This Weekend Is The Best Movie Weekend Of The Year

An email just hit my inbox that solidifies August 23rd as the best moviegoing weekend of the year. According to this email Sony Pictures Classics is expanding Woody Allen's excellen new movie, Blue Jasmine, to 1200 screens this weekend. That makes it the widest Woody Allen release ever, and means it's likely the film will be playing somewhere near you, unless you're one of those people who insists on living in some awful middle of nowhere place.

With Blue Jasmine expanding we have a weekend that is absolutely epic for real movie lovers. This weekend sees the opening of two great genre films, You're Next and The World's End, making this the best trio of wide-release movies hitting at once that I've seen in forever. And if you're living in a cool market you have the new Wong Kar-Wai movie, The Grandmaster, opening. There's some controversy surrounding that one, as the Weinstein Company trimmed it (with WKW's help) for US release. There is, however, no controversy surrounding Short Term 12 - except that some may argue about whether it's really great or a total masterpiece. I fall on the 'really great' side of that argument, while our own Film Crit Hulk called it a masterpiece in his SXSW review.

There are also some really good movies still hanging around in theaters, but your new film choices are out of this world. If you're a movie fan this is the weekend where you have to get out - maybe more than once. All three of the wide releases this weekend are worth your dollar, and the limited releases are totally worth checking out as well. Could this be the weekend where you do a movie marathon? I recommend it. Start planning now.