Category: Action Movies (Page 141 of 165)

Multiplex Mayhem: Women on Top as Hollywood Burns

June 1, 2008 /

A weird week in Hollywood has been capped not only by an unfortunate fire which injured some fireman, burned a historic set, and may have destroyed some priceless original recordings, but also by some box offices surprises.

*Though the Hillary Clinton campaign may well be in its last few days (Puerto Rico notwithstanding), the power of mature womanhood is as strong as ever, and it asserted itself this weekend with the expectations-shattering success of “Sex and the City,” which defeated the should-have-been undefeatable “Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull.”

On my Thursday night post, I was foolish enough to swallow the conventional wisdom whole. Said “wisdom” stated that “Sex” would earn a healthy $30 million or thereabouts, to be almost certainly bested by the combined family/geek-male appeal of “Indiana Jones,” which would earn in the neighborhood of $50 million. The H-wood experts were closer to being right about the Indy flick, which looted some $46 million, but we’re all now learning what happens you underestimate the power of women — you have to eat $25.7 million worth of crow because the HBO TV adaptation made a total of $55.7 million. (There was originally a whole bunch of godawful sex puns and analogies here — stuff about “orgasmic Fridays” and “box-office g-spots” — but you were all spared by some kind of weird-ass blogging mishap on my part, resulting in the mysterious and tragic loss of 45 minutes or so worth of work and me wondering what the @#$@#$ happened to the magic of the undo button. Think how lucky you are.)

Anyhow, the upshot of this performance, the best ever for a television series adaptation since 1995’s effects/stunt packed “Mission: Impossible,” is that a sequel, or series of sequels, seems to be inevitable. Look for “Sex and the Retirement Community” coming to a Megaplex near you in 2025.

* A horror remake of a French shocker, “The Strangers” also surprised the guessers by more than doubling it’s $9 million budget on it’s first weekend, netting a better than solid $20.7 million for this kind of picture against some very high-profile competition and coming third by appealing, shockingly, to both males and females according to Variety‘s sources. (It can happen!) This means that directing newcomer Bryan Bertino is pretty much guaranteed that flavor-of-the-month feeling for a bit. Just based on reading the reviews, mixed-to-just-plain-bad as they are, it might be interesting to see what he comes up with next.

*The successs of “The Strangers,” somewhat mutes the very solid ongoing performance of two strong summer holdovers. The #4 “Iron Man” garnered some $14 million several weeks into its run, making it almost certain to hit the $300 million mark — a well deserved achievement for the solidly entertaining superhero flick. Meanwhile, the below-expectations “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” hung in there with just over $13 million for a total of $115,674,000 domestically. Not bad for a disappointment.

Meanwhile in Indiewood.…It was actually a very nice weekend of box-office for several new and ongoing productions in limited release — just not the one I had the highest hopes for. The highly acclaimed steroids documentary, “Bigger, Faster, Stronger*” opened in six NYC and SoCal screens, but failed to register at all on Box Office Mojo. Perhaps the malformed arm muscles of the guy in the opening trailer is freaking people out. (They certainly have that impact on me.) Or, maybe it just needs time.

On the other hand, “The Foot Fist Way” entirely eluded my attention but had the third best per-screen average this weekend, i.e., $36,000 in only four theaters. The martial arts-themed film is apparently big on physical comedy and uncomfortable humor, making it not quite everyone’s taste and garnering comparisons with such get-it-or-don’t-comedies as “Napoleon Dynamite” and the British “The Office.” Judging from the trailers, I’m in the “don’t get it” group this time, but I wasn’t bowled over by “Dynamite” either. So much for being in tune with cultural touchstones.

Action Movies, Actors, Actresses, Documentaries, Horror Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, Reviews

Multiplex Mayhem: The Pre-Coital Edition

May 30, 2008 /

With the passing of Sydney Pollack and Harvey Korman, it’s been a sad few days in movie land, but the weekend comes whether we live or die….

*This time, expect an unusually severe case of gender apartheid as the biggest new release to compete with all the action fare on tap is the much ballyhoed festival of contemporary femininity, “Sex and the City” — the further adventures of a bunch of characters I don’t know much of anything about, apparently because I’m an ungay guy and, yes, we critics and movie writers are now expected to divulge our our sexual orientations before discussing certain movies. (I’m actually sort of renowned in some circles for liking a great many things that some would consider girly, particularly musicals…but whatever entertainment-preference testosterone I have in my system seemed to go into overdrive the minute I caught even one second of this particular series, forcing me to change channels — and, yes, I like “Entourage” a great deal. I guess biology really is destiny when it comes to HBO comedies.)

In any event, the reviews are mixed, including that of our own Jason Zingale, who was man enough to admit to respecting the television series and critic enough to say the movie had some story problems. And both Jason and Roger Ebert, who was man enough to admit that this movie was not made for him, were charmed by “Sex” newcomer Jennifer Hudson, who really does seem to be one the positive by-product that I’ve noticed so far from this whole “American Idol” business. Female critics seem to skew a bit more positive, but as the WaPo’s Ann Hornaday honestly opines:

…the question isn’t whether it’s good. The question is whether it delivers the goods — the goods being shoes, romance, ribald humor, shoes, sex, shoes, pithy observations about single life in New York and more shoes.

And the general consensus is that the raunchy rom-com+ will provide roughly $30 million worth of goods from the domestic box office from those rarest of creatures at the American multiplex — post-college-age women. At least that’s what the usual experts say, noting that it’s already done well abroad.

Overall, “Sex” should put in a very respectable second place after the “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” juggernaut, which is expected to pull in a solid $50 million. I see no reason to disagree.

There’s another movie that perhaps skews to a younger female demographic, and that is “The Strangers,” a chiller about a couple being menaced at home starring beautiful Liv Tyler and himboish Scott Speedman. This one seems to deliver a certain amount of chills, even if many critics turn up their noses, while others, like Bullz-Eye’s Dave Medsker, see both good and bad. Regardless, it’s nice to hear this one isn’t another (physical) torture fest. Considering the scary commercials and the sex appeal to their respective audiences of the two stars, I’d expect this relatively low budget film to have much better prospects for a decent and long life than its characters might. Still, it will likely be bested by the waning, but still mass audience friendly, powers of “Prince Caspian.”



Meanwhile in Indiewood….There are a number of new films coming out in limited release this week, but it’s late, I’ve been fighting some kind of mini-micro-bug all week, and some lovely baked chicken is waiting for me downstairs. I will, however, mention two that should be interest to our audience.

First, there is the amazingly well reviewed (100% Fresh, RT-meter) documentary, “Bigger, Faster, Stronger*” about the widespread use of performance enhancing drugs in athletics. Considering the doc’s newsworthy subject matter and the fact that it’s about sports, and not politics or war, it sounds to me to have the makings of yet another break-out nonfiction hit.

Also getting mostly good reviews (though some are simply a bit appalled) is “Stuck” in which more than two decades after his gruesome horror-comedy, “Re-Animator,” director Stuart Gordon goes to a horrendous real life incident for some extra-extra-extra black grisly humor and chills. This time with Stephen Rea as a hapless man who finds himself in self-involved Mena Suvari’s windshield. As someone who had to knock back a few drinks to finally see Gordon’s signature horrorfest not long ago, but had a good time with it once I did, I’m not sure if I want to see this one or not. I am fairly sure it’s not dull.

Action Movies, Actors, Actresses, Documentaries, Horror Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News, Reviews

Multiplex Mayhem: Before the Faces Melt

May 25, 2008 /

As I write, the weekend still has another couple of nights left in it, at least on the west coast, and the numbers are murkier than usual — complicated not only by the long holiday weekend and one-day early opening of “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” but also by recent ticket price increases in some theaters. (The culprit, as Nikki Finke and many others have discussed, appears to be — wait for it — the ethanol clusterfrak. Yes, it’s not just causing food riots, but forcing you to spend another buck for the privilege of enduring a poorly projected flick with talkative teens and sticky floors.) Nevertheless, it’s safe to say that the fourth adventure of swashbuckling Professor Indiana Jones is making enough to keep the money people whistling a happy little John Williams tune for some time.

In any case, Finke, Variety and the Hollywood Reporter‘s Carl DiOrio are reporting an estimated five-day take in the neighborhood of $151 million, with the current tally being somewhere around 126 million smackers. Box Office Mojo, however, reminds us however that, strictly speaking the weekend gross (minus Thursday) is so far a mere $101 million. Sticklers.

For those of you keeping track, this is not quite big enough for a true record breaker. Over a similar five-day weekend run the low expectations/high interest megasuccess of “Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith” managed more than $20 million above the “Indiana Jones” estimate — at lower ticket prices (though back before the housing market began its free-fall). But, as I mentioned in the pre-weekend post, that film was perhaps more of a “must see” cultural event. In any event, the international numbers look pretty outstanding as well, with $143 million earned (and how does the week dollar play into this?). In any event, at this point it looks as Harrison has the option of going into his golden years as the world’s most macho archeologist, if he desires. Way to act like a baby boomer.

