The Weekend Report, December 18, 2011

The industry adhered to Bert Lance’s admonishment that “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” with a trio of sequels on the cusp of holiday movie going. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows led with an estimated $39.3 million followed by Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked grossing $23.3 million and Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol in caboose position at $13.1 million.

Additionally a couple of awards contenders opened in exclusives including Oscar doc short listed dance profile Pina that tripped a light fantastic $16,200 at two venues. The screen adaptation of (Gods of) Carnage bowed at five sites with an OK $85,200.

Friday Estimates: December 16, 2011

Sherlock & The Chipmunks lead the way, though neither is quite living up to its previous outing so far. And the all-IMAX Mission: Impossible is doing very strong numbers on 425 IMAX screens.

Box Office Hell — December 15

Our Players|Coming Soon|Box Office Prophets|Box Office Guru|EW|Box Office . com Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows|58.8|55.8|52.0|54.0|n/a Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked|38.4|43.9|32.0|30.0|n/a Mission Impossible — Ghost Protocol|8.0|9.6|9.0|10.0|n/a New Year’s Eve|7.0|5.7|6.5|7.0|n/a Young Adult |5.5|7.8|5.0|5.0|n/a

Wilmington on Movies: Carnage (Three and a Half Stars)

    Carnage (Three and a Half Stars) U.S.-France: Roman Polanski, 2011 1. Last Exit to Brooklyn In Carnage, which was adopted by the French writer Yasmina Reza from her hit play “God of Carnage“ , director Roman Polanski once again demonstrates his mastery of the claustrophobia of anxiety (and vice versa) — even though…

Critics Roundup — December 15

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows|||||Yellow Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (IMAX; wide: Dec. 21) |Green||Green||Green Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (limited) |Yellow||Green|Green|Green Carnage (limited) |Yellow||Green||Green Daguerreotypes (NY) ||||Green| Pina |Green|||Green|

The DVD Wrapup: Fright Night, Kung Fu Panda 2, Rise of Planet of the Apes, Daddy Longlegs, Meet Me in St. Louis, Branded to Kill, Circumstance …

Fright Night: Blu-ray I must not have been paying attention when the first “Fright Night” was released, way back in 1985, causing a stir among horror buffs looking for something a bit different than the usual teenagers-in-jeopardy stuff. Starring Roddy McDowell, Chris Sarandon, William Ragsdale and Amanda Bearse, Tom Holland’s thriller may have been produced…

Wilmington on DVDs: The Rest. Kung Fu Panda 2; The Expendables; Buck

    Kung Fu Panda 2 (Blu-ray/DVD Combo) (Two or Three Discs) (Two and a Half Stars) U.S.: Jennifer Yuh Nelson, 2011 (DreamWorks Animated)  Kung Fu Panda 2 is a cute, likable movie, done with a lot of skill and A-level talent, and with all the visual virtuosity we expect by now from big-budget cartoon…

Wilmington on DVDs. Pick of the Week: Classic, Blu-ray. West Side Story (Four Stars)

    　   PICK OF THE WEEK     West Side Story: 50th Anniversary Edition) (Blu-ray/DVD Combo) (Three Discs) (Four Stars) U.S.: Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins, 1961 (20th Century Fox/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)   “The Jets are in gear./Our cylinders are clickin‘./ The sharks’ll steer clear./‘Cause every Puerto Rican‘s/ A lousy chicken!” Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim…

Wilmington on DVDs. Pick of the Week: New. The Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Three Stars)

 The Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Three Stars) U.S.: Rupert Wyatt, 2011 (20th Century Fox) 1. The Rise  Rise of the Planet of the Apes, latest chapter in an old franchise, shows us a story we too easily forget, or maybe one that we never really knew… …How it all began, how an imprisoned, persecuted and…

Wilmington on Movies: Young Adult (Two and a Half Stars)

       Young Adult (Two and a Half Stars) U. S.: Jason Reitman, 2011 High School haunts us. It’s the great mystery we try futilely to solve afterwards, the great romance that often never happened, the paradise we imagine we lost but might regain, the great redemption that we dupe ourselves into believing can be earned…

The Weekend Report

New Year’s Eve and The Sitter (which could easily have been a hard-R segment of NYE) are on top, but not very impressively so. Twilight continues to wind down, losing a bit of its massive core audience with darker material and keeping newcomers at a distance. And there are a parade of limited releases out there (Tintin, Young Adult, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, A Dangerous Method) doing nice, but not thrilling, business.

