Movies With Butter

This weekend is, unfortunately, a return to the standard of two mediocre films a week that started to emerge around a month or so ago. Still, it does make for easy writing for a certain columnist, so let’s get to it, shall we?

Coming out today is Need for Speed, the latest enterprise for Aaron Paul (joined by such talent as Dominic Cooper and Imogen Poots) since the finale of Breaking Bad. It’s based on the popular racing video game series, and features your standard down-on-his-luck hero plot with a little bit of revenge-flick angst thrown in.

The film was not very well received by critics, earning a 24% on Rotten Tomatoes. If you go to the theaters expecting the sensation of watching someone else playing a vaguely interesting video game, you will not be disappointed—however, you will be in almost every other respect. Box Office Guru predicts opening weekend revenues of $22 million.

Also opening today is another comedy from the relentless Tyler Perry, The Single Moms Club (at least it’s not Madea, right?). The film tells of five single moms (Wendi McLendon-Covey, Amy Smart, Cocoa Brown, Nia Long, and Zulay Henao) who form a support group—the aforementioned club—and get some laughs along with the help of their fellow members.

If this sounds somewhat bland to you, you are in good company: the critics at Rotten Tomatoes rated the film at 30% for that reason. The premise could have been promising, but the film was cranked out before any kind of development of characters or deeper themes could be considered. It is expected to earn around $19 million.

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