Box Office Report: 'Greek' tops new releases

Shrek may have topped the weekend again with $25 million, but is that really that unexpected? It's a 3D kids film, and the last in the franchise. It deserves its respective earnings. Don't expect it get more than $250 million domestically by the end of its run. The news is the new releases, and of the four that came out this weekend, the one that came on top was Get Him to the Greek. The Judd Apatow comedy came in second with $17.4 million, just below that of its origin film Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Of course, Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher never fail at reeling unintelligent people in with unintelligent movies. Killers came just behind Greek with $16 million, and will likely get an end total of around $45 million. Marmaduke, the talking dog film of this month, brought in $11 million, which is far more than it should've gotten in its entire run. Even more upsetting is that Splice came in last out of the new releases, raking in only $7.5 million. Apparently most audiences were two distracted by the many detracting elements to focus on what it did right.

As for holdovers, Prince of Persia and Sex and the City 2 both took more than 50 % drops to $14 million and $12.6 million respectively. Expect both to struggle their way just over the $100 million mark in the coming weeks. Iron Man 2 continued its spiralling downturn, bringing in just under $8 million. The action flick currently at $291 million, will have a tough time matching the gross of the first film. The weekend was down from both last week (which itself was considered weak) and the same week last year when The Hangover debuted and fought against Up for the top slot.

Soundtrack Preview: The Last Airbender by James Newton Howard

Take all the stabs at M. Night Shyamalan's past work that you want. Proclaim all the mockery of The Last Airbender that the film will likely deserve. There is still reason to see the film, probably the most of which is the musical score. Composer James Newton Howard is one of the greatest film composers currently existing, matched only by Michael Giacchino, Hans Zimmer, and John Williams. Even though the film may not need to exist at all, I'm glad it does so that we can receive this score.

The score arrived on iTunes early for whatever reason, so it is now available to the general public. The score is suitably epic, weaving several tunes together, and never leaving behind the semi-child friendly quality it needs. That's really the only problem that I have with this score. It sounds a little too much like a soundtrack for a childrens action movie, which this film will be. I kind of hope the film succeeds so we get another score like this, but I also hope it fails so we can start from scratch and make something good.

There's a full track of the film playing at In Contention, and I highly suggest listening to it. It contains quite a few of the themes recurring through the entire score. I'm not going to give the score a grade, because I think it deserves to be graded in contrast to the film it belongs to.

Get Him to the Greek Review

Before you read this review, get past the fact that Jonah Hill's character in this film is not the same character as his role in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. It took literally two minutes for me to overlook that, and then I was able to fully enjoy this film. Get Him to the Greek focuses on Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) after the release of his critical failure that nearly destroyed him, African Child (look it up on YouTube. It's fantastic!). Since then, Aaron Green (Jonah Hill), some guy who works in the music bussiness and a huge fan of Snow, is tasked to guide Aldous to his anniversary show at the Greek.

Their trip takes a few unintended turns when Aldous does whatever you'd expect an unpredictable rock star to do. He takes a trip to see his father, tries to get Green to move on from a relationship he's still commited to, and then counsels Green and his girlfriend to reconcile, but not in an expected way. This film may not hold a candle to Sarah Marshall, but it does a good job of continuing Aldous' story while not making it the focal point of the movie.

Despite the raunchy, comedic nature of the film, it does have a beating heart beneath it all. Aaron is a good guy, and him being thrown at such a vulnerable time into the situation of Aldous Snow has its side affects. In the end there is a little bit of moral background on how people search for meaning in their own lives. This is what saves the film from being just a regular rude comedy.

Director Nicholas Stoller also manages to throw together one of the most entertaining action sequences so far this year, mixing drugs, P. Diddy, and furry walls to extremely good affect. This film also pulled off the nearly impossible. It made rape funny. If that doesn't make you want to see this film, I can't possibly cater to your needs because they are simply illogical. Russell Brand and Jonah Hill deserve their due credit for pulling these extreme characters off without making them hatable, which they easily could have been.

The film does have some weird ten minute ventures off of the course of the plot. Then again, what Judd Apatow film doesn't have one of those scenes? Get Him to the Greek offers plenty of great laughs, and stay with you more than most comedies out this year. It may not have quite the same smoothness of The Hangover last year, but it'll do.

B+

MTV Movie Awards Tonight!

Tonight the MTV Movie Awards take place, and several high profile projects are slated to have sneak previews during the pre-show and the telecast. Of course there is one that everybody is looking forward to seeing: the Jersey Shore Season 2 preview. Is there any show that has premiered in the past year that has had such an affect on the mass of the of society? I think not. Other than that, there are still plenty of films getting their just deserved moments.

Among the films being previewed are Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and The Last Airbender during the pre-show. Then during the movie awards, expect clips from The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, and never-before-seen footage from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. If you're unable to catch the show though, fear not. All the previews from the show will be featured right here.

