From director Bill Condon (Kinsey, Dreamgirls) this is the movie about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (who already obtained the script and railed against the film of course), starring Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role. I adore Benedict, so I'm mostly looking forward to this one for him. Out Oct 11th.
The latest from director Steve McQueen (Shame), is the true story of a free black man sold into slavery in the 1800's. Starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Fassbender, along with many other big names, this one comes out Oct 18th and is another potential Oscar contender.
The big box office story this weekend was actually still Despicable Me 2, which topped again by bringing in another $44 million and has almost surpassed Monsters University's domestic gross ($237 million) in just two weeks. It's a massive hit, and is about to overtake Monsters' international haul too, with $474 million so far. The new releases split good news and bad, with the critically savaged Grown Ups 2 scoring second place with $42 million, and on track to be Adam Sandler's 14th $100 million grosser (although the audience gave it a mediocre "B" CinemaScore, so it may not hold up), and Pacific Rim managed $38 million for third. It's not a wildly impressive debut, since the movie cost $190 million, and proved to be somewhat frontloaded (decreasing in its daily gross from Friday through Sunday). Still, it's the biggest opening of Guillermo del Toro's career, and good word of mouth ("A-" from crowds) could it help it maintain itself through the rest of the summer, with no other blockbuster releases on the horizon.
TOP 5:
The holdovers are doing as expected, with The Heat holding up well and crossing $100 million this week, while The Lone Ranger plummeted 62% since the 4th of July. And in limited release news, Fruitvale Station earned an impressive $377,000 from just 7 screens, which gives it a high per screen average of $54,000. It's the first potential Oscar movie of the year, and in light of the recent Trayvon Martin ruling, its topicality has just exploded. Expect to see it get much more attention in the coming weeks.
The best part about a new Adam Sandler movie is getting to see all the vitriol spewed at it by the critics. This is of course, how they get their revenge for being forced to sit through his latest car wreck, cash-in, whatever you want to call it. It's now sitting pretty at a towering 8% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes- hey, at least it's better than Jack & Jill!
Here are my favorite quotes:
"If 'Grown Ups 2' was anything in the ballpark of a 'good movie', then sea cucumber excrement is tasty (One of the dirtiest animals on the planet, they resemble long sausages and dine on dead animal carcasses)."- HollywoodChicago.com
"As a way to arrange a movie, it's a disaster, but on some level you have to respect a guy who keeps his pals working, especially in this economy."- Philadelphia Daily News
"Yes, it's time for yet another visit to the Adam Sandler Death-of-Cinema Fun Factory, the big screen version of a terrible sitcom where laugh tracks are replaced by the co-stars chuckling at their own awful material."- The Wrap
"Among the slackest, laziest, least movie-like movies released by a major studio in the last decade, 'Grown Ups 2' is perhaps the closest Hollywood has yet come to making 'Ow! My Balls!' seem like a plausible future project."- Variety
"A movie of fools, by fools, for fools." - Film.com
Rumors have been swirling for weeks now that Mendes would be back for another Bond installment, despite having officially denied that he'd be directing four months ago. Today the studio has confirmed it, along with the producers, and Skyfall screenwriter John Logan will be back again, too. They really want another billion dollar Bond, don't they? Of course Daniel Craig will return as well. The unnamed Bond 24 will be out on Nov 6, 2015.
Well, one day after the first set pic and now we have the trailer. It's out on Dec 20th. What do you think?
The trailer for Spike Lee's Oldboy is out. This is a remake of one of the most intense, twisted, creepy movies I've ever seen. I can tell you right now, there's no way I can imagine anything topping the original 2003 South Korean masterpiece from Park Chan-wook. But, as always, we'll soon find out. Oldboy's out Oct 25th.
A movie coming out in limited release this weekend that's worth looking out for is Fruitvale Station, which won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the Sundance film festival this year. It's writer-director Ryan Coogler's feature film debut and is already earning raves from the critics. It stars Michael B. Jordan (who I LOVED on Friday Night Lights) in the true story of a young man named Oscar Grant, who was involved in a tragic accident on New Year's Day, 2009. This one will probably be in the mix for Oscar season, so keep an eye out.
