Sonic holds off Call of the Wild to stay #1

For the weekend of February 21-23, 2020, Sonic the Hedgehog held on to stay #1. It’s the highest opening ever for a movie based on a video game, and it’s on track to be the highest-grossing movie in the same category. Got to think Nintendo’s looking at this and figuring out how to make a different Super Mario Bros. movie. (It’s in development, but now they really have to be encouraged.)

The Call of the Wild was the winner of the new releases. It didn’t have a lot of competition besides Sonic, but maybe it’s a testament to Harrison Ford and the classic title that got people to come out. Most of the reviews I’ve read that were positive still had a problem with the CGI dog.

Brahms: The Boy II wasn’t screened for critics and fell flat on its face. 

Out of nowhere, the Impractical Jokers movie came out on 357 screens and had the best per-screen average of anything in the top 20. What?

Among the limited releases, Emma. did the best. Yes, the title has a period in it.

Opens February 28

THE INVISIBLE MAN with Elisabeth Moss, Aldis Hodge and Oliver Jackson-Cohen.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Movie Review

STAR WARS EPISODE VII: THE FORCE AWAKENS (PG-13) Starring Harrison Ford, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Lupita Nyong'o, Domhnall Gleeson, Andy Serkis, Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, Greg Grunberg and Max von Sydow.
Written by Lawrence Kasdan, JJ Abrams & Michael Arndt.
Directed by JJ Abrams.

★★★½

Rewatching the first six movies reminded me of something - the cognative dissonance required to enjoy the prequels. I have to ignore the stilted dialogue, stiff performances, over-reliance on CGI to get to the parts I like. None of that is required here. This movie is a pleasure from beginning to end, reimursing us in the original Star Wars galaxy.

One of the joys of the movie was seeing everything I didn't know was going to happen. We've gathered certain scenes and characters in general - i.e. the Millenium Falcon will fly again!  This one dives right into the action from the opening scrawl. (And yes, there were cheers when the Star Wars logo hit the screen.) We may start with some of the new characters, but we know we'll eventually see all of our old friends.

Of the new characters, there is Rey (Daisy Ridley), a scavenger on Jakku, a junkyard planet that makes Tattooine look like a luxury resort. There is Finn (John Boyega), a stormtrooper who grows a conscience. There is Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), a cocky but skilled pilot. And there's BB-8, a roller-droid that kids will love as much as they did R2-D2.

Every scene builds on the next. It hits a lot of familiar beats but it also managed to build a lot of suspense as to what direction it was going to ultimately go. I can't wait to watch it a second time to look for things I missed.

I hope this movie makes enough money that they'll decide to make Episode VIII.

Ender's Game - Movie Review

Starring Harrison Ford, Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, Viola Davis, Ben Kingsley and Abigail Breslin.
Directed by Gavin Hood.

★★★

It's been forever since I read the book so while I remember the basics and the ending, there was still a good amount of discovery for me to do.
I liked the central performance of Asa Butterfield (Hugo) as Ender, a brilliant but alienated child, in training to become the next great military tactitian on a future Earth that's being threatened by an alien race.  There are times it can feel confining (most of it takes place on a space station), but the plot is paced nicely between progress and discovery.

Ford, Davis and Kingsley are the adults who provide the gravitas, and this is the best Ford's been in years, as though he actually cared about this movie being good.

Random Movie Stuff - 11/1/13

- In light of the Ender's Game movie opening, and the publicity against its author Orson Scott Card, I present two great reads. One is a Grantland land piece by a Muslim sci-fi fan who resolves his feelings about loving Card's book with loathing his political views. The other is a Wired interview with Card himself.

- Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild) will be starring in an updated remake of the musical Annie. Jamie Foxx will play Daddy Warbucks (renamed Benjamin Stacks) and Cameron Diaz will play Miss Hannigan.  It also co-stars Rose Byrne, Bobby Canavale, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and David Zayas. It's directed by Will Gluck (Friends with Benefits) and will open December 19, 2014.  Wallis can currently be seen in a small role in 12 Years A Slave.

- Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass, Savages) will play Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Meanwhile Evan Peters (American Horror Story) will play Quicksilver in X-Men: Days of Future Past.

- Patrick Hughes (Red Hill) is directing The Expendables 3. It opens August 15, 2014, and will star Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, and newbies Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Wesley Snipes, Antonio Banderas, Kelsey Grammer, Kellen Lutz, and UFC's Ronda Rousey.

