Oct 27 2008 'Senior Year' Wins Box Office, Because Seniors RULE
The weekend box office numbers are in!
1. High School Musical 3: Senior Year - Yeesh, $42 million? I'm sensing a High School Musical: The College Years, High School Musical: The New Class, High School Musical: Hawaiian Style, and a High School Musical: Wedding in Las Vegas can't be far behind.
2. Saw V - $30.5 million, and now millions of people know a few more elaborate and painful ways to murder you.
3. Max Payne - Whups, just $7.6 million. The only thing emptier than the seats was Wahlberg's performance! I just got you so bad, Wahlberg.
4. Beverly Hills Chihuahua - Since dropping another two spots with only $6.9 million, I've switched my take on talking dogs from a "don't buy" to a "sell."
5. Pride & Glory - Of course it only made $6.3 million; who can relate to pride or glory? You want to get people in the seats, make Shame & Self-Pity.
Weekend Box Office Results [Box Office Mojo]
Oct 20 2008 Everyone Loved 'Max Payne' Last Weekend
The weekend box office went thusly:
1. Max Payne - $18 million. I thought I'd be happy that talking dogs were no longer the #1 movie, but I've decided talking Mark Wahlberg can often be just as bad.
2. Beverly Hills Chihuahua - $11.2 million. No, never mind. Forget everything I said. Talking dogs are worse.
3. The Secret Life of Bees - $11.1 million, because everyone wants to know just what the hell bees have been up to all these years.
4. W. - Made $10.6 million and successfully convinced most audiences not to vote for Bush this time.
5. Eagle Eye - $7.3 million. So, anyway, an eagle's eye: best eye? Probably.
Weekend Box Office Results [Box Office Mojo]
Oct 16 2008 'Max Payne' Ending Warns of 'Max Payne' Sequel
If you go to see Max Payne this weekend, Cinema Blend has tip for you: remain comatose an extra five minutes, and you get an extra scene past the credits!
Much like Jon Favreau did with Iron Man this summer, director John Moore has included a scene at the very end of Max Payne that gives you just the info you need to go into a potential Max Payne 2.
Well, I know what I'd need to go into a potential Max Payne 2: a gun! To shoot myself! Or I'd at least need someone to clue me in on what I need to know from Max Payne 1, because there's no way I'm watching that.
Oct 9 2008 Here's Another 'Max Payne' Poster
Max Payne opens in a week, but in case you hadn't picked that up from the previous five posters, here's another one to remind you. Clever photoshopping guns in Mark Wahlberg's hands to mask the actor's actual hopelessness. If we could see his limp, open palms, it would be way too obvious that this is the exact moment he gave up.
Max Payne Poster [Trailer Addict]
Sep 8 2008 'Max Payne' Hates the MPAA, and Vice Versa
This portly, scornful man with a face like a porthole of flesh in a sea of fur is Max Payne director John Moore. He's currently upset, because somehow The Dark Knight getting a PG-13 rating has caused his film to not get a PG-13 rating, because the MPAA is totally gay for Batman:
We’re suffering from what I call Batman blowback. The Motion Picture Association of America gave The Dark Knight a PG-13 rating and basically sucked Warner Bros. cock. I have a serious amount of issues with the MPAA. Did you know it was made up of volunteers? As if that somehow excludes them from some type of wrongdoing. You can’t serve on it if you’re a homosexual or if you didn’t grow up in a shared parenthood home. Go to their website and read their charter about what gives a fair and balanced view for typical parents. We’re still strangled by an association that’s straight out of the House Un-American Activities Committee.
So, as he suggested, I looked at the MPAA website, and, well, John Moore, you couldn't be more wrong:
The latest poll results show that 78% of parents with children under 13 found the ratings to be "very useful" to "fairly useful" in helping them make decisions about what movies their children see.
See? Three-fourths of parents found the only system we have in place to provide any sort of reference of a movie's appropriateness for children to be sort of useful. That's like bread getting a rating of "mostly satisfactory" for use in sandwiches. Not that bad of a score until you realize, wait, what else would possibly be more useful?
