Wes Craven 1939-2015

Horror movie maestro Wes Craven has passed away after a battle with brain cancer at the age of 76. Responsible for the massively successful Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream franchises, he was a legend of the genre, the creator of Freddy Krueger himself. Getting his start in the early 70's with horror films The Hills Have Eyes, The Last House on the Left, and Swamp Thing, he soon went on to write and direct A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984, which spawned seven sequels and the crossover film Freddy vs. Jason, although Craven only directed the first film in the franchise and Wes Craven's New Nightmare. He directed all four films in the Scream series, which turned into a 90's phenomenon and ultimately birthed the Scream TV show currently airing on MTV. Other notable credits include the Meryl Streep drama Music of the Heart (1999), and the Rachel McAdams/Cillian Murphy thriller Red Eye (2005).

Original Trailer for A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984):

Original Trailer for Scream (1996):

BOX OFFICE 8/28-8/30: 'Straight Outta Compton' is #1 for Third Week; Zac Efron Delivers One of the Worst Bombs of of All Time

So we are really in the doldrums now, as the last week of August saw a massively slow weekend at the box office, with Straight Outta Compton topping for the third week, but with just $13 million. That brings its new total to $134 million, which makes it officially the highest grossing music biopic of all time, passing Walk the Line's $119 million from back in 2005. It actually did face some unexpected competition this weekend though, which came from the faith-based War Room, which was panned by critics (as usual), but managed to upend expectations by coming in with $11 million, much higher than was predicted. Every once in a while a faith based movie will open out of nowhere with big numbers like this (relatively speaking, since they're so cheap to make and rarely play in wide release, as this one opened in about 1500 theaters), reminding people that there's an audience out there for this stuff, one that will give it an ecstatic "A+" Cinemascore.

The rest of the five were rounded out by MI:5, which has now earned $170 million, the Owen Wilson thriller No Escape, which opened on Wednesday for $10 million over the five days, and Sinister 2, which fell 56% to an $18 million total. But the funniest news of the week was the wide release (over 2000 screens) of Zac Efron's We Are Your Friends, a movie that cost $2 million to make and earned just $1.8 million from all those theaters, officially making it one of the biggest failures in box office history. Not even kidding. This thing played in a lot of empty theaters this weekend, guys. That's quite a notorious record to pull off. Maybe he should take a weird kind of pride in it, because that's going to be a footnote on his filmography for the rest of his career, should it ever go anywhere.

Top 5:

1. Straight Outta Compton- $13.2 million
   
2. War Room- $11 million
3. Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation- $8.3 million
   
4. No Escape- $8.2 million
5. Sinister 2- $4.7 million

In limited news, Grandma continues to play well, expanding into 19 theaters with a $16k average, the highest of all films in release, so that's cool. That will join Mr. Holmes as an indie film that found an audience in older crowds which don't get a lot of offerings to their sensibilities. Next week it's bound to be another bust with the release of a Jason Statham-free Transporter sequel (why?) and Robert Redford's drama A Walk in the Woods, which has barely been advertized. See you guys then, as the slump continues (probably until The Maze Runner movie comes out in September).

A Tribute to Ingrid Bergman on Her 100th Birthday

I'm a day late on this, but it's worth wishing the dearly departed Hollywood legend Ingrid Bergman a belated birthday tribute, seeing as she would have been 100 years old, and this Criterion montage is a perfect distillation of her many great performances. My personal favorite roles of hers were in Notorious, Gaslight, The Bells of St. Mary's (a rare sequel that's a better movie than the first, which was the Best Picture winning Going My Way) and of course Casablanca, but who's not going to say that, right? Still, her Ilsa was an icon from the moment she walked through those doors at Rick's bar. Here's looking at you, Ingrid.

Amy Schumer and Jennifer Lawrence Dance on Billy Joel's Piano

If you didn't catch this the other day, here are new BFF's Amy Schumer and Jennifer Lawrence showing up at a Billy Joel concert to dance to Uptown Girl on his piano (if you haven't seen Trainwreck, Schumer lovingly makes fun of it being his worst song ever). Apparently the two are now writing a screenplay together for them to star in as sisters (I have a feeling Schumer's doing more of the actual writing there), but it's hard to say with those things if it'll ever come through.

