The Purge - Movie Review

Starring Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Max Burkholder, Adelaide Kane, Edwin Hodge, Rhys Wakefield and Tony Oller.  
Directed by James DeMonaco.

★★

This is a terrific Twilight Zone premise that raises some interesting questions, but it never really explores them as it devolves into a choppy house-under-siege movie.

It's America 2022.  In 2017, the "new Founding Fathers" voted on The Purge, a 12-hour period where once a year, all crime is legal, including murder (with exceptions for high government officials).  Hawke is the dad here with the job of selling security systems to rich people who want to protect their homes from the Purge each year.

Hawke's family chooses not to participate, rather they stay in their home and watch the news, but when the son lets a homeless man inside, it attracts the crowd of murderous youth who'd been in pursuit.

Now there's plenty of subtext going on, with class warfare, the haves and have-nots, human nature.  The movie hints that the reason the law passed was so rich people would have an excuse to kill poor people, because most rich people secretly just want to kill.  What we actually get is a house with the power killed, so there's a lot of movement lit by nothing but flashlights, as psychotic rich kids dance and laugh while they wait to get their bloodlust satiated.

I don't mind that a sequel was greenlit, because there's so much more filmmakers could do with this premise.  The reality of what the movie is is a letdown from what the movie could have been.

Man of Steel is #1

1. Man of Steel - $113.08 million ($125.08) - 1 wk (WB)
 . . . 4207 screens / $26,879 per screen
2. This Is the End - $20.5 ($32.8) - 1 wk (Sony)
 . . . 3055 / $6710
3. Now You See Me - $10.32 ($80) - 3 wks (LG) -45.8%
 . . . 3082 / $3348
4. Fast & Furious 6 - $9.43 ($219.57) - 4 wks (U) -51.9%
 . . . 3375 / $2795
5. The Purge - $8.2 ($51.85) - 2 wks (U) -75.9%
 . . . 2591 / $3165
6. The Internship - $7 ($30.95) - 2 wks (Fox) -59.6%
 . . . 3399 / $2059
7. Epic - $6 ($95.43) - 4 wks (Fox) -49.5%
 . . . 3151 / $1904
8. Star Trek Into Darkness - $5.66 ($210.49) - 5 wks (Par) -50.5%
 . . . 2331 / $2428
9. After Earth - $3.75 ($54.2) - 3 wks (Sony) -65%
 . . . 2432 / $1542
10. Iron Man 3 - $2.91 ($399.61) - 7 wks (BV) -49.5%
 . . . 1649 / $1763
11. The Hangover Part III - $2.74 ($107.99) - 4 wks (WB) -62.8%
 . . . 1901 / $1439
12. The Great Gatsby - $1.61 ($139.91) - 6 wks (WB) -62%
 . . . 1175 / $1366

Man of Steel had the fourth-highest non-sequel opening in history.  The "Christopher Nolan" name had to help.

Random TV Stuff - 6/15/13

HBO's GAME OF THRONES - I watched Season 3 all within a week and a half. Love that series. Love its faithfulness to the books, and yet it has its own surprises.  Really liked the chemistry between Jon Snow and Ygritte, between Jaime and Brienne, between Margery and Joffrey, between Tyrion and Sansa, between Arya and the Hound, between Dany and her dragons. Obviously it's not all romantic chemistry, but the actors and characters are well-matched.

Season 1 was Book 1, Season 2 was Book 2, and Season 3 has been about the first 60% of Book 3.  Now as to the next few seasons, I think they're going to take the events of the rest of Book 3, and then Books 4 & 5, and tell the events chronologically.  I think we'll see elements from Books 3, 4 and 5 all in Season 4, just due to the nature of the way they were written.  It also means that some seasons are going to see shorter shrift from certain characters.  For instance, I don't know what the producers think they're going to do with Theon, but after watching him get tortured for all of Season 3, I don't want a whole other season or two of it, and based on future events I'm aware of, it's a while before his situation improves. (In the books, I don't think he's even in Books 3 or 4).

Now I feel like I want to reread them.

AMC's THE KILLING - I'm really enjoying the setup this season.  It's already better than the first two seasons.  Linden (Mireille Enos) and Holder (Joel Kinnaman) are back on a case tracking a serial killer exhibiting an M.O. of a killer (Peter Sarsgaard) already on death row.  It still has that patented moroseness, but this time they've promised the case will be solved this season, and so far so good.

NBC's THE GOODWIN GAMES - Wealthy patriarch (Beau Bridges) dies and leaves a series of challenges to his three adult children in order to determine who gets his inheritance.  The three of them aren't really mean or self-absorbed, but since this has already been cancelled, no need to see just what hoops they have to jump through.

