This week: Costner tries to save the Browns, the Cabin Fever cooties return, and a big week for vampires.
► Hoping to be the football version of ‘Money Ball,’ Ivan Reitman’s DRAFT DAY has Kevin Costner as the GM of the Cleveland Browns under pressure to make a splash during the draft. He trades the team’s first round picks for the next three years to the Seahawks in order to get this year’s #1 pick, a Heisman winning QB. But the move angers the Browns’ coach (Denis Leary), especially when some incidents from the quarterback’s past come to light. This movie had the NFL’s full co-operation, so don’t expect much dirt. It’s possibly Costner’s toughest role ever – a Cleveland Browns GM who doesn’t screw up. Frank Langella and Jennifer Garner co-star.
► Sean Astin gives the prequel CABIN FEVER: PATIENT ZERO more pedigree than it probably deserves. He’s the consummate pro, playing a patient at a secret medical lab who is immune to a flesh-eating virus. The outbreak is contained, until a group of dumb asses having a bachelor party decide to crash the place. Cue the icky stuff. A step above the first sequel, but these movies are pointless without Eli Roth’s twisted humor to go with the gore.
► Ten years ago Universal brought its classic monsters out of the vault for the Legacy Collections to cash in on the craptacular ‘Van Helsing.’ Now, the studio is releasing all of them, and their assorted sequels, for the CLASSIC MONSTERS COMPLETE 30-FILM COLLECTION. Among the goodies here are three Abbott & Costello flicks, and the multi-monster entries like ‘House of Frankenstein.’ A handy booklet contains the release dates, so you can watch them in order. While the major movies are getting a concurrent blu-ray release, this set is only DVD for now.
► John Badham’s 1979 take on DRACULA may be the most underrated version of Bram Stoker’s book, with Frank Langella donning the cape and Laurence Olivier hunting his undead ass as Van Helsing. If you can get past Langella’s Studio 54 haircut, this was a moody, stylish take on the story, with a John Williams score to boot. Features commentary from Badham and the doc ‘The Revamping of Dracula.’
► Good God, we’re up to ten seasons of GREY’S ANATOMY? Really? I’m running out of ways to hate this show, but I admire its pluck in sticking around a decade. Ten years was enough for Sandra Oh, however, who leaves during the season finale. But not before everyone deals with a mudslide, parenthood, more broken marriages, and the return of Isaiah Washington, who was fired after Season 3 for slagging gay co-star T.R. Knight. Not the ratings powerhouse it used to be, but still last season’s #15 show.
► Don’t let that hokey cover for THEY CAME TOGETHER fool you – Amy Poehler and Paul Rudd are in on the joke and riffing on every rom-com cliché you can think of in this sly comedy from ‘Wet Hot American Summer’ director David Wain. Rudd plays a corporate candy store owner who threatens to close down an indie shop owned by Poehler. They of course fall in love, but this ain’t no Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan flick. Watch for usual suspects Adam Scott, Bill Hader, Ed Helms and Ken Marino.
► Alas, NIGHT MOVES is not about a guy who’s a little too tall and could’ve used a few pounds. It gathers Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning and Peter Sarsgaard as three radical environmentalists who kick things up a notch by blowing up a hydroelectric dam in Oregon. Of course, making a statement comes with a price, forcing to them to wonder if the cause was worth the consequences.
► A spin-off of ‘The Vampire Diaries,’ The CW’s THE ORIGINALS keeps the neck biters coming with 22 Season 1 episodes, commentary on the pilot, and five featurettes. Deals with the first vampire family and a half-breed werewolf who try to retake New Orleans’ French Quarter. Season 2 starts Oct. 6.
Also out this week:
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