(Photo by Universal courtesy Everett Collection)
Burt Reynolds did more with a mustache and a grin than most stars manage with all the tools at their disposal — and given that he was also a seriously underrated actor in the bargain, it’s no wonder he was the Platonic ideal of the Hollywood tough guy for roughly a decade between the early ’70s and early ‘80s. While he’s best remembered for the action movies he cranked out at his Smokey and the Bandit peak, Reynolds’ career contained multitudes, from the harrowing rural horror of Deliverance to his Emmy-winning run on TV’s Evening Shade and on through the late-period comeback he enjoyed with his Oscar-nominated appearance in Boogie Nights. Whichever era’s your favorite, Reynolds’ filmography likely still holds a few pleasant surprises for you, which is just one of the many reasons we’ve decided to round up his major roles and sort them by Tomatometer here. And for a collection of some of his most memorable scenes, you can check out this playlist.
91%
90%
90%
83%
83%
80%
80%
76%
72%
67%
57%
67%
50%
62%
61%
The latest movies, new Netflix series, and other new releases coming to the streaming giant this month include critically-acclaimed series — including Peaky Blinders, Schitt’s Creek, The Kominsky Method, and Big Mouth, for example — returning this month.
Plus, El Camino: The Breaking Bad Movie arrives. The film is the highly-anticipated followup to the award-winning TV series that has all five seasons Certified Fresh and was recently voted the TV show that defined the 2000s by Rotten Tomatoes readers.
Read on if you’re looking for a worthy binge, starting with a few titles to look out for at the top.
Premiere Date: Friday, Oct. 4, 2019
Description: As the Shelbys grapple with the 1929 stock market crash, Tommy confronts new threats to his power from younger family members and fascist rivals.
Description: In season 3, Big Mouth focuses on what’s like to be going through puberty now. The show continues exploring human sexuality and everything around it, tackling issues such as cell phone addiction, female anger, the vast spectrum of sexuality, Adderall abuse, dick pics, toxic masculinity, and of course “how to have an orgasm.” As the end of seventh grade rapidly approaches, Thandie Newton shakes things up as Missy’s new Hormone Monstress, and Ali Wong joins the cast as a new student who makes everyone at Bridgeton Middle question their sexuality. The season culminates with a superhero showdown that brings long simmering tensions to a head and tests even the strongest friendships.
Premiere Date: Friday, Oct. 4, 2019
Premiere Date: Friday, Oct. 11, 2019
Description: Written and directed by Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, the Netflix Television Event El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie follows fugitive Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) as he runs from his captors, the law and his past.
Premiere Date: Friday, Oct. 18, 2019
Description: Netflix original series Living With Yourself is an inventive existential comedy that asks: do we really want to be better? Miles (Paul Rudd) is a man struggling in life. When he undergoes a novel spa treatment that promises to make him a better person, he finds he’s been replaced by a new and improved version of himself. As he deals with the unintended consequences of his actions, Miles finds he must fight for his wife (Aisling Bea), his career, and his very identity. Told from multiple perspectives, the eight-episode series was created and written by Emmy Award-winner Timothy Greenberg (The Daily Show with Jon Stewart), directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (The Battle of the Sexes, Little Miss Sunshine) and stars Paul Rudd and…Paul Rudd.
Premiere Date: Friday, Oct. 25, 2019
Description: Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner Eddie Murphy portrays real-life legend Rudy Ray Moore, a comedy and rap pioneer who proved naysayers wrong when his hilarious, obscene, kung-fu fighting alter ego, Dolemite, became a 1970s Blaxploitation phenomenon.
Carmen Sandiego: Season 2 ()
- -
Nikki Glaser: Bangin' (2019)
- -
93 days
A.M.I.
Along Came a Spider (2001)
32%
Bad Boys (1995)
46%
Bad Boys II (2003)
23%
Blow (2001)
56%
Let's Fight Ghost: Season 1 ()
- -
Charlie's Angels (2000)
68%
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003)
41%
Cheese in the Trap: Season 1
Chicago Typewriter: Season 1 ()
- -
Crash (2004)
73%
Exit Wounds (2001)
35%
Good Burger (1997)
33%
Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay (2008)
53%
Honey 2 (2011)
10%
House of the Witch (2017)
- -
Lagos Real Fake Life
Men in Black II (2002)
38%
Moms at War
No Reservations (2007)
42%
Ocean's Thirteen (2007)
70%
Ocean's Twelve (2004)
55%
One Direction: This Is Us (2013)
64%
Payday (2018)
- -
– not sure if right ‘Payday’
Rugrats in Paris: The Movie (2000)
76%
Scream 2 (1997)
83%
Senna (2010)
93%
Signal: Season 1
Sin City (2005)
76%
Sinister Circle (Cementerio General 2) (2016)
- -
Supergirl (1984)
19%
Superman Returns (2006)
72%
Surf's Up (2007)
78%
The Bucket List (2007)
40%
The Flintstones (1994)
23%
The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000)
25%
()
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
67%
The Rugrats Movie (1998)
60%
The Time Traveler's Wife (2009)
38%
Tomorrow With You: Season 1 ()
- -
Trainspotting (1996)
90%
Troy (2004)
53%
The Tunnel: Season 1 ()
83%
Unaccompanied Minors (2006)
30%
Walking Out (2017)
92%
Living Undocumented
Read to Mingle (Solteras)
Rotten: Season 2 ()
- -
Big Mouth: Season 3 ()
97%
Creeped Out: Season 2 ()
- -
In the Tall Grass (2019)
36%
Peaky Blinders: Season 5 ()
86%
Raising Dion: Season 1 ()
83%
Super Monsters ()
- -
: Season 3
Super Monsters: Vida’s First Halloween
Legend Quest: Masters of Myth
Match! Tennis Juniors
The Water Diviner (2014)
63%
Deon Cole: Cole Hearted (2019)
- -
The Spooky Tale of Captain Underpants Hack-a-ween
After (2019)
18%
Rhythm + Flow: Season 1 ()
95%
Schitt's Creek: Season 5 ()
100%
Ultramarine Magmell
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019)
92%
The Forest of Love
Fractured (2019)
56%
Haunted ()
- -
: Season 2
Insatiable: Season 2 ()
- -
The Influence (La influencia) (2019)
- -
Plan Coeur: Season 2
Wolkenbruchs wunderliche Reise in die Arme einer Schickse (2018)
71%
YooHoo to the Rescue ()
- -
: Season 2
Banlieusards
Ghosts of Sugar Land
Sinister 2 (2015)
14%
The Karate Kid (1984)
81%
The Unlisted
The Yard (Avlu)
Baby: Season 2 ()
- -
Eli (2019)
52%
Interior Design Masters: Season 1 ()
40%
()
The Laundromat (2019)
42%
Living With Yourself: Season 1 ()
79%
MeatEater: Season 8 ()
- -
Mighty Little Bheem: Diwali
Seventeen (1983)
- -
Spirit Riding Free: Pony Tales ()
- -
: Season 2
Tell Me Who I Am (2019)
97%
Toon: Seasons 1-2
Unnatural Selection
Upstarts (2019)
- -
Echo in the Canyon (2018)
89%
Free Fire (2016)
69%
()
Dancing with the Birds
Master Z: Ip Man Legacy (2018)
92%
Daybreak: Season 1 ()
68%
Revenge of the Pontianak (2019)
- -
A Tale of Love and Darkness (2015)
72%
Assimilate (2019)
57%
Drug Squad: Costa del Sol: Season 1 ()
- -
Brotherhood: Season 1 ()
- -
Dolemite Is My Name (2019)
97%
Greenhouse Academy ()
- -
: Season 3
The Kominsky Method: Season 2 ()
100%
()
Nailed It! France (C’est du gâteau!)
Nailed It! Spain (Niquelao!)
Prank Encounters: Season 1 ()
40%
Rattlesnake (2019)
32%
It Takes a Lunatic (2019)
- -
A 3 Minute Hug
Little Miss Sumo
Shine On with Reese: Season 1
Flavorful Origins () - - : Yunnan Cuisine
Kengan Ashura ()
- -
: Season 2
()
Raging Bull (1980)
92%
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001)
76%
All the President's Men (1976)
94%
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
91%
Bring It On: In It to Win It (2007)
- -
Cabaret (1972)
92%
Casper (1995)
59%
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
97%
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
83%
Cloverfield (2008)
78%
Deliverance (1972)
90%
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002)
43%
Empire Records (1995)
35%
Evolution (2001)
44%
Forks Over Knives (2011)
61%
Frances Ha (2012)
92%
Free State of Jones (2016)
48%
Get Carter (2000)
11%
Gremlins (1984)
86%
Hoosiers (1986)
92%
Impractical Jokers: Season 1 ()
100%
In Bruges (2008)
84%
Julie & Julia (2009)
76%
Lakeview Terrace (2008)
44%
Midsomer Murders ()
- -
Obsessed (2009)
19%
Pineapple Express (2008)
68%
Platoon (1986)
89%
Quiz Show (1994)
97%
She's Out of My League (2010)
57%
The Dukes of Hazzard (2005)
14%
The Nightmare (2015)
67%
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005)
82%
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (2008)
66%
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
96%
David Blaine: What Is Magic?
Scream 4 (2011)
61%
Little Witch Academia
Little Witch Academia: The Enchanted Parade
Sword Art Online: Season 2 ()
- -
The Fall: Season 1 ()
96%
The Imitation Game (2014)
90%
When Jem and the Holograms makes its truly outrageous way into theaters this weekend, it’ll add another entry to the long list of successful television shows that have been adapted for the big screen. Of course, just because a concept works as a series doesn’t mean it’ll pay off as a film — and although all of us here certainly wish nothing but the best for Jem and her pals on their cinematic adventures, we’re willing to concede the possibility that this will end up being another instance where a few things will be lost in translation. In that spirit, we’ve decided to dedicate this feature to some of the bumpier journeys hit shows have experienced on the way to the cineplex, so don’t touch that dial — it’s time for Total Recall!
