Box Office Derby August 30

The Last Exorcism and Takers battled it out for the box office crown this weekend.  It looked like Exorcism was going to nab it, but at the last minute Takers pulled ahead.  Neither film is very good, though, so it hardly matters except to T.I., who starred in and produced Takers and wants to be sure that everyone knows his movie is number one.  Otherwise, this weekend's results look a lot like last weekend's, just with these two new movies on top.  So you got your Expendables, your Eat Pray Love, that stuff.  Vampires Suck sank a bit, and Scott Pilgrim slipped off the top ten.  Just not enough geek love.  Coming up the next few weeks we'll see serious fall films start to hit the theaters (aka, Oscar bait) and that should make movie going more interesting.  That will be a relief.

What to See -- August 27

There's a movie coming out this weekend called The Last Exorcism; I saw a trailer and it looks really scary. Set in rural Louisiana (where else?) it's about a preacher who makes the trek to an isolated farmhouse to save the soul of a demonic girl. Only he doesn't really believe in this stuff, so he brings a documentary crew along to expose his own fraud -- except this time, the possession seems to be real. Cool premise; decent, if limited, early reviews. Then there's Takers, about a bunch of seasoned criminals (including rapper T.I. and Chris Brown) determined to pull off one last heist, and we all know how that kind of thing usually turns out. Matt Dillon plays the "hardened" detective determined to stop the criminal escapade. Apparently light on plot but good with the action; reviews have been mixed, mostly bad. And there's that Avatar re-release.

These are slim pickings, so here are a couple of other thoughts: if you're looking for some movie fun, see Scott Pilgrim or The Other Guys. Both entertaining, lighthearted films. If you want something more challenging, look for a showing of the excellent (but slow moving) Winter's Bone, or the also good Kids Are All Right. That should do it.

Avatar Redux

OK, this is odd: James Cameron is re-releasing Avatar this weekend, with nine minutes of new footage showing Pandorans hunting sturmbeests, a fantastical creature that looks a lot like a stegosaurus. Do Pandorans eat these things? We don't know, but anyway now that the hunting scene is back Cameron has slipped the sturmbeests into a few other spots as well; I guess he thought we would have been confused before, if we were watching a big busy Pandoran battle and a couple of stegosauruses lumbered through. Cameron is also worried because Alice in Wonderland and How to Train Your Dragon opened shortly after Avatar (the first time), and he believes this caused a dearth of 3D screen availability for all those people who still wanted to pay a premium to see his movie. So he's putting it out there again, just to help his disappointed fans. And to show off the sturmbeests.  (Wanna see a sturmbeest?  Click here.  I would post it but I'm afraid James Cameron would get mad.)

In other box office news, turns out people are tired of paying a premium to see 3D movies; Piranha 3D had disappointing numbers last weekend, and Step Up 3D and that Cats and Dogs movie also failed to impress. Overall, the movie business is on track to match last summer's box office numbers but actual ticket sales are down -- Memorial Day weekend had the worst movie attendance numbers since 1993.  (Of course, it may also have had the worst movies since 1993.  Sex and the City 2, anyone?  Prince of Persia?)

Box Office Derby

Bit of a surprise on the weekend box office – Expendables was number one, with about $17 mill in tickets sold, everyone expected that, but Vampires Suck came in at number two, and no one saw that coming. Critics hated the Twilight spoof, but audiences showed up, giving the film a slight edge over Eat Pray Love; the Julia Roberts picture is sinking like a soft marshmallow in very hot chocolate, showing none of the staying power of Julie and Julia from last season. Scott Pilgrim continued its ride on the down elevator, looking more and more like it will have to find redemption in DVD or whatever. Piranha 3D did okay, though. They’re already planning a sequel.

