28: 'The Equalizer' Dominates the Box Office

Denzel Washington's revenge thriller The Equalizer took first place this weekend with a strong $35 million debut. Reviews were mixed on the movie, but word of mouth looks to be good, since it came in with an "A-" Cinemascore and played well with both men and women (audiences were split equally). That Denzel, he can draw in just about anybody. It was the third best opening of his career and frequent collaborator director Antoine Fuqua's best. In second place was last week's The Maze Runner, which fell about 50% and came in just ahead of the other new release this week, Laika Studio's The Boxtrolls. The family audience movie did very well actually, despite divisive reviews, and it's the best opening yet for the studio, which was behind other stop-motion animated features Coraline and ParaNorman.

Holdovers made up the rest of the top five, with This is Where I Leave You coming in fourth, falling just 39%, and Dolphin Tale 2 in fifth, which made another $4.8 million. Liam Neeson's A Walk Among the Tombstones did not fare well in its second week, plunging a hefty 67% for a $20 million total so far.

Top 5:

The Equalizer- $35 million
The Maze Runner- $17.5 million
The Boxtrolls- $17 million
This is Where I Leave You- $7 million
Dolphin Tale 2- $4.8 million

In limited release, the indie film Pride did well, earning over $84k from 6 locations and receiving an "A" Cinemascore, so look for that to expand and probably get some good word of mouth as it does. Next week it's David Fincher's Gone Girl versus Annabelle, the prequel to last year's horror hit The Conjuring. I have a feeling Annabelle's going to take the crown, but hopefully there's an adult audience out there that's ready for a more prestige thriller, since it's been getting great reviews out of the New York Film Festival this week. See you then!

Movie of the Day: "Good Will Hunting" (1997)

Our last Fall movie this week is another "Robin Williams as mentor/father figure" choice, which is the movie he did win his Oscar for, and the film that gave us the dynamic duo of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. The two of them famously wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for this film, which featured Matt Damon as Will, the troubled kid from the south side of Boston, who just happens to be a naturally gifted mathematics whiz and could do literally anything he wanted with that talent, if he could just get out of his own way. It's a familiar story (I admit, there were a lot of those this week), but beautifully and subtly rendered by the minimalist Gus Van Sant, and featuring some great performances, especially from the supporting cast, including Minnie Driver and Affleck, but most of all Williams as the counselor who helps Will to get over his traumatic past. It was a deserved win that year, which doesn't always happen.

Original 1997 Trailer:

TRAILER #2: "Mommy"

I thought I'd draw some more attention to Xavier Dolan's Cannes Jury Prize winner Mommy, which has now secured an official U.S. release date in early January, and has also been officially submitted by Canada as their Foreign Language Film entry in this year's Oscar race. From the reviews, it may be a little too wild and campy for the normally conservative Academy, but I can't wait to see it. Here's the new U.S. trailer:

TRAILER #2: "Big Hero 6"

Another new trailer for the upcoming Disney movie, and with the company on a hot streak, this sure looks to me like another hit. But watching this new trailer, it suddenly struck me how similar this actually looks to the first How to Train Your Dragon. Seriously, it's all about the bond between a boy and his robot, working to save the world, his friends all get their own robotic heroes. The only difference is the pet/friend itself.

Movie of the Day: "Rushmore" (1998)

Wes Anderson fans will be very familiar with today's Fall movie entry, which many people say is one of his best films. A young Jason Schwartzman kicked off his long association with the director here, along with Bill Murray, who was given one of his best roles. Schwartzman is 15 year old Max Fischer, a semi-psychotic student at the prestigious Rushmore Academy who will do anything to stay there and eventually starts a war with Murray over the attentions of Olivia Williams, a widow they both fall in love with. Even though all the usual Wes Anderson quirks got their seeds planted here, there's something about the characters in this one that help the film feel a little more authentic than his later ones would. I think that's why many consider it his best, but my personal favorite is still The Royal Tenenbaums (I do think his films lost something after he stopped collaborating with Owen Wilson on the screenplays).

Original 1998 Trailer:

TRAILER: "Blackhat"

Chris Hemsworth's latest attempt to branch out from his Thor persona is in Michael Mann's cyber thriller Blackhat, where he stars as a convicted hacker released to help track down a new one. I don't know- this looks kind of generic and lame. I mean, to start off with, the huge, muscle-bound Hemsworth looks like no hacker you'd imagine, and of course in the movie it looks like he's doing a lot more fighting and shooting than hacking. But worst of all is the release date for this thing- it's coming out January 15th, which almost automatically means it sucks, even if the trailer had been good. So, yeah- not a lot of hope for this one.