In other news….there is no others, really. The second place runner-up at the box was last weekend’s below-expectations winner, “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” grabbed on to the no. 2 spot and managed to make up some of its ground by being — yes — big in Japan…and Mexico and Russia and….. Meanwhile, “Iron Man” has turned out to be made of strong stuff indeed. It’s holding on nicely weeks into its run with about $20 million this week, adding to its cumulative take of over $252 million so far. Not bad for a second-tier superhero adaptation starring an acclaimed character actor nevertheless more famous for his personal problems than for his film roles, and directed by a guy, Jon Favreau, who in his acting days was once famously almost cast as a character named Fat Ass.

Meanwhile, those looking for a kid’s movie (which some folks actually like) where there won’t be too many noisey kids to be annoyed by are directed toward “Speed Racer,” which once again had its hindquarters handed to it by the advertising slogan/movie “What Happens in Vegas,” which made $9 million compared to the $120 million anime-adaptation’s very sad $4 million. On the other end of the budget telescope, the low-key, small-scale indie drama “The Visitor” continues to surprise by building steam and hanging out in the top 10 with increasing Oscar buzz for its sixty-something star, Richard Jenkins, and netting $4.4 million so far (perhaps already either matching or a multiple of its budget). The critically beloved, spunky-sexy-stylish (well, that’s what I’m hearing) first film from Norway’s Joachim Trier, “Reprise,” is also looking strong with an average of $6,648 on fourteen screens so far.

As for Uwe Boll’s “Postal” (discussed probably in way too much depth in my prior post)…well, it’s no success du scandal so far, it appears, not even making B.O.Mojo’s top twenty-five. And people thought “Snakes on a Plane” was a let down.

But there was somewhat encouraging news for John Cusack’s poorly reviewed (but not by us) “War, Inc.,” which did a very healthy $36,500 on two screens on either coast. (As it happened, I was actually at one of those theaters, West L.A.’s tony, intimate, Landmark multiplex, last night where it’s likely half the audience knew John personally, over the weekend. Since it was my own money, I saw this instead. Still, I didn’t hear anything horrible about Mr. Cusack’s film while I was there.)

Action Movies, Actors, Actresses, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, Snakes on a Plane

A Chat with Roy Thinnes (“The Invaders”)

May 24, 2008 /

As architect David Vincent, Roy Thinnes spent a couple of years during the ’60s feeling as though a significant percentage of the population was out to get him…but as the old saying goes, it’s not paranoia if they really are out to get you, and “The Invaders” most certainly were out to get David Vincent. It’s been quite some time since the series went off the air, however, and it’s gotten precious little airplay in the States in recent years. (Although the 1995 revival is best forgotten, in the absence of the original, we did at least get a series that resembled it at various times: “The X-Files.”) At long last, CBS-Paramount has made the decision to release “The Invaders: Season 1” on DVD, and the set – released on May 27th – features new episode introductions by Mr. Thinnes and a new interview with him. As it happens, we had an opportunity to interview him as well, and in addition to his work on the classic sci-fi series, we also asked him about some of the upstanding films on his resume. Stay tuned for…

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Action Movies, Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, Movie Dramas, Movie DVDs, Movies, TV, TV DVDs, TV Sci-Fi

Multiplex Mayhem: The First Crack of the Whip (Updated)

May 23, 2008 /

If there is even the smallest trace of doubt in your mind about what the box-office leader is going to be this Memorial Day weekend, then you’re clearly not paying attention. In fact, the madness has already started.

*With 19 years of pent-up demand for the Indiana Jones franchise, at least among males old enough to have seen the movies the first time around and some of our more respectful children, the only unknown regarding “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” is how massive will the inevitable cascade of shekels be for the gang at Paramount. Newshound Nikki Finke is already providing some numbers from the Thursday opening of it’s very long holiday weekend and, so far, it looks potentially ginormous, though it remains to be seen if it will be ultra-super-stupendous ginormous. My personal guess is that it comes up just a little short of the $172 million Memorial Day of “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.” Whatever else was wrong (and many, many things were) with that second/first “Star Wars” trilogy, there was an awful lot of curiosity and suspense built up over just how the series would end, which isn’t quite the case here. I mean, even after hating the first two films in the series, I found myself shelling out to see the third because I just kind of had to. On the other hand, while I didn’t really love either of the two Indy Jones sequels, my strong affection for the genius popcorn rush of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” will carry me giddily into this one. (Though, like most folks in my age group, I likely won’t be seeing it the first weekend…unless I really want to all of a sudden.)

