Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "Young Frankenstein" (1974)

Coincidentally, our blu-ray choice this week happens to be one of our Halloween picks for the month of October (see the Creature Features page), but hey, you can never have enough Mel Brooks in your life, so here's the 40th anniversary blu-ray edition to commemorate a classic spoof. Gene Wilder is awesome (as always) as Dr. "Fronk-en-steen," Teri Garr is memorably hilarious as the lab assistant, and Brooks faithful Madeline Kahn hams it up as the scorned fiance who falls for the monster (Peter Boyle). A timeless comedy (even if you don't know the Frankenstein story) and always a raucous good time.

Original 1974 Trailer:

TRAILER #2: "Fury"

By far the best trailer for Brad Pitt's new movie Fury, coming out in October. This one showcases newbie Logan Lerman and gives us much more of the actual story, set amidst the tank warfare during WWII. The studio chose not to premiere this at any of the film festivals, which I'm not sure is a good sign or not- it could be that they think it's more of a commercial than awards play, but considering the subject matter (anything WWII-related is Oscar catnip) they might have at least made a try for it.

BOX OFFICE 9/05-9/07: 'Guardians' Tops Another Sleepy Weekend

Not a whole lot to say about the box office this week, as Guardians of the Galaxy came in at No. 1 with just $10 million to show for it. It nears closer to the $300 million mark, while the new release this weekend, the faith-based The Identical, flopped with just under $2 million. The rest is holdovers, as these really are the dog days of box office, with no exciting new releases on the horizon. Basically, there are plans for two seasons at the movies during the year- summer blockbuster season and Oscar season. Oscar season hasn't quite kicked off yet, with a lot of the films premiering at the early festivals right now, and blockbuster season is pretty much over and done with at this point.

Maybe the international box office is more interesting right now, as we try to see all these various movies will end up. Guardians already has $586 million worldwide, which surpasses the first time entries of all the other Marvel franchises, so that continues to exceed expectations. The rest of the top five were filled out by the Ninja Turtles, If I Stay, Let's Be Cops and The November Man, all of which came in with under $7 million for the weekend.

Top 5:

Guardians of the Galaxy- $10.2 million
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles- $6.5 million
If I Stay- $5.8 million
Let's Be Cops- $5.4 million
The November Man- $4.2 million

In the limited release release movies, Boyhood has now passed $20 million with more to go, a big success for the independent film looking to hang on all through Oscar season. Next week it's another slow one, with just Dolphin Tale 2, the Idris Elba thriller No Good Deed, and the arthouse indie The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, starring Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy.

TRAILER: "Horrible Bosses 2"

Here's the full trailer for the Horrible Bosses sequel, and it actually made me chuckle a few times, but trailers can be deceiving (especially with comedies). It's pretty easy to push all the good laughs into a two minute compilation. Nice to see Star Trek's Chris Pine doing something different here. The movie comes out November 26th.

TRAILER #2: "Mr. Turner"

A new U.S. trailer for Mike Leigh's Mr. Turner has dropped. The movie got great reviews in Cannes and even won Timothy Spall the best actor prize, but it debuted at Telluride last week to a slightly more muted reaction. I can't wait to see this, since it's Mike Leigh and all (plus it looks gorgeous- the landscape shots themselves look like paintings), but I have a feeling it's going to get totally overshadowed this fall by all the other Oscar movies. A limited stateside release date of December 19th doesn't do it any favors either.

Kennedy Center Honorees Announced

The annual Kennedy Center Honors will be taped in early December and are set to tribute Tom Hanks, Lily Tomlin, Al Green, Sting and Patricia McBride for 2014. Quite the group this year, huh? Tom Hanks I believe will be one of the youngest people ever honored, at just 58, but I think his body of work is enough to warrant it, don't you? I mean, if ten years from now he still had just the filmography he has now he'd be plenty deserving, so I think it's alright that he's under 60. The show will be broadcast on CBS December 30th.

