrong by taking them to see this.
The Santa Clause 3 (Opens in 3,458 theaters.)
Tim Allen returns for another installment in his low-rent Santa Clause Christmas franchise. Why it's being released before Thanksgiving is anyone's guess. This time around, the movie delves back into the fine print of Santa's employment contract as Mrs. Clause gets pregnant (that jus seems wrong) and Jack Frost (played by Martin Short) tries to take over Christmas. It's getting terrible reviews, and I suspect it deserves every one of them. For family movies this weekend, make it Flushed Away.
STILL IN THEATERS AND WORTH YOUR TIME: The Departed, The Prestige, Catch A Fire
