Falling short of its precursor, but still strong enough to win a very competitive box office weekend, The Expendables 2 outshot the competition, scoring $28.6 million in its opening weekend. Although again a co-author on the screenplay, Expendables mastermind Sylvester Stallone gave the director’s chair over to Simon West and critics, including our own Joey Magidson, surprisingly embraced the film, which was only screened to critics overseas, in New York, and Los Angeles prior to its release. Coming as no surprise, Expendables 2 drew a sizable Male-25+ contingent of viewers and opening night CinemaScore ratings saw the film come in with a healthy A-. In 2010, the first Expendables blew away the mockery and condescending expectations which preceded that film’s release and grossed $274.4 million worldwide.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Masteris set to screen at the San Francisco Castro Theatre tomorrow, and as it was in Chicago and New York, will be shown in 70mm. There isn’t much to see in the latest teaser for the film, but at the least we get a look into one of the many problems Joaquin Phoenix’s Freddie gets himself into. The Master gets a limited release September 14th, before going wide on the 21st.
Details about the trailer and the film are listed below:
Summit Entertainment has released the theatrical trailer for THE IMPOSSIBLE, which can be viewed below. Based on the true story of one family’s survival of the 2004 tsunami, THE IMPOSSIBLE stars Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor and is directed by J.A. Bayona (THE ORPHANAGE). The trailer is featured on iTunes.
With The Paperboy set to hit cineplexes soon, Lee Daniels is hard at work on his next feature film, The Butler. Based on the Wil Haygood’s report “A Butler Well Served by This Election,” the film will tell the story Allen, who worked for eight presidents, starting with Harry Truman in 1952 and ending in 1986 with Ronald Reagan. Daniels has assembled quite the cast for the film (Oprah Winfrey, David Oyelowo, Liam Neeson, John Cusack, Alan Rickman, Jane Fonda, Robin Williams, James Marsden, Aml Ameen and Liev Schreiber are among it’s members) and now we get our first glimpse at Forest Whitaker as the title character via Coming Soon. Take a look at the first image after the jump!
Looks like the studio that brought us Shrek, Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon has found a new home. Variety is reporting that DreamWorks Animation will be signing a new distribution deal with Fox. The deal, which will run from 2013-2017, is said to include some of the same terms DWA had with Paramount, namely allowing Fox to take an 8 percent fee in traditional markets, including worldwide theatrical, home video and international television. Studio head Jeffrey Katzenberg was said to have been looking to sign a deal before Labor Day and with a studio that would distrribute DWA content on mutiple platforms, which Fox should be able to do.
For the first time ever, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will be releasing Bond 50 – the Definitive James Bond Collection. The box set will have all 22 films together on Blu-ray for the first time September 25th.
Read the Full Press Release from May:
LOS ANGELES, CA (May 21, 2012)– All the Bonds. All the girls. All the action. All in high-definition. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment mark James Bond’s monumental golden anniversary with the release of BOND 50, the complete Bond experience showcasing all 22 classic films on Blu-ray together for the first time ever, neatly packaged into one cool, sleek collectable box-set. The collection will be available beginning September 24 in the United Kingdom and September 25 in North America with additional international markets to follow that week. BOND 50 marks the debut of nine James Bond films previously unavailable in high definition Blu-ray and comes with a dossier of more than 122 hours of bonus features. Read more on Bond 50 Blu-Ray Collection Available in September!…
Plano, TX, August 20, 2012 Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CNK), the world’s highest attended motion picture exhibitor, is pleased to announce that the Steven Spielberg iconic blockbuster, JAWS, will kick off their “Fall Classics Series” in over 150 Cinemark theatres across the country. Ranked among the American Film Institute’s 100 Greatest Movies of All Time, this digitally restored version of JAWS will be scheduled to play on Thursday, August 23, 2012, at two separate show times, 2 pm and 7pm.
As part of Universal Pictures’ ongoing 100th Anniversary celebration, JAWS was one of 13 classic Universal films to be digitally remastered and fully restored from 35mm original film elements. Over the course of several months, skilled technicians worked with Steven Spielberg to meticulously balance color, remove dirt and scratches, and repair any damage to the film elements shot by shot and frame by frame. Read more on “JAWS” Kicks off Cinemark’s Fall Classic Film Series…
Worry not friends, even though that headline above might have triggered some panic in those highly anticipating ‘The Great Gatsby’. The Playlist is reporting here that Baz Luhrmann is going out looking for more money to fund some reshoots with the cast and to fine tune the visual effects in the flick after Warner Brothers declined to fund the endeavor. It sounds to me like Warner is happy with the product and knows it’s already probably a bit too expensive and doesn’t want to set itself up for any perceived failure, while Luhrmann is taking the 6 month delay that the film received from the studio as an opportunity to be a perfectionist. You can see some details after the jump, but I wouldn’t worry. It’s just what happens to these sort of films when more time is available. Read on below for some explanation.