John Moore Pissed with Film Ratings Board [Das Gamer, via /Film]
Aug 29 2008 You Can't Say 'Max Payne' Doesn't Look Enough Like a Video Game
Well, there's a new trailer for Max Payne, and with it comes more clues to exactly what's going on in this thing besides slow-motion shooting things. Things that happen: Max Payne fights the bald guy mummy from The Mummy; Max Payne fights creatures he comes to know as valkyries, after a freak tells him they're valkyries; Max Payne recreates his favorite scenes from Die Hard; Ludacris is someone dressed as "a detective" for Halloween; That '70s Show takes her top off. Together, these elements form what almost amounts to a movie:
Continue Reading " You Can't Say 'Max Payne' Doesn't Look Enough Like a Video Game "
Aug 21 2008 New Posters Where 'Max Payne' Stares at the Ground
Mark Wahlberg: forever blurring the line between "pensive stare" and "hey, I think that's a quarter."
One more looking-down-to-simulate-emotion poster under the cut.
Continue Reading " New Posters Where 'Max Payne' Stares at the Ground "
Jul 24 2008 'Max Payne' Posters Promise Guns, Angels, Shafts of Light
Well, Max Payne: The Video Game: The Movie has a couple posters, and it looks like they're going to stick with this Mark Wahlberg vs. Angel of Death Thing motif they set up in the trailer. I don't know how relevant that is to the source material, but I guess I can't argue that the promise of guns and angels is a pretty decent way to market to much of middle America.
Under the cut: poster #2, which takes inspiration from the video game cover art and that Banky character's graffiti that's so popular with the kids nowadays.
Continue Reading " 'Max Payne' Posters Promise Guns, Angels, Shafts of Light "
Jul 11 2008 New 'Max Payne' Shots Prove Functionality of 'Rotate °90' Tool
Mark Wahlberg levitates while demonstrating his Spencer's novelty pistol lighters that always fire parallel to the ground regardless of how they're aimed.
More unfortunate Max Payne shots here.
Jul 10 2008 'Max Payne' Trailer Might Be Best Action Movie Trailer Based on a Video Game Inspired by Action Movies Yet
In an age where many video games are clearly paying homage to the action films that inspired their carnage, I imagine it would be pretty hard to find a way to adapt them into something inspired. The Mark Wahlberg-starring adaptation of Matrixy, John Woo-ish gangster game Max Payne doesn't appear to succeed on that count either, but I will say it at least looks like a generic amalgam of scenes from other, better action movies instead of the usual horrible video game adaptation standard: looking like a horrible video game adaptation. So kudos for that, and further kudos for adding those angel vultures that neither I, in the limited time I spent watching someone else play, or anyone on Kotaku seem to remember from the game. They could have just gone the faithful if boring route, but no, they decided to add some Lord of the Rings wraith-esque elements that will keep Max Payne fan forums buzzing with furious WTFs for weeks. My only real issue is that I find it so hard to believe Mark Wahlberg as a cop after he so thoroughly convinced me he was a science teacher in The Happening.
Thanks to everyone who sent this over.
Mar 11 2008 Mark Wahlberg as 'Max Payne'
It's hard to get too excited about the first shot from Max Payne: the costume is just Mark Wahlberg in a black jacket, the film follows the sorrowful tradition of being based on a video game, and it's a video game that relies heavily on slow-motion "bullet time" effects--meaning we'll get more of the "awesome" slow-motion gunfire treatment Wanted is based around that we already tired of during The Matrix era.
Anyway, now that I've beaten down your expectations, here's the first look at Mark Wahlberg in Max Payne.
First Look at Mark Wahlberg as Max Payne [Dark Zero]
Nov 9 2007 Some Other Crap That Happened...
- Another movie based on a video game? That could only be good if they got Mark Wahlberg to star as Max Payne, a cop who has "little regard for the rules." Wait, they did?! [Variety]
- Josh Harnett and Sam Rockwell have joined George-Radliff's adaptation of End Zone, with Hartnett playing a talented running back and Rockwell taking the role of an excitable publicist. I hope Hartnett can pull off the role of a good-looking jock. [Variety]
- If you're in LA, make sure to catch Life of Reilly, opening this weekend--or at least watch an episode of Match Game 76--to get your regular dose of Charles Nelson Reilly. I'll be catching it in New York next weekend to ward against the phantom ascot pains common to CNR withdrawal.
- Writers Guild members: continue not writing. You're on strike, sillyheads! And it's the weekend!
