Star Trek 2 is #1, Iron Man 3 is #2

For the weekend of May 17-19, 2013.

1.  Star Trek into Darkness - $70.56 million ($84.09) - 1 wk (Par)
 . . . 3868 screens / $18,241 per screen
2.  Iron Man 3 - $35.18 ($337.07) - 3 wks (BV) -51.5%
 . . . 4237 / $8304
3.  The Great Gatsby - $23.42 ($90.16) - 2 wks (WB) -53.2%
 . . . 3550 / $6596
4.  Pain & Gain - $3.1 ($46.57) - 4 wks (Par) -38%
 . . . 2429 / $1276
5.  The Croods - $2.75 ($176.75) - 9 wks (Fox) -23.8%
 . . . 2373 / $1159
6.  42 - $2.73 ($88.74) - 6 wks (WB) -40.5%
 . . . 2380 / $1147

It's a blockbuster world, and we're all just living in it.

Star Trek into Darkness is the third successful weekend launch in a row.  It's about on course with the four-day launch of the first film, which went on to gross $257 million domestic and a worldwide total of $385 million. I get the feeling the domestic will be less this time around but the worldwide will be more, and therefore it'll be about as profitable.

Iron Man 3 remains huge.  It's already passed $1 billion worldwide.

The Great Gatsby is Baz Luhrmann's highest-grossing film to date. The decision to move it to this summer has proven to be a smart one. I don't think it would have hit $100 million in the Christmas 2012 crowd.

Everything else still in theaters is lucky to be there.  This coming week will see three more wide releases (Epic, Fast & Furious 6, Hangover 3) consume more screens.

The Great Gatsby - Movie Review

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, Isla Fisher, Jason Clarke, Elizabeth Debicki, Amitabh Bachchan and Adelaide Clemens.  Directed by Baz Luhrmann.

★★★

I'll never forget the hyper little conductor that appeared at the bottom of the screen to conduct the 20th Century Fox song at the beginning of Moulin Rouge. It was a taste.  It was a signal that this is the ride you're about to take.

Luhrmann's flourishes are intact with The Great Gatsby, a 3-D party movie that revives F. Scott Fitzgerald for an audience that knows he was played by Loki in Midnight in Paris.  The 1920's are alive with the sound of hip-hop.

It starts with a flashback narrative structure, where Nick Carraway is looking back on the events that transpired with a psychiatrist.  We go to when Nick is an optimistic 29-year-old Wall Street broker, played by 37-year-old Tobey Maguire, perhaps a little too old to be full of wide-eyed naivete.  He moves in next door to the elusive Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio, a few months old than Tobey but easier to buy at age 32).  Gatsby is a multimillionaire who throws elaborate parties in his mansion-castle every week, but no one seems to know much about him.  Is he more of a Bruce Wayne or Citizen Kane type?

Gatsby takes an interest in Nick, not only because they are neighbors but because Nick is cousin to Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan), the rich wife of Tom, who lives in his own lavish estate across the bay.

I'll say at this point the thing that bothered me most about my experience was the sound.  The sound was very toward the front, and the music sounded like it was all coming out of one speaker in the upper right-hand corner of the theater. I asked management about it mid-movie and then once it was over. They said their booth technician calibrated and everything looked normal, that it was the fault of the studio that the 3-D Great Gatsbys were off on sound.  Music is so crucial to a Luhrmann movie and it was frustrating to not hear the soundtrack pop.

As to the movie itself, I rather enjoyed it. I would've preferred someone else in Maguire's role, but he was fine.  DiCaprio's always interesting, and I was impressed with the stylized work of Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan.

I do wish the screenwriter had cut out about 90% of the uses of "old sport." I swear DiCaprio used it as often as Django Unchained used the n-word.  Toward the end of the movie, I wanted Tobey to scream, "Nick! My name is NICK! Not 'Old Sport'!"

The movie made me want to read the book. (Yeah, never got assigned it in high school.)

Also amusing to see Zero Dark Thirty's Edgerton and Jason Clarke reunite as completely different characters.

Survivor Finale

This was a pretty good season of Survivor. Fans v Favorites brings an exciting mix. We know the Fans are going to play like fools, and the Favorites will boil down to a smart core and win.  Sherri doesn't get enough credit for instigating voting out the girls of Eddie and Reynold and making sure the high school clique didn't rule their beach.  Then you had Shamar med-evac'd out, who'd been a giant lump of cranky in camp but great for challenges.

The Favorites dominated challenges, so everyone had to put up with Phillip's Stealth R Us.  Cochran and Dawn were actually set up well early, always in the majority alliance within the Favorites.  I think they would have stuck by Phillip, which would have meant Dawn would be out sooner.

Due to Reynold's cockiness, he could never get back in with anyone, and therefore Eddie the self-admitting idiot had to suffer the same fate.

Sherri never had much of a chance to strategize, since she had so little power from the merge onward, so her only hope was a social game, but few players seemed to like her.

Dawn's fatal move was ousting Brenda.  If she'd betrayed Cochran right then, then Erik would have gone out, Brenda would have held Dawn to the final three.  And Dawn probably would have received some votes.  But Cochran was good about playing therapist and keeping Dawn in his corner.

