I remember looking for local showtimes for SWEENEY TODD and noticing that three of the major suburban multiplexes in my area were not showing it. I knew that NATIONAL TREASURE 2 was expected to win the weekened, but SWEENEY TODD sure seemed to have the deck stacked against it.

So, you can imagine my surprise when scanning for AvP:R showtimes and seeing that it's being exhibited like a movie that's already on its way out of theaters. You'd think it was a new Uwe Boll movie rather than a sequel to a film which opened with over $40 million.

One local theater has it showing only TWICE a day while another has it showing only four times. The other multiplexes aren't giving it much more of a shot with an average of six showtimes per day while I AM LEGEND and ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS seem to be ruling three screens a piece.

What gives? I don't think anyone really expected AvP:R to do blockbuster business, but given that it's a big franchise release and a sequel to a film that did rather well, you'd think that exhibitors would at least give it a week to prove itself.

I know that studio releases get dumped all the time, but has a relatively major franchise release ever been shafted like this? Is this a new trend or something we can expect to see more of in the future as studios continue to marginalize theatrical presentations over home video releases?

In my two-multiplex town, TODD is playing on two screens and AVP:R on four, so I'd say both films are getting full releases.

We've got plenty of AVP:R action going down at the multiplex hereabouts, but no Sweeney Todd.

Typical.

It played in the biggest house at the multiplex we went to yesterday, and it was packed. Bass was LOUD, too.

And ya know what? I liked it. Maybe it was because I went in with low expectations, but I thought it was everything the first one should have been, though I still prefer an off world setting as opposed to what looks like modern day Earth. While sharing the same flaw as FREDDY VS. JASON, in that the characters are all pretty much small town non entities, the monster action was much better, and more often. The only thing I really didn't like was that some of it was shot too dark, even though I've seen stills that are much brighter.

It's by no means as cool as it could be, but it's still a lot of fun, more so then the first one.

In my city, AVP is on 22 screens while Sweeney Todd is on 13. Hoping to get to both this weekend.

Well, then... I sort of liked the flick. That is by no means implying that it's good, because it's not. Maybe by saying I liked it just means that I enjoyed it more than the similar 30 Days of Night.

But then, I suppose I was in the mood for mindless and vaguely transgressive mayhem when I saw it.

With no plot to get in the way, there's a gnarly early Eighties vibe to the proceedings (with more than a little debt to Return of the Living Dead in particular) and the narrative is refreshingly approached as an non-name ensemble piece rather than as a vehicle for some sallow TV actor trying to make his leap to the big screen.

As a boon to audience members with ADD, there's only a slight nod to character development (AKA: Archetypes for Dummies) before the two enemy forces begin to bang away at each other. And for those that appreciate a gloves off approach to their mindless mayhem, there are more than a few lines crossed here... let's just say, the Alien Queen in the maternity ward, anyone?

Oh, yes... there will be borderline hentai. On the other hand, since everything plays a little flat here, what should have been horrifying only came across as mildly distasteful. Sort of amusing, but distasteful.

If nothing else, it's a nasty R-rated sibling to the PG-13 first entry that dispenses with the sci-fi trappings and just sets about building up the body count. It's disposable viewing, but not intolerable. Sometimes that is enough.

Especially during the holidays

Sigh... chalk it up to post New Years' hangover grumbles if you must, but I gotta say.... I have ADD, Craig. And you simply do not know what the hell you're talking about here. This cliche stuff is as much a boon to your critical writing as if you summed up the screenplay as "gay" or "retarded".

Time to put that crap to bed, man. You're a better writer than that.

Consider it put to bed, with my sincere apologies.

Sometimes the stuff slides past the filter.

I just saw this, and it's okay. Not awful, not great, not so spectacularly awful that it's great ala HITMAN. Just okay.

The biggest knock against it is that it's too damn dark, man. It put me in mind of all those Eighties and Nineties flicks just before the widespread use of CGI which tended to be dark to hide the wires/zipper up the costume/makeup man in the back/cardboard cutouts. I understand these guys were working under budgetary constraints but geez. It's particularly bad during the alien/predator bouts, which is unfortunate because that's what I spent my $8.50 matinee price for, after all.

There's also a small story problem -- about 2/3 of the way through a choice is presented (trying to be vague here). This choice only makes sense, though, if you know one of these character's backstories. We do, but there's no evidence that any of the characters do, and if they don't, then the alternative presented is nutty. You'll understand it if you see it yourself. I suspect there's a missing scene lying around on the cutting room floor.

Other than that it's not too bad. Decently acted by a bunch of nobodies -- though I've seen Bureacrat and Butt-kicking Mom somewhere else. Very gory, which was nice, and a couple of inventive scenes -- the hospital scene in particular. Also, not a bad script at all, the fault above notwithstanding. I genuinely bought the reactions here -- they didn't always react rationally, but I thought they mostly did realistically. The guys behind this should get a bit more money next time, see if a loosening up of budgetary constraints might help.

This is apparently an alternate Earth, incidentally, where nobody's ever seen the ALIEN or PREDATOR movies or read the comic books or played the incredibly hard game. Either that or Hollywood's got some explaining to do.

doug

I'd say there's more than one of those...

My biggest complaint (might as well say it now... SPOILERS....) is...




The entire premise... the whole idea of just ONE "Predator" coming to Earth to eradicate the problem of the possible escaped "Aliens" is just plain silly to begin with. It's obvious, by the trophies on the walls of the Pred-ship in this movie and in the original PREDATOR film that these Predators KNOW how dangerous the Aliens can be, right?

So why is it that one single Predator sees the alien attack/ship crash on his super-hologram-tape-thingamabob on his homeworld and then take it upon himself to go to Earth all by his lonesome, with no backup Predator soldiers, and try to eliminate the alien infestation there... all by himself?

Twas silly, I tell ya... silly...

Because the budget only allowed for one Predator?

Because this one's a real macho Predator?

Because that's the way Predators hunt, man?

Because this particular Predator swore on his Daddy's grave to protect his younger screwup brother Earl, and when Earl died he felt he had let Daddy down and decided to fix the problem himself?

Admittedly a contrived premise, but it wasn't a killer for me. I actually kind of liked the idea of a whole implied story being played out with us as merely the backdrop.

doug