Also, though I’m personally looking forward to seeing Cate Blanchett as a Soviet villain and the long-awaited return of Karen Allen to the series, hats off to the canny casting of talented youth-fave Shia LaBeouf (whose name, I’m told, means “char the beef” in a rarely spoken French-Urdu dialect) to counter the not-quite a septuagenarian Harrison Ford in the title role. There is some concern out there in the moviesphere about the youth appeal factor, but it’s not like Mr. Ford is exactly, you know, old. To quote my man Roger Ebert, Ford “has one of those Robert Mitchum faces that doesn’t age, it only frowns more.”

Speaking of Ebert, the reviews on “Crystal Skull” are largely positive (though significantly less positive with “top critics“). Still, reading many of the reviews and pull-quotes, we see large undercurrents of “well, it’s not the best, but it’s definitely not the worst” or simply a case of critics wanting to not be killjoys to a movie that almost everybody is going to see anyway. Though “Iron Man” and the (finally reviewed by us) “Prince Caspian” will most certainly be hanging in there this weekend, anything less than $130 million would be an insult for Indy. I could say more on the subject, but why? Instead, check out Will Harris‘s fine appreciation of some of the lesser known films in the Harrison Ford oeuvre. Will watched long and hard for us, show him you care.

*Oh, but there are other new releases coming to theaters this week — though probably not to a theater near you if you don’t live in a very large city, as per the Box Office MoJo theater counts. There are several indie flicks of varying levels of interest entering theaters, but I now draw your attention to two attempts at take no prisoners political satire.

By far the weirder of the two is “Postal” — a film crafted by “he’s not just a director, he’s also a punchline” Uwe Boll, whose skills as a pugilist are ranked well above his filmmaking powers. I can’t personally speak to his film talents, as I’ve somehow managed to avoid all of his video game adaptations — as I’ve actually managed to avoid all videogame adaptations. Yet, I can speak to his lack of humor and decency as I just watched arguably the lamest and most offensive trailer since “The Birth of a Nation” on the flick’s website, in which he and some unfortunate but game actors attempt to mine humor from the cockpit of one of the planes that destroyed the WTC on 9/11, stealing it’s main joke from a scabrously effective piece in “The Onion” and missing the point entirely. Seriously crappy stuff.

Intriguingly, Carl DiOrio of the Hollywood Reporter writes that a major release was planned for the “Postal” but megachains Regal and AMC nixed the idea, cutting 1,500 hundred theaters down to somewhere between DiOrio’s estimate of 15 theaters and B.O.Mojo’s four. Gee, could it be that wrapping up a trailer with the destruction of the twin towers isn’t the way to sell your zany comedy? Simply calling it “politically incorrect” doesn’t cut it.

Okay, so the only surprise about the “Postal” reviews is that 17% of critics were willing to go on record as liking it, but the unpleasant surprise for the makers of the new anti-war black comedy, starring and cowritten by critical favorite John Cusack, “War, Inc.” is that only 22% of critics seemed to have much good to say about a movie that should be critical catnip. (Proof, for once and for all, that just putting one’s liberal politics on display does not guarantee good or even decent reviews from film critics.) This is a film that really needs strong reviews, and while it’s likely to go wider, I guess, based on its star power (Marisa Tomei, Hillary Duff, and Ben Kingsley are also aboard), this one seems doomed. Still, “War, Inc.” features Cusack once again playing a likable assassin, once again ably assisted by the wondrous Joan Cusack. While not an actual sequel to “Grosse Pointe Blank,” (Cusack’s character is not named Martin Blank), it might merit a look from those of us who loved that bit of blackest comedy, and our reviewer, Jonathan Flax, seemed to like it.

UPDATE: More on “Postal” and the amazing Mr. Uwe Boll. Here’s an interview with him explaining the situation from MTV (via this morning’s IMDb Movie & TV News). The short version is he’s distributing himself through his own company — and not all that well. It’s not playing in Manhattan, though they were able to get a screen in Brooklyn, and many of the theaters are showing it only once or twice a day. The interview also links to some “remarks” by Boll, which indicates he also has trouble assembling a coherent self-important rant. He really thinks his movie is like Monty Python….

Action Movies, Actors, Actresses, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News, Reviews

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