Movie Nation

Every few years, the great James Cromwell gets a role reminding us how great he is — “Babe,” “L.A. Confidential,” “The Artist,” choice guest spots on “The West Wing,” “24” and “Six Feet Under.” Now he’s playing a romantic lead — opposite Genevieve Bujold — a woman to make an old man build her a new house, by hand. Or so it seems in “Still Mine”? Got questions for Babe’s farmer-mentor? Comment below.

Those box office prognosticators who read the tracking, and recent trends such as the success of “The Purge” and predicted “The Conjuring” would blow up this weekend were on the money. Hats off to Box Office Mojo, in other words.

The demonic possession thriller from the team that made “Insidious” has a $40 million opening weekend hit on its hands. Wow. After “Saw” and “Insidious”, James Wan is the new John Carpenter. He has “Insidious 2” in the can, and he’s the director of the next “Fast & Furious” film.

But “Conjuring”? Decent enough, but I didn’t see that coming. Biggest horror opening ever?

“Turbo” will make most of its money Saturday, but based on Friday’s numbers, it had better make a lot. It could open at $19, and that just isn’t going to cut it with a big budget animated film with Dreamworks’ reputation riding on it. That’s bad. The middling reviews didn’t help. It will have made $28 million or so since Wednesday. I wonder if the Wed. opening hurt?

Not as bad as “R.I.P.D.”, which has zero buzz, bad reviews and not much else going for it. $12 million? That’s how it looks.

“RED 2”, based on the decent box office, brand name and home video popularity of the first film, should have opened bigger than $18 million. That’s what this weekend looks like for it, though.

“Despicable Me 2” is still making buckets of money, “The Heat” is close to $130 million, “Grown Ups 2″ should reach $100 million by the end of the month,”Pacific Rim” will NOT hit $100 million.

Kristen Wiig has worked steadily since her break-out success in “Bridesmaids”, doing basically what she’s always done — quirky supporting parts in comedies, cameos on TV and as a voice in cartoons, killer walk-ons appearances on awards shows.
But that doesn’t quite camouflage what her new film, “Girl Most Likely”, represents. The film, now going into limited release, is her first starring role after having written and starred in a blockbuster.
“Maybe people have expectations for what I do after ‘Bridesmaids,'” she says. “I don’t take on that burden, because I don’t think that way. I can’t focus over what other people think.”
“Expectations”, after all, are the trap her character in “Girl Most Likely” falls into. Michelle Morgan’s script is about a 30something New Jersey native who had great expectations in her youth. An award-winning teen playwright, she took her shot at New York, got a job at a magazine and a collection of high class friends. But as you’d expect in a comedy, things are not what they seem. The job is drudgery, her romantic relationship isn’t working out and she’s one failed fake suicide attempt from being shipped back to New Jersey, to the life she abandoned and mother (Annette Bening) she escaped.
“Imogene’s at that age when it seems like everyone around her has their stuff together, and she doesn’t. Imogene feels a little lost. She’s not sure what she’s supposed to do to get THERE. I think a lot of us can relate to that, that idea that we’re not there and we’re not getting there.”
The film (reviewed here), co-directed by the team that did “American Splendor,” touches on the subject of people who peak too early in life, who leave home for “The Big City” and fail. Imogene must go home, take stock, deal with her mother and what might have been.
“A lot of people who leave their hometown and move somewhere else see where they came from as ‘My old life,’ the one they want to forget about,” says Wiig, who grew up in Rochester, New York. “What I loved about this script was that she has an opportunity — OK, she’s FORCED — to go back to this place she thinks she hated and figure out what she loved about it, growing up.”
Wiig admits that she chooses her roles based on how “very specific, sometimes very odd” her character is. When her friends at Funny or Die pitched her an episode of “Drunk History” that had her impersonating 1970s kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst, “that’s all they had to say. ‘Patty Hearst,’ ‘drunk history.” Comedian Natasha Legerro read up on the Hearst case, got smashed and narrates the story, drunk, as Wiig, as Patty, acts it out.
She starts work on a “drama with comedic undertones, “Welcome to Me,” in August. And there’s a straight drama, “The Skeleton Twins,” that co-stars Wiig’s former “Saturday Night Live” cast mate Bill Hader, already in the can. They play twins who reunite and re-assess their lives after near-death experiences.
“I think people are going to be surprised at me in this,” says Hader. “I KNOW Kristen’s going to surprise them.”
Which is all any actor can ask for — the chance to surprise. As Wiig makes that turn past her 40th birthday (Aug. 22), she finally gets to do what a lot of her comic performances hinted she’d be good at — drama. Her funniest creations have a wistful air of sadness, even tragedy, about them.
“I kind of fell into comedy,” she says. “And stayed here. Maybe now, I’ll have the opportunity to do both.”
It’s tough to get her take on how her “life changed” after “Bridesmaids,” which earned $170 million at the U.S. box office in 2011.
“I never know how to answer that. I have nothing to compare it to. I don’t know how to talk about myself, geeeeez!”
Maybe that connects with the whole “expectations” game. “Girl Most Likely” isn’t winning the warmest notices from critics, with Slant Magazine opining that it might have been “just a paycheck for the otherwise enormously talented Kristen Wiig.”
The actress shrugs that stuff off. She’s still on the lookout for that next “dark, and odd” character and that next indie film.
“After you’re in a movie that’s had some success that people pay too much attention to what you do next. If you worry about that, you’ll never do anything.”