Naomi Watts stars in “The Impossible” premiering at TIFF….
Having gone through the announced films with a fine tooth comb I have come up with a list of twenty must sees, the films that will have absolute priority over everything else for at TIFF. That is not to say I will not venture into other movies, I most certainly will, but for now, the twenty discussed within are the films I am making it my mission in life to see first. Understand that the schedules have not yet been made available to the press so there will undoubtedly be overlaps in the screenings, meaning getting a ticket from the TIFF folks or speaking with the film’s publicist to land a seat. They are always helpful to me, always have been, so no problems are foreseen. And of course there are the festivals pre-screenings, which are held ten days before the start of the festival allowing press to see films that are going to be an issue because of their schedule, or in the case of the TV critics, because they will be interviewing. I so do not miss those days, being on television, listening to the producers go to war for interviews, scrambling at the last minute because they have given to us, just a nightmare. There was a time when seeing forty to forty five films was not out of the question, but by the end of the festival my brain was mush and the stories began to run together. I learned to pace myself. Of course my accident in 2001 cut down on the number of films I can see from a sheer physical stand point. Thirty to thirty five is the goal, though twenty eight is where I usually end up. Consider as well, if I am interviewing I need to give up a film here and there, and I hate that. For me TIFF is all about the films…period. That said, if the chance arises to interview some of the major players, I will be there, as always. I have to admit I am getting excited about TIFF. As the days slip past and it comes time for my girls to go back to school, I realize the festival is upon me. Different this year, very different, is Sherri is not here to share it with me. She would bring the girls into the city for the weekend, and though we did not see much of one another, we made it a point to have dinner and coffee together, and I always woke her when I got in. I will miss that. Ariana will be with me that first weekend, swimming and hanging out at the pool, and that will be cool for her, as she loves hotel life. She has never been to a GALA so I will take her to see The Silver Lining Playbook this year, as she adores Jennifer Lawrence.
Welcome to our new edition of “The Awards Circuit: Power Hour.” Today, we’re taking the time and addressing your questions sent in via comments or Speakpipe. Here’s today’s agenda:
Taking a Whole Lot of Reader Questions
DVD Talk – What are you buying?
Trailer Talk – Seven Psychopths, Premium Rush, Great Expectations, The Impossible
Festival Talk – TIFF and New York additions and lineup
Oscar Tracking and Golden Globe Predictions
We play, “Cast This Bitch!”
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An even bigger and far more ridiculous sequel to an already ridiculous film, ‘The Expendables 2′ is a lot of fun, and perhaps surprisingly immensely satisfying to boot. I enjoyed the first flick for what it was, but the idea of the movie was perhaps better than the execution. Here, everything has been bumped up a notch, and the results are rather enjoyable. It’s still a big budget B movie, but the fun of taking as many action heroes from the 80′s and giving them giant guns and letting them loose while the camera rolled is done in a far more fun way this time around. There’s more muscle, more stars, more violence, more jokes, and less plot, but somehow that’s a winning formula for co-writer/star Sylvester Stallone and director Simon West (Stallone turned over the reigns to West, and though I generally prefer the former’s directing to the latter, it proves to be a very good choice). This is not a movie to be taken seriously in any way, but simply one to be enjoyed, and in that regard I have absolutely no complaints about it. If you don’t like this sort of shoot-em-up formula then you need not apply, but if this was a sequel you were hotly anticipating…well, this is your lucky day, or should I say weekend (hell, your lucky month if you wait a bit and take it in at a matinee next week)? Your action movie prayers have been answered.
Truly heartbreaking news circulated late last night, and it’s now been confirmed that director Tony Scott took his life by jumping off of a bridge in Los Angeles. The filmmaker was well regarded for his blockbuster films, perhaps most notably with ‘Top Gun’ and his multiple outings with Denzel Washington, though ‘True Romance’ is certainly a favorite of many. The brother of fellow filmmaker Ridley Scott, Tony was 68 years old and he will be very missed. It’s impossible to speculate as to what made Scott commit suicide, but right now let’s just focus on the man we lost and the films he’s left behind. After the jump is the story from The Hollywood Reporter on the news (found here), but maybe pop in your favorite Tony Scott movie today. Read on below for more…
Falling short of its precursor, but still strong enough to win a very competitive box office weekend, The Expendables 2 outshot the competition, scoring $28.6 million in its opening weekend. Although again a co-author on the screenplay, Expendables mastermind Sylvester Stallone gave the director’s chair over to Simon West and critics, including our own Joey Magidson, surprisingly embraced the film, which was only screened to critics overseas, in New York, and Los Angeles prior to its release. Coming as no surprise, Expendables 2 drew a sizable Male-25+ contingent of viewers and opening night CinemaScore ratings saw the film come in with a healthy A-. In 2010, the first Expendables blew away the mockery and condescending expectations which preceded that film’s release and grossed $274.4 million worldwide.
