DVD Review: The Eagle
The Eagle is a conundrum. As a film, it is solid, with a decent cast, a distinct and deliberate lack of CG trickery, and leans more towards character than brainless action. In fact, other than a slow pace, there’s very little to dislike about it. Where it falters is that there is too little to like…with little violence to appeal to the adults, and too much talking to appeal to a younger audience, ...[Read More]
Weekend Box-Office: Chronicle Tops Out Against Post-Potter Radcliffe
Found footage films have grown in popularity lately, though after The Devil Inside, the genre seemed to be on a downhill slump. But Chronicle seems ready to breathe some fresh life into the genre, making an estimated $22 million at the box office and claiming first place this week. Even the higher price tag compared to the likes of Paranormal Activity and Apollo 18 wasn’t an issue, the $12 million...[Read More]
Weekend Box-Office: The Grey Leads the Pack
He may not be punching out as many wolves as the trailers (and a recent action film reputation) might suggest, but that hasn’t stopped audiences and critics from praising Liam Neeson and The Grey, which made an estimated $20 million in its opening at the box office and is one of the few January releases both critics and audiences seem to agree on. Perhaps it wasn’t as good an opening as Underworld...[Read More]
Movie Review: Underworld: Awakening
I think it should now be mandatory that, if anyone drags someone against their will to see the Twilight films, that same person should be subsequently forced to watch the Underworld films. They really are at the opposite spectrums…unlike Twilight, the Underworld films have almost zero interest in romance, show the supernatural monsters as monsters (even the good guys), are gory in the extreme, and...[Read More]
Weekend Box-Office: Underworld Awakens to a #1 Finish
Vampires and werewolves won the weekend, but this time, Stephenie Meyer had nothing to do with them; the bloody Underworld: Awakening led the box office this time around, and though critics aren’t saying much good about it, moviegoers gave the $70 million budgeted film an estimated $25.4 million opening. While profits overall still continue to tumble since the beginning of the year, it was still a...[Read More]
Weekend Box-Office: Mark Wahlberg Smuggles in a Win for Contraband
It may not be the traditional holiday weekend, with few getting time off for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday as, say, Memorial Day…but for the three day take, the “one last job” crime film Contraband walked away the winner with an estimated $24.1 million. Though this is a definite drop in overall take from last week, perhaps it says something about the current crop of films that the next ...[Read More]
Weekend Box-Office: The Devil Inside Possesses Box Office, If Not Much Else
If reports are to be believed, many who bought tickets to see The Devil Inside may claim the Devil made them do it, as the film has scored poorly with critics and theatergoers alike. Nevertheless, that didn’t stop it from making a killing in its weekend debut, earning an estimated $34.5 million on a paltry $1 million budget. Things dropped off a bit for the second and third place films, Mission: I...[Read More]
Weekend Box-Office: Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol Continues the Impossible
With two holiday weekends in a row, it’s been a good time at the theaters…maybe not as much as the studios would like, but the green has still been good to the big hits of the season. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol continues to earn top marks, with an estimated $38.3 million for the top spot once again, and in three weeks has nearly earned back its $145 million budget in domestic revenue alo...[Read More]
Weekend Box-Office: Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol Sneaks Its Way to the Top
This Christmas weekend almost had an unhappy ending, but an extra fourth day spelled good news for this year compared to last; an estimated $184.7 million was made this weekend, almost $70 million of it from this Monday alone (as compared to 2010, which made $20 million more in the three day weekend than this year did). Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows fell to second with an estimated $31.8 mill...[Read More]
The Many Faces of Ebenezer Scrooge: A History of A Christmas Carol on Film
Charles Dickens enjoyed great popularity in his lifetime, and that popularity hasn’t waned to this day. Despite an incredibly prolific assortment of characters and stories, which have been adapted to stage and screen over the years, perhaps the most iconic of them all (and certainly one of the most quotable) has proven to be Ebenezer Scrooge and A Christmas Carol. Though Dickens wrote other storie...[Read More]
Weekend Box-Office: Numbers Up from Before, But the Game Isn’t Quite Afoot for Sherlock Holmes
Things are picking up steam at the box office after a two-week decline, but the big end of the year blockbusters still are not performing up to expectations. Sherlock Holmes: A Games of Shadows debuted in first place, but only managed to bring in an estimated $40 million…much better than New Year’s Eve’s debut (which landed in fourth this week with an unimpressive $7.4 million estimate), but appar...[Read More]
Weekend Box-Office: New Year’s Eve Winner of the Non-Winning Weekend
Small numbers last week, smaller ones this week…that doesn’t bode well for the two new films debuting on this week’s Top 10, which finally managed to dethrone The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 from the top spot. New Year’s Eve opened to an estimated $13.7 million, while the Jonah Hill comedy The Sitter opened to an estimated $10 million. Breaking Dawn – Part 1 slid to third place with an e...[Read More]