Nov 16 2009 Weekend Box Office Goes Just As Mayans Foretold
Your weekend box office results. Save a tree; don't print them out this week.
1. 2012 - $65 million, a huge outpouring of support for the film's once hugely popular but now aging star, Flooding and Explosions.
2. A Christmas Carol - $22.3 million, another mediocre weekend that gives hope we might not have to endure A Christmas Carol 2: Scrooge the Pooch.
3. The Men Who Stare at Goats - $6.2 million. Don't believe any of this film's B.S. staring-at-goats-could-kill-them theories. I've stared at so many animals and people wishing they would die, and it never pays off.
4. Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire - $6.1 million--and that's on only 174 screens--giving hope to all those other little indie dramas that also have the endorsements of two of America's most influential women (Oprah and Madea).
5. This Is It - $5.1 million. Weren't we promised this would be out of theaters by now, finally allowing Michael Jackson's soul to escape the limbo of consumerism?
Weekend Box Office Results [Box Office Mojo]
Nov 10 2009 Weekend Box Office Results: A Christmas Carol, Absolutely Any Christmas Carol, Is Good Enough
Your weekend box office report. Share it with friends (and would-be friends as a great icebreaker!):
1. A Christmas Carol - $30 million. In these desperate times (sort of nearing Christmas), people needed a movie of hope (something with Christmas in the title).
2. Michael Jackson's This Is It - $13.2 million. It's like being at Michael Jackson's final performance, only he's still rehearsing it, and it's after months of his death coverage have made you too auto-angry at his image to enjoy any of it.
3. The Men Who Stare at Goats - $12.7 million, a modest number that reflects the insult the film dealt to our nation's many great goat herders--many of whom actually do spend a lot of time staring at goats and take offense to the idea it is in any way interesting.
4. The Fourth Kind - $12.2 million (The alien one.)
5. Paranormal Activity - $8.3 million (The one with ghosts.)
Weekend Box Office Results [Box Office Mojo]
Nov 5 2009 The Weekend's New Moving Picture Releases
Don't just sit at home playing your CD-ROMs; enjoy a film this weekend. Here are some options:
A Christmas Carol
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Bob Hoskins, the leads from The Princess Bride
Good if you want to see: disgusting near-humans acting out the well worn tale of Scrooge yet again
The Men Who Stare at Goats
Director: Grant Heslov
Starring: Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey
Good if you want to see: Coen Brothers-esque comedy from non-Coens; George Clooney killing goats with his BRAIN
The Fourth Kind
Director: Olatunde Osunsanmi
Starring: Milla Jovovich
Good if you want to see: aliens! Or something like that.
The Box
Director: Richard Kelly
Starring: Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, Frank Langella
Good if you want to see: a Twilight Zone episode stretched out an extra hour; whether or not they're going to push that box button for a million dollars (they're totally going to push that box button for a million dollars)
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (limited)
Director: Lee Daniels
Starring: Gabby Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Mariah Carey
Good if you want to see: the depressing story of an obese, illiterate teen twice impregnated by her father and abused by her mother; future Academy Award recipients; whatever Oprah and Tyler Perry want you to see, as usual
Sep 28 2009 'A Christmas Carol' Trailer 2: If Nothing Else, They Owe Ferrell Chest Royalties
This new trailer for Robert Zemeckis's stylelessly-animated A Christmas Carol has a cameo by someone who appears to be a CGI, Christmas-themed version of Terrence Maddox, Will Ferrell's nude male model of SNL fame. Logically, this makes it marginally better than the Christmas Carol trailer that came out two weeks ago.*
*It's possible that trailer included this guy too. I can't pay attention to everything all the time, OK?
Sep 15 2009 'A Christmas Carol' Poster: This Christmas, See This Happen
When your kids beg you to see "the movie with the gaunt, hideous old man straddling a novelty-sized candle snuffer that is flying"--because that's what kids like seeing, and they know how to recognize a giant candle snuffer when they see one--now you'll know what they're talking about.
Bigger version at Cinematical. You can really see the detail the animators put into filling Scrooge's mouth with fillings. This is the start of a revolution in CG dental restorative material.
Sep 14 2009 'Disney's A Christmas Carol' Trailer: Back to the Uncanny Valley
Proving that nearly-realistic, Christmas-themed computer animation can be made slightly creepier than Polar Express when the subject is a deformed old man, here's the new trailer for Robert Zemeckis's adaptation of the well-worn tale of Ebenezer Scrooge.
If you loved the floating feather dancing in the air in Forrest Gump, you'll love the floating snowflake dancing in the air in this trailer. What is Bobby Z's obsession with following delicate, white objects drifting gently to the ground?
Continue Reading " 'Disney's A Christmas Carol' Trailer: Back to the Uncanny Valley "
Jul 7 2009 'Christmas Carol' Poster: Behold Scrooge's Flame Top Hat!
Phew! I was getting worried yet another A Christmas Carol adaptation would omit the fourth, lesser mentioned ghost, the Ghost of Christmas a Miniature Altar Boy Who Uses Fire to Simulate How You'd Look in Various Fancy Hats. Probably the least plot-essential ghost, but a good one I think we've all missed. Welcome back, friend.
'A Christmas Carol 3D' Poster [DVDForum.at]
May 19 2009 'A Christmas Carol' Still Pointless and Slightly Repulsive
Disney has released a new image and short clip from Robert Zemeckis's A Christmas Carol, confirming that, yes, the computer-animated rehashing of the Dickens classic still appears to be superfluous and moderately unsettling to look at, and Jim Carrey's wacky, fluctuating voice is not helping:
Continue Reading " 'A Christmas Carol' Still Pointless and Slightly Repulsive "
Jan 8 2009 Jim Carrey, as Animated Scrooge, Wearing a Translucent Baggy as a Sleeping Cap
Filmz.ru has posted the first look at Jim Carrey as Scrooge in Robert Zemeckis's A Christmas Carol. Like Zemeckis's last project, this film is entirely motion-capture animation, taking the creepy, empty faces of Beowulf and combining them with the creepy, awful faces of the elderly. I'm probably going to throw up during the trailer.
