Category: External Movies (Page 117 of 336)

Weekend box office: “Iron Man 2” holds on in U.S., but “Robin Hood” makes out like a bandit abroad

May 16, 2010 / Bob Westal

Seeing as we have two action movies in contention this week, I’ll cut to the chase. Marvel and Paramount’s “Iron Man 2,” as was universally expected back before the weekend started, easily held on to its #1 spot at the box office. Ir scored a weekend estimate of $53 million that nevertheless included a somewhat higher than average drop of over 58%, indicating that the movie, as I imagined, isn’t quite wowing filmgoers the way the first movie in the franchise did.

This week’s big debut, “Robin Hood” has generally received a decidedly mixed reaction from, as far as I can tell, everyone who sees. It came in slightly below expectations at an estimate of roughly $37.1 million for Universal. (Earlier, the box office gurus were talking about figures in the range of $40-50 million.) Nevertheless, though the reaction be “meh,” not all the news for brave Sir Robin is mediocre. Indeed, THR this morning trumpeted a take of $74 million from just under 6,944 screens across the globe, making it the world’s #1 movie.

It’s been a long, long time since my stint in an International Sales wing of a smallish film company, but it appears that, then as now, the combination of a really well-known star like Russell Crowe, action, and a strong (at least in theory) storyline remains the formula for success in non-English-speaking territories. I’m sure this news is music to the ears of the suits of recently bad luck/bad decision prone Universal.

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Amanda Seyfried Common Headlines How to Train Your Dragon Iron Man 2 Just Wright Ken Loach Letters to Juliet Marvel Pam Grier Paramount Queen Latifah Robin Hood Russell Crowe Universal Vanessa Redgrave

“A handful of hope that became a fistful of hell”

May 16, 2010 / Bob Westal

I’d seen it before, but as my brief DVD review below kind of indicates, watching the kind of amazing new Criterion edition of Nicholas Ray’s “Bigger Than Life” was an exceptionally powerful experience for me. It’s got all the slick professionalism and entertaining wit of any studio film from the mid-fifties, but on a more subtle level it’s almost crude and points the way to film to the new style of American filmmaking to come. It was also, in a funny way, a somewhat topical film.

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Bigger Than Life Nicholas Ray

Bigger Than Life

May 15, 2010 / Bob Westal

Director Nicholas Ray’s bombastic follow-up to “Rebel Without a Cause” failed in 1956, but has become a cinephile favorite despite being available only at museums and on Fox Movie Channel and TCM. Now presented fully restored and in a ultra-first-rate Criterion edition, film geeks may be entranced by Ray’s outlandish use of widescreen and color, but it also stands as one of the most profoundly emotional and disturbing of classic-era Hollywood melodramas.

James Mason (who also produced) stars as Ed Avery, a kindly suburban schoolteacher struck by a rare, painful, and deadly illness. The only path to survival is a new “wonder drug,” in this case cortisone, a steroid. In time, Avery seems recovered, except that he is slowly becoming a control-obsessed tyrant and drug addict with delusions of grander prone to increasingly extreme reactionary diatribes. Of course, his loving and too dutiful wife (Barbara Rush) and devoted young son (Christopher Olson) suffer. His health-obsessed P.E. teacher best friend (Walter Matthau, terrific in one of his earliest film roles) experiences some discomfort as well, but mid-fifties people were far more naive than we are now about science-driven “miracle cures.” “Bigger than Life” could have been called “Fascist With a Chemical Cause.” (Ray was the prototypical “Hollywood liberal.”) At heart, however, it is an exploration of the potential for madness underlying all family life and quite a baroque one. “Bigger Than Life” treats the potential dissolution of a family somewhat like sci-fi horror and, in this case, it kind of is.

Click to buy “Bigger Than Life”

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Barbara Rush Bigger Than Life Bigger Than Life review Christopher Olson Ed Avery James Mason Nicholas Ray Rebel Without a Cause Walter Matthau

Another weekend trailer — “Easy A”

May 15, 2010 / Bob Westal

Here’s a trailer that has been making the rounds and that I think is worth a look.

There’s some pretty contrived stuff in here but overall the writing — by playwright Bert V. Royal of the Peanuts-influenced “Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead” — certainly seems to be a cut above the usual. The same definitely applies to the first-rate cast, with such reliable supporting players as Stanley Tucci, who everyone seems to agree has the best one-liner in the trailer, and Patricia Clarkson supporting up-and-comer Emma Stone, who was such a hoot in “Zombieland” and also “Superbad.”

H/t Peter Sciretta.

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Bert V. Royal Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead Easy A Emma Stone Patricia Clarkson Stanley Tucci Superbad Zombieland

Joan, Joan, Joan

May 15, 2010 / Bob Westal

Pretty much as far back as I can remember, I’ve never been 100% sure how to take Joan Rivers. Funny or merely catty? Persecuted or bitter and paranoid? Of course, all of that may be true but just where I ultimately come down on her is still a question. Maybe the aptly titled and well-buzzed about biographical documentary, the upcoming “A Piece of Work,” might answer some of those questions, maybe.

Below, via /Film, is the trailer and some interesting Sundance Q&A excerpts.