Indiewire's got the first set picture of Tom Hanks as Walt Disney and Emma Thompson as P.L. Travers for the upcoming Saving Mr. Banks. The movie is supposed to be about the making of Mary Poppins - Travers was the author of the original books and had to be persuaded to give up the rights. Sounds to me like a My Week With Marilyn kinda thing, but we'll see. It's from The Blind Side director John Lee Hancock and coming out December 13th.
One of the very best Mel Brooks movies was his directorial debut, and it's out on blu-ray now. With the great Gene Wilder (also in his debut) and the late Zero Mostel as two down on their luck producers desperate to make a "flop," this is one of the great comedies of all time. You owe it to yourself to check it out.
Here's a sampling of the nuttiness:
"I'm hysterical and I'm WET!"
Side Effects is a twisty Hitchcockian thriller from Steven Soderbergh, and is supposedly his last theatrical film (well, we'll see how long that promise lasts). If it is his last though, he went out on a relative high note. The story is about a young woman named Emily who is struggling with depression (Rooney Mara), and whose husband is released from a lengthy prison stint for insider trading. This would make anyone's life stressful and she starts seeing a psychiatrist (Jude Law) after multiple suicide attempts. The shrink attempts to treat her in the ways he knows how, including prescribing all different kinds of drugs, which leads to a fatal accident involving Emily and her husband. For awhile you think this is a serious look at prescription drug culture in America, but the plot twists and surprises in the last half hour will leave you reeling as you try to figure out what kind of movie it really is. For that you have to give it credit- it's unpredictable and appropriately leveled with an anxiety ridden tone, much of that due to the uneasy and nervous performance from Rooney Mara as Emily. She leaves you questioning her motives just as often as sympathizing with her condition. In another unexpected turn, Law as the psychiatrist is actually the wronged man in the Hitchcock plot; we rarely get insight into his character as he begins to piece together the loopholes in her story, but we don't really need to- he's a vehicle for uncovering the truth, ala the Cary Grant role. The movie isn't flawless- Catherine Zeta-Jones gives a much too hammy performance here that undercuts what should have been another surprise twist involving her role as Emily's previous doctor, and the last minute revelations may be somewhat over the top. But Soderbergh effectively unravels the story with minimal flash- the last couple years he seems effortlessly able to toss off genre flicks while we know he's capable of much more complicated storytelling (Traffic and even Out of Sight), but this is a solid popcorn entertainment well worth your time. Hopefully Soderbergh will find the inspiration to come out of that "retirement" sooner rather than later- he's a great talent who never makes an uninteresting film, and for that we need him to stick around.
* * 1/2
Trailer:
Over the long 4th of July weekend, Universal's Despicable Me 2 flew in way above expectations, hauling in a $142 million total since Wednesday, which sets a record for the biggest animated 5 day opening ever. The marketing dream that is the little minions were multiplied in this film, so you can credit the animating team for giving the kids what they wanted, I guess. Meanwhile, Disney's The Lone Ranger crashed and burned, with a $29 million 3-day, adding up to a $48 million total since opening, which is a disaster for a movie that cost $250 million to produce. The movie wasn't helped by dismal reviews (25% Rotten Tomatoes, 37 Metacritic), and limited audience appeal for a franchise that was last popular in the 1940's. Looks like Johnny Depp's appeal can only go so far- but international grosses, where he's an even bigger draw, are still to come.
TOP 5 3-Day:
In the holdovers, The Heat held on strong, for a gross of $86 million so far, and giving it a chance to make or beat the $169 million total of Bridesmaids, while Monsters U clearly had its thunder stolen by the minions, falling all the way to No. 4 from the top spot last week. And WWZ has held up very well over the last few weeks as America's disaster movie of choice, with a total of $158 million so far. Next up, it's Adam Sandler in Grown Ups 2 vs. Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim.
The Movie Seasons
Use this site for movie and television recommendations throughout the year- we have picks for the changing seasons, holidays, and moods, along with new releases and recaps of the best shows on TV
