Speaking of Comic Con, Marvel announced its upcoming slate of films including the title for the next Captain America film and a new franchise known as Guardians of the Galaxy. The way in which Marvel is dominating DC Comics is just mind boggling.
And speaking of Marvel, the studio gave us a look at the ridiculous box set of Marvel movies that will debut in conjunction with the release of The Avengers on DVD and Blu Ray. The set looks amazing to be sure and part of this is due to the work of Matt Ferguson, a graphic artist (and comic geek) who runs the site Cakes and Comics, linked on the left hand side of the page. He did the design for all of the individual film cases. Matt's work has been featured many times throughout my reviews and I'm proud to have brought his work to this space before he hit the mainstream, so to speak. Congrats Matt and keep up the incredible work!
In "Worst Kept Secret EVER" news, Josh Trank of Chronicle fame has been tabbed as the director of the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot. I move that we wipe the record clean of the original films in this series. Seconded?
Darren Aronofsky will build an actual ark for his upcoming feature project Noah. Not sure this thing is going to be good but I know it's getting very interesting.
Ron Howard and Jason Bateman both have been tweeting updates on the production schedule for the fourth season of Arrested Development and we now know that it will begin shooting in 4 short weeks. Still can't believe this is actually happening. Can't wait!
One of these days I'm going to get around to a feature on The Shawshank Redemption aka The Best Movie of All-Time. In the meantime, check out Dan the Man's review for a nice look back.
It didn’t come as a surprise to me that Ice
Age: Continental Drift unseated The Amazing Spider-Man at the top of
the charts this week. This is a franchise that has brought in almost $2 billion
worldwide over the last decade and is a major hit with kids who don’t know any
better (I hate these movies, by the way). It did surprise me, though, that both
of the top films brought in relatively meager totals. $46 million is nothing to
sneeze at but in a summer that has seen absurd highs for a number of films, I thought
it would go higher. Meanwhile, Spider-Man dropped further than I or
I think its makers thought it would, failing to grip the nerd group the way The
Avengers or The Hunger Games did earlier this year. On the other hand, Ted was
actually featured in MORE theaters than it was last week and continues its
remarkable run. It now looks like it will top $200 million at the domestic box
office before its run ends. Very, very impressive. And unexpected.
1. Ice Age: Continental Drift - $46M
2. The Amazing Spider-Man - $35M ($200.9M)
3. Ted - $22.14M ($158.99M)
4. Brave - $10.69M ($195.59M)
5. Magic Mike - $9.03M ($91.85M)
6. Savages - $8.73M ($31.46M)
7. Tyler Perry’s Please Stop Watching These
Movies America - $5.6M ($55.62M)
8. Katy Perry: Part of Me - $3.73M
($18.58M)
9. Moonrise Kingdom - $3.66M ($32.42M)
10. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted -
$3.5M ($203.73M)
What I’ll Be
Renting This Week
Get the Gringo – Mel Gibson, Peter
Stormare, Dean Norris
Friends with Kids – Jennifer Westfeldt,
Adam Scott, Jon Hamm, Kristen Wiig
Say what you will about Mel Gibson (and there’s an awful
lot to say), but the guy knows how to act. Get the Gringo puts him right back
into his old comfort zone as a smart mouthed, half-crazy rebel type in an action
setting. It’s been years and years since we’ve really seen Gibson go at it like
this and I’m excited to get a look first hand. Friends with Kids, on the
other hand, illustrates what a great cast can do for your film. Generally
speaking, this sort of “life sucks now that I’ve settled down” film doesn’t do
much for me but with Hamm, Wiig, Scott, and a host of other talented and funny
people on board, I imagine I’ll give it a shot.
Lockout – Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace,
Peter Stormare
Properly describing the experience I had with Lockout
is difficult. This movie boasts a razor thin plot, generally bad acting, and
some of the worst special effects you’re ever likely to see in a movie that was
indeed produced by a real movie studio, not thrown together for $150,000 in
some dude’s basement. On the other hand, there’s an at-times-brilliant streak
of self-awareness that runs through the film winking at the viewer and smiling
wryly, not to mention the fact that Guy Pearce is just plain awesome. At the
end of the day, though, the efforts at becoming Taken in Space fall short
and it’s really not worth a viewing…unless it’s on HBO…and it’s 1 o’clock in
the morning…and maybe you’re not in the most stable frame of mind.
What I’ll
Probably End Up Seeing Even Though I Should Know Better
Case de Mi Padre – Will Ferrell, Gael
Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna
The reviews were not good and even self-described Ferrell
fans such as myself weren’t overly kind to Casa de Mi Padre. But I know myself
and I know that if Ferrell is in a movie, eventually I will end up seeing that
movie. And more importantly, even if it didn’t turn out well, I respect the man
for doing something different. You know, like doing your entire movie in
Spanish.
Also New
Three Stooges – Will Sasso, Sean Hayes,
Chris Diamantopoulos
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen – Emily
Blunt, Ewan McGregor, Amr Waked
Intruders – Clive Owen, Carice van
Houten
Leverage: Season 4 – Timothy Hutton,
Gina Bellman
Eureka: Season 5 – Colin Ferguson, Salli
Richardson-Whitfield
Sanctuary: Season 4 – Amanda Tapping,
Robin Dunne
Alphas: Season 1 – David Straithairn, Warren
Christie
New to Blu
Singin’ in the Rain (1952) – Gene Kelly,
Donald O’Connor, Debbie Reynolds
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) –
Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter
High Noon (1952) – Gary Cooper, Grace
Kelly
Mean Streets (1973) – Robert De Niro, Harvey
Keitel
Butterfly Effect (2004) – Ashton
Kutcher, Amy Smart
A Perfect Murder (1998) – Michael
Douglas, Gwyneth Paltrow, Viggo Mortensen
Just Cause (1995) – Sean Connery,
Laurence Fishburne, Blair Underwood
Next of Kin (1989) – Patrick Swayze,
Liam Neeson, Adam Baldwin
Coming to a
Theater Near You
The Dark Knight Rises – Christian Bale,
Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway
Batman (Bale) faces his toughest test yet in the form of
Bane (Hardy). That’s it. That’s all I’m going to say. That’s all I know FOR
SURE and that’s all I’m willing to find out before heading to the theater this
week. Usually I am all for the average moviegoer reading a review or two about
a given movie before heading to a theater but this is one time when I really
and truly believe that the less you know, the better. And the same goes for me.
I will avoid all reviews, I will be skim through Twitter cautiously, and I will
probably stay away from live TV in order to prevent a Letterman-esque spoiler.
I will not be posting my own review until next Tuesday at the earliest to give
everyone a shot to see this without messing anything up. Other than The
Hobbit, this is the movie event of the year and probably much longer.
Get your ticket, get out to a theater, and revel in what I’m already sure will
be a magnificent experience. Rotten Tomatoes
prediction: Fresh, 95%
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