MCN Weekend Archive for July, 2011
Wilmington on Movies: Cowboys & Aliens
“Cowboys & Aliens” (Two and a Half Stars) U.S.: Jon Favreau, 2011 Movie Westerns usually take place in a primitive land of the American past (somewhere in the 19th century) full of horses and trains and showdowns and an occasional cattle drive, where the men spend an inordinate amount of time in saloons, and sudden…
Read the full article » 2 Comments »The Weekend Report: July 31, 2011
It was an unexpected horse race at the box office with the cross genre Cowboys & Aliens going toe-to-toe with the animated exploits of the original Blue Men Group The Smurfs. Initial estimates gave the former a slight edge with $36.1 million to the latter’s $36 million but that could all change tomorrow. The session’s other national opening was the ensemble comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love that bowed fifth with $19.1 million.
Read the full article » 2 Comments »Friday Estimates, July 30, 2011
James Bond & Indiana Jones get Smurfed. And Not So Crazy. Decent. Gross.for the latest summer comedy.
Read the full article »Box Office Hell — July 28
Our Players|Coming Soon|Box Office Prophets|Box Office Guru|EW|Box Office . com Cowboys and Aliens|44.2|n/a|40.0|n/a|39.0 Captain America: The First Avenger|33.5|n/a|29.0|n/a|30.0 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt 2 |20.7.|n/a|24.0|n/a|23.5 The Smurfs |20.5|n/a|20.0|n/a|25.0 Crazy Stupid Love|15.2|n/a|18.0|n/a|17.0
Read the full article »Critics Roundup — July 28
Cowboys and Aliens |Yellow||Red||Yellow Crazy Stupid Love |Yellow||Green||Yellow Life in a Day ||||Yellow| Attack the Block (limited) |||Green|| The Future (limited) |||Green|Green| The Interrupters (NY) |||Green|Green| The Devil’s Double (limited) ||||| El Bulli: Cooking in Progress (NY) |||Green|| The Guard (limited) |Yellow||||Yellow Point Blank (NY, LA) |Green||||Yellow
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs. The Rest: Mao’s Last Dancer, Heartbeats, Sweeney Todd, Sleepy Hollow, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Crack in the World
“Mao‘s Last Dancer“ (Blu-ray) (Three Stars) U. S.; Bruce Beresford, 2010 (20th Century Fox) Ballet, that grand art of music and the body married together, is a natural subject for the movies — a potential wonder, as The Red Shoes is there to prove again and again. Director Bruce Beresford‘s fact-based drama Mao’s Last…
Read the full article » 1 Comment »DVD Wrapup: Source Code, Winter in Wartime, Leon Morin: Priest, Jackboots on Whitehall, The Matrimony, Life During Wartime, Monamour …
Source Code: Blu-ray While it would be misleading to describe the existential sci-fi thriller “Source Code” as “‘Groundhog Day’ on a train loaded with explosives,” it’s close enough for government work. In the Bill Murray role here is an American helicopter pilot recently returned from Afghanistan, sufficiently incapacitated to have been in a coma for…
Read the full article » 1 Comment »Wilmington on DVDs. Pick of the Week: Classic. Leon Morin, Priest; The Double Life of Veronique
Leon Morin, Priest (Leon Morin, Pretre) (Four Stars) France; Jean-Pierre Melville, 1961 (Criterion) Jean-Pierre Melville is mostly known these days as a French master of film noir, neo-noir and World War 2 Resistance dramas. But Leon Morin, Priest, which won a Venice Grand Prize in 1961, shows another side of Melville: the highly polished…
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs. Pick of the Week: Classic and Blu-ray. A Clockwork Orange
“A Clockwork Orange” (Blu-ray) (Two discs) (Four Stars) U.S.-U.K.: Stanley Kubrick, 1971 (Warner Home Video) 1. When I was in college in the 1960s, Stanley Kubrick was one of my cinematic heroes. I thought his movies were amazing: smart, funny, exciting, meaningful, beautifully crafted, brilliant, the best. I loved them. Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, 2001:A Space Odyssey….
Read the full article » 1 Comment »Wilmington on DVDs. Pick of the Week: New. Source Code
(Four Stars) U.S.: Duncan Jones, 2011 (Summit Entertainment) “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” — George Santayana “Time is on my side.” — The Rolling Stones 1. We’re on a commuter train, racing toward Chicago. Something is wrong. It’s a nightmare. We’re also at the start of the first…
Read the full article » 1 Comment »Wilmington on Movies: Winnie the Pooh
“Winnie the Pooh” (Three Stars) U.S.: Stephen J. Anderson, Don Hall; 2011 Here is Edward Bear coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin… A. A. Milne He was one of the boon companions of my childhood: Winnie-the-Pooh or Edward Bear or Winnie-ther-Pooh, as he was variously called…
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: Friends with Benefits
“Friends with Benefits” (Two and a Half Stars) U. S.: Will Gluck, 2011 Falling in love is such great movie material that it’s a pity Hollywood these days gets it right (or funny) so rarely. Friends with Benefits is a movie that’s supposed to be smarter and funnier than the usual pseudo-romantic comedy (or…
Read the full article »Weekend Estimates, July 24, 2011
Captain America: The First Avenger|65.1 (17,530)|NEW|65.1 Harry Potter & the Deadly Hollows, Part 2|48.2 (11,020)|-62%|274.3 Friends with Benefits|18.5 (6,310)|NEW|18.5 Transformers: Dark of the Moon|12.1 (3,590)|-43%|325.9 Horrible Bosses|11.7 (3,770)|-34%|82.4 The Zookeeper|8.7 (2,690)|-30%|59.2 Cars 2|5.7 (2,140)|-32%|176.4 Winnie the Pooh|5.1 (2,140)|-34%|17.6 Bad Teacher|2.6 (1,280)|-49%|94.4 Midnight in Paris|1.9 (3,010)|0%|44.9
Read the full article »The Weekend Report: July 24, 2011
The Captain does a pretty good Thor imitation, Friends With Benefits skews older than expected, and Mr. Potter keeps rolling along. Meanwhile, in indie, Woody Allen drops screens, but keeps the same gross as he builds on his best-ever domestic gross.
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: Captain America: The First Avenger
“Captain America: The First Avenger” (Two and a Half Stars) U.S.: Joe Johnston, 2011 I don’t mean to be a grouch, but Captain America — stalwart crime and monster-buster of the new Marvel epic Captain America: The First Avenger — struck me as one of the duller superheroes I’ve seen recently. That’s despite one of…
Read the full article » 1 Comment »Friday Estimates, July 23, 2011
Captain America shows Marvelous muscle on Opening Day while Harry Potter drops like a sorcerer’s stone after its record-breaking run last weekend. Friends With Benefits opens reasonably well, but looks to Saturday Night to see whether it was a wise idea to be the fifth R-rated comedy of the summer.
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs. Pick of the Week: Blu-ray. The Horse Soldiers
PICK OF THE WEEK: BLU-RAY “The Horse Soldiers” (Blu-ray) (Three and a Half Stars) U.S.: John Ford, 1959 (MGM/20th Century Fox) John Ford, America’s greatest director of Western movies — and maybe our greatest director, period — was also an aficionado of Civil War history. Yet Ford’s actual films about the Civil War and its…
Read the full article »The Conspirator – on DVD August 16th.
She was charged for conspiring to murder President Lincoln, but did she do it? Robert Redford directs an all-star cast including James McAvoy, Robin Wright, Kevin Kline, Tom Wilkinson. Catch The Conspirator on DVD or BluRay.
Read the full article »MW on DVDs. Pick of the Week: Classics. Some Like It Hot, Naked.
“Some Like It Hot” (Blu-ray) (Four Stars) U.S.: Billy Wilder, 1959 (MGM/20th Century Fox) The place is Chicago. Windy City. Downtown. The color: a film noirish black and white. The caliber: 45. The proof: 90. The time: 1929, The Capone Era and the Roaring Twenties — roaring their loudest. We’re watching Some Like It Hot,…
Read the full article »Box Office Hell — July 21
Our Players|Coming Soon|Box Office Prophets|Box Office Guru|EW|Box Office . com Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt 2 |73.6.|n/a|59.0|n/a|52.0 Captain America: The First Avenger|60.7|n/a|52.0|n/a|55.0 Friends with Benefits |21.2|n/a|22.0|n/a|24.0 Horrible Bosses|10.6|n/a|10.5|n/a|11.5 Transformers: Dark of the Moon|10.0|n/a|10.5|n/a|11.3
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