“Chaos Experiment” limited in first weekend of release

Returns for “The Chaos Experiment”, were limited at just two Grand Rapids area theaters over the weekend with just 225 tickets sold for the R-rated thriller.

The movie that was shot in Grand Rapids over 16 days in September 2008 stars Val Kilmer and Armand Assante, and some noticeable Grand Rapids landmarks like the Amway Grand Plaza, the Van Andel Museum Center, the Grand Rapids Police Department, the Bull’s Head Tavern, and the Grand Rapids Press.

In an earlier press release, we were told that the movie would be out on DVD in June… but now it looks like it will be closer to an August release.   June is just around the corner and “Chaos” has not posted for release on any of the major DVD release websites.   Amazon.com has the release date as August 4th.   But, a spokesperson at Genius Products tells me “we haven’t officially announced the DVD street date, but I can tell you that if it were in June we would have already announced it”.

I’ll keep you posted!!

Read more about “The Chaos Experiment”, formerly “The Steam Experiment”

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Attention “Twilight” fans!!  

While the DVD isn’t available until Saturday (3/21), Summit Entertainment wants to create a fun event out of the release with organized “Twilight at Midnight” DVD release parties at area stores on Friday from 10pm until midnight, much like book releases as stores are allowed to start selling the special edition DVDs just afer midnight on Saturday. 

There are more than a dozen “Twilight at Midnight” DVD release events across West Michigan, including the Walmart on Alpine, Hot Topic on 28th Street, FYE and Hot Topic at River Town Crossings Mall in Grandville, and the Walmart in Greenville, just enter your zip code through this link to the “Twilight at Midnight” store locator to find out which stores near you are staying open late to sell the DVD!!

Executives at Summit Entertainment are working with retailers to make this special edition DVD something that would not disappoint fans.   President of Home Entertainment, Steve Nickerson said “We wanted to say thank you to all of those who came out in droves last year and helped make Stephenie Meyer’s characters and story a truly successful movie.”   “What better way to celebrate than a weekend party with your fellow Twilight fans”, Nickerson added.

BEST BET: “Pride and Glory”, but from what I’ve heard… EVERYTHING on this week’s list *except*  is worth a rent, although “The Rocker” disappointed at the box office.  Don’t forget “Fireproof”, the romantic drama surprised critics at the box office and did very well for a small budget Christian movie.

New at Theaters (Friday): “New in Town”, “Taken”, “The Uninvited”

BEST BET: Finally… I hope… “Taken” is scheduled to open this weekend… I say that because after I saw the trailer back in August, the release date moved from September 19th to January 23rd to now this Friday, January 30th !!!  I have a feeling my review will be impacted by this massive delay.

Also new this week the cute and funny date movie “New in Town” with Renee Zellweger and Harry Conick, Jr. and the horror flick “The Uninvited” from the producers of “The Ring”.

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

Playing at West Michigan movie theaters:
“Slumdog Millionaire” (9.5 / 10)
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (9.5 / 10)
“Changeling”  (9.5 / 10)
“The Wrestler” (8.9 / 10)
“Defiance” (8.0 / 10)
“Australia”  (7.9 / 10)
“Bride Wars” (7.5 / 10)
“Marley & Me” (7.5 / 10)
“Four Christmases”  (7.5 / 10)
“Quantum of Solace”  (7.5 / 10)
“Role Models”  (7.5 / 10)
“The Boy in the Striped Pajamas”  (7.5 / 10)
“Paul Blart: Mall Cop” (7.0 / 10)
“Bedtime Stories” (7.0 / 10)
“Hotel for Dogs” (7.0 / 10)
“Twilight”  (7.0 / 10)
“The Day the Earth Stood Still” (6.5 / 10)

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Available to rent or buy:
“The Dark Knight” (9.5 / 10)
“WALL-E” (9.0)
“Righteous Kill” (8.9 / 10)
“Eagle Eye” (8.5 / 10)
“Burn After Reading” (8.5 / 10)
“Wanted” (8.0 / 10)
“Traitor” (7.5 / 10)
“The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian”
“Get Smart” (7.0 / 10)
“Appaloosa” (6.9 / 10)
“Hellboy II: Golden Army” (6.5 / 10)
“Noise” (6.0 / 10)

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Next Week at Theaters: “Coraline”, “He’s Just Not That Into You”, “Pink Panther 2″, “Push” 

Next Week on DVD: “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa”, “The Secret Life of Bees”, “Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist”, “Zack and Miri Make a Porno”, “Bottle Shock”

New this week at Theaters (Friday): “Revolutionary Road” (wide release), ”The Wrestler” (wide release), “Inkheart”, “Possession”, “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans”, “The Dark Knight” (IMAX re-issue)

New this week on DVD (Tuesday): “City of Ember”, “The Express”, “Henry Poole is Here”, “Igor”, “Max Payne”, “Repo! The Genetic Opera”, “Saw V”, “Amusement”

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

Playing at West Michigan movie theaters:
“Slumdog Millionaire” (9.5 / 10)
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (9.5 / 10)
“Changeling”  (9.5 / 10)
“Defiance” (8.0 / 10)
“Australia”  (7.9 / 10)
“Bride Wars” (7.5 / 10)
“Marley & Me” (7.5 / 10)
“Four Christmases”  (7.5 / 10)
“Quantum of Solace”  (7.5 / 10)
“Role Models”  (7.5 / 10)
“The Boy in the Striped Pajamas”  (7.5 / 10)
“Paul Blart: Mall Cop” (7.0 / 10)
“Bedtime Stories” (7.0 / 10)
“Hotel for Dogs” (7.0 / 10)
“Twilight”  (7.0 / 10)
“The Day the Earth Stood Still” (6.5 / 10)

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Available to rent or buy:
“The Dark Knight” (9.5 / 10)
“WALL-E” (9.0)
“Righteous Kill” (8.9 / 10)
“Eagle Eye” (8.5 / 10)
“Burn After Reading” (8.5 / 10)
“Wanted” (8.0 / 10)
“Traitor” (7.5 / 10)
“The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian”
“Appaloosa” (6.9 / 10)
“Hellboy II: Golden Army” (6.5 / 10)
“Noise” (6.0 / 10 )

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Next Week at Theaters: “New in Town”, “Taken”, “The Uninvited”

Next Week on DVD: “College”, “Fireproof”, “Lakeview Terrace”, “The Lucky Ones”, “Pride and Glory”, “The Rocker”, “RockNRolla”, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”

Its a blockbuster week for movies both on DVD (The Dark Knight) and in theaters (The Day the Earth Stood Still)…

In Theaters (Friday): “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, “Nothing Like the Holidays”, “Delgo”, “Milk” (Grand Rapids expanded release), “Doubt” (limited)

MY TAKE ON WHAT’S NEW IN THEATERS: Keanu Reeves in a remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, a family holiday comedy Nothing Like the Holidays, a family animated adventure Delgo and starting in limited release – the relgious drama Doubt with award contenders Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams.  I have yet to see any of these… I’ll blog after I do, for now your best bets are either Golden Globe nominated Milk or the blockbuster remake The Day the Earth Stood Still… or see one of the movies already playing (see my reviews below)… or ….

On DVD (Tuesday): “The Dark Knight”, “Dr. Suess’ Horton Hears a Who!”, “Man on Wire”, “Make It Happen”

MY TAKE ON WHAT’S NEW ON DVD: The summer’s biggest blockbuster and arguably the best superhero movie of the year, The Dark Knight hits stores on DVD this week.  If you’re looking for a good movie to rent and you haven’t seen it – The Dark Knight – is the one to see with a award worthy performance by Heath Ledger as the Joker and a stunning and solid entry into the superhero genre, just make sure you’ve seen Batman Begins (2005) first!!!  Also, if there’s a superhero movie fan on your Christmas list – either The Dark Knight or Iron Man are the movies to give this Christmas.   Remember way back in March – the family movie that was winning at the box office week after week was Horton Hears A Who… and now its finally out on DVD… I haven’t seen it yet, but I’ve heard its worth the rental.   Also, there’s a well reviewed documentary Man on Wire… if you like documentaries.

BOTTOM LINE: Rent or Buy The Dark Knight after seeing Batman Begins (2005)… or see something already playing that I’ve reviewed below.

MY REVIEWS OF MOVIES CURRENTLY PLAYING IN THEATERS: 
“Four Christmases”  (7.5)
“Twilight”  (7.0)
“Australia”  (7.9)
“Quantum of Solace”  (7.5)
“Role Models”  (7.5)
“Slumdog Millionaire”  (9.5)
“The Boy in the Striped Pajamas”  (7.5)
“Changeling”  (9.5)
“What Just Happened”  (6.5)
“Nights in Rodanthe”  (7.0)
“Righteous Kill”  (8.9)

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Next Week at Theaters: “Seven Pounds”, “The Tale of Despereaux”, “Yes Man”, “Gran Torino” (expanded), “Doubt” (expanded)

Next Week on DVD: “The House Bunny”, “Mamma Mia!”, “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor”, “Traitor” (12/19), “American Teen” (12/21)

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In Theaters (Wednesday): “Australia”, “Four Christmases”, “Transporter 3″, “Milk” (limited)

On DVD (Tuesday): “Fred Claus”, “Hancock”, “Meet Dave”, “Space Chimps”

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MY TAKE ON WHAT’S NEW IN THEATERS: 3 very different movies in wide release this week Four Christmases is trying to be another holiday comedy, but is getting mixed reviews, Australia is an epic movie with romance and adventure mixed in, and Transporter 3 is all action, a sequel to the other Jason Statham movies.  