The jury usually has some bitter people, some grandstanding. I actually loved how Sherri slapped Erik down and wasn't going to let him just sit there and insult her.  I also liked how Michael pointed out that Cochran and Dawn played pretty much the same game, but Dawn was taking all the heat while Cochran sat unscathed. Didn't stop Michael from voting for Cochran either.  Brenda was understandably hurt, but all my sympathy went away when she made Dawn take out her teeth. That was just mean and ugly.

The reunion finale wasn't great.  For the first time, non-jury players weren't even allowed on the stage (partially to hide that producers did not want Brandon Hantz to come back.)  Jeff wasted time interviewing some 11-year-old girl, publicity hog Boston Rob coincidentally ready to shill for his new book, Rudy wondering where his queer pal Richard was, and yet all those players who went before the jury got zip. Corinne only got a camera shot because Dawn said her name.

Anyway, Cochran is one of my favorites to actually win the game.  Great character.

Sidenote: I've seen some of the social media hate directed toward Dawn, and it is evil.

Other sidenote: Next season is Blood v Water, which I believe means some of the contestants will be related.

Iron Man 3 #1, Gatsby gets $50 million

For the weekend of May 10-12.

1.  Iron Man 3 - $72.53 million ($284.95) - 2 wks (BV) -58.4%
 . . . 4253 screens / $17,053 per screen
2.  The Great Gatsby - $50.09 - 1 wk (WB)
 . . . 3535 / $14,169
3.  Pain & Gain - $5 ($41.61) - 3 wks (Par) -33.4%
 . . . 3303 / $1514
4.  Peeples - $4.61 - 1 wk (LG)
 . . . 2041 / $2259
5.  42 - $4.59 ($84.67) - 5 wks (WB) -24.2%
 . . . 2930 / $1566
6.  Oblivion - $4.11 ($81.91) - 4 wks (U) -27.1%
 . . . 2770 / $1485
7.  The Croods - $3.61 ($173.22) - 8 wks (Fox) -14.1%
 . . . 2650 / $1362
8.  Mud - $2.54 ($8.56) - 3 wks (RA) +17.3%
 . . . 852 / $2976

The second weekend of May has seen success.  2010's Robin Hood opened to $36 million, 2011's Bridesmaids to $26 million, 2012's Dark Shadows to $29 million, but $50 million for The Great Gatsby guarantees it as one of the hit movies of summer.  It also bolsters Leonardo DiCaprio's street cred as still one of the most bankable leading men in Hollywood.

Iron Man 3 has $300 million in the bag, and the question now is can the momentum carry it past $400 million domestic?  It's already at $949 million worldwide, well on its way to join the Top 5 Grossing Movies of All Time!

Meanwhile having "Tyler Perry Presents" in front of its title couldn't help Peeples attract much of an audience.

Opens Thursday
STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS with Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana and Benedict Cumberbatch.


Opens May 24
FAST & FURIOUS 6 with Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Paul Walker and Luke Evans.
THE HANGOVER PART III with Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zack Galifianakis.
EPIC with the voices of Colin Farrell, Josh Hutcherson, Amanda Seyfried and Beyonce.

DVD Reviews - Anna Karenina, Hitchcock, This is 40, The Possession

ANNA KARENINA (★★★) - Starring Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Matthew Macfayden, Kelly Macdonald, Emily Watson and Olivia Williams.  Directed by Joe Wright.

I loved the artistic decision by the makers when faced with the challenge of adapting a thick book to film.  They made it like a stage play.  Sets become real locations, then back into sets, allowing for quick scene changes and transportations, and a heightened sense of theatricality.

Knightley's great as Anna, the proud wife of a boring general (Law) who has an affair.  My biggest problem with it was her lover, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass, Savages).  There was nothing attractive or charismatic about him. It made no sense why Anna would destroy her life over having an affair with this dork.

I liked everyone else.  Bonus points to Matthew Macfayden for showing the flair of a young Kevin Kline.

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HITCHCOCK (★★) - Starring Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson, Jessica Biel, James D'Arcy, Toni Collette, Danny Huston, Michael Stuhlbarg, Michael Wincott, Ralph Macchio and Kurtwood Smith.  
Directed by Sacha Gervasi.

Maybe it's just me, but I would hope that someone making a movie about Alfred Hitchcock would have a little more directorial flare to telling the story.  This felt like it could've been directed by Dennis Dugan.

It centers on the struggles Hitchcock went through to get Psycho made. He was riding a high from the success from North by Northwest, yet he faced many obstacles trying to get this tale told.  The whole thing flows along at almost a sitcom pace, and Mirren even gets one monologue that feels inserted in there strictly for Golden Globe nominating bait.  James D'Arcy does some interesting things as Anthony Perkins but it's a surprisingly small role.

It's not bad; it's just not good.  It's a paperback beach novel of a movie.

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THIS IS 40 (★½) - Starring Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Jason Segel, Megan Fox, Albert Brooks, John Lithgow, Maude Apatow, Iris Apatow, Chris O'Dowd, Robert Smigel and Melissa McCarthy.  Directed by Judd Apatow.

