This week at the cinema - June 22: Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, Brave, and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

What an odd group of films to hit the theaters. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Brave, and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.

Let's start with Abraham Lincoln. Apparently he'll emancipate the shit out of you!!! That should have been the tagline for the movie. The film is produced by Tim Burton and directed by Timur something-Russian. I personally have liked the director's previous films. He's really good at taking a story with the most absurd plots and making it enjoyable (see Wanted). Here the Gettysburg Address giver is not only an intelligent politician, he's a vampire hunter. The plot of the film is just bonkers, but if any director could pull it off, Bekmambetov could be the one.

Brave is the newest Pixar film, which can only mean one thing, it'll make millions. Pixar films are destined to be popular and make money. I'm an avid fan of all of their films, except Cars 2, which I really don't care to see because I don't like when studios put out sequels with the only purpose being to cash in. The revenue that was made from Cars toys was beyond comprehension and I completely understand why the studio forced them to vomit up a sequel, but that doesn't mean that I want to see it. I will however see Monsters University because Monsters Inc was a great movie. Brave doesn't have the same appeal that Pixar brings to the table, at least not from the trailers that I've seen.

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World has the longest title I've had to type in a long time and I'm resenting them for naming the film that as the carpal tunnel ravages my wrists as we speak. I don't know how to feel about this movie either. The casting is solid, but the film seems a little too quirky to be a good comedy. It reminds me of what I call the "indie comedy paradigm." This is where the comedy tries really hard to add some strong truth into the plot and usually end up screwing up the comedic part of the film. I call it the "indie comedy paradigm" because A LOT of indie comedies try to do this and come off as pretentious tools. While I'm tired of slapstick and watching someone getting hit in the balls every few minutes, many indie comedies try way too hard to be intellectual and just come off as pompous. I think I'll wait for the dvd and watch it then.