Ice Age 3 and Transformers 2 ended in an estimated tie for the top spot. Transformers 2 has fallen off $46 million off of The Dark Knight at the same time during its run but still has a good chance at 400 mil. Public Enemies did well but critics and word of mouth are mixed.
Weekend total / % Change / Cumulative total
Ice Age 3: 42.5 mil / (-) / 67.5 mil
Transformers 2: 42.5 mil / (-61%) / 293 mil
Public Enemies: 26.2 mil / (-) / 41 mil
The Proposal: 12.8 mil / (-31%)/ 94 mil
The Hangover: 10.4 mil / (-39%) / 204 mil
Up: 6.6 mil / (-49%) / 264 mil
My Sister’s Keeper: 5.3 mil / (-58%) / 26 mil
The Taking of Pelham 123: 2.5 mil / (-54%) / 58.4 mil
Night at the Museum: BotS: 2.1 mil / (-42%) / 168 mil
Year One: 2.1 mil / (-65%) / 38 mil
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Weekend Box Office - 7/5/09
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Public Enemies A-
In Theatres, 140 minutes, Rated R
You’ve never seen a period piece that looks anything like Public Enemies. Technically, that’s because the film is shot 100% on digital cameras, with a good chunk appearing to be handhelds. Thematically, it’s because director Michael Mann isn’t interested in wowing with gorgeous reproductions of yesteryear, a la The Untouchable. He’s interested in immediacy and shooting a universal story like something I might put together on my Mac. He uses the look to shrink the distance between the audience and Dilinger’s America. To emphasize the dirt, the grain, the flash of gunfire, the crimson black of blood, the unflattering hard light and the lines on the face and forehead it betrays. In so doing, he tells again his favorite story—of two men on a crash course with the other, each attempting to be true to himself and his code in a society bent on destroying both. In this case the two men are bank robber John Dilinger (Johnny Depp) and FBI man Melvin Pervis (Christian Bale). And, as is the case with Mann, there’s a woman that ties them together—that keeps Dilinger from walking away from the society that would un-make him, allowing Pervis to reel him in—and what a woman. Marion Cotillard (Oscar for La Vie en Rose) burns as Dilinger’s love Billie Frechette. She and Depp bring an intensity to their brief romance that makes sense of the risks the take. If the American movie-going mind only has room for one French actress at a time, Audrey Tautou’s time is over (as Juliette Binoche’s was before her).
The plot is straight-forward simple. During the Depression, Dilinger and his ilk (Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson) steal from the banks that are themselves acquiring swaths of treasure through foreclosure, making them folk favorites. After busting his gang out of prison, Dilinger sets to hitting as many banks as possible, meanwhile falling for the half-French/half-Indian Frechette. J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup) names him public enemy number one in an attempt to squeeze funding from congress and sets his favorite bulldog Pervis on his scent. History sealed the outcome long ago, but Frechette new from the beginning how the story would play out, even as she loved John all the more for his blindness. But the plot’s beside the point. Who gets to determine right and wrong? Is it better to be a man of principles acting outside the law or a man without inside? Do you live life by your rules or kowtow to society’s? And, in the case of Billie, do you love a man who’s completely alive today knowing there’s hell to pay tomorrow?
Some are complaining about Depp, but he hits it perfect. This is no psycho-analysis; it’s a man who knows what he wants, takes it, and isn’t thinking too much about tomorrow. He’s a little too cocksure, but he’d have to be to think he could keep hitting banks, and has the perfect charismatic veneer over an intellect that’s not quite as strong as he thinks. Bale is solid as a basically decent G-man not interested in asking existential questions while he hunts his man. The supporting cast is excellent, with Giovanni Rabisi turning in a solid minutes. The digital shooting makes the gunfights explode, as it did in Mann's Miami Vice, with Mann keeping the cameras a little closer to everything than we’d like. Mann continues to wrestle with what it means to be a man, the violence that seems inherent in the search, and situational ethics. If he’s asking the same questions over and over again, it’s because no one is providing convincing answers. A-
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Major Trailers
1. Couples Retreat. Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau and Jason Bateman star. Do you need to know anything else?