This is hell.  This is a whiny, self-indulgent, meandering, laugh-free, plot-free demonstration of an upper-middle-class white family going through their first-world problems and general malaise of hitting the halfway point in their lives.

(Okay, it's not laugh-free; Melissa McCarthy's extended cameo was pretty funny. And how can you not smile at a movie that has Albert Brooks in the cast?)

Paul Rudd and Mr. Judd Apatow's wife and kids reprise their roles from Knocked Up to show how lame life is when you turn forty.  At least it can be.  "You reap what you sew" could be one of the morals of this movie.  Don't like your kids swearing? Maybe you shouldn't have sworn around them all the time.

I actually turn 40 later this year, so I could argue I was the target audience.  Not impressed.

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THE POSSESSION (★) - Starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Kyra Sedgwick, Madison Davenport and Natasha Calis.  Directed by Ole Bornedal.

If you ever want to see a movie featuring a Jewish exorcist but want it to make The Unborn look like a modern classic, you're in luck!  Someone made this movie to fulfill your needs.

This movie is an Elvis impersonation of a horror thriller.  It hits the same beats of a hundred other movies, has the same pacing and ominous soundtrack, but it never succeeds to present an original idea or provide an actual moment of suspense.  Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who's resembling Javier Bardem more the older he gets, gives a sincere performance as a concerned father whose daughter is possessed, but it's for a lost cause.

Random Entertainment News - 5/7/13

- The Avengers 2 is slated for May 2015, but not all of the actors are pinned down, most notably Robert Downey Jr.  Downey made $50 million on the first Avengers and could wind up in the $70 million range for the sequel.  Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Mark Ruffalo (Hulk) and others also haven't agreed, and Marvel may replace some of them if they can't settle salary disputes.

- Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) is in talks to join Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Michael Caine in Christopher Nolan's Interstellar.  Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight) wrote the script, and it's set to open November 7, 2014.

- Johnny Depp (The Baker) and Meryl Streep (The Witch) are in talks to star in a big-screen version of Into the Woods for director Rob Marshall (Chicago).

- Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are teaming up for a remake of Guys & Dolls.  The original film version starred Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra.

- Meanwhile, Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill will return for 21 Jump Street 2, set to open June 6, 2014.

- Megan Fox will play April in a new live-action/CGI Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Will Arnett co-stars.

- Jason Statham will star in a remake of Heat, not the 1995 classic with Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro, but the 1987 drama that starred Burt Reynolds.  It's about a gambler who takes on the mob after his friend is brutally beaten.  Sofia Vergara, Stanley Tucci. Jason Alexander, Anne Heche and Michael Angarano co-star.

- NBC has renewed five dramas for this fall - Grimm, Law & Order: SVU, Revolution, Parenthood and Chicago Fire.

- Angus T. Jones will not return as a regular on CBS's Two and a Half Men this fall.  Ashton Kutcher and Jon Cryer have signed new one-year deals to continue with Season 11.

Oblivion - Movie Review

Starring Tom Cruise, Andrea Riseborough, Morgan Freeman, Olga Kurylenko, Melissa Leo and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.  Directed by Joseph Kosinski.

★★★

This movie reminded me of three other sci-fi movies.  One was Wall-E, and the other two I don't want to mention simply because it'd give away some second-half developments if I did.

Tom Cruise plays Jack Harper, a technician working clean-up crew on Earth in 2077.  A long time ago, or a few years from now, some aliens destroyed the Earth's moon, and it killed half the planet.  Then the aliens invaded, so the countries of the world launched their nukes.  Now the Earth is a wasteland, and most of humanity that has survived has moved to Titan, one of Saturn's moons.  Meanwhile there's a giant triangular space-station in the sky called the Tet that overseas the conversion of Earth's ocean-water to fusion energy.  Once the water's dried up, the Tet and the last of humanity will abandon Earth for good.

Jack and his partner Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) are the only two humans on Earth's surface (or are they?) and each morning, he goes out to repair the drones that protect the fusion converters from the "Scavs", the aliens left behind that steal or sabotage any machinery they can find.

Jack flies the ship; Victoria serves as eyes-and-ears back home, and she then relays any information to Mission Control, played with a suspiciously honeyed accent by Melissa Leo.

Here's a catch though: Jack and Victoria had their memory wiped before their five-year mission. If they ever captured by the Scavs, they'll have no information to be pried out of them.

All of this is fine and good.  The movie takes its time with setting up the world and the rules.  Jack puts on his uniform each day to go fly; Victoria puts on her dress and heels before she mans her desk.  Since the air is breathable, I wondered why Jack wore his uniform, and as for Victoria, wouldn't she do her job in pajamas most days?

Now everyone who saw the preview knows that Morgan Freeman will show up eventually and the twists will begin.  I think it's just before the halfway mark when he lights his cigar in the dark to show Jack that he's not the last man on Earth after all.

This movie has more twists, none of which are surprising, but it's still a pleasurable experience because the story is told so well.  So if you go to see Iron Man 3 and it's sold out, this isn't a bad alternative.

