Nov 2 2009 Michael Jackson Posthumously Popular
Your weekend box office report:
1. This Is It - $21.3 million. It pays to video tape major celebrities rehearsing shortly before their unexpected deaths. I knew it would.
2. Paranormal Activity - $16.5 million. I expect this film will take a dive now that the Hallowe'en specters have finally left our homes.
3. Law Abiding Citizen - $7.3 million, a victory for both law and citizenship. And abiding.
4. Couples Retreat - $6.1 million. What? Still?
5. Saw VI - $5.6 million, narrowly besting Saw VII and IX, both of which materialized sometime Sunday afternoon and already made their budget back.
Weekend Box Office Results [Box Office Mojo]
Oct 26 2009 Weekend Box Office: No One Did Anything Good Besides 'Paranormal Activity'
1. Paranormal Activity - $22 million, bringing the low budget specter story up to over $62 million gross. And yet Ghost Dad, with the same paranormal theme plus Bill Cosby's star power, only made $24.7 domestic over its entire run. It just doesn't make any sense.
2. Saw VI - $14.8 million. Does this mean we're finally done with bizarre torture movies? Good--maybe now we can get some actual bizarre torture done.
3. Where the Wild Things Are - $14.4 million. This film has our best ogreish monster portrayals since Fraggle Rock. That is inarguable.
4. Law Abiding Citizen - $12.7 million. I just can't understand the appeal of a movie about what sounds like a standard, rule-following member of society. What's the draw?
5. Couples Retreat - $11 million. Despite dismal reviews and having been in theaters for three weeks, still able to beat Astroboy and Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, neither of which I'm betting are getting a sequel any time soon.
Weekend Box Office Results [Box Office Mojo]
Oct 19 2009 'Where the Wild Thing Are' Our Most Popular Weekend Movie
Your weekend box office top five, friends:
1. Where the Wild Things Are - $32.5 million. Man, did this thing ever take me back to childhood. Particularly the parts of my childhood that involved crying and breaking things.
2. Law Abiding Citizen - $21.3 million. Is support for vigilante justice waning? God, I hope not--that's how I get everything done!
3. Paranormal Activity - $20.2 million. I still can't understand how some camcorder footage of a "ghost" shuffling flour around the floor is somehow so much more popular than the YouTube video of myself shuffling flour around the floor.
4. Couples Retreat - $17.9 million, still managing to hold on to enough of the idiots-who-want-to-see-Couples-Retreat demographic.
5. The Stepfather - $12.3 million. Stepfathers just aren't as popular as they used to be. Biological fathers are all the rage now, guys.
Weekend Box Office Results [Box Office Mojo]
Oct 15 2009 Coming to Projection Screens This Weekend...
Where the Wild Things Are
Director: Spike Jonze
Starring: Max Records, James Gandolfini, Catherine Keener
Good if you want to see: the illustrated monsters of your childhood come to life, and perpetually backlit with sunlight; childlike wonderment; me openly weeping in a crowd of people.
Law Abiding Citizen
Director: F. Gary Gray
Starring: Gerard Butler, Jamie Foxx
Good if you want to see: Gerard Butler kills a bunch of people while confined in a cell; plausibility and your patience stretched to their absolute limits as Gerard Butler kills a bunch of people while confined in a cell.
The Stepfather
Director: Nelson McCormick
Starring: Penn Badgley, Dylan Walsh, Sela Ward
Good if you want to see: why you should NEVER accept a new father into your home. Do you hear me... son?
Black Dynamite (limited)
Director: Scott Sanders
Starring: Michael Jai White, Arsenio Hall, Tommy Davidson
Good if you want to see: blaxploitation parody; Arsenio Hall doing anything besides hosting World's Funniest Moments.
New York, I Love You (limited)
Director: Brett Ratner, Natalie Portman, et al.
Starring: Oh, all kinds of people. I can almost guarantee there's someone you like who you'll lose respect for in this.
Good if you want to see: numerous stories celebrities falling in and out love; directors expressing affection for one of the largest, most popular and beloved cities in the world? That's weird.
Aug 20 2009 'Law Abiding Citizen' Poster: Ah, That's a Familiar Sight
This poster nearly perfectly recreates what I see every morning when I stop at the local toy shoppe and covetously stare through their display window at that Lawyer Gear Jamie Foxx doll I want so desperately. I'll have you one day, Jamie Fox doll. One day.
'Law Abiding Citizen' Poster [IMPA]
Aug 19 2009 'Law Abiding Citizen' Has This Really Awesome Explosion!
From my electronic mailbox:
I’m working on Overture’s upcoming Jamie Foxx/Gerard Butler suspense thriller flick, LAW ABIDING CITIZEN. (Which comes out October 16th!)The director of the film, F. Gary Gray (Be Cool, The Italian Job) just tweeted from his personal twitter account http://twitter.com/F_Gary_Gray a link to a really awesome explosion that they just shot for some added special effects sequences in the film – I’ve included a quick snapshot of the video [above]
Radical, dudes! A really awesome explosion! Really awesome explosions are like my favorite thing--after pizza and neon images of skateboarding youths, of course! So sweet.
Also included in that email: this link to F. Gary Gray's Twitter account, which has a link to not the actual explosion but a YouTube search for "f gary gray explosion." I guess that keeps the link relevant, in case director F. Gary Gray posts more F. Gary Gray explosions in the future.
Video of this misguided marketing attempt:
Continue Reading " 'Law Abiding Citizen' Has This Really Awesome Explosion! "
May 20 2008 David Lynch Puts Some Still Warm Panties in His Mouth
As much as I try to keep abreast of developments from big-name directors, sometimes, despite my best efforts, things slip between the cracks. I missed that Frank Darabont will be directing Law Abiding Citizen with Gerard Butler in the lead; that Spielberg plans to return attention to his long-rumored Abraham Lincoln biopic once he finished work on Tintin; oh, and that David Lynch put a pair of a fan's still "very warm" panties in his mouth.
I find out the very day Lynch releases a video monologue complaining about the iPhone, but somehow no one thinks to send me the one where he shoves a girl's unmentionables in his mouth--even when it's been around long enough to be re-mixed with Twin Peaks music. (IT HAS.) Thanks for nothing, internet denizens.
Disturbing video below the cut.
Continue Reading " David Lynch Puts Some Still Warm Panties in His Mouth "