NBC's SAVE ME - Anne Heche stars in this comedy about a woman who has a near-death experience and decides to change her ways, but she also has episodes where she can read others' thoughts.  It was hammy and I couldn't make it through a full episode.

FOX's DOES SOMEONE NEED TO GO? - One of those sadistic reality shows where employees at a company are asked to vote on who they think should get fired.  It's worse than the "emperor hanging out with the peasants" aspect of Undercover Boss.  It's amazing to see all these companies where they're all Americans, in the same building, working side-by-side. (I'm used to my co-workers being all over the world.)

Star Trek Into Darkness - Movie Review

Starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Bruce Greenwood, Alice Eve and Peter Weller.
Directed by JJ Abrams.

★★★

This is a movie that is determined to have fun.  It plays with old Trek tropes (maybe a little too much this time around) while blazing a trail for the new.

It starts out with characters on the run.  Maybe if this had been an episode of the TV show it would have started with Kirk and McCoy landing on the planet, observing the sentient beings there. But we're in a movie, so let's skip to the action.  Kirk and McCoy banter as they run, until they get to a cliff where they don't even slow down; they just jump 60 feet and fortunately don't hit any rocks when they land in its ocean.

Turns out Kirk violated the Prime Directive while there.  (You remember the Prime Directive. That plot device that was violated every third episode.)  He gets demoted, and Admiral Pike gets the Enterprise back.  This can't end well for Pike, no matter what timeline we're in.  Hopefully this time he won't wind up as a quadriplegic who can only communicate with a "Yes/No" light, as he did on the series.  (Spoiler: he doesn't.)

Benedict Cumberbatch, an actor blessed with a name out of the Douglas Adams universe, plays the far-less-adventurously-nomenclatured "John Harrison", a domestic terrorist who is apparently plotting to start an intergalactic war.  Cumberbatch has a deep, symphonious voice, one where every syllable carries weight.

I caught the 3D version, and it was fine.  There were some set pieces where it worked well, but usually I forgot it was in 3D.  Which can be a compliment too.

My main criticism would be those "this is my JJ Abrams signature" lens flares on the bridge of the Enterprise.  I really hope he doesn't fill Star Wars Episode VII up with those.  Meanwhile I also hope they find a good director for Star Trek: Bring on the Klingons.

The Purge is #1

For the weekend of June 7-9.

1. The Purge - $36.38 million - 1 wk (U)
 . . . 2536 screens / $14,345 per screen
2. Fast & Furious 6 - $19.76 ($202.95) - 3 wks (U) -43.8%
 . . . 3771 / $5240
3. Now You See Me - $19.5 ($61.37) - 2 wks (LG) -33.6%
 . . . 3020 / $6457
4. The Internship - $18.1 - 1 wk (Fox)
 . . . 3366 / $5377
5. Epic - $12.1 ($84.16) - 3 wks (Fox) -27.2%
 . . . 3594 / $3367
6. Star Trek into Darkness - $11.7 ($200.14) - 4 wks (Par) -30.3%
 . . . 3152 / $3712
7. After Earth - $11.2 ($46.59) - 2 wks (Sony) -59.3%
 . . . 3401 / $3293
8. The Hangover Part III - $7.38 ($102.37) - 3 wks (WB) -55%
 . . . 3242 / $2276
9. Iron Man 3 - $5.79 ($394.32) - 6 wks (BV) -31.5%
 . . . 2351 / $2462
10. The Great Gatsby - $4.23 ($136.18) - 5 wks (WB) -35.1%
 . . . 2160 / $1958
11. Mud - $1.21 ($18.6) - 7 wks (RA) -.7%
 . . . 582 / $2077

As bad as the ramp-up was for The Internship, Fox has to be happy they managed $18 million.  Meanwhile Universal has to be delirious for the numbers on The Purge, which had a $3 million production budget.

Random TV Stuff - 6/5/13

AMC's MAD MEN - This season's been nicknamed "Sad Men." It's 1968, and the SCDP folks are living their lives while Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy get assassinated, drugs are on the rise, and Don Draper looks like a man getting passed by.  Only three episodes left, and next season is the last, and I picture that's the one where we see Don gone to full seed.  I'm still enjoying it, but I've enjoyed previous seasons more.  I do like Harry Hamlin's dapper partner as a different ingredient to the management mix.

A&E's BATES MOTEL - Watched the season finale the other day, and I think this show is great.  It ended with a cliffhanger that showed Norman apparently having killed his teacher, but I think we're going to learn in Season 2 he didn't actually do it.  Very interested to see where the show goes from here.

TNT's THE AMERICANS - Still have a couple episodes to watch, but I really enjoy the chemistry between Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys.