Splice Review

Guillermo del Toro may have been out of commision for the past two years, but before that, he had sense enough to sign on to produce this disturbing sci-fi film. Splice is a flawed film about flawed people, and that is both praise and criticism of the film. It tells the tale of the two top scientists in the field of genetic splicing, and their quest to create a successful creature using human DNA. The result is Dren, an expressive young girl with dreams of freedom beyond the confining walls of the labs and farms she calls home.

The film encompasses the changes and development of not only Dren, but of her relationships with her two parents. Throughout the first hour or so of the film, we see how Elsa turns from a loving and caring mother, to an abusive, demanding, and restrictive authoritarian. On the other side of the coin, we see Clive go from hating the "mistake" he's created, to becoming a compassionate friend of Dren's. In some ways a little too compassionate.

The trailers for Splice heavily advertise this film as some sort of horror flick, but it doesn't truly reach that point until the last 12 minutes. Furthermore, the last forty minutes feel somewhat forced to move the story forward in a way it shouldn't have gone logically. The director, Vincenzo Natali, who was for the first hour dedicated to the emotional arcs of the characters, abandons that to push the plot towards a horrific conclusion. By the end Dren, who we spend the entire film learning from, and empathizing with, simply becomes a plot element, and loses all remnants of the humanity she should still have. Some of the events intended to shock dramatically, just come off as comedic.

The character deaths in the film are also inconsistent. Usually spending an hour and a half with good characters who we care about should warrant a little heartache when some of them die. Unfortunately, Natali poorly executes these sequences, which could have so easily been done well. It's horrifying for a director to be so good at one point, and then so awful a second later. As for the technical values of the film, they are all spectacular. The creature design for Dren is suberb, and the visual effects used to bring her to life are astonishing considering the low cost of the film.

Composer, Cyrille Aufort, weaves a meloncholy and creepy score that becomes a little too stereotypical during the horror sections of the film. Tetsuo Nagata's cinematography sticks very much with what works, which isn't a bad thing, but isn't a great thing either. Splice has me split down the middle, caught between the intricately intriguing relationships and the distracting hillarious credulity of the second half's plot twists. It's quite disgusting at times, and it makes me wish I'd never actually seen it.

C+

News on Nolan

So Empire Magazine recently dedicated an issue to Christopher Nolan and the many projects he's working on, and we got quite a bit of interesting information. Starting breifly with Inception, the film is reported to have cost $170 million ($10 million less than The Dark Knight), and it's running time should likely encompass close to 2 and 1/2 hours. I'm glad to hear that, because as much as I enjoy keeping things short and sweet, I enjoy getting more from Christopher Nolan at any time. I'd show up for a 10 hour Nolan film, and stay throughout the entirety without getting up to go to the bathroom.

Then Nolan went on to discuss the two DC projects that he's working on. He confirmed that he would not be directing the Superman reboot, and is instead more of a producer of the film. It's something we already assumed, but it's nice to know for sure. As for the much hyped about Dark Knight sequel, he has yet to sign on to direct. Don't be worried that he won't though. Nolan says he only commits to one film at a time. Once Inception is out there, he should be getting right to work on Batman 3. Furthermore he stated that the villain of the film will not be a recast Joker (Thank God!), nor will it be Mr. Freeze (Even better!).

Weekend Update: 1st Week of June

We have quite a wide canvas of films to see this weekend, ranging from gritty horror, to adult comedies, to kids films about talking dogs. At the top of my list to see this weekend is Splice, the science fiction film about genetic scientists who create a monster out of human DNA, and whatever else they put in there. I don't see the film getting too much money out of this weekend, but I expect it to do well in the coming weeks. However, for this weekend, expect the film to take in a bit more than $10 million.

Then we get to the other good film out this weekend, Get Him to the Greek. As a spin-off of the Judd Apatow favorite, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, this film looks at the very least like a funny venture. I think that, of the new releases this week, this one stands a chance at getting the top spot this weekend. I see it getting around $20 million this weekend, not a bad grab for an R-rated comedy. As for the other two films releasing this weekend, Marmaduke and Killers, don't waste your money. You'll have more fun throwing the money in the fireplace and watching it burn.

Featurette Thursday!

There were simply too many featurettes today to break this up into three seperate posts, so here we go with featurettes of The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Twilight: Eclipse, and Inception. Starting with Apprentice, I still don't care about this movie. I'm as attracted to a movie about magical beings fighting over the fate of the world, but only if there's a sense of humanity to it. Nicholas Cage's film is lacking that, as I don't really care about any of these characters. We get the idea that there's good and evil, and good needs to prevail, but we already know it will. There's really no point for this film, and claiming the title of the praised short musical film with Mickey Mouse in it is just not right.

