Frozen edges Paranormal in weekend box office

In its sixth week of wide release (seventh total), Disney's Frozen has recaptured the #1 spot at the box office.

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones is the fifth one in the franchise and wasn't able to take advantage of the horror crowd the way this weekend usually lends. (Texas Chainsaw 3D cleaned up on this weekend last year.)

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire will pass Iron Man 3 in the next day or two as the highest domestic-grossing movie of 2013.

Monsters University - DVD Review

Starring the voices of Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Helen Mirren, Nathan Fillion, Charlie Day, Dave Foley, Sean Hayes, Peter Sohn, Joel Murray, Alfred Molina and Aubrey Plaza.
Directed by Dan Scanlon.

★★★

Pixar must have had a hankering to do a college comedy, a G-rated riff on Animal House and Revenge of the Nerds, so they revisited the Monsters Inc crew.  I don't think if you took a poll of the Pixar library that Monsters Inc would have won "Which Movie Do You Most Want a Sequel To?" but it's entertaining in its own right.

Mike and Sully are rivals at college. They fight at first, but when they both get kicked out of the Scare program, they have to work together to get back in. I liked it more than their past couple efforts (Brave, Cars 2).

Televisually Speaking - 1/4/14

THE ASSETS (ABC) - This mini-series seems to be playing off the success of The Americans, about the CIA's attempt to find the mole in their organization that keep feeding information to the Soviets in the 1980's.  I watched the first hour but it never really gave me enough to want to watch more. And the ratings bear out it won't last long.

RAISING McCAIN (PIVOT) - This show might be informative if it had a different host, but then it wouldn't exist without Meghan McCain. Senator John's daughter has people smarter than her tackle issues with her about her generation. If her dad wasn't famous, she'd be a retail clerk in a Phoenix suburb.

KIRSTIE (TVLAND) - There's a circle of life with sitcoms. In the beginning, when they're aimed at teens and tweens, they're awful. Then as the kids mature, they can discover truly funny shows. But then there are shows aimed at middle-aged and senior people who watch just because it stars people that used to be funny.  Kirstie Alley, Rhea Perlman and Michael Richards are together on the same show, but all the jokes are broad, and the sitcom tropes trotted out without irony. When "special guest star" Kathy Griffin walks out, the live-studio audience applauds, just like they would have done on a show in 1981.

COMMUNITY (NBC) - Dan Harmon is back, and it's obvious. This show is inventive and funny again. I'll miss Pierce as part of the group dynamic, but I love the addition of Breaking Bad's Jonathan Banks as a criminalogist professor.

My Worst Ten Films of 2013

I haven't seen 21 & Over, The Last Exorcism 2, Trance, Scary Movie 5, The Big Wedding, The Hangover III, The Internship, Grown Ups 2, The Look of Love, Kick-Ass 2, The Canyons, Paranoia, Getaway, Battle of the Year, Runner Runner, Machete Kills, Winnie Mandela, The Fifth Estate, CBGB, The Counselor, 47 Ronin and some of these other movies making Worst Ten lists, but of what I saw, these were my least favorites.

I'm going to wait a couple more weeks before I do my Top Ten, as there's a few that haven't come to a theater near me I know I want to see.

Talented Misfire:

To the Wonder - An independent editor could probably assemble a beautiful film about love and betrayal from the footage, but Terrence Malick left most of those pieces on the cutting room floor in favor of sunsets and Olga Kurylenko twirling.

Dishonorable Mentions:

After Earth - Flat, uninteresting sci-fi flick that feels like an unintentional sequel to Battlefield Earth. Mostly because of the Scientology philopsophy throughout the movie, but also because it feels half-baked once it's over.  At least B.E. now has camp value.

Elysium - This sci-fi actioner makes zero sense when you think about it, but it also gets dinged for having what may be the worst performance of Jodie Foster's career. I don't know what she was going for, but I'm guessing South African Disney Villain.

Gangster Squad - Shallow mobster movie that more closely resembles Dick Tracy than DePalma. I'm confused why they assembled all this talent but didn't even try to be a good movie.

