A highly touted animated action movie, Tyler Perry’s latest, Kate Beckinsale’s artic thriller, and the latest slasher horror movie….

New at Theaters (Wednesday): “9″
New at Theaters (Friday): “Sorority Row”, “Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself”, “Whiteout”

Limited Release in Grand Rapids market: 
“The Answer Man” (The Harbor Theater in Muskegon one week only 9/4 – 9/10),
“Weather Girl” (Celebration! North, for one week only 9/4 – 9/10),
“Adam” (Celebration! RiverTown),
“Departures” (The Harbor Theater in Muskegon 9/4 – 9/10),
“Paper Heart” (The Harbor Theater in Muskegon 9/11 – 9/17),
“Humpday” (at UICA opens 9/11),
Rob Zombie’s “El Superbeasto” (Saturday 9/12 only at Celebration! Carousel, Benton Harbor, Lansing, RiverTown, Crossroads)

Moving to Woodland Mall this week ($4.00 shows): “Adam”, “Bandslam”, “The Ugly Truth”

Best Bet(s): I haven’t seen any of these offerings yet.  “9″ has received pretty good reviews, “Whiteout”and “I Can Do Bad All By Myself” have had decent reviews, and then there’s the Horror flick “Sorority Row”.
Check out my interview with Taraji P. Henson of “I Can Do Bad All By Myself”, she talks about being the top billing of the movie and her role in “Benjamin Button”.

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New on DVD (Tuesday): “Crank 2: High Voltage”, “Dance Flick”, “Local Color”

Best Bet(s): “Local Color” has won awards at several film festivals, “Crank 2: High Voltage” is a high octane action movie that did better at the box office than it did with critics. 
I warned you when it was in theaters, and I’ll warn you again: “Dance Flick” is a waste of your time and money!!!

Next Week at Theaters: “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”, “The Informant!”,  ”Jennifer’s Body”, “Love Happens”

Next Week on DVD: “Camille”, “Easy Virtue”, “Next Day Air”, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”, “Star Wars The Clone Wars: Clone Commandos”

MY REVIEWS OF OTHER MOVIES CURRENTLY PLAYING IN THEATERS OR AVAILABLE TO RENT/BUY:  (more…)

“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” beats everyone at the weekend box office

There wasn’t really any doubt which movie would be number one during the weekend… it was just a matter of by how much… “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” pulled in $112 million for the weekend and $201 million since its Wednesday opening. “Transformers 2″ set a new high for a June weekend, its also the highest-grossing non-holiday, highest grossing non-Friday opening weekend and becomes the seventh opening weekend overall.   “The Dark Knight” is still the biggest 5-day opening all time ($203.8 million).

“Transformers 2″ boosted the entire box office 35% more than last weekend and at $194.97 million, it marks the biggest weekend of the year.  “Up” has passed “Star Trek” as the biggest movie of 2009 with $250 million so far.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” - $112.00 million ($201 million total) (1st week)

2. “The Proposal”  – $18.47 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 45% from last week)

3. “The Hangover” - $17.22 million
(4th week, was #2 last week, lost 36% of audience from last week)

4. “Up” – $13.05 million  ($250 million total)
(5th week, was #3 last week, lost 45% from last week)

5. “My Sister’s Keeper” – $12.03 million (1st week)

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“The Proposal” beats Hangover” and ”Up” at the weekend box office

Audiences said yes to Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds’ “The Proposal”… the romantic comedy easily beat “The Hangover” and “Up”… “Year One” opened in 4th place, but is likely to start dropping quickly.

“Star Trek” is still the best holdover movie, losing the least of its audience (13.8%) and adding to its overall total, now at $239 millon.   The weekend’s offerings actually propped up the box office – up almost 7% from last week, making $140.6 million, a total that will easily be surpassed next weekend as “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” opens on Wednesday.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “The Proposal”  – $34.11 million (1st week)

2. “The Hangover” - $26.86 million
(3rd week, was #1 last week, lost 18% of audience from last week)

3. “Up” – $21.34 million  ($224.11 million total)
(4th week, was #2 last week, lost 31% from last week)

4. “Year One” - $20.20 million (1st week)

5. “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3″ - $11.30 million
(2nd week, was #3 last week, lost 52% from last week)

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“Hangover” and ”Up” still tops at the weekend box office

The word of mouth and solid reviews (read mine) for “The Hangover” is keeping the buzz going for the R-rated comedy, with “Up” close behind, new movies “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3″ and “Imagine That” were 3rd and 6th respectively.

