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The Preview Reel: Red Sparrow and Death Wish

Scott Davis
The Preview Reel

Welcome to the “Preview Reel” column, where we look at the week’s upcoming wide-release movies. Black Panther was once again the king of the box office as the latest Marvel flick enjoyed the second biggest second weekend ever, scoring an amazing $108 million. There is no stopping the Wakanda king, but two new releases will try with Jennifer Lawrence’s Red Sparrow and the Bruce Willis revenge thriller Death Wish debuting this weekend. Neither will come close to taking down the mighty Marvel movie, but will either be any good?

 

Red Sparrow

What we are excited about: Say what you want about the “Hunger Games” franchise, but the second installment, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), is the best young-adult adaption film we’ve gotten in a while. Francis Lawrence’s direction added a lot more depth and emotion to the dystopian world and he seemed to work well with Jennifer Lawrence. The last two installments were also directed by Francis Lawrence, and while they were certainly a step back in quality, we think the blame can be put on the decision to split the story into two parts and the source material. We’re excited to see the pairing of the Lawrences on an adult spy story. If they can provide thrills in an R-rated action flick, we’re in.

What we are worried about: There isn’t too much to be worried about with this movie other than the fact that it is shrouded in a cloud of mystery. We think this is more to protect what the overall story is about, but the trailers don’t seem to showcase anything truly show-stopping. Also, while blame can be put elsewhere on the final two “Hunger Games” films, Francis Lawrence did seem to take a step back in his direction. He will certainly have more freedom than he did with those movies, but we’ll just have to wait to see how it all plays out.

The Buzz: Fox screened this movie very early in hopes of generating buzz over the past couple of weeks, but that hasn’t really worked. The film has received mediocre reviews, nothing too terrible, but nothing overly positive either. It sits at 64% on RottenTomatoes and 56 on MetaCritic as of this writing. Those numbers will not sway viewers on the fence of seeing this movie, but we’ll predict a low $15 million due to lots of competition.

Final Thoughts: Reviews haven’t convinced us that Red Sparrow is a must see, but we are still intrigued by this movie.

 

Death Wish

What we are excited about: Honestly, there isn’t much to look forward to with this movie other than Bruce Willis in an action movie again, but even his recent films haven’t been all that great. The fact that this is a remake of a 1970s pulpy revenge thriller kind of makes us curious as to why director Eli Roth would want to do something like this. There is a lot of curiosity surrounding this movie which, in a warped way, kind of makes us want to see what the final product is all about.

What we are worried about: Eli Roth is not one of our favorite directors. His direction is mostly schlocky and just aims to gross you out, which does not bode well for a revenge thriller. If this were an action-horror movie, maybe we would see the appeal of it, but since this seems to be straightforward action, we’re not sure why we should be excited about Roth’s involvement.

The Buzz: There has been a lot of bad buzz surrounding this movie, but most of it is not the film’s fault. Death Wish was originally scheduled to come out in November of last year, but was rumored to be pushed back because of the shooting in Las Vegas since the film features a lot of gun violence. It picked the first week of March months ago and the tragic Parkland shooting made some wonder if MGM might push it back again. The studio is not moving it a second time, but not many people seem to be excited to see a film like this right now. There are no reviews published as of this writing, and we’re expecting a soft opening around $9 million.

Final Thoughts: Bruce Willis badly needs a hit, but we don’t think this will be it.

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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