Weekend Box Office: “Dragon” flies to $43 million weekend

Dreamworks 3-D animated feature “How to Train Your Dragon” flew to the top spot at this weekend’s North American box office, dethroning Disney’s smash hit “Alice in Wonderland”, from the top spot. MGM’s R-rated comedy, “Hot Tub Time Machine”, finished a distant third.

Arriving on a wave of positive reviews (a 97% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes), the heavily-hyped “Dragon” landed on 4,005 screens for an estimated $43.3 million and a per screen average of $10,678. While the debut is a solid one for this time of the year, it still carries a slight tinge of disappointment with it. In comparison to the debuts of other March cartoons, “Dragon” opened lower than the likes of last year’s “Monsters vs. Aliens” ($59.3 million), 2002’s “Ice Age” ($46 million) and its 2006 sequel ($68 million).

With such strong reviews –and a huge screen count- working in its advantage, one has to wonder why the weekend gross wound up lower than expected. The continuing success of “Alice in Wonderland”, aimed directly at the same demographic, would be the obvious factor. The other could be the higher ticket prices that were implemented this past Friday by eight national theater chains. With theaters now charging anywhere between $15-20 a ticket to see a movie in 3-D, many viewers may have decided that the cost for a trip to the movies simply is not worth it (leave it to the boneheads in Hollywood to raise ticket prices during a recession). After all, why pay that amount for a ticket to see a film once when in a few months time you can own the film on DVD or Blu-ray for close to the same price (if not lower)?

Still, the film might be able to emerge as a theatrical hit over the next few weeks. Next weekend is Easter, which usually translates into big ticket sales (especially for family films). Word-of-mouth could also be a benefactor to sustaining weekend ticket sales, which could help cushion the post-Easter percentage drops.

Speaking of Tim Burton’s blockbuster, “Alice” may have lost a third of its 3-D and IMAX screens but it still held strong, managing to haul in another $17.3 million to bring its total to $293.1 million. Off 49% from last weekend’s take of $34.2 million, the film could still finish up its run in the neighborhood of $340-350 million.

In third spot was MGM’s heavily-hyped comedy “Hot Tub Time Machine”, which landed with a soft $13.6 million from 2,754 screens for a per-screen average of $4,956. The studio had very high hopes for the R-rated John Cusack film, which received its fair share of positive reviews. Unfortunately, audiences had trouble seeing past the ridiculous title, opting to spend their ticket money elsewhere. Home video prospects will no doubt be stronger.

Fourth spot went to the Gerard Butler/Jennifer Aniston action comedy “The Bounty Hunter”, which held up fairly well in its second weekend. Off only 40% from last weekend, the film nabbed an estimated $12.4 million to bring its ten day total to $38.8 million. Watch for the $40 million film to finish its run between $50-55 million.

Fifth spot went to last weekend’s surprise number two winner, Fox’s “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”, which saw most of the book’s fans come out on opening weekend as the fell a sharp 55% to an estimated $10 million and a new ten day total of $35.7 million. Watch for the family comedy to finish in the same neighborhood as “Bounty Hunter” with $50-55 million in ticket sales.

In sixth place was Paramount’s resilient little sex comedy “She’s Out of My League”, which fell a slim 39% from last weekend to gross $3.9 million for a new estimated total of $26 million. The pricey Matt Damon action flick “Green Zone” dropped 46% from last weekend for a $3.35 million take for the weekend and a new total near $30.4 million. Eighth spot went to Martin Scorsese’s thriller “Shutter Island”, adding $3.1 million to its coffers to bring its total to $120 million.

Rounding out the top ten were two films enjoying their last weekend in the group: Universal’s sci-fi dud “Repo Men” fell 50% from last weekend to gross $3 million to bring its ten day total to a weak $11 million. In tenth spot was “Our Family Wedding” with $2.2 million and a new estimated total of $16.8 million. And for the first time since it opened four months ago, James Cameron’s “Avatar” dropped out of the top ten. With the video release less than a month away, the movie dropped by half from last weekend to add another $2 million to its overall domestic gross, which now sits near $741 million.

Next weekend, Warner will enter the 3-D battle with its remake of “Clash of the Titans” alongside Disney’s Miley Cyrus drama “The Last Song” and Lionsgate’s “Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too”.

Now this looks promising...

Dark Horizons.com is reporting that director Lee Daniels' follow up to his Oscar-winning "Precious" will be a film with a shorter title but equally serious subject matter, the civil rights drama "Selma". The film begins production in May. Recently, Liam Neeson and Cedric the Entertainer joined the cast as President Lyndon B. Johnson and Ralph Abernathy, who helped Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. organize the historic march in the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

Musician Lenny Kravitz, who worked with Daniels on "Precious", will star as civil rights figure Andrew Young. No word on whether "Precious" stars Gabourey Sidibe or Mo'Nique may join the cast. British actor David Oyelowo will play King, while Hugh Jackman will play racist sheriff Jim Clark.

Someone has way too much time on their hands...

Seriously?

Get a life, folks.

Theaters to begin charging more money for 3-D presentations this weekend

It used to be that the movie theater chains had no excuse to up their ticket prices outside of Hollywood wanting a bigger piece of the monetary pie. After all, the price might jump up a buck every year or so, but you're still getting fairly bad customer service, sound and picture projection that is a crapshoot and you still have to endure the same group of idiots who talk during films, play with their cellphones and kick the back of your seat.

Now, it appears that Hollywood has given theater chains an almost legit excuse to jack their prices up: Digital 3-D. Thanks to the runaway success of "Avatar" and "Alice in Wonderland", theater chains have jacked up the 3-D ticket prices by three to five dollars on new features that come out in Digital 3-D. A quick scan of the local AMC (which stands for "Ain't My Cinema") theaters show that the matinee prices for the Digital 3-D presentation of "How to Train Your Dragon" are $14 for adults and $13 for kids. At night, the price is $16 for adults and $13 for kids. That's right: for a family of, say, five people to see this film, you would be paying $67 to see it at a matinee and a whopping $71 at night. For those prices, you could purchase at least three blu-ray editions or four DVD editions of the film in a few months time. Granted, you wouldn't get the same 3-D experience (if at all), but at least you would own a copy. Or four.

Now, are the theaters justified in jacking their prices up to these ridiculous levels? I don't think so. The Digital 3-D presentations haven't magically jumped to a new level with these prices, nor has the actual experience of going to a local theater to see it. What you are paying more money for is a retaliatory strike by theater chains for studios like Disney dicking them over in regards to shortened theatrical windows (Remember the big to-do about "Alice in Wonderland" a few weeks back?). Chances are that those extra bucks will wind up in the pockets of theater owners. Now personally, I could give a shit if AMC saw dime one of this increase. It's a pretty awful theater chain (the one in Boston is incapable of projecting a movie correctly). But if that means that small, independent chains might be able to survive if they raised their prices, then I'm okay with this.

That said, I think that if theater chains big and small are charging more for 3-D films, they better raise the quality level of the moviegoing experience as well. Get some staff that aren't rude teenagers or adults who could really give a rat's ass. Update the sound and projection to levels that are better than a home theater. And for God's sake, ditching the fucking non-movie advertisements from the start of the film. If theaters actually take that extra money they are going to make off of "Avatar", "Alice in Wonderland", "Dragon", "Clash of the Titans" and every other big event movie they are releasing in 3-D, maybe $16 a ticket might not be such a bad ideal.

