Weekend Movie Forecast: Knucklehead Vs. Paranormal Activity 2

Knucklehead is a PG-13 family comedy that seems to be marketed towards families who don't know any better. Judging from what people are saying about it and its convoluted plot, the film's target audience is the disinterested family who's letting its in-from-out-of-town uncle go to the video store to get a movie for them to all sit down and watch over pizza together. Said uncle is used to renting either porn or bad action movies ("Did you guys see Boondock Saint's II: All Saints Day!?") so he bypasses most of your traditional PG family movie fare, and picks up Knucklehead, which says "family comedy" on what will probably be an awfully designed cover. He reads on the back that the movie follows a grifter who cons a dope into fighting MMA matches for him in order to get money, and some reviewer from some paper in Orlando says its a "knee-slapper." In his mind, this film is perfect: not too violent for the 7 year-old girl, not too lame for the 13 year old boy, and a little crime and MMA for himself. Done. Fast-Forward: In the year 2023 the 13 year old boy, now being 26, overeducated and probably unemployed, will be drunk at a bar in whatever part of the city that'll be fashionable at that time, attempting to convey the absurdity of this strange little movie he saw when he was a kid that no one else has even heard of but that he just happened to remember. So yeah, one of those movies.Reviews have been terrible, with Michelle Orange from The Voice saying: "A schmaltzy family comedy that wonât pass the smell test for kids, parents, or even stoner second cousins, Knucklehead is too sluggish for young attention spans, and not inventive enough to keep adults engaged."TV veteran Michael Watkins directs, and sub-sitcom humor prevailsâevery comic beat seems to have arrived from an echo chamber that hosted its last laugh in 1974. Which is, incidentally, the year wrestler Alex Karras knocked out a horse and stole the show in Blazing Saddles." — Gothamist

Robert Horan

Published Oct 22, 2010

Modified Oct 22, 2010

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Click on the film stills for more details and reviews on this week's new releases and repertory screenings, which include: Knucklehead, Paranormal Activity 2, The Taqwacores, Inhale, Punching the Clown, Boxing Gym, Kalamity, City of God, Spooktacular, and Kuroneko.