Welcome the first installment of Will It Bomb? for 2007! Happy New Year to all of you! I hope it will be a banner year for everyone!
If this is your first glimpse of this column, here’s how it works!
I go down the list of each week’s new film releases and determine if they have the chops to make it onto the list of all lists: The Top 10 at the Box Office.
Here are the films that are coming out this first week of the new year! Are they going to bring in the bucks?
Code Name: The Cleaner: Cedric the Entertainer is a janitor stricken with amnesia who needs to find out who he is and what his connection is to a deceased FBI agent. Hilarity naturally ensues as he goes on this search. This seems like a film that does have any real substance, but will squeeze out a few chuckles.
Will It Bomb? Audiences are always into comedy, so this one will rake in some revenue. I’d say it will end up in the lower Top 10.
Freedom Writers: Wasn’t this film released over 10 years ago? With Michelle Pfeiffer? Wasn’t it called Dangerous Minds? Hilary Swank fills the new teacher’s shoes, determined to encourage and instill some hope into teenagers through writing. Swank’s well-deserved Oscars came from playing underdog characters, but this movie seems to be rehashed and will probably have a predictable ending.
Will It Bomb? I think it will make some money, but it won’t have too much of an impact on theatergoers.
Happily N’Ever After: The essence of Shrek comes through in this film, set in “Fairy Tale Landâ€, where a girl needs to thwart the plot of her “wicked stepmother†to take over the land.
Will It Bomb? Shrek was such a monster hit, so it could go either way. Some purists may thing it’s just copying the premise, others may find it refreshing. My theory: Top 10 standing, definitely.
Home of the Brave: Soldiers finishing a stint in Iraq are deployed for home and have to get used to normal life again in this film. While it showcases quite a number of well known actors, what I think will bring most audiences in is rapper 50 Cent’s second major role.
Will It Bomb? This one is a crap shoot. Granted, with the perceived lackluster performance in his “semi-autobiographical†film, Get Rich or Die Tryin’, 50 Cent’s mere presence could send the film down the tubes. However, I vote that it will do moderately well.
Perfume: Having an almost superhuman sense of smell can be a blessing, or in this case, a possible flying leap into obsession and killing. When this young man strives to create the ideal scent, almost no one around him is safe. Personally, I love movies with a very bizarre premise, and this one certainly fits.
Will It Bomb? I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it will do pretty well, considering the competition and current releases.
Thanks for checking out this week’s edition! Be on the lookout for next week’s new releases and my assessment of their rates of success!
Release Date 11/28/2008 