Will Ferrell, Danny McBride, and dinosaurs — plus a loose creative affiliation with one of the most beloved live-action Saturday morning serials of the 1970s. It’s a can’t-miss proposition, right? Universal certainly seemed to think so, given that the studio ponied up $100 million and a plum June release date for 2009’s Land of the Lost. Sadly, the result — which starred Ferrell as a nincompoop paleontologist who triggers a time warp and finds himself trapped in the distant past with a college student (Anna Friel) and a gift shop owner (McBride) — didn’t even try to recapture the low-budget magic of the original series, opting instead for a satirical approach that failed to resound with filmgoers and critics alike. “With his belligerent blankness and gawky aplomb, Ferrell has made me laugh as much as any comic of his generation, but he’s not doing anything fresh in Land of the Lost,” opined a disappointed Peter Rainer for the Christian Science Monitor.
Bewitched was an undeniably silly show, but its high-concept premise — about a witch who falls for an ordinary guy and tries to fit in with his suburban existence — was used to address a wide variety of themes and topics during its eight-season run. Updating the show for the 21st century really could have been a good idea, particularly with Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell in the lead and Nora Ephron writing, directing, and producing, but this is one case of the road to cinematic hell being paved with good intentions — not to mention a convoluted script that added an unnecessary meta layer to the whole thing. In this version of Bewitched, Ferrell plays a washed-up actor approached to star in a film adaptation of Bewitched… whose vain attempt to secure a nobody for a co-star leads him to unwittingly cast an actual witch. It’s the kind of self-consciously aware stuff that really needs to be clever in order to work; alas, cleverness proved to be in exceedingly short supply. “If it lost every bad idea, miscast actor, wasted performance, and botched scene,” predicted the A.V. Club’s Nathan Rabin, “nothing would be left but the end credits.”
A number of long-gone television shows were adapted for the big screen in the early 1990s, with wildly varying results; for every critical and commercial hit like The Brady Bunch Movie, there were a number of duds like… well, a few of the other films on this list, actually. Somewhere in the middle sat 1993’s The Beverly Hillbillies, director Penelope Spheeris’ rather inexplicable follow-up to her triumph with Wayne’s World the previous year — although the movie made money, it was a critical disaster, with review after review rejecting the film’s aggressive attempt to update the barn-broad cornpone humor of the hit series. While Spheeris enlisted a talented cast to portray the oil-rich Clampett clan, building a roster of stars that included Cloris Leachman, Lily Tomlin, Dabney Coleman, and Jim Varney, and the movie even worked in a clever cameo from original Beverly Hillbillies star Buddy Ebsen as his other iconic TV character, Barnaby Jones, it simply wasn’t enough to overcome the movie’s many creative flaws. “Four writers worked on the script,” noted the Chicago Reader’s Jonathan Rosenbaum. “They all should hang their heads in shame.”
Starting with 1995’s Bad Boys, Will Smith pretty much owned the box office for the back half of the decade, toplining an impressive string of hits that included Independence Day, Men in Black, and Enemy of the State. By 1999, he had nowhere to go but down — although no one expected him to take a tumble as fast and steep as the infamous Wild Wild West, a woeful would-be Western steampunk action-comedy that entered theaters positioned as the hit of the summer and instantly revealed itself to be just as ludicrously ungainly as the mechanized spider thing piloted by Kenneth Branagh in the final act. Based on the hit CBS series that was described as “James Bond on horseback” during its 1965-’69 run, the big-screen West aped some of the form of its predecessor (including its flights of technological fancy), but neglected to include a sensible storyline, memorable characters, or interesting dialogue; the result was one of the least-loved major releases of the year. He’d certainly go on to enjoy further cinematic successes, but after this, Hollywood understood it needed more than Will Smith and some killer special effects to cook up a hit. “Wild Wild West is a comedy dead zone,” decreed Roger Ebert. “You stare in disbelief as scenes flop and die. The movie is all concept and no content; the elaborate special effects are like watching money burn on the screen.”
It broke new racial ground, but in terms of its concept, I Spy was pretty standard stuff — the secret agent adventures of an undercover tennis player (Robert Culp) and his trainer (Bill Cosby) as they traipsed around the world stopping bad guys. The secret of its Emmy-winning success was the abundant chemistry between Culp and Cosby — not to mention the sharp writing. All of the above was lost in translation when the show made its way to theaters in 2002, despite a small army of screenwriters and the star power of Owen Wilson and Eddie Murphy. The problem, according to Ed Park of the Village Voice: “Though ample time is spent mingling Murphy’s jabberjaw locutions and Wilson’s curveball spaciness, the film leaves only the bitter reek of a botched chemistry experiment.”
A thinly disguised spinoff of the 1975 film Moonrunners, the hit CBS series The Dukes of Hazzard was never regarded as, shall we say, particularly intelligent entertainment. It was harmlessly cheesy fun, the rootin’ tootin’ adventures of some good ol’ boys who never meant no harm and were just makin’ their way the only way they knew how — which was, unfortunately just a little bit more than the law would allow. In other words, it should have been relatively easy to make an entertaining Dukes movie in 2005, especially with an eclectic cast that included Seann William Scott, Johnny Knoxville, Burt Reynolds, and an exuberantly short-shorted Jessica Simpson. Alas, although it broke $100 million at the box office, the Dukes movie was lambasted by critics like Stephen Hunter of the Washington Post, who lamented it as “So loud, so long, so dumb.”
Super-producer Jerry Weintraub has blockbuster powers beyond most mere mortals, but not even his magic box-office touch was enough to take a big-budget adaptation of the ‘60s British series The Avengers and turn it into a hit movie nearly 30 years after the show’s final airdate. It definitely wasn’t for lack of effort: Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman signed on to play secret agents John Steed and Emma Peel, while Sean Connery co-starred as the villainous weather-controlling madman Sir August de Wynter. But not even the finest cast could have altered the public’s indifference toward a movie based on a property many filmgoers were barely familiar with, and the project was also a fairly odd fit for director Jeremiah Chechik, whose previous credits included National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. The result was a bruising flop whose failure helped speed Connery’s looming retirement and prompted David Bianculli of the New York Daily News to moan, “This Avengers film is so horrendously, painfully and thoroughly awful, it gives other cinematic clunkers like Ishtar and Howard the Duck a good name.”
During its 1968-73 run on ABC, The Mod Squad was not only a moderate hit, it could be argued that the show was actually important: with its hippies-solving-crimes formula and a focus on multicultural storylines, it helped make the counterculture safe for mainstream American audiences. But it was also very much a product of its time (example: the cringeworthy promo tagline “One White, One Black, One Blonde”), and when MGM decided to give the Squad a new look with 1999’s Scott Silver-directed movie, the results were disastrous. Despite an attractive cast led by Claire Danes, Giovanni Ribisi, and Omar Epps, the updated Mod Squad petered out at 4 percent on the Tomatometer, thanks to what the Palo Alto Weekly’s Jim Shelby called “a pristine example of incoherent storyline mixed with poor editing and limp writing.”
The McHale’s Navy TV series was so successful that midway through its run, it spawned a 1964 theatrical effort that managed to sell tickets despite the obvious fact that it was little more than a 90-minute episode of the show. Thirty years later, none of the above should have indicated to any rational person that the world was waiting for a goofy McHale’s update starring Tom Arnold, Tim Curry, and David Alan Grier, but that’s still what we got in 1997. Fresh off the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers movie and in the midst of a banner year that also included the Tim Allen/Kirstie Alley vehicle For Richer or Poorer, director Bryan Spicer assembled an alleged comedy following the exploits of the original McHale’s son (played by Arnold) who’s drawn out of retirement in order to combat the world’s second-best terrorist (Curry). The finished product, as Liam Lacy decreed for the Globe and Mail, was “A useless movie. Not funny, suspenseful, moving or even offensive enough to want to torpedo. Just devoid of any conceivable value.”
It’s hardly remembered as a TV classic today, but Car 54, Where Are You? was an Emmy-winning hit during its two-season run on NBC from 1961-’63, and its premise — centering on the goofy misadventures of a pair of Bronx cops (played by Joe E. Ross and Fred Gwynne) — should have been fairly easy to bring to the big screen. Unfortunately, something unfunny happened along the way, and Tapeheads director Bill Fishman’s adaptation was doomed well before it even arrived in theaters. In fact, the movie version of Car 54 — with David “Buster Poindexter” Johansen and future Scrubs star John C. McGinley subbing in for Ross and Gwynne — moldered in the studio’s vault for years before finally puttering into cineplexes in 1994. Ultimately, it needn’t have bothered; despite appearances from original stars Al Lews and Nipsey Russell, the results proved a thoroughly misbegotten effort to update the show’s campy laughs. “Some movies are so bad they warrant special attention,” warned the Chicago Tribune’s Jim Petrakis. “Car 54, Where Are You is one of them.”
Four new films open wide, but they may not be enough to stop the North American box office from suffering its third consecutive down weekend.
Leading the way is the Paramount sequel "Jackass: Number Two" which will enjoy the widest release by far. The rest of the films will take moviegoers back in time just as so many other recent releases have done. Focus Features unleashes Jet Li‘s martial arts epic "Fearless," MGM takes off with the World War I adventure "Flyboys," and Sony remakes the political thriller "All the King’s Men."
