It’s time to visit the week that was via our Around the Circuit piece, where we look back at articles that we feel are worth your time covering the Oscar race, new releases, or really just anything film related.
Link of the week:
It seems the major topic of the week was the once-a-decade critics’ poll from Sight and Sound, with many around the web reacting to the fact that Citizen Kane is no longer their choice for best film ever (for the first time in 60 years). Owen Gleiberman at Entertainment Weekly proclaims his love for Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, but is not afraid to admit that it is an absurd choice for Sight and Sound’s “new” best film of all time. He goes on to protest the inclusion of David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive (at #28), when Lynch’s masterpiece, Blue Velvet, is totally absent from the list. This makes total sense, right? I’m in his camp on all accounts.
Read more on Around the Circuit…
It didn’t take long for The Amazing Spider-Man to be dethroned at the box office, though I think some of us were thinking it might last another week before being knocked off by The Dark Knight Rises. Instead, Spidey fell to second place at the hands of the fourth film in Fox’s Ice Age franchise, Ice Age: Continental Drift ($46 million), a film that Michael states is “a way to pass time, but it is likewise a complete disappointment” in his one-and-a-half-star review. It isn’t a mammoth surprise (see what I did there?) that Ice Age would take over number one, being that it was the only wide release film this week. While the achievement is surely to be short-lived, the modest domestic opening weekend gross is the smallest for any of the major animated films this year (The Lorax, Madagascar: Europe’s Most Wanted, Brave). This being said, globally Ice Age: Continental Drift has brought in $339 million to date, so a fifth film - a place no other animated franchise has dared go – seems almost certain.
Read more on Box Office Review: The Calm Before the Storm That’s Rising…
The Semi-entertaining Amazing Spider-Man had a very successful six-day opening, hauling in over $140 million in its first week in release ($65 million for the weekend). Marc Webb’s reboot has now raked in $341.2 million internationally, after two weekends in theatres overseas. While the box office has started off slower than the original three Spider-Man films, the returns are undoubtedly exceptional and almost assuredly will lead to a sequel or two (and then perhaps another reboot??) following the Andrew Garfield/Emma Stone storyline. Have a look at Joey’s 3 1/2-star review here, where he calls the film “ridiculously satisfying” and holds the film to the same level as Batman Begins by saying that it “could be the best reboot of any franchise to date.” Michael, on the other hand, assigns the film a 2 1/2-star review, and calls it “contentedly mediocre,” with a villain that “espouses dialogue and actions that are in all ways too familiar and convenient.” While I fell more on the side of Michael on this one, both critics make excellent points and are well worth your time to read.
Read more on Box Office Review: ‘Amazing’ Amount of Dollars Tangled in Spidey’s Web…
Fans of Disney•Pixar feature films already know that the company likes to sprinkle hidden items into their new movies that are from their previous productions. Examples of such occurrences are seen during WALL•E’s explorations, when he uncovers a Mike Wazowski antenna ball (paying homage to Monsters, Inc.) and in Up, when we see the classic Luxo Jr. ball (as well as Lotso, would would later appear in Toy Story 3) in the girl’s bedroom as Carl Fredricksen’s house flies by her window.
The song remains the same for their latest film, Brave. Have a gander at a couple of the hidden gems you can look for next time you see the film after the jump…
Read more on Disney/Pixar’s ‘Brave’ – Hidden Gems!…
Disney/Pixar’s Brave didn’t have a very long run at the top of the box office. In fact it fell to third in what was only its second week in release. While the film is certainly worth seeing, I still remain in the camp that Brave is not among the storied company’s best films of late. The surprising thing is that the two films to out draw Brave are not the competition the children-friendly film should have had. The dominantly adult male audience for Seth MacFarlane’s Ted ($54.1 million) and the dominantly adult female audience for Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike ($39.2 million) should be an entirely different crowd from that of Brave. So I wonder if word of mouth has pushed some people away from keeping Brave ($34 million) in the number one spot this week. The film has still remained very successful overall, totalling $131.7 million in its two weeks thus far.
Check out the rest of the Box Office Review after the jump…
Read more on Box Office Review: ‘Ted’ and ‘Magic Mike’ Prove That Raunchy Can Sell…
Disney/Pixar’s (eventual) front-runner for the Best Animated Feature Oscar, Brave, premieres Friday, June 22nd. Until then we have a couple of new clips for you to enjoy. You can visit the website for Brave, here. Or become a fan on Facebook, here.
See the new clips after the jump…
Read more on Disney/Pixar’s BRAVE – New Clips Available!…
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