The Switch

Jennifer Aniston is Kassie, a successful career woman with a ticking clock. She decides to act before it is too late, and announces her intention to find a sperm donor and have a baby. This comes as a shock to her neurotic best friend Wally, played by Justin Bateman; he gives her dozens of reasons why it’s a bad idea, but we can pretty much tell that he’s just put out because she’s not interested in his sperm. That, and he’s probably in love with her – we know that because she’s Jennifer Aniston, and this is a romantic comedy. There’s not much else in the plot to give their relationship away – in contrast to films like When Harry Met Sally, or Broadcast News, where it is clear how much the two main characters enjoy each other’s company, these two mostly argue and act irritated with each other as the movies skips quickly along in order to get to the main event: the sperm switch.

Spoiler alert? Really? C’mon, the name of the film is The Switch, you know it’s coming.

So Justin Bateman finds himself in Kassie’s bathroom, face to face with her Viking sperm donor’s seed, and he’s drunk and not a little high from pills that Cassie’s friend Debbie (played with great humor by Juliette Lewis – where has she been?) has slipped him and he decides to have a little fun. Next thing we know, Viking seed has become neurotic seed, Kassie’s pregnant, and she moves away to raise her son in bucolic Minnesota. (I have to give some props to Justin Bateman here. For the sperm switch scene he’s alone in a bathroom, playing a drunk who is about to, well, donate. Potentially awkward and cringe worthy, but he pulls it off. It’s not hilarious but it’s amusing.)

The best friends lose touch, until Kassie moves back, seven years later, with a kid who seems an awful lot like Wally. The film picks up at that point, because Thomas Robinson, who plays young Sebastian, is a terrific little child actor, and he and Bateman have great chemistry together. When the two of them are on screen, discussing their neuroses, it’s a lot of fun. The rest of the movie is predictable fluff, but if you’re in the mood for lighthearted nonsense, you could do worse than this one. Don’t rush out to see it, though, if you’re hoping for a big dose of Jennifer Aniston – she doesn’t get a lot of screen time. With a terrific supporting performance by Jeff Goldblum as Wally’s friend Leonard. It’s been years since I’ve enjoyed Goldblum this much. Playing all over but it had a disappointing first weekend so, if you want to see it in theaters, sooner is probably better than later. B-

Photo credit - Miramax

Where did the summer go? August 20, 2010

It's rumored that some East Coast school districts are starting up next week, no post labor day schedule for them, and plaintive parents are posting Facebook pictures of their near adult children settling into dorm rooms like there's something wrong with that. But the summer movie season isn't quite over, not when you've got a picture like Piranha 3D popping up in theaters this weekend. I remember the first Piranha; a bunch of us sneaked out of class to see it in a triple bill with Alligator and The Howling. It was, believe it or not, a John Sayles marathon.

This new Piranha is getting oddly good reviews, especially for Elisabeth Shue's performance and I like Elisabeth Shue. 3D sort of annoys me, especially the glasses and the dim screen, but I might show up. Also this weekend we've got The Switch; Jennifer Aniston and Justin Bateman starring in a comedy about a sperm donor baby and his dad's reluctance to embrace adulthood, in a funny way. Apparently Bateman outshines Aniston here, and the kid (Thomas Robinson) steals the show from both of them. Then there's the second installment of Nanny McPhee, for the younger set; and Lottery Ticket, about a kid from the projects who discovers he has a winning lottery ticket on a Friday, and has to wait until Monday to cash it, avoiding all sorts of pitfalls over the course of the weekend. Finally, among big openings, there's Vampires Suck, a satire parody movie that messes around with the "Twilight" series. I like the idea of this one but I don't know if I can sit through it. In any case, everyone seems to think that The Expendables will take the weekend again, and what is drawing people to this geriatric action pic I have no idea. Maybe I'll check it out.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Scott Pilgrim

It’s hard to know where to start with this wacky, entertaining little film. Scott Pilgrim bends all kinds of storytelling rules, expecting us to ride along, say, when Scott, a lightweight, wimpy dude turns into a live action video game superhero, endures a colossal battle and then turns right back into his old persona, happily collecting his bonus coins from the floor (“Cool, coins!”) while his score totes up absurdly in the background. I love this stuff.