Four years ago, Paramount shocked the industry with the number one bow for its crude stunts flick "Jackass: The Movie" which managed to keep "The Ring" out of the top spot on the weekend right before Halloween. Its $22.8M debut and eventual $64.3M domestic take and DVD success helped to bring about a sequel, "Jackass: Number Two" which hopes to conquer the charts once again. The R-rated pic regroups the team from the hit MTV reality series including Johnny Knoxville and finds them taking part in another series of outlandish don’t-try-this-at-home antics. Males in their late teens and early twenties are the target audience here although slightly older guys who were devoted followers a half-decade ago might also be up for some nostalgia.
The first "Jackass" bowed to a muscular $9,073 average from 2,509 playdates which at today’s ticket prices would be over $10,000. "Number Two" is not likely to match that amount though. A wider launch will dilute the average a bit and the franchise has aged and is no longer at the peak of its popularity. But since Knoxville has found more mainstream success recently with films like "The Dukes of Hazzard" and "The Ringer," the studio is hoping that some new fans will give "Two" a try. Competition for males will be fierce with last weekend’s top film "Gridiron Gang" still playing to sports-loving boys and men while Jet Li’s new film "Fearless" will
steal away dudes who dig martial arts fighting, bones cracking, and necks breaking. Male dollars will be stretched to the limit this weekend and an already sluggish marketplace will mean that there will only be so much overall traffic. Busting into over 3,000 theaters, "Jackass: Number Two" will rank number one and may open with around $23M.
Mr. Knoxville and co. are back to cheat death and reason.
Also gunning for young men with R-rated fare is Focus Features with the historical martial arts actioner "Fearless" starring Jet Li. Already a hit at cinemas in Asia, Australia, and parts of Europe, the period pic tells the true story of a legendary fighter who inspired his nation in China at the start of the twentieth century. With a bigger star in the lead, "Fearless" is sure to perform better than Tony Jaa‘s Thai actioner "The Protector" which bowed to just $5M two weeks earlier. Li has a consistently loyal fan following that is likely to turn out especially since the marketing campaign is pushing the claim that this is his final martial arts film ever. This tactic gives the pic a level of urgency, although it should not mean much to those outside of his fan base. Crossover potential to mainstream action fans is not very likely, though the actor’s pull with urban males should not be underestimated.
Still, Li has posted some impressive numbers in his career. Each of his six films from this decade has launched with an opening weekend average of at least $5,500 with five having averaged more than $6,000. His last effort "Unleashed" bowed last summer to $10.9M and a solid $5,570 average while 2004’s Chinese blockbuster "Hero" conquered the North American charts for two straight weeks bowing to an impressive $18M and $8,865 average. Foreign language films pretty much never do that in the U.S. market. "Fearless" will not duplicate the success of "Hero" which used the "Quentin Tarantino Presents" tag to attract extra biz. Plus with "Jackass" taking away many young men this weekend, only the true followers will make it out. But reviews have been very positive (the best for any new
release) and advance buzz from overseas has been encouraging too. Kicking its way into roughly 1,806 theaters, "Fearless" might debut to about $9M.
Jet Li inviting us to his last Martial Arts flick.
World War I bi-planes are the draw in "Flyboys," a new historical action adventure being released by MGM. The PG-13 film stars James Franco as a courageous American pilot in France who devotes his life to fighting for the Allies. With a high pricetag and no proven stars that can sell in America, this is yet another risky period film packed into the slow month of September. The "inspired by a true story" description used by half of the films in the current top ten is once again in play here. With sex and bad language kept to a minimum, "Flyboys" hopes to appeal to a broad family audience so adults can bring their kids. However, the starpower and subject matter are both lacking making this a tough sell at the box office especially since the marketplace is already filled with mediocre product. Zooming into 2,033 theaters, "Flyboys" might climb to around $7M over the weekend.
The real star of "Flyboys": the CGI.
After taking a beating at the Toronto International Film Festival, Sony’s remake "All the King’s Men" enters the marketplace on Friday with more subdued expectations. The PG-13 reworking of the classic 1949 political thriller stars Sean Penn as a charismatic politician from the South who gains power and flirts with corruption in the process. The all-star cast also includes Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Anthony Hopkins, Mark Ruffalo, and James Gandolfini. Distributors often utilize the Toronto fest to generate buzz for their Oscar contenders right before their fall commercial openings, but in this case, it seemed to have backfired with so many reviewers panning the pic. "Men" should play exclusively to a mature adult audience as teens will yawn at the premise. The marketplace has been flooded with period dramas in recent weeks with "The Black Dahlia," "Hollywoodland," and "The Illusionist" all going after the same audience. Competition will be a major factor.
Sony is not giving its usual saturation release to "King’s Men," but instead campaigning in just 1,514 theaters this weekend hoping some positive buzz will spread. The lack of screens will keep the gross in check and the bad reviews should sting even more. Last weekend, "Dahlia" found out the hard way how far a serious film for adults can go when the critics give a thumbs down. The film’s starpower is about its only major asset right now, but will it be enough to make moviegoers risk their dollars? With negative press, an abundance of direct competition, and only a moderate amount of theaters, "All the King’s Men" could find itself with only $7M this weekend and a rocky road ahead.
Sean Penn’s politician wins over his constituents, but not the critics.
In limited release, The Weinstein Co. unleashes its horror flick "Feast" in 140 theaters with special midnight shows across the country on Friday and Saturday. The latest winner from the Project Greenlight series is directed by John Gulager and finds a group of people trapped inside a bar fighting off flesh-eating creatures. Filmmaker Michel Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind") returns to the surreal with "The Science of Sleep," a new fantasy drama starring Gael García Bernal ("The Motorcycle Diaries") as a man whose dreams collide with reality. Warner Independent is opening the film on Friday in eight major U.S. markets and will expand it across the country next weekend. Miramax platforms its futuristic sci-fi toon "Renaissance" in New York and Los Angeles. Set in Paris in the year
2054, the R-rated tale is the latest film to bring the look of a graphic novel to the big screen.
Last weekend’s top film "Gridiron Gang" is sure to lose its first place ranking. The Rock‘s films never have very good legs on the second weekend as evidenced by the sophomore declines of his recent films – 48% for 2003’s "The Rundown," 46% for 2004’s "Walking Tall," and a horrendous 73% for last fall’s "Doom." While "Gang" was not a favorite with critics, it has been getting favorable responses from moviegoers so its drop this weekend may not be too bad. Competition for young males will be a factor with the dueling R pics "Jackass" and "Fearless," but younger boys may still be up for an uplifting football tale. "Gridiron Gang" might see a decline of 45% to around $8M giving Sony a reasonable ten-day cume of $25M.
Universal’s murder mystery "The Black Dahlia" was not too powerful in its opening last weekend and both critics and moviegoers are giving negative feedback. A 50% fall would leave the Brian De Palma flick with $5M for the frame and a weak $18M after ten days.
LAST YEAR: One A-list Hollywood blonde replaced another at the top of the charts. Jodie Foster‘s kidnapping thriller "Flightplan" flew to number one opening with a strong $24.6M. The Buena Vista release went on to gross $89.7M making it the top-grossing film in the September-October corridor for 2005. In second place, Warner Bros. expanded its animated film "Corpse Bride" nationally taking in $19.1M. The Tim Burton–Johnny Depp collaboration found its way to $53.4M. Reese Witherspoon fell from first to third with her comedy "Just Like Heaven" which collected $9.6M. Opening in fourth place with moderate results was the skating drama "Roll Bounce" which bowed to $7.6M on its way to $17.4M from less than 1,700 theaters. Close behind in fifth was the hit thriller "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" with $7.5M in its third round.
Author: Gitesh Pandya, www.BoxOfficeGuru.com
This week at the movies, we’ve got antisocial behavior ("Jackass: Number Two," with Johnny Knoxville and the gang), hell-raising politicos ("All The King’s Men," starring Sean Penn), fearless warriors ("Fearless," starring Jet Li), and flying aces ("Flyboys," starring James Franco). What do the critics have to say?
For some, the perilous, grotesque antics of the "Jackass" posse offer inarguable proof of America’s cultural decline, if not a bellwether of the Apocalypse. For others (Critical Consensus included)… well, what can I say? Wasabi snooters? Off-road tattoo? Gets me every time. Now, Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O and the rest are back with "Jackass: Number Two," a film that promises to be as puerile as its title. But guess what? It’s getting pretty good reviews! The critics say this latest collection of stoopid stunts and bad behavior maintains a certain warped integrity in addition to its sophomoric laughs. At 64 percent on the Tomatometer, this "Jackass" may be worth a ride, provided you can stomach this stuff. And it’s better-reviewed than its predecessor (49 percent).
I want those #&^%@* snakes out of this #&^%@* ball crawl!
"All The King’s Men" has everything that makes for a compelling movie. It’s got a great cast (Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, and Anthony Hopkins, among others). It’s based on a great novel (by Robert Penn Warren). It’s got great cinematography. Unfortunately, critics say, the superlatives end there. Loosely based on the life of populist Louisiana Governor Huey "The Kingfish" Long, "All The King’s Men" tells the story of a small town rabble-rouser’s ascent in politics and descent into shady morality. Critics say the film is too bombastic to work, with too many vague characters and an over-the-top performance from Penn. The film received a muted reception in Toronto; it currently stands at 15 percent on the Tomatometer. And it’s well below the 1949 Oscar-winning original film (94 percent).
Sean Penn makes Howard Dean seem pretty chill.