2. The Informant. Corporate comedy from Director Steven Soderbergh starring Matt Damon, The Soup's Joel McHale, and Buster Bluth. Maybe - looks Coen-y.
3. The Invention of Lying. Ricky Gervais, Christopher Guest, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill and Jeffrey Tambor star in this comedy about a man that invents lying (Gervais). Written, directed and starring Gervais means its compulsory.
4. The Box. Concept/Horror film from writer/director Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko, Southland Tales) starring Cameron Diaz. A family receives a box with a button - if they push it, someone dies and they get a million dollars.
5. Amelia. Biopic of the famed aviatrix starring Hilary Swank. Looks pretty. Maybe.
6. The Last Airbender. New film from M. Night Shyamalan. Not my bag.
7. 500 Days of Summer. Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt star in this Gen Y romcom that actually looks pretty good. Priest alert.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Eddie Vedder - Atlanta - June 24th, 2009
[Guest Review - Dentist]
Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre; Concert Date: 6/24/09
Though he’s not quite as universally revered as Bob Dylan or Neil Young, Eddie Vedder rivals or exceeds both pound for pound in terms of vocal tonality and delivery. The chance to see him sans Ament, Gossard, McCready and Cameron in an acoustic setting was one that I jumped at. The location was the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, a 2,700-seat capacity venue in Atlanta, GA , that was the perfect intimate setting for Vedder’s haunting vocals and sometimes hilarious commentary. Click below for more Vedder:
At 8:45 the curtain was drawn and Eddie came onto the stage in a very unassuming manner, clad in jeans and a cool Dickies-esque jacket and took his position center stage with an acoustic in hand. After a generous round of applause he very matter-of factly said “So, I think we should all just let it all f**king hang out!”and his set began with a trio of covers from Cat Stevens to Floyd and a brilliant version of Girl From the North Country. One of the highlights for me was a stunning version of Betterman played on a smaller guitar/ukulele that Vedder introduced by saying “this might be one that some of you recognize”. The night would not have been complete without the requisite douche-bag, drunken frat-guys heckling Eddie song after song until he finally stopped, called them out and said “I barely heard what you said, but f**k you. I came here in a good mood and I’m not going to let you ruin it. I don’t come to Kinko’s and tell you how to do your f**king job”, which was met with thunderous cheers.
Best of the show for me was the cover of I Won’t Back Down, complete with Eddie going into the higher register on the chorus and the show closer Hard Sun, performed with the house lights on and Liam Finn with supporting vocals (close second was an absolutely stunning version of Bobby Jean, apparently an extremely rare cover, that Priest would have salivated over). It’s worth noting that for a frontman of a rock band, Eddie Vedder is the exception to the rule in that he can absolutely play a guitar about as well as anyone I’ve seen. This talent was one that I was not formerly aware of and really struck me as particularly exceptional. As I alluded to before, as good as Vedder’s voice is layered over full rock band armamentarium, it is phenomenal in this setting. As bad as he sounded on Conan a few weeks ago, the timbre and vibrato that have defined his sound were on perfect, glorious display here. He was talkative, very laid back, and delivered a varied set that had something for hard-core PJ fans and neophytes alike. Do yourself a favor and see Eddie or Pearl Jam if at all humanly possible. In the meantime, buy this.
Set list: Don't Be Shy (Cat Stevens), Brain Damage (Pink Floyd)/Sometimes, Girl From the North Country (Bob Dylan), Betterman (Lullabye Version), Untitled->Gone, No Ceiling, Rise, Far Behind, Guaranteed, Driftin', Millworker (James Taylor), You've Got to Hide Your Love Away (Beatles), I Won't Back Down (Tom Petty), Bobby Jean (Bruce Springsteen), Small Town, Wishlist, Porch
1st encore: Society (Jerry Hannan, w/ Liam Finn), Throw Your Arms Around Me (Hunters And Collectors, w/ Liam Finn), 'Till the Rivers All Run Dry (Don Williams, w/ Liam Finn), The Golden State (John Doe, w/ Eliza-Jane Barnes), The End (New Song)
2nd encore: Hard Sun (Indio, w/Liam Finn & Eliza-Jane Barnes)
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Summer Movie Releases - 7/1/09
Public Enemies
My most anticipated 2009 film until the fall. Michael Mann uses a digital camera to document the fascinating life of John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) whose crime spree in 1933-34 gripped the nation. Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, and Billy Crudup costar. Reviews are generally positive, but don't really matter - Mann’s films always win the war by aging well.
