releasing this week: Extract and Date Night

There’s a whole heap of films releasing this week! On the menu we have It’s a Wonderful Afterlife, Centurion, The Joneses, Life During Wartime, Dogtooth, La Danse: The Paris Opera, Cherrybomb and the two I’m highlighting… Date Night and Extract

First up Date Night

On paper it looks like a great idea, Steve Carell and Tina Fey are basically the top comic actors of the moment. They play the leads in two of the most critically acclaimed new US comedies of the last few years… why not put them together in one big comedy movie, that should be gold right?

Course not all great ideas come to fruition. I haven’t seen Date Night so I have no idea if it’s any good but I can tell you this – I’m worried this will be a lot softer and a lot more mainstream than these guys can pull off. It’s called Date Night and I have this fear it’s going to be one of comedies aimed at comfortable 25+ couples… not edgy 25+ couples like Zack and Miri Make A Porno… just comfortable ones who want a few gentle laughs over 90 mins or so.

Which is not to say it will be a bad film. I really hope this is a good film because there’s a pretty good chance I’ll go and see it in the next two weeks. Even if it isn’t riotously funny I’m in the mood for laughs, even if they are gentle ones. And if they are big ones then all the better. I’m just a bit wary of such big names being squashed together… The names are still a draw for me though… Well Steve Carell is anyway, I’m neither here nor there on 30 Rock to be honest. It’s never grabbed me.

Surprisingly (for me) I’ve picked another comedy as the second film this week. Extract comes to us from the mind (and waving director’s stick*) of Mike Judge, writer/director of such cult classic as Office Space and Idiocracy. Well I’m not entirely sure if Idiocracy is a cult classic yet but I thought it was great… so if it’s not one then it deserves to be.

Just to give you the gist of it, Extract is about a guy, played by Jason Bateman, who owns an “extract” factory. I’m not entirely sure what the extract is for but it’s probably not important. Or maybe it is and that’s why it’s not obvious from the trailers… Anyway, he’s just a guy, trying to do right by people but unfortunately his work and home life are falling apart around him. Undoubtedly hilarity ensues.

I really like Jason Bateman, I love Arrested Development you see, so I’ll watch anything with Mr. Bateman in it. Mind you I haven’t seen many of his movies at all… but I definitely wouldn’t turn them off if I saw them on. There’s also a couple of other good comedy actors in it, David Koechner, J.K. Simmons (if you don’t know their names you’ll know them when you see them) and also Ben Affleck is in it too. I wouldn’t hold that against the film though.

Since there’s so many other films out this week I’ll leave it there on the highlights, don’t want to bore you all pieces just yet…

Other films releasing this week are:

It’s a Wonderful Afterlife – From the writers and director of Bend It Like Beckham comes a comedy about an Indian mother who takes her obsession about marriage into the world of serial murder. Or at least that’s what it says on IMDb.com. Sounds kinda mad, I think I would like it.

The Joneses – It’s all about keeping up with The Joneses. Looks pretty funny and my two favourite older men, Gary Cole and David Duchovny, are in it so hopefully it’s good.

Centurion – There seems to be a bit of a mini swords and sandals revival this year. Clash of the Titans two weeks ago, Centurion now then Prince of Persia coming up at the end of May and The Eagle of the Ninth in September. Centurion is Neil Marshall’s take on the genre. You may remember him directing such films as Dog Soldiers, The Descent and Doomsday. I guess he’s moved on to “c”. This is a fairly small release.

Life During Wartime – Dramatic comedy by Todd Solodz, writer/director of Happiness and Palindromes. Looks odd and I wasn’t into Happiness at all. There’s an interesting looking trailer though. Have a look if you’re curious. (limited release)

Dogtooth – Nice poster. Greek drama about isolation, abuse and teenage sexuality. (limited release)

La Danse: The Paris Opera – French language documentary following the production of seven ballets by the Paris Opera Ballet. (limited release)

Cherrybomb – Last but not least, and fair play if you’ve read this far, is Cherrybomb starring Rupert Grint of Harry Potter fame. The film is written by Northern Irish playwright Daragh Carville and is about three teenagers whose wild weekend runs out of control. Could be pretty decent if you’re looking for something a little outside of the mainstream.

All the films above are in Irish cinemas from Friday 23rd April 2010.

* They have pointy director’s sticks for directing right?