Jet Li has come to personify a specific film subgenre: the historical martial arts epic. "Hero" and the "Once Upon a Time in China" movies were marked by sweeping visuals and Li’s remarkable athleticism. But the star says he’s no longer making that type of picture; if that’s the case, critics say "Fearless" makes for one heck of a swan song. The film tells the tale of a great martial arts master who looks inward after succumbing to his own ego and the murder of his family. The scribes say "Fearless" is quite a show, with remarkable action sequences and an interesting philosophical undercurrent. "Fearless" is currently at 70 percent on the Tomatometer. And it’s Li’s third consecutive fresh American release, following "Unleashed" (68 percent) and "Hero" (94 percent).
"Fearless": I had no idea people wore baseball hats in China in the early 1900s!
"Flyboys" tells an old-fashioned tale of courage and heroism with the latest in CG technology; unfortunately, critics say, the technology ends up overshadowing everything else. The film tells the story of a group of Americans who volunteered to fly in WWI alongside the French. According to the critics, "Paths of Glory" this ain’t; they note that the CG effects are excellent, and the dogfights are exciting, but the story and the characters are far less involving. At 37 percent on the Tomatometer, "Flyboys" doesn’t soar.
"And another thing… None of you better be making any wisecracks about ‘The Pink Panther!’"
Also in theaters this week in limited release: "American Hardcore," a documentary about the life and death of the louder-faster punk rock style, is at 100 percent; "The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros," a coming of age tale set in Manila, is at 100 percent; "Jesus Camp," a documentary about evangelical Christian campers, is at 93 percent; "Old Joy," a meditative tale of eroding friendship starring indie darling Will Oldham, is at 88 percent; "Solo Con Tu Pareja," the debut of "Y Tu Mama Tambien" helmer Alfonso Cuaron, is at 80 percent; "The Science of Sleep," Michel Gondry‘s latest head trip starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Charlotte Gainsbourg, is at 69 percent; the "Project Greenlight"- approved horror flick "Feast" is at 57 percent; and "Renaissance," a visually remarkable French noir, is at 50 percent.
"I wish I could be as carefree and wild/ But I got cat class and I got cat style."
Recent Johnny Knoxville Movies:
—————————————–
41% — The Ringer (2005)
0% — Daltry Calhoun (2005)
15% — The Dukes of Hazzard (2005)
54% — Lords of Dogtown (2005)
52% — A Dirty Shame (2004)
Recent Jet Li Movies:
—————————–
68% — Unleashed (2005)
94% — Hero (2004)
26% — Cradle 2 the Grave (2003)
14% — The One (2001)
49% — Kiss of the Dragon (2001)
Recent Dean Deviln-Produced Movies:
————————————————-
90% — Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006)
54% — Cellular (2004)
47% — Eight Legged Freaks (2002)
61% — The Patriot (2000)
25% — Godzilla (1998)
Even though last year’s "Dukes of Hazzard" raked in a respectable $80 million at the box office, don’t look for another go from the Broken Lizard crew. "Dukes" director Jay Chandrasekhar and fellow Lizard Kevin Heffernan told RT they’re over it, and after this month’s "Beerfest" they plan on turning their attention to more Broken Lizard projects, including "The Greek Road," "The Babymaker," and … "Super Troopers 2!"
A direct-to-video "Dukes of Hazzard" prequel is already being filmed without the involvement of the Broken Lizard guys, but they seem ok with that. "Beerfest" kicks off the first release from Warner Bros. in a three-year deal, and they’ve got a few more crazy scripts up their sleeves.
This month, the Broken Lizards compete in every drinking game known to man in "Beerfest"
"The Greek Road"
One such project is a completed script called "The Greek Road," which the Lizards (Heffernan, Chandrasekhar, and fellow members Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske) have finished co-writing. They are in talks with Warner Bros. to secure funding for the period pic, which is set in ancient Greece and would require a larger-than-normal budget for a Broken Lizard movie.
And what is the plot for this next pic? Heffernan explains, "The movie we really want to do next is called The Greek Road. It’s set in ancient Greece, it’s a comedy. The general idea is that I play a fellow by the name of Plato — he is a freshman wrestling recruit at Athens University, and he’s failing his freshmen seminar, Basic Thought."
"So they bring in this hotshot senior to tutor him. His name is…Socrates. So Socrates tutors him and they end up road tripping to the Olympics to wrestle. And then the gods try to stop them. It’s a period piece. Steve is Socrates, and then Eric, Paul and Jay play Zeus, Poseidon and Hades who are trying to stop us from getting to the Olympics."
Chandrasekhar says "The Greek Road" will likely start filming in spring 2007; but first, he’d like to squeeze in another Broken Lizard production this fall:
"The Babymaker"
"I want to make a movie with Kevin called "The Babymaker," said Chandrasekhar. "He plays a former high school football star who’s married and he and his wife want to have a kid, and they try for a year and they just can’t have a kid. Sothey go to a doctor and the doctor says, "Your sperm is no good," and he goes, "Nah, trust me dude, the sperm’s good." And [the doctor] says, "It’s no good, I’m telling you it’s no good," and he goes, "IT’S GOOD."
And so he eventually tells his wife that five years ago he donated 20 batches of sperm to a sperm bank, and they don’t take it unless it’s good. He did it because he needed a little extra money for his wife’s ring. And she’s furious; "You have other kids out there, you bought my ring with beat off money!" So he goes back to the sperm bank and says, I need my sperm back…And they say, well we only have one batch and we promised it to somebody. So then he goes and puts together a little team of his friends, and they go and try to do a sperm bank heist."
"Super Troopers 2"
But what of a sequel to the beloved cult hit, "Super Troopers?" Though fans have long been screaming for a sequel, reprising their Vermont State trooper characters is not on the immediate horizon for the five-some. However, they are considering the sequel in the future and have settled on a loose story — it would be called "Super Troopers ’76," and it will be a prequel in which they play the equally inept fathers of their "Super Troopers" characters.
"The joke is that we’ll make it Super Troopers ’76, set during the bicentennial," Chandrasekhar told RT. "We’ll have a little shaggier hair and mustaches…we might do it, I don’t know. That movie has sort of a special place in a lot of people’s hearts, so all we can do is f*ck it up…So I don’t know…I’ve been writing some little gags and I have a little file of "Super Troopers 2" gags, and we’ll see if we turn that into a flick or not."
In the meantime, Broken Lizard’s "Beerfest" sloshes into theaters August 25. Check out the trailer and Beer Olympics photos from the flick!
Another frame packed with four new national releases is led by Oliver Stone‘s 9/11 drama "World Trade Center" from Paramount. A trio of lower profile pics round out the weekend – Sony’s family adventure "Zoom," Buena Vista’s teen drama "Step Up," and The Weinstein Company’s horror flick "Pulse." Despite all the new entries, Will Ferrell will try to win the box office title for the second consecutive time with his comedy "Talladega Nights" which has been racing well ahead of its competition since opening last weekend.
Nicolas Cage, Michael Pena, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Maria Bello star in the high-profile story of courage "World Trade Center" which Paramount debuted on Wednesday. The PG-13 film tells the real life story of John McLoughlin and William Jimeno, two Port Authority cops who were trapped in the rubble of the Twin Towers on September 11. Rather than focus on any villains, "WTC" only tells the story of ordinary men put into extraordinary circumstances and how their families coped. Mature adults will make up the primary audience. Teen appeal seems limited. Since the box office is currently lacking choices for older adults, the Oliver Stone film will not face much direct competition. Men and women will be equally drawn to this emotionally-charged story of heroism.
There will be many moviegoers that will find it to be too soon for a film about a tragedy just approaching its fifth anniversary. However, curiousity will bring out others looking for an uplifting story about that fateful Tuesday morning. "WTC" should appeal to many of the same people who turned out for 2004’s "Ladder 49." That film featured Cage’s "Face/Off" nemesis John Travolta as a noble firefighter and just told a tale about American heroes doing the right thing for each other, and not really dwelling on any enemy. "Ladder" bowed to $22.1M over three days.
Center will also be compared to April’s United 93 which was the first Hollywood film to tackle 9/11. With a subdued release in under 1,800 locations, that pic opened well with $11.5M and a solid $6,395 average. "WTC" has more theaters, more starpower in front of and behind the camera, and is not as grim. Reviews have mostly been good which will help. Long-term prospects are encouraging since the rest of August has nothing major for mature adults. Now playing in 2,803 theaters, "World Trade Center" might open with about $18M over the weekend and around $24M over five days.
Tim Allen plays an ex-super hero who is called upon to train a group of slacker kids in Sony’s new family film "Zoom." The PG-rated pic will have plenty of competition as it marks the fourth consecutive week that studios have rolled out movies aimed at young ones. Only this time, it isn’t a toon. Allen has always been a consistent draw in this genre, most notably in his "Santa Clause" movies which sees its third installment this coming holiday season. Earlier this year, he starred in the Disney remake "The Shaggy Dog" which bowed to $16.3M in March. "Zoom," which co-stars Courteney Cox and Chevy Chase, will not reach that level as it is not generating as much excitement. Plus the volume on the marketing push has been typical of a mid-August opener. Flying into 2,501 theaters, "Zoom" might debut with around $9M.
Hollywood seems to have written a new rule stating that 9/11 films must be counter-programmed with teen-girl pics that explore popular extracurricular activities. "United 93" opened against the gymnastics comedy "Stick It," and now "WTC" will face Buena Vista’s "Step Up" which finds a ballerina and a tough street dancer locking hips. The PG-13 film will play primarily to young females and the studio is hoping to score another low-cost hit like Disney’s April comedy which debuted to a better-than-expected $10.8M. "Step Up" lacks marquee stars, but does offer some faces that add value when it comes to the Clearasil crowd. The bad boy meets good girl formula is once again tested and little crossover to older patrons is likely. Competition for teens and young adults is ample so a breakout bow may not surface, but a respectable showing is likely. Dancing into 2,100 theaters, "Step Up" could debut to around $8M.