A Good Day to Die Hard - Worst installment yet, with Bruce Willis hopping around Russia like a superhero against bad guys who can't shoot, exuding zero chemistry with Jai Courtney as his estranged son. But the fact that they gave this to director John Moore (Max Payne) shows they didn't really care about quality.

The Purge - Takes an interesting Twilight Zone premise but doesn't do anything with it besides stretch it out as a home-invasion thriller. Missed opportunity.

And now...

.... the worst ten.

10. R.I.P.D. - Men in Black 2 meets Ghostbusters 2 meets CGI left over from the Mummy sequels. The Pluto Nash of our times.  I can see a lot of movies pitched as "It's [Hit Movie A] meets [Hit Movie B]!" as a way to get sold, but it needs to become its own thing somehow. This one doesn't.

9. GI JOE: RETALIATION - I didn't think Rise of Cobra was good, but this sequel made me think I was too harsh on it.  Most of the initial cast is killed off or replaced, and Dwayne Johnson is left to shoulder the load while Bruce Willis collects a paycheck. I'm surprised it didn't climax with a dance competition.

8. BROKEN CITY - I suppose there was a reason the studio put the ending of the movie in all their trailers and previews; it was the only way to make it look interesting.

7. IDENTITY THIEF - Major misfire for two comic talents whom I wouldn't mind seeing try again with a different script.  This one though makes Melissa McCarthy as unlikable as possible in the first half, but then tries to tug our heartstrings in the second half. Not buying it.

6. SAFE HAVEN - Remember the twist ending of Deadly Friend when Kristy Swanson revealed she's been a Terminator robot all along? This otherwise dull romance ends on about as ridiculous a note.

5. ONLY GOD FORGIVES - Lots of macho posturing and posing, where the actors must have thought their slow walking would be enhanced in post. Nope. Director Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive) leaves his actors dangling out there in this empty yakuza-style "thriller" and betrays his Drive star Ryan Gosling in their reunion.

----

The worst four don't really count as movies, yet they had theatrical releases nonetheless.

4. A HAUNTED HOUSE - The parody format that the Naked Gun did so well get diminishing returns with each passing year. This send-up of the Paranormal Activity movies starts with a too-long fart joke and goes downhill from there.  Awful.

3. THE ABCs OF DEATH - 26 short films about death. 24 of them sucked.

2. MOVIE 43 - A-List talent assemble in this anthology trying to be the next Amazon Women on the Moon. I guess. Whoever convinced Kate Winslet, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Richard Gere, Dennis Quaid, Naomi Watts, etc., to appear in this is one heck of a salesman. The goal of a dirty joke should be to be funny first and shocking second. Unfunny shock is just a turd on your front porch.

1. INAPPROPRIATE COMEDY - This anthology comedy makes Movie 43 look like Monty Python by comparison. It's directed by the Sham-Wow guy.  No kidding. The biggest star it conned into appearing was Adrien Brody, who should sue. Bury all negatives of this in the Earth.

R.I.P.D. - DVD Review

Starring Jeff Bridges, Ryan Reynolds, Kevin Bacon, Mary-Louise Parker, Stephanie Szostak, James Hong, Marisa Miller, Robert Knepper and Mike O'Malley. Directed by Robert Schwentke.

★½

It's not Men in Black meets Ghostbusters.

It's Men in Black 2 meets Ghostbusters 2.

It's an example of unoriginal filmmaking filled with CG effects that can't hide that the jokes fall flat, the mystery is obvious every step of the way, and the action scenes have no consequence.

Ryan Reynolds plays a cop murdered by his partner, but before he faced Judgement, he's allowed to put in some years in the Rest In Peace Department (RIPD), a luxury that Earthly law-enforcers are allowed to tip the scales in their favor.  They go to Earth and hunt down the dead (nicknamed dead-o's) who are masquerading as the living.  See? Very MIB.

He's paired with a squinty-eyed Western lawman played by Jeff Bridges, cashing in his True Grit goodwill.  They fly through the exposition so they can get to the chases and monsters and stuff.

The most clever aspect of the movie is how they appear to the living as a supermodel and old Chinese guy. Unfortunately they don't really do much with this premise.

So yeah, waste of money, and it deserved its box-office failure.

