THE WEEKEND IN PREVIEW: YES, I CONTINUE TO BLAME IT ALL ON MY HEAD

I don’t want to say I half-assed this week’s movies post at Gothamist because I didn’t. Or at least, not exactly. But I did get to it late, and I did have to relatively quickly piece it together, and most importantly, I’m sure I’m missing something interesting, especially among the smaller indie new releases which since I knew very little about, I basically (unfortunately) ignored. However, for the sake of everyone, I did shorten my Kevin Reynolds rant. Reynolds is a director I find even more useless than Michael Bay. At least Bay knows how to make pretty pictures. If you watch a Bay chase scene all by its self, it might provide you with 5-10 minutes of the most basic entertainment. I don’t know what the hell Reynolds actually does, but so far, it doesn’t involve directing watchable movies. Yet people keep hiring him. And good people too. No longer is he simply Kevin Costner’s good friend who gets handed Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and then Waterworld before Costner essentially takes over helming and editing both of them. Now he’s in charge of Ridley Scott’s cast-offs — Scott apparently at one time was planning on directing Tristan and Isolde, but eventually decided just to produce and give the film to Reynolds. Now the movie has a Jan. 13 release. It simply must be brilliant, no? I think Manohla’s review today is mildly positive, but in a guilty-pleasure/don’t-expect-much-and-you’ll-be-happy sort of way, which to me doesn’t exactly provide any reason for Reynolds to continue getting jobs.

Anyway, if I didn’t still have to watch a bunch of Sundance shorts as well as a ton of features submitted to Tribeca, I would most certainly try to get to the Walter Reade for some of the selections at the New York Jewish Film Festival. I’m really interested in seeing Only Human and I’d also love to get to the double bill of silent films starring Sarah Bernhardt: Queen Elizabeth and Lady of the Camelias, which plays on Monday at 12:30.

But first, I apparently need to get to some yoga! (That one’s for you, you know who!)