Category: Actresses (Page 102 of 258)

Weekend box office: “Zombieland” to lift horror comedy curse, apparently

October 2, 2009 / Bob Westal

There was a time — I think it was, I don’t know, two weeks ago — when horror comedies were supposed to be, now and forever, box office poison. “Too funny to be scary and too scary to be funny” was the not so intelligent line. Such was the Hollywood conventional wisdom, until someone went and made a horror comedy that struck a chord.

So, apparently the peanut butter of horror can be blended with the chocolate of comedy if you have lots of action and sufficient gore, the trailer for the movie in question is funny enough that audiences will be sold on it as a more or less straight comedy…and, oh yeah, almost everybody who can stomach seems to love it. Such certainly seems to be the case with “Zombieland.” The flick, which features indie stars Jesse Eisenberg and Abigail Breslin, is eliciting excitement both from industry types and critics who have graced it with an 89% “Fresh” Rotten Tomatoes rating (just two points shy of 2004’s instant zombie comedy classic, “Shaun of the Dead.”)

Still, for yours truly who loves comedy horror but has a well documented issue with gore, particularly of the zombie variety, this means a probable long period of movie procrastination followed by a small bonanza for our nation’s distillers. For top-billed costar Woody Harrelson, though, it means a comeback. Jolly Carl DiOrio of THR and Andrew Stewart of Variety guess that it will gross somewhere around $20-$25 million or perhaps further north in over 3,000 theaters. If it wasn’t such a busy weekend, I might think it could do even better.

As for the number two spot, I gather most of the prognosticators expect yet another very good weekend for the animated family hit, “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs,” but after that, the playing field gets a bit crowded. For one thing, Pixar is making things interesting with 3-D redoes of “Toy Story,” and “Toy Story 2” being released as a double feature. It’s a pretty awesome package of family entertainment and I could see it cutting into this weekend’s “Meatballs” take.

Action Movies, Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News, Sci-Fi Movies

A Serious Man Abigail Breslin Capitalism: A Love Story Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Coen Brothers Drew Barrymore Ellen Page Headlines Jennifer Garner Jesse Eisenberg Louis C.K.Michael Moore Ricky Gervais Rob Lowe Shaun of the Dead The Invention of Lying Tina Fey Toy Story Toy Story 2 Toy Story 2 3-D Toy Story 3-D Whip It Woody Harrelson Zombieland

Crime and punishment, Hollywood style

October 1, 2009 / Bob Westal

I’m going to defer this weekend’s box office preview for the morning because we have several fairly major breaking developments that probably shouldn’t wait. Guess who figures in the first item…

* In the case that director Marina Zenovich built in “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired” — that the world-class director was both a criminal perpetrator and victim of legal malfeasance — one damning element was an interview with a former D.A. who was not supposed to have been involved in the case. As recounted by the L.A. Times’s Jack Leonard, David Wells said that he suggested to Judge Lawrence Rittenband that he could effectively sentence Polanski to jail time by ordering the accused director to undergo “diagnostic testing” in Chino State Prison, overruling the determination of a probation officer.

As described in the documentary this is, to say the least, outside the bounds of what is permitted in a situation like this. (In the context of the film it comes off as almost a petty vendetta.) Now, Wells claims that he lied. I’m not sure how to take that except that it’s never a good situation to be in when something you said may get you into trouble, and you suddenly claim that you were lying. At that point, you’re an admitted liar, the only question remaining is a matter of timing.

At the same time, my own position on this case could be changing to the point where I may disagree with some of what I wrote in my review of the Zenovich film. I commend you to two extremely thoughtful posts on the matter: one by Anne Thompson (who also gets a huge h/t for this item) and the other by Karina Longworth. Karina’s take on the film was quite different from mine, but all of her points are at least valid and some may well be a lot more than that.

* A horrifying story I’d forgot all about reemerged today, as if to coincide with the Polanski matter. Roger Avary, who shared story credit and an Oscar with Quentin Tarantino on “Pulp Fiction,” co-wrote the screenplay for “Beowulf, and wrote and directed 1993’s “Killing Zoe” and the 2002 Bret Easton Ellis adaptation, “The Rules of Attraction” and also used to have a pretty lively blog, has been sentenced to a year in prison for gross vehicular manslaughter and driving while intoxicated.

Although Avary previously argued he was not drunk at the time of the accident which killed one friend and severely injured another, his blood alcohol level was reportedly above the legal limit. (No stories I can find say by how much, though legally and morally, I’m not sure if it matters.) He was also reportedly driving over 100 miles per hour. I wouldn’t want to live with what he must have on his conscience. Use a designated driver, wait several hours, if need be, until you are completely sober, take a cab, drink at home, or don’t drink at all.

* On a vastly lighter note, Nikki Finke broke the news today that cinephile-bane Michael Bay will be back at the helm for “Transformers III” with a presumably chastened Megan Fox. In this case, the crime will be on the screen and the punishment will be endured by critics.