Iron Man 3 with record weekend

1.  Iron Man 3 - $175.3 million - 1 wk (BV)
 . . . 4253 screens / $41,218 per screen
2.  Pain & Gain - $7.6 ($33.92) - 2 wks (Par) -62.5%
 . . . 3287 / $2312
3.  42 - $6.21 ($78.34) - 4 wks (WB) -41.7%
 . . . 3345 / $1857
4.  Oblivion - $5.8 ($75.97) - 3 wks (U) -67.4%
 . . . 3430 / $1690
5.  The Croods - $4.23 ($168.74) - 7 wks (Fox) -37.2%
 . . . 2915 / $1449
6.  The Big Wedding - $3.88 ($14.21) - 2 wks (LG) -49%
 . . . 2633 / $1472
7.  Mud - $2.15 ($5.16) - 2 wks (RA) -3%
 . . . 576 / $3733
8.  Oz the Great & Powerful - $1.82 ($228.57) - 9 wks (BV) +.6%
 . . . 1160 / $1571
9.  Scary Movie 5 - $1.44 ($29.6) - 4 wks (Dim) -58.2%
 . . . 1857 / $773
10. The Place Byond the Pines - $1.3 ($18.68) - 6 wks (Foc) -52.4%
 . . . 1162 / $1117
11. GI Joe: Retaliation - $1.28 ($118.76) - 6 wks (Par) -65.6%
 . . . 1804 / $707
12. Olympus Has Fallen - $1.19 ($95.37) - 7 wks (FD) -58.6%
 . . . 1632 / $726

Iron Man 3 had the second-highest opening in box-office history, behind only The Avengers.  Champagne for everyone!  It means all other titles saw stark drops in their gross, and theater chains can't wait to get Scary Movie 5 and GI Joe 2 out of their places of business.

The indie film Mud was able to hold its ground, and for some reason the Oz movie didn't see a decrease.  In limited release, The Iceman was able to get $93,100 on only 4 screens.

Opens Friday
THE GREAT GATSBY with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire.
PEEPLES with Craig Robinson and Kerry Washington.

Killer Shows on TV

I'm behind on all of these but I have been watching them.

THE FOLLOWING (FOX) - This show succeeded for me when we got to see Kevin Bacon's character taken hostage. The way he took control of the room was great stuff, and it signaled that this isn't just going to be a show where his forlorn detective gets outsmarted week after week.  At worst, it's a cross between The
Mentalist and Prison Break, if Red John outsmarted Patrick every single week with his small army of Teabags.  It's one where I probably won't watch the last three or four episodes until the summer.

BATES MOTEL (A&E) - This is an odd one. It's a prequel to Psycho, showing teenager Norman Bates and his mother first move into the motel, but it's set in modern times. And yet it has an old-fashioned look to most of the costumes and set design.  Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air) and Freddy Highmore (Finding Neverland) are both great in their roles, and I like the "dark underbelly of a tranquil town" feel to it.  We see the beginnings of Norman's psychosis, but he's a sympathetic person.  He's just a couple tragic events away from being tipped over the edge.

HANNIBAL (NBC) - I've listed these in the order I like them, and this is the best of the three.  Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale) is very good as Dr. Hannibal Lecter, and he hasn't revealed himself yet. This is a prequel where we first see Hannibal meet Will Graham (Tom Hardy), an investigator so good at getting into criminal minds, it's a fight for him to retain his own sanity.

Pain & Gain wins Weekend Box Office

1.  Pain & Gain - $20 million - 1 wk (Par)
 . . . 3277 screens / $6103 per screen
2.  Oblivion - $17.44 ($64.73) - 2 wks (U) -52.9%
 . . . 3792 / $4600
3.  42 - $10.73 ($69.08) - 3 wks (WB) -39.5%
 . . . 3405 / $3150
4.  The Big Wedding - $7.5 - 1 wk (LG)
 . . . 2633 / $2848
5.  The Croods - $6.6 ($163.03) - 6 wks (Fox) -28.5%
 . . . 3283 / $2010
6.  GI Joe: Retaliation - $3.62 ($116.4) - 5 wks (Par) -37.2%
 . . . 2707 / $1337
7.  Scary Movie 5 - $3.46 ($27.49) - 3 wks (Dim) -43.8%
 . . . 2733 / $1265
8.  Olympus Has Fallen - $2.77 ($93.08) - 6 wks (FD) -38.2%
 . . . 2334 / $1186
9.  The Place Beyond the Pines - $2.7 ($16.21) - 5 wks (Foc) -45.1%
 . . . 1584 / $1704
10. Jurassic Park 3D - $2.31 ($42) - 4 wks (U) -43%
 . . . 1848 / $1250
11. Mud - $2.19 - 1 wk (RA)
 . . . 363 / $6022
12. Evil Dead - $2 ($51.87) - 4 wks (TS) -51.4%
 . . . 2186 / $915

Michael Bay's Pain and Gain managed to get to $20 million in a weekend sandwiched between a Tom Cruise sci-fi movie and the sure-to-be-monstrous Iron Man 3.  The Big Wedding, originally intended to be released at Christmas, is getting lousy reviews and was dumped here so the studio could get it out there and be done with it.

