NOW PLAYING: COME OUT AND PLAY, THE CROODS, & OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN!

It's a good weekend (or was) to hit the theaters, because you can watch a decent action/thriller, an animated caveman comedy that the whole family can enjoy, and a CHILDREN OF THE CORN knock-off set in a tropical locale. Let's take a closer look at what's new! First up is COME OUT AND PLAY:


Yep, this is totally CHILDREN OF THE CORN set on a tropical isle (though it seems to be lacking the whole supernatural/religious aspect). When a vacationing couple arrives on a glorious island paradise and finds it nearly deserted, they soon discover that the adult residents of said island have been butchered by all of their children. After exposition from a lone survivor, they try to escape, but can they? I guess it all comes down to how many 5-year olds they can take in a fight. While I could probably take on my fair share of killer ankle-biters, my moral compass would drag me down a bit apparently, allowing me to only survive the onslaught of twenty or so. As for the movie, it doesn't look like anything special, but I always get a kick out a film that a.) has creepy kids murdering adults and b.) has the adults murdering them right back in order to survive. There's something very wrong with me....

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Next up we have THE CROODS, a new animated comedy from DreamWorks Animation. A family of cavepeople wander around and go on adventures and ... stuff. I wasn't blown away by the first trailer I saw, and I'm personally surprised by how well it is doing in the box office. (Then again, I'm not so surprised because it's the first legit kids film to come out this year.) Let's check out the trailer, shall we?


 Ok, I'd watch this. It's no WRECK-IT RALPH, but it looks fun and almost makes me wish I had a son or daughter to go see it with. (Key word here is ALMOST. Haha!) I like Ryan Reynolds and Emma Stone, and Nicholas Cage, who (though stricken with a malady that gives him a complete inability to turn down a role, and typically causes him to chew the hell out of the scenery) seems rather restrained here. If you've got young'uns this is def the best movie to take them to see this weekend.

Finally, if you don't live in a city that's playing COME OUT AND PLAY and you're planning on going out and leaving the kids with a babysitter, why not watch Gerard Butler reenact DIE HARD in the White House? Your final new major release for this week is OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN:


Oh MAN, how formulaic could you get?! Asian terrorists (probably North Korean because China's a major economic power in this world now and it'd be wrong to make them the villain in a movie. See also: RED DAWN remake.) easily invade the White House and capture the president, and its up to an ex-special forces/ex-Secret Service agent who happens to be stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time, to kill the bad guys single-handedly and rescue the prez.

This is screenwriting at its laziest, but damn it, I'd gladly give it a look. It's Rated R, has Gerard Butler doing what he was made to do (i.e. being an action star, not a frequent leading man in numerous retardedly formulaic chick flicks), and blows up several of Washington D.C.'s most notable landmarks! (I haven't seen this much destruction in our nation's capital since EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS! Well, except for INDEPENDENCE DAY that is!)

If you caught any of these new flicks on the big screen this weekend, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below, or hit me up on Facebook or Twitter!