“Star Trek” dropped just two spots with the weekend’s two new movies, still losing just 33% of its audience and adding to its overall total, now at $231 millon.   But the weekend box office was down 17% from last week, making $131.97 million, the 2nd lowest total in the 7 weeks of the summer season so far.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “The Hangover” - $32.79 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 27% of audience from last week)

2. “Up” – $30.76 million  ($187.43 million total)
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 30% from last week)

3. “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3″ - $23.37 million (1st week)

4. “Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian” – $9.62 million  ($143.46 million total)
(4th week, was #4 last week, lost 34% from last week)

5. “Land of the Lost” – $8.99 million
(2nd week, as #3 last week, lost 52% from last week)

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UPDATED!!!  Final numbers show “Hangover” beating “Up” at the weekend box office

R-rated comedy “The Hangover” ($44.98 million) burst the balloons of ”Up” ($44.14 million) to win the weekend, “The Hangover” was estimated to lose by less than a million behind last weekend’s number one movie.  But when the final results came in, “The Hangover” was the winner by $800,000.

Will Ferrell’s “Land of the Lost” ($19.5 million) was a distant and disappointing third… by more than $23 million.  “My Life in Ruins” barely made the top 10 in its debut weekend with $3.2 million.  “Star Trek” held onto to the 5th spot despite three new movies… as its slower descent keeps it near the top, adding more to its overall total (now $222 millon).

Overall, the weekend pulled in an estimated $160.14 million, down just a half-percent from last weekend.

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “The Hangover” - $44.98 million (1st week)

2. “Up” – $44.14 million  ($137.31 million total)
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 35% of audience from last week)

3. “Land of the Lost” – $19.52 million (1st week)

4. “Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian” – $14.65 million  ($127.34 million total)
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 40% from last week)

5. “Star Trek” – $8.40 million  ($222.80 million total)
(5th week, was #5 last week, lost 33% from last week)

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“Up” floats high above the weekend box office competition

“Up” beat other newcomer “Drag Me To Hell” easily, but its estimated $68.20 million also beat last week’s number one “Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian” ($16.63 million) by more than 2-to-1.  “Star Trek” is still slowing its descent, losing the least of its audience and falling slower than the rest of the top 10 movies… a trend not as strong, but reminiscent of “Iron Man” last summer.  We’ll have to see if “Star Trek” can hold on another 16 weeks and/or earn another $118 million to match “Iron Man”… or if this summer’s blockbusters are just too much to keep it around long enough.

Overall, the weekend pulled in an estimated $162.99 million, that would make it the 3rd best weekend so far, but down 4% from the memorial day weekend that stands as the biggest weekend of 2009 (actual $169.81 million).

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
1. “Up” – $68.20 million (1st week)

2. “Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian” – $25.50 million  ($105.29 million total)
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 53% of audience from last week)

3. “Drag Me To Hell” – $16.63 million (1st week)

4. “Terminator Salvation” – $16.14 million
(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 62% from last week)

5. “Star Trek” – $12.80 million  ($209.50 million total)
(4th week, was #3 last week, lost 44% from last week)

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“Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian” has a longer title and made more money than “Terminator Salvation” at Memorial weekend box office

“Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian” clobbered “Terminator Salvation”… by more than $10 million during the 4-day holiday weekend (Friday-Monday), “Night at the Museum 2″ pulled in a estimated $70.0 million while “Terminator 4″ made an estimated $53.8 million.

Last week’s number one “Angels & Demons” dropped to 4th with $27.7 million… while “Star Trek” shows its staying power, actually moving up one spot to 3rd at $29.4 million.  The worst movie of the year, “Dance Flick” opened in 5th with $13 million.

Friday-Sunday of Memorial weekend was the biggest weekend of 2009 so far, with the top 12 movies pulling in $169.44 million… a 29% increase over last weekend and nearly $5 million more than the previous best of $164.76 million during the 3rd weekend of January (that included “Paul Blart: Mall Cop”).

 TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (4-day estimated results):
1. “Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian” – $70.00 million (1st week)

2. “Terminator Salvation” – $53.83 million (1st week)

3. “Star Trek” – $29.40 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 32% of audience from last week)

4. “Angels & Demons” - $27.70 million
(2nd week, was #1 last wek, lost 40% from last week)

5. “Dance Flick” - $13.10 million (1st week)

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New at Theaters (Friday): “Dance Flick”, “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian”, “Terminator Salvation” (Thursday)

Best Bet(s): Two good options this holiday weekend: the 4th entry in the sci-fi action Terminator franchise “Terminator Salvation” and the family friendly “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian”.  DO NOT see “Dance Flick” (read my review), it would be a waste of your time and money!!!  And there are still several good offerings that aren’t new: “Star Trek” (read my review), “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”, and “Angels & Demons” (read my review).

New on DVD (Tuesday): “Fanboys”, “My Bloody Valentine”, “Outlander”, “Paul Blart: Mall Cop”, “Valkyrie”

Best Bet(s): While the theaters aren’t offering good choices for comedies, you can now rent or buy two of this year’s best comedies “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” (read my review) and  “Fanboys” (read my review). “My Bloody Valentine”, “Outlander”, “Valkyrie”

 CLICK HERE TO FIND A MOVIE SHOWTIME

Next Week at Theaters: “Drag Me To Hell”, “Up”

Next Week on DVD: “Killshot”, “New in Town”, “Powder Blue”

MY REVIEWS OF OTHER MOVIES CURRENTLY PLAYING IN THEATERS OR AVAILABLE TO RENT/BUY: 

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“Dance Flick” is more than just the worst movie I’ve seen so far this year… its insulting to moviegoers.

With this being a dance/musical parody I could be cute and say this movie stumbles, is out of tune, misses a beat, missed a note, is off its mark, has no rythm but I’m not going to waste your time with cliches – this movie is bad on soooo many levels.

 I’ve covered my face before in a movie theater: like when I was 5 years old during the scary sights at the end of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981), for some recent scary movies, like “The Ring” (2002), or over the shocking and sad images of “Schindler’s List” (1993)… but this is the movie I covered my mouth for and shook my head at more than any other movie in recent memory.

“Dance Flick” fires off sight gags and one-liners in rapid machine gun fashion, hoping that eventually something will make you laugh… but most of the jokes shot at the audience are blanks: many are juvenile, most are predictable and a majority are offensive or insulting to the audience.

You shouldn’t be surprised by most of these jokes… you should see them coming a mile away, the humor in the movie is so stupid, I found myself laughing at the movie, not the jokes.

As with most parodies, “Dance Flick” makes fun of a lot of dance/musical movies, but most of the references are to movies that have been out on DVD for more than a year: “Save the Last Dance”, “Step Up”, “Dance Off”, “Hairspray”, “High School Musical”, “Ray”, “Stomp the Yard”, “Fame”, “Flashdance”, “Dirty Dancing”, “Coyote Ugly”, “Black Snake Moan”, “How She Move”, “Honey”, “Twilight”, plus the drinking and driving PSA where the liquor spills out of the car and the Maury Povich show gets a mention.

I like good parodies: “Spaceballs” (1987), “Airplane!” (1980), “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” (1993), “Young Frankenstein” (1974), “High Anxiety” (1977), “Princess Bride” (1987), “This is Spinal Tap” (1984), “Hot Shots” (1991)…  even the Wayans’ “Scary Movie” (2000) was okay, but this movie is really bad.

The writers also play heavy to stereotypes, whether making fun of how the movies they are making fun of stereotype or just doing it themselves, “Dance Flick” only does more to uphold stereotypes than to tear them down.   Just one example is the name of the male lead character “Thomas Uncles” (played by Damon Wayans’ son)… which was a poor excuse to switch the names around later to make a stereotypical joke.

Add to all that… the acting is not impressive, the writing is poor, the story is shaky, the cinematography and editing are okay, the makeup and costumes are a joke themselves… other than the end credits, the best part of this movie might be the soundtrack.

Wayans Brothers veterans from “In Living Color” David Allen Grier, Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Kim Wayans, and Keenan Ivory Wayans… and veteran comedienne Amy Sedaris all try to help the movie with their supporting roles… and while some are a little funny, its just not enough.

THE BOTTOM LINE: (more…)