No column today, as Len is with LAFCA for its year-end vote.

Wilmington on Movies: New Year’s Eve (One and a Half Stars)

  New Year’s Eve (One and a Half Stars) U.S.: Garry Marshall, 2011   New Year’s Eve may be the punishment audiences get for making director Garry Marshall and writer Katherine Fugate’s Valentine‘s Day such a big movie hit last year. That schmaltzy, heart-up-your-sleeve, all-star show, you’ll remember, strung together a lot of clichéd romantic comedy…

Wilmington on Movies: The Sitter

  The Sitter (One and a Half Stars) U.S.; David Gordon Green, 2011 Well, I’ve had it. After defending David Gordon Green for making Pineapple Express, a controversially violent stoner comedy that I think is well-acted, well-directed and funny, and after sparing some kind words for Green’s and buddy Danny McBride’s medieval four-letter-fest Your Highness,…

Friday Estimates, December 9, 2011

Twilight 4a has finally been vanquished… by a parade of popular actors who normally can’t open movies. Meanwhile, the weightier incarnation of Jonah Hill makes his move as a box office star.

In limited release, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy comes flying out of the gate fast on 4 screens with Young Adult just a step behind.

Wilmington on Movies: In Darkness

    In Darkness (Four Stars) Poland: Agnieszka Holland, 2011 Sometimes we let the horrors of the past recede into a comforting mist of melancholy and remembrance and well-meaning cliché. We shouldn’t. History is always with us. Agnieszka Holland’s In Darkness, one of the best films of the year, is a drama of the Holocaust,…

The DVD Wrapup: Hangover II, The Help, Friends With Benefits, Cowboys & Aliens, Mr. Popper’s Penguins, Medea, Underbelly …

The Hangover: Part II: Blu-ray The pressure on producer/director/co-writer Todd Phillips to create an instant sequel to the 2009 blockbuster, “The Hangover,” must have so great that it blinded him to the fact that it generally takes more than a few minutes to write, re-write and re-write again a prized property. That movie was so…

Box Office Hell — December 8

Our Players|Coming Soon|Box Office Prophets|Box Office Guru|EW|Box Office . com New Year’s Eve|27.2|n/a|24.0|n/a|22.5 The Sitter|14.3|n/a|11.0|n/a|13.0 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1|7.8|n/a|8.0|n/a|8.5 Hugo|7.3|n/a|7.0|n/a|6.5 The Muppets |6.2|n/a|7.0|n/a|7.3

Critics Roundup — December 8

New Year’s Eve |||||Yellow The Sitter |||||Red Young Adult (limited) |Green||Green|Red Tinker, Tailer, Soldier, Spy (NY, LA) |Yellow|||Green|Green We Need to Talk About Kevin (NY, LA – one week Oscar run) ||||Green|Green In Darkness (NY, LA – one week Oscar run) |||||Green Magic to Win (limited) |Yellow||||

Wilmington on DVDs. The Rest: The Hangover, Part II; Cowboys and Aliens; Mr. Popper’s Penguins; Kuroneko; Behind the Mask

   The Hangover, Part II (Also Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Combo) (Three Discs) (Two Stars) U.S.: Todd Phillips, 2011 (Warner Bros.) I laughed at 2009’s big comedy hit, The Hangover — that tense and raunchy tale of three longtime buddies at a wedding who wake up after a night of incredible but totally forgotten debauchery and have to try…

Wilmington on DVDs. Pick of the Week: Classic. The Lady Vanishes; Crooks’s Tour; Design for Living (Hecht-Lubitsch or Coward); If I Had a Million .

In The Lady Vanishes, his marvelous 1938 classic of mystery and intrigue set aboard a train full of English and international travellers racing though the Balkans, Alfred Hitchcock pushes the form of the romantic-comedy-thriller to near perfection. It’s one of the most purely entertaining movies he ever made, and it can be watched over and over again with no diminution of pleasure.