If not, and you live in the Greater Boston area, you can always skip the theaters showing 3-D and go to Jordan's Furniture IMAX theaters in Reading and Natick. Their price for an IMAX 3-D presentation? $11.50 (that's for an adult ticket). The seats are nicer, the staff is very polite and the presentation is pretty damn amazing.  

Review: How to Train Your Dragon

Based on the book by Cressida Cowell, the new Dreamworks animated feature "How to Train Your Dragon" tells the story of a Viking teenager named Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel). Hiccup is someone who doesn’t exactly fit in with his tribe’s longstanding tradition of heroic Nordics. Where many of the people his age are as tough as nails and already as big and brawny as their parents, Hiccup is short, scrawny and not necessarily tough. More an inventor than a fighter, the boy is determined to impress his Viking leader father Stoick (Gerard Butler) by attempting to capture and slay a one of the dragons that has been terrorizing his village on his own. Thanks to one of his inventions, Hiccup does manage to bring One of the fire-breathing lizards during a nighttime attack. But when he goes to slay the reptile the next day, he soon finds his world turned upside down once he comes face-to-face with the beast.

Pixar Studios has pretty much had a sterling track record with their computer-animated releases, the same can't really be said for Dreamworks Animation. While there have been some animated gems from Dreamworks, such as the original "Shrek", "Chicken Run", "Kung-Fu Panda" and "Wallace and Gromit: the Curse of the Were-Rabbit", the rest has been decidedly second-rate. Where Pixar strives -and usually succeeds- to put as much effort into story and character as it does the visuals, Dreamworks has opted instead to load clunkers such as "Bee Movie", "Shrek the Third", the two "Madagascar" films and last year's "Monsters Vs. Aliens" with instantly-dated juvenile humor, crap pop tunes and animation that is hardly worth the hundreds of millions spent on these productions. I have to say that based on its ad campaign, I was expecting the same out of "How to Train Your Dragon".

Much like Hiccup when he came face-to-face with a dragon, I experienced something completely different when I saw the film. Directed by "Lilo & Stitch" creators Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, "Dragon" is one of Dreaworks' better animated efforts of late. The humor isn't as childish or slapstick as you expect, the animation is quite impressive (especially in 3-D) and aside from a closing theme song that evaporates the moment it hits your eardrum, the film's soundtrack is actually quite good (the orchestra score was composed by John Powell).

Most importantly though is the fact that this movie has a surprising amount of heart to the film, something the ads have not alluded to. Sure, the script may ring familiar in regards to how events play out and sure, scenes between Hiccup and Toothless -the dragon our protagonist captures- are straight out of the "E.T." playbook. But Sanders and DeBlois show they are talented enough to give the material a fresh spin, making it funny, exciting (this is some of the best 3-D I have seen on a movie screen in a long time) and even occasionally touching (credit a wonderful voice cast for helping the last aspect greatly). The work by the cast and crew make it very easy to forgive and forget the film’s familiarity and very hard to resist its charm.

"How to Train Your Dragon" might not scale the heights of "Up" or "Fantastic Mr. Fox" or even the original "Shrek", but it certainly is one of the better films to come out so far this year, one well worth going to the theaters to see in 3-D. Rated PG. 98 minutes. Three and a half out of four stars.

Weekend Box Office: “Alice” holds court for a third weekend.

To no one’s surprise, Disney’s hit “Alice in Wonderland” remained at the number one spot this weekend at the North American box office, easily fending off another group of new films featuring the likes of stars Jennifer Aniston, Gerard Butler and Jude Law.

Still showing strong holding power (off only 45% from last weekend), Tim Burton’s 3-D blockbuster pulled in another $34.5 million from 3,739 screens for a new three-week estimated total of $265.7 million. The film should cross the $300 million mark within the next week or so. Where it goes from there is anyone’s guess as “How to Train Your Dragon” invades many of the 3-D and IMAX screens currently held by the Mad Hatter and friends. If “Alice” displays the holds that fellow 3-D blockbuster “Avatar” has, the $350 million milestone may still be obtainable prior to its home video debut in roughly two months.

Second spot went to Fox’s latest family film based on a best-selling book series, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”, with a not-so-wimpy $21.8 million gross from 3,077 screens. While not quite as big of an opening as the recent “Percy Jackson and the Olympians”, the bow for “Wimpy Kid” was impressive given the facts that it didn’t open on a holiday weekend and that families are still visiting “Alice” in droves. A second film installment is already in the works.

Third place went to the Jennifer Aniston/Gerard Butler romantic action comedy “The Bounty Hunter”, which collected a bounty of $21 million from 3,074 screens. Given how heavily hyped the Andy Tennant (“Hitch”, “Fool’s Gold”) film has been over the past few months, aided by the tabloid coverage of Aniston and Butler’s off-screen relationship, “Bounty Hunter” was expected to open a little bigger and certainly more than “Wimpy Kid”. But dire reviews and a pedestrian television campaign apparently helped hold grosses back a bit.

Question: When can a studio have two movies in the top five and still have a bad weekend at the box office? If you’re Universal Pictures, the answer would be this weekend. The troubled studio’s cinematic woes continued with the release of the Jude Law/Forest Whittaker sci-fi action flick “Repo Men”, which grabbed a poor $6.1 million in its first weekend from 2,521 screens. The film is the latest in a string of flops for Universal, following last weekend’s soft opening for the pricey “Green Zone” and the February fast fade of the even pricier remake of “The Wolfman”.

Speaking of the Paul Greengrass/Matt Damon action film, “Green Zone” dropped a sharp 59% to an estimated $6 million in its second weekend for a ten-day total of approximately $24.7 million. Granted, in terms of War-On-Terror themed films, nearly $25 million is actually a pretty good financial haul. But when the movie that made said money costs $100 million to produce, the gross is anything but victorious.

Snapping at Damon’s heels with the possibility of switching spots when the final figures are released on Monday afternoon, the sex comedy “She’s Out of My League” held up quite well in its second weekend. Dropping only 39%, the comedy pulled in $5.9 million for a ten-day total of $20 million to date. Seventh spot went to Martin Scorsese’s hit thriller “Shutter Island” with $4.8 million and a new estimated total of $117.6 million.

Eighth spot went to a little art house film you might have heard about, James Cameron’s “Avatar”, with a $4 million estimated weekend take (off only 39% from the previous weekend) for a new total of $736.8 million to date. Watch for the film to finish its first theatrical run in the neighborhood close to the $750 million mark. Ninth spot went to another Forest Whittaker misfire, “Our Family Wedding”, with a $3.8 million haul for a new estimated gross of $13.6 million.

And while the second “Twilight” was remembered by millions of fans this weekend on home video, “New Moon” star Robert Pattinson’s latest, “Remember Me”, was largely ignored in theaters. Dropping close to 60% in its second weekend, the film grossed $3.28 million for a ten-day total of $13.9 million.

Next weekend should see “Alice” abdicating the number one spot to the new Dreamworks 3-D animated feature “How to Train Your Dragon”, while MGM releases the John Cusack time-travel comedy “Hot Tub Time Machine”.

