News: This Week's Releases

Rejoice, horror fans, because Christmas has come early this year! Leading this week’s slate of wide releases are two of the most highly-anticipated horror films of the year. Rob Zombie once again revives the iconic Michael Myers in the sequel to his remake of the genre masterpiece, Halloween. Halloween II, which Rob Zombie promises is a distinct departure from the rest of the series, is hoping to draw in huge audiences thirsty for the promised blood and carnage. Still, its screen count of 3,025 is less than that of the other genre offering making its premiere, The Final Destination. The fourth film in the popular franchise about Death knocking off teenagers will make its debut in glorious 3-D on most of its 3,121 screens. Which film will come out on top? Which film, if either (or perhaps if not both) will impress this hardened horror fan? Only time will tell, but I imagine that this is going to be a bloody weekend at the box-office. Of course, for those of you who do not like scary movies, don’t worry. Ang Lee is around to ensure that you will not leave this weekend empty-handed. His much-talked about Taking Woodstock is also opening on 1,300 screens. Though this film is technically a wide release, its significantly lower screen count might mean that I will not have the opportunity to review it this week. If that is the case, it will be handled just like a limited release and will be covered as soon as possible as a Late Review. Hopefully, though, I will be able to commute to a theater and catch it in time for my Friday deadline. As for limited releases, The Cinema Issue will be covering two this week. The first is The September Issue (which happens to be the film that inspired the title of this blog), the documentary about Anna Wintour and her career at Vogue. It opens on six screens in New York this weekend and will expand to a wider, but still limited run on September 11th. The other is the comedy Big Fan, starring Patton Oswalt. Arriving with no marketing and, as far as I can tell, no word of mouth, it will be opening on two screens. Reviews of these films will arrive soon in the form of Late Reviews. Coverage of the two wide releases (and possibly of Taking Woodstock) will appear by Friday of next week, just in time for a whole new array of films to be released.