Movies in Theaters This Friday, July 11, 2014: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Boyhood, and More
Predictably so, last week saw a bit of a dip in box office numbers. Even though it was a holiday weekend of sorts, Transformers: Age of Extinction plus a weak agenda made for a disappointing weekend.
Have no fear, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is here! The next Apes film will surely break the slump. Early reviews were (last I checked) positive coming into the weekend. Moreover, Apes won’t have a lot of competition making this a perfect storm of sorts for Matt Reeves’ (Cloverfield) film. I expect good things from this one.
Even though there aren’t any wide releases to challenge Caesar, I’d keep my eye out for Boyhood. For those that haven’t heard about this project, it is pretty remarkable. Richard Linklater (Before Sunrise) has spent the better part of 12 years developing this movie. It is about a boy growing up – both the good and the bad. Boyhood will expand nationwide next weekend.
The other limited releases worth noting are A Long Way Down (and adaptation of Nick Hornby’s 2005 novel) and Rage (starring the always-lovable Nicolas Cage).
The rest of the limited releases are as follows: Affluenza, Closed Curtain (technically released on Wednesday), Land Ho!, Made in America, Road to Paloma, and Underwater Dreams.
Have a great weekend!
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
A GROWING NATION OF GENETICALLY EVOLVED APES LED BY CAESAR IS THREATENED BY A BAND OF HUMAN SURVIVORS OF THE DEVASTATING VIRUS UNLEASHED A DECADE EARLIER.
THEY REACH A FRAGILE PEACE, BUT IT PROVES SHORT-LIVED, AS BOTH SIDES ARE BROUGHT TO THE BRINK OF A WAR THAT WILL DETERMINE WHO WILL EMERGE AS EARTH’S DOMINANT SPECIES.
Watch Now Before It’s In Theaters. In this touching comedy, a disgraced TV presenter (Pierce Brosnan), a foul-mouthed teen (Imogen Poots), an isolated single mother (Toni Collette) and an aging pizza delivery boy (Aaron Paul) – decide to end it all on New Year’s Eve. When this disillusioned group of strangers unintentionally meet at Topper’s Tower, a trendy jumper hotspot, they agree to call off their plans for six weeks. Their written pact inadvertently binds them together and sweeps the public up–transforming them into unwitting media sensations—as they discover that even accidental families make life worth living. Based on the best selling novel by Nick Hornby.
Suburbia, 2008. Swept up in a heady pre-recession world of absentee parents, plentiful booze and casual sex, aspiring photographer Fisher Miller (Ben Rosenfield) escapes his middle-class life for the moneyed mansions of the young, beautiful elite. With a stash of high-quality weed and a vintage camera, he gains access to his gorgeous cousin Kate’s (Nicola Peltz) circle of wealthy and indulged friends, just as their entitled reality is about to spin out of control. A revealing take on the hidden perils of privilege.
Filmed over 12 years with the same cast, Richard Linklater’s BOYHOOD is a groundbreaking story of growing up as seen through the eyes of a child named Mason (a breakthrough performance by Ellar Coltrane), who literally grows up on screen before our eyes. Starring Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette as Mason’s parents and newcomer Lorelei Linklater as his sister Samantha, BOYHOOD charts the rocky terrain of childhood like no other film has before. Snapshots of adolescence from road trips and family dinners to birthdays and graduations and all the moments in between become transcendent, set to a soundtrack spanning the years from Coldplay’s Yellow to Arcade Fire’s Deep Blue. BOYHOOD is both a nostalgic time capsule of the recent past and an ode to growing up and parenting.
In a secluded house by the sea with the curtains shut, a screenwriter hides from the world with only his dog as company. The tranquility is abruptly broken one night by the arrival of a young woman fleeing from the authorities. Refusing to leave, she takes refuge in the house. But come dawn, another unexpected presence will change everything.
Back when they were brothers-in-law, married to two sisters, MITCH (Earl Lynn Nelson) and COLIN (Paul Eenhoorn) were close friends, but they drifted apart as Mitch and his wife divorced and Colin’s wife died. Now Mitch, a retired surgeon who can’t quite admit to being retired, recruits a reluctant Colin on a holiday to Iceland – just the ticket to perk up a pair who have endured their share of disappointments but still have a spirit of adventure in them.
Brassy, relentlessly cheery, and prone to colorfully profane language (“…this is so delicious it’s like angels pissin’ on your tongue!”) Southerner Mitch is the live wire of the duo. Colin, a more reserved Australian, is picking up the pieces after a second marriage gone sour. For both men, aging, loneliness, and disenchantment are silent adversaries to be countered with gumption.