Since I’ve only seen one, its hard to make a recommendation and since Australia isn’t for everyone, you may need to see something that’s already out in theaters, check out my list of reviews for previous releases.

MY TAKE ON WHAT’S NEW ON DVD: One of last year’s decent christmas comedies, Fred Claus, the solid superhero movie Hancock, the box office bust sci-fo comedy Meet Dave, and the poorly reviewed family adventure Space Chimps.

The best bet here by far is Hancock – a superhero hero movie that many overlooked due to the success of The Dark Knight and Iron Man, my second choice would be Fred Claus – a christmas comedy that was good, but not great.

Next Week at Theaters:

“Punisher: War Zone”, “Cadillac Records” (limited), “Nobel Son” (limted)

Next Week on DVD: “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian”, “Fly Me to the Moon”, “The Longshots”, “Lower Learning”, “Step Brothers”, “Wanted”, “The X Files: I Want to Believe”

I don’t want a Blu-Ray player.

This Thursday is Thanksgiving, probably my favorite holiday of the year.   On Friday, we’ll see some of the cheapest prices for Blu-Ray players ever, but I still won’t want to buy one.

In my mind the Playstation 3 is actually the best player on the market right now.  It has the greatest number of features, it is full-spec (which some of the original players weren’t) and it has an impressive collection of games behind it.

But for the sake of playing High Definition content, I’m not interested paying $400 for the base PS3 model and then shelling out $30 every Tuesday when new releases come out.

The way the movie industry is pricing things, it seems to me like prices are just too high for the everyday user.

Additionally I won’t be buying a Blu-Ray player because I don’t see it establishing itself like the DVD player.  Make no mistake, there is a phenomonal difference between DVD and Blu-Ray, just like there was when DVD replaced VHS, but there are other options available to the consumer now that weren’t available when I just HAD to own the Matrix on DVD. (It was in fact my first DVD purchase. I picked up the movie before I even owned the player.)

The number one competitor to Blu-Ray is the one I’ll be using: Digital Downloads.  Your favorite movies, TV shows and internet shorts all available for download at the fastest rates that you can get.  Apple has the market nearly cornered with iTunes, but there are other options out there.  The number one competitor right now has to be streaming downloads from Netflix and even Amazon’s Unbox comes to mind.  Plus there are other options creeping around.

There’s also something that’s even more popular, albeit a frowned-upon method that people can get their programming.  Torrents.   People are turning to torrenting because they want a restriction free system.  They want to be able to watch it on their computer or burn it to a disc or copy it to their iPod or iPhone without being told that they can’t.

I hope that the movie industry learns from the digital pitfalls that ensared the music industry.  The music industry is still suing its customers today in an unpopular campaign against file-sharing.  Instead of seeing the future and the AMAZING profit potential that it brought, the industry stayed shackled to the past–clinging to the compact disc.  Look at iTunes and the money its making, phenomonal.  Now if the music industry had figured that out ahead of the curve, it would have been in a much better spot.

Now the TV and Movie industries are seeing their content on file-sharing networks and have an opportunity to respond.  NBC and FOX have done a great job offering up HULU.com it’s where I go to see the funny clips from SNL.

That’s why I’m not feeling Blu.  There are other options available that look better to me than plunking down the large amounts of money they’re demanding at this point.

Prices may be low comparatively on Black Friday to what they were, but prices are still too high to give it a try.

If Blu-Ray is around long enough where players cost $50 and discs are at DVD price levels, I’ll take another look, but until then I’m sticking with digital downloads.

Have questions about something? You can email me at matt(dot)schuler(at)woodtv(dot)com. And for more, shorter updates check out my twitter on the right or follow me at twitter.com/mattschuler.

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On DVD (Tuesday): “The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2″, “Tropic Thunder”, WALL-E”

In Theaters (Friday): “Bolt”, “Twilight”, “Boy in the Striped Pajamas” (expanded release), “Special” (limited)
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     MY TAKE ON WHAT’S NEW ON DVD: One of the critics’ favorites for Best Animated movie of the year is “WALL-E”, a box office hit “Tropic Thunder”, and a popular summer movie sequel for teen girls “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2″ also hits DVD.  Unfortuantely, I have yet to see any of them.