Supernatural beasties attack us innocent humans through cell phones and email in the new horror flick "Pulse." The PG-13 film is aimed at teens that have seen every other film and want some quick thrills before heading back to school. With no major stars, and a concept that is far from intriguing, the Weinstein Co. release should be in for some modest dollars over the weekend. "The Descent" will be "Pulse’s" major foe, but like most fright flicks, the chicks-in-a-cave movie should tumble down further on the charts in its second weekend. "Step Up" and "Talladega Nights" will also be distracting teens. Opening in 2,326 theaters, "Pulse" might scare up about $8M this weekend.
In foreign film releases, Yash Raj Films opens the all-star Bollywood film "Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna" (Never Say Goodbye) in top markets across North America. Shot in New York, the Hindi-language film explores the breakdown of marital bonds. Brazilian actress Fernanda Montenegro ("Central Station") headlines "The House of Sand" which Sony Classics platforms in New York and Los Angeles this Friday. The story of three generations of women in the barren lands of northern Brazil played at the Tribeca Film Festival and will roll out into more cities throughout the rest of summer.
Last weekend’s box office champ "Talladega Nights" hopes to retain its crown in its second lap. The Will Ferrell hit is sure to see a large decline, but competition for teens and young adults is not too fierce. A 50% drop would leave Sony with about $23M for the session and a solid ten-day cume of $92M. Paramount’s "Barnyard" may fall by 40% and rake in around $9.5M pushing its total to $33M after ten days. The Johnny Depp megasmash "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest" could drop by another 40% to $6.5M lifting its jaw-dropping total to $392M.
LAST YEAR: Director John Singleton scored a top spot debut with his revenge thriller "Four Brothers" which debuted with $21.2M. Paramount found its way to $74.5M with the Mark Wahlberg drama. Opening in second was the Kate Hudson suspense thriller "The Skeleton Key" with $16.1M on its way to $47.8M for Universal. Falling from first to third was the comedy "The Dukes of Hazzard" with $13M dropping a steep 58% from its bow. Rival comedy "Wedding Crashers" held up much better easing 26% in its fifth frame to $11.8M. Opening in fifth place with $9.6M was Sony’s comedy sequel "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo" which ended its run with just $22.3M. The weekend’s other new release, the military drama "The Great Raid," opened modestly in tenth with only $3.4M on its way to $10.2M.
Author: Gitesh Pandya, www.BoxOfficeGuru.com
Comedy superstar Will Ferrell scored his first-ever number one opening in a lead role with the stronger-than-expected debut of his latest hit Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby which left all competitors in the dust at the North American box office.
Solid opening weekend results came from the animated comedy Barnyard: The Original Party Animals in second place and the horror film The Descent in fifth, but the Robin Williams thriller The Night Listener failed to find much of an audience in its debut. Overall, the marketplace was healthy and showed substantial improvement over the first weekend of August from the last two summers.
Sony crossed the finish line in first place for the industry-leading eighth time this year with the turbo-charged opening of Talladega Nights which grossed an estimated $47M over the Friday-to-Sunday period. Playing in a massive 3,803 theaters, the PG-13 film about a legendary NASCAR driver averaged a fantastic $12,359 per location. Will Ferrell has collected more than his share of second place trophies. The former Saturday Night Live star has opened at number two numerous times in recent years with films such as Kicking and Screaming, Bewitched, Anchorman, Elf, and Old School. Elf climbed into first place in its second weekend, and Ferrell has had supporting roles and cameos in number one openers from other stars. But Talladega Nights marks the first time he has anchored a top spot debut, and he did it decisively.
Reviews were generally positive for the racing comedy, which co-starred John C. Reilly, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Michael Clarke Duncan, and the weekend gross was roughly three times the take of its closest competition. Sony backed the $73M film with a lavish marketing campaign which involved promotional support from numerous corporate sponsors. Even veteran talk show host Larry King turned his daily chat session on opening night into a one-hour commercial for the film by interviewing Ferrell and Reilly in character as Ricky Bobby and his racing pal Cal Naughton Jr.
Talladega reached a broad audience with young males standing out slightly, as expected. Studio research indicated that 53% of the audience was male and that 52% was under 25. Aside from being Ferrell’s biggest opening weekend ever, the film also generated the third best bow ever in the month of August. Only 2001’s Rush Hour 2 and the following year’s Signs did better with debuts of $67.4M and $60.1M, respectively. Those two pics also launched on the first frame of the month which studios still look at as a good weekend for programming a high-profile summer film on. By this point, most of the season’s tentpole films have played out, but there is still enough summer playing time ahead to have long-term success.
Finishing far back in second place, but still enjoying an impressive debut, was Paramount’s animated comedy Barnyard with an estimated $16M. The PG-rated toon bowed in 3,311 locations and averaged a solid $4,844 per theater. The opening was better than The Ant Bully‘s $8.4M from last weekend, but did not reach the $22.2M debut of Monster House from two weeks ago. Barnyard was produced by Nickelodeon Movies for just over $50M and played mostly to kids and parents. Audience research showed that 75% of the crowd was made up of families with males and females represented evenly. With two other cartoons in the top ten, and with Pirates still pulling in every age group, the opening performance of Barnyard was commendable.
The year’s biggest blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest dropped 47% to an estimated $11M boosting its domestic treasure to a stunning $379.7M. That puts the Johnny Depp adventure sequel at number eight among all-time domestic blockbusters surpassing the $377M of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Pirates also managed to bump Mel Gibson‘s The Passion of the Christ off the all-time top ten list. Overseas, Disney scored another colossal gross taking in $57M from 47 markets to rule the international box office for the fifth straight frame. That sent the offshore cume soaring to $392M and the worldwide haul to $771.7M making it the top-grossing global hit of 2006 after just one month of release. Pirates could certainly be on its way to the one billion dollar mark with another installment in the franchise on deck for a May 2007 release.
Audiences rejected Miami Vice which tumbled a horrendous 62% in its second weekend to an estimated $9.7M. With $45.7M in ten days, the Universal action thriller is on course to end with $65-70M. That would give Vice a domestic gross of about half of its $135M production budget. Good news did, however, come from the U.K. where the cop pic debuted at number one this weekend.
Opening in fifth place was the new horror entry The Descent with an estimated $8.8M from 2,095 locations. The R-rated fright flick about a six-pack of young ladies trapped in an underground cave full of flesh-eating creatures averaged a solid $4,200 per venue. Reviews were unusually positive for the genre and distributor Lionsgate pitched The Descent in its advertising as being from the studio that brought audiences Saw and Hostel. But the opening was far short of the $18.3M and $19.6M that those low-budget hits opened to. Still, with a modest pricetag of its own, the cave exploration flick looks to make a few bucks theatrically and dig up a bigger audience when released on DVD.
Fox’s teen comedy John Tucker Must Die dropped 58% in its second weekend to an estimated $6.1M. With $28.6M in ten days, the revenge flick should find its way to the neighborhood of $40M. Sony’s animated scarefest Monster House followed close behind with an estimated $6M, off 49%, for a $57M cume. Competing toon The Ant Bully fell 54% in its sophomore session to an estimated $3.9M. Warner Bros. has collected just $18.2M in ten days and should conclude with an underwhelming $25-27M.
A pair of films tied for ninth place with an estimated $3.6M each. Universal’s comedy You, Me and Dupree declined 49% and upped its sum to $66.8M. Miramax’s new Robin Williams thriller The Night Listener bowed in 1,367 locations and averaged a weak $2,634 per site.
Opening with healthy but not spectacular results in platform release was the teen drama Quinceanera which grossed an estimated $97,000 from only eight sites for a $12,125 average. The R-rated tale of a Mexican-American girl’s impending coming-of-age party won both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and was snapped up by Sony Classics. Quinceanera will expand beyond New York and Los Angeles in the weeks ahead.
Three comedies and a bedtime story dropped out of the top ten over the weekend. Fox’s hit fashion industry pic The Devil Wears Prada held up well once again in its sixth frame with an estimated $3.1M, off 35%, lifitng the cume to a stellar $112.7M. It was the Meryl Streep film’s fourth consecutive weekend with a drop of less than 40%. Produced for just $35M, Devil should find its way to a fabulous $120-125M making it one of the more profitable hits of the summer.
On the other hand, the Warner Bros. suspense thriller Lady in the Water has been falling by more than 60% each frame and took in an estimated $2.7M in its third scare. Down a steep 62%, the M. Night Shyamalan pic has grossed only $38.7M in 17 days and looks to drown with a mere $42-44M overall. The production budget was reportedly in the $75M range.
Sony’s Little Man fell 51% to an estimated $2.5M in its fourth outing and pushed its cume to $55.1M. The Wayans brothers pic cost $64M to produce and should end its domestic run with a respectable $58-60M. Fox’s super hero comedy flop My Super Ex-Girlfriend stumbled 73% in its third flight and grossed an estimated $1.1M. With $20.2M in the bank, look for a disappointing $22M finish.
In limited release, Fox Searchlight expanded its hit indie comedy Little Miss Sunshine from seven to 58 theaters in the top dozen markets and grossed an estimated $1.5M. That resulted in a muscular $25,169 average and a $2.2M total. The distributor will add 17 more cities on Friday and widen nationally the following weekend on the heels of strong word-of-mouth momentum.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $115.7M which was up 18% from last year when The Dukes of Hazzard debuted at number one with $30.7M; and up 23% from 2004 when Collateral opened in the top spot with $24.7M.
