At the Movies With Peter Travers: “Monsters Vs. Aliens,” “Knowing” and “The Haunting in Connecticut”
Last week, in an unprecedented move, Rolling Stone‘s Peter Travers put the Nicolas Cage film Knowing in his garbage dump Scum Bucket based solely on seeing the trailer. However, one angry European reader emailed Peter at asktravers[at]rollingstone.com and complained, demanding, “Where’s your seriousness?” Travers agreed with this reader and last week, because the studio wouldn’t show Knowing to critics, Travers went to his local multiplex, paid $10 for a ticket and watched Knowing. And you know what? The film was even worse than the trailer, Travers says in this week’s At The Movies, thanks mostly to a ridiculous plot and Cage’s anti-riveting performance as an astrophysicist.
Having learned his lesson about not not rushing to judgment, this weekend’s not-shown-for-critics horror film The Haunting in Connecticut sits on the precipice of instant Scum Bucketry, but Travers will once again shell out his hard-earned money to watch what promises to be somehow even worse than the Amityville Horror remake. Is the film as bad as Travers predicts? Find out next week in this spot.
But there is a faint bright spot in this weekend’s openings, and that’s the animated Monsters Vs. Aliens.
While the film lacks the charm and soul of Wall-E, the movie has two major things working in its favor. First, it’s in 3D, which Travers believes might be the next step in getting people to come back to the movies. If you don’t see Monsters Vs. Aliens in 3D, don’t bother seeing it at all. Second, it features Seth Rogen in the vocal role of the blob Bob, with the Knocked Up actor giving one of the best performances of his young career. For Travers’ complete take on this film and the rest of the box office fare, watch At the Movies above.