A variety of movies coming to rent or see at theaters this week, some good, some bad…

New this week in Theaters (Friday): “Bridewars”, “Not Easily Broken”, “Revolutionary Road” (limited), “Gran Torino” (Grand Rapids)

New this week on DVD (Tuesday): “Pineapple Express”, “Righteous Kill”, “Babylon A.D.”, “Bangkok Dangerous”, “Disaster Movie”, “The Wackness”

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MY TAKE ON WHAT’S NEW ON DVD: Okay, I know I’m one of the few people who actually liked the Pacino/DeNiro movie “Righteous Kill”, but if you listened to most critics and waited to rent it, now’s the time to see it.  

The other five movies I haven’t seen but have varying levels of concern: “Pineapple Express” is a stoner/action/comedy that was well received by some audiences and critics, “Disaster Movie” is another farce by the producers of all those other recent spoof movies, “The Wackness” got some good reviews by the limited audiences that saw it… it also has a *pot* plot.

And then there are the box office stinkers “Babylon A.D.” and “Bangkok Dangerous”, yes the second was #1 the week it opened, but there was nothing else in wide release that week, audiences for both movies dropped signigicantly the 2nd week at the theater and by the way scored very low on most reviews.

Looking for other rentals?   Check out these movies:
“The Dark Knight” (9.5 / 10)
“Eagle Eye” (8.5 / 10)
“Wanted” (8.0 / 10)
“Burn After Reading” (8.5 / 10)
“Traitor” (7.5 / 10)
“The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian”

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MY TAKE ON WHAT’S NEW IN THEATERS: 2 Oscar contenders, a romantic comedy aimed at the ladies, and a romantic drama.  “Gran Torino” was filmed in Detroit and Clint Eastwood has said its his last acting appearance, although he plans to keep directing, Eastwood has received several nominations for his acting in “Gran Torino”.   “Revolutionary Road” is a drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslett, it also has been nominated for some awards.  “Bride Wars” is the light-hearted “date” movie of the bunch about two friends Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway who dream of having their weddings at the same hard-to-book location.    I’ll have a review of “Bride Wars” later this week after a press screening.   “Not Easily Broken” is a movie I haven’t heard much about, but its about a couple and how a life-changing event tests their relationship. 

MY REVIEWS OF MOVIES CURRENTLY PLAYING IN THEATERS: 

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If you can’t find something you like in this week’s offerings of movies on DVD or at theaters, I’ll be shocked…..

At Theaters (Friday): “Seven Pounds”, “The Tale of Despereaux”, “Yes Man”, “Gran Torino” (expanded), “Doubt” (expanded)

MY TAKE ON WHAT’S NEW IN THEATERS: Will Smith takes another shot at an acting award with another dramatic turn in “Seven Pounds”, a little courageous mouse goes on a family adventure in “The Tale of Despereaux”, Jim Carrey changes his outlook in life in the romantic comedy “Yes Man”, and in limited releases Clint Eastwood in his last acting appearance in the Detroit filming of “Gran Torino” (expanded), also a cast full of award contenders in the Religious Drama “Doubt” (expanded) with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Meryl Streep, and Amy Adams.

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

MY TAKE ON WHAT’S NEW ON DVD:

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CORRECTIONS: Golden Globe nominated Milk makes its Grand Rapids opening this weekend.   The wide release date for Doubt is now 12/25, so Doubt may be more limited than originally planned this weekend.

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 ….

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 GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED

The nominees are in, and while “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, “Doubt”, “Frost/Nixon” led the way with 5 nominations each, 2 movies created some surprises for me “Revolutionary Road” and “The Reader” knocked out some of my picks.   But I have to remember the Golden Globes are as much about the celebrities on the night of the awards as the awards themselves.  So that makes sense why Leonardo DiCaprio gets the nomination over Will Smith - because the Golden Globes probably want to see Leo and Kate at the awards together since they are both nominated.  

I’ve starred (***) the ones I predicted correctly….

BEST PICTURE - COMEDY OR MUSICAL:
***”Mamma Mia!”
***”Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
“Burn After Reading”
“Happy-Go-Lucky”
“In Bruges
No real surprises here. I got 2 predictions correct (”Mamma Mia!” and “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”), although I told Avi, our TV Geek last night that “Burn After Reading” should have been on my list !!!