"Avatar" lands on home video April 22nd

As expected, James Cameron's megahit "Avatar" will touch down on DVD and Blu-Ray disc April 22nd. Fox Home Video made the announcement last night, with a press conference discussing the release plans set for next Monday, March 23rd. Both reps from Fox Home Video and Cameron himself will be attending the conference.

While the announcement will no doubt make the film's legions of fans quite happy, especially those with a blu-ray player in their houses, the actual content might be a bit off-putting. Not only are the releases not going to be in 3-D, the format many chose to see the film in during its run this past winter, both DVD and Blu-ray editions will not contain a single solitary supplement, not even a trailer. Fox stated that a multi-disc edition is in the works for November of this year. However, a 3-D version of the movie is not on the books for 2010 at all.

While having a whopping 50gigs of disc space dedicated solely to the movie should make "Avatar" the ultimate home video demo disc, the lack of extras must have some fans upset. Were I one of them, I would be the same way. True, getting the film out in four short months might not allow for an all-encompassing set of extras to be included. But how hard would it have been for Fox to slap a second DVD together with the trailers and a few puff piece behind-the-scenes bits? You don't have to give everything away on the first release, but at least give the fans who made the movie the highest-grossing film of all time (pre-inflation) a little bit extra. Or at the very least (and this might be in the works anyway), give them the opportunity to get a discount of some sort on the deluxe edition if they do go ahead and purchase the "film only" copy as well.

Blu-Ray review: "Up in the Air"

My review for the recently-released Jason Reitman comedy/drama "Up in the Air" is now up at theHDRoom.com. Check it out.

"Twilight Saga: Eclipse" Teaser Trailer

For you "Twilight" fans out there, you can find the teaser trailer here.

Weekend Box Office: Off with the heads of the new releases! "Alice" stays at the top spot.

If there is one lesson for studios to learn nowadays, it’s this: If you want your big event movie to do gangbuster business, make sure it’s in 3-D and on IMAX screens to boot. It’s worked for “Avatar”, and it appears to be working grandly for Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland”.

Not losing too much of its “muchness” (to paraphrase the Mad Hatter), “Alice” fell by only 47% from its record $116 million opening to nab an estimated $62 million this weekend for a new ten-day total of $208.6 million. The key factors to the film’s stratospheric grosses once again appear to be the higher ticket prices charged for both 3-D and IMAX presentations. Normally when a film opens as big as “Alice” has, the sophomore weekend sees understandable drops of anywhere from 50-70% given their front-loaded openings. With no real competition coming until April 2nd when Warner Brothers unleashes its first 3-D epic of 2010, “Clash of the Titans”, the latest Tim Burton/Johnny Depp collaboration should continue to haul in the big bucks and could wind up with a gross north of $350 million.

A quartet of new movies opened this weekend, but not a single one made a debut one could deem “impressive”. Universal’s $100 million Iraq war action flick “Green Zone” landed with a thud, grossing a disappointing $14.5 million from 3,003 screens. The latest collaboration from director Paul Greengrass and star Matt Damon met with indifference from both critics and audiences. Despite Universal’s attempts to sell the movie like a Jason Bourne film (I renamed it “Bourne Goes to War”), audiences showed once again that if they want to see something about the Iraq War, they will either wait for home video or they will watch CNN. Remember, “The Hurt Locker” found its audience on home video.

Third spot went to the Dreamworks/Paramount comedy “She’s out of My League” with an estimated gross of $9.6 million. The reviews were mixed (but better than those for “Green Zone” according to Rotten Tomatoes) for the new comedy, with the target audience opting to find better things to do this weekend. You know, like go see “Alice in Wonderland”.

In fourth place was the Robert Pattinson drama “Remember Me” with $8.3 million for the weekend. Summit Entertainment was no doubt hoping that attaching the first trailer for the next “Twilight” film, “Eclipse”, would help fans of the young star and the Vampire series to the critically-panned romantic drama. It didn’t. A free bit of advice to Summit: if you are looking to have a franchise trailer help stimulate sales for a lesser film, don’t post said trailer online until after opening weekend.

Fifth spot went to Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island” with an estimated $8.1 million and a new to-date gross of $108 million. The Paramount feature should finish its hit run with a gross near the $125 million mark, making it the second highest-grossing film of the esteemed director’s career. In sixth spot was the last of the wide openers for the weekend, the Forest Whitaker ethnic comedy “Our Family Wedding” which was left at the box office altar by moviegoers with a poor $7.6 million weekend gross.

An Oscar snub and loss of IMAX and 3-D screens seem to have had little impact on James Cameron’s “Avatar” as the epic remained defiant in its 13th weekend of release. Dropping a mere 19%, the best hold in the top ten of any movie, the film added another $6.6 million for a new domestic gross of $730 million. As you probably have heard by now, Fox is mulling a possible late-summer or fall reissue strictly to 3-D theaters and with additional footage, a move which will may help the film touch the $800 million mark domestically.

The cop drama “Brooklyn’s Finest” faded fast in its second weekend. Off 68% from its opening weekend, the Overture release added $4.3 million to its take for a new total of $21.2 million. Warner’s buddy comedy “Cop Out” fell 55% from last weekend to $4.23 million and a $39.5 million total. The second Overture film in wide release; the well-received horror remake “The Crazies”, fell 49% from last weekend to $3.65 million for a new total of $33.4 million.

Several winners from last weekend’s Oscars also picked up some additional coin this weekend. “Crazy Heart” added another $3.1 million for a new total of $34 million. In its second-to-last weekend prior to its video debut, “The Blind Side” added $1.6 million to its coffers to bring its overall gross to the $253 million mark. And despite being readily available on home video for the past two months, Best Picture winner “The Hurt Locker” saw its reissue gross jump by nearly 90% from Oscar weekend. Playing on 349 screens, the film added $828,000 to its overall total, which now stands at $15.7 million.

Next weekend, three more films attempt to dethrone Alice and the Red Queen: the Jennifer Aniston/Gerard Butler action comedy “The Bounty Hunter”, the film adaptation of the hit book series “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and the Jude Law/Forest Whitaker sci-fi action film “Repo Men”.

A longer "Avatar"? Maybe

James Cameron recently spoke to USA Today's tech section about the state of 3-D technology and let slip a few bits, such as the possibility of a longer version of "Avatar" (because, after all, the movie wasn't long enough to begin with) in theaters this fall as well as when we can expect to see a 3-D version of his previous film, 1997's "Titanic" (because after all, nothing says entertainment like watching 1200 people die in 3-D).

You can access the article here.

"Wall Street 2" Pushed back five months

20th Century Fox announced a short time ago that the "Wall Street" sequel, "Money Never Sleeps", has been pushed back from its late-April release date to September 24th. The reasoning behind the move is that the studio apparently is hoping to bring the film to the Cannes Film Festival.

If you can't display movie trailers properly on your blog page...

...start up a new one and link it to your old one!

Beginning today, I have a sister blogsite, one that is exclusively devoted to movie trailers. The name of the blog is called (at least for now) "Well, At Least The Trailer Was Good". Yeah, I'm not crazy about the title either, but something had to go up there.

Right now, I only have one trailer on the blog: the new "Iron Man 2" trailer that debuted after the Oscars Sunday night. More to come shortly.

Go here to check it out and be sure to bookmark the page as well.