Author: Gitesh Pandya, www.BoxOfficeGuru.com
If it’s possible to take a big step backwards after starring in "The Dukes of Hazzard," then you just know Johnny Knoxville will find a way to do it. Case in point: There’s a sequel to "Jackass: The Movie" coming out soon, and there’s even a trailer to prove it.
From ComingSoon.net: "This sequel to the 2002 hit, based on the infamous MTV series in which Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Bam Margera, and company regularly put their health and dignity on the line in an attempt to shock and amuse, gets the old gang back together for another round of gross, alarming, and funny hi-jinks."
The trailer’s here. Official site here.
IGN FilmForce & Production Weekly report that, sigh, there’s going to be a direct-to-video prequel to "The Dukes of Hazzard." If visions of that really awful "Dumb & Dumberer" prequel just popped into your head, trust me, you’re not alone.
From IGNFF: "The Dukes prequel will reportedly "follow Bo and Luke Duke as teenagers during their first wild weeks in Hazzard County. While Boss Hogg outlaws moonshine in an attempt to establish his own monopoly, the boys get into a heap o’ trouble making deliveries of the now-illegal liquor for Uncle Jesse in an effort to save his farm from foreclosure, and we learn the origins of the General Lee and Daisy Duke’s daisy dukes."
No casting news just yet, but the director has been named: Bob Berlinger, TV veteran who’s helmed everything from "The Golden Girls" to "Arrested Development."
Yeee-haaaa!
You thought the awards season ended with the Oscars? Please. MTV’s just gearing up for their movie awards, which will be broadcast worldwide on June 8th — but we have all the nominations listed just a click away. (Interesting to note that not only were Paris Hilton & Rob Schneider nominated for awards, but also that "Hustle & Flow" earned three noms — a movie produced by "MTV Films.")
More than an award show, but a film unto itself, MTV: Music Television today announced the cast, or nominees, of the “2006 MTV Movie Awards.” Up for starring roles are the “40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Wedding Crashers,” each receiving five nominations. Also vying for the spotlight are “Batman Begins,” “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” “Hustle & Flow,” “Sin City” and “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge Of The Sith” with three nominations each. Filming June 3rd at Sony Picture Studios in Culver City, CA, the “2006 MTV Movie Awards” will premiere to audiences nationwide on Thursday, June 8th at 9pm ET/PT on MTV.
MTV also announced it will cast for new categories of “Best Hero,” “Sexiest Performance” and the “mtvU Student Filmmaker Award” for the first time ever. And in another Movie Awards first, all of this year’s categories, including “Best Performance,” will make no distinction between male and female. Breaking the gender barrier and award show tradition, both actors and actresses will be vying for the same coveted golden popcorns.
Fans can vote for the entire nominated cast of the “2006 MTV Movie Awards” by visiting movieawards.mtv.com before May 19th . Fans can also vote from their mobile phone by texting “MOVIEAWARDS” to 91757 to receive a ballot. Voting is also available by dialing toll free to 1-877-MTV-VOTE where fans can support their favorite nominees with a different category available for voting each day.
“This year’s Movie Awards will be more than an awards show — it’s an experience completely inspired by the movies, and everything we love about them,” said Christina Norman, President, MTV. “This year’s cast of movies and stars are all deserving nominees, and there is no doubt this year’s Movie Awards will in itself, be a movie to remember.”
Starring Hollywood’s hottest actors and celebrities, the “2006 MTV Movie Awards” promises to be one of the summer’s biggest blockbusters. Sources close to the production have remained tight lipped, revealing little of the project’s storyline or script except to say mystery, adventure and mayhem prevail. MTV will announce other starring roles in the upcoming weeks including the project’s leading man and/or lady, along with featured bands and performers making up the production’s soundtrack.
The “2006 MTV Movie Awards” will be seen in 171 countries/territories via 50 music programming services, and in 23 languages in more than 479.5 million households.
Nominees for the “2006 MTV Movie Awards” are:
*BEST MOVIE*
The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Universal Pictures)
Batman Begins (Warner Bros. Pictures)
King Kong (Universal Pictures)
Sin City (Dimension Films)
Wedding Crashers (New Line Cinema)
*BEST PERFORMANCE*
Joaquin Phoenix – Walk the Line
Jake Gyllenhaal – Brokeback Mountain
Rachel McAdams – Red Eye
Steve Carell – The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Terrence Howard – Hustle & Flow
Reese Witherspoon – Walk the Line
*BEST COMEDIC PERFORMANCE*
Owen Wilson – Wedding Crashers
Adam Sandler – The Longest Yard
Steve Carell – The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Tyler Perry – Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Reunion
Vince Vaughn – Wedding Crashers
*BEST ON-SCREEN TEAM*
Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen & Romany Malco – The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Johnny Knoxville, Seann William Scott & Jessica Simpson – The Dukes of Hazzard
Jessica Alba, Ioan Gruffudd, Chris Evans & Michael Chiklis — Fantastic Four
Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson & Rupert Grint – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Vince Vaughn & Owen Wilson – Wedding Crashers
*BEST VILLAIN*
Cillian Murphy – Batman Begins
Hayden Christensen – Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
Ralph Fiennes – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Tilda Swinton – The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Tobin Bell – Saw II
*BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE*
Andre “3000” Benjamin – Four Brothers
Isla Fisher – Wedding Crashers
Nelly – The Longest Yard
Jennifer Carpenter – The Exorcism of Emily Rose
Romany Malco –The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Taraji P. Henson – Hustle & Flow
*BEST HERO*
Christian Bale – Batman Begins
Jessica Alba – Fantastic Four
Daniel Radcliffe – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Kate Beckinsale – Underworld: Evolution
Ewan McGregor – Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
*SEXIEST PERFORMANCE*
Beyonce Knowles – The Pink Panther
Jessica Alba – Sin City
Jessica Simpson – The Dukes of Hazzard
Ziyi Zhang – Memoirs of a Geisha
Rob Schneider – Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
*BEST FIGHT*
Kong vs. The Planes — King Kong
Stephen Chow vs. Axe Gang – Kung Fu Hustle
Angelina Jolie vs. Brad Pitt – Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Ewan McGregor vs. Hayden Christensen – Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
*BEST KISS*
Jake Gyllenhaal & Heath Ledger – Brokeback Mountain
Taraji P. Henson & Terrence Howard – Hustle & Flow
Anna Faris & Chris Marquette – Just Friends
Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt – Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Rosario Dawson & Clive Owen – Sin City
*BEST FRIGHTENED PERFORMANCE*
Rachel Nichols – The Amityville Horror
Jennifer Carpenter – The Exorcism of Emily Rose
Derek Richardson – Hostel
Paris Hilton – House of Wax
Dakota Fanning – War of the Worlds
*mtvU STUDENT FILMMAKER AWARD*
Joshua Caldwell (Fordham University) – A Beautiful Lie
Sean Mullin (Columbia University) – Sadiq
Stephen Reedy (Diablo Valley College) – Undercut
Jarrett Slavin (University of Michigan) – The Spiral Project
Landon Zakheim (Emerson College) – The Fabulous Felix McCabe
*2006 MTV Movie Awards *
*Total Number of Combined Category Nominations*
The 40-Year-Old Virgin — 5
Wedding Crashers — 5
Batman Begins — 3
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire — 3
Hustle & Flow — 3
Sin City — 3
Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith — 3
Brokeback Mountain — 2
The Dukes of Hazzard — 2
The Exorcism of Emily Rose — 2
Fantastic Four — 2
King Kong — 2
The Longest Yard — 2
Mr. & Mrs. Smith — 2
Walk the Line — 2
The Amityville Horror — 1
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe — 1
Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo — 1
Four Brothers — 1
Hostel — 1
House of Wax — 1
Just Friends — 1
Kung Fu Hustle — 1
Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Reunion — 1
Memoirs of a Geisha — 1
The Pink Panther — 1
Red Eye — 1
Saw II — 1
Underworld: Evolution — 1
War of the Worlds — 1
* Nominees are chosen through a national poll of MTV and MTV2 viewers.
Broken Lizard, the comedy troupe behind Super Troopers, Club Dread, and the upcoming Beerfest, have another deal lined up with WB. Seems the boys will soon be transformed into a bunch of Ambulance Chasers.
According to Variety, "Jay Chandrasekhar will sound the sirens when directing "Ambulance Chasers" for Warner Bros. through his Broken Lizard comedy shingle. Jon Zack has been hired to pen the script.
Story revolves around what happens when two fiercely competitive personal-injury lawyers fight over a new client.
The Broken Lizard team, based on the Warners lot, consists of Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter and Erik Stolhanske. They inked their production deal with the studio last year after the box office success of "The Dukes of Hazzard," which Chandrasekhar directed.
First up in the Warners-Broken Lizard deal is the Chandrasekhar-helmed "Beerfest," which is in post-production. As with their previous pics, "Super Troopers" and "Club Dread," the comedy troupe’s members wrote "Beerfest" together and all star.
Seann William Scott, best known for playing horny goofball Steve Stifler in the American Pie series, will soon play a janitor who becomes an inspiriational tennis coach in … Gary the Tennis Coach.
Says The Hollywood Reporter: "Seann William Scott has signed on to topline and produce the indie comedy Gary the Tennis Coach for Michael Nathanson‘s O.N.C. Entertainment and John Penotti and Fisher Stevens‘ GreeneStreet Films. Penned by Andy Stock and Rick Stempson, "Tennis Coach" centers on an overzealous high school janitor (Scott) who takes on the task of coaching a group of lovable misfits to the Nebraska state championship, overcoming their motley backgrounds in the process."
