Movie Nation

The Hollywood Reporter figures “The Wolverine,” the next to last tentpole picture, franchise picture of the summer, will open to $65 million, a huge but not epic turnout.

Box Office Mojo goes all in and says it’ll pull $72 million+.

Box Office Guru is saying $70 million.

The oversaturation of comic book movies may not show up here, but you have to figure $60 is easily within reach. Jackman’s like Robert Downey Jr. — a beloved actor essaying an iconic character and well-established brand. Better movie (by a thin margin) than the last one.  And 3D ticket inflation should help.

“The To Do List” is only opening on under 600 screens, but Mojo figures it’ll do a healthy $2 million. The hype for this one has been huge, so I figure it’ll do better. But we’ll see.

“Fruitvale Station” opens wide. Hyped as well, but a serious movie? In the summer? It’ll stand out from the pack, and people who have been intent on keeping Trayvon Martin’s name alive have heard about the connection between this film and that case. Over a $million, to be sure.

Last weekend’s big openers should take a steep dive, but “Conjuring” could cook up another $20 million, “Turbo” might hold more of its weak opening weekend numbers and “RIPD” should dive and all but disappear.

Friday morning brings my weekly chat with Mike Bianchi, Brandon Kravitz et al at 740 The Game’s “Open Mike” radio show.

They’ll interrupt their ongoing Urban Meyer/Dwight Howard/A-Rod rants to talk about “The Wolverine,,” which I liked up until it hit the Marvel third act, where way too many comic book movies go wrong.

And we’ll discuss equal time in the raunchy coming of age department, brought on by the funny, smart and even sweet (sometimes) “The To Do List.”

Orlando also gets “Fruitvale Station,” a serious and moving look at the last day in the life of a troubled young black man shot in the back by an Oakland BART transit cop. Best movie of the summer, even if it is more of a fall film.

And Almodovar’s latest, a let down, “I’m So Excited.” We may chat about that. Gay, Spanish, airline travel gone wrong — aged cliches, rather like Woody Allen’s recent scripts.

“V/H/S 2” comes to late shows at the Enzian, MAitland’s art cinema. We have to find time to talk about that.

All this, with attitude, at 745 AM on 740 AM.

When you’ve got diminutive Daniel Radcliffe to play The Monster in a new Frankenstein adaptation, who do you get to play the mad Dr. F?

Why, James McAvoy, of course. Paul McGuigan is directing this version, which won’t feature any dunking or blocked shots. In case you were wondering.

Patricia Highsmith’s 1950 novel “Strangers on a Train” has proven to have one of filmdom’s most enduring plots. It’s the “You kill somebody I want dead and I’ll kill somebody you want dead and the cops will never be the wiser” story, with one character more than willing to do the deed and the other having an attack of conscience. That leads to blackmail and other murderous complications.
“Breaking the Girls” is an un-credited homage to “Strangers,” which has been filmed, re-filmed and even made into a comedy (“Throw Momma from the Train”). Sadly, “Girls” is a more interesting movie to deconstruct than it is to sit through.
Agnes Bruckner (“The Woods”) plays Sara, a struggling law student working multiple jobs and depending on grants and scholarship money to get by. But the fetching part time barmaid has won the attentions of Eric (Shawn Ashmore), and that’s irked his rich girlfriend Brooke (Shanna Collins). Fortunately, Sara’s new wealthy BFF Alex (Madeline Zima) is there to comfort her as Brooke sets out to destroy Sara’s life.
“The system doesn’t serve people,” Sara has figured out. “The system serves people with power.”
Since Alex is lesbian and Sara is nothing if not bi-curious — Hey, it’s college right? — the rich girl is motivated to help her new pal. If, that is, she’ll knock off Alex’s vindictive step-mom (Kate Levering).
“They BOTH should be put out of their misery,” Alex purrs. “We’re a modern day Bonney and Read,” referring to the female pirates Anne Bonney and Mary Read.
One young woman proceeds with her crime, the other acts shocked and gives the “You’re a monster” and “You can’t make me do this” defense. And things turn even more interesting, or would if this was a better movie.
The screenplay gives Sara an unusual pet — a snail. Novelist Highsmith, a bisexual crime writer of great repute, collected snails. Director Jamie Babbit (“But I’m a Cheerleader” and TV’s “Drop Dead Divas”), like Highsmith, is a Barnard College alumnus.
But for all the nods to the novelist, the movie never manages much suspense or wit. Babbit squeezes a lot of plot wrinkles into 83 minutes. But that’s largely due to many plot contrivances falling under the heading “Isn’t that convenient?” The cast is pretty but bland, the sex and violence given rather pedestrian staging. There’s no heat, no panic, no fear. The script makes too little of Sara’s legal training and works overtime to make characters passive — even the allegedly aggressive ones. The cop on the case (Davinia McFadden) may be gay and on a motorcycle (a clever cliche), but she makes zero impression beyond those trappings.
The reason the “Strangers on a Train” plot has endured is its can’t-miss premise. But “Breaking the Girls” emphasizes the girl-on-girl side of things at the expense of suspense. Neither Highsmith nor Hitchcock would approve of that.