Iron Man 3 - Movie Review

Can never seem to actually write a review so here's episode #1 of J.E.R.M.M.O.T.
John English's Random Movie Minute or Two

Weekend Box Office - 6/2/13

For the weekend of May 31-Jun 2.

1.  Fast & Furious 6 - $34.54 million ($170.38) - 2 wks (U) -64.5%
 . . . 3686 screens / $9370 per screen
2.  Now You See Me - $28.05 - 1 wk (LG)
 . . . 2925 / $9590
3.  After Earth - $27 - 1 wk (Sony)
 . . . 3401 / $7939
4.  Star Trek Into Darkness - $16.4 ($181.16) - 3 wks (Par) -56%
 . . . 3585 / $4575
5.  Epic - $16.4 ($65.16) - 2 wks (Fox) -51.1%
 . . . 3894 / $4212
6.  The Hangover Part III - $15.93 ($88.09) - 2 wks (WB) -61.8%
 . . . 3565 / $4468
7.  Iron Man 3 - $8 ($384.75) - 5 wks (BV) -58.6%
 . . . 2895 / $2765
8.  The Great Gatsby - $6.27 ($128.26) - 4 wks (WB) -53.7%
 . . . 2635 / $2378
9.  Yei Jawaani Hai Deewani - $1.65 - 1 wk (Eros)
 . . . 161 / $10,255
10. Mud - $1.23 ($16.87) - 6 wks (RA) -36.8%
 . . . 581 / $2110

After Earth was expecting to open to $40+ million a couple weeks ago, but the closer it got, the worse it looked.  Word of the stench broke out.  It was M. Night Shyamalan's biggest budget to date, but it won't do the numbers of The Last Airbender.

So the magic caper Now You See Me was able to capitalize with a likable ensemble.  Critics aren't in love with it either, but that didn't hurt it.

Random Movie Stuff - 6/1/13

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Friday Box Office Estimates
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1. Fast & Furious 6 - $10.5 million ($146.34) - 8 days
2. Now You See Me - $10.05 - 1 day
3. After Earth - $9.8 - 1 day
4. The Hangover Part III - $5.23 ($77.39) - 9 days
5. Star Trek into Darkness - $4.44 ($169.19) - 16 days
6. Epic - $4.15 ($52.91) - 8 days
7. Iron Man 3 - $2.2 ($378.95) - 29 days
8. The Great Gatsby - $1.94 ($123.93) - 22 days

After Earth is going to be the infamous bomb of the summer.  Its Scientology-based theology and general hokeyness is drawing comparisons to Battlefield Earth, and it's another stinker for M. Night Shyamalan, who should probably try to direct something low-budget and written by the guys behind Insidious or Sinister.

Now You See Me improved in tracking as it got closer, but just last week it was expected to get $22 million compared to $37 million for After Earth.  Now it looks like it'll actually beat it.  It will probably wind up with $27-28 million, and AE more of a $25-26 million range.

In other news:

- Tom Cruise has dropped out of Guy Ritchie's big-screen take on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. due to scheduling conflicts with his upcoming Mission Impossible 5.  Henry Cavill (Man of Steel) has been mentioned as a replacement.

- Glenn Close will play top cop in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy movie. She'll play the head of Nova Corp, the intergalactic space patrol.  The film co-stars Zoe Saldana, Chris Pratt, John C. Reilly, Dave Bautista and Michael Rooker.

- Eric Roberts has joined the cast of The Human Centipede 3: Final Sequence.

Box Office Tracking - 5/31/13

Opens June 7
THE PURGE - $22 million, $53 total
THE INTERNSHIP - $16 million, $45 total

Opens June 14
MAN OF STEEL - $112 million, $340 total
THIS IS THE END - $24 million, $90 total

Opens June 21
MONSTERS UNIVERSITY - $80 million, $275 total
WORLD WAR Z - $40 million, $105 total

Opens June 28
WHITE HOUSE DOWN - $40 million, $112 total
THE HEAT - $37 million, $152 total

Opens July 4
DESPICABLE ME 2 - $76 million, $353 total
THE LONE RANGER - $32 million, $122 total

Opens July 12
PACIFIC RIM - $55 million, $185 total
GROWN UPS 2 - $40 million, $128 million

Opens July 19
RED 2 - $22 million, $71 total
TURBO - $21 million, $80 total
THE CONJURING - $20 million, $64 total
R.I.P.D. - $12 million, $30 total

Opens July 26
THE WOLVERINE - $63 million, $150 total

Interesting numbers currently for some of these future releases.  The Purge has been steadily creeping up in awareness, and since there hasn't been a suspense thriller in the market for a while, it fills the void.  Ethan Hawke's carving out a nice second career headlining these B-movies.