To the Wonder - DVD Review

Starring Olga Kurylenko, Ben Affleck, Javier Bardem, and Rachel McAdams.  Directed by Terrence Malick.

★★

Malick is one of the most frustrating artists for me. I loved Badlands. I found The Thin Red Line to be tremendously overrated.  The New World was okay.  I was disappointed by Tree of Life.

But 21st century Malick is more concerned with images, impressions, moments that linger in the memory, disconnected.  He's not telling a story; he's pre-jumbling your memory of the movie for you.  We have shots or scenes that might stay in the head for a few days, even as most of it vanishes.

His movies are undeniably beautiful, but you can only watch an artist chase butterflies for so long. He films hours and hours of footage, and he doesn't use most of it, and the "most" part tends to include plot elements that would make the whole affair more comprehensible.  Jessica Chastain, Rachel Weisz, Michael Sheen, Barry Pepper and Amanda Peet were all in this movie at one point too, but he cut them entirely out of the picture. (Why as an actor would you want to be in a Malick film when you know how good the odds are your part will be whittled down to nothing, or almost nothing?)

Ben Affleck, I get the feeling, had a character and dialogue, but almost all of his lines are cut. I think he gets six lines of spoken word in the whole movie.  Olga Kurlyenko gets the most screen time.  She narrates her thoughts in French while she twirls in flowing skirts in fields of wheat.  Rachel McAdams shows up as an old flame that Affleck reconnects with, and then there's Javier Bardem as a priest.

About 70% of the words we hear are narrated, most by the wife but some by the priest (in Spanish), and most of those times it doesn't appear connected to what we're seeing on screen. I think this is a reflection on how our heads are often elsewhere from what our bodies are doing.  There are times it's jarring when the camera focusses on a person's face and they actually speak some dialogue. I can almost feel the frustration coming out of Affleck. "Let me speak! Some words!"

So while I love his eye, I wish he'd rewatch Badlands and see how it's okay to have a narrative attached to his images.  We can have both cinematography and a story!

Dallas Buyers Club - Movie Review

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto, Steve Zahn, Denis O'Hare, Dallas Roberts and Griffin Dunne.
Directed by Jean-Marc Vallee.

★★★

Physical transformation is the name of the game for this true-story drama.  Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto lost a lot of weight to play men ravaged by AIDS, and on top of that, they do great acting jobs.

McConaughey plays Ron Woodroof, a straight rodeo cowboy/electrician who finds out in 1985 that he has AIDS.  Not much was known about AIDS then. It was a scary gay disease that Rock Hudson had.  Woodroof refuses to accept the apparent death sentence and fights tooth and nail to find any possible cure.

For dramatic purposes, the movie changes the history to make the FDA look less cooperative than they were, and they make the drugs Woodroof used seem more effective than they were.  You'd think Woodroof personally cured AIDS.  But on its own, as a movie, it's very effective at what it's trying to do.

McConaughey has come a long way from his Kate Hudson rom-coms (or even from Ghosts of Girlfriends Past which co-starred Garner), and this might be his best work to date.

Frances Ha - DVD Review

Starring Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Adam Driver and Grace Gummer.
Directed by Noah Baumbach.

★★

This precious little study of a young woman's arrested development is another example of 20-something girls who can be just as flighty and irresponsible as all those guy movies about the same thing. Hollywood is trying to tell us that the Gen-Y/Millenial crowd just doesn't know how to be adults.

She's 27, a dancing intern who's not a great dancer, bouncing from apartment to apartment, trying to "find herself," an Annie Hall-in-training, or someone who could wander in for a guest spot on HBO's Girls.  It's quirky, cute and tiresome, and I'm amazed so many critics liked it.  I think Baumbach's on his way to be the next Woody Allen, when critics seem to like all his movies, even the ones that aren't good.

The Wolf of Wall Street - Movie Review

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler, Jean Dujardin, Jon Bernthal, Rob Reiner, Jon Favreau, Joanna Lumley, Cristin Milioti, PJ Byrne, Shea Whigham and Ethan Suplee.
Directed by Martin Scorsese.

★★★

The true story of Jordan Belfort, a Wall Street wizard who stole millions of dollars from thousands of people, and he is one of hundreds of others doing the same.  Sure, there are honest people in the financial industry, but there are a lot of dishonest ones too, and those are the ones who make life worse for the 99%.

