05/27/10

Tops at the Box: Coming in at No. 1 last weekend was SNL byproduct MacGruber. Gotcha. Coming in at No. 6 last weekend with just over $4 million - less than freaking Just Wright - was MacGruber; coming in at No. 1 last weekend, obviously, was Shrek Forever After, bringing in a boring-as-hell $71 million over its first weekend. Zzz. 

More From the Box: After a strong opening, Iron Man 2 is dying quickly, bringing in only $26.6 million last weekend, upping its so-far total to just over $250 million in the U.S. and $506 million worldwide. Looks like those “industry analyst” dudes who said the Man would bring in the bill were drunk. Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood, which ScreenTime strangely has no interest in despite being a longtime Scott fan, is dying fast, upping its so far total to $66 million with another $19 million last weekend. Not bad, but the flick cost over $200 million to make and some serious bread to promote. Also, we hear that it’s not so great. Letters to Juliet and Just Wright took the No. 4 and No. 5 spots with $9.1 million and $4.25 million over the weekend, respectively. As for the aforementioned MacGruber, word on the street is that the producers did all they could to keep certain reviewers from seeing it in advance. Yep, they were afraid that the reviews would kill it. Nice, guys.

Opening this Weekend: Two more huge studio flicks open everywhere this weekend, starting with the much talked about Sex and the City 2, which opens on Thursday, May 27. I’m sure almost everyone who has seen the trailer will agree that it looks kind of dumb (Camels? Aidan Shaw?!), but people will go out of loyalty. The show was fantastic; the movies kinda blow. Also out this week is Mike Newell’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Kingsley and Alfred Molina. If you like Rated-E films (E stands for Empty, Epic and Expensive, not Everyone) based on video games, then you’ll probably like this movie. Or at least all the cheap hype money can buy will tell you that you like this movie. Be sure to stop at Taco Bell - or whatever grease factory is sponsoring the film’s big promotional budget - on your way home. Oh, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Micmacs finally hits Stateside theaters this week. Now this, we are excited about. More than excited, we’re thrilled! If you’re not familiar with Jeunet, he’s done some seriously classic films, including (but not limited to) Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children and Amelie. We even like his A Very Long Engagement and Alien Resurrection. Micmacs for the win.

New to Home Video: Out on DVD and Blu-ray this coming Tuesday, June 1, is Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland remake, The Red Baron, The Wolfman (worst movie of the year), the straight-to-video Wild Things: Foursome, season three of “Burn Notice,” season five of “Rescue Me,” another U2 concert DVD, the final season of The Cleaner, a Clint Eastwood Blu-ray box set and a first issue Blu-ray of Bad Boys. The Eastwood box focuses on the films he has directed, including most of his new ones, save for Changeling, which is maybe the best film he’s ever directed. RantTime: We’ve noticed - via conversation - that a lot of regular ScreenTime readers haven’t seen this film. Why not?! It was (deservingly) only two tiny votes away from winning the Palme d‘Or for cripes sake! Tom Stern’s cinematography work alone makes it a must-see.

Quick Industry Buzz: Did somebody say “industry”? Okay, we’ll make this quick: Lots of important people who make things happen are reportedly super bummed about how “poorly” that Shrek flick is doing … we’re amused; Shutter Island recently sold the ticket that made it director Martin Scorcese’s highest earner to date; art house movies are supposedly doing awful across the board this year, which is kind of odd, considering how the Oscars played out a couple of months ago; the producers and financial backers behind upcoming Julia Roberts flick Eat, Pray, Love are super angry at news that the film was recently given an R rating. Okay, that Eat, Pray bit of “buzz” was the most boring buzz ever. Let’s move on …

Archival Pick of the Week: Jacques Audiard’s The Beat That My Heart Skipped. After seeing Audiard’s Un Prophete (ScreenTime’s favorite 2010 movie thus far) a couple of weeks ago I made it a point to see as much of the French director’s past work as possible. I won’t say that Beat is as good as Prophete, but both are certainly modern French cinema classics. Beat is a smaller production with different strengths - so much so that it almost feels like the work of a different director. Many reviewers have said that they think this is a film that Alfred Hitchcock would like; I won’t say any different, but will add that Hitchcock was not an easy man to impress. We also recommend checking out Audiard’s excellent Read My Lips if you haven’t already. Un Prophete is out on DVD and Blu-ray soon.

Written by G. William Locke