I was asked on the radio this AM about the movie that would own the box office this weekend, and my knee-jerk response was that “Turbo,” the new animated film, would ride OK buzz and passable reviews and 3D ticket prices into victory lane.

But will it?

Box Office Mojo takes last month’s surprise by “The Purge,” a non-supernatural horror thriller, as its marching orders and predicts “The Conjuring” could set a new horror opening weekend record. The reviews are certainly good enough.

But never confuse what critics are saying with audience interest. I went to a preview screening, always crowded with free ticket winners, for “The Conjuring.” And there were tons of empty seats. Not as many as there were for “R.I.P.D.” last night, but people LOVE free movies and when a radio station cannot give away enough tickets to fill a theater, or the people who won those tickets have so little interest they don’t show up, that’s not a good sign.

I could see “Conjuring” clearing $20. But no Ethan Hawke, no sci-fi element? I will be very surprised if it clears $30. The Box Office Guru agrees with me and sees $26 or so for this one.

And “Turbo” should do $35-40 over the weekend. According to me. Guru figures $27 and Mojo mid-$30s.

With the superior “Despicable Me 2” still siphoning off audience, “Turbo” could be straining to make its budget back.

“Red 2” could surprise, being a brand name now, and all. $20 million is within reach. Mr. Mojo thinks $18 is more like it.

“R.I.P.D.” feels “DOA,” as the joke goes. Any interest in this comic book adaptation? Maybe. It could clear $15-20, right?  For a 3D film, that would be a disaster. $30? Maybe. The Guru figures $10 and and Box Office Mojo thinks $7.8 will be on the mark. They’re probably right, but I’m still think $20 is closer to the mark, even if they gave up on marketing it.

Not a great summer for animation, at least if you’re somebody who expects the phrase “instant classic” to be attached to whatever Pixar, Disney, Dreamworks, Universal or Blue Sky sends out.

The reviews for “Turbo” have turned out to be underwhelming. Not bad, just indifferent. A “Cars” with Snails. Will the Fast/Furious crowd show up? It has Latino characters and something of a car culture background (It might have worked better with the snail racing street racers, tuners and others. A snail in the Indy 500?).

“The Conjuring” is a perfectly passable neo-realist horror film from the folks who gave us “Insidious.” The characters, demons and situations may be over-familiar. But there’s humor in the knowing, sophisticated audience’s reaction to these 1971 ghost hunters and their primitive gear and unknowing reaction to what they’re confronting. Chilling enough, and good reviews for this one.

“RED 2” picks up where the first “RED” left off — Bruce in love with Mary Louise, Mary Louise still the naif learning about his life of assassins and attempted assassinations. John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Anthony Hopkins and David Thewlis, a lot of “old man” jokes and a lot of action. And one-liners. Mixed to negative reviews for that one. Tuesday, it was looking like a film that would curry the worst reviews of the weekend, but the hardcore BRuce haters have been voted off the island.

Worst reviews? Those go to Kristen Wiig’s annoyingly off-key “Girl Most Likely.” She’s 40 next month. She’s wearing more makeup than Sandra Bullock, which works against her character — a loser who is ready to give up. Not an awful film. Matt Dillon is over the top funny, Annette Bening amuses. But Wiig isn’t at her best, here.

And there’s also “R.I.P.D.,” which promised a sort of gonzo, goofy “just go with it” quality, which this expensive-looking, heartless miscalculation never quite musters. Funny bits, many of them involving Jeff Bridges and Mary-Louise Parker, but as comic book adaptations go, this one points to how problematic turning thin books into thinner films can be..