MPAA Rating: unrated, with violence, sexual content, profanity and alcohol abuse.
Cast: Agnes Bruckner, Madeline Zima, Kate Levering, Shawn Ashmore
Credits: Directed by Jamie Babbit, scripted by Mark Distefano, Guinevere Turner. An IFC release
Running time: 1:23

At some point, every danged movie this summer’s got to have a robot. Or something in a metal suit.

That’s my main rub against “The Wolverine,” which cruises along on some splendid brooding, guilt, action beats and Japanese settings (Ninjas and Yakuza, the stuff life is made of) until the metal shows up.Reviews overall aren’t ecstatic, but it’s an entertaining summer comic book action picture and Hugh Jackman makes this, the only interesting X-man (other than Magneto) worth keeping company with.

“The To Do List” could be the next raunchy breakout comedy of the summer. Aubrey Plaza kills it as a very smart but socially-sexually naive high schooler who makes a to do list of sexual experiences her randy friends think she needs to have had before heading off to college. My interview with Plaza and co-star Bill Hader is here. Good reviews for this one, including mine. 

Much of the country gets to see the moving, hot-button bio-pic/race relations drama “Fruitvale Station” this weekend. This film, about the last day in the life of a young black man who died at the hands of the Oakland, CA, police, is the Best pic of the summer, and is opening at a theater near you (Fandango will find you a location — several in Orlando, for instance).

“Blue Jasmine,” Woody Allen’s latest, is earning good reviews — mainly, I think, for Cate Blanchett’s Oscar-nominatable turn in the lead role. Old fashioned characters, situations and dialogue, but a riveting performance — as a rich socialite slowly melting down — makes this one Woody’s best film since “Midnight in Paris.” Not funny, btw. Not at all.

“Breaking the Girls” is a bisexual riff on Hitchcock’s “Strangers on a Train,” that’s basically a girl-on-girl tease — and an overly complicated one that has tame sex, tepid pacing and an overly complicated/coincidence-drive plot.

Almodovar’s latest let-down, “I’m So Excited,” opens wider (Orlando gets it) today. And shouldn’t. Nothing to get excited about.

With heist pictures, there’s such a thing as giving away the store, explaining too much. That’s what happens with the gritty British thriller “Wasteland,” which is about some very young lads who set out to avenge themselves on a local lowlife who’s done them wrong. The movie drones on, well past a perfectly serviceable climax.
And all that extra time is spent delivering an alternate ending– explaining — a writer-director having his character explain how clever all this is.
Harvey (Luke Treadaway) is fresh out of prison, bloody in the face and sitting in front of a cop (Timothy Spall). There was a robbery. Something went wrong. And here Harvey is, giving a blow-by-blow of the brute of a bloke who framed him (Neil Maskell) and his best-laid plans for revenge. The interrogation frames the movie.
Harvey’s mates — the mama’s boy Charlie (Gerard Kerns), short-tempered Dodd (Matthew Lewis) and ladies’ man Dempsey (Iwan Rheon) aren’t run of the mill villains. They’re all Harvey’s age, 22 or so. And they may be dead-enders in terms of future prospects, but they’re not idiots.
When Harvey breaks to them “a business proposition put to me by a bloke inside” prison, they’re all ears. All they need is the cash for this business buy-in. To get that, Harvey has in mind burgling the club where his nemesis, Roper, hides his ill-gotten loot. They plot and plan the caper, which Harvey recounts in his interrogation with the cop.
There’s a girl — of course there’s a girl — Nicola (Vanessa Kirby) a working class looker who spent time with both Harvey and with Roper. And there are all these odd elements to the heist which we really cannot put together until we see how things play out — both ways things play out.
Writer-director Rowan Athale creates a believable world for these folks to match wits in, and the players are convincingly working class — accents as thick as Marmite.
But Athale isn’t content to try and trip us up once or twice, doesn’t go for logical solutions to the puzzle and never quite reaches the razzamatazz of “Snatch” and “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,” which were plainly his inspiration. “Wasteland” never gets up a good head of steam and is more dark than jaunty. Whatever rewards revenge offers, the consequences of merely thinking about it with a fellow as ruthless as Roper could be terminal.
“I don’t want to have to worry about you, Harvey,” he hisses. “I don’t react well when I think I’m threatened.”
“Wasteland” would work better if Harvey showed us a palpable sense of fear at that threat. But the structure of the movie, that long flashback, means it loses any dread for what’s coming.
And Athale tends to outwit himself with that drawn-out finale. It’s one thing to find a clever solution to the picture puzzle you’ve concocted. It’s quite another to try and rub our noses in it.

MPAA Rating: unrated, violence, profanity, drug culture context
Cast: Luke Treadaway, Vanessa Kirby, Timothy Spall, Iwan Rheon, Neil Maskell
Credits: Written and directed by Rowan Athale. An Oscilloscope Labs release.
Running time: 1:49

We may never see this as a movie, but MGM and Sylvester Stallone have let some money change hands with the director and star of “Fruitvale Station,” lining up director Ryan Coogler and star Michael B. Jordan for “Creed,” about the son of the champ (Carl Weathers) that Rocky beat to take the title back in the last century.