Whether you’re trying to avoid the releases this week or augment them with even more movies, 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 a bunch of lingerie-clad girls killing dragons and giant samurai, the sequel to a wimpy kid’s story, an orphan girl stuck in the middle of the Arab-Israeli conflict (without any lingerie or dragons), and a family’s most intimate secrets made public.
LABYRINTH (1986)
Double Feature With or Watch Instead of: SUCKER PUNCH
The Pitch: At some point in the early 1980s, Jim Henson decided to team up with the creator of Star Wars to make a fantasy adventure movie written by one of the funnier members of Monty Python (Terry Jones), starring an adorable future Oscar winning Jennifer Connolly and David Bowie – a man who needs no adjectives. This movie should be seen on a weekly basis anyway, but it makes for a perfect counterpart to Sucker Punch. Both are about girls in bad situations who retreat into a world of their mind (or is it real?) to go on an adventure, defeat a creepy villain, and to surround themselves with fantastical visuals.
The difference is that Labyrinth is actually likable beyond the visuals, so it’s win-win for double featuring with it. Plus, it’ll remind you of the babe.
How to See It: Watch it right now
CAST A GIANT SHADOW (1966)
Double Feature With: MIRAL
The Pitch: This one might be a stretch because the two films couldn’t be more dissimilar, but Cast a Giant Shadow is a fascinating flick that takes place at the end of WWII at the doorstep of Israel’s creation, leading into the First Arab-Israeli War. It stars Kirk Douglas, Yul Brynner, and a L’Chaim-toasting John Wayne. Consider it an interesting counterpart companion to the new movie from Diving Bell and the Butterfly director Julian Schnabel about a young girl thrown into the middle of a growing Arab-Israeli conflict of modern times.
How to See It: Requires a Rental
HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS (1995)
Double Feature With: PEEP WORLD
The Pitch: Whenever there’s a movie about a family getting together in the most awkward way possible, I think about Home For the Holidays. It’s a comic masterpiece directed by Jodie Foster which sees Robert Downey Jr method acting his way through sloppy addiction, a delicious Thanksgiving meal, and a lot of repressed feelings that explode through the wall of polite tolerance of blood relations.
The result is a massive amount of laughs, which makes it a great companion for Peep World – the indie film where Michael C. Hall, Rainn Wilson, Sarah Silverman and Ben Schwartz play siblings who gather for their father’s 70th birthday party to find out that one of them has written a tell-all book with the family’s deep dark secrets. For the dramatic side of the same situation, try Festen.
How to See It: Requires a Rental
ASTRO BOY (2009)
Double Feature With or Watch Instead of: DIARY OF A WIMPY KID 2: RODERICK RULES
The Pitch: This one was impossible to figure out. After all, Diary of a Wimpy Kid was annoying, average, and probably made its target audience pee its pants (which isn’t a difficult task considering it happens by chance most of the time). The sequel stands to be more of the same, but it’s also the live-action debut of Flushed Away and Astro Boy director David Bowers.
Astro Boy was fairly average, too, but it had a big entertainment factor as a sci-fi adventure. Whereas Wimpy Kid 2 is probably just for the young, Astro Boy is also for the young at heart (and any other organs that matter).
How to See It: Watch it right now
Come back next Friday for more alternative box office tips
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