Wilmington on Movies: Step Up Revolution

This is a ludicrous example of what you might call the “Hey Kids! Let’s put on a flash mob, and get it on You Tube!“ musical, a slick-quick-and-dumb-as-a-brick movie, shot in Miami, that has no apparent rationale except to get a bunch of buff kids, led by Guzman and McCormick, slithering and hopping and flash mobbing and dirty-dancing away to recorded music by talent like J.Lo, M.I.A., M83 and Far East Movement (all news to me).

The Weekend Report

The Dark Knight Rises continued to ascend as the clear movie going favorite with an estimated $62.4 million gross in its second weekend. The current session featured two new national releases that bowed to so-so results. The comedic security romp The Watch opened third in the ratings with an estimated $12.8 million and a pas behind Step-Up Revolution bowed to a box office of $11.7 million.

Wilmington on Movies: The Queen of Versailles

Of all the amusing, depressing and jaw-dropping things in “The Queen of Versailles”—Lauren Greenfield’s documentary about the construction and deconstruction of the largest one-family dwelling in the United States, a domicile modeled on both the original French Palace of Versailles and the Las Vegas Paris Hotel and built by time-share resort hotel czar David Siegel (and a film with many amusing, depressing and confounding things in it) — one of the two that bothered me most was the impression I had that in this entire massive, outlandishly ornate yet fundamentally cheesy edifice, intended as a glorious Got-rocks celebration by Siegel and his family (including wife Jackie, seven children, one niece and 19 servants), I could did not spot a single book.

Friday Estimates

A 62% drop without Midnights and 77% with Midnights of The Dark Knight Rises continues to allow question about whether there is a fear of going to the movies, though friday night also opened against the most watched night of The Olympics. Drops for other returning movies are also looking a bit heavier than usual. And the two newcomers both opened soft, though there are other possible issues with both.

Wilmington on Movies: The Watch

I can only think of one logical explanation for this screenplay (which isn’t much interested in logical explanations itself), and that‘s that, before these three guys started writing it, monstrous aliens from outer space burst into their working rooms, took their places and wrote the script themselves — as part of a sinister conspiracy to befuddle moviegoers, and then, while everybody was wandering around flabbergasted, conquer the earth. Maybe they already have.

Wilmington on DVDs: Brooklyn’s Finest/Stone; Babes in Toyland (March of the Wooden Soldiers); The Saphead

    BROOKLYN’S FINEST/STONE (Three Stars) U.S.: Antoine Fucqua/John Curran 2010 (Starz/Anchor Bay) Two-Pack Contains: BROOKLYN’S FINEST (U.S.; Antoine Fucqua, 2010.  (Three Stars) Brooklyn’s Finest, the new cop thriller from director Antoine Fucqua (Training Day), is a neo-noir with lots of punch and  swagger. Swooping along through mean streets and dingy hallways, propelled by Fucqua’s gaudy repertoire of crane and tracking shots, it‘s…

Wilmington on DVDs: The Last Days of Disco

Whit Stillman‘s best film — a portrayal of the latter days of the New York Disco scene, and of a club that looks suspiciously like Studio 54 — is a movie that manages to let us enjoy the sensuality and fun of the era, and a lot of the then-trashed but still danceable disco music, and at the same time, see why it fell and why it prompted outraged middle or working class rockers to insist “Disco sucks.”

The DVD Wrapup: Three Stooges, Margaret, Metropolitan, Institute Benjamenta, Footnote… More

Typically, movies with a gestation period of more than five years bear the fingerprints of far too many studio meddlers and investors hoping to return a dime on the dollars they put into the project. Some have been edited and re-edited to the point where they’re unrecognizable from the concept originally green-lit and are disowned by their parents. By the time they’re accorded a limited release, more lawyers have seen the movie than critics. “Margaret” has just such a backstory.

The Weekend Report

“The Dark Knight Rises” debuted this weekend to a reported $160.9 million. Industry pundits had predicted that the final chapter in this incarnation of Batman would open to between $180-$190 million.

But then the tragedy occurred in Aurora, Colorado at a Thursday midnight screening.

