Movie Nation

“Warm Bodies” is surfing the wave of middling expectations to a probable $20 million weekend at the box office on Super Bowl weekend, thanks to a $500,000 Thursday midnight/$8 million plus Friday.

Decent reviews for that one won’t hurt (Here’s mine).

“Mama” is still holding audience, “Hansel & Gretel” isn’t — a STEEP dive for the 3D horror fantasy. Ninth place in its second weekend? Ouch.

I would not have thought it possible that Sly Stallone would deliver a bigger retro bomb than Arnie Schwarzenegger’s “Last Stand” slapdown. But it looks as if Sly’s “Bullet to the Head” will be lucky to clear $5 million this weekend. His audience has aged out of going to the movies. Period. Weak reviews didn’t help.

“Stand Up Guys” needed great reviews and a sudden urge by 60somethings to go to the movies to be a hit. And it didn’t get either. It won’t even crack the top ten.

“Zero Dark” and “Silver Linings” are riding their Oscar nominations to another weekend in the top ten.

The DGA field for best film director — Bigelow, Affleck, Ang Li, Tom Hooper and Spielberg — is closer to conventional than the Oscar nominees in that category, with Affleck and Bigelow both left out.

And if “Argo” wins — yet again — tonight, giving Ben Affleck everything BUT the Oscar, you have to fdigure it’s the odds-on best picture favorite. Oscar voting kicks off Feb. 8 and the Oscars are handed out Feb. 24. The tide is flowing “Argo’s” way.

Apparently, Magnolia has the makings of a a cult hit on its hands.

“John Dies at the End” has a good cast (Paul Giamatti has a supporting role), decent reviews and an offbeat plot and sensibility, and that’s drawing viewers to the few theaters where it’s playing.

So it’s going to open wider. Go figure. Happens a few times a year. This one rolled out on VOD in Dec. and in theaters a couple of weeks ago, and it’s catching on with the kids. Or somebody.

The stars of “Flight” and “Django Unchained” were feted at last night’s NAACP Image Awards.

As was the botched but well-intentioned “Red Tails,” the George Lucas-produced account of the exploits of the Tuskegee Airmen.

Samuel L. Jackson and Kerry Washington earned praise for their work in “Django.” A bit of a head scratcher in each account.

Viola Davis won an award for “Won’t Back Down,” a good performance in a movie propped up by a conservative ideologue who wanted to bash teachers unions.

And “Beasts of the Southern Wild” and “The Intouchables” took honors in indie and foreign language film categories.

Continue reading →

Ghost Town serves as a very nice vehicle for the comedy stylings of Ricky Gervais, the Brit originator of The Office and showbiz-savvy (not really) star of Extras. Gervais does clueless, wounded misanthropy well, and his Ghost Town character, Dr. Bertram Pincus, is that in spades — lonely, needy, but so hostile to the rest of the human race that you’d never know it.

But one day Dr. Pincus has a minor surgical procedure. Something goes amiss with the anesthesia, and he dies — for seven minutes. When he wakes, he sees dead people. And hears them. When they realize he can see and hear them, they won’t leave him alone. They need favors from him, but he isn’t having it.

Continue reading →