1) The Dark Knight- $26 Million
2) Pineapple Express- $22 Million
3) The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor- $16 Million
4) The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2- $10 Million
5) Step Brothers- $9 Million
Just Missed It- Mamma Mia $8 Million
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Pineapple Express Review!
Review by Michael Phillips who writes for the Chicago Tribune.
In its gleefully befogged first hour, " Pineapple Express" seems to be onto something new: It's a marijuana comedy that keeps shuffling genres, like a stoned blackjack dealer. James Franco is blissfully funny as Saul, the supplier who finds himself running for his barely cognizant life with steady customer Dale, played by Seth Rogen. Dale's a 25-year-old dating a high school senior. (He proudly sports a high school girl's wristwatch.) They're running because Dale witnessed a drug-related murder and then dropped a precious joint at the scene of the crime. Unsure whether they're in a comedy or a drama, Gary Cole and Rosie Perez play the ruthless criminals who want the witness dead. The film's title refers to a particularly rare and exquisite brand of weed.
At its sharpest, the script by Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who co-wrote "Superbad," recalls what made "Superbad" worth seeing: the sidewinding conversational riffs, the why-am-I-laughing? wordplay. When Dale explains to his dealer that he's a process server, he replies, "You're a servant? Like, a butler?" As written, that line could go either way, but Franco—fully invested in this doper's doper—makes it sing. It's tempting to say Franco knocks such stupid retorts out of the park, but that would imply a certain degree of focus and drive utterly lacking in Saul. Not since the cinematic cannabis heyday of Jeff Spicoli ("Fast Times at Ridgemont High," 1982) and "Withnail & I" (1987) has a fully baked stoner come to such worthy comic life on-screen.
Then, around the midpoint, "Pineapple Express" falls apart and keeps falling, and the comedy, spiced with considerable, unevenly effective violence in that first hour, goes out the window, and in comes all the gore and the bone-crunching. The director is David Gordon Green, who made one of my favorite films this year, "Snow Angels." His work (which includes the poetic "George Washington") has never been easily confined to one category or mood. But there's probably not a director alive who could make sense of this script's queasy blend of jokes and slaughter. Green shoots the fight sequences with rough edges and hand-held realism intact, and the realism is ... well, real. An early smackdown between Rogen and Danny McBride's belligerent idiot Red ends with the trashing of a perfectly good apartment; the scene grinds on well past its usefulness, and the injuries grow more wince-inducing, and before long you're thinking back on "Freebie and the Bean," another comedy that kept morphing into an accidental and deliberately acrid action picture.
For all that, Franco's on-screen rapport with Rogen is a fine thing. Certain lines keep coming back to me, lines that could've come only from truly talented writers. "Hey! I can see through my leg hole!" is one; Franco says it after he kicks through his own windshield during a vehicular chase sequence. Also, there's a throwaway bit with Franco attempting to buzz Rogen into his apartment that approaches perfection—the quintessence of pot humor, honoring the tradition of the "Dave's not here" routine (Cheech & Chong, for the uninitiated). "Pineapple Express" could care less about perfection; its mood swings and genre change-ups are deliberately messy. Few comedies recently have started so well and ended so poorly. Whether that first half is enough is entirely up to your receptivity to another pair of jolly Judd Apatow-sanctioned boy-men,taking time to smell the roses even as people are trying to kill them.
In its gleefully befogged first hour, " Pineapple Express" seems to be onto something new: It's a marijuana comedy that keeps shuffling genres, like a stoned blackjack dealer. James Franco is blissfully funny as Saul, the supplier who finds himself running for his barely cognizant life with steady customer Dale, played by Seth Rogen. Dale's a 25-year-old dating a high school senior. (He proudly sports a high school girl's wristwatch.) They're running because Dale witnessed a drug-related murder and then dropped a precious joint at the scene of the crime. Unsure whether they're in a comedy or a drama, Gary Cole and Rosie Perez play the ruthless criminals who want the witness dead. The film's title refers to a particularly rare and exquisite brand of weed.
At its sharpest, the script by Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who co-wrote "Superbad," recalls what made "Superbad" worth seeing: the sidewinding conversational riffs, the why-am-I-laughing? wordplay. When Dale explains to his dealer that he's a process server, he replies, "You're a servant? Like, a butler?" As written, that line could go either way, but Franco—fully invested in this doper's doper—makes it sing. It's tempting to say Franco knocks such stupid retorts out of the park, but that would imply a certain degree of focus and drive utterly lacking in Saul. Not since the cinematic cannabis heyday of Jeff Spicoli ("Fast Times at Ridgemont High," 1982) and "Withnail & I" (1987) has a fully baked stoner come to such worthy comic life on-screen.
Then, around the midpoint, "Pineapple Express" falls apart and keeps falling, and the comedy, spiced with considerable, unevenly effective violence in that first hour, goes out the window, and in comes all the gore and the bone-crunching. The director is David Gordon Green, who made one of my favorite films this year, "Snow Angels." His work (which includes the poetic "George Washington") has never been easily confined to one category or mood. But there's probably not a director alive who could make sense of this script's queasy blend of jokes and slaughter. Green shoots the fight sequences with rough edges and hand-held realism intact, and the realism is ... well, real. An early smackdown between Rogen and Danny McBride's belligerent idiot Red ends with the trashing of a perfectly good apartment; the scene grinds on well past its usefulness, and the injuries grow more wince-inducing, and before long you're thinking back on "Freebie and the Bean," another comedy that kept morphing into an accidental and deliberately acrid action picture.