Wilmington on DVDs: La Haine

La Haine (or Hate) is the legendary 1995 feature debut of the young French actor turned writer-director Mathieu Kassovitz (in his 20s when it was released, as were his three leads), who based his story on the chaos and death of real shootings, and real riots, and real deaths in the early ‘90s, which he witnessed. It is a remarkable movie, with a hypnotic grip. It burns itself into your memory.

Wilmington on Movies: To Rome With Love

I laughed more than I did at the last three or four alleged Hollywood romantic comedies (or rom-coms) I’ve seen — several of which even got good reviews, or at any event, better than a lot the reviews for “To Rome With Love.” It deserved much better.

Wilmington on Movies: The Dark Knight Rises

This review of The Dark Knight Rises was written yesterday, before I had heard the news of the tragic shootings and twelve deaths at the movie theatre showing the film at Century 16 Theatres in Aurora, Colorado. I had intended to write several more paragraphs on the movie today, and maybe I will later. But not now.

The DVD Wrapup: Friends With Kids, Singin’ in the Rain, Here, Salmon Fishing, 4:44, Johnny Carson, Julia Child, InBetweeners … More

Shot almost exclusively in rural Armenia, “Here” is the kind of movie whose scenery almost overpowers the story, whose existential conceits are extremely fragile.

Wilmington on DVDs: Casa de mi Padre

  CASA DE MI PADRE (Two Stars)  U.S.-Mexico; Matt Piedmont, 2012 (Lions Gate) In Casa de mi Padre, Will Ferrell and some friends from Mexico, including those two talented fugitives from Y ti mama tambien, Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal,  make fun of bad Mexican movies —  especially lurid telenovela serials about obsessive romance and…

The Weekend Report: July 15, 2012

Ice Age 4 is arriving on these shores after a two week head start internationally that’s generated more than $250 million. Apart from the very good news for Denis Leary – who is also featured in weekend runner-up The Amazing Spider-Man – the film debuted pretty much to expectation. Exit demos revealed a slim female bias of 50% and an audience composed equally of over/under 25 year olds; presumably some willingly in tow with their youngsters.

Wilmington on Movies. Ice Age: Continental Drift

  ICE AGE: CONTINENTAL DRIFT (Two and a Half Stars) U.S.: Steve Martino/Mike Thurmaier, 2012 Animated features have gotten so generally good these days, so surprisingly witty and adult , that it’s almost reassuring to run into one that’s just as poorly written, confusing and juvenile as a lot of  the live action movies for…

Wilmington on Movies: Red Lights

The first half of this movie is pretty good — which may be a case of digging yourself a beautiful hole and then getting trapped in it. Cortes mercifully doesn’t direct like a rock-video maker and he knows how to tighten knots and turns screws. But he’s not that good yet.

Friday Estimates, July 13, 2012

Ice Age 4 opens right in the middle of the series pack domestically. No Ice Age movie has ever grossed as much as $200m domestically and the big story of the series’ success is overseas, where it’s still early in its rollout. The Friday-to-Friday drop for Amazing Spider-Man is decent, though last Friday was the film’s 4th day in domestic release. Ted continues to hold strong.

Wilmington on DVDs: The Organizer (I Compagni)

The Italian title of The Organizer, I Compagni, means “The Comrades,” and Monicelli was in fact a lifelong socialist deeply committed to the Italian labor union movement, and if that seems strange — given the comical ways he portrays both Professor Sinigaglia and his great strike, we should recognize that it’s Monicelli’s blend of comedy and tragedy, realism and wit that’s responsible for this film’s remarkable depth and the complex emotions it arouses, the way it generates poignancy and humor and many shadings in between.

Wilmington on DVDs: Silent House

SILENT HOUSE (Also Blu-ray) (Two Discs) (Two and a Half Stars) U.S.: Chris Kentis & Laura Lau, 2011 (Universal)  Thrillers thrill us because they make us believe them — even if we probably shouldn’t. I didn’t really believe most of Silent House, even though there were reasons I wanted to. It’s a contemporary variation on…