Scott Pilgrim, played by Michael Cera, is a shiftless twenty something Canadian, who doesn’t have much going on except a band (Sex Bob-omb) where he plays a fierce bass guitar. His heart was “kicked in the butt” by a rock singer named Envy who left him behind when she got famous. Scott compensates by dating a 17 year old high school student, much to the chagrin of everyone he knows, and everyone he knows is kept well informed by his roommate Wallace (Kieran Culkin) who has superpowers himself when it comes to texting about Scott’s personal life. He can do it – literally – in his sleep.

Then Scott meets Ramona Flowers, an edgy young woman with purple hair; she delivers packages for the Canadian version of Amazon and occasionally shows up in Scott’s dreams because there’s a subspace in his brain she likes to use. (If you’re not a Scott Pilgrim aficionado you won’t understand what that means, and it never gets explained, but that’s the way this movie rolls.) Scott falls head over heels for Ramona but she’s got baggage: in order to date her, Scott has to defeat her seven evil exes (and, perhaps more frightening, break up with Knives Chau, his seventeen year old girlfriend). And so the video game battling begins, with the first of the evil exes mounting an assault in the middle of a Sex Bob-omb concert. Scott is baffled: “Wait! We're fighting over Ramona?” Evil Matthew Patel responds reasonably, “Didn't you get my email explaining the situation?”

This film is full of great characters, with Kieran Culkin nearly stealing the show as Wallace, a low key but sharp witted gay lothario who loves Scott like a brother but isn’t afraid to call him on his romantic peccadilloes. Anna Kendrick is terrific as Scott’s impatient, down to earth sister, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead is pitch perfect as the mysterious Ramona. And a shout out is due to Alison Pill, who plays Kim Pine, the drummer for Sex Bob-omb; Pill (looking oddly like a young Molly Ringwald) nails the acerbic wit and sharp insight that make Kim a welcome antidote to the freewheeling style of the rest of the gang.  Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is not a serious movie, but it creates its illogical universe with such care, each piece of the story fitting snugly into the next, that we quickly believe that the whole thing makes perfect sense. This is a really fun ride. B+

Girl is Getting a Dragon Tattoo

Rooney Mara

An actress named Rooney Mara has been cast in the high profile role of Lisbeth Salander in the American remakes of Stieg Larsson's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo stories.  If the rumors are true (and who the heck knows for sure) everyone from Kristin Stewart to Scarlett Johansson was in the running for the role.  Oh, and Ellen Page.  Her too.

Rooney is relatively unknown (she was in Youth in Revolt, and The Winning Season) but she was already set to make her mark in the hotly anticipated The Social Network.  With this casting,  she's on track to be an "It Girl."

Daniel Craig, currently out of Bond films to work on, was already cast in the role of Mikail Blomkvist, the journalist who collaborates with the fierce, brilliant Lisbeth to solve crimes.

Photo Credit - IMDB Pro

Summer Doldrums

The ReelFan is back!  Spent some time visiting elderly relatives and found it oddly difficult to get internet access in retirement homes and a place called Wisconsin. Fortunately, it's been a boring summer at the movies, so not much to report.

But let's talk anyway. Expendables took the weekend box office -- no big surprise, early "polling" showed enormous interest in the 80's throwback action picture. Julia Roberts did pretty well with her Eat Pray Love debut, but distributor Sony is already talking about needing a strong showing overseas to get production costs covered. Seems that there wasn't enough love in the audience to assure steady domestic box office in the next few weeks (audiences gave the film a "B" on Cinemascore -- not a good sign from an opening weekend crowd). Scott Pilgrim pretty much tanked, which shouldn't surprise me since my hipster twenty-something daughters had no interest in going. "I'm sick of that guy," my oldest said of Michael Cera, and that was that.