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Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain
Who: Kevin Hart
What: A night at Madison Square Garden from comedian Kevin Hart's stand-up comedy tour.
When: October 15th - DVD and online on demand
Why: I found Hart's last tour, Laugh at My Pain, to be pretty funny. He combines an Eddie Murphy delivery style with Billy Cosby-type personal anecdotes, and is generally positive and charming throughout. Let Me Explain became the fourth highest-grossing stand-up comedy movie, earning $32 million at the box office this year.

Maniac
Who: Elijah Wood, Nora Arnezeder
What: A crime horror remake of the 1980 film by the same name. Wood plays a man with a mannequin store who targets women and stabs them to death. Arnezeder plays an artist who unsuspectingly asks him for help with her upcoming exhibition.
When: October 15th - DVD
Why: A remake like this reminds me that the late 1970s and early 1980s were big on horror movies about psychotic killers. I guess crime rates made people more nervous back then and primed for "this could happen to you!" movies. I've never seen the original, but this remake seems to take a point-of-view camera angle as if you're seeing everything from Wood's eyes, in a very underground-filmmaker style.

What I'm watching for this week:
(note: Pacific Rim is available in some venues this week but I'm waiting to highlight it when Netflix releases it on November 12th). This week marks one of the few that is without a serious blockbuster release. My pick this week for the movie I want to see most is The East. Mostly I'm interested in seeing Brit Marling's developing career, but it also looks like a decent thriller. And it has an extensive cast list I'm familiar with. I'm also interested in adding another thriller to make it a double header with The Colony. I'm always interested in post-apocalyptic depictions with a decent budget. I don't expect anything special beyond the generic thriller, but I think it's worth a look and should at least be a passable choice for a weekend night. Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain may be something that eventually shows up on cable TV - I think that's where I saw Hart's previous tour, Laugh at My Pain - but Hart's comedy is worth watching now, and is probably a good choice for at date night in. Ingenious looks like a side project that Renner, who has been starring in big budget films took in the off season, but the combination of him and Dallas Roberts elevates it beyond a typical small budget comedy drama. Finally, there may be some old school horror fans and fans of Elijah Wood that would be interested in Maniac but it looks too indie and pointlessly sinister to interest me.



Coming next week:

Before Midnight, I Give It a Year, Just Like a Woman, Only God Forgives, Standing Up

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