Evil Dead - Movie Review

Starring Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jessica Lucas and Elizabeth Blackmore. Directed by Fede Alvarez.

★★½

This remake of the 1981 cult classic comes along at an unfortunate time. It comes after Cabin in the Woods has been made, and so what might have seemed original 32 years ago has no chance of being fresh now.

Five young people come together in a cabin in the woods to help one of their friends (Suburgatory's Jane Levy) quit drugs cold turkey. Unfortunately for them, another friend finds a book of evil and reads from it, summoning a demon to torment them all.

This movie takes itself a little more seriously than the original, trying for genuine creepiness.  For example, the scene where a girl gets raped by a tree is still there, but it's more violating this time around, whereas in the original, it was played as dark humor.

Levy acquits herself nicely. This movie seems to be more for fans of horror make-up and effects.

John Dies at the End - DVD Review

Starring Chase Williamson, Rob Mayes, Paul Giamatti, Clancy Brown, Glynn Turman, Doug Jones, Allison Weissman and Daniel Roebuck.
Directed by Don Coscarelli.

★★½

The story of my life.  As far as I know.

I felt like I walked halfway through a lighter episode of Supernatural when watching this.  There's a lot of narrating in the main character's head, and since he's on drugs most of the movie, we get a twisted, distorted presentation of the story. He's not sure if what he's seeing is real, and therefore we never know what we're supposed to accept at face value.  Early on, a girl bursts into a pile of writhing snakes.

If you cross The Matrix, Buckaroo Banzai and all of Richard Kelly's movies together, you might begin to get an idea of this film's aspirations, even if it doesn't quite get there. If you play deadpan the whole time, why should I care about anyone's fate?  So what if John lives or dies.  He'll just shrug about it.

Oblivion wins weekend

1.  Oblivion - $38.15 million - 1 wk (U)
 . . . 3783 per screen / $10,085 per screen
2.  42 - $18.03 ($54.06) - 2 wks (WB) -34.4%
 . . . 3250 / $5546
3.  The Croods - $9.5 ($154.9) - 5 wks (Fox) -27.6%
 . . . 3435 / $2766
4.  Scary Movie 5 - $6.29 ($22.94) - 2 wks (Dim) -55.5%
 . . . 3402 / $1851
5.  G.I. Joe: Retaliation - $5.78 ($111.21) - 4 wks (Par) -47%
 . . . 3175 / $1819
6.  The Place Beyond the Pines - $4.75 ($11.45) - 4 wks (Foc) +22.8%
 . . . 1542 / $3078
7.  Olympus Has Fallen - $4.5 ($88.8) - 5 wks (FD) -37.9%
 . . . 2638 / $1706
8.  Evil Dead - $4.1 ($48.45) - 3 wks (TS) -56.8%
 . . . 2823 / $1452
9.  Jurassic Park 3D - $4.01 ($38.48) - 3 wks (U) -54.8%
 . . . 2330 / $1720
10. Oz the Great & Powerful - $3.05 ($223.77) - 7 wks (BV) -37.3%
 . . . 2045 / $1490

Brilliant decision by Universal to release their $120-million sci-fi Tom Cruise actioner in April.  it has a nice jump on the summer competition and should be buoyed overseas by a thin marketplace.  It's his best opening since Mission Impossible 4 went wide.

42 held strong in its second week.  The Place Beyond the Pines waited a week to long to open wide.

My 2013 Summer Box Office Predictions

Last year I vastly underestimated how much The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, Ted and Magic Mike would bring in, and I vastly overestimated how Battleship, The Watch and That's My Boy would do.

Anyway, here's how I see this summer going.

1. MAN OF STEEL (6/14) - $380 million - It doesn't open on a traditionally strong weekend, but I think there's still a lot of built-in goodwill toward the son of Jor-El, and audiences would like to see a good Superman movie, which we haven't had for over 30 years.

2. IRON MAN 3 (5/3) - $365 million - It'll open huge and have decent legs through May while all of April's castoffs can't leave theaters quickly enough.  Seems anti-climactic to have another stand-alone Iron Man movie after The Avengers, but it's confirmed Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson will cameo.  The movie's ace in the hole is Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts, and hopefully they've given her something to do.

3. STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (5/17) - $270 million - Captain Kirk and crew are established, so now that the origin story's out of the way, they're ready to have a full-fledged adventure.  Benedict Cumberbatch is the villain, and while they don't say that he's Khan, I have my suspicions.

4. DESPICABLE ME 2 (7/3) - $265 million - The surprise hit has a sequel with a funny trailer and clear hook for the plot.  No one can stop the minions!

5. FAST & FURIOUS 6 (5/24) - $225 million - This franchise grows stronger with each installment.  It will soon envelop the whole earth.  But when are they going to let Lucas Black and Bow Wow come back?  I guess they're the Coy & Vance Duke of the F&F franchise.

6. MONSTERS UNIVERSITY (6/21) - $220 million - It's Pixar. They can do no wrong. (My kids love Cars 2, so there it is.)  I don't know why they chose this member of the Pixar ouevre to prequelize, but maybe the college hijinks will be entertaining.  The fake college-commercial trailer goes over young kids' heads.

