releasing this week: The Town and The Hole

Much apologies for missing this article last week. Unfortunately life got in the way. What can you do? In case you’re curious, I would have been highlighting Savage and The Other Guys.

But that was last week and this is now. There’s nothing on this week that’s really jumped out at me but I’ve picked the two big ones that I’m most likely to see… Well actually I’m probably only really likely to see one of them; but the second seems so curious that I wanted to highlight it anyway.

First up, The Town.

I’ve never particularly had a problem with Ben Affleck. He seems like a nice enough guy and having watched him answer the questions for boards.ie at The Town’s premiere in The Savoy the other night, I’m thinking, he probably is a nice guy. Then I watched about 15-20 mins of Jersey Girl last night. Maybe some of that flack he gets is justified.

Thing is though, I haven’t really seen many of his films… so really I have nothing to base my opinion of him on at all, aside from that boards.ie video. From what I gather though, his first feature length directorial effort, Gone Baby Gone was pretty good. Course, I’ll be the judge of that, when I ever get around to seeing it, but it definitely warms me to the idea of watching this film.

The Town is based on a 2004 novel but Chuck Hogan called Prince of Thieves: A Novel. It’s a crime thriller based in and around Charlestown, a neighbourhood in Boston

Having not seen the film yet and not really wanting to know that much about the plot I’ll just say that… given the rave reports from people who have seen it, the fact that I’m enjoying the ol’ crime dramas lately (this film falls into a little Boston crime subgenre that’s sprung up lately and includes The Departed) and because Jeremy Renner is in it (I really like Jeremy Renner). I reckon this is one that’s worth a look this week.

Second this week is the odd one I was talking about… The Hole.

I saw a trailer for The Hole in the cinema a little while back. Don’t know what I was watching… but I remember being slightly confused. I can’t remember if I was at something like Toy Story 3 thinking “Isn’t this trailer a little scary for a kids film?” or if I was at something like Piranha thinking “It’s this trailer a little kiddy for a horror film?” but either way, it was weird That said, I didn’t pay that much attention to it. I thought it looked a bit like Jumanji and while Jumanji might be a great film for all I know, I really have no interest in watching it.

Then the Irish Film Classification Office ratings came out and The Hole got a 15A. A 15A? Just to give you an idea, The Town got a 15A, Devil has a 15A, The Expendables has a 15A. The A-Team has a 12A…. what kind of a kids films is this?

Turns out the director is Joe Dante. The man who directed probably the greatest kids horror film Gremlins. Makes a little bit more sense now. He also directed the original Piranha film from 1978, so maybe it was actually before Piranha 3D that I saw The Hole trailer.

But kids horror was all well and good back in the ’80s, when kids where allowed to be scared. These days… I just don’t know what they’re gonna get away with. The fact that it’s a 15A is encouraging, to a certain degree, so if you’re curious I’d imagine it’s worth a look… but there’s something about that that also makes me a little depressed. If it really is a kids horror and if it does strike a good balance between the younger interest and the scare factor, then it’s kind of sad that 13-15 year olds won’t get to go and see this by themselves and make it that classic scary cinema experience.

Maybe that’s just me though.

Other films releasing this week…

Pyjama Girls – Pyjama Girls actually came out last week but it’s getting a wider release into Cineworld and Vue Liffey Valley this week so I thought I would mention it. This Irish documentary follows the lives of a couple of specimens of that social subculture, Pyjama girls. You know the type, girls who go out around the town dressed in their pyjamas the whole time.

I like the sound of this film, I don’t really have an issue with people dressing in pyjamas. I mean ok, yes, I think it’s a little strange… but I don’t really like to draw conclusions about people based on the way they dress. If I did that then I’d have to accept people doing the same to me and lordi know what conclusions that would lead people to… This film focuses on two girls in particular, Lauren and Tara, and their friendship, their circumstances and yes hopefully, why they choose to dress the way they do. I do hope I get to catch this one.

Eat Pray Love – The biggest opening film of the week and not one that I am hoping to see. Julia Roberts eats herself happy around Italy, Bali and India. I don’t think so.

Worlds Greatest Dad – I’m kinda curious about this one but given that it’s only showing in one screen in Cineworld and I have to fit in Devil, The Social Network and possibly Godfather in the cinemas this week, I probably won’t get to this before it disappears. It’s written and directed by American comedian Bobcat Goldthwait (cool name huh?) and stars Robin Williams. I have a lot of respect for Robin Williams and the critics reviews for this are good so… could be worth looking at it you haven’t anything else on?

Enter the Void – Gasper Noé returns to features for his first film since 2002’s Irréversible. I kinda hated that film but I also kinda respected… though I don’t remember why… So, if I thought I could watch it again without suffering terrible motion sickness, I might. Word on the street is that Enter The Void is quite the psychedelic trip… but I’ve also seen on the posters that it may also induce motion sickness, which personally I think is a cheap-ass device to make people uncomfortable (or at least that’s what I thought of its use in Irréversible) so I’ll probably end up staying away from this one, as interesting as Gasper Noé is.

So that’s it for this week folks and apologies again for missing last week. Though, if you had been listening to Phantom 105.2’s Cinerama on 17th September, then you would have heard me talking briefly about some of the bigger releases last week…

The Town, The Hole, Pyjama Girls, Eat Pray Love, World’s Greatest Dad and Enter The Void are all in cinemas from 24th September 2010.