The Weekend Report: Foolish "Hop"-timism

No elaborate or amateur pranks for you guys today, because I am only capable of the latter and too self-conscious to do something so depraved. What I can tell you for sure, and this is sadly not a joke, is that Hop will almost certainly make it out at the top of the box office. I'm sure it would be an easier sell if it had the added bonus of 3D, but it's already got a needy and optimistic target audience locked in. Children are clueless and predictable, and I loathe the idea that I may one day have to be hauled into this kind of film with them one day. The idiocy here exceeds the relatively modest standards of Alvin and the Chipmunks, so I'll be checking in for more intellectual fare.

Source Code is the second big-ticket feature this weekend, and for once I'm relatively confident that I'll have a great time with this film. It's got a more than talent cast that features not only Jake Gyllenhaal, a man who has had some less than inspiring features over the past year, but also Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright. Everything about screams as an intelligent sci-fi action piece, more low-key and less grand-scale than Inception, but enticing nonetheless. This is the film I'd like to see come out on top this weekend, but I doubt that audiences will be smart enough to take the gamble on original material like this.

The rest is a festival of uncertainty and detectable crap, both on the limited and wide release scale. Insidious has received mixed reviews, mostly from people who roll their eyes at its typical horror plotline. The King's Speech*, a somewhat great and inspiring feature over the past few months, is getting an less than encouraged PG-13 release in order to ensnare "family audiences". I guess winning the Oscar and earning over $100 million doesn't get you out of censorship in this day and age. On the limited market, Super arrived to mixed reviews, which could mean that it's a love it or hate it affair, but one can't be sure. I can offer a mild suggestion towards In a Better World, this year's Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, but I'm somewhat held back in this case.

*A good film, but if you haven't seen it yet, wait for the R-rated version to reach DVD. The PG-13 version is a poor decision.

Theatrical Trailers: "In A Better World" and "Incendies"

Perhaps the top two films fighting in the Best Foreign Language Film race are In A Better World and Incendies. The former, which recently won the Golden Globe in the same category, is the Danish entry in the race. It follows two parallel stories focusing on a father and his son. The father is a doctor working an African refugee camp, and the boy is tangled up in an act of revenge because of his newest friend. It definitely has a textured visuality, but however they handle the moral assumptions of the piece will determine whether or not it will come out with the win.

As for Incendies, the Canadian entry in the race, I find the trailer to be far more compelling. It has an emotional undertone to it that lures you in from the opening of the trailer, and into the story of what appears to be two siblings who go their separate ways in order to track down their father and brother. There's obviously something more to it, but the trailer keeps its mysteries close to the chest, never letting the truth slip. Based only on what the trailer shows, this is my bet for which film should win. Feel free to comment on your own thoughts of these respective trailers.

Oscar 2010: Foreign Language Film Finalists

I'm not really a trustworthy source when it comes to this specific category, because I haven't gotten around to seeing any of the films on this list. I might be seeing Biutiful sometime soon, but the rest I'm just blind to. I'm surprised that Of Gods and Men didn't make it in, because it was getting some heat going until just now. In a Better World is probably the one to watch for, because it's just come off of a Golden Globe win, but I don't have any idea exactly which films will make it. If you do, please comment below, because I'm lost on this one.

Hors la Loi/Outside the Law (Algeria)
Incendies (Canada)
In a Better World (Denmark)
Dogtooth (Greece)
Confessions (Japan)
Biutiful (Mexico)
Life, above All (South Africa)
Tambien la Lluvia/Even the Rain (Spain)
Simple Simon (Sweden)