This Week In Movies

Here is this week's edition:

Movies I Want to See:

The Men Who Stare At Goats -- I already posted about this here. I have high hopes for this one.

Precious (Limited) -- I already posted about this one, too. It's only a limited release this week. But it should be expanding soon.

Movies I Would Go See:

Disney's A Christmas Carol -- I'm not usually dying to see any animated movie, but Jim Carrey as Scrooge should be good.

Fourth Kind -- If I was into scary movies, this would be high on my list. The alien abduction tale is supposedly based on a true story, and the movie claims that it is mostly reenacting videos of documented studies done in Nome, Alaska.

Movies I Would Never Go See:

The Box -- I can't recommend this to anyone with a straight face. It's supposed to be awful. And the preview doesn't help matters. It looks pretty dumb.

Could Mo'Nique Really Win an Oscar?

On November 6, LionsGate will release Precious. The movie promises to be worth a watch and almost definitely a tear-jerker. It tells the story of Clareece "Precious" Jones (played by newcomer Gabourey Sidibe). Precious's life is bad news: overweight, illiterate, a terrible relationship with her mother (played by Mo'Nique), and raped by her father multiple times (and impregnated twice). Things do not look good for her. But she eventually attends an alternative school in hopes of changing her life (and I'm guessing that it probably works).

The movie actually won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance for best drama, and Mo'Nique won a Special Jury Prize. And, as EW and others are reporting, Mo'Nique (who plays Precious's mother) has been getting quite a bit of Oscar hype for her performance in the movie. We'll see what happens. But it's hard to imagine the same Mo'Nique from Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins and Beerfest actually winning an Oscar. Then again....

Sean Penn was the legendary Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High before he did Mystic River and Milk.

Jamie Foxx was Bunz in Booty Call before he did Ray.

Halle Berry was Nisi in B*A*P*S before Monster's Ball.

Hilary Swank was The Next Karate Kid before Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby.

And those are just a few examples. Maybe Mo'Nique does have a shot.

Anyway, here's the trailer: