New at Theaters (Friday): “Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience”, “Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li”, “I’ve Loved You So Long” (Grand Rapids: new at Celebration! Rivertown)

Watch the trailer for “Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience”

Watch the trailer for ”Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li”

Watch the trailer for “I’ve Loved You So Long”

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BEST BET: See the drama with early oscar buzz “I’ve Loved You So Long” (Kristin Scott Thomas)… or get caught up on any movies you may have missed in theaters or coming out on DVD.

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New on DVD (Tuesday): “Extreme Movie”, “Sex Drive”, “The Haunting of Molly Hartley”, “What Just Happened”

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BEST BET(s): Not a great crop of movies coming out this week, but if you’ve seen everything else I’m recommending below, go ahead and rent “What Just Happened?”…. Robert DeNiro leads a great cast in a movie making fun… of the movie making process.

YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN: “Extreme Movie” is an “R” rated spoof-movie, “Sex Drive” is an “R” rated teen comedy about driving a long distance to hook-up, and ”The Haunting of Molly Hartley” is a horror movie that had a shaky showing at the box office and got mixed reviews.

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

(more…)

New on DVD (Tuesday): “Extreme Movie”, “Sex Drive”, “The Haunting of Molly Hartley”, “What Just Happened”

.

. 

.

.

.

BEST BET(s): Not a great crop of movies coming out this week, but if you’ve seen everything else I’m recommending below, go ahead and rent “What Just Happened?”…. Robert DeNiro leads a great cast in a movie making fun… of the movie making process.

YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN: “Extreme Movie” is an “R” rated spoof-movie, “Sex Drive” is an “R” rated teen comedy about driving a long distance to hook-up, and ”The Haunting of Molly Hartley” is a horror movie that had a shaky showing at the box office and got mixed reviews.

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New at Theaters (Friday): “Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience”, “Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li”, “I’ve Loved You So Long” (Grand Rapids: new at Celebration! Rivertown)

Watch the trailer for “Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience”

Watch the trailer for ”Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li”

Watch the trailer for “I’ve Loved You So Long”

.

.

BEST BET: See the drama with early oscar buzz “I’ve Loved You So Long” (Kristin Scott Thomas)… or get caught up on any movies you may have missed in theaters or coming out on DVD.

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

(more…)

“Max Payne” tops weekend box office… knocking off “Chihuahua”, but overall box office still down again

New movies last Friday: “Max Payne”, “W.”, “The Secret Life of Bees”, “Sex Drive”

The total box office of $84.76 million is down 2% from last weekend… marking two weeks of decline, but it is $6 million more than this time last year ($78.48 million) !!!

TOP 10 WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (actual results):

1. “Max Payne” - $17.64 million (1st week)

2. “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” - $11.42 million
(3rd week, was #1 last week, lost 35% of its audience from last week)

3. “The Secret Life of Bees” - $10.53 million (1st week)

4. “W.” - $10.51 million (1st week) (more…)

The 3rd highest grossing movie of the year hits DVD, plus a bio pic, an action, a drama, and a teen sex comedy arrive in theaters this week…

In Theaters (Friday): “W.”,  “Max Payne”,  “The Secret Life of Bees”, “Sex Drive”, “Frozen River” (limited)
On DVD (Tuesday): “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”, “Mongol”, “War, Inc.”, “4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days”, “Stuck”

My Take on What’s New in Theaters: A wide variety of options at the theater this weekend including the Oliver Stone biopic “W.” about George W. Bush, the video game-turned movie “Max Payne” starring Mark Wahlberg, the drama with Academy Award potential “The Secret Life of Bees”, the teen sex comedy “Sex Drive” about a guy who goes across statelines to hook-up with a girl he met online, and the immigration drama “Frozen River” (limited release).

Although I haven’t seen any of these movies yet – the best bet for the serious is “The Secret Life of Bees” and for the action oriented its “Max Payne”.   “W.” and “Sex Drive” have more narrow appeal.

Box Office Predicitions:
1. “Max Payne” – $18 million
2. “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” - $13 million (down from #1)
3. “W.” – $9 million
4. “Body of Lies” - $8 million (down from #3)
5. “The Secret Life of Bees” – $7 million
6. “Eagle Eye” - $6 million (down from #4)
7. “Quarantine” - $5 million (down from #2)
8. “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” - $4 million (down from #5)
9. “The Duchess” - $3 million
10. “Sex Drive” - $2 million

My Take on What’s New on DVD: For those who followed my advice this summer to wait and rent “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” - now is the time to see it – but you could still be disappointed, the foreign language drama “Mongol” about the life of Genghis Khan got fairly good reviews, “War, Inc.” looks interesting, “4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days” is a heavy issue movie about black market abortion, and “Stuck” is reportedly “a darkly humorous pschological thriller” about a nursing assistant that hits a homeless man with her car and he gets stuck in the windshield.

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Next Week at Theaters: “High School Musical 3: Senior Year”, “Saw V”, ”The Passengers“, ”Pride and Glory”

Next Week on DVD: “The Incredible Hulk”, “The Strangers”, “A Threevening with Kevin Smith”