Then going on to Twilight, I'm no fan of the series. I don't care about the love triangle between Edward, Bella, and Jacob at all. However, Eclipse is starting to look like something more than usual. The featurette focuses on a new character, a young girl named Bree who is turned into a vampire and forced to join the side of evil. She doesn't want to be evil, but she has to be. It's cheesy, and it's supposed be sad. I'd like to see how the filmmakers make logical sense out of that, but I don't think they will. Still, this small storyline captures me far more than the romantic, yet unbelievable main plot of the series. Does that mean I care about the movie? No. It means it's less likely to be funny. There goes my reason to see it.

Finally, Inception! Are we really at the point where every small clip from this movie needs to be scanned and interpretted as it's a work of complete masterpiece? Yes, because right now, there is no reason to believe Inception will be a bad movie. We're talking about Christopher Nolan, the ultimate master of complex drama (Memento), and compelling action (The Dark Knight), bringing both of those aspects to the table for a film he's been working on for well over a decade. I have no idea what I'm in for when I go out to see the film at the midnight showing, but it will likely be more than I'm expecting.

Inception featurette
The Sorceror's Aprentice featurette
Twilite Featurette

Rue McClanahan dies: Betty White is next!

This is the news I've been dreading for the past year. Rue McClanahan of The Golden Girls died today, which can only mean one thing: Betty White will die next year. Lets turn the clocks back two years. All the Golden Girls were alive and happy. Then what happened? The Dark Knight was released. It was as if an unstable amount of awesome was let out into the world. Something had to contain. Not a week later did Estelle Getty die. Then a year later, Beatrice Arthur met her tragic fate.

Now that Rue has died this year, there is only one Golden Girl left. If the universe keeps with the tradition of killing off a Golden Girl each year, Betty White will be dead before her 90th birthday. So it is written, so it must be. Unless, and this is a rather unlikely possibility, an equal amount of awesome as The Dark Knight is let out into the world. Two awesomes cancel each other out, as dictated in the season 5 How I Met Your Mother episode, The Rough Patch. So if Inception doesn't turn out to be the amazing movie we hope it will be, Betty White is likely doomed.

PotterWatch (6.5 out of 77): Aged Emma Watson

This isn't really a new post, but I promised to give you guys picture of an aged Emma Watson from the epilogue of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as soon as I found one. Well here it is. It doesn't really look like she's that much older, but maybe it's just the way she looks from far away. She's still hot though, so I'm not complaining. If she's this attractive in 19 years then I'm happy.

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is the new Megan Fox in 'Transformers 3'

About a week or so ago Megan Fox revealed that she'd decided not to return for the third Transformers, and I exclaimed in rage why that hurt the credibility of the film. Lets add on to that the fact that they already had a finished script by that point, and now they'll have to spend time flipping the script to fit in this rather crucial plot twist. Will that push back the release of the film? Maybe. Not likely. Either way, they've landed on their new love interest who will be played by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.

What are the odds? An attractive woman with no previous acting experience before Transformers was replaced by an atractive woman with no previous acting experience. Weird how that works out. We can argue about the acting credibility Rosie may or may not bring to the role for six minutes, but do we really want to be the pathetic geeks who have an argument about that at all? But please tell me, do you think the former Victoria Secret model looks attractive?

Trailer Talk: Morning Glory, Scott Pilgrim, Life As We Know it

We're sorry we've been down for the past 24 hours, but things have been pretty hectic, and honestly, not too much has happened. We still have plenty of trailers to sink into, so lets dive in, starting with Morning Glory. I become a little hesitant when I think of the idea of a J.J. Abrams produced comedy, especially one starring Harrison Ford and written by the writer of The Devil Wears Prada. Still, there is potential in this project, because we have several skilled actors at work here. The problem is the story, which, right now I can predict most of the events that are likely to happen.

I'd be a little more interested to see the film if Abrams' regular composer, Michael Giacchino, were composing. Unfortunately he isn't, and the trailer doesn't reveal anything close to comedic or romantic genius. This is just one of the instances in which we'll have to see how critics respond to it, and how much they decide to bash it.

Then there's Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, which looks a hell of a lot more interesting now that we have a full trailer. The teaser trailer gave us a taste of the hilarity of the story, but now we actually have some more dialogue to go along with the action. We may have seen Michael Cera in this role before, but he does it so well it works. Edgar Wright seems to have found a way of containing the comic book's spontaneity and lightness without detracting from the story. Here's hoping it works out, because the film, as it is right now, looks amazing.

And to top everything off, we have a trailer for the Katherine Heigl comedic failure that isn't Killers, Life As We Know it. Basically, a happy couple has a baby, and then they're killed in a car crash. So who takes care of the baby? Their two best friends who have been listed as godparents, and they're nothing alike. No, this film isn't a tragic drama. This is a comedy, and it's meant to draw tears and laughs. It doesn't. It really upsets me that people are laughing at such a tragic plot like this without even making it funny. What kind of depressing world do we live in when we die, and Katherine Heigl raises our children? If that's what happens when I die, I'm taking my kids with me.

Morning Glory trailer

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World trailer

Life As We Know it trailer