Another Trailer for 'He Named Me Malala,' Documentary About Nobel Prize Winner Malala Yousafzai

In what I think will surely become the frontrunner for the Best Documentary Oscar this year, He Named Me Malala is being released on October 2nd by Fox Searchlight and is directed by past Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim (Waiting for Superman, An Inconvenient Truth). Bringing the story of the teenage Nobel Peace Prize winner to the screen, this one looks to be quite the tearjerker, in a good way.

The Avengers Take Sides for 'Captain America 3'

I don't know why they don't just re-title the third Captain America movie Avengers 3, since it looks like just about everyone will be in it and fighting each other except for Thor. Here's some concept art that was released the other day that kinda shows you who's teaming up against who. I guess they're going to explain to us how Bucky became an Avenger, right? Or did that happen already and I just forgot?

More Bill Murray Antics in New 'Rock the Kasbah' Trailer

I'm really curious to see how this movie is when it comes out in October, because from I can see, Bill Murray looks more "Bill Murray" in this than any movie he's starred in since, I don't know, maybe Groundhog Day? Not that he hasn't been in tons of stuff since then, and been funny in a lot, but this is bringing back shades of his Ghostbusters/Scrooged/Groundhog heyday, in my opinion. I hope it's good.

'The Iron Giant' Comes Back to Theaters With a Brand New Trailer

Brad Bird's The Iron Giant is finally getting the respect it deserves. It's being re-released in theaters for a special showing on September 30th and October 4th, and also coming out with a brand new signature edition, with this new trailer to go along with it. Fans of this film have been passionate and strong ever since its 1999 release- it was always a wonderful movie that went a bit overlooked at the time, but the cult audience has grown bigger in the years that followed. Don't miss a chance to see this on the big screen if you can- it's a special film, one that showed what a unique talent Brad Bird was in the field of animation.

Spike Lee, Gena Rowlands and Debbie Reynolds to Receive Honorary Oscars

The 2015 recipients of the Academy Governor's Awards (previously known as the lifetime achievement Oscars) have been announced, and they did a pretty good job this year. Reynolds will actually receive the Hersholt Humanitarian Award while the other two get the honorary awards, but the biggest question for this group is whether Spike Lee will show up to the ceremony, and if he does, what he will say in his speech. Lee was famously snubbed by the Academy for Best Picture nominations for all his films, but most notoriously, Do the Right Thing in 1989 and Malcolm X in 1992. Always the outspoken figure and usually publicly scolding of the Academy (not without reason), all eyes will be on his acceptance speech at the Governor's Awards in November.

New Posters for 'Steve Jobs,' 'Suffragette'

A couple of new posters for some Oscar wannabes came out today- the first is the spare, simple one with Michael Fassbender's Steve Jobs against a white background. What else do you need for him, right? The second one is a little cooler, with a hand-drawn style for the ladies fighting for women's rights in Suffragette. Both are films coming out this fall with heavy awards prospects, or so the studios hope. I personally think Steve Jobs is likely to be the better movie, considering the pedigree behind it (Aaron Sorkin wrote the screenplay, Danny Boyle is directing), while Abi Morgan, scribe of The Iron Lady and The Invisible Woman, doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence for the success of Suffragette, despite the cast.

Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel Remember Past Times in 'Youth'

Youth is a movie that debuted at Cannes to relatively warm reviews, and is now slated to come out in December from Fox Searchlight, so it could be something to watch out for. Almost everyone said that Jane Fonda was the big scene-stealer in this, but Michael Caine is seriously good as well, and beloved veteran actors like these two can always grab some attention for significant parts. The only thing that gives me pause is that it's from Paolo Sorrentino, whose last movie The Great Beauty, I did not like (although it won the Oscar for Foreign Film), but for most critics that would probably only make them look forward to this more. We'll see.

Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "The Doors" (1991)

Oliver Stone's The Doors is out in a special blu-ray edition today, and it's a musical biopic that stands out for a few reasons, not least of which was Val Kilmer's totally immersive performance as Doors frontman Jim Morrison (for which I maintain he was robbed of an Oscar nomination). Oliver Stone is prone to excess, and that's a criticism that certainly applies to this movie at times, but this is subject matter for which it might be appropriate, because it has the effect of placing you right in the middle of the late 60's sex, drugs and rock and roll craze, and it feels more authentic, vibrant and alive than any other film I've ever seen that tries to recreate that time period. The incredible soundtrack doesn't hurt it either. It's the reason that the movie holds up and stands apart from the rote, by the numbers rags to riches stories of so many films in this genre.

Trailer: