MCN Weekend Archive for April, 2012
Review-ish: The Avengers
It’s mighty… mediocre. There isn’t anything BAD about the film. On the flip side, the only thing I took away as remotely memorable was Joss Whedon’s rendition of The Hulk. Downey does his Iron schtick. Thor is a little looser, but still a bit of a stiff. Sam Jackson has never really been this uninteresting….
Read the full article » 189 Comments »The Weekend Report
Cusp of summer box office experienced a lull with weekend revenues of roughly $115 million that amounted to a 17% decline from the prior frame. It was a steeper 30% downturn from 2011 when the bow of Fast Five blew away the competition with an $86.1 million launch. The weekend’s big noise was happening overseas with The Avengers getting a jump start on domestic with a 39 territory debut estimated at close to $180 million. Also heaping up advance gelt internationally is Battleship with $150 million to date prior to its North American bow on 5/18.
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: Contraband, Camelot, Return, Young Goethe, Innkeepers, Hollis Frampton … More
Like JFK’s legacy, the movie version of “Camelot” hasn’t aged well in the succeeding nearly 50 years. In fact, after knocking ’em dead on Broadway in the early 1960s, the movie version failed to overwhelm Oscar voters or attract nearly the same number of fans as “My Fair Lady.”
Read the full article » 4 Comments »Box Office Hell — April 27
Our Players|Coming Soon|Box Office Prophets|Box Office Guru|EW|Box Office . com Think Like a Man |17.1|18.1|19.0|15.0|18.0 The Five Year Engagement|16.8|19.4|14.0|20.0|22.0 The Lucky One |12.5|11.9|12.0|12.0|11.8 The Raven|11.7|12.3|10.0|n/a|11.0 The Pirates! Band of Misfits|11.1|13.4|12.0|11.5|10.0
Read the full article »Critics Roundup – April 26
The Five Year Engagement |Yellow||||Yellow The Raven |||||Yellow Bernie (limited) |Yellow||||Green Sound of My Voice (limited) ||||Green| Headhunters (Magnolia) (limited) |Green||||Yellow The Pirates! Band of Misfits |||Yellow|| Elles (limited) |Yellow|||| Warriors of Rainbow (limited) |Green||||
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs. Godzilla
I’ve never visited Japan, and probably I never will. But if I get there, I know I’ll dream of seeing several things, all of which, to me, signify “Japanese cinema“ and “Japan.” A furious Kurosawa swordfight caught by three cameras. Two Ozu characters sitting on tatami mats, musing on the sadness of life. A geisha or wife suffering while Mizoguchi’s camera tracks slowly and beautifully around her. Something tragic or transgressive caught lucidly by Ichikawa or Imamura. And, rising up from the ocean, while the sun sets, Honda’s Godzilla (excuse me, Gojira), staring toward Tokyo and licking his chops.
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs. The Innkeepers
Ti West’s movie is loaded with seedy atmosphere and cracked wacko personality, and I much preferred it to the over-expensive blood-drenched massacres they usually give us. Paxton’s Claire and Healy’s Luke are engagingly scarable protagonists. The cellar is a doozy.
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: Darling Companion
The movie has its flaws — that outlandishly implausible ending chiefly among them — but compared to most of the un-naturalistic, unfunny, unserious, totally phony and sometimes obnoxiously ageist and condescendingly smart-ass gloppy stuff that often passes for American movie comedy-drama these days (and that sometimes gets a pass from the same people who pile on movies like “Darling Companion”), it’s a movie that deserves some encouragement.
Read the full article »The Weekend Report: April 22, 2012
“The Hunger Games” finally moved out of the top spot to make room for newcomers “Think Like a Man” and Zac Efron’s “The Lucky One,” both performing better than expected. Disney’s nature doc “Chimpanzee” turned in a respectable fourth with $10.2 million.
Read the full article »Friday Estimates: April 20, 2012
Screen Gems reminds the industry why they are still the strongest niche distributor in the game. And WB has a strong launch of their entry into Screen Gems’ (formerly New Line’s) “Aren’t The Pretty… Who Will Die & Who Will Cry?” romance genre. And monkeys do the trick for Disney’s strongest DisneyNature launch.
Read the full article »Box Office Hell — April 20
Our Players|Coming Soon|Box Office Prophets|Box Office Guru|EW|Box Office . com The Lucky One |n/a|15.2|17.0|16.5|21.0 Think Like a Man |n/a|9.4|17.0|19.0|24.0 The Hunger Games |n/a|13.6|13.0|13.0|13.0 Titanic in 3-D|n/a|7.9|n/a|n/a|7.7 Chimpanzee|n/a|7.3|7.0|n/a|6.5
Read the full article »Critics Roundup – April 19
Think Like a Man |||Green|| Darling Companion |||Yellow||Green Goodbye First Love (limited) |||Green|Green| My Way |||Green|Green|Green Oki’s Movie (NY) |||Green||
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: Ghost Protocol, Shame, Last Rites of Joe May… More
Even if “Shame” doesn’t offer many answers and fewer resolutions, it can’t be said that we don’t know these people after 101 minutes in their presence. It feels like a fully realized short story or novella. The acting is terrific and McQueen’s direction delivers a real punch. It’s not an easy movie to watch, though, so viewers not looking for a challenge may want to think twice before renting it.
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs. A Streetcar Named Desire
The young Adonis-like Brando was the actor whom critics and Britons believed would be the American stage and screen’s great Hamlet. (But he never even tried.) He was the player for whom Tennessee Williams wrote play after play year after year. (But Brando turned them all down, except for the Sidney Lumet movie of “Orpheus Descending,” retitled “The Fugitive Kind)”.
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs. Shame
I can’t recall a single smile crossing Brandon’s mouth, or a single joke passing his lips (if there were, they were lonely), or much tenderness at all, during the course of the movie.
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
This is the best action movie out this year not just because it has the best action, but because the characters are interesting too.
Read the full article »DVD Geek: The Magnificent Ambersons
Exactly 15 years after DVDs were introduced to the home video market place, Warner Home Video has finally released the last significantly important, classic motion picture in the format, “The Magnificent Ambersons,” and like the opinions of the townspeople on the fates of the characters at the end of the film, no one cares.
Read the full article »The Weekend Report, April 15, 2012
I Got Plenty of Nyucking: Was it a fair fight? Katniss vs. Moe, Larry and Curly. Regardless, “The Hunger Games” made it a hat trick as box office champ with an estimated $21.3 million while the contemporized “The Three Stooges” bowed to $17.2 million.
Read the full article »Critics Roundup – April 12
The Cabin in the Woods |||Green|Green| The Three Stooges |Yellow|||| A Simple Life (limited) |Green|||Green| Detention (limited) |||Green|Green| Here (NY) |||Green|| Monsieur Lazhar |Green|||Green| Life Happens |||Yellow|| The Lady (limited) |Red||||
Read the full article »Friday Estimates: April 13, 2012
The Hunger Games leads again, this time with 3 stooges nipping at their heels. Joss Whedon’s long delayed Cabin In The Woods release arrives in a soft third place for a horror film Friday. And Guy Pearce is locked out of the money with a thriller that didn’t have the marketing budget to compete.
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