Some Movies Out This Weekend, October 24, 2014

Some Movies Out This Weekend, October 24, 2014

The fall season eclecticism continues at full speed this weekend. You have your choice of gonzo action, spooky exploitation of childhood games, and a romantic comedy with some of the best talent in Hollywood on board.

As usual, these three aren't everything you can find in theaters this weekend, but they represent a good mix. So if you Halfstackers aren't at any Halloween parties, a trip to the movies should give you lots of options.

John Wick

Directors: David Leitch, Chad Stahelski

Writer: Derek Kolstad

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Alfie Allen, Willem Dafoe, John Leguizamo, Ian McShane

An outlandish premise – mobsters (?) steal a reformed assassin's dog, he goes to get it back, gleeful violence follows – brings Keanu Reeves back to form as a big time action hero. The cast is filled with fun ringers (Dafoe and Leguizamo) and HBO vets (Allen, McShane) alike. The directors are former stuntmen on some of the best action movies of a generation, like The Matrix – hence the Reeves connection. This is getting the highest of marks and could be the perfect movie to see with a crowd this weekend.

Ouija

Director: Stiles White

Writers: Juliet Snowden, Stiles White

Starring: Olivia Cooke, Ana Coto, Daren Kagasoff, Bianca A. Santos

Halloween is only a week away, everyone. You need to get plenty scared. Disregard the flimsy, market tested premise (“People recognize this product, so let's make a movie out of it!”) and focus on the atmosphere. I've seen this trailer a handful of times in theaters recently and I've come away feeling creeped out.

Will the movie be any good in the traditional sense? With the trailer giving away the movie's lazy expository device – the original girl shot videos to warn her friends before she was killed – I doubt it. But I'm anxious and jumpy. Stuff gets to me, especially surprises. I bet this will be an effective movie in that regard.

Laggies

Director: Lynn Shelton

Writer: Andrea Seigel

Starring: Keira Knightley, Chloe Grace Moretz, Sam Rockwell

A play on the man-child narratives that have been so popular for the last decade, Laggies stars Keira Knightley (with an impressive American accent) as a woman who can't grow up. She befriends Chloe Grace Moretz, a high school student, and “lay[s] low” at her dad's (Sam Rockwell) house. Life lessons are learned, romances are kindled, advice is imparted. On its face, it all seems pretty conventional.

But! The cast is among the best in Hollywood, with heavyweights in talent if not pounds (they're skinny, you see) Knightley and Rockwell making a sweet if surprising romantic pair. Director Lynn Shelton has worked on some of the greatest television of the last several years – episodes of New Girl, The Mindy Project, and even a Mad Men thrown in – and her features, especially Humpday and Touchy Feely, have gotten great reviews. There is some solid pedigree at work.

Some Movies Out This Weekend

Some Movies Out This Weekend

Usually my caveat of, "This is not meant to be a complete overview of every movie out this weekend," applies, but there are only two new movies opening this week in wide release.  I actually had to look up the limited releases to find something intriguing. You will be able to find the third listing at a handful of theaters around Chicago if you're so inclined.

Opening this week, September 26, 2014.

The Equalizer

Director: Antoine Fuqua

Writer: Richard Wenk

Starring: Denzel Washington, Chloe Grace Moretz, Marton Csokas

Based on the 1980s television series, The Equalizer looks to up the violence of the source material and bring some gravitas to a pulpy story – the director and star previously paired on Training Day, which won Washington an Oscar. That's all well and good, but the sting of filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn's (Bronson, Drive, OnlyGod Forgives) departure from the project remains. It's likely the skeletal structure of what drew Refn to the material still exists, but the looks we've had at this movie so far don't promise more than Denzel Washington doing the same thing he's done for a decade. He'll be solid as always, with a stiff-upper-lip resolve and sense of justice, but with the short lead time Fuqua had after taking the project off Refn's hands, it's unlikely he had the option of imbuing it with his personal vision, instead being forced into a director-for-hire gig.

Or it could be an exploration of masculinity and chivalry and how that can go wrong. It can expand on the straightforward hand-to-hand action style hinted by the trailer to become a new action touchstone. It can show Chloe Grace Moretz continue her maturation into a possible awarding winning actress – she clearly is meant to bring to mind the Jodie Foster-in-Taxi Driver role here. The ingredients are there, but it'll likely be a slick Hollywood action thriller instead of the gonzo ultraviolence Refn promised.

The Boxtrolls

Directors: Graham Annable, Anthony Stacchi

Writers: Irena Brignull, Adam Pava

Starring: Isaac Hempstead Wright, Elle Fanning, Ben Kingsley, Jared Harris, Nick Frost, Tracy Morgan

Stop-motion animation and charm go a long way with people. So do adaptations of children's literature. This is one ostensibly for kids, but from the looks of it – some good fish-out-of-water humor, a wonderfully talented voice cast, and most importantly, no instantly outdated pop culture references in the trailer – it won't be a bad experience for the parents either.

It looks like a simple hero's journey, but if it's done well, as directors Annable and Stacchi (Coraline, Paranorman) are known to do, chances are this one will be a pleasant way to spend an hour and a half.

Jimi: All Is by My Side

Director: John Ridley

Writer: John Ridley

Starring: André Benjamin, Hayley Atwell, Imogen Poots

Writer-Director John Ridley is a newly minted Oscar winner after having penned last year's 12 Years a Slave. He continues the biopic trajectory here, but with a different century surrounding the subject who is tragic for different reasons than the subject of Ridley's last film.

André Benjamin has always had a theatrical flair as one half of Outkast. He's charming and has a career's worth of knowledge on how to captivate a crowd, so his onstage work as Jimi Hendrix looks to be spot-on. We'll see about his ability to cover the range of human emotions, but he's got the performance aspects down pat.