Box Office Results and Weekly Movie News

Movies coming out this week!

Terminator Salvation - John Connor (Bale) is joined in his attempt to defeat Skynet and its army of Terminators by Marcus Wright (Worthington), a man who apparently has been rescued from the past, though Connor wonders if instead he's been sent from the future as a foil to his plan. As Connor and Wright push deep into the heart of Skynet, they get closer and closer to learning the secret behind the organization's mission to wipe humankind off the planet.

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian - Security guard Larry Daley (Stiller) infiltrates the Smithsonian Institute in order to rescue Jedediah (Wilson) and Octavius (Coogan), who have been shipped to the museum by mistake.

Dance Flick - Street dancer Thomas Uncles (Damon Wayans, Jr.) is from the wrong side of the tracks, but his bond with the beautiful Megan White (Shoshana Bush) might help the duo realize their dreams as the enter in the mother of all dance battles.

Movies coming out on DVD!

Paul Blart: Mall Cop
Valkyrie
My Bloody Valentine
Fanboys

Box Office results for the weekend!

1 Angels & Demons$48.0 M

2 Star Trek $43.0 M

3X-men Origins: Wolverine$14.8 M

4 Ghosts of Girlfriends Past $6.8 M

5Obsessed $4.5 M

6 17 Again$3.4 M

7 Monsters vs. Aliens $3.0 M

8The Soloist $2.4 M

9Next Day Air $2.2 M

10Earth (2009) $1.6 M

"Angels and Demons" won out the battle for the weekend but "Star Trek" comes in at a really close second. "Wolverine" just keeps dropping (probably because of the poor reviews) and will most likely cash in on DVD money now.

Other films continue to fall down the ladder, but next this week we have two big contenders. I predict "Terminator" to win out the weekend with "Night at the Museum" to come in second. "Star Trek" might stay up and wind up being higher than "Angels and Demons" unless positive word of mouth helps out the new Tom Hanks movie.

Box Office Results and Weekly Movies News

Movies coming out this week!

My Bloody Valentine 3-D - Tom (Ackles) returns to his hometown on the tenth anniversary of the Valentine's night massacre that claimed the lives of 22 people. And when another horrific event occurs soon after Tom's appearance, he finds himself suspected of the deadly acts.

Notorious - A chronicle of Christopher Wallace's (Woolard) rise from the streets of Brooklyn to become Notorious B.I.G., one of biggest and best rappers of the 1990s, under the tutelage of mentor/producer Sean Combs (Luke)

Defiance (wide release) - In 1941, a group of Jewish brothers organize the largest armed rescue of Jews during the Holocaust.

Hotel for Dogs - Orphaned teens Andi (Roberts) and Bruce (Austin) are sent to live with their aunt, which is just fine with the kids until they meet a stray dog who needs their help. Since their aunt is allergic to dogs, the siblings decide to turn a nearby abandoned house into a canine hostel. But can they kept their secret under wraps as more and more four-legged guests arrive?

Paul Blart: Mall Cop - When a shopping mall is overtaken by a gang of organized crooks, it's up to the a mild-mannered security guard (James) to save the day.

Movies coming out on DVD this week!

Appaloosa
My Best Friend's Girl
Swing Vote
Mirrors
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

Box Office results for the weekend!

1 Gran Torino$29.0 M

2 Bride Wars$21.5 M

3 The Unborn$20.1 M

4 Marley and Me$11.3 M

5 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button$9.4 M

6 Bedtime Stories$8.5 M

7 Valkyrie$6.6 M

8 Yes Man $6.1 M

9 Not Easily Broken$5.6 M

10 Seven Pounds $3.9 M

Clint Eastwood makes it to #1, showing that movie audiences prefer the old-school action heroes to the new ones. Ol' Clint has a lot of great movies under his belt.
Other movies just round out the bunch really. "Unborn" and "Bride Wars" had a decent opening weekend, but that is really all they will have. They will drop fast just like "Benjamin Button," "Bedtime Stories" and "Seven Pounds" are.
This week has some more movies coming out, but none that I am really looking forward to.

Valkyrie

"Valkyrie" is a film based on the true events of the last assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler in 1944. It stars a major list of actors incluuding Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Carice van Houten, Thomas Kretschmann, Eddie Izzard, Christian Berkel and Terence Stamp. The film stars Tom Cruise in the main role as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, the German officer who hatches the plan to overthrow Hitler. The film is directed by Bryan Singer.

I felt there were a few difficulties to get over in this film, and Screen Rant picked out the major three ones that I wished to discuss.
Tom Cruise.
Accents.
History.

Tom Cruise is a major actor and performs well in "Valkyrie." His performance does not outshine other actors since the rest of the cast include many A-list English actors. Some audience members just don't see Cruise the same anymore since the all the gossip from magazines and such. His comeback cameo from "Tropic Thunder" has brought him back to the front and I believe he can return to doing more movies.



One of the major concerns about the movie that I heard from others was the use of accents in the film. Everyone was supposed to be German, yet the entire cast included English actors (there were a few German actors, like Thomas Kretschmann). The film stars out with a monologue voice over with Cruise speaking in German which slowly bleeds into English. English is then used throughout the film. The hard part of "Valkyrie" was to make the audience believe these were Germans speaking English, and it worked out well. During the movie I was watching Germans trying to kill Hitler and not English Germans.