Enjoy!

Christopher Nolan: Third and Final "Batman" film a go

British filmmaker Christopher Nolan spoke to the Los Angeles Times recently about the new "Superman" film he was planning on overseeing as well as the third -and final- chapter in his "Batman" saga, whose first two entries have grossed $1.3 billion worldwide in sales.

According to the article, Nolan says that he and his wife, producer Emma Thomas, have an "exciting story" in regards to the Man of Steel. While Nolan appears not to be directing this new cinematic attempt at Superman, he will have an active part in getting it to the screen. He also mentioned that he liked Bryan Singer's 2006 "Superman Returns", stating that he admired the way it tied into Richard Donner's 1978 original.

As for his story for the third part of "Batman", Nolan remainded tight-lipped about the story details. Nolan once again collaborated on the story with David S. Goyer and has handed screenwriting duties over to his brother Jonathan, who helped write the screenplay for 2008's "The Dark Knight".

“I’m very excited about the end of the film, the conclusion, and what we’ve done with the characters,” Nolan said.“My brother has come up with some pretty exciting stuff. Unlike the comics, these thing don’t go on forever in film and viewing it as a story with an end is useful. Viewing it as an ending, that sets you very much on the right track about the appropriate conclusion and the essence of what tale we’re telling. And it hearkens back to that priority of trying to find the reality in these fantastic stories. That’s what we do.”

I'm sure I speak for millions out there as well when I say that I am excited that Nolan is once again calling the shots on a Batman film, and that he is bringing finality to the series (much to the chagrin of Warner Brothers, I'm sure). I think Nolan is a terrific filmmaker, one of the best working in commercial cinema these days. If there is someone who can make a third entry into the series worthwhile (so few of them are), it would be him.

Time's up on "24"

According to Variety.com, Fox Broadcasting is set to announce that long-running television action drama "24" will call it a day at the end of the current eighth season. Citing rising production costs and declining ratings, the show's producers and star, Kiefer Sutherland, are looking to bringing the Jack Bauer character to the big screen. "Shattered Glass" writer Billy Ray has already been hired to write a screenplay that will put CTU agent Bauer in Europe. There is no time frame as to when the show might make the jump to movie screens.

As a longtime fan of the show, I have to say that I think the time is overdue to retire "24", at least on television. With the exception of the so-so third season, the first five years of the show were some of the most enjoyable. But once the show hit Season Six (and right after they won the Emmy for Best Dramatic Series), the show hit a brick wall. Season Seven was an improvement, but the concept was beginning to grow tiresome. Season Eight has been okay so far, but outside of its New York City setting, it really is bringing nothing new to the table.

A big screen film or two should give Bauer and the "24" universe a chance to really let loose on the adult content. Granted, the movie won't be 24 hours long. But Jack should be able to say more than "damnit!" when things go wrong, and the blood and body count should soar to "R" rated levels.

Iron Man 2 trailer online

The new trailer for "Iron Man 2" is now online, and the trailer is quite good. Whereas the teaser focused mostly on Mickey Rourke's character, the full trailer here introduces us to the characters played by Sam Rockwell and Scarlett Johannsen as well as plenty of bits with returning stars Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow. Don Cheadle, who replaced Terrence Howard following a salary dispute, also makes an appearance as Tony Stark's friend.

If the trailer is any indication, it looks like "Iron Man 2" will be more of what we got in the first film. This is not necessarily a bad thing as the 2008 original was a great deal of popcorn fun, elevated greatly by a terrific turn from Robert Downey Jr.

The film opens on May 7th.  

Welcome to my Oscar blog!

Welcome to the first (hopefully) annual Oscar blog! I'll be chiming in throughout the night as the hours tick by on the 82nd Oscarcast. I'm skipping the red carpet crap. After all, the Boston Celtics are playing a Sunday night game starting in two minutes and I need to watch at least a little bit of the game.

Keep refreshing the page to read my latest observations and reactions. Go Celtics, I mean, go "Hurt Locker" and "UP"!!!!!!!!!!!!!

8:24 pm- disappointed that my friend Randy opted not to do the annual Oscar bet we do. I was hoping to force him to buy me a blu-ray title that would make him cringe. Oh well, six minutes till showtime. Celtics down by a bucket, 17-15 with 3:52 to go in the first quarter. I'll have to DVR the rest of the game.

8:27 pm- An ad for a new J-Lo comedy, "The Back Up Plan". Looks like your typical J-Lo film ("Out of Sight" aside): total crap. This is about as close J-Lo or that movie will get to the Oscars.

8:30 pm- Here we go. This year's actors and actresses have been paraded out on stage, apparently grouped together by chances of winning (Bridges is standing next to Bullock). Carrey Mulligan looks great.

8:32 pm- Doogie Howser is all shiny. The song is pretty lame, but the two girls accompanying Neill are pretty hot. Liked the shot of James Cameron: one where you can't see him.

8:34 pm- Here come Steve and Alec. A bit of joking on their "It's Complicated" star Meryl Streep. Zing! "Last Station" joke a bit stiff, just like 80-year old Christopher Plummer. Vera Farmiga....wow. Another cheap shot at Meryl...that worked, followed by another funny one-liner. A "Precious" videogame. Sounds like something my friend Bryan and I would come up with.

8:39 pm- My God, Suzy Amis looks like the Crypt Keeper. Time for an "Avatar" joke. Zzzzz...just like the movie. Kathryn Bigelow...damn, talented and gorgeous. George Clooney must own stock in Toyota. Not laughing. Lighten up, George.

8:43pm- Is Jeff Bridges playing Colonel Sanders in his next movie. I think George Clooney is in on the joke. I hope.

8:44 pm- The first award of the evening: Best Supporting Actor. I wish I liked "Invictus" better than I did. Would like to see "The Last Station". Can't believe any part of "The Lovely Bones" got a nomination. Sorry Stanley, but that movie was pure shit. You should have been nominated for "Julie & Julia".

And the award goes to...Christoph Waltz! YEAH! An amazing performance. Hope this is the start of a great Hollywood career for Waltz.

8:50 pm- first of the ten Best Picture clips: Thanks, White Lady! I mean, The Blind Side. Ehhh, got to recognize crowd-pleasers as well as the films that deserve it, I guess.

Very funny Jimmy Kimmel/Ben Affleck ad. Poor Jennifer all by her lonesome. Come to SF, baby.

8:56 pm- Animated Film bit. Awesome! Yay! Dug the Dog!

And the award goes to...the Best overall film of 2009, Disney/Pixar's "UP". A beautiful, funny, movie that is going to be remembered the same way "Snow White" and "Pinocchio" are. SQUIRREL!!!!!!!!!

9:00 pm- Jailbait time: Miley Cyrus and Amanda Seyfried for Best Original Song. Two from "Princess and the Frog". A decent hand-drawn entry from Disney. I can't believe anything from "Nine" got nominated. Which leaves "The Weary Kind" from "Crazy Heart", which is a really nice song (and this is coming from someone who does not like country music).

And the winner is: The Weary Kind. Deservedly so. Bravo T-Bone and Ryan Bingham. Would have been nice to have heard a live version of this done by Bridges.

9:05 pm- Chris Pine introduces "District 9", a superb sci-fi thriller. If you haven't seen it yet, do so. It's excellent.

