Whether you’re trying to avoid the releases this week or augment them with even more movie, Your Alternate Box Office offers some options for movies that would play perfectly alongside of (or instead of) the stuff studios are shoving into the megaplex this weekend.
This week features Nic Cage driving straight outta Hell, two jackasses trying as hard as they can to cheat on their wives, and a love triangle from Canada.
VANISHING POINT (1971)
Double Feature With: Drive Angry 3D
The Pitch: Since Patrick Lussier’s Drive Angry is a throwback (in some ways) to the car movies of the 70s, it only makes sense that you’d want to double up with a car movie from the 70s. Sense is all this column is about.
The fantastic Barry Newman plays a car transporter who takes a bet on a 1970 Dodge Challenger that he can get it from Colorado to San Francisco in fewer than 15 hours. What? It’s high concept. And, yes, it sounds a lot like Smokey and the Bandit – especially considering that Newman’s character is helped along the way by a police-scanning radio DJ played by Cleavon Little (yes, friends, the sheriff from Blazing Saddles).
How to See It: Requires a rental
DUMB & DUMBER (1994)
Double Feature With: Hall Pass
The Pitch: What was the Farrelly Brothers’ first movie? This bad boy. People have been disagreeing over whether Hall Pass is a return to foaming-at-the-mouth form for the sibling directors, and there’s only one way to settle it. Watch their new schtick alongside their old.
There’s Something About Mary is another strong choice, but for two guys acting like idiots, the pairing here is more direct. Plus, you get to see 3-time Golden Globe nominee Jeff Daniels wrestle with one of the worst bowel movements of his life/career. What could be better than that? Watch and decide. Then report back on whether Hall Pass really lives up to the Farrelly legacy.
How to See It: Requires a rental
THREESOME (1994)
Double Feature With: Heartbeats
The Pitch: The lesser publicized of the releases this week is Xavier Dolan’s Heartbeats which focuses on the drama inherent in three friendships being shaped by romance. Why not pile even more of that sexual tension on the fire with Threesome? There is no logical reason not to.
An early offering from writer/director Andrew Fleming (Hamlet 2), this story stars Lara Flynn Boyle, Stephen Baldwin, and Josh Charles (aka that guy from Sports Night and Dead Poet’s Society) as college roommates who start to fall in love with each other all over the place. Sexual identities are challenged and faced, and friendships are tested at the mercy of hormonal frustration. Plus, it delivers a stark response to the fantasy of ending up with an attractive girl with a boy’s name as your roommate in a male only dorm.
How to See It: Requires a rental
Come back next Friday for more alternative box office tips
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