* Also another “toldja!” from the mighty Finke: Leo the MGM lion may be a shadow of his former, but he will live to roar another day.

Action Movies, Actresses, Documentaries, External Entertainment, External Movies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News, Sci-Fi Movies

Beowulf Bret Easton Ellis Chino State Prison David Wells Headlines Jennifer's Body Judge Lawrence Rittenband Killing Zoe Leo the Lion Marina Zenovich Megan Fox MGM Michael Bay Neil Gaiman Quentin Tarantino Roger Avary Roman Polanski The Rules of Attraction Transformers Transformers 3 Transformers III

Movie moments with…you know who

October 1, 2009 / Bob Westal

I’ll be back late tonight with what I’m sure will be a Polanski-free edition of the weekend box office preview. However, at the risk of walking this particular vicious dog around the park too many times, below are some semi-random clips with examples of that special Roman Polanski touch that might have been a bit too effectively creepy and/or offbeat for the director’s own good.

Here’s one of my favorite film openings with one of the best movie themes of the sixties by Christopher Komeda.

And here’s a scene from one Polanski film I’ve never seen — but not for lack of wanting to — it’s “Cul-de-Sac” and below is an incendiary moment between the very stylish Françoise Dorléac and the very distinctive Lionel Stander, while Donald Pleasance snoozes off to the side.

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies

Cul-de-Sac Donald Pleasance Françoise Dorléac Lionel Stander Roman Polanski

“Cloudy” with a certainty of poor news for new releases

September 27, 2009 / Bob Westal

Never bet against family entertainment, especially when it’s in 3-D and generating strong word of mouth. “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” declined a very small 19% and collected an estimated $24.6 million over the weekend, which puts it at a $60 million “cume” or thereabouts according to Bruce McNary of Variety. Not bad.

I’m not one one bit surprised that the new Bruce Willis science-fiction tale, “Surrogates,” didn’t get the over-fluffed $20+ million that was expected, despite the help of costar Radha Mitchell. The movie hasn’t generated much excitement, is getting “meh” to bad reviews, and the appeal of older stars like Willis just doesn’t seem to be that powerful at the box office these days. Does Bruce Willis even register that much with people under thirty? If it wasn’t for the success of the last “Die Hard” flick, I think this would have done significantly less than the non-terrible estimated $15 million it actually netted for the #2 slot. On the other hand, the film cost $80 million. How much of that was Willis’s salary?

The remake of Alan Parker’s “Fame” got mostly bad reviews, and the box office wasn’t too exciting either with a mere $10 million estimated. Though the film apparently attracted a youngish audience — a possible reflection of the film being perceived as not very good since it’s a well known property to we mid-lifers — apparently most of them were taken up with other films. The week’s other major new release, the Dennis Quaid sci-fi horror entry, “Pandorum,” did a predictably awful estimated $4.4 million.

In more positive news, “The Informant!” held better than expected with roughly $6.9 million in the #4 spot and a mere 33% decline according to the Box Office Mojo chart. An interesting real life story, a funny trailer, an imaginative director, and more youngish star power may still count for something.

The week’s highest per screen average was documentary superstar Michael Moore’s latest, “Capitalism: A Love Story,” earning about $60,000 each in four theaters before going wide next week. The French language biopic, “Coco Before Chanel” starring Audrey Tautou (“Amelie”), earned a stylish estimated $35,000 average on five screens.

Action Movies, Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News, Sci-Fi Movies

Alan Parker Amelie Andrey Tautou Bruce Willis Capitalism: A Love Story Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Coco Avant Chanel Coco Before Chanel Dennis Quaid Die Hard Fame Headlines Jonathan Mostow Michael Moore Moonlighting Pandorum Radha Mitchell Surrogates The Informant!

Movie Moments for Me #2

September 26, 2009 / Bob Westal

Another self-indulgent clip. This one is from 1944’s “The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek. Preston Sturges was arguably the first really well-known writer-director in Hollywood, and he was in the position of writing a film that almost certainly influenced “Juno” — only the self-imposed censorship of the time meant you couldn’t openly discuss sex in any way in an American film, nor could you say the word “pregnant” and the shame attached to premarital pregnancies was exponentially greater than today.

“Miracle” stars Betty Hutton as an irrepressible young woman who takes the matter of raising wartime morale among America’s troops a bit too personally and, with the help of some spiked punch, winds up married to a man who name and face she can’t quite remember. Her ensuing pregnancy makes matters a bit worse, especially for her long-suffering, long-time friend, Norville Jones (Eddie Bracken), whose entirely unrequited love for Trudy Kockenlocker is suddenly assumed to be highly requited by everyone, especially her father, Police Constable Edmund Kockenlocker (the utterly awesome William Demerest).