The Debt (Focus Features, 1,786 Theaters, 113 Minutes, Rated R): A remake of the 2007 Israeli film, The Debt is positioning itself to get an early jump on the Labor Day weekend. Although August has traditionally been the month that studios dump films that they have little to no confidence in, Focus has been pimping the film pretty heavily with television advertising the past few weeks, so there has to be some faith there.
Helen Mirren stars as a member of a team of Israeli Nazi-hunters who have a secret they kept since the 1960s come back to haunt them.
Now the idea of Helen Mirren in a thriller certainly has some appeal. It might have been a contributing factor to 2008’s RED pulling in nearly $200 million at the worldwide box office, so maybe that magic will be replicated here. After the last couple of weekends, the box office could certainly use the extra help.
