Waiting on Deck

Friday Night Lights (PG-13)
Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Lucas Black, Derek Luke, and Jay Hernandez
Director: Peter Berg

I Fandango'd my tickets! Unfortunately, I still have to go to the box office to get them. I couldn't make it the premiere last night because it was $100 a pop and I don't have in press credentials to score the freebee... yet! The local news was going nuts last night about the whole deal. We can't go tonight because I have to drive a float in a Homecoming parade over at Midland Christian. So our tickets are for 4:50 tomorrow afternoon. I'm very hopeful that this movie will live up to my expectations.

For those of you who aren't familiar with it so far, Friday Night Lights is based on H.G. "Buzz" Bisinger's novel of the same name about the 1988 Odessa Permian Panther football teams run for the state title. Football used to mean something here in Odessa and since Permian hasn't even made the playoffs in ages, it will be nice for folks around these parts to wax nostalgic about the good old days.

Raise Your Voice (PG)
Starring: Hilary Duff and Oliver James
Director: Sean McNamara

Why is this second on the list this week? When you have a seven year-old daughter there's pretty much no escaping the likes of Hilary Duff, Lindsey Lohan, and Anne Hathaway. Don't know when we'll venture to take the little tyke to watch this because of our already packed schedule this weekend. Raise Your Voice tells the story of a girl who leaves her small town world behind to spend the summer in L.A. (who can't figure out how to win a baseball game, btw. Ugh!) at a Fame-ish school.


Taxi (PG-13)
Starring: Queen Latifah, Jimmy Fallon, and Jennifer Esposito
Director: Tim Story

Happiness is SNL in the rear view mirror of a Taxi, I suppose, as Jimmy Fallon's movie career teams him with Queen Latifah. The original screenplay for this film was penned by Luc Besson, but before you get too excited you need to know that the studio hired at least four other writers to rework the story. That's seldom a good sign and early indications are this one just might be a stinker. We'll see.