   MY TAKE ON WHAT’S NEW IN THEATERS: While Disney’s “Bolt” is getting good reviews and will make some money this weekend, it will lose some of its potential audience to the families with tweens and young girls going to see “Twilight”, the most anticipated movie for tweens this season.  “Twilight” is looking like the next Harry Potter phenomenon – a popular book turned into a movie franchise – that will bring in a lot of money at the box office, some theaters in West Michigan are already seeing an increase in ticket sales.  In expanded release, but in fewer theaters is the Drama set in the time of the Holocaust “Boy in the Striped Pajamas”.  

MY WEEKEND BOX OFFICE PREDICTION:

1. “Twilight” – $65 million
2. “Quantum of Solace” – $45 million
3. “Bolt” – $30 million
4. “Madagascar 2: Escape to Africa” – $17.5 million
5. “Role Models” - $6 million
6. “High School Musical 3″ – $3 million
7. “Changeling” - $2 million
8. “The Secret Life of Bees” – $1.5 million
9. “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” - $1 million
10. “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” – $0.9 million

Next Week at Theaters: (Wed 11/26) “Australia”, “Four Christmases”, “Transporter 3″, “Milk” (limited)

Next Week on DVD: “Fred Claus”, “Hancock”, “Meet Dave”, “Space Chimps”

On DVD (Tuesday): “Beer for My Horses”, “Hellboy II: The Golden Army”, “Star Wars The Clone Wars”, “Sukiyaki Western Django”, and “This Christmas.”

In Theaters (Friday): “Quantum of Solace”, “Slumdog Millionaire” (limited), and “A Christmas Tale.”

Courtesy Universal

Courtesy Warner Bros./Lucasfilm

MY TAKE ON WHAT’S NEW ON DVD:
If you’re like me and waited for “Hellyboy 2″ to come out on DVD, so as not to be so disappointed after the original – this is our week !!!  And if you took my advice back in August to wait and rent “Star Wars Clone Wars” (unless you’re a die-hard fan, or young fan of the new cartoons)… this is the week to consider renting it.

Also out this week, Toby Keith’s song/music video “Beer For My Horses” turned into a feature-length movie, Quentin Tarantino in the Japanese Western “Sukiyaki Western Django” that got decent reviews, and the Christmas drama “This Christmas” about a family’s first holiday together in four years.

MY TAKE ON WHAT’S NEW IN THEATERS:
Bond, only Bond… there’s a reason why other movies shuffled their schedules around the opening of the latest 007 movie (the 2nd for title star Daniel Craig)… Bond movies always open big… and this should be no different – it will take in close to one-third of the weekend box office all by itself… some estimates have it as high as $60-70 million this weekend… I’ll be a little more realistic.

Courtesy MGM

MY WEEKEND BOX OFFICE PREDICTION:

1. “Quantum of Solace” – $50 million
2. “Madagascar 2: Ecsape to Africa” – $31.5 million
3. “Role Models” – $9.6 million
4. “High School Musical 3” – $5.5 million
5. “Changeling” – $5.1 million
6. “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” – $3.8 million
7. “Soul Men” – $3.5 million
8. “The Secret Life of Bees” – $2.3 million
9. “Saw V” – $1.6 million
10. “The Haunting of Molly Hartley” – $1.5 million
11. “Eagle Eye” – $1.3 million

Next Week on DVD: “The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2″, “WALL-E”

Next Week at Theaters: “Bolt”, “Twilight”, “Boy in the Striped Pajamas” (expanded release), “Special” (limited)

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In Theaters (Friday 11/7): “Madagascar 2: Ecsape to Africa”, “Role Models”, “Soul Men”, “House (limited)

On DVD (Tuesday 11/4): “Get Smart”, “Shrek the Halls”, “Transsiberian”,
On DVD (Sunday 11/9): “Kung Fu Panda”
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MY WEEKEND BOX OFFICE PREDICTION:

1. “Madagascar 2: Ecsape to Africa” – $20.0 million
2. “High School Musical 3” – $9.2 million
3. “Role Models” – $9.0 million
4. “Changeling” – $6.1 million
5. “Soul Men” – $5.5 million
6. “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” – $5.0 million
7. “Saw V” – $3.9 million
8. “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” – $2.9 million
9. “The Secret Life of Bees” – $2.4 million
10. “Eagle Eye” – $2.4 million

(SEE LAST WEEK’S BOX OFFICE REPORT)

Next Week at Theaters: “Quantum of Solace”, “Slumdog Millionaire” (limited), “This Christmas” (limited)

Next Week on DVD: “Beer for My Horses”, “Hellboy II: The Golden Army”, “Star Wars The Clone Wars”, “Sukiyaki Western Django”, “This Christmas”