VIDEO CLIP: "Big Hero 6"

Last night Disney aired a special on the making of Frozen (which is already being hailed as an animated classic strictly due to how much money it made and not its actual quality, which is annoying) during which they they showed off a new scene from the upcoming Big Hero 6. They have a ton of confidence in this movie, so much so that John Lasseter held a special preview screening for press the other day where they revealed 25 minutes of footage. I actually have a good feeling about this one too, although I'm not sure why- maybe because I really did love their last non-musical animated film (Wreck-It Ralph, which was definitely better than Frozen) and I think they might be on a bit of a roll. Check it out:

TRAILER: "The Rewrite"

For anyone wondering where Hugh Grant's been for the last seven years or so, he pops up again in this new romantic comedy with Marisa Tomei (it's nice to see an age appropriate pairing for once). Teaming up once again with his friend Marc Lawrence (who directed him in Two Weeks Notice and Music and Lyrics), here he's a former screenwriter who tries to teach a college course at a university, where Tomei is a student. It's coming out in the UK in October, but no release date has been scheduled in the U.S., which is kind of odd. You'd think a movie with names this recognizable would be able to secure a release rather easily, but I guess that tells you how far romantic comedies have fallen in terms of profitability.

Movie of the Day: "Picnic" (1955)

In honor of today's holiday we have a 1950's classic that is set exactly on Labor Day, and is one of the rare movies that's worth seeing for one incredible scene in the middle of the film, where William Holden dances with Kim Novak to the classic song "Moonglow." It's one of the those magical movie moments, and to be honest the rest of the film is notable as a kind of time capsule, because a lot of it's pretty dated. It's one of those overwrought melodramas that were so common in this decade and were never really made after it- but sometimes those kinds of movies can be fascinating in their own way, as a product of its time and an example of the kind of movie that was once so popular with audiences. Rosalind Russell is really good though, as an aging teacher who despairs that her life is passing her by while all the townspeople around her are oblivious and overly concerned with Holden's arrival in their perfect neighborhood as the mysterious drifter. It's worth a look anyway, especially on this long holiday weekend. Happy Labor Day everybody!

Original 1955 Trailer:

Back to School Month is Here

Well, it's the first of September everyone, which means it's Back to School Month on Screen It Now, and we have the full list of ten movie recommendations to go with it. Complete with trailers, the movies are all about the school setting, whether it's college, high school, boarding school, etc. It can be about the students or the teachers, and the list includes classics like Rebel Without a Cause, Juno, Cooley High, To Sir With Love, and one of my favorites, Clueless (above). Check out the description for the month and then head on over to the September movie page to veg out with the perfect back to school movies all month long. Happy Movie Watching!

Movie of the Day: "The Sandlot" (1993)

Another coming of age story (those are very popular for summer themed films), about a bunch of kids in the 1960's who live to play baseball day and night. This is kind of a classic now, made in the vein of A Christmas Story, with a narrator looking back on his childhood years in episodic events- battling the giant bulldog next door, swimming at the pool, the hot lifeguard, etc. This is a great one for kids especially, as it's the kind of movie that really never gets made any more. It seems like the 90's was the one decade where live action movies starring kids were considered profitable enough to make on a regular basis. You don't see much of it now.

Original 1993 Trailer:

BOX OFFICE 8/29-8/31: 'Guardians' Tops a Slow Labor Day Weekend

A very sleepy weekend for this holiday weekend, as it usually is for Labor Day. Even though it's a holiday, studios never bother with releasing big movies over the unofficial last weekend of the summer. Guardians of the Galaxy repeated at No. 1 with $16 million, while Ninja Turtles was second with $11 million, and last week's teen melodrama If I Stay, came in third with $9 million, which is pretty decent, as the $15 million dollar drama has earned more than $32 million so far.

The cheap horror movie As Above, So Below came in fourth with $8 million, but as always with these found footage flicks, it already made back its entire budget on opening weekend, so it's already considered a hit. Let's Be Cops rounded out the top five, but this weekend did see the re-release of 1984's Ghostbusters for its 30th anniversary, which earned $2 million on 784 screens for the long weekend. The other wide release, Pierce Brosnan's The November Man, didn't do much, opening on Wednesday and making just $7 million over the three day frame, and $10 million total.

Top 5:

Guardians of the Galaxy- $16.3 million
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles- $11.7 million
If It Stay- $9.3 million
As Above, So Below- $8.3 milion
Let's Be Cops- $8.2 million

In long term news, The Hundred Foot Journey is holding pretty well for older audiences, heading to a $50 million gross, while Guardians is now officially the top earner of 2014 so far and will certainly cross $300 million in the coming weeks. I bet it stays that way until the next Hunger Games movies comes out too. Next weekend is another boring one, with just one new release, The Identical, opening, along with a re-issue of Forrest Gump for its 20th anniversary.