09/16/10
Tops at the Box: I’ve not seen any of the Resident Evil films, all starring Milla Jovavich (The Fifth Element), but know that they usually bring in about $50 million from theaters and another $70-$100 million via rental and DVD purchases. When you consider the production reasonable small budget (usually about $45 million or so per film) and the healthy overseas gross (about $70 million per film), these four movies, all directed by Paul W. S. Anderson (not to be confused with Paul Thomas), are considered to be very profitable movies. The latest, Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D, released last week, came at the perfect time, taking the No. 1 spot last weekend with about $28 million and little competition. These are supposedly very fun movies, but with some very promising movies opening this week - and much better movies like The American, Machete, Inception and even Scott Pilgrim still playing wide - we’d suggest waiting for the DVD.
More From the Box: Last weekend’s No. 2 film, Takers ($6.1 million in its first week), looks dumb. Super dumb. Despite starring a couple of pretty great actors (Matt Dillon and Idris Elba), it also stars a who’s who of today’s worst actors (T.I., Paul Walker, Chris Brown, Zoe Saldana, Hayden Christensen, Jay Hernandez). Toss in an awful plot, awful producers and a lame director and you have another awful crime film from Hollywood. With a beefy $50 million budget, expect Takers to be considered a major flop. Last weekend’s No. 3 film, $20 million art-house-flick-turned-major-release, Anton Corbin’s (Control) The American, came in at No. 3, bringing in about $6 million, upping its so-far total to just under $30 million. Not bad. ScreenTime loved this movie. The plot (bad guy trying to go straight) has been done time and time again, but that doesn’t matter. Not when it’s done this well, with this much style. We consider this to be not just a great movie to look at, but also actor George Clooney’s best performance yet and the first proper Stateside introduction to actor/singer/major talent Violante Placido, our pick for maybe the most beautiful woman alive. Coming in at No. 4 and No. 5 last weekend were Robert Rodriguez’s Machete and Drew Barrymore rom-com Going the Distance, with $4.2 and $3.8 million, respectively. Seriously, though, go see The American if you want to spend a beautiful 100 minutes with a killer in the awe-inspiring Italian countryside.
Opening this Weekend: Four new films see wide release this Friday, September 17, three of which we at the ScreenTime offices are actually kinda/sorta excited to see. We’ll start with the bad, Lionsgate’s newest attempt at animation, Alpha and Omega, featuring the voice talents of Christina Ricci, Justin Long, Dennis Hopper and Danny Glover. Ugh. Looks kinda awful to us, but could do well, seeing as how there hasn’t been a solid children’s film in a few weeks. Next we have Easy A, a rom-com of the SuperBad sub-genre starring the very alluring Emma Stone. The trailer, which pretty much everyone with a pulse has seen at least a dozen times by now, makes it look like a long lost John Hughes film. Nothing wrong with that. Probably won’t be great, but looks like a solid dollar movie sort of flick. Next up is Devil, the first film in a M. Night Shyamalan-produced trilogy of horror films. The trailer looks promising, even if it does imply that, like most things Shyamalan is attached to, it’s incredibly well made yet mildly disappointing. Now, finally, we have the week’s big winner, the Ben Affleck-directed crime saga The Town, starring Affleck, Jon Hamm, Rebecca Hall, Chris Cooper, Jeremy Renner and Blake Lively. Looks like Heat meets Goodwill Hunting to us. Looks awfully well made and, without a doubt, an introduction to Ben Affleck: Serious Film Artist. Stoked.
ScreenRant: Fact: Sam Rockwell is one of the greatest actors to never receive an Oscar nomination. Sure, he’s only 41 years old (and looks about 27), but he’s already given an impressive number of performances that, in the opinion of ScreenTime, make him a strong candidate for the best of his class. With his next film, Conviction, looking to be the one to finally get him his first Big Stage nomination, we figured it a good time to list our 10 favorite Rockwell performances, many of which we think deserved some serious statue love. 10. Box of Moon Light; 9. Lawn Dogs; 8. The Assassination of Jesse James; 7. Safe Men; 6. Matchstick Men; 5. Choke; 4. Snow Angels; 3. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind; 2. The Green Mile; 1. Moon. Conviction, for the record, looks like some serious Oscar Bait cheese to us.
Out on Home Video: A few decent titles are set to hit shelves this coming Tuesday, September 21, including Ondine, Robin Hood, The Secret in Their Eyes, Racing Dreams, season four of “30 Rock,” season two of “Castle,” season seven of “Two and a Half Men,” season one of “Modern Family,” season two of “The Mentalist,” season one of “Community,” season one of “Human Target” and first edition Blu-ray issues of American Beauty, “Bored to Death,” Ondine, The Peacemaker, Robin Hood, Stomp the Yard and the incredibly awesome Criterion issue of Charade.
Written by G. William Locke