Wilmington on Movies: The Adventures of Tintin

    The Adventures of Tintin (Three Stars) U.S.: Steven Spielberg, 2011 The Adventures of Tintin — Steven Spielberg‘s second new film in release this season (the other was War Horse, and both of them came out last week) — shows us again to what extent he‘s still a kid at heart and maybe always will…

Friday Estimates: Dec 30, 2011

Cruise’s newest mission continues to lead the pack, probably passing the earlier-released Sherlock Holmes: Let’s Not Call It “2” today or tomorrow. Steven Spielberg’s two films are running side by side on the chart, as are the Zoo and the Tattoo.

Box Office Hell — December 29

Our Players|Coming Soon|Box Office Prophets|Box Office Guru|EW|Box Office . com Mission Impossible — Ghost Protocol|n/a|30.0|39.0|29.0|31.0 Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows|n/a|20.0|26.0|21.0|23.0 Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked|n/a|13.8|23.0|17.0|18.0 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo |n/a|13.0|16.0|14.0|15.0 War Horse |n/a|16.0|20.0|15.0|15.5 The Adventures of Tin Tin|n/a|10.0|18.0|n/a|12.5 We Bought a Zoo |n/a|10.0|17.0|n/a|12.3

Critics Roundup — December 29

The Iron Lady (limited) |Red||Yellow||Green Pariah (limited) |Green|||Green| A Separation (limited) |Green||Green|Green|Green

Wilmington on DVDs. Co-Pick of the Week: Classic. Tokyo Drifter

   Tokyo Drifter (Three and a Half Stars) Japan: Seijun Suzuki, 1966 (Criterion Collection) Off the wall and over the edge from its first scene to its last, Tokyo Drifter is one of the outrageous crime melodramas and outlandish neo-noirs made in the ‘60s for Nikkatsu Studio by super-cult Japanese director Seijun Suzuki. It’s a classic…

Wilmington on DVDs. The Rest: Final Destination 5; A Good Old-Fashioned Orgy

Final Destination 5 (Also Blu-ray/DVD/ 3D/ UV Combo) (Two Stars) U.S.: Steven Quale, 2011 (Warner Bros.) In Final Destination 5, as in the other Final Destinations, blood is the money shot. The actors, or their characters, are expendable (again), and a guy named Bludworth, or his boss Destiny, is breaking up that old gang of mine…

Wilmington on DVDs. Co-Pick of the Week: New. Love Crime

  Love Crime (Three Stars) France: Alain Corneau, 2010 (MPI Home Video)   Movie murder mysteries can sometimes get too tricky and convoluted for their own good, and that’s pretty much what happens in Love Crime — a cool, nifty, well-constructed and very well-acted French film that would have been even better if it didn’t so hard to…

Wilmington on DVDs. Co-Pick of the Week: New. Brighton Rock (Joffe); Brighton Rock (Boulting)

Brighton Rock 2010 (Three Stars) U.K.: Rowan Joffe, 2010 (IFC) Brighton Rock 1947 (Three and a Half Stars) U.K.: John Boulting, 1947 (Amazon Instant Video)     Some books and some cities were born to be filmed.  Some men were born to kill. Graham Greene’s novel Brighton Rock is an example of the former: one of the greatest…

Wilmington on Movies: War Horse

   War Horse (Four Stars) U.S.: Steven Spielberg, 2011   Steven Spielberg’s War Horse is the kind of open-hearted, expensively made, somewhat predictable movie that critic-cynics like to make fun of :  “a noble steed!“ sneered one of my wittier colleagues as we rode an elevator down after the screening. But I’ve got to confess…

Wilmington on DVDs. Pick of the Week: Classics. A Christmas Carol

        A Christmas Carol (Blu-ray/DVD Combo) (Two Discs) (Four Stars) U.K.: Brian Desmond Hurst, 1951 (VCI Entertainment)   Almost everyone’s favorite nominee for best of all the many film adaptations of Charles Dickens‘ Yuletide evergreen A Christmas Carol, is this 1951 cinematic gem, sometimes called Scrooge, sometimes called A Christmas Carol, directed by the  underrated…

The Weekend Report (3 Day), Christmas Day

The industry was dreading this holiday season with Christmas and New Years – traditionally poor movie going days – falling on Sundays. The current weekend should see a big boost on Monday with both War Horse and the sci-fi thriller The Darkest Hour opening wide along with the exclusive bow of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.

