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Weekend Box Office: June 25-27

#1 Toy Story 3 from Buena Vista holds at #1 with a weekend gross of $59.3 million (-46.2%) in 4028 theaters (no change). Total gross to date is $226.8 million. Budget was $200 million.

#2 Grown Ups from Sony debuts at #2 with an opening weekend gross of $40.5 million in 3534 theaters. Budget is unknown.

#3 Knight & Day from Fox debuts at #3 with an opening weekend gross of $20.1 million in 3098 theaters. Budget is unknown.

#4 The Karate Kid from Sony drops from #2 to #4 with a weekend gross of $15.5 million (-48.0%) in 3740 theaters (+77). Total gross to date is $135.7 million. Budget was $40 million.

#5 The A-Team from Fox drops from #3 to #5 with a weekend gross of $6.2 million (-56.9%) in 3242 theaters (-302). Total gross to date is $63.0 million. Budget was $110 million.

#6 Get Him to the Greek from Universal drops from #4 to #6 with a weekend gross of $3.1 million (-48.6%) in 2188 theaters (-404). Total gross to date is $54.6 million. Budget was $40 million.

Rounding out the top 12 are:

#7 Shrek Forever After drops from #5 to #7 with a weekend gross of $3.1 million (-44.8%) in 2340 theaters (-867). Total gross to date is $229.5 million. Budget was $165 million.

#8 Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time drops from #6 to #8 with a weekend gross of $2.8 million (-48.9%) in 1851 theaters (-754). Total gross to date is $86.2 million. Budget was $200 million.

#9 Killers drops from #8 to #9 with a weekend gross of $1.9 million (-61.5%) in 2271 theaters (-348). Total gross to date is $43.9 million. Budget was $75 million.

#10 Jonah Hex drops from #7 to #10 with a weekend gross of $1.6 million (-69.7%) in 2825 theaters (no change). Total gross to date is $9,1 million. Budget was $47 million.

#11 Iron Man 2 drops from #9 to #11 with a weekend gross of $1.4 million (-50.0%) in 1169 theaters (-443). Total gross to date is $306.9 million. Budget was $200 million.

#12 Sex and the City 2 drops from #11 to #12 with a weekend gross of $1.2 million (-49.4%) in 901 theaters (-779). Total gross to date is $93.0 million. Budget was $100 million.

The combined gross of the top 12 movies this weekend was $157.0 million (-18.0%).

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:
Box Office Mojo

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Weekend Box Office: June 18-20

#1 Toy Story 3 from Buena Vista debuts at #1 with an opening weekend gross of $110.3 million in 4028 theaters. Budget was $200 million.

#2 The Karate Kid from Sony drops from #1 to #2 with a weekend gross of $29.8 million (-46.3%) in 3663 theaters (no change). Total gross to date is $107.1 million. Budget was $40 million.

#3 The A-Team from Fox drops from #2 to #3 with a weekend gross of $14.4 million (-43.9%) in 3544 theaters (+9). Total gross to date is $50.4 million. Budget was $110 million.

#4 Get Him to the Greek from Universal holds at #4 with a weekend gross of $6.1 million (-38.6%) in 2592 theaters (-110). Total gross to date is $47.8 million. Budget was $40 million.

#5 Shrek Forever After from Paramount/Dreamworks drops from #3 to #5 with a weekend gross of $5.6 million (-64.4%) in 3207 theaters (-661). Total gross to date is $223.0 million. Budget was $165 million.

#6 Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time from Buena Vista holds at #6 with a weekend gross of $5.5 million (-14.2%) in 2605 theaters (-503). Total gross to date is $80.8 million. Budget was $200 million.

Rounding out the top 12 are:

#7 Jonah Hex debuts at #7 with an opening weekend gross of $5.3 million in 2825 theaters. Budget was $47 million.

#8 Killers drops from #5 to #8 with a weekend gross of $5.0 million (-37.1%) in 2619 theaters (-240). Total gross to date is $39.3 million. Budget was $75 million.

#9 Iron Man 2 holds at #9 with a weekend gross of $2.8 million (-36.5%) in 1612 theaters (-693). Total gross to date is $304.2 million. Budget was $200 million.

#10 Marmaduke drops from #7 to #10 with a weekend gross of $2.4 million (-58.8%) in 2495 theaters (-718). Total gross to date is $27.7 million. Budget was $50 million.

#11 Sex and the City 2 drops from #8 to #11 with a weekend gross of $2.4 million (-55.7%) in 1680 theaters (-1070). Total gross to date is $90.1 million. Budget was $100 million.

#12 Robin Hood drops from #11 to #12 with a weekend gross of $1.4 million (-45.6%) in 1046 theaters (-849). Total gross to date is $102.0 million. Budget was $200 million.

The combined gross of the top 12 movies this weekend was $191.4 million (+32.3%).

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:
Box Office Mojo

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Text Reviews Theatrical Review

Theatrical Review: Jonah Hex

Near the end of the Civil War, Confederate officer Jonah Hex turns on his commander, Quentin Turnbull as Turnbull is about to lay waste to a hospital full of innocents. As a result of this, Hex in turn kills Turnbull’s brother, Jeb. The war is over and Hex is living a peaceful life with his wife and son. Quentin Turnbull catches up to Hex and enacts his revenge upon him, killing his wife and son and forcing Hex to watch as it happens. In a final moment of torture, Turnbull takes a branding iron and leaves his mark on Jonah’s face. Left for dead, Hex is revived by an indian tribe and as a result of their rituals, now has the ability to talk to the dead.

Hex now makes his living as a bounty hunter and he’s good at what he does, with his vengeance fueling his path. Quentin Turnbull resurfaces and now wants to take vengeance on the entire United States and he plans to with an ultimate weapon designed by Eli Whitney. President Ulysses S. Grant thinks that this bounty hunter, Jonah Hex, is the man to go after Turnbull and thusly, enlists his aid.

And so that’s the basic premise of Jonah Hex directed by Jimmy Hayward, who previously directed Horton Hears A Who from an original screenplay from Neveldine & Taylor, who have previously made Gamer and