7. THE HANGOVER III (5/24) - $185 million - Since it's universally agreed upon that the second one sucked, I don't think it'll score as much money, even if word of mouth is "it was sure better than Part II."  It's taking the action back to Vegas, and it isn't following the same pattern as the first two.

8. THE HEAT (6/28) - $155 million - The studio had it scheduled for spring but moved it to summer. That usually means they have faith in it.  Sandra Bullock's one of the few reliable female box-office draws, and Melissa McCarthy is red-hot after Identity Thief showed she can make her Bridesmaids karma spread to other projects. (Not to mention she's established herself as one of SNL's most reliably funny hosts.)

9. EPIC (5/24) - $150 million - It's the first animated movie to hit theaters since The Croods so I expect a strong "kids and families" turnout.  Title's vague though, and the "all-star cast" isn't exactly must-see.  Colin Farrell, Josh Hutcherson, Amanda Seyfried, Jason Sudeikis, etc., lend their pipes.

10. SMURFS 2 (8/2) - $125 million - Alvin & the Chipmunks 2 was a hit.  Therefore, it would be an impressive disaster if this didn't make the top ten.

11. AFTER EARTH (5/31) - $120 million - It wouldn't make my "top ten most anticipated summer flicks" list, but it has the weekend to itself, and Will Smith is still the biggest star working, and Jaden Smith has his own resume with The Karate Kid. I hope it's more than just CG creatures chasing Jaden through the woods for 90 minutes.  Can director M. Night Shyamalan redeem himself for The Last Airbender (and The Happening, and Lady in the Water...)?

12. ELYSIUM (8/9) - $110 million - It is from the director of District 9, with a strong cast and decent weekend to open.  The trailer shows it will be original, although the poor parts of Earth looks remarkably like the shantytowns of South Africa seen in District 9.

13. PACIFIC RIM (7/12) - $105 million - We had Monsters vs. Aliens a few years ago, now we get a live-action Monsters vs. Robots. It's from Guillermo Del Toro, who tends to be more creative with his critters, so if there's a good story under all that CGI, it should do well.  What glimpses we've had of the monsters look like a cross between the ones from The Mist, and the arena monsters from Attack of the Clones.

14. TURBO (7/19) - $100 million - It's animated, and we've seen in previous summers how there's enough room for plenty of animated summer movies to do well.  It will suffer from being the third animated movie in five weeks.  The thought of a super-fast snail is a good hook.

15. THE WOLVERINE (7/26) - $92 million - Hugh Jackman was the only person who wanted this sequel, and I can't say I like the marketing so far, but there's time for them to correct it.  It has a weekend to itself, so as long as it's good, it should do okay.  If the RotTom meter comes out around 33%, I can see it disappearing quickly.  Some movies will be huge hits no matter what critics say, but this one does not have that luxury.

16. 2 GUNS (8/2) - $88 million - Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg are two guys who are funny when they talk fast, so this buddy-action comedy looks like it hits a lot of right notes. It's one of those pairings where the trailer made me think "Why haven't they teamed up sooner?"

17. THE LONE RANGER (7/3) - $80 million - Disney is going to will this to be a hit, and I just don't see it.  Johnny Depp is still a big name, but Dark Shadows showed there's a limit to what audiences will consume with him, and Armie Hammer (Mirror Mirror) isn't a known name yet.  It's from Gore Verbinski, director of Rango, so we know he can get the flavor of a western down, but will it all blend together well?  I mean, the first draft had the Indians turn into werewolves.

18. WORLD WAR Z (6/21) - $78 million - This project's been a production nightmare, and even though zombies are a hot commodity, this trailer didn't do it for me.  In fact, it's hard to tell they're zombies.  Seemed more like the vampire-things from I Am Legend.

19. R.I.P.D. (7/19) - $72 million - It's the Rest In Peace Department, a Men in Black clone starring Ryan Reynolds as a recently deceased police officer who helps track down dead bad guys trying to avoid hell.  Jeff Bridges is his mentor, a Wild West lawman.  Looks like it has tons of CG effects.

20. GROWN UPS 2 (7/12) - $70 million - Hated the first one, but here comes the sequel, and it might be a hit again for that scene in the trailer where Adam Sandler and friends are forced to jump naked off a cliff.  But I also look at the giant flop that was That's My Boy and wonder if the general public has finally hit its Sandler threshold.

Could Break the Top 20:

THE GREAT GATSBY (5/10) - This was pushed to summer to get out of a crowded December, so it could be because it's a mess. It's from Baz Luhrmann (Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge) and the trailer definitely makes that clear. (I feel like I should really read the book one of these days.)  It stars Leonardo DiCaprio, a pretty reliable box-office draw.

NOW YOU SEE ME (5/31) - I like the preview, and I'm also intrigued by the studio moving it from spring to summer.  Usually a good sign.  Good ensemble cast too.  Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson lead a magic act that also robs banks.  Mark Ruffalo is the cop trying to figure out how they're doing it.  Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Melanie Laurent (Inglorious Basterds) co-star.