BEST PICTURE - DRAMA:
***”Frost/Nixon”
***“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
***“Slumdog Millionaire”
“The Reader”
“Revolutionary Road”
2 surprises here - I got 3 right - I really thought “Milk” and “The Dark Knight” would make it over “The Reader” and “Revolutionary Road”… there’s still the Academy Awards to get it right.

BEST DIRECTOR:
***Ron Howard (”Frost/Nixon”)
***David Fincher (”The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”)
***Danny Boyle (”Slumdog Millionaire”)
Steven Daldry (”The Reader”)
Sam Mendes (”Revolutionary Road”)
3 out of 5… 1 surprise here - no Clint Eastwood for “Changeling”

BEST ACTOR - DRAMA:
***Sean Penn (”Milk”)
***Brad Pitt (”The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”)
***Frank Langella (”Frost/Nixon”)
***Mickey Rourke (”The Wrestler”)
Leonard DiCaprio (”Revolutionary Road”)
4 out of 5 - 1 surprise here - Leo instead of Will Smith for “Seven Pounds”

BEST ACTOR - COMEDY/MUSICAL:
Javier Bardem (”Vicky Cristina Barcelona”)
Colin Farrell (”In Bruges”)
James Franco (”Pineapple Express”)
Brenden Gleason (”In Bruges”)
***Dustin Hoffman (”Last Chance Harvey”)
1 out of 5, but 1 VERY BIG surprise here - John Malkovich SHUTOUT of this category!!!!

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
***Heath Ledger (”The Dark Knight”)
***Ralph Fiennes (”The Duchess”)
Tom Cruise (”Tropic Thunder”)
Robert Downey, Jr. (”Tropic Thunder”)
Philip Seymour Hoffman (”Doubt”)
2 out of 5, I’m very surprised that Tom Cruise’s smaller role in “Tropic Thunder” knocks out John Malkovich’s big role in “Burn After Reading”.  This IS A TRAVESTY and might be another case of the Golden Globes wanting to see Tom Cruise at the awards.  Downey, Jr. and Seymour Hoffman should have been on my list.  I hope the Academy Awards get it right and give Malkovich the nod!!!

BEST ACTRESS - DRAMA:
***Meryl Streep (”Doubt”)
***Kristin Scott Thomas (”I’ve Loved You So Long”)
***Angelina Jolie (”Changeling”)
***Anne Hathaway (”Rachel Getting Married”)
Kate Winslet (”Revolutionary Road”)
4 out of 5, not a big surprise here, although it is the first of 2 nominations for both Meryl Streep and Kate Winslet

BEST ACTRESS - COMEDY/MUSICAL:
***Frances McDormand (”Burn After Reading”)
***Sally Hawkins (”Happy-Go-Lucky”)
***Emma Thompson (”Last Chance Harvey”)
***Meryl Streep (”Mamma Mia”)
*Rebecca Hall (”Vicky Cristina Barcelona”)
4.5 out of 5, not a real surprise here because I had Rebecca Hall in Best Supporting Actress

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
***Penelope Cruz (”Vicky Cristina Barcelona”)
***Amy Adams (”Doubt”)
***Kate Winslet (”The Reader”)
Viola Davis (”Doubt”)
Marisa Tomei (”The Wrestler”)
Minor surprise here - no Queen Latifah for “The Secret Life of Bees”, although critics are saying that Viola and Marisa were good in their roles

OTHER NOMINATIONS NOT ANNOUNCED/NOT PREDICTED

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Four Christmases tops box office for second straight week

It was a down weekend for theaters and studios, with numbers down significanty from Thanksgiving weekend.  The weekend’s poorly reviewed new release of Punisher: War Zone and the limited distribution of the other new releases Cadillac Records and Nobel Son and the fact that this wasn’t the big movie watching Thanksgiving weekend all added up to a loss of 50% nationwide and the 3rd lowest total box office since kids went back to school in September.   Twilight and Australia both moved up one spot from last week as they lost less of their audience than Bolt and Quantum of Solace.

TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (studio estimates)
1. “Four Christmases” - $18.18 million
(2nd week at #1, lost 42% of its audience from last week)

2. “Twilight” - $13.20 million 
(3rd week, was #3 last week, lost 50% of its audience from last week)

3. “Bolt” - $9.70 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 64% of its audience from last week)

4. “Australia” - $7.00 million
(2nd week, was #5 last week, lost 53% of its audience from last week) 

5. “Quantum of Solace” - $6.60 million
(4th week, was #4 last week, lost 65% of its audience from last week)

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Comedies, Dramas, and movies for kids, my 10 favorite Christmas movies:

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My Top Five Christmas Movies: 

1. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)

2. A Christmas Story (1983)

3. Its A Wonderful Life (1946)

4. Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer (1964)

5. Santa Claus is Coming to Town (1970)

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December 8th is my birthday, so in the least self-serving way I could think of mentioning that, I present My Wish List to the movie industry:

1. Stop remaking classic movies!!! The Day the Earth Stood Still opens December 12th, Friday the 13th opens February 13, 2009, and there’s a long list of recent remakes that were more frustrating than exciting: Poseidon (2006), War of the Worlds (2005), Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), Planet of the Apes (2001), Psycho (1998), Invasion of The Body Snatchers (at least two remakes), but the biggest remake mistake of all time is 1978’s The Wiz - seriously - have you seen it?

Off the top of my head, only 5 remakes turned out as good or better than the original: Charlie and Chocolate Factory (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - 1971), King Kong (2005), Titanic (1997) (there were 4 previous versions), I Am Legend (Omega Man - 1971), and Ocean’s Eleven (2001) (1960’s rat pack made up most of the cast).

 2. Stop changing release dates for movies I want to see.  After teasing me with their trailers Defiance changed dates several times before moving to a January 2009 wide release and Taken moved from September to January 2009… those are just two examples of movies that changed dates during 2008.

 3. Don’t make another Indiana Jones movie!! Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was the most disappointing of highly anticipated movies since the Star Wars prequels!  In case you didn’t see my review this summer, I’m a huge fan of the franchise (even the TV series), but I was throroughly disappointed!

 4. Stop teasing me with more “official” Star Wars chapters like this summer’s animated “Clone Wars” that I thought I “needed to see”.  The prequels were mostly a bust, stop torturing this die-hard fan with more disappointing entries - give up on making more batha poodo before I give up my allegiance to the Star Wars Universe!

5. Stop making movies about the War in Iraq while we still have troops in Iraq - nobody wants to see them, take a look at your box office receipts for any of them!!

6. Please make more superhero/comic book movies with casts of QUALITY actors!!!  Like Iron Man, The Dark Knight, X-Men, Hancock, and The Incredible Hulk (2008) - unlike the mostly unknown/untalented actors in old movies.  One of the best examples of that is 1980’s Flash Gordon.  The old superhero movies that were successful used some quality actors: Superman (1978) had Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman, while Batman (1989) had Jack Nicholson and Jack Palance.

7. Please make more Oscar worthy Crime Dramas, exciting Thrillers, and box office friendly Comedies that are original and funny and make me… laugh…. I mean LAFF… at the Movies

Of the four new movies, the holiday comedy Four Christmases was the highest earner of the new bunch, making more money than the other 3 new movies combined during the 5-day Thanksgiving weekend.

TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (studio estimates)
1. “Four Christmases” - $31.68 million (1st week)

2. “Bolt” - $26.60 million
(2nd week, was #3 last week, gained 1% more than its audience from last week)

3. “Twilight” - $26.37 million 
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 62% of its audience from last week)

4. “Quantum of Solace” - $19.50 million
(3rd week, was #2 last week, lost 27% of its audience from last week)

5. “Australia” - $14.82 million (1st week)

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There was once a great war between competing high definition disc formats.  At stake: laying claim to the vast collection of HDTVs across the world.  The end came and went several months ago as Blu-Ray was declared the winner and HD-DVD went away in shambles with its movies thrown to the bargain bin and player prices slashed to rockbottom prices.  Buying the loser’s products was never of any interest to me, but this is about how I’m turning my back on the winner.

I don’t want a Blu-Ray player.

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A critics’ favorite for Animated Movie comes to DVD, and tweens get set to flood the box office for “Twilight”…

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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:

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