Reject Report: Good Luck Predicting the Weekend, Chuck

Posted by John Cairns (jcairns@filmschoolrejects.com) on September 21, 2007

Welcome to another rainy September weekend at the REJECT REPORT as we continue to moan about what a miserable month it has been at the box office so far. But fear not. This weekend there should be some relief in sight with the fun romcom Good Luck Chuck — and the not as fun, scary Resident Evil: Extinction. You would think these two movies would do decent business. But here’s my question. If these films really were really any good, why are they releasing them now instead of during the summer when they could have made money? Good question.

At least Eastern Promises is good, but that’s a different type of movie: a flick that actually tries to be good. We should see much more of those as the fall goes on. Anyway here is a look at the week’s movies.

Resident Evil: Extinction is a futuristic action movie set in a sand-duned, wiped-out Las Vegas Nevada. The film stars action-film favourite Milla Jovovich as Alice again — that woman of super-human abilities. She is still on the run from the Umbrella Corporation that wants her blood so they can find a cure for the virus that has wiped out the earth’s population and turned people into zombies. And she’s also trying to save the human race from these zombies infected by this virus Umbrella Corporation allowed to get loose.

This is the third in the series of Resident Evil movies and is set to debut on 2828 screens. It’s likely to be the box office winner this week but I only see it getting about $20 million dollars. As well, I read somewhere that it wasn’t screened for critics. Now this is bad news. If a movie isn’t being screened for critics, that’s usually a sure sign that the movie is dog-freaking-awful, a piece of garbage. But we shall see.

Good Luck Chuck is a sexy sex comedy starring Dane Cook as hapless loser Chuck, a happy-go-lucky guy who cursed in love and life — until he meets Jessica Alba. The absolutely klutzy Jessica Alba, playing Cam. Apparently there’s some curse going on where each babe he sleeps with marries her next boyfriend, so the trick is for Chuck to find a way to not allow Cam to get away from him. The film’s got laughs (we think). The film’s got women. This film’s got language. This film’s also got nudity. Though, unfortunately, not from Jessica Alba, which is kind of the whole problem right there.

Buzz is bad on the flick, folks. Apparently this one got delayed for three months because Lionsgate had no confidence in it and so many people thought it was a piece of junk. Anyway, it’s out this weekend, and I think it’s going to make $15 million dollars and go down the tubes quietly when everyone realizes it’s not as good as the trailers make it out to be. I also heard that they turned it into an R-rated movie when it was originally supposed to be PG-13. Anyway, that’s Good Luck, Chuck.

Sydney White, also known by its working title Sydney White and the Seven Dorks, is a modern day reworking of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, It stars Amanda Bynes as a tomboy college freshman who spurns her uptight sorority led by evil Rachel Witchburn (Sara Paxton), and with the help of seven nerdy outcast guys, and of course leads them to big things.

Yawn. I say 8 million.

Lastly, this is the week that Eastern Promises goes wide in 1,404 theaters after a limited release last weekend. This is that Russian Mob movie set in London, England that stars Viggo Mortensen and one of my favorite movie actresses Naomi Watts. It’s directed by David Cronenberg. It’s a dark, violent movie where midwife Watts uncovers secrets that could bring down one of the most notorious Russian crime families. There’s also supposed to be some really brutal fight scenes. This movie has gotten excellent word of mouth and good reviews; though some say it could have been even better. I say $7 million.

So here is what we are looking at for box office this weekend.

That’s it! See you at the end of the weekend when we find out if this week really was an improvement at the old box office. Doubt it.

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