1. Life As We Know It (Warner Brothers, 3,100+ Theaters, 112 Minutes, Rated PG-13): Katherine Heigl is becoming the queen of the romantic comedy with a twist–multiple time bridesmaid finds love, feminist falls for misogynist, etc–but this time the twist might be too much to take.
She costars with Josh Duhamel as two single people who hate each other who are forced to take care of their mutual friends’ kid when the parents die in an accident. That’s a great start to a comedy, isn’t it?
So, the two have to move into their friends house–creepy and unrealistic, but hey–where they bungle through raising the baby and eventually fall in love.
Speaking as a quasi-new father, I don’t find dropping babies on the floor because you can’t figure out a Baby Bjorn to be all that funny. But your mileage may vary.
2. Secretariat (Disney, @2,500 Theaters, 116 Minutes, Rated PG): From the company that brought you the underdog hockey team that made good and aging football player that made good comes the story of the race horse that made good. Have they run out human Rocky-ish stories to cover and now they have to move onto the animal kingdom?
Of course, even if you weren’t around when he ran and know nothing about horse racing, you probably have heard the name Secretariat. He was the last horse to win the Triple Crown. Every year the question arises will there be a horse this year that matches the feat but none ever pan out.
This will tell the story of the horse and its owner, and it is a true underdog story. Of course, if your opinion of horse racing is that you’d rather stick pins in your eyes than watch anything associated with it, then this film might not be for you.
3. My Soul To Take (Universal, 2,400+ Theaters, Rated R): Okay, you have a bunch of unknowns actors. You have a hook–a serial killer returns from the dead to hunt the children who were born on the day he died. You have the latest, snazzy trend in films-3D. And you have a classic horror director–Wes Craven.
If you have all that, why has this film flown pretty much under the radar? I know I’ve seen ads for it, but not on the level of other horror films coming out this month.
Either way, it might not be the best horror film out there, but it should be good for a scare or two.