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
It’s the 3rd film in the Ice Age series which is apparently hell-bent on confusing kids about geology, zoology, and history. The first 2 were forgettable (literally – I think I saw them, but I don’t remember). Ray Romano, Denis Leary, and John Leguizamo voice the same characters. And I guess we all knew it was a matter of time before Simon Pegg cashed a cartoon voice paycheck.
I Hate Valentine's Day
Just in time for the 4th of July, Nia Vardalos and John Corbett team up again for a romantic “comedy” about Valentine's Day. The title lends itself to the easy joke. This will remain sight unseen – forever. As if the recession and My Life in Ruins wasn’t enough to deal with in 2009, now we get this. Vardalos writes and directs this one, though, so do with that what you will. Thankfully, it's in limited release.
Monday, June 29, 2009
DVD and Blu-ray Releases 6/30/09
12 Rounds - #
Eastbound & Down: The Complete First Season
The Education of Charlie Banks
Entourage: The Complete Fifth Season
Jonas Brothers: The Concert Experience - #
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li - #
Transmorphers: Fall of Man - #
Tunnel Rats
Two Lovers - #
Click below for this week's Blu-ray Releases
Do the Right Thing: 20th Anniversary - *
Flawless
# - also on Blu-Ray
* - Doctor approved
2 Interesting Articles
Here is David Carr's take on Oscar's Best Picture expansion to 10.
Here is an article about the historical accuracy of Hollywood gangster movies, including my most anticipated film until Shutter Island, Public Enemies. 
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Weekend Grosses - 6/28/09
The Transformers sequel made alot of buck in its 1st 5 days, second only to The Dark Knight whose 5 day total was 204 mil.
Weekend total / % Change / Cumulative total
1. Transformers 2: 112 mil / (-)/ 201 mil
2. The Proposal: 18.5 mil / (-45%)/ 69 mil
3. The Hangover: 17.2 mil / (-36%) / 183 mil
4. Up: 13.0 mil / (-44%) / 250 mil
5. My Sister’s Keeper: 12.0 mil
6. Year One: 5.8 mil / (-70%) / 32.2 mil
7. The Taking of Pelham 123: 5.4 mil / (-55%) / 53.4 mil
8. Star Trek: 3.6 mil / (- 35%) / 246 mil
9. Night at the Museum: BotS: 3.5 mil / (-55%) / 163 mil
10. Away We Go: 1.7 mil / (+93%) / 4.1 mil
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Summer Movie Releases - 6/26/09
The Hurt Locker
One the best reviewed films of the year apparently has director Kathryn Bigelow at the top of her game. She's easily the best female action director ever (Point Break, Blue Steel). Some unknowns (Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty) are members of a bomb dismantling team in Iraq. It's said to be extremely tense. Guy Pearce, David Morse, and Ralph Fiennes turn in supporting roles.
Cheri
Dangerous Liaisons, Michelle Pfeiffer's first (and last) film with director Stephen Frears remains exciting and involving even 21 years later. It also gave John Malkovich and Uma Thurman careers that remain valid today. Here's hoping Frears regains some of that magic. Or if not as great as that film or The Grifters, I'll settle for High Fidelity or The Queen level goodness.
My Sister's Keeper
It looks like Alec Baldwin and Cameron Diaz play a married couple with 2 daughters, one of which gets cancer. Tensions and tough decisions arise and everyone is tested. Sounds like a lifetime movie with A-list stars. If there's one thing that challenges my faith in a deity, it's kids with cancer.
Surveillance - C+
Another pre-theatrical release, pre-DVD HDNET preview happened last night. Surveillance stars Julia Ormond (Inland Empire) and Bill Pullman (Lost Highway) as 2 FBI agents on the trail of a serial killer pair who have struck again in Smalltown, USA. The film begins brutally as a man is hacked to death by a machete in his bed while his wife flees the house. Then the film settles down as the 2 agents interview local survivors, witnesses, and cops about the events of the past 2 days. They watch each other through video camera surveillance, though this device isn’t utilized nearly as effectively as it could, should, or would have been had the film been directed by executive producer David Lynch, rather than his daughter Jennifer . . .
