It didn’t take very long for a “respectable” and “legitimate” film critic to finally “like” Gerard Butler’s new epic flop Playing for Keeps, but the film has taken a step forward from a 0% Rotten Tomatoes score to 2%. The critic in question is Leonard Maltin, who wrote this of Jessica Biel’s latest paycheck:
It won’t be up for any Oscars, nor will it score points for originality, but it’s harmless enough fare for its target audience.
Translated: “It sucked, but not enough that bored single women and housewives wouldn’t kill themselves if they had to sit through it.”
That said, enough people were either scared away by that horrible RT score or they just had enough common sense to watch the commercial or trailer and know that this paint-by-numbers romantic comedy probably isn’t even worth waiting for on Netflix. (I’ll let you know the answer to that soon enough, as Playing for Keeps is the only movie remaining on my Must Watch list for the 2012 Worst Movies feature, and thank God. I’m seriously in pain from this year’s awful mess.)
The incredible latest edition to the James Bond franchise, Skyfall, remains at the top of the box office this week, as it earned another $11 million, bringing the grand total to $261 million. Playing for Keeps was the top earner for new films with a lousy $6 million earning it the sixth best gross of the weekend overall. Meanwhile, Hyde Park on Hudson earned $83,300 on 4 screens, giving it a meaningless but awesome per screen average of $20,825. Hey, I’m just trying to find anything positive in an otherwise goober of a weekend.
(Via Box Office Mojo)