WHITE HOUSE DOWN (6/28) - I'm betting the second "White House under siege" movie of the year is better than the first, but it'll hurt its opening weekend that the first one exists at all.

THE CONJURING (7/19) - James Wan (Insidious) intended to make this a PG-13 horror movie, but the MPAA gave him an R simply because it's just too scary to release as a PG-13.  Well, that marketing writes itself, doesn't it?

RED 2 (7/19) - Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren and John Malkovich return as aging assassins, and there might be enough goodwill from the first movie to get people to go again.  Anthony Hopkins and Catherine Zeta-Jones join the fun this time.  Interesting note: this will be the fourth sequel to feature Willis within a 365-day span (Expendables 2, Die Hard 5, GI Joe 2).  Thank goodness no one tried to greenlight The Whole Eleven Yards.

PERCY JACKSON 2: SEA OF MONSTERS (8/7) - The trailer makes it look like the actors are comfortable in their roles and ready for their next adventure. Special geek points for getting Nathan Fillion as Hermes.

Predicted Bombs:

THIS IS THE END (6/14) and THE WORLD'S END (8/24), also known as the dueling doomsday comedies, are way too similar for either to break out.  The June film stars Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill and Jay Baruchel playing themselves barricaded in a house and hoping they can survive the apocalypse going on outside.  The August film is a Simon Pegg-Nick Frost collaboration about how people are dealing with the end of the world.

THE INTERNSHIP (6/7) - Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn had a hit with Wedding Crashers, so they reunite for... a 90-minute Google commercial?  Reminds me of how the cast of A Fish Called Wanda reunited for... a zoo movie.

300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE (8/2) - This is a prequel that should have come out three years ago. I can't see much anticipation for it now, and even then, Gerard Butler won't be back. What's the point?

KICK-ASS 2 (8/16) - Jim Carrey's role looks interesting, but the loss of Nicolas Cage hurts. I don't see it doing better than the first one. And how come Aaron Johnson changed to Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and why does Chloe Moretz insist on keeping his middle name "Grace" in all of her billing?

Other Wide Releases:

PEEPLES (5/10) - $47
PARANOIA (8/16) - $46
THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS (8/23) - $45
PLANES (8/9) - $43
ONE D1RECTION: THIS IS US. (8/30) - $40
THE PURGE (5/31) - $38
CLOSED CIRCUIT (8/30) - $35
WE'RE THE MILLERS (8/9) - $30
YOU'RE NEXT (8/23) - $25
THE TO-DO LIST (8/16) - $22
SATANIC (8/30) - $20
GETAWAY (8/30) - $16


Box Office Summer 2012
1. The Avengers - $623.35 million
2. The Dark Knight Rises - $448.14
3. The Amazing Spider-Man - $262.03
4. Brave - $237.28
5. Ted - $218.81
6. Madagascar 3 - $216.39
7. Men in Black III - $179.02
8. Ice Age: Continental Drift - $161.32
9. Snow White & the Huntsman - $155.33
10. Prometheus - $126.47
11. Magic Mike - $113.72
12. The Bourne Legacy - $113.2
13. The Campaign - $86.91
14. The Expendables 2 - $85.03
15. Dark Shadows - $79.72
16. Madea's Witness Protection - $65.65
17. Battleship - $65.42
18. Hope Springs - $63.54
19. The Dictator - $59.65
20. Total Recall - $58.88

42 - Movie Review

Starring Chadwick Boseman, Harrison Ford, Nicole Beharie, Lucas Black, Christopher Meloni, Alan Tudyk, Ryan Merrimen and John C. McGinley.  Directed by Brian Helgeland.

★★★1/4

This is a rousing sentimental take on Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play in the major league baseball.

It starts with bona-fide movie-star Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey.  Ford embraces every one of his 70 years to play him, probably the first time in his career he's played his own age.  (He has good genes).  Rickey wants to be the first owner to have the first black player in the Major Leagues, and he finds the man he wants in Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman).

The tone of the movie is old-fashioned without being corny.  Shades of The Natural and The Blind Side.  The only time it really faltered for me was whenever there was a kid on screen.  Then it was gosh-gee-willikers cloying. I don't know if it was the casting or just the Little Rascals-ish on-the-nose dialogue they had.

I'm not a big baseball fan, but when it comes to sports movies, baseball tends to produce some of the best.

The Sessions, Sinister, The Man with the Iron Fists - DVD Reviews

THE SESSIONS (★★★) - Starring John Hawkes, Helen Hunt, William H. Macy, Moon Bloodgood, W. Earl Brown, Rhea Perlman, Robin Weigart and Adam Arkin. Directed by Ben Lewin.

Very well-made dramedy based on the true story of a man rendered virtually quadriplegic by polio who sets out to lose his virginity at age 38.  John Hawkes (Winter's Bone) has to do all of his acting with his face and voice, and he's great.  Helen Hunt gives her best performance in years as his "surrogate" who works with him for six sessions to get him to the point where he can achieve sex. Tons of casual nudity in this movie though.  There were times it might have been more polite for the movie to just film the bedroom door and give them their privacy.

