Interesting to see the second career Gillian Anderson has managed for herself in the UK, playing the counter-terrorism boss to Clive Owen’s field agent in “Shadow Dancer” being her latest Brit role.
Andrea Riseborough is the woman turned by agent Clive Owen in an attempt to infiltrate the IRA and get to one of it’s leaders. Solid looking thriller, based on the trailer. “Coming soon.”
The historical baseball biopic “42” did a very healthy $27 million+ at the box office on its opening weekend. Decent reviews, good word of mouth, a subject that caused TV newscasts and sports radio (and other radio) talk shows to get people who knew Jackie Robinson on the air to talk about him made this a hit.
Since it cost only $38 million (that shows up in some of the casting decisions, the digital ballparks), this one looks like a pre-summer success story, probably pulling in $60 million or so in theaters in the US, a little more from Canada and overseas and more still from video.
“Scary Movie V” is pulling in almost $15 million this weekend. Deadline.com calls that a “bomb.” It can’t have cost that much, and it’ll clear mid$20s before all is said and done.
“The Croods” is closing in n $150 million. “G.I. Joe” is over $100 million. “Evil Dead” took a plunge in its second week, and looks to end up with about $60 when it’s run its course.
“Place in the Pines” opened wide and cracked the top ten.
Zoe Bell, the great stuntwoman who earned her bones doubling “Xena: Warrior Princess,”: but who came to fame as Quentin Tarantino’s go-to stuntwoman and big name star of “Death Proof,” did a Q & A at the Florida Film Festival Saturday after a screening of “Death Proof.” Tarantino “started training me as an actress, just asking questions about motivations” when Zoe was doing stunts for “Kill Bill,” doubling Uma Thurman. She’s 44 now, and moving into producing as well as acting with “Raze,” a girlfight to the death thriller showing at Tribeca next week. Meanwhile, her latest acting only work was in “Oblivion,” which opens Friday. She got all starstruck working with Tom Cruise, going a little weak in the knees when she heard his voice on set before seeing him for the first time. “I’ve known him since ‘Risky Business,’ only I don’t know him.” She got over the starstruck thing, but never quite got in the groove of calling him “TC” on the set, as everybody else did. More on Zoe later. The Florida Film Festival continues through Sunday at the Enzian in Maitland and the REgal Winter Park 20.
Zoe, as you can see, withstood the heat and signed a LOT of autographs afterward. What a sweetie.
People applauded at the packed evening screening of “42” I attended early last week. Yes, it’s sentimental and old-fashioned, with more than a dash of white liberal guilt sprinkled in for added appeal.
It was sure to appeal to an older audience, is up against the “period pic” prejudice and the baseball movie prejudice and the few “name” stars handicap. Reviews weren’t uniformly glowing, understandable, since as I pointed out, it’s got a few casting and focus problems.
But “42” is a hit. Friday it did a solid $8.5 million, and it could clear $25 by the time the weekend’s over. That’s a good 25% above estimates for what it would earn its opening weekend. Not bad. It could be something of a last hurrah for Harrison Ford, a hit when he hasn’t had one in ages.
When I saw “Scary Movie 5,” there were two of us in the theater. There were no late night showings of it before its official Friday opening. Theater execs and I know this franchise is way past played and this genre has been beaten to death. “A Haunted House,” with “Scary” innovator Marlon Wayans, stole its thunder back in January. I’m shocked it is doing as well as it is — over $13. I doubt if that holds up.
A weak weekend overall for the movies.
Never chatted with Michael “Transformers/Bad Boys” Bay before.
He’s earned a lot of heat and abuse for this and that over the years — the “Transformers” movies, a couple of which were reasonably pleasant surprises. Slick editing, sort of a Tony Scott-TNG.
“Pain & Gain”, his latest, is a piece of South Florida history, a dark comedy about ditzy body builders who schemed to kidnap a low-rent tycoon and have him sign over his properties to them. It’s a Mark Wahlberg/Dwayne Johnson/Anthony Mackie buddy picture that’s just daft enough to point out “This is still a true story” when things get outrageous and stupid and bloody and dark.
Got questions for Mr. Bay? Not about Megan Fox, I mean? I have some things in mind about the film as a reflection of his sense of humor/sensibilities, but I’m looking for suggestions.
Post them as comments below, and as always, thanks for the,help.
“True Grit’s” Hailee Steinfeld is the Juliet here. Douglas Booth is her Romeo.
Note that this trailer to the Julian Fellowes adaptation lets our girl ride — a horse — and well.
Paul Giamatti makes a promising Friar Lawrence. It looks gushy and tragic. On the nose, in other words.
Here’s a distressing memory that I really must thanks Box Office Mojo for dredging up.
“Scary Movie 4,” which came out seven years ago, earned a staggering $40 million on its opening weekend. Wow.
Does that correlate to how “Scary Movie 5” will perform this weekend? Not likely. There have been a lot of non-horror related spoofs along these lines over the past seven years. I saw “Scary” Friday. There were two of us in the theater.
“Mojo” figures it could hit the teens this weekend. And Mojo figures that will come in behind a $20 million or so weekend for “42,” the entertaining Jackie Robinson biopic. Baseball movies don’t do great business, and period pieces have a hard time finding tracking.
Which might be why the Box Office Guru figures it’ll be an $18-17 weekend, with “Scary” edging “42” when all is said and done.
Is there another big weekend in “Evil Dead”? Probably not, but $10 million is within reach.
“Scary Movie 5” comes up short in every way imaginable.
Is it the violence, the torture, the nudity, that had Chinese authorities pull “Django Unchained” off their release slate Thursday, just as it was about to open (after being edited down by Tarantino)?
Or was something more sinister at work?
THR is reporting that negotiations are underway to try and get the film released April 30, since it missed this week, and with Chinese distributor Sony keeping mum about it, one can only guess what is happening in the world’s largest dictatorship.
THR also has a story on how the World Pirating Superpower will present the locals plenty of unpaid, unsanctioned ways of getting to the movie should the release never happen.
