The Week in Film: What will fly at the box office? And what won't?

Editor's note: This week we're welcoming Mike Wong on board to write our weekly movie column.

Another week, another set of movies. Hard to believe it’s already nearly November when the Oscar-bait starts being dangled, and unless you didn’t see any movies last week, I’m sorry to say it’s a good week to stay home or do something not movie related.

The first of the wide releases this week is Amelia starring the swanky Hilary Swank in a movie that almost no one was waiting for. This biopic about Amelia Earhart, the first female pilot to cross the Atlantic, seems to have flown out of the Hollywood machine with every cliché and formulaic fixture intact. Currently scoring a 22% on Rottentomatoes.com, I’ll wager that it’ll probably experience some serious turbulence in the box office.

Starring Cherry Jones as First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Richard Gere as her husband, and Ewan McGregor as her friend and lover, Amelia's got quite a cast. Too bad they seem to be wasted in this grounded fare.

For those kiddies out there, not to mention you fanboys/girls, your movie viewing this weekend will probably be Astro Boy, the new flick based on the popular Japanese manga and TV character.

But also fighting for those kiddy/nostalgic eyeballs this weekend is The Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D. It’s the exact same movie from 16 years ago, but in 3-D! O! M! G! Yeah, that's a sarcastic OMG! as this movie bored me to tears as an adult and I’d say it’s time to leave the past in the past. But after the success of Toy Story 1 & 2 in 3-D, I doubt this “re-release old stuff but in 3-D” trend will die any time soon.

On the other end of the rating spectrum, we have Saw XXIXVIXI. Or maybe it’s just Saw VI. “Just”. Ha!

In this increasingly bad and loathsome franchise, they do the same thing they did in their last five movies (slaughter people in case you missed the first five). Thankfully, they haven’t yet filmed this in 3-D. Oh, crap – looks like I spoke too soon. MTV movies blog is reporting that Saws VII and VIII are going to be filmed in 3-D. No, I'm serious.