Movies in Theaters This Friday, October 25, 2013: The Counselor, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, and More
While last week certainly ended our wide release hot streak, October may rebound with another great movie. There are just two wide releases this week, one of which seems like a brainless shock value comedy, but that doesn’t stop me from hoping October 25th can be a successful movie weekend. With Gravity still (rightfully) dominating the box office, I can feel a new winner coming up.
The biggest issue is the MPAA Rating because both newcomers are rated R.
Ridley Scott’s The Counselor has the cast and crew to demand tickets. With Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem, Cameron Diaz, and Penelope Cruz starring in the crime drama, Scott hopes to return Prometheus-like numbers (although some still considered that a box office disappointment). With less visual effects and more of a character drama, The Counselor could still pull in respectable numbers if it ended near Scott’s last movie. I’ve been burned before when assuming a great cast equals a great movie; however, the inclusion of Cormac McCarthy (author of the ‘No Country for Old Men’ novel) as the original screenwriter has me very excited.
The second wide release belongs to Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa. I am slightly happy the movie moves away from the normal Jackass set-up (lunatics doing insane pranks on each other) by including a real audience. I’m a little wary since it seems a little like Jackass meets Bruno, but who knows, maybe it’ll be funny?
Sorry families, no movies for you this week. It’s been awhile since a family-friendly movie hit theaters actually. That’ll change next weekend with Free Birds, though.
In limited release, the Palme d’Or winner Blue is the Warmest Colors should generate the most buzz. The story focuses primarily on an underage lesbian relationship. Strangely, that’s not the only controversy following the film, with director Abdellatif Kechiche taking flak for various reasons. I can’t speak to the film’s quality, but it looks like the film is a robust three hours long with plenty of complaints about the uncomfortable sex scenes (which make it NC-17). The Palme d’Or winner may not have much of an Academy Awards chance, but it could be one of those obscure ‘End of the Year’ list frontrunners.
Capital, The Pin, The Square, and Wilde Salome are the final four limited releases.
Check below for more information on all the new releases.
Legendary filmmaker Ridley Scott and Pulitzer Prize winning author Cormac McCarthy (No Country for Old Men) have joined forces in the motion picture thriller THE COUNSELOR, starring Michael Fassbender, Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem, and Brad Pitt. McCarthy, making his screenwriting debut and Scott interweave the author’s characteristic wit and dark humor with a nightmarish scenario, in which a respected lawyer’s one-time dalliance with an illegal business deal spirals out of control.
Eighty-six-year-old Irving Zisman is on a journey across America with the most unlikely companion: his eight-year-old grandson Billy, in “Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa”. This October, the signature Jackass characters Irving Zisman (Johnny Knoxville) and Billy (Jackson Nicoll) will take movie audiences along for the most insane hidden camera road trip ever captured on camera. Along the way Irving will introduce the young and impressionable Billy to people, places, and situations that give new meaning to the term “childrearing”. The duo will encounter male strippers, disgruntled child beauty pageant contestants (and their equally disgruntled mothers), funeral home mourners, biker bar patrons, and a whole lot of unsuspecting citizens. Real people in unreal situations, making for one really messed up comedy.
Adele’s life is changed when she meets Emma, a young woman with blue hair, who will allow her to discover desire, to assert herself as a woman and as an adult. In front of others, Adele grows, seeks herself, loses herself, finds herself.
The newly appointed CEO of a giant European investment bank works to hold on to his power when an American hedge fund company tries to buy out his company.
Two young people experience love and loss while in hiding during WWII. After a life of regret, the young man, now old, is faced with an opportunity for redemption.
The Egyptian Revolution has been an ongoing rollercoaster over the past two and a half years. Through the news, we only get a glimpse of the bloodiest battle, an election, or a million man march. At the beginning of July 2013, we witnessed the second president deposed within the space of three years.
The Square is an immersive experience, transporting the viewer deeply into the intense emotional drama and personal stories behind the news. It is the inspirational story of young people claiming their rights, struggling through multiple forces, in the fight to create a society of conscience.
Pacino takes us on a journey as he unravels and re-interprets Oscar Wilde’s once banned and most controversial work SALOME, a scintillating tale of lust, greed and one woman’s scorn.
Follow me on Twitter @jmacle