—
Mr. Scott’s non-Pie pics include Final Destination, Road Trip, Stark Raving Mad, Bulletproof Monk, The Rundown, and The Dukes of Hazzard.
Low budget horror film “Alone in the Dark” took home the industry’s biggest booby prize as Hollywood’s annual anti-Oscars, The Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, dished out awards in 24 competition categories. The dishonors came courtesy of the Los Angeles-based Bad Cinema Society, a panel of movie critics and film fans which annually awards Hollywood’s worst films and performances.
Though “Alone in the Dark” didn’t receive the most awards, it managed to beat the field in four major categories, including worst film of the year, worst director (Uwe Boll, who some critics and fans have likened to legendary bad movie maker Ed Wood), worst actress (Tara Reid), and worst special effects.
The top award winner for 2005, with five Stinkers, was “Son of the Mask,” New Line’s ill-conceived follow-up to the Jim Carrey mega-hit “The Mask.” The mind-numbing sequel, which was inexplicably still produced after Carrey refused to participate in the project, took honors for Worst Actor (Jamie Kennedy), Worst Sequel, and Worst Couple (Kennedy and anyone forced to co-star with him). The film was also named 2005’s foulest family film.
Jessica Simpson picked up three awards for her portrayal of Daisy Duke in the big screen remake of the TV series “The Dukes of Hazzard.” Her warbling of “These Boot Are Made For Walkin’” earned her a Stinker for worst song in a movie. She was also named worst supporting actress of the year and can lay claim to having sported the most annoying fake accent in a movie.
Media target Paris Hilton, who had a small role in the horror remake “House of Wax,” came away unscathed by the society. Mentioned as a worst supporting actress on other year-end lists, the hotel heiress did not make the final cut on the more selective Stinkers ballot. "To get on the Stinkers ballot you are judged on your performance, not your tabloid persona,” said Stinkers Bad Movie Awards co-founder Michael Lancaster. “Anyone that would put Paris Hilton on a list of the five worst supporting actresses in 2005 didn’t see a lot of movies in 2005."
The Stinkers ballot featured five worst film candidates that any other year would have been winners or at the very least runners-up in their own right. Proof positive that 2005 will go down as one of the worst film years on record. One category (worst song) had ten nominees, tying a Stinker record. “Hollywood just doesn’t seem to understand that what’s keeping paying customers away is the bad product they hype. You can’t just keep advertising that bad films are the funniest films of the year. Eventually the lies will catch up with you,” said Bad Cinema Society co-founder Ray Wright. He warned that 2006 was gearing up to be more of the same. “We’ve already had another film by Uwe Boll [BloodRayne] released and we will be all over ‘The Pink Panther.’”
With more than 50 sequels and remakes lined up for release in the next year, it’s safe to say that Hollywood has run out of ideas.” Added Lancaster, “I think the public has finally caught on to what we’ve been saying for years — that a lot of what Hollywood sells is not worth the price of an admission ticket. I love that people are avoiding some of these overhyped films like the plague.”
Lancaster and Wright say the film that earned the most Stinkers for 2005 (“Son of the Mask”) is a perfect example of a Hollywood system gone horribly wrong. “I can’t for the life of me imagine how this project got approved. I think the minute Jim Carrey passes on this you say, ‘let’s not make the sequel.’ Now I guess we can all see how New Line is spending their ‘Lord of the Rings’ profits,” said Lancaster.
The Stinkers Bad Movie Awards have been featured in Entertainment Weekly, USA TODAY, the Los Angeles Times, and on the BBC, CNN, as well as in a slew of regional and international newspapers and magazines. The group’s website has received nearly two million hits.
Complete list of winners and nominees for 2005:
WORST FILM
Alone in the Dark
WORST SENSE OF DIRECTION (Stop them before they direct again!)
Uwe Boll (Alone in the Dark)
WORST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Jamie Kennedy (Son of the Mask)
WORST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Tara Reid (Alone in the Dark)
WORST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Tyler Perry (as Madea) (Diary of a Mad Black Woman)
WORST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Jessica Simpson (The Dukes of Hazzard)
WORST SCREENPLAY FOR A FILM GROSSING MORE THAN $100 MILLION*
*using Hollywood math
Fantastic Four
MOST PAINFULLY UNFUNNY COMEDY
Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
WORST SONG OR SONG PERFORMANCE IN A FILM OR ITS END CREDITS
These Boots Are Made For Walkin’ (Jessica Simpson) (The Dukes of Hazzard)
MOST INTRUSIVE MUSICAL SCORE
Son of the Mask
LESS THAN DYNAMIC DUO
Samuel L. Jackson and Eugene Levy (The Man)
WORST ON-SCREEN COUPLE
Jamie Kennedy and anyone forced to co-star with him (Son of the Mask)
MOST ANNOYING FAKE ACCENT
MALE: Norm MacDonald (Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo)
FEMALE: Jessica Simpson (The Dukes of Hazzard)
LEAST "SPECIAL" SPECIAL EFFECTS
Alone in the Dark
WORST REMAKE
Yours, Mine and Ours
WORST SEQUEL
Son of the Mask
WORST RESURRECTION OF A "CLASSIC" TV SERIES
The Honeymooners
THE SPENCER BRESLIN AWARD (FOR WORST PERFORMANCE BY A CHILD)
Adrian Alonso (The Legend of Zorro)
WORST CHILD ENSEMBLE
Yours, Mine and Ours
FOULEST FAMILY FILM
Son of the Mask
LEAST SCARY HORROR MOVIE
The Fog
MOST OVERRATED FILM
Syriana
WORST ANIMATED FILM
Chicken Little
For full nominee lists and more awards, stop by the Stinkers official website!
Courtesy of their official site come the annual Razzie Awards Nominations … or as I like to call them: The Amazingly Obvious Fish in a Barrel Nominations in Which We Savage People We Don’t Like, Regardless of the Quality of Their Work. Oh, and it seems the Razzers have decided to branch out an include a "Most Tiresome" category, which I happen to find pretty ironic.
26th Annual Golden Raspberry (RAZZIE®) Award Nominations
WORST PICTURE
Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
Dirty Love
The Dukes of Hazzard
House of Wax
Son of the Mask
WORST ACTOR
Tom Cruise / War of the Worlds
Will Ferrell / Bewitched and Kicking & Screaming
Jamie Kennedy / Son of the Mask
The Rock / Doom
Rob Schneider / Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
WORST ACTRESS
Jessica Alba / Fantastic Four and Into the Blue
Hilary Duff / Cheaper by the Dozen 2 and The Perfect Man
Jennifer Lopez / Monster in Law
Jenny McCarthy / Dirty Love
Tara Reid / Alone in the Dark
MOST TIRESOME TABLOID TARGETS
(New Category, Saluting the Celebs We’re ALL Sick & Tired Of!)
Tom Cruise & His Anti-Psychiatry Rant
Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Oprah Winfrey‘s Couch, The Eiffel Tower & “Tom’s Baby”
Paris Hilton and…Who-EVER!
Mr. & Mrs. Britney, Their Baby & Their Camcorder
The Simpsons: Ashlee, Jessica & Nick
WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Hayden Christensen / Star Wars III: No Sith, He’s Supposed to Be Darth Vader?!?!
Alan Cumming / Son of the Mask
Bob Hoskins / Son of the Mask
Eugene Levy / Cheaper by the Dozen 2 and The Man
Burt Reynolds / The Dukes of Hazzard and The Longest Yard
WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Carmen Electra / Dirty Love
Paris Hilton / House of Wax
Katie Holmes / Batman Begins
Ashlee Simpson / Undiscovered
Jessica Simpson / The Dukes of Hazzard
WORST SCREEN COUPLE
Will Ferrell & Nicole Kidman / Bewitched
Jamie Kennedy & ANYBODY Stuck Sharing the Screen with Him / Son of the Mask
Jenny McCarthy & ANYONE Dumb Enough to Befriend or Date Her / Dirty Love
Rob Schneider & His Diapers / Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
Jessica Simpson & Her “Daisy Dukes” / The Dukes of Hazzard
WORST REMAKE OR SEQUEL
Bewitched
Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
The Dukes of Hazzard
House of Wax
Son of the Mask
WORST DIRECTOR
John Asher / Dirty Love
Uwe Boll / Alone in the Dark
Jay Chandrasekhar / The Dukes of Hazzard
Nora Ephron / Bewitched
Lawrence Guterman / Son of the Mask
WORST SCREENPLAY
Bewitched
Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
Dirty Love
The Dukes of Hazzard Written
Son of the Mask
—
My apologies to the Razz Crew, but I think they could put a lot more effort into their nominations. And maybe learn to tell the difference between "bad performances" and "stuff we just feel like ranting about." (And perhaps stop nominating one person for multiple performances, because then it just becomes obvious that you’re gunning for someone. Example: They hated Ferrell in the witch comedy and the soccer flick, but they loved his work in "The Producers?" Phooey.)
Am I too harsh? Are the Razzies really cool and I’m just a crotchety old whiner? Quite possible.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Wilmer "Fez" Valderrama is set to star in the big-screen adaptation of the 70’s cop show "Chips." Whether or not this project will be any better than the big-screen adaptation of the 80’s car-fest "The Dukes of Hazzard" is anyobdy’s guess.
"Wilmer Valderrama will star as motorcycle cop Ponch in Warner Bros. Pictures’ big-screen version of "CHiPs." The studio has just acquired the rights for the TV series and has set Paul Kaplan and Mark Torgove to adapt. Erik Estrada famously originated the Ponch role in "CHiPs," which ran on NBC in the late 1970s and followed the adventures of California Highway Patrol motorcycle officers Francis "Ponch" Poncherello and Jon Baker. Larry Wilcox played Baker. The show had a serious macho tone, but over the years has achieved a cheesy, cult status. Sources say the project was built around the involvement of Valderrama, best known as Fez on "That ’70s Show.""