There's been some criticism of this film that it glorifies Jordan. That's like saying Goodfellas glorifies Henry Hill.  It's a fun ride to watch, but you don't deep down actually want his life. If you do, you're a bad person.

One thing Wolf of Wall Street makes clear - it takes talent to be evil. Jordan may be a raging narcissist, but he's also excellent at selling, and lying, and leading others.  We don't see his victims because he never thinks about them. If he does, it's flippant. At one point he narrates that the way he sees it, it's better that he has the money rather than those middle-class people he's ripping off, because he knows how to spend it. Says the guy who does enough cocaine to power a small city.

It's a three-hour biopic that takes us on the decadent ride of an amoral man and his band of merry swindlers who get rich quick with no conscience. He grew up with one goal - to be rich. Didn't care how, and didn't really have a noble goal of what to do with his wealth either.

Leonardo DiCaprio gives a ferocious performance, maybe a career best for him.  It's his fifth collaboration with Scorsese (Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, and Shutter Island being the other four), and they really seem to have each other's rhythms down.

Did it need to be three hours? I don't think so. The parade of immorality goes on pretty long.  I don't think we really need that many scenes of drugs and hookers, but my understanding is his first cut could have been four hours.  It is darkly funny, like one scene where he's near paralyzed from Quaaludes but tries to drive home anyway.

So yeah, this movie ended and I felt like I'd seen a very well-made ride of a shallow, empty man who had the potential to do some good with his talents, but with no ethics or principles, he just ruined lives to feed his need for greed instead. But I do have that McConaughey chest-thumping song still stuck in my head.

Weekend Box Office Dec 27-29, 2013

For all the new Christmas Day offerings out there, it was the leftovers that sold the most tickets. The Hobbit: Part Smaug is behind the first one but still proving to be a profitable venture.  Frozen is now Disney's second-highest non-Pixar animated movie to date, behind only The Lion King.

Of the newbies, The Wolf of Wall Street is faring best. Hard to say how word of mouth will be. We had about six people walk out of our screening. It's insane to me how much money Universal dumped into 47 Ronin. The last time Keanu Reeves was in a movie that grossed over $100 million was 2003 (the Matrix sequels and Something's Gotta Give), and they dumped $200 million into 47 Ronin?

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty had a disappointing beginning for Ben Stiller, and Grudge Match is just a bomb to be quickly forgotten.  Justin Bieber's Believe showed that there's not much interest left in his concert movies.

What Maisie Knew - DVD Review

Starring Julianne Moore, Alexander Skarsgard, Steve Coogan, Onata Aprile and Joanna Vanderham. Directed by Scott McGehee & David Siegel.

★★★

This involving, infuriating film is about a six-year-old girl named Maisie who gets bounced back and forth by her two selfish parents.  Julianne Moore and Steve Coogan play Mom and Dad, she a fading rock star, he an art dealer. Neither seem particularly interested in her except as a weapon to use against each other in divorce proceedings. Each get new lovers, and Maisie's new stepmom and stepdad have more compassion for her than her parents, but no one really wants to make the time to actually raise her.

Anyone with kids will want to throttle the parents well before it's over.  The acting's great all over, with sensitive portrayals by Skarsgard and Vanderham as the stepparents, Moore and Coogan as the parents, and Aprile is very natural as Maisie. She's resilient and patient, and she makes you want to adopt her away from these self-absorbed people.

Blackfish - DVD Review

Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite.

★★★½

This documentary has one goal, and it succeeds. It makes the case that orcas are friendly, social, emotional, non-violent creatures in the wild, but by capturing them and showing them off at waterparks, some of them are turning into killers.

The main focus is on Tilikum, a killer whale who's killed three people, and yet he still performs at Sea World.  It chronicles his capture, and the three different deaths, and show how SeaWorld keeps downplaying the danger. In the end, it shows that orcas just don't belong in captivity.

Red 2 - DVD Review

Starring Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Anthony Hopkins, Mary-Louise Parker, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Byung Hung-Lee, David Thewlis, Neal McDonough and Brian Cox.  Directed by Dean Parisot.