9:12pm- Tina Fey and Iron Man delivering Best Original Screenplay. Will it be "Inglourious Basterds" or "The Hurt Locker"?

And the winner is Mark Boal for "The Hurt Locker"! Let the winning begin for the very best live-action film of 2009! Your dad is very proud of you, Mark.

9:17pm- Molly Ringwald and Matthew Broderick give a tribute to John Hughes. Taken from us far too soon. What the hell, man? Ferris Bueller HD clips look better than the blu-ray! Frig yas, Paramount! And where the hell is my BD of "Planes, Trains and Automobiles"? Heh, Anthony Michael Hall stood Godfather to one of my cousin's kids.

Godspeed, Mr. Hughes. And thanks.

9:22pm- the return of the Brat Pack! Hughes' family in the audience. Very nice tribute.

9:23pm- Samuel Jackson introduces Best Picture clip for "UP". It won't win Best Picture, but could you imagine if it did? A double Best Picture winner? Oh man, that would be awesome. And it couldn't happen to a better film.

9:27 pm- Carrey Mulligan and Zoe Saldana? Oh me, oh my! Beauty times two. Short Film time. Hey, Taylor Hackford, where the hell are you hiding out these days? David Frankel, made two of the best hours of television with "Band of Brothers". "The Devil Wears Prada" was a great film too. John Lassiter...enough said.

And the winner goes to...what does Pixar have up for nomination this year? Just kidding. Logorama looks awesome. Oooh! Wallace and Gromitt. Wow, it went to Logorama. This is the first time a W&G short didn't win. Must be a sign of hte apocalypse. Vive, Nicolas!

And now for Best Documentary Short. These all look great. And the winner goes to "Music By Prudence". Some crazy woman has hijacked the acceptance speech. Time to get the bum's rush, folks. You went over the 45 second time limit.

And now, Best Live-action short. Oh dear, a short film about the Kavi website?! Oh, that is a different Kavi. Whew. And the winner is "The New Tenants". Um, okay. I have no idea who this is.

9:37 pm: Christ! Ben Stiller looks scary as a Na'vi. Funniest he's been in about a decade, maybe more. Best Makeup award. Give something to "Star Trek"! And the winner goes to "Star Trek". Awesome!

9:43pm: The Dude introduces the second worst nominee of the ten: the Coen Brothers' irksome Jewish comedy "A Serious Man". I felt like Jobe, being challenged by having to watch the entire film.

9:48pm- Celtics down by eight. Damnit!

9:48pm- Best Adapted Screenplay. Rachel McAdams...gorgeous as always. Time for "Up in the Air" to win an award. I hope. I really have to see "In the Loop". "An Education"...superb.

And the winner is NOT "Up in the Air". Holy shit, it's "Precious"! Damn, "Up in the Air" will most likely be shut out. Oh well. Congrats to Geoffrey Fletcher. Very moving speech.

9:52pm- The always-cool Queen Latifah presenting the recap of the lifetime achievement award. You have got to be kidding me! They cut this section of the show for what, more shots of those vapid shitheads from "Twilight"? Fuck them! Roger Corman and Lauren Bacall RULE! Get them up on the stage!

9:55pm- Time for Mo'Nique to get her award for "Precious". Cruz should have been up for the Almodovar film, not "Nine". Vera, baby! Bang! Way to show the entire film of "Crazy Heart" in 90 seconds! Anna Kendrick...this girl has a future in acting. She was great. Any other year, she would have waked away with that award. It's Mo's night, plain and simple. Go get 'em, kid!

And the winner is Mo'Nique. Damn, now I REALLY have to see this film. Great speech to boot.

10:01pm- Colin Firth introduces "An Education". It's a terrific little film that you should seek out and treasure when it comes out on March 30th. Carrey....talk about falling in love with an actress at first sight.

10:05pm- Sigourney Weaver, looking a little less blue, is here to present Best Production Design. "Nine" really got three nominations? Doesn't matter, "Avatar" takes the award. First award for the big hit.

Wow, Suzy Amis looks...just awful. This is what being married to James Cameron for more than a year does to a woman.

10:09pm- Best Costume Design. Yawn. Probably go to "Coco Before Chanel". Shit, "Nine" got four nominations? Who did the Weinsteins blow to get those nominations? Doesn't matter, "The Young Victoria" got it. The Academy loves Sandy Powell. Quite the dress, Sandy.

10:12pm- Charlize Theron introduces "Precious". Looks good, but it looks like something I have to prepare for. Oh God, the plastic twits from "Twilight" are up next. Time to go scratch my ass while they're on.

10:16pm- "Paranormal Activity" spoof far better than actual film. God, what a piece of crap that was.

10:18pm- And now, the real horror: the attack of young Hollywood! Man, that bimbo Stewart can't even read off of a teleprompter. "Jaws", "The Shining", "The Exorcist", "Silence of the Lambs", "Halloween", "Psycho", "Rosemary's Baby" and so on, there really are some great horror epics.

10:22pm- Zach Effron and Anna Kendrick present Best Sound. Morgan Freeman narrating the clip. Awesome! An "The Dark Knight" to boot. Yeah, remember that one, Academy? The movie that caused you to expand the playing field to ten this year? Fuckers.

And the award goes to...The Hurt Locker! Take that, Avatar!

And now, Best Sound Mixing. "Transformers"? Screw that noise. It's "Hurt Locker" time, baby! Oh man, this is turning out to be a GREAT Oscar ceremony!

10:28pm- Elizabeth Banks recaps the Academy Nerd Night, which will no doubt be shown on G4 until the end of time.

10:29pm- John Travolta introduces the wonderful "Inglourious Basterds". So brilliantly entertaining.

10:34pm- Sandy takes the stage for the first time tonight. Looks quite elegant. Giving the Best Cinematographer award. Let's hear it for Robert Richardson, a fellow Cape Codder.

And the award goes to..."Avatar"? How the hell is that possible? That film's photography was created in a FUCKING COMPUTER! I cry Bullshit!

10:37pm- Demi Moore, looking like she just came out of a sauna, is here to do the Hollywood memorial. Added bonus, James Taylor...doing "In My Life" by the Beatles. Good choice of song. Always makes me think back to the day John Lennon was murdered. Very well done.

10:43pm- Celts won by three! Whoo!

10:45pm- Ladies and Gentlemen, two of the least talented actors in Hollywood not associated with "Twilight", Jennifer Lopez and Sam Worthington! For Best Original Score, we are subjected to a creative dance presentation. God, bring back Rob Lowe and Snow White! Side note: the scores for "Hurt Locker" and "Sherlock Holmes" are excellent. I can't hear the theme to "UP" without thinking of the marriage montage or the scene where Carl looks at the scrapbook, which gets the waterworks flowing. "Fantastic Mr. Fox" is great, but there is more of an ecclectic songtrack than an actual film score. Why couldn't "Star Trek" take this spot? And "Avatar"? I might have liked it more if James Horner didn't continue to cannibalize his older work. But hey, if Cameron can steal from others and pass it off, why not Horner?

And the Oscar goes to... YES! "UP"!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Beautiful score, great speech by Michael Giacchino.

10:54pm- The "Avatar" award. It should go to "District 9".

