CinemaNerdz

The Preview Reel: Born in China, The Promise, and Unforgettable

Scott Davis
The Preview Reel

Welcome to this week’s “Preview Reel” column, where we look at the week’s upcoming wide release movies. The Fate of the Furious made history last weekend as it captured the biggest worldwide opening ever with a staggering $532 million. The film somewhat disappointed stateside with $98.8 million, but Universal is undoubtedly pleased with the worldwide result. Many studios saw this coming and decided to stay away from the Furious wake. As a result, we have a pretty slow week of moderate openers including Born in China, The Promise, and Unforgettable.

 

Born in China

What we are excited about: Although not quite a yearly tradition, DisneyNature has released six nature documentaries over the Earth Day weekend since 2009. This year will bring us Born in China, which looks to be just what we have come to expect from the series. It looks to boast beautiful shots of cute animals and narrated by John Krasinski. It seems a nice alternative for families who have been bombarded by energetic, less than pleasing animated offerings like Smurfs and Boss Baby.

What we are worried about: There’s not too much to be worried about here, but nothing about this movie screams that it must be seen in the theater. It seems like you can enjoy this on Blu-ray in a couple months. Plus, you can make a night of it with other DisneyNature movies like Earth and African Cats.

The Buzz: Despite positive reviews, there is next to no buzz for this movie. Critics are saying it’s on a similar level as other DisneyNature movies, for better or worse. The series has seen declining box office returns so look for an opening around $4 million.

Final Thoughts: This might be a good field trip for schools or a different change of pace a family flick, but other than that there is no real reason to see this in the theater.

 

The Promise

What we are excited about: Oscar Isaac and Christian Bale in the same movie? Sign us up! Although the trailer looks a little too melodramatic for our taste, those two actors are two of the best working right now. Add in the writer of Hotel Rwanda and we might have an intriguing historical drama.

What we are worried about: The trailer does not seem to highlight any of the interesting historical aspects, but instead focuses on the romantic storylines. We think this is the wrong decision, but we’ll have to see how it all plays in the final product.

The Buzz: Reviews have not been kind to this movie, at all. The film has a 37 on Metacritic with most critics saying that the soapy love triangle gets in the way of the film’s interesting historical drama. The film won’t make much noise at the box office and will likely open with $3 million or lower.

Final Thoughts: Despite Oscar Isaac and Christian Bale headlining, we can’t promise we will check out The Promise this weekend.

 

Unforgettable

What we are excited about: There’s not much we are excited about with this movie, but we are big fans of Rosario Dawson, so maybe that alone will make this movie watchable. We are not the target demographic for this marriage/psycho-thriller, but it might be a kick if you enjoy those kinds of movies.

What we are worried about: Katherine Heigl has been on one of the coldest streak you can possibly imagine as it is hard to say what her last hit was; with good reason since films like Killers and The Big Wedding were sizable flops. Add to that the fact that this looks like a rip-off of recent movies like When the Bough Breaks and Obssessed.

The Buzz: Again, there is almost no buzz for this movie. When the Bough Breaks, The Perfect Guy, and No Good Deed all did very well on their opening weekends, but have seen diminishing returns as of late. Look for this to open around $10 million.

Final Thoughts: Chances are we will forget about Unforgettable in a week or two. Maybe even less.

Scott Davis

Scott Davis is a recent graduate of Oakland University where he earned a degree in journalism. He worked for the student newspaper on campus, The Oakland Post, where he became the paper's managing editor. He also earned a minor in Cinema Studies at OU. Scott enjoys all things film and TV related, especially the blockbuster kind. He might be the biggest Christopher Nolan fan you know.
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