- Christopher McQuarrie (Jack Reacher) will direct a live-action Star Blazers movie. He will also be directing Mission Impossible 5 starring Tom Cruise.

- A few months ago it was announced that Gina Carano (Haywire) and Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica, Riddick) would star in an Expendables spinoff. Tentatively titled ExpendaBelles, the producers are also pursuing Meryl Streep, Cameron Diaz, Milla Jovovich, Linda Hamilton, Sharni Vinson and Pam Grier. They're looking for a female director as well.

- Mark Bomback (The Wolverine) has been hired to do some polishing to the Fifty Shades of Grey screenplay by Kelly Marcel (Saving Mr. Banks). It'll star Dakota Johnson (21 Jump Street) and Jamie Dornan (ABC's Once Upon A Time).

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.

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.

Random Movie News - 3/8/13

- George Lucas has confirmed that Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher are all on board for Star Wars Episode VII.

- Keri Russell (Dark Skies) has joined the cast of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, starring Andy Serkis, Gary Oldman, Jason Clarke and Kodi Smit-McPhee.  Most of humanity has been wiped out, but the film centers on a resistance group in San Francisco, and Caesar's attempt to maintain order in his new ape society.

- Liam Neeson and Giovanni Ribisi have join the cast of A Million Ways to Die in the West, a western comedy starring Seth MacFarlane as a cowboy training to be a gunfighter.  Charlize Theron and Amanda Seyfried co-star.

- Michael Keaton will star in Birdman, about an actor once famous playing a superhero who is now trying to mount a Broadway play.  Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Zack Galifianakis, Amy Ryan and Naomi Watts.  Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel) will direct.

- Jessica Chastain tops Warner Bros' wish list to play Jane in their upcoming live-action Tarzan movie.

- Christopher Nolan's next movie will open November 7, 2014. It's called Interstellar, and plot details are currently under wraps.

Cowboys & Aliens - DVD Review

★★½

Starring Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, Adam Beach, Clancy Brown, Keith Carradine, Paul Dano and Walton Goggins.
Directed by Jon Favreau.

The first fifteen minutes or so work really well. It's a real Western. Daniel Craig is a cowboy who wakes up with amnesia. He goes to the nearest town where he gets recognized as a thief. He fights back, but he gets jailed. The townsfolk gather when the chief cattle baron of the region (Harrison Ford) shows up to spring his own wayward son out of prison.

And then the aliens show up, kidnapping about half of the people we meet. Somewhere in there the fun factor should kick in, but the movie plays it straight the entire time.

So as an alien movie, the aliens don't seem that threatening, which is to say, despite their technology, the aliens are poor tacticians and shockingly easy to kill. Their design isn't that creative, straight out of the gray-skinned, many-limbed playbook. They actually reminded me a lot of the creature from Super 8.

Now I've read the source material. It was a comic-book written with the intent of being made into a movie. Its story wasn't great either. In fact Favreau's really fleshed it out. I just don't see a reason why no one seemed to realize they were making a summer movie called Cowboys & Aliens. Let's have a blast, why don't we.

Morning Glory - Movie Review

**3/4

Starring Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, Patrick Wilson, Jeff Goldblum, John Pankow, Matt Malloy and Ty Burrell.
Directed by Roger Michell.

Rachel McAdams has that movie-star sparkle to her eye that makes me wonder why she doesn't work more. Here she plays the eternally perky Becky, a go-getter producer of a New Jersey morning-news show. After getting fired, she sends resumes everywhere and gets a break with IBS's Daybreak, the fourth-place national morning shows behind NBC's Today Show, ABC's Good Morning America, and "whatever that CBS show is."

Harrison Ford, in his best role in years, plays Mike Pomeroy, legendary evening newsman forced out by IBS. Now he's coasting on his contract fumes and Becky twists his arm to get him to come to Daybreak. THey clash. Mike refuses to play along with the entertaining fluffy side of a morning news program.

The movie has a few big laughs, but it works best when it focusses on the chipper Becky working on the gruff Mike. There's a romantic subplot in there for Becky, but it feels like a mandatory throw-in.

Many have compared this to Broadcast News, but it seems too different an animal to me to make any comparison fair. This movie is worried more about entertainment than news, and as such, it hits every predictable plot point exactly when you expect it to. I still liked it, but it's not going to stay in the system long. It was nice to just watch Ford, you know, act for once.