Master Lynch’s imprint is all over the film, from the early scene where the woman escapes in a short nightgown (Ronette in TV’s Twin Peaks) to the FBI meets small town cops scene (Twin Peaks again) to the cast which Lynch has used previously. The most fascinating sequence in the film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me has Agent Dale Cooper watching himself on video surveillance. Surveillance could have used more of that inspired craziness. D. Lynch’s worldview is often black and white with obvious good guys and bad guys, honor, duty, etc. He’s more interested in characters and so for awhile, you’re settled into the film honestly, looking past the overacting of the supporting roles, hyperviolence, and the many distracting expletives.
But after the interviews drag on for the majority of the film, you’ll realize there’s a huge, cheap plot twist coming which won’t be hard to spot. J. Lynch (who also co-writes) has made a watchable, pulpy film that never bores. It’s OK if she doesn’t reach the visceral and intellectual heights of her father; few have. The acting (especially by Ormond) is mostly good but some of the casting distracts (French Stewart, Cheri Oteri). Michael Ironside has put on a few pounds (so has Pullman), and isn’t given nearly enough to do. It’s an occasionally fascinating mess, worth seeing if you’re a fan of the horror, cop, or Ormond genres. C+
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
10 Nominees for Best Picture
AMPAS has decided to have 10 Best Picture nominees next year in an obvious attempt to boost ratings. After the snubs of The Dark Knight, Synecdoche New York, The Wrestler, Wall-E, In Bruges, and Revolutionary Road (not to mention Let the Right One In) in favor of instantly forgettable stuff like Milk, Frost/Nixon, and The Reader (not to mention overrated stuff like Slumdog Millionaire), it's easy to see why. Everyone knows the Best Director list will be the "real" Best Picture lineup. Looks like Up might have a shot at a Best Picture nominee after all.
Click here for a brief discussion, which I basically agree with.
Summer Movie Releases - 6/24/09
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
With that title, Michael Bay must think he's making a Star Wars movie. Early reviews would imply one of the Star Wars prequels since the words "incoherent" and "incomprehensible" keep popping up. Priest reviewed the first one here. This one is supposed to be bigger and messier. And expected to make a lot of cash. It opens today if you didn't know, instead of the usual Friday release.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Last 5 Downloads
1. All Summer Long - Kid Rock. An instant classic - best "feel good" song ever.
2. I'm on a Boat - The Lonely Island. Previously discussed by Doc, this was a must for the Wyoming soundtrack. Very funny.
3. There Goes My Life - Kenny Chesney. The wet rat strikes again - this is a good song aimed at fathers of daughters.
4. Right Round - Flo Rida. Obligatory great pop/rap song of the moment. Sounds like an updated version of MC Hammer's "Addams Family".
5. Broken - Lifehouse. The Time Traveler preview hooked me on this one. I do have a softer side.
Monday, June 22, 2009
DVD and Blu-ray Releases 6/23/09
Bob Funk
The Code - #
Confessions of a Shopaholic - #
FEMA City
Inkheart - #
Last Year at Marienbad (Criterion) - #,*
The Pink Panther 2 - #
Waltz with Bashir - #
# - also on Blu-ray
* - Doc's pick of the week
No extra Blu-ray releases this week. Must be a summer thing. I've been waiting for years for a proper Last Year at Marienbad DVD. I'm not sure I'll have the patience for it like I did 10 years ago, but I can't wait for another viewing. It's strictly for film enthusiasts (dorks) and will drive most people up the wall with its nonsensical plot and tomfoolery. I loved it when I first saw it and it remains in my top 150 or so.
Year One C+
Rated PG-13, In Theatres, 97 minutes
Pastors and traveling evangelists have been mining Old Testament stories for laughs (and scares) for years, so, when I heard one of the best comedic pedigrees in years not associated with Apatow and Co was taking on Python-esque Genesis farce Year One, I couldn’t have been more delighted. Comedy veteran Harold Ramis directs, and the players include Jack Black, Michael Cera, Oliver Platt, David Cross, Hank Azaria, Horatio Sans, Bill Hader, Paul Rudd, and Olivia Wilde (please see picture). Unfortunately, that amount of talent on the screen serves to magnify the (frequent) stretches of lame jokes. That, coupled with a too-heavy reliance on poop/fart jokes and an odd decision to stay politically correct bogs down this still occasionally hilarious film.
