08/19/10

Tops at the Box: Sylvester Stallone’s latest offering of big dumb action, The Expendables, had a solid opening weekend, bringing in just over $35 million over its first three days. Starring almost every big name action star from the 80s and 90s (save for Wesley Snipes, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal), Stallone’s film is getting some surprisingly positive reviews thus far. A friend described it as a buddy flick between Jason Statham and Stallone; he said it was good for what it is, but not without some major issues. ScreenTime will, if anything, probably wait for the RedBox for The Expendables. 

More From the Box: Last week’s No. 2 film, director Ryan Murphy’s film adaptation of “Eat, Pray, Love,” took in a lower-than-expected $23.7 million over its first three days. Some bad reviews and lots of gossip about the film’s star, Julie Roberts, likely hurt the $60 million film’s opening weekend. Still, ScreenTime is pretty sure that Eat, Pray will make its money back and then some, especially come rental time. Murphy’s last adaptation, Running With Scissors, also received negative reviews, but not quite to the extent of Eat, Pray. For example, here’s Roger Ebert’s Twitter review of the film: “Me, me, me, me, me!” From what we know of the book, sounds like a faithful adaptation. Coming in at No. 3 was action/comedy hybrid The Other Guys, upping its so-far total to just over $70 million. The weekend’s No. 4 film, Christopher Nolan’s Inception, brought in another $11.4 million while the No. 5 film, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World took in a disappointing $10.5 million over its first three days despite lots of press and glowing reviews. Ugh. We at ScreenTime saw Edgar Wright’s Pilgrim film and, for the most part, loved it. In our opinion, a new classic of its kind. Go see this comic book-meets-video game hybrid (sounds awful, right?) if you want to see something you’ve never seen before.

Opening this Weekend: Five films open wide this weekend, though none too exciting. Warner Bros. comedy Lottery Ticket will likely do the best of the four films, unless Piranha 3D becomes the surprise horror hit some are predicting. Universal family flick Nany McPhee Returns, starring an impressive cast that includes Emma Thompson (who wrote the screenplay), Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ralph Fiennes, Maggie Smith and Ewan McGregor, should also do well - especially on DVD and Blu-ray. Looks well made, but also completely unnecessary (though I could say that about most of the films released this year). The other two big movies opening this weekend, Mirimax comedy The Switch and Fox’s horror/comedy Vampires Suck, will most likely get lost in the crowd. So, nothing too exciting, but it’s nice to have options.

Indie Buzz: A number of “indie” films seem to be doing surprisingly well right now, including ScreenTime favorite Winter’s Bone, which has already made just under $5 million with only a very limited release. Go see it; it is, in our opinion, a new classic. For our money, Bone’s lead actor, Jennifer Lawrence, has given the best female performance of 2010. We checked out The Kids Are All Right this past weekend and, aside from not at all agreeing that the film can be classified as “indie,” liked the movie - which continues to do quite well - very much. Mark Ruffalo gives the kind of quality performance he should’ve given in Shutter Island. The just released Middle Men isn’t performing to well, nor is Rob Reiner’s Flipped. Last but not least is The Girl Who Played With Fire, which has done somewhat well over its first few weeks. (From what we‘ve read, the film pales in comparison to Dragon Tattoo, another of ScreenTime’s favorites of the year so far.)

New to Home Video: Titles new to home video this coming Tuesday, August 24 include The Back-Up Plan, City Island, Survival of the Dead, The Square, season two of “90210,” the complete “Flights of the Conchords,” season three of “Gossip Girl,” season seven of “NCIS,” season two of “Pawn Stars,” the latest season of “The Simpsons” and, most importantly, both the final season of “Lost” and the complete “Lost” collection.

Written by G. William Locke