The sobering drop in both box office and admissions in 2011 has all sectors of the industry talking about the future of movie going. A few cheerleaders are insisting the past 12 months are an anomaly and strong 2012 titles will bring a reversal of fortunes.

Friday Estimates: December 23, 2011

The last time there was a Christmas on a Sunday was 2005 and yesterday’s numbers are an improvement on the Friday numbers from that year. However, there is a lot of high-profile new product in the market this weekend than there was that year. Comparisons to last year’s Friday before Christmas – Christmas Eve – are futile as well.

Wilmington on DVDs. Pick of the Week: Box Set. Stieg Larsson’s Dragon Tattoo Trilogy (Millennium Trilogy)

Steig Larsson’s Dragon Tattoo Trilogy (A.K.A. “The Millennium Trilogy”) (Four Discs) (Three and a Half Stars) Also: Blu-ray, Extended Edition  Sweden: Niels Arden Oplev & Daniel Alfredson, 2009-2010 (Music Box) Noomi For all of you who want to catch up for the release this week of David Fincher’s American remake of Stieg Larsson’s  The Girl With the…

Box Office Hell – December 22

Our Players|Coming Soon|Box Office Prophets|Box Office Guru|EW|Box Office . com Mission Impossible — Ghost Protocol|36.5|n/a|38.0|n/a|26.5 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo |33.4|n/a|27.0|n/a|20.0 Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows|22.5|n/a|20.0|n/a|17.0 The Adventures of Tin Tin|16.2|n/a|15.0|n/a|11.0 Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked|7.0|n/a|13.0|n/a|13.0 We Bought a Zoo |13.0n/a|9.0|n/a|12.5 War Horse |7.5|n/a|n/a|n/a|4.5

Critics Roundup — December 22

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo |Yellow||Green|Green|Green The Adventures of Tin Tin|Green||Red||Green We Bought a Zoo|Green||||Green Albert Nobbs (limited)|Green||Green|Green|Green In the Land of Blood and Honey (limited)|Yellow|||| Pina (NY) |Green||Green|Green|Green War Horse |Red|||| Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close |Yellow||||

Wilmington on DVDs. The Rest: Dolphin Tale, Warrior, Straw Dogs (Lurie), Colombiana

  Dolphin Tale (Blu-ray/DVD Combo with Digital Combo; also movie only) (Three Discs) (Three Stars) U.S.: Charles Martin Smith, 2011 (Warner Bros.) Winter, the dolphin star of Dolphin Tale — an inspirational if sometimes far-fetched animal movie surprisingly based on fact — is a truly inspirational figure in a sometimes inspirational and often entertaining movie. Caught and crippled in a…

The DVD Wrapup: Margin Call, Dolphin Tale, Midnight in Paris, Glee, Warrior, Burke & Hare, Milestones, Old Fashioned Orgy, Bobby Fischer, Colin Quinn, Hunters, Todd-Margaret, Apollo 18 …

Margin Call Add “Margin Call” to the list of dramatizations and documentaries — “Too Big to Fail” and “Inside Job,” among them – that have attempted to make sense of the 2008 financial crisis and identify those executives who ignored the red flags waved in advance of the collapse. J.C. Chandor’s freshman project is distinguished…

Wilmington on DVDs: Midnight in Paris (Four Stars)

Midnight in Paris (Also Blu-ray) (Four Stars) U.S.-France; Woody Allen, 2011 (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) Midnight in Paris (Four Stars) U. S./France: Woody Allen, 2011   Midnight in Paris is a funny valentine to the City of Light, a sweet, jazzy fairy tale about the wonders of Parisian art and artist cliques in the ‘20s…

Wilmington on Movies. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

      Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol U.S.: Brad Bird, 2011   If you have even a little fear of heights — and I have a lot myself — there’s a scene in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, that should leave you, maybe literally, breathless. It’s the scene, already famous, where producer-star Tom Cruise, playing the Mission…

Wilmington on Movies. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (Two and a Half Stars)

                Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows (Two and a Half Stars) U.K.-U.S.: Guy Ritchie, 2011 There’s a level of sheer frantic busy-ness and glibly manufactured chaos in director Guy Ritchie’s and star Robert Downey, Jr. second Sherlock Holmes movie — Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows –that makes…