Man of Steel is still tracking large.  It won't do Iron Man 3 numbers, but if they want to reserve the first weekend of May 2016, they should do so now. (Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Avengers 2 have 2014 and 2015 reserved, respectively.)  The sequel might go the more Nolan route and open in July next time.  Meanwhile the Justice League movie is scheduled for July 4, 2015, and Henry Cavill is expected to be part of it.

Monsters University will be successful for Pixar, but it looks like Despicable Me 2 is going to be the largest animated film of the year.

Further down the road, R.I.P.D. has a lot of work to do in order to get people not to dismiss it as a Men in Black ripoff.

The Wolverine, meanwhile, has surprisingly strong numbers.

Source: Boxoffice.com

Gangster Squad - DVD Review

Starring Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, Emma Stone, Nick Nolte, Mireille Enos, Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi, Michael Pena, Robert Patrick, Troy Garity, Sullivan Stapleton, Jon Polito and John Aylward.  Directed by Ruben Fleischer.

★★

This is a pulpy True Detective dime-store cops-and-mobsters movie.  As such, it's attracted a stellar cast. I imagine the talent all in one room, looking at each other, and then saying "Since we're here, should we try to make an actual good movie? Nah, let's just have fun!"

Remember Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy?  Remember Christian Slater and Patrick Dempsey as Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky in Mobsters? This movie has more in common with those ventures than, say, The Untouchables.  Josh Brolin is assigned by the LAPD chief (Nick Nolte) to go after gangster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn), a man who enjoys killing apologizing underlings more than Darth Vader.

Meanwhile Cohen's dame (Emma Stone) is having an affair with another cop (Ryan Gosling), who joins Brolin's crew.

Everyone in this movie looks like they're having a blast, but it follows the old Siskel rule. "Is this movie better than just watching these actors sitting around talking over lunch?" The answer is no.

Penn's Cohen seems like he came out of the Sin City sequel, both in stylized overacting and make-up.  Gosling takes this amusing soft-slide to his voice, reminiscent of Mickey Doyle from Boardwalk Empire.  Stone's too modern to comfortably walk in her moll's shoes.

The whole thing though is relentlessly shallow.  It has no desire to leave an imprint. It just wants to shoot Tommy guns and cackle like Cagney.

Weekend Box Office - 5/26/13

1.  Fast & Furious 6 - $98.53 million - 1 wk (U)
 . . . 3658 screens / $26,935 per screen
2.  The Hangover Part III - $42.42 ($54.2) - 1 wk (WB)
 . . . 3555 / $11,931 per screen
3.  Star Trek into Darkness - $38 ($146.83) - 2 wks (Par) -45.8%
 . . . 3907 / $9726
4.  Epic - $34.2 - 1 wk (Fox)
 . . . 3882 / $8810
5.  Iron Man 3 - $19.42 ($367.51) - 4 wks (BV) -45.7%
 . . . 3424 / $5673
6.  The Great Gatsby - $13.71 ($114.43) - 3 wks (WB) -42.8%
 . . . 3090 / $4435
7.  Mud - $1.93 ($14.54) - 5 wks (RA) -13.7%
 . . . 712 / $2708

Once again, Vin Diesel and fast cars prove to be as reliable a box-office splasher as any superhero.

Random Movie News - 5/23/13

- Drew Pearce, who wrote Iron Man 3 and the upcoming Pacific Rim, has been hired to write Mission Impossible 5.

- Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia, The Master) is putting quite a cast together for his next film.  Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Benecio Del Toro and now Sean Penn are on board for Inherent Vice, based on the comedic Thomas Pynchon novel about a private detective in 1960's Los Angeles.

- Assassin's Creed is slated to open May 22, 2015.  Based on the best-selling video game, it will star Michael Fassbender.

- Evan Peters (American Horror Story) has signed on to play Quicksilver in X-Men: Days of Future Past.

- The cast is shaping up for Rob Marshall's Into the Woods.  James Corden (never heard of him) and Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada) are in line to play the Baker and his Wife, Meryl Streep (Hope Springs) will play the Witch, Johnny Depp (Nick of Time) will play the Wolf, Christine Baranski (The Good Wife) will play Cinderella's Stepmother, and Chris Pine (Star Trek) and Jake Gyllenhaal (End of Watch) are circling the parts of the two Princes.

Now when it comes to musicals, it seems like a no-brainer for Into the Woods to get the treatment, and I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner.  Rob Marshall directed Chicago, but he also directed Nine, and now he has to prove that he can make Into the Woods without having Red Riding Hood do her number in black lingerie.  I like how the cast is shaping up, if all those people can sing. I'm surprised Eddie Redmayne isn't already signed on for Jack.

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.