For all that, Franco's on-screen rapport with Rogen is a fine thing. Certain lines keep coming back to me, lines that could've come only from truly talented writers. "Hey! I can see through my leg hole!" is one; Franco says it after he kicks through his own windshield during a vehicular chase sequence. Also, there's a throwaway bit with Franco attempting to buzz Rogen into his apartment that approaches perfection—the quintessence of pot humor, honoring the tradition of the "Dave's not here" routine (Cheech & Chong, for the uninitiated). "Pineapple Express" could care less about perfection; its mood swings and genre change-ups are deliberately messy. Few comedies recently have started so well and ended so poorly. Whether that first half is enough is entirely up to your receptivity to another pair of jolly Judd Apatow-sanctioned boy-men,taking time to smell the roses even as people are trying to kill them.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
New Theater Releases for August 8th
Pineapple Express- Seth Rogen, James Franco
A stoner and his dealer are forced to go on the run from the police after the pothead witnesses a cop commit a murder.
The Sisterhood of the
Traveling Pants 2- Hell Ride- Larry Bishop, Dennis Hopper Michael Madsen
The story deals with the characters Pistolero, the Gent and Comanche and the deadly, unfinished business among them.
Monday, August 4, 2008
New DVD's Week of Aug. 4
Nims Island- Jodie Foster, Abigail Breslin, Gerald Butler
Starship Troopers 3: Marauder
Box Office Results for Aug. 1st Weekend
#1) The Dark Knight- $43 million
#2) The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor- $42 million
#3) Step Brothers- $16 million
#4) Mamma Mia- $12 Million
#5) Journey To The Center Of The Earth- $6 Million
Just Missed...Swing Vote- $5.9 million
#2) The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor- $42 million
#3) Step Brothers- $16 million
#4) Mamma Mia- $12 Million
#5) Journey To The Center Of The Earth- $6 Million
Just Missed...Swing Vote- $5.9 million
Saturday, August 2, 2008
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6879377322869584784
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JboQmDIdKWs
Max Payne movie trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XikFVRSsSlk
High School Musical 3: Senior Year movie trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRw3AkbtJhQ
Terminator Salvation trailer
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JboQmDIdKWs
Max Payne movie trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XikFVRSsSlk
High School Musical 3: Senior Year movie trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRw3AkbtJhQ
Terminator Salvation trailer
The Mummy: TOTDE Review!
Review By Peter Travers of Rolling Stone Magazine-
The new Mummy is, how can I put it? Just freakin' awful. The computerized action travels beyond cheese to the realm of the tackiest Velveeta. The first two Mummy movies were awful as well, but they were hits and rode on the unfakable charm of Brendan Fraser as Indiana Jones-in-training Rick O'Connell. The 2008 Mummy, directed by Rob Cohen, still has Fraser, though he looks understandably baffled. It's 1946 and suddenly he has a college-age son. Rick is still married to the feisty Evelyn, but now she's played by Maria Bello instead of Oscar winner Rachel Weisz. No one says a word. The location now is China, how timely given the upcoming Beijing Olympics. Listen, I can't go on. The plot is idiotic and everyone acts like major tools. The one star I plopped on this clunky bore-athon is due to the presence of the great Jet Li as the evil Dragon Emperor of the subtitle and the gorgeous Michelle Yeoh as Zi Yuan, a witch who's been on the Emperor¹s ass for over 2000 years. I could explain, but you wouldn't believe me. Nor should you. This Mummy belongs in a tomb with a stake in its heart or whatever it takes to make sure it won't rise again.
The new Mummy is, how can I put it? Just freakin' awful. The computerized action travels beyond cheese to the realm of the tackiest Velveeta. The first two Mummy movies were awful as well, but they were hits and rode on the unfakable charm of Brendan Fraser as Indiana Jones-in-training Rick O'Connell. The 2008 Mummy, directed by Rob Cohen, still has Fraser, though he looks understandably baffled. It's 1946 and suddenly he has a college-age son. Rick is still married to the feisty Evelyn, but now she's played by Maria Bello instead of Oscar winner Rachel Weisz. No one says a word. The location now is China, how timely given the upcoming Beijing Olympics. Listen, I can't go on. The plot is idiotic and everyone acts like major tools. The one star I plopped on this clunky bore-athon is due to the presence of the great Jet Li as the evil Dragon Emperor of the subtitle and the gorgeous Michelle Yeoh as Zi Yuan, a witch who's been on the Emperor¹s ass for over 2000 years. I could explain, but you wouldn't believe me. Nor should you. This Mummy belongs in a tomb with a stake in its heart or whatever it takes to make sure it won't rise again.
Share
Email
AIM
Del.icio.us
DiggThis
Fark It!(Posted: Jul 31, 2008)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
