11/04/10
Tops at the Box: As we predicted in last week’s column, Saw 3D took the No. 1 spot this past weekend, brining in $24 million over its first three days. Every year for the last six or so years the folks at Lionsgate have released one of these movies on or around Halloween and every year people have both complained about and attended the movies. We at ScreenTime saw the first film when it came out, thought it was okay, then found ourselves using the disc for the second movie to scrape the grill clean. Yep, that’s the best thing we have to say about the Saw movies.
More From the Box: Paranormal Activity 2, a movie we maybe knocked a little too hard in a previous column, had a strong second weekend, bringing in another $17 million, upping its 10-day total to over $65 million. Not bad for a movie made on a $3 million budget! Yeah, well admit it, we figured the flick would be horrible (and hey, it still might be), but we’ve heard otherwise from reliable sources. Supposedly it’s not only a decent thriller, but an improvement on the original. Since learning that the movie was shot by ScreenTime fave Michael Simmonds (featured below, in this week’s ScreenRant), we’ve decided that we might even check it out at some point. Maybe. Taking the No. 3 spot last weekend was Red, bringing in another $11 million, upping its three week total to just under $60 million. Jackass 3D took the No. 4 spot, upping its four-week total to just over $100 million with another $8 million while Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter brought in about $6.5 million, upping its three-week total to $22 million, officially establishing it as a box office failure. We hear it’s awful. We don’t believe it. People, they got no taste.
Not Opening This Weekend: I’d been talking with friends (and myself) for weeks about Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle’s new film, 127 Days, starring James Franco as the thrill seeker Aron Ralston, the dude who sawed his arm off after a climbing accident. Featuring much of the production team from Slumdog, a great story, a great director and a lead actor who is just now stepping into his prime, 127 Hours ranked as a movie, needless to say, that I was/am very excited to see. Not just that, I figured that, since Slumdog did so well, surely Boyle’s next flick would open wide and I wouldn’t have to leave town or move to Seattle to see it. Wrong. Despite Slumdog winning best picture, selling huge on DVD, renting even bigger and doing very well at the box office after a small opening, 127 Hours will only open in four markets, where it will then test for a few weeks and then, maybe, just maybe, open wide. Ugh.
Opening This Weekend: There are, however, three films opening wide this week: Todd Phillip’s much anticipated The Hangover follow-up, Due Date; Tyler Perry’s first foray into real film, For Colored Girls ; and sure thing animated film Megamind, featuring the vocal talents of Brad Pitt and Will Ferrell. Doug Liman’s very promising new action thriller, Fair Game, starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts, will open small while Making the Boys and Eliot Spitzer documentary Client 9 test in NYC and LA. Last but not least, Guy and Madeline On a Park Bench, will begin to test. If you’ve not heard of this movie but consider yourself a cinephile, be sure to check out the trailer online. Looks like a super fun musical ode to French New Wave era cinema, armed with loads of weirdo energy. If none of that interests you, I’m pretty sure that the new Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden film, comedy It’s Kind of a Funny Story, starring Zach Galifianakis, is playing in Fort Wayne. Fleck and Boden, who directed both Half Nelson and Sugar, don’t make bad movies. This one might be a slight misstep for the young auteur couple, but it’s certainly worth seeing.
ScreenRant: I’ve mentioned writer/director Ramin Bahrani a few times in the past, mostly in relation to his 2009 film, Goodbye, Solo, one of my favorite pictures of recent memory. I’ve also talked about his Chop Shop, another personal favorite and, for what it’s worth, Roger Ebert’s No. 4 film of the naughts. But it’s a 17-minute short film titled Plastic Bag that I write you about today. I’d seen the film, which opened the 2009 Cannes Film Festival on YouTube when it first hit the Internet. I liked it very much. But not until I bought a copy of Werner Herzog’s My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done on DVD (which features Plastic Bag as a bonus feature) did I really get to see the movie. Dang. Double dang. Featuring a score by Sigur Ros, narration by Werner Herzog and cinematography by regular Bahrani collaborator Michael Simmonds, the film is pitch-perfect work. Since buying My Son I’ve watched Plastic Bag at least 10 times. Not to sound cliché, but it’s the very rare piece of work that takes my breath away. So damn good.
New to Home Video: Lots of worthwhile titles out this week (as well as lots of skippers), including the following: the Criterion first-run edition of Lars von Trier’s controversial Antichrist; Charlie St. Cloud; Grown Ups; Love Ranch; Ramona and Beezus; the surprisingly awesome Scott Pilgrim vs. The World; Jeal-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child; season three of “Californication;” season five of “Doctor Who;” the complete “Golden Girls” collection; season two of “Lie to Me;” season three of “Metalocalypse;” season four of “Hell’s Kitchen;” season one of “Sherlock;” and the complete “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!”
Written by G. William Locke