Movie of the Day: "Rudy" (1993)

Today's fall movie is Rudy, a great fall choice and football choice, which is perfect timing as football season kicks off. Sean Astin is the idealistic Rudy, whose one big dream in life is to play for the football team at Notre Dame, even though he's too small and he can't get into the school anyway. But he won't take no for an answer and he wants it so badly he's willing to do literally anything, including attending the junior college in a long shot attempt to transfer and making friends with the stadium groundskeeper just so he can look at the field at night. Rudy eventually does realize his dream, and the movie earns its sentimentality through Astin's absolute and heartfelt determination to achieve his goal. This is also one of those films where the score was far better than the movie itself, and you'll probably recognize the Rudy "theme" the minute you hear it, and be stunned to find out this was the film it came from.

Original 1993 Trailer:

Early Reviews Rave 'Gone Girl'

David Fincher's Gone Girl is premiering at the New York Film Festival on Friday night, but antsy critics were desperate to be first out of the gate, and so we've already gotten the early word from many of them on the film's quality. It looks like it's another winner for the director, with most praising it very highly, some raves, while others say it's at the very least a gripping, suspenseful thriller with great performances. Unexpectedly, Ben Affleck seems to be the actor receiving the most props, although I wonder if that is just due to the surprise factor, since he's never been particularly praised for his acting. Rosamund Pike looks to be a strong Best Actress contender for the villainous role of Amy Dunne, while the movie itself could be headed in Oscar's direction as well (at least for now- the Academy's never been particularly warm to thrillers, even good ones, so a big box office haul would be a plus as far as its awards prospects are concerned).

"Director David Fincher and stars Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck are at the top of their game in this mesmerizing adaptation of Gillian Flynn's novel." (Variety)

"Above all, it's a delicious exercise in audience-baiting: what begins as a he-said, she-said story of mounting, murderous suspense, lurches at its fulcrum into the kind of hot mess Brian DePalma might have cooked up 20 years ago in his attic." (Daily Telegraph)

"The movie is phenomenally gripping- although it does leave you queasy, uncertain what to take away on the subject of men, women marriage, and the possibility of intimacy from the example of such prodigiously messed-up people." (New York Magazine)

"A sharply made, perfectly cast and unfailingly absorbing melodrama." (Hollywood Reporter)

TRAILER #2: "Laggies"

A second trailer for Keira Knightley's Laggies, which is curiously re-titled Say When in the UK. It's coming out here on October 24th, but when it played in Toronto this month it got quite a bit of praise for Keira's performance (despite what looks to me like a jarring American accent), with many saying it's the best she's ever been. I guess we'll see soon. It also stars Sam Rockwell and Chloe Grace Moretz.

Movie of the Day: "Dead Poets Society" (1989)

Our next Fall movie (which by the way starts today- Happy Autumn everyone!) is one of the most beloved "inspirational teacher" dramas of all time, and was likely watched by a lot of people just recently, in the wake of Robin Williams' death. One of his most celebrated films as well, for which he landed his second Oscar nomination as John Keating, the unorthodox teacher at an all boys boarding school who inspires in his students a passion for poetry and life in general. The movie was directed with sensitivity by Peter Weir, but it's a pretty formulaic story- which can sometimes work wonders with the right actors, as it does here. That "O Captain, My Captain" ending gets you every time, even when you knew it was coming on the first viewing. Sometimes a good old-fashioned tearjerker can be just what the doctor ordered.

Original 1989 Trailer:

TRAILER: "The Tale of Princess Kaguya"

This new animated film is the latest from Studio Ghibli and it might definitely be something to watch out for when it comes to Best Animated Feature next year. It already opened in Japan this summer, and now the American dub is being released on October 17th. I hate it when these things are dubbed, but for now this is all that's scheduled to come out this year- hopefully the subtitled version will make an appearance later on as well. For now, here's the celebrity studded U.S. trailer:

Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "The Innocents" (1961)

An excellent little known horror movie from the 1960's is available on blu-ray today, and I urge everyone to pick this one up if you haven't seen it. Deborah Kerr stars as an English governess hired to look after two little kids on a mysterious estate where something tragic happened years ago, and the souls of the dead are now haunting the children. She thinks it's up to her to save them, but she's not immune to the terror herself. This is a genuinely scary, disturbing movie, especially for the time in which it was made, and the amazing thing is that it still has the power to unsettle you, even today. It's one of the best and most effective ghost stories ever told on film.

Original 1961 Trailer: