Can a starless, critically acclaimed $30 million sci-fi mockumentary shot in South Africa knock a named-filled, critically reviled $175 million Hollywood blockbuster from the top spot this weekend? Prognosticators have “District 9” finishing Friday through Sunday in the low-to-mid ’20s, the same territory where the expect the second weekend of “G.I. Joe” to end up. Sony, releasing through its infrequently used Tri-Star alias, has mounted an impressive guerilla campaign stressing the name of producer Peter Jackson, who backed the film for Neill Blokamp, Jackson’s handpicked director for the aborted “Halo.” This heavy-handed apartheid allegory knocked ’em dead at Comic Com, and is currently rating a whopping 93 per cent positive at Rotten Tomatoes. I found it pretty tiresome, and so did Kyle Smith — he gives it two stars today — but many critics do tend to over-value anything different, especially in the waning days of summer. Meanwhile, another modestly budgeted effort, Warner’s New Line leftover “The Time Traveler’s Wife” with Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams, will battle for female moviegoers’ eyes with reigning champ “Julie & Julia” (funny how Amy Adams has disappeared from the latest TV spots, which focus exclusively on Meryl Streep) with both titles expected to end up in the mid-teens. This one rates 34 at RT and gets 1.5 stars from Kyle. There are three more wide releases enterting the marketplace. Targeting younger audiences, Disney will release Hiyao Miyazaki‘s sublime animated “Ponyo” with a Pixar-supervised English-language track at 750 locations, and some think it will (barely) make it into the double digits. I give it 3.5 stars and it rates a 96 at RT. Expected to open well under $10M are Todd Graff‘s “High School Musical” meets John Hughes teen musical “Bandslam” (2.5 stars from me, 79 at RT) from Summit and “The Goods,” a clunker comedy about a used-car salesman starring Jeremy “Sushi Defense” Piven and produced by Will Ferrell, which Paramount is dumping under its semi-defunct Paramount Vantage label. This one rates a dire 14 at RT and gets 1.5 stars from moi.
