Weekend Movie Guide: Another Apatow disappointment?

Fat man in a little coat | Photo courtesy of Universal

Ordinarily, I'm completely disinterested in the box office performance of a movie. Sure, my innate sense of justice leads me to wish that good films will do well and bad films poorly, but I never check Boxofficemojo over the weekend to see how a movie is doing. I may keep on eye on Forgetting Sarah Marshall, though, to see if the weakening Apatow brand can regain some strength after the relative failures of Walk Hard and Drillbit Taylor. The mix of talent is good and the trailer is funny so maybe Sarah will restore some order to Judd's universe.

I doubt 88 Minutes will restore anything to the increasingly deteriorating film career of Al Pacino. I think it was Adam Carolla who recently said that the worst thing that ever happened to Pacino was winning an Oscar for Scent of a Woman. That win ratified all of his worst instincts to the point where watching Al in a movie these days is almost like seeing Rip Taylor in his heyday--only with less subtlety. At least 88 Minutes has one of my favorite character actors--Neil McDonough--in it. That won't be enough to get me to buy a ticket, though.