Director (and co-writer) Harold Ramis helmed and penned such comedic classics as Caddyshack, Groundhog Day, National Lampoon's Vacation, and Analyze This and shared writing duties on Stripes, Ghostbusters, Meatballs, and Animal House. The man can write and direct a yuckfest with the best of them. Unfortunately, the Bible is tricky territory, and the evangelical wallet, deemed the holy grail ever since The Passion of the Christ proved that the 80% of the U.S. population that self-identify as Christians go to movies, is no easier. You can’t help but hear evangelical test audiences and Fuller Old Testament consultants throughout. Ramis is hardly a study hand, first pandering to the Christian audience, then (understandably) concerned about offending the gays in the Sodom story line.
And then there’s the cast. Jack Black is in his usual over-the-top-lead-personae. Michael Cera is George Michael in the Stone Age. I like Cera’s schtick better and they both have moments, but they’re phoning it in. The stand-outs here are Oliver Platt as a transvestite priest in Sodom (to Molock, an actual ancient Semitic god, and they get the worship of him about right here) who has the hots for Cera’s character, and Hank Azaria as Abraham caught in the act of sacrificing his son (McLovin’, incidentally). Azaria and Platt get the joke and seem to realize that some people are going to be offended, so let them be, but most won’t unless they actually slander God or major teachings of the Bible. Of course, Platt can’t go wrong at that point. He’s a priest to the most loathed god in the Old Testament in a town that is burned by hellfire. Speaking of, the toughest parts to take in the film are the ones that stick close to the Biblical texts. Burning virgins alive is pretty rough. It’s hard to get laughs at one brother killing another, and a dad about to kill his son is pretty harsh. The film doesn’t dodge these Biblical points yet seems scared to really go to where the hard laughs are. In the end, there are laughs here, but I’d wait to video. C+
Triumph the Insult Comic Dog - the return
His first appearance on Conan's new show. Lots of laughs. Part two is after the jump.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Happy Father's Day
Click here for a short, brilliant comment piece from Garrison Keillor about parents and America, perfect for Father's Day. Take that essay and add it with the American ethos from Gran Torino and you've pretty much got my worldview, give or take a few degrees.
Box Office 6/21/09
Box Office successes and failures are usually more reliant on marketing, timing, and luck than the quality of the film so I don't typically comment on it. But there is something worth noting this June. The Hangover fell off an amazing 18% from its prior week. Along with the surprising successes of Gran Torino and Taken, I don't think I'm going too far in saying that the typical American male is fed up with political correctness and the Oprahfication of everything. Click below for the list.
This week's total, percentage change, cumulative total.
1. The Proposal= $34.1 mil
2. The Hangover = $26.9 mil (-18%) / ($153m)
3. Up = $21.3 mil (-31%) / ($224m)
4. Year One = $20.2
5. The Taking of Pelham 123 = $11.3 mil (-53%) / ($43m)
6. Night at the Museum: BotS = $7.3 mil (-24%) / ($156m)
7. Star Trek = $4.7 mil (-14%) / ($239m)
8. Land of the Lost = $4.0 mil (-56%) / ($44m)
9. Imagine That = $3.10 mil (-44%) / ($11m)
10. Terminator Salvation = $3.07 mil (-36%) / ($120m)
Saturday, June 20, 2009
New Trailers
1. Cold Souls - Paul Giamatti stars as a Synecdoche style unhappy New Yorker that has his soul removed to try and cure what ails him. Looks interesting - in the same vein as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Good luck with those comparisons.
2. 2012 - New one from Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, Day After Tomorrow). Cool images as always in the trailer, and I actually like his two previous hits. Could be good.
3. Time Traveler's Wife - I am going soft. This weepy with Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams hits all my family buttons.
4. Public Enemies - 10,000 bullets in 1 minute. This is a clip of a shoot-out. Awesome.
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