In history, we know Hitler died in 1945 by killing himself (unless you believe otherwise). So unless you never went to school, you would know Operation Valkyrie fails. The other trick was to keep the suspense going so that people don't get bored knowing the group fails at the end. Singer did a great job of this in keeping Hitler a mysterious, menacing figure while making it seem hopeful at points that the group survives. But during the last 15 minutes of the film, you already know what is going to happen, but you watch it anyway.

Other concerns that I thought about during the movie dealt with complexities of names and explosives. I am terrible when it comes to names of characters in movies. I really am. If a character is not pointed to and a name is given to them, then I don't know who is who. So when a bunch of German names are thrown at me (I'm even bad with American ones), I could get confused. Luckily the film differentiates each character and it is actually hard to not know who a name belongs to (there were a lot of characters that I never got the name of at all). Another complex issue dealt with explosives and how bombs will explode at different pressures and etc. All that information was sugarcoated down so that anyone without a degree in physics could understand (like me!).

In the end, I believe it is a good WWII epic that can be viewed on the other side of the fight instead of such battle films as "Saving Private Ryan" or "Flags of our Fathers." Plus, I learned something about history...if they stayed true to the facts. Will have to wait for some kind of documentary on the DVD to find that out for real.
7.3/10

Box Office Results and Weekly Movie News

Movies opening this week!

Bride Wars - Two best friends (Hudson and Hathaway) become rivals when a clerical error results in their respective weddings being held at the same place ... on the same day.

The Unborn - Haunted by strange dreams and recurring ghostly visions, Casey Beldon (Yustman) turns to a spiritual advisor (Oldman) for help. Together, they learn that Casey had a twin brother who never made it to term, and that her intended sibling is tied to a curse that requires Casey's death in order to manifest itself in our world.

Not So Easily Broken - A car accident threatens to sever the already fragile bond between Clarice Johnson (Henson) and her husband, Dave (Chestnut) -- especially when they both begin to develop feelings for other people.

Movies coming out on DVD this week!

Righteous Kill
Bangkok Dangerous
Babylon A.D.
Pineapple Express

Box Office Results for the weekend!

1 Marley & Me$24.0 M

2 Bedtime Stories$20.0 M

3 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button$18.4 M

4 Valkryie $14.0 M

5 Yes Man $13.8 M

6 Seven Pounds $10.0 M

7 The Tale of Despereaux $7.0 M

8 Doubt $5.0 M

9 The Day the Earth Stood Still$4.8 M

10 Slumdog Millionaire$4.7 M

Box Office Results and Weekly Movie News

Movies coming out this Friday! Nothing! Just one limited release!

Defiance - In 1941, a group of Jewish brothers organize the largest armed rescue of Jews during the Holocaust.

Movies on DVD and Blu-ray!
An American Carol
Surfer, Dude
Movies on Blu-ray!
Serenity
Wedding Crashers


Box Office Results for the weekend (3 day and 4 day)!

Three day weekend (Dec. 26-28)

1 Marley & Me$37.0 M

2 Bedtime Stories$28.0 M

3 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button$27.0 M

4 Valkryie $21.5 M

5 Yes Man $16.5 M

6 Seven Pounds $13.4 M

7 The Tale of Despereaux $9.4 M

8 The Day the Earth Stood Still $7.9 M

9 The Spirit$6.5 M

10 Doubt $5.7 M

Four day weekend (Dec. 25-28)

1. Marley and Me $51.6 M

2. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button $39.0 M

3. Bedtime Stories $38.5 M

4. Valkyrie $30.0 M

5. Yes Man $22.3 M

6. Seven Pounds $18.2 M

7. The Tale of Despereaux $11.4 M

8. The Day the Earth Stood Still $10.6 M

9. The Spirit $10.3 M

10. Four Christmases $7.2 M

Box Office Results and Weekly Movie News

Movies coming out this week!


Bedtime Stories - Somehow, someway, the lavish bedtime stories that a hotel handyman (Sandler) tells his niece and nephew start to magically come true.

The Spirit - A rookie cop (Macht) returns from the dead to fight crime from the shadows of Central City. His main opposition is a former lab technician who has reinvented himself as The Octopus (Jackson), an elusive criminal mastermind who knows the secrets behind his nemesis.

Valkyrie - Near the end of WWII, Claus von Stauffenberg (Cruise) leads to group of fellow German army colonels in an attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler; the event would later be called the July 20 Plot of 1944.

Marley and Me - An impossibly cute, but impossible-to-live-with yellow Labrador retriever named Marley teaches his newlywed owners a thing or two about patience and parenthood.

Movies coming out on DVD!

Death Race
The Duchess
Eagle Eye
Ghost Town
Saving Grace

Box Office results for the weekend!
1 Yes Man$18.2 M

2 Seven Pounds$16.0 M

3 The Tale of Despereaux$10.5 M

4 The Day the Earth Stood Still $10.2 M

5 Four Christmases $7.7 M

6 Twilight $5.2 M

7 Bolt $4.3 M

8 Slumdog Millionaire $3.2 M

9 Australia $2.3 M

10 Quantum of Solace $2.2 M

"Yes Man," "Seven Pounds" and "Tale of Despereaux" take the top three spots as the newest movies for the weekend while other films stay alive even with a really dull turnout to the theaters. Next weekend has many anticipated movies coming out and shall definitely fare better than this past weekend.