Sunday, January 29, 2012

January Junk

Each January brings the unmistakeable reek of studio discharge, cleansing their ranks of the most distasteful, low brow popular entertainment, which easily could have been good but instead is utter garbage.


Dolly Parton, Queen Latifah, Joyful Noise, Warner Bros. Pictures, 2012.


Todd Graff's execrable Christian musical mish-mash Joyful Noise is public enemy number one. A terrible script, lazy direction, and sheer abandon, it would seem, wastes the talents of Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton.


Katherine Heigl, Daniel Sunjata, One for the Money, Lionsgate Films, 2012.


Julie Ann Robinson's One for the Money delivers our seasonal dosage of Katherine Heigl. This time around, she seems to be having a little more fun with a bad East coast accent as Stephanie Plum. Janet Evanovich's cute series is transformed into a pile of wretchedly tattered cliches. Daniel Sunjata shows promise in more ways than one, heading a game cast that is squandered horribly.


Ed Harris, Sam Worthington, Man on a Ledge, Summit Entertainment, 2012.
Asger Leth's Man on a Ledge displays the most tired, abused and stultifying tropes in the book. A bland Sam Worthington and a miscast Elizabeth Banks headline. Pablo F Fenjves' screenplay is wrong on so many levels. Salvaging the dreck is Ed Harris, chewing scenery in the antagonist role, and Henry Jackman's score, which is more sly and subtle than this dreck could ever hope to be.

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