Big shocker...Avaturd. I guess if it had anything going for it, it is visual effects. NEXT!

10:56pm- Jason Bateman introduces "Up in the Air". Great movie. Look forward to owning the blu-ray this week.

11:01pm- Jason Bourne hans out Best Documentary. "Burma VJ" looks good. I have to watch "The Cove" at some point. Actually, all of the docs up for the award look great. And heartbreaking.

And the award goes to..."The Cove". Nice. Maybe it will get a blu-ray release now. Would be great if Fisher Stevens was gnawing on a Tuna Sandwich while coming up on stage.

11:05pm- Tyler Perry, aka Media aka Starfleet Commander dude, is here to present Best Editing. And the winner is...WHOO! The Hurt Locker!

11:09pm- Neo is up to introduce "The Hurt Locker". Can we get a more deluxe edition of the film on home video, please?

11:14pm- Quentin Tarantino and Pedro Almodovar, when worlds collide. Best Foreign Film. Should be either "A Prophet" or "The White Ribbon", both which I hear are great. "The White Ribbon" might have to be a blind buy.

And the award goes to..."The Secret in Their Eyes". Um, okay?

11:18pm- Kathy Bates appears to present that "blue movie", "Avatar". Awww, that great Cameron dialogue! Yeah, highest-grossing film of all time! Man, the human race sucks ass sometimes.

11:24pm- Time for Best Actor. Oooh! Julianne Moore! God, she is heaven-sent. Oh God, I love Jeff Bridges as much as the next person, but ENOUGH with the cannonizing. I guess I should be grateful that the thespian circle-jerk has been limited to Best Actor and I assume Best Actress. Nice one from Tim Robbins. Thank you for breaking up the pretentiousness with a prime "Shawshank" bit. Colin Farrell is grossing me out with his spooning with Jeremy Renner on the set of "SWAT". Here's Kate Winslet, the Nazi Guard with a rack!

And the least-surprising awad of the night goes to Jeff Bridges. But hey, he deserves it. This should boost those "Tron: Legacy" sales just right! Congrats, Dude. Your dad is beaming from high above right now, as well he should be.

11:39pm- What day are we on with the awards?

Best Actress time. Carrey Mulligan, baby! Michael Sheen kicks ass. Should have been up for Best Supporting Actor for "The Queen", one of the best films of the last decade. He was every bit as crucial to that film as Helen Mirren was. I couldn't agree more with Pete Skarsgard. How cool would it be if Gabourey Sibide won? And Stanley's speech about Meryl Streep was great. These two need to work on every film together.

It appears that Sean Penn posted bail to come out to hand out Best Actress. And it went to...Sandra Bullock. Sigh. Well, at least she'll be sincere.

And she was.

11:52pm- EEEK! My God, it's a freaky muppet! No wait, it's Barbara Streisand. Giving Best Director. Get ready, Kathryn....

And the winner is...Kathie. You soooooooooooo earned it, kid.

11:58pm- Forrest Gump is here to give Best Picture. And the Oscar goes to the film that so deserved it....

The Hurt Locker.

12:09am- And so, another Oscar ceremony is in the books. How nice to see that a $12 million independent film went from obscurity to Best Picture, beating the most expensive -and highest grossing- film in history. When I saw "The Hurt Locker" back in June of 2009, I only had one thing to say to everyone: "You have to see this movie." If you haven't, now you can take the Academy's word for it. See. This. Movie.

Thanks to everyone who logged onto the blogsite to chime in and check on the postings. This was a blast and I will do it again next year without hesitation. Here's hoping you are here as well.

Good night!

“Alice” fills her financial rabbit hole with $116 million in sales this weekend at the North American box office.

As expected, the Tim Burton fantasy “Alice in Wonderland” commanded the North American box office. What wasn’t expected was how much it would command it by.

Despite the fact that the Academy Awards are Sunday night, all attention and eyes were on the mega-budget 3-D Disney film, which opened on 3,728 screens (180 of them IMAX) for a massive $116.3 million estimated box office take. Reviews were decidedly mixed, but that mattered not as the heavily-hyped take on Lewis Carroll’s classic characters tickled the fancy of moviegoers who had were ready for something new, colorful and big.

The monstrous bow set records for a March opening (beating “300”s $70.2 million opening from three years ago), for director Burton and for a film presented in the 3-D format. And while it did beat “Avatar”s opening weekend by a wide margin, only time will tell what type of legs this film will have. Something tells me that while being a megahit; Alice’s exploits in Wonderland (Underland?) will not reach the stratospheric highs James Cameron’s Na’vi epic has.

Speaking of the James Cameron smash, the Oscar-nominated 3-D film lost many a venue to “Alice” this weekend and saw its gross drop by 44% (its biggest drop to date) to roughly $7.7 million, bringing its total to the $720 million mark. The film might see an uptick in sales should it take home Best Picture at Sunday night’s Oscar ceremony.

In second place was the new crime drama from “Training Day” director Antoine Fuqua, the ensemble drama “Brooklyn’s Finest” with a moderate gross of $13.5 million from 1,936 screens. The R-rated urban drama features Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke and the big screen return of Wesley Snipes. Reviews were as mixed as the film’s box office take, with most viewers opting for the colorful 3-D exploits of “Alice in Wonderland” instead of the violent 2-D adventures set in the New York City Borough.

In the wake of the “Alice” Express many of the holdovers (that are not Oscar nominees) suffered moderate-to-sizeable drops. Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island” held well with a $13.3 million gross, down 41% from last weekend to bring its new total to $96 million. The Bruce Willis comedy “Cop Out” dropped by half from its opening weekend to $9.1 million and a ten-day estimated take of $32.3 million. The well-reviewed “The Crazies” got hit even harder, dropping 56% to $7 million and a ten-day take of $27.4 million. “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” suffered a 47% drop to $5.1 million for a new total of $78 million. “Valentine’s Day” continued its fast fade with a 53% drop to $4.2 million and a new take of $106.4 million, while “Dear John” added $2.9 million to its coffers for a new total of approximately $77 million to date.

Oddly enough, the holdover that dropped the least from last weekend was, you guessed it, “The Tooth Fairy”. Dropping off only 19%, the durable family comedy hauled another $2.8 million for a new total of $56.2 million to date.

With the Oscar ceremony happening tonight, the nominated films still in theaters saw some nice spikes in attendance. “Crazy Heart” serenaded $3.3 million, up 36% from last weekend for a new gross of $29.5 million to date. “The Blind Side” went up 3% to $1.27 million to help the film break the $250 million mark. Indies “An Education” and “A Single Man” also saw increases of 30-50%, and despite being on home video for the past couple of months, “The Hurt Locker” returned to 274 theaters to add $440,000 to its total, which now stands at $14.7 million.

Next weekend, the action film “The Green Zone”, the comedies “She’s Out of My League” and “Our Family Wedding” and the Robert Pattinson romance film “Remember Me” all debut. Unless it suffers a drop of 70-80% (which I seriously doubt), watch for “Alice” to stay right where she is now: in the number one spot.

My Oscar predictions for tonight (well, most of them anyway)

I'll be blogging the night away tonight during the Oscar ceremony, and I welcome you to post your comments alongside mine (the more will definitely be the merrier). Since these awards have been examined to death since January, I'm simply going to run down most of the awards with who I think will win and who I think should win.