No longer denying recent rumors of their marital woes, pop couple Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson have announced their separation in a statement released Wednesday.
Yes indeed, the stars of MTV’s "Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica" have confirmed what the gossip rags have been whispering about for months: Jess attending sister Ashlee’s 21st b-day alone, Nick prowling the clubs for girls, both appearing in public without their wedding rings — reality TV’s happiest couple is happy no more.
Their story itself is the stuff of B-list legend. The couple met back in 1999, when fledgling pop singer Simpson performed as the opening act for Lachey’s boy band, 98 Degrees. The then 19-year-old pastor’s daughter (and Mickey Mouse Club reject) caught 26 year-old Nick’s eye (he predicted she was the girl he’d marry), they sung a duet single ("Where You Are"), and dated for four years (technically they took a break in 2001, but reunited after the September 11 attacks). The duo was married in 2002 (when Jessica became a model for abstinence, making it public knowledge that she’d waited for her wedding night to have sex).
Of course, Nick and Jessica only truly reached superstar status once they landed their own reality show: "Newlyweds" first aired in 2002, following the couple as they struggled with their careers, and each other, in their Calabasas, CA home. The low-key, behind-the-scenes drama and hilarity of their daily lives proved astoundingly popular with viewers, most notably thanks to Jessica’s "dumb blonde" routine (Chicken of the Sea? Buffalo wings?). The show became a hit and went on for three glorious seasons.
Cut to 2005. Many speculate the rift between the Lachey-Simpsons can be directly attributed to one thing: namely, fame. Hers has skyrocketed with chart-topping singles, a new acting career as Daisy Duke in 2005’s "The Dukes of Hazzard," and a multi-million dollar fragrance line of dessert-flavored products. And Nick’s career? No film roles, no cosmetic line, and one disappointing solo album (2003’s "SoulO"). In fact, his most recent exposure (besides the Sonny & Cher-esque "The Nick & Jessica Variety Hour" and similar joint productions) has come as a guest sports commentator for ESPN and a small role on "Charmed."
Heartbroken fans may take solace in the fact that the Newlyweds have only announced a separation, and not divorce. Nick can continue making out with random girls in hotels. Jessica can keep denying rumors of affairs with "Dukes" co-star Johnny Knoxville, "Jackass" imp Bam Margera, or anyone else the tabs spot her with. The estranged couple can keep posing together for photo ops, feigning happiness before going their separate ways. In the end, true fans know that somewhere there’s a love song — a love duet, even — that will reunite Nick & Jessica in sweet, pop music bliss, forever.
"Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica – The Complete Final Season" comes to DVD December 6, and already cites the Hollywood marriage in decline — a perfect gift for that oh-so-special someone this Christmas!
Although it was initially scheduled for release on October 21st, Warner Independent Pictures has opted not to release the "Strangers With Candy" movie, for one reason or another.
WIP "won’t release "Strangers With Candy" out of concern that the producers didn’t secure all the needed rights, including for such items as posters and props.
Move comes as Warner Bros. Pictures regroups after being slapped with a $17.5 million rights judgment in connection with this summer’s "Dukes of Hazzard." Industry insiders say the studio is being extra-vigilant."
(Other, more cynical, observers believe that there may be more "political" reasons for the film being dumped.)
"Strangers With Candy" played at Sundance this past January, and it was there that WIP purchased the distribution rights for a cool $3 million. Based on the cult TV show of the same name, "SWC" is directed by Paul Dinello, written by the Candy squad, and features faces like Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert, Matthew Broderick, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Dan Hedaya, Ian Holm, Allison Janney, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristen Johnston, and Justin Theroux.
"Insiders say WIP could void the contract with (David Letterman‘s production company) Worldwide Pants, which would then be free to seek out another distributor."
Over the past few days, we’ve tried to counter the common misconception that this summer’s cinematic fare was bereft of quality. However, that doesn’t mean the season was without some stinkers, at least critically speaking.
The most rotten movie of the summer was "Supercross: The Movie," which won praise from two percent of the critics. "Undiscovered," the title of which was often used derisively in reviews, stood at four percent. Rounding out the top five were "The Perfect Man" (six percent) "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo" (10 percent), and "Honeymooners" (12 percent). The most rotten limited release of the summer was the Aussie slasher flick "Undead."
Here’s the 20 most rotten films of the summer, in ascending order:
2% — Supercross: The Movie
4% — Undiscovered
6% — The Perfect Man
10% — Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo
12% — Honeymooners
13% — Stealth
14% — Rebound
14% — The Cave
17% — Monster-In-Law
17% — The Dukes of Hazzard
20% — The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3D
23% — House of Wax
23% — Valiant
23% — Undead
25% — Bewitched
25% — Fantastic Four
27% — 9 Songs
28% — Mindhunters
28% — Pretty Persuasion
28% — The Baxter
Check out the rest of our coverage:
– Summer Tomatometer Wrap-up: Box Office Down, Tomatometer Up
– Summer Tomatometer Wrap-up #2: The Best of the Wide Releases
– Summer Tomatometer Wrap-up #3: The Best of the Limited Releases
John Singleton‘s action drama "Four Brothers" opened in 2,500 theaters to a better-than-expected $20.7 million in its first weekend, handily beating a trio of other newcomers. One of its main competitors was the Kate Hudson bayou thriller "The Skeleton Key," which unlocked nearly $15.8 million (from about 2,800 theaters) in a comparatively slow weekend at the box office.
Still hanging around in third place was WB’s "The Dukes of Hazzard," which added another $13m to its $57.5 total gross. Fourth place went to the powerful "Wedding Crashers," which grossed just over $12 million, adding to its total gross just over $164 million(!) Rounding out the top five was "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo," which made $9.4 million in just over 3,100 theaters.
Miramax’s long-delayed "The Great Raid" just managed to crack the top ten by grossing about $3.3 million from nearly 820 theaters.
In milestone news, Christopher Nolan‘s "Batman Begins" became only the third movie this year to gross over $200 million, after "Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith" and "War of the Worlds."
Next week sees the arrival of another cinematic foursome: the bike-racing flick "Supercross" opens on Wednesday, while Steve Carell in "The 40 Year-Old Virgin," Wes Craven‘s airplane thriller "Red Eye," and Disney’s animated adventure "Valiant" will wait until next Friday.
As always, please stop by the Rotten Tomatoes Box Office Page for a closer look at the weekend stats.
Warner Bros. and producer Billy Gerber plan to mount a remake of Sydney Pollack‘s 1975 thriller "The Yakuza," says The Hollywood Reporter.
The original film, which was written by the powerful twosome of Robert Towne and Paul Schrader, dealt with "a man who returns to Japan after a lengthy absence to rescue a friend’s kidnapped daughter, ensuing in samurai swords slashing and guns blazing."
Screenwriters Oliver Butcher & Stephen Cornwell are on adaptation duty, and Mr. Gerber is obviously no stranger to remakes; he helped to bring "The Dukes of Hazzard," "Get Carter," and "The In-Laws" to the screen … again.
Universal Pictures distribution chief Nikki Rocco says the studio is going "back to the drawing board" following the box-office failure of the critically praised Cinderella Man.
In an interview with USA Today, Rocco remarked, "Good movies are supposed to buck this [downward] trend. You hear how it’s all about the product, but we have an excellent movie that people just aren’t turning out for. [The problem is] something bigger."
Meanwhile, New York Times media writer David Carr has blamed this year’s slump at the box office on a tectonic shift in the industry that has increasingly seen filmmaking focused on "the wants and needs of 17-year-old boys on any given Saturday night."
In a feature article appearing today (Monday), the day after the critically reviled Dukes of Hazzard posted a $30-million opening at the box office, largely by attracting male teenagers, Carr wrote that he had interviewed several studio directors who declined to speak on the record but who "sounded less like masters of the universe than prisoners of the current paradigm."
In the article, Carr quoted David Thomson, author of The Whole Equation, A History of Hollywood, as saying, "In the same way that audiences have lost their taste for film, filmmakers have lost their passion. … It is not surprising that some of the moguls are giving up as well. They are as depressed and tired of the business as the rest of us."
Carr concluded: "The people who built the current version of Hollywood did so by coming up with movies that people felt compelled to see — not as a matter of marketing, but as a matter of taste. What was once magic, creating other worlds in darkened rooms, has become just one more revenue stream."
WB’s big-screen adaptation of "The Dukes of Hazzard" had no problem tackling the #1 spot at the weekend box office, pulling in nearly $30.6 million from over 3,700 theaters. Granted, it was the only movie opening in wide release, but WB has to be pleased with the initial three-day haul.
Holding firm in second place is New Line’s surprise smash "Wedding Crashers," which added another $16.5 million to its $144m total. Tim Burton‘s "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" dropped down to thrd place with a haul of $10.5m ($169m total), while fourth and fifth place went to Disney’s "Sky High" ($9m weekend; $32m total) and the rom-com "Must Love Dogs" ($7.4m, $26m total).
Cracking into the top ten in documentary style is the nature film "March of the Penguins," which landed in the number six spot after adding an additional 1,500 theaters to the release pattern. The penguins marched to a tune of $7.1 million, and their total tally to date is $26.4 million!
There’s no shortage of wide release titles come next Friday; moviegoers can choose between the raunchy stylings of "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo," John Singleton’s action drama "Four Brothers," the cajun thriller "The Skeleton Key," or the wartime drama "The Great Raid."
As always, feel free to stop by the Rotten Tomatoes Box Office Page for a closer looks at the late-summer movie numbers.
