Movie Nation

“Violet & Daisy” plays like a live-action version of a Japanese manga comic. Lurid and bloody, it has elaborate gunplay and kinky-kitschy lollipop sucking schoolgirls working as assassins to pay for their teen fashions and teen music obsessions. Vintage pop hits underscore their mob hits. And in between “jobs,” they pause for a game of patty-cake or hopscotch, or gush about the latest fashions worn by their favorite pop idol, Barbie Sunday.
But this was written and directed by Geoffrey Fletcher, who scripted “Precious,” so the bizarre blend of Kewpie doll-coltish and “cult film” is purely American made.
Alexis Bledel graduates from the “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” to full-on sociopath as Violet, who seems to relish packing two pistols into a “Righteous Pizza” box which she and Daisy (Saoirse Ronan of “Hanna”) then deliver, dressed in nun’s habits, to unsuspecting victims — whom they riddle with bullets. Hey, how many jobs let you play dress-up on the way to work?
Daisy is the more submissive half of the duo, taking all her cues from the more mercenary Violet. Their conversational interludes run the gamut from fashion to what heaven is like.
“Everything’s free,” Violet fantasizes about the afterlife, “or at least wholesale.”
They take their assignments from Russ (Danny Trejo) and pedal to some of their assignments by tricycle. They share an apartment, fashion sense, worldview–everything.
“Everything’s a TEST when you’re a career woman.”
That worldview gets shaken up when they’re sent to kill a man (James Gandolfini) who doesn’t dread their arrival. He welcomes it. And that throws them off.
“Should we wake him up, or just pop him?”
But this “job” has a back story — one they piece together from a message on his answering machine. And there’s another crew — of much older men — planning to murder this guy, too.
“Step aside, jailbait.”
Fletcher and his players never quite hit on a tone that works. Fantastical dream sequences and side trips to the store to get “more bullets” never quite rise to the level of wry commentary. This just isn’t as cute and funny as Fletcher seems to think it is.
The set-up — schoolgirl age hit women — is all. But little flourishes — Bledel emptying two pistols into her targets, or skating across a blood-slickened bathroom floor — stand out. Even if this doesn’t click at the box office, Fletcher could easily make back his budget selling this in Japan. Provided he puts his lollipop heroines in school uniforms for a scene or two.

MPAA Rating: R, for language: violence, disturbing behavior
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Alexis Bledel, James Gandolfini, Danny Trejo
Credits: Written and directed by Geoffrey Fletcher. A Cinedigm release.
Running time: 1:28

In Shakespeare’s day, “Nothing” was a double entendre, and a sexual one at that. And “noting” was a sexual innuendo, not to mention a pun on “nothing.”
So when the Bard titled his comedy “Much Ado About Nothing,” the man was joking about sex.
The sexiness moves front and center in Joss Whedon’s black and white production of “Much Ado,” a winking comedy with dark underpinnings and some of Shakespeare’s most wicked wordplay.
Claudio: “Benedick, didst thou note the daughter of Signor Leonato?”
Benedick: “I noted her not, but I looked on her.”
As in, “Yeah dude, I saw her. But no, I haven’t hit that.”
Whedon rounded up members of his TV repertory company — “Buffy” and “Angel” and “Dollhouse” and “Firefly” vets — and filmed the play in and around his rambling (wife-designed) home, a modern dress “Much Ado” that has cellphones and limos and security details looking over these flirting and feuding folk, with many of the males among them freshly returned from war.
Reed Diamond is Don Pedro, leading his entourage to a visit with Leonato (Clark Gregg). Young, headstrong Claudio (Fran Kranz) is instantly smitten with Leonato’s daughter, Hero (Jillian Morgese). But hit-it-and-quit-it trooper Benedick (Alexis Denisof) is less impressed. He’s too busy bickering with the razor-tongued Beatrice (Amy Acker) to warn off the younger man.
And that prisoner of war, Don Pedro’s half-brother, Don John  (Sean Maher) is skulking around, sexing up one aide (Riki Lindhome) and plotting discord with the other (Spencer Treat Clark). With Claudio determined to marry Hero in a rush, there’s just enough time to sew the seeds of mistrust and create an incident which might benefit the aptly-named “Don John-the-Bastard.”
This bare-bones production has little of the froth and charisma of Kenneth Branagh’s lush period-dress version of 1993. Truthfully, the leads are serviceable, competent and amusing, but TV-bland and take some getting used to. But the wit and wordplay are fine form, and some bits of casting are inspired.
Dogberry, the malapropism-spouting constable is a David Caruso-inspired boob of a cop. Here, he’s played with deadpan glee by Nathan Fillion (“Firefly,” TV’s “Castle”). He’s got the sunglasses, the haughty pose. And he’s got the best lines.
“Marry, sir, they have committed false report; moreover, they have spoken untruths; secondarily, they are slanders; sixth and lastly, they have belied a lady; thirdly, they have verified unjust things; and, to conclude, they are lying knaves.”
This being Shakespeare and a comedy, you know that love will triumph long before the last “Hey nonny nonny.” And not for nothing, Whedon does a wonderful job of lending weight to the betrayals and adding sexual spark to a play that’s always been notably, noticeably sexy.

(LINK: Roger Moore talks with Whedon and Fillion about The Bard, the Buff and the fanBoys).
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some sexuality and brief drug use
Cast: Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Jillian Morgese, Clark Gregg, Fran Kranz, Nathan Fillion
Credits: Written and directed by Joss Whelon, based on the Shakespeare play. A Roadside Attractions release.

The Hollywood blockbuster took in an impressive $25 million plus in the newly-important Chinese market over the weekend. That’s without any scenes set there, any Chinese characters or any pandering to Chinese interests, unlike say “Iron Man 3.”

Last year, “Star Wars” fans raced from Santa Monica to San Diego, in costume, to raise money for the Make a Wish Foundation.
This year, this Lucas-sanctioned event (he buys into most charitable uses of his trademarks like this) will start at the Ranch George Built — Skywalker Ranch, north of San Francisco. That’s an added bonus for fans who’ve never been there, and a great photo op for LucasFilm, which is banking on a whole new J.J. Abrams “Star Wars” trilogy to refresh this blockbuster franchise.

So here’s what we know. Jesse Eisenberg is box office. Will Smith? Still box office. Jaden Smith? Not happening.
“Now You See Me,” the cleverly cast and marketed but not so carefully scripted (seriously, you make it look like they’re robbing the rich and the banks and giving to the poor, and it doesn’t really) did a robust $28 million+ and Summit could claim weekend victory over “After Earth,” Will Smith’s critically lambasted attempt to pass his stardom on to his son, Jaden. It was a hard sell for Sony/Columbia, and no amount of hype could make it look like a sci fi epic that it wasn’t. No amount of spin could make it appear that it wasn’t some unseemly effort to “bestow” on precocious Jaden the stardom that has been an iffy proposition for much of Will Smith’s career. It was predicted to do as much as $40.
“After Earth” still managed about $27 million, but it cost $135.

And “Fast & Furious 6” still won its second weekend. That one fell off over 64% to pull in $34.5. That’s still enough to get it over $170.

“Star Trek Into Darkness” is now over $181, “Iron Man 3” is fading just shy of $400 million. “Epic” lost only 50% of its audience and is now over $65. Not an animated blockbuster, not by a long shot.

In indie releases — “The East” had a HUGE per screen average, and “Before Midnight” and “The Kings of Summer” did well on just a few screens, too. “Frances Ha” opened wider and almost cracked the top ten. “Mud,” however, is closing in on $20 million, and puts them all to shame.