Best Picture:

Should win: "The Hurt Locker"
Will win: "The Hurt Locker"

Yes, Pixar's "UP" was my favorite film of 2009 and yes, that film was also nominated for Best Picture. But you and I both know that there is no way in hell that it will win for Best Picture. That said, I am going with my number two film of last year, easily the best live-action American film of last year and one of the best war-themed films in the past quarter century.

Best Director:

Should win: Kathryn Bigelow
Will win: Kathryn Bigelow

It's long overdue. It's long overdue that a woman nabs this statue and it is long overdue that Hollywood recognizes Bigelow as a truly talented filmmaker. Plus, no one wants to hear James "EGO" Cameron wax poetic about how great he truly thinks he is. Again.

Best Actor:

Should win: Jeremy Renner
Will win: Jeff Bridges

Renner had the more complicated role and performance, but Bridges is remarkably overdue for an Oscar (and he was pretty damn great in "Crazy Heart" to boot). I, along with anyone else who has ever seen JB in a film, will have no problem seeing The Dude get what he deserves.

Best Actress:

Should win: Carrey Mulligan
Will win: Sandra Bullock

I'm done bemoaning the fact that Bullock will win for the crowd-pleasing "The Blind Side". At this point, it is almost destiny. Mulligan's performance was miles better than Bullock's, but she'll be back.

Best Supporting Actor:

Should/will win: Christoph Waltz

That's a bingo, baby!

Best Supporting Actress:

Should/will win: Mo-Nique

That's another bingo, baby.

Best Original Screenplay:

Should win: The Hurt Locker
Will win: Inglourious Basterds

Tough call, and both are great screenplays, but I think that "The Hurt Locker" will win more than enough awards elsewhere that the Academy will see fit to share the love with the other war-themed film from 2009. Besides, it's some of Tarantino's best writing to date. He should get some awards love.

Best Adapted Screenplay:

Should/will win: Up in the Air

Talk about getting the wind taken out of your sails. Remember when this film was the front runner for the Oscars four months ago? My, how times have changed. A single award for the film doesn't make it any less of a great movie. Just look at "Sideways", "Almost Famous" or that little art film called "Pulp Fiction". All great and all heavily tipped to be big Oscar winners that wound up with a screenplay award. Reitman will be in good company.

Best Animated Feature:

Should/Will win: UP

I love "Fantastic Mr. Fox", but let's be serious here. There is only one animated film from 2009 that deserves this award. Of course, if "UP" doesn't take this award, the Best Picture category is going to become even more of a guessing game.

Best Editing:

Should/Will win: The Hurt Locker

A majority of the film's intenstiy derived from the superb editing. Plus, most of the time the movie that wins Best Editing wins Best Film. This will probably be no exception.

Best Visual Effects:

Should win: District 9
Will win: Avatar

They have to give Cameron's film something, it might as well be the wall-to-wall computer effects. Still, I think the seamless interaction between live actors and CG aliens was far more effective -and impressive- in the low-budget South African sci-fi flick than it was in Jimmy's $280 million bloated bore.

Well, her stock went up with a point or two this morning....

When most in Hollywood make a particularly bad film, they usually distance themselves away from it. They never admit that the product is shit, nor do they try to make amends. If I remember correctly, Eddie Murphy had a nasty habit of supporting a film when it came out only to turn on it, providing it got bad reviews, when promoting his next film. Not saying he was sorry or any of it was his fault, just bad-mouthing it along with everyone else. What a charmer.

Every so often, some do put their ego aside, admit they screwed up and even take it in stride. Joel Schumacher finally admitted that his 1997 "Batman and Robin" was a dud, apologizing to batfans on the audio commentary for the film. Halle Berry accepted her Razzie award for the odious "Catwoman" five years ago and seemed to have fun in doing so. The same can now be said for leading Best Actress candidate Sandra Bullock, who went to the annual Razzie awards to nab her awards for her work on last summer's stinker, "All About Steve".

"I think this is an extraordinary award," said Bullock, who had promised throughout awards season that if she won the Razzie, she would accept it in person. "And I didn't realize that, in Hollywood, all you had to do was say you'd show up, and then you'd get the award. If I'd known that, I would have said I was appearing at the Oscars a long time ago."

According to an Associated Press article, Bullock went up on stage with a little red wagon full of DVD copies of the film (what, no blu-ray?) saying that each of the 300 people in attendance would be receiving a copy. She said if people watched the film, as in "really watched the film", and decided that her performance was not the worst of 2009, she would come back, return her Razzie and go drinking with everyone afterwards.

 

Razzie Awards announced: Sandra Bullock and "Transformers 2" big, erm, winners?

Celebrating the shittiest films of last year, the Razzie Awards were handed out tonight in Hollywood. On the eve of possibly winning her first Academy Award, Sandra Bullock nabbed two Razzies, Worst Actress and Worst Screen Couple (with Bradley Cooper) for the odious "comedy" "All About Steve". And Michael Bay's incoherent blockbuster "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" scored big as well, deservedly winning Worst Director, Screenplay and Film. Unfortunately, the Stepinfecthbot duo of Amos & Android (see left) did not attend the ceremony.

The Results:

WORST PICTURE: "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"

WORST ACTORS: All three Jonas Brothers, "Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience"

WORST ACTRESS: Sandra Bullock, "All About Steve"

WORST SCREEN COUPLE: Sandra Bullock & Bradley Cooper, "All About Steve"

WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Billy Ray Cyrus, "Hannah Montana: The Movie"

WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Sienna Miller, "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra"

WORST PREQUEL, REMAKE, RIP-OFF OR SEQUEL (Combined Category for 2009): "Land of the Lost"

WORST DIRECTOR: Michael Bay, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"

WORST SCREENPLAY: "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" written by Ehren Kruger & Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman, based on Hasbro’s Transformers Action Figures

SPECIAL 30TH RAZZIE-VERSARY AWARDS:

WORST PICTURE OF THE DECADE: "Battlefield Earth" (previous winner of eight Razzies, including worst drama of our first 25 years)

WORST ACTOR OF THE DECADE: Eddie Murphy, "Adventures of Pluto Nash," "I Spy," "Imagine That," "Meet Dave," "Norbit," "Showtime"

WORST ACTRESS OF THE DECADE: Paris Hilton, "The Hottie and the Nottie," "House of Wax," "Repo: The Genetic Opera"

Honest Posters for the Best Picture Nominees

College Humor.com's Tom Philips has posted a group of hilarious -and truthful- mock up posters for this year's Best Picture nominees. Check out the entire group for a good laugh. Here are a few of my favorites:

A "Precious" Independent Spirit Award Ceremony

While the masses wolfed down Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" on its opening day to the tune of $45 million dollars (further lowering my respect of the human race), the Independent Spirit Awards got the final award weekend for the 2009 movie season off and running last night in California. With Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker" out of competition (it was nominated for the 2008 award ceremony), Lee Daniels' Oscar-nominated "Precious" had the field pretty much to itself. The widely-praised drama (which hits home video this upcoming Tuesday) took home Best Picture, Director, Actress (Gabourey Sidibe, who I am secretly praying will 'blindside' Sandra Bullock for Best Actress), Supporting Actress (Mo'Nique, no doubt giving her Oscar speech a nice warmup here) and Best First Screenplay for Geoffrey Fletcher.