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SINISTER (★★★) - Starring Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, Fred Dalton Thompson and Vincent D'Onofrio.  Directed by Scott Derrickson.

Here comes a movie with some genuine spooky moments.  It stars Ethan Hawke and his sweater as two beings hearing things go bump in the night.  Okay, the sweater has no sentience, but it became about as much of a character as Johnny Depp's ratty robe from Secret Window.

Hawke's a true-crime author studying some horrific murders that happened in the backyard of his new house.  Of course, he doesn't tell his wife and kids that they're living in the very house where people were killed.  That might alarm them.  One day he investigates in the attic and finds some Super 8 film reels and a camera, and lo and behold he finds a recording of that very murder, as well as some others.

A malevolent, supernatural force is behind the murders, and for some reason every time Hawke hears something go bump in the night, he doesn't turn the lights on.  He might grab a flashlight occasionally, but is it so hard to just flip the switch right next to the door...?

This built nicely, like The Ring where you just know there's something big and scary waiting for you at the end of this movie.  It didn't quite have that final punch I was hoping for, and maybe that's because I had the ending guessed too early.  But it's a good script from C. Robert Margill (aka Massawyrm) and if they greenlight a sequel (and the door's left wide open for one), I'd be interested in seeing where it goes.


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THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS (★★) - Starring Russell Crowe, RZA, Lucy Liu, Rick Yune, Jamie Chung, Daniel Wu, Dave Bautista, Byron Mann, Cung Le and Pam Grier.  Directed by RZA.

"Quentin Tarantino Presents" is the first credit in this movie, and you know, I like the stuff he directs, but the stuff he "presents" can be quite questionable.

This is a martial-arts mish-mash that plays like a cross between Iron Monkey and Mortal Kombat 4: The Sequel You Never Asked For.  Having Lucy Liu show up as one of the main fighters just reminded me that oh yeah, she was in Kill Bill, and oh yeah, that was a much better movie.

You have WWE/MMA physican specimen Dave Bautista show up as a guy who can turn his skin gold and therefore be impervious to pain or damage.  Pretty neat power-up if you can get it. It's like Colossus never found the X-Men and decided to try a life of Chaotic Evil for a while.

You have RZA as the man who eventually gets Iron Fists.  You have Russell Crowe wander in from another movie as a British scallywag who's pretty bloody deadly in his own right.  These two are the good guys and they team up with Rick Yune, who's pretty much playing Ryu from Street Fighter, to fight the baddies.  Hi-YAA!

The action's not that well choreographed and I couldn't get into the silliness of the story.  It's junk food action with different moving parts that have all been executed better in other movies.  But at least kudos to Crowe for energizing any scene he's in.

Weekend Box Office - 42 is #1

For the weekend of April 12-14.

1.  42 - $27.25 million - 1 wk (WB)
 . . . 3003 screens / $9074 per screen
2.  Scary Movie 5 - $15.15 - 1 wk (Dim)
 . . . 3402 / $4454
3.  The Croods - $13.2 ($142.52) - 4 wks (Fox) -36.1%
 . . . 3689 / $3578
4.  GI Joe: Retaliation - $10.8 ($102.43) - 3 wks (Par) -48.3%
 . . . 3535 / $3055
5.  Evil Dead - $9.5 ($41.5) - 2 wks (TS) -63.1%
 . . . 3025 / $3140
6.  Jurassic Park 3D - $8.82 ($31.93) - 2 wks (U) -52.6%
 . . . 2778 / $3175
7.  Olympus Has Fallen - $7.28 ($81.89) - 4 wks (FD) -28.3%
 . . . 2935 / $2481
8.  Oz the Great & Powerful - $4.92 ($219.44) - 6 wks (BV) -38.5%
 . . . 2504 / $1966
9.  Tyler Perry's Temptation - $4.5 ($45.42) - 3 wks (LG) -55.4%
 . . . 1805 / $2493
10. The Place Beyond the Pines - $4.08 ($5.46) - 3 wks (Foc) +480%
 . . . 514 / $7983

Brian Helgeland's feel biopic "42", about Jackie Robinson, is a hit, buoyed by a weak field, Harrison Ford's loaned star power, and just a good story.  Scary Movie 5 may have attacked Evil Dead's second weekend numbers, but it's also the lowest opening ever for the Scary franchise. (Scary Movie 4 opened to $40 million in 2006).

The Croods is on course to pass $400 million worldwide, so I'd expect The Croods 2 to come in 2016 or 2017.

The Croods - Movie Review

Starring the voices of Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Cloris Leachman and Clark Duke.  Directed by Chris Sanders & Kirk DeMicco.

★★★

The plot is very familiar but it's the way they execute their story that makes this fun.

The Croods are a family of cavemen who have survived by being afraid of everything and spending most of their time behind a boulder in a cave.  The oldest daughter Oop (Emma Stone) has had enough of confinement and wants to explore the "new."  Overprotective father Grug (Nicolas Cage) will have none of it, but when Oop meets another man (Ryan Reynolds), all kinds of "new" open up to her.

There are some thrilling action sequences, and it was probably a lot of fun in 3D.  The humor succeeds largely from the way the Croods deal with unknown things, like fire.