They bicker, emotionally blackmail each other, kiss and make up. Because they have history.
But Bruce Willis and John Malkovich aren’t the “real” couple at the heart of “RED 2,” the action comedy sequel about retired government assassins. They’re just part of a love triangle, one that Mary Louise Parker completes. Her character Sarah may be Frank’s (Willis) dizzy but decreasingly naive lady love, but Marvin is the one who gullibly fills her in on this bloody if exciting life they’ve led and somehow continue to lead. And he’s the one who gives her guns.
“”It is America, Frank!”
Frank is incredulous. But as the bullets fly and the plot thickens, once mild-mannered Sarah gets into the spirit of things entirely too quickly.
“Let’s face it, Columbo,” she purrs at him. “Things were getting a little stale.”
The joy of “RED” was seeing a cast packed with Oscar winners (Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, Richard Dreyfuss, Ernest Borgnine) and very good actors (Malkovich, Parker, Brian Cox and Karl Urban) flesh out and class up a Bruce Willis action film. “Codgers make the coolest killers” was its motto.
And if anything, this “Retired, Extremely Dangerous” sequel ups the ante. There’s a new acronym — “ICE, incarcerated, cannot execute.” They’ve replaced killed-off Oscar winners with Anthony Hopkins as an addled old scientist and Catherine Zeta-Jones as a Russian agent and one-time lady love of Frank’s. And the change in directors to comedy-specialist Dean Parisot (“Galaxy Quest”) means there’s a laugh a minute amid all this mayhem.
Somebody’s Wikileaked info about a secret bomb project named “Nightshade” that Frank and Marvin were linked to decades before. Now they need to survive the hitmen — played by Neal McDonough (“The Guardian”) and Korean actor and martial arts star (“I Saw the Devil,” “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” ) Byung-hun Lee — sent to get them. Frank and Marvin also have to find the mad scientist who built the bomb (Hopkins) to clear their names.
Frank drags Sarah along to Paris, Moscow and London as they do. Mirren returns as her droller-than-droll MI6 assassin, Brian Cox reprises his Russian spy boss. And David Thewlis shows up as a sadistic spy and snooty wine lover.
Some bit players are bland, but the difference between Bruce Willis in the more recent “Die Hards” and here is that of an exhausted old man forced to repeat himself and carry a movie versus a lark where he gives action cred to supporting players who do the heavy, funny lifting.
It’s a movie of hilarious reaction shots — little moments where the mere expression on M.L. Parker, Mirren, Hopkins or Malkovich’s face sells the gag — and scores and more scores of jokes. Malkovich is a laugh riot — check out how he pizza schools a Russian whose Moscow Papa John’s they take over while breaking into the Kremlin. Moments after an epic brawl ends, Byung-hun Lee’s Han-the-Hitman limps away, and for effect gives a vigorous shake of the leg that early in the fight we saw take a vicious whack from a fire extinguisher.
The car chases are played for exciting laughs. Sarah dives into an ancient French Citroen deux chevaux and shouts, “I”ve SO got this!” even when she SO doesn’t. And the fights are both credible and in the case of the skilled Mr. Lee, INcredible.
It’s all ground we’ve sort of covered before and things do tend to drag before the too-violent third act turns too-bloody.
But “Red 2” goes down easily, from Marvin’s demented moments of relationship advice to Dame Helen’s tender and amusing “Hitchcock” reunion with Sir Anthony. There’s a knowing twinkle in their eyes, and in everybody else’s.
“Yeah, we could’ve done a Bond film,” they seem to wink. “And it would’ve been a bloody fun one, at that.”

MPAA Rating:PG-13 for pervasive action and violence including frenetic gunplay, and for some language and drug material.
Cast: Bruce Willis, Mary Louise Parker, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Byung-hun Lee, David Thewlis
Credits: Directed by Dean Parisot. A Summit release
Running time: 1:48

This isn’t the annual assessment of bang-for-your-movie-investment-buck list that Forbes compiles, telling us which stars are actually worth the big salaries they command, in box office, and which aren’t.
It’s a simple statement of earnings over the past year.
“Iron Man” Downey cleared $60 million, Channing Tatum had a big year in the $50s, as did Hugh Jackman.
Mark Wahlberg came in fourth, and surprisingly, Dwayne Johnson, whose star seems to have faded, made it to number 5.