Jeff Bridges took home Best Actor for "Crazy Heart" (no doubt warming up his Oscar acceptance speech for Sunday night). The movie also scored Best First Film award. The film's producer-director Scott Cooper stated "If not for Fox Searchlight, this (film) would have gone straight to radio". The terrific British drama "An Education" scored Best Foreign Film and Woody Harrelson won for Best Supporting Actor for his work on the drama "The Messenger". Both "An Education" and Harrelson are up for Oscars tomorrow night. 

Not to be undone by the Spirit and Academy Awards ceremonies, Saturday night brings us a ceremony that should be more heavily promoted and telecast: The Razzie Awards, celebrating the absolute worst in cinema from 2009.

Print Whores for Hire: Did you happen to catch the front page of the Los Angeles Times today?

Because they didn't advertise the goddamn thing enough over the past several months, the Walt Disney Corporation went and purchase the entire front page of today's Los Angeles Times to promote the opening of its anemic effects fest "Alice in Wonderland" (see my review below).

According to an article on "The Wrap" website, Disney bought the front page space for an estimated $700,000 (a drop in the bucket in comparison to the film's rumored $200 million price tag). The newspaper caught fire last year when the then-NBC/Universal show "Southland" bought up an entire page of the paper using the same fonts as actual news stories, giving the impression that "Southland"s advertising was actual news. HBO bought page-length space for its vampire hit show "True Blood" last summer, although that was simply a wrap-around ad completely seperate from the actual paper.

The faux front page for "Alice" also uses fonts different from the normal ones used by the Times. However, the ad still pretends to be an actual front page with two articles listed behind a giant color photo of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. One on health care and one on the conflict in Afghanistan.

Personally, I think this is a pretty piss-poor move by Disney and the Los Angeles Times. Granted, the L.A. Times probably needs the money (as most of the country's remaining dailies do). But to give up the crucial front page of a major metropolitan newspaper to sell a kids movie (and a bad one at that) is just downright wrong. What if an event like 9/11 occured yesterday? What happens then? You just know that Disney would demand that the ad stays put, or the paper gives back the ad money (and you know the cash-starved daily is in no position to do that). 

Seriously guys, the arts section would have been a better place for the faux-front page. At least there, the ad has some sort of connection to the section of the paper.   

Movie Review: "Alice In Wonderland"

Remember the 1960's song "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane, the trippy 1967 rock classic about the psychedelic drug scene with lyrics derived from the characters and incidents of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland”? Grace Slick seductively crooned about hookah-smoking caterpillars, eating mushrooms, drinking strange liquids and taking pills that altered your height. While watching Tim Burton’s new take on "Alice in Wonderland", two things occurred. The first was I couldn’t get the Jefferson Airplane song out of my head. The second was a burning desire to have ingested any of the illicit treats Slick sang about to help make Burton’s movie less of a chore to sit through.

A sequel of sorts to Carroll’s original novel (forget the fact that Carroll actually did write a sequel himself), the Alice of Burton’s film is an independent 19-year old (Mia Wasikowska) facing the nightmare of being forced into a loveless marriage for the sake of money (how Jane Austin!). At her surprise engagement party, Alice keeps seeing a rather large rabbit darting through the bushes and hundreds of guests. When the young girl is put on the spot by her boorish fiancé-to-be, she decides to escape by following the rabbit through a maze.

The rabbit leads her to a tree with a rather large hole that takes her to...you guessed it, Wonderland (or as it is referred to in the film, Underland). While everyone, including the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), remembers her, she doesn’t remember them or Underland (she thinks this is all a dream). Whether she is the actual Alice or not, the wacky inhabitants of Underland are convinced that Alice is the only one who can slay the fire-breathing dragon the Jabberwocky and free their oppressed land from the rule of the wicked, animal-abusing Red Queen (Helena Bonham-Carter).

When people say that Tim Burton’s unique filmmaking style is a perfect match for certain material, one should temper their expectations greatly. 2007’s bloody good “Sweeney Todd” aside, Burton has misfired to various degrees on so-called “tailor made” material quite a few times over the past decade and a half. Be it the woefully dull "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", the convoluted “Planet of the Apes” or the sporadically amusing “Mars Attacks!” you don’t see a director working to his fullest creative potential. You see a filmmaker that appears bored, simply going through the paces en route to a big Hollywood payday.

Sadly, that same Burton showed up to direct this film. Instead having a grand old time making the most out of Carroll’s loony universe to create a imaginatively twisted tale like “Beetlejuice”, Burton just moves things along with the grace of a traffic cop, relying on his ensemble casts’ hammy antics (Carter and Depp are alarmingly one-note, Wasikowska gives it her best shot) and a mixed bag of CG effects made even more obvious by subpar 3-D technology. Even the film’s big action climax of good vs. evil has all the excitement of a third-rate videogame.

While Burton should shoulder most of the blame for the film’s failure, I doubt there could have been anyone in Hollywood who could have breathed much life into Linda Woolverton’s limp screenplay, a far cry from her script for 1991’s “Beauty and the Beast”. Forgoing Carroll’s work to instead create her own tale in the late author’s universe (why exactly is this film called “Alice in Wonderland”, anyway?), “Wonderland”s story is utterly predictable from start to finish, filled with forgettable, one-dimensional characters and devoid of any real sense of joy or fun. Why Burton and Woolverton didn’t just take one of Carroll’s novels and do a straight adaptation into a film is beyond me. At least they would have had a story that actually worked.

At one time, I actually had hope for “Alice in Wonderland”. I still admire many of his films. One could almost write off the creative failures of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “Planet of the Apes” on studios keeping Burton on a short leash to protect their pricey productions. Is that the case with “Alice in Wonderland”? Perhaps. It would be understandable if Disney Studios felt the need to be protective of its $200 million investment. But one can only cast a wary eye toward studios when a film stinks. Blame also has to go to the people who went ahead and actually made the movie. A Tim Burton-directed trip through “Wonderland” should have been a trippy, wild ride. Instead, it turned out to be as exciting as the Teacup Ride at Disneyworld.

Rated PG. 109 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.

More posts coming soon!

Hi all,

Sorry I have been quiet of late. Work and other fun things have kept me away from the world of film blogging but I do have some stuff in the works. First off, my review of "Alice in Wonderland" should hopefully be up Thursday night. In short, me loves the Mia and the Cheshire Cat was cool. The movie itself? Well, let's put it this way: the 1976 Porno was better. Enough said (for now).

And, of course, this weekend brings us the Oscars. Ah, the seventeeen-hour Hollywood love-in that we all love to make fun of and bitch about but would not miss for the world. I'll be posting my list of picks on Saturday and will be posting live comments right here on Oscar night. At the very least, this should make for some decidedly funny observations. I encourage you to log on to the site and post your thoughts as well. Fair warning: if James Cameron's "Pukeahontas", I mean "Avatar", scores Best Picture and Director, I will go ballistic in a way that makes many a Catholic Nun faint.

In the meantime, I'm going to try and shake off the 158-minute nightmare that was Roland Emmerich's "2012" with a sampling of The Beatles' "White Album" in glorious remastered mono.

Happiness is a Warm Gun (Bang Bang Shoot Shoot)...