★★½

There's a certain breezy silliness to the whole affair, aging hitmen brought out of retirement.  Morgan Freeman's presence is missed, but Malkovich and Mirren still seem to be having a grand old time, and the script is clever enough that we don't feel bogged down by overdoing what made the first one work. Bruce Willis phones it in, to the point that I'm trying to remember the last time he didn't phone it in.

Snitch - DVD Review

Starring Dwayne Johnson, Susan Sarandon, Barry Pepper, Jon Bernthal, Michael K. Williams, Melina Kanakaredes, Nadine Velasquez and Benjamin Bratt.  Directed by Ric Roman Waugh.

★★½

Good acting by Johnson, maybe his best yet. I know the joke is that's not saying much, but this movie has more on its mind than mindless action. It's primarily a critique against mandatory minimum sentencing laws in the screwed-up drug war. When a teenage son gets arrested after his "friend" mails him some drugs, his father (Johnson) makes a deal with the DA (Susan Sarandon), that she'll reduce his sentence if the father helps bring down some bigger fish. The stakes get raised and the climax winds up straining credulity, but overall it was a decent rental.

The Last Stand - DVD Review

Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Forest Whitaker, Johnny Knoxville, Rodrigo Santoro, Peter Stormare, Jaimie Alxeander, Luis Guzman and Genesis Rodriguez.  Directed by Kim Jee-Woon.

★★

Ever wanted to see Rio Bravo remade for Arnold? Well, you're in luck.

Arnie's looking old and stiff these days, at least he does here. Now I didn't think this'd be a modern classic; this movie aspires to be an average 1980's action movie. If that's the mission, it's accomplished.  Goofy sidekick characters played by Johnny Knoxville and Luis Guzman help Arnie rig the town as they wait for an escaped criminal to zoom through their town on the way to Mexico.

Safe Haven - DVD Review

Starring Josh Duhamel, Julianne Hough, Colbie Smulders and David Lyons.
Directed by Lasse Hallstrom.

★½

Slow, generic love story about a woman fleeing her past and hiding out in a small town.  Julianne Hough, poor thing, just isn't a good actress.  Then comes the crazy twist ending that wouldn't be more out of place had the final scene been Josh Duhamel sprouting fangs and turning into a bat.

American Hustle - Movie Review

Starring Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence, Jeremy Renner, Louis C.K., Jack Huston, Shea Whigham, Alessandro Nivola and Elisabeth Rohm.
Directed by David O. Russell.

★★★★

The true story would have been meaner and more black and white. I like that Russell took the basic elements and made it a lot more ambiguous and gray.

Russell's now directing three great films in a row - The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook, and now this. This might be his best yet.

It comes down to the actors, and under a director who clearly gives them a lot of freedom, they all step up. Bruce Wayne and Lois Lane make a great team. If Christian Bale didn't already have an Oscar, he might be getting front-runner chatter for his work here. And Amy Adams hasn't won one yet but I'll be rooting for her.

Bale plays Irving, a con man caught by the FBI, who then work a deal with him to use his con skills to help him catch some bigger frauds. It eventually leads to a web of corruption that may land some US congressmen.

The movie has those gloriously scuzzy details of the 1970's, and Bale's belly and combover are characters in themselves. Every scene crackles. It's lively and vibrant and a lot of fun.

Hobbit still #1, Anchorman 2 #2

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug ultimately won the weekend over all newcomers. Anchorman 2 put up the biggest fight, with endless marketing in multiple venues. American Hustle had about the same per-screen success, and it's been getting positive award buzz. Saving Mr. Banks was counting on the same sort of buzz, but as far as family movies go, Hobbit still seems to be winning. Still, I expect Banks to have strong legs through January.

The one outright flop was Walking with Dinosaurs, which decided to not make a nature-style film about dinosaurs but instead went the same route as Disney's forgettable 2000 movie Dinosaur, and give the dinosaurs human voices.

The studio Yash Raj continues to have limited-run success with its niche market films. I never see any box-office sites talk about their films, but hey, look, Dhoom 3 cracked the top ten on just 236 screens.

The competition gets stiffer this week when The Wolf of Wall Street, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Grudge Match and 47 Ronin open on Christmas Day.