Women are much on the radar during their travels: in upscale Reykjavik, they hit the nightclubs with Mitch’s much younger first-cousin-once-removed ELLEN (Karrie Crouse) and her friend JANET (Elizabeth McKee), who happen to be traveling through at the same time. Even though Mitch, who is something of a Dapper Dan, disapproves of the unrevealing outfits worn by the ladies (Ph.D candidates both), a good time, of sorts, is had by all.
As their rented SUV pilots them deeper into the Icelandic hinterlands, Colin and Mitch encounter fellow adventurers, get on each others’ nerves, play movie trivia games, get lost on the moonless moors, grouse about their sons, smoke pot, speak of regrets, and marvel at Iceland’s otherworldly beauty. The vast, haunting landscapes – moss-coated cliffs, fog-shrouded mountains, geothermal pools – form a primordial Eden, the perfect backdrop for the friends’ escapades.
And as Mitch exclaims when Colin’s spirits flag, “Don’t get that Sunday afternoon attitude – good times are still a-comin’!” – a testament to the fact that joie de vivre can replenish us at any age.
A celebration of both the unifying power of music and pursuit of the American dream, Made in America is an all-access backstage pass to the one-of-a-kind festival created by rap superstar Jay Z, and directed by Ron Howard. Featuring performances and fascinating backstage interviews with many of today’s biggest music stars, Made in America shows how one giant celebration of music can change people’s lives.
When the daughter of a reformed criminal is kidnapped, he rounds up his old crew and seeks his own brand of justice.
Jason Momoa of “Game of Thrones” and “The Red Road” makes his directorial debut and stars in this intense road movie as Wolf, a Native American on the run after avenging his mother’s murder. As he flees across the desolate American West on his motorcycle, he’ll discover that justice has a cost – Wolf’s search for redemption will reveal secrets and take him on a journey where the roads have some very unexpected turns.
Robert Homer Mollohan, Lisa Bonet, Sarah Shahi, Michael Raymond-James, Chris Browning, Timothy V. Murphy, Steve Reevis, and Wes Studi co-star in a powerful story of family, strangers, pride and penance.
Road to Paloma was written by Jason Momoa, Robert Homer Mollohan, and Jonathan Hirschbein, and produced by Jason Momoa and Brian Andrew Mendoza.
Underwater Dreams, written and directed by Mary Mazzio, and narrated by Michael Peña, is an epic story of how the sons of undocumented Mexican immigrants learned how to build an underwater robot from Home Depot parts. And defeat engineering powerhouse MIT in the process.
This is how it transpired. Two energetic high school science teachers, on a whim, decided to enter their high school, a Title I school where most of the students live in poverty, into a sophisticated underwater robotics competition sponsored by the NASA and the Office of Naval Research, among others. Only four boys signed up for the competition, but once assembled, with enthusiasm and verve, they started calling oceanic engineers and military contractors for design help. They were advised that their underwater robot would require glass syntactic flotation foam. Short on money, all they could afford was PVC pipe from Home Depot. And some duct tape.
After a few test runs of their robot (aptly named Stinky), the team was confident that they would not come in last at the event, so they all piled into a beat up van to head to the competition. The boys entered the main pool area, seeing college teams in matching gear, with robots sponsored by the likes of Exxon Mobil. Feeling a bit overwhelmed, the boys put Stinky in the water for a test run. Only the PVC did not hold up. The robot leaked. And sunk.
The boys put their heads together and hilariously came up with a brilliant solution. 12 hours later, armed with 8 super-plus tampons to plug the leak in Stinky’s mechanical housing, the robot was lowered into the pool again. Only this time, Stinky performed admirably.
Fast forward to a shocking result. This rag-tag high school team of undocumented Mexican boys did what no one thought possible. The competition, however, was only the beginning. These boys forged a legacy that could not have been imagined.
Narrated by Michael Peña. Written and Directed by Mary Mazzio. Funded by the Bezos Family Foundation and the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, with additional support from the Virginia Piper Charitable Trust and others. Executive Producers: Michael Peña, Laurie Tisch, Jackie Bezos, Mike Bezos, Hope Pascucci, Mike Pascucci, Jeb Bush, Jr., Stephanie Hunt, Hunter Hunt, Christine Vachon, Sanjay Rawal, and Sarah Lenti.
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