NEW YORK – “Shark Tale” is sleeping with the fishes, “Ladder 49” may light a fire under audiences and “I Heart Huckabees” is getting some existential lovin' at the box office.
Does Will Smith's character, Oscar in "Shark Take" swim with the fishes? The New York Post headline is "Hook, Line and Stinker." The animated flick gets one star from their critic who calls it about as welcome as two-week-old piece of sushi. USA Today wasn't as tough, but weren't raving either: "While no creative belly-flop, it's not a graceful swan dive either." They say it's no "Finding Nemo."
But Smith told The Foxlight that Oscar could take Nemo in a bar fight. “Oscar could definitely take Nemo because Oscar has that passion,” he told FOX News. “Nemo's scrappy but Oscar has that, that, passion to come up. You know what I mean? Nemo's a little soft.”
Asked if Smith could imagine an 'Alien Vs. Predator' movie being made with the two undersea characters, he responded, “Yeah! Yeah! 'Oscar Vs. Nemo. Now that's hot. That's a good idea. You should pitch that. You should pitch that to DreamWorks.”
Next, John Travolta and Joaquin Phoenix are on a rickety ladder, according to one review. "Ladder 49" is cliche-ridden, according to others. It may light a fire at the box office this weekend, but this firehouse comic-drama could have trouble creating a backdraft over the following weeks. Oh, did I say "Backdraft?" Remember that fireman movie from 1991 that feels an awful lot like this one?
Finally, "I Heart Huckabees" is a head full. There are a lot of big stars doing a lot of very strange stuff that critics either love or don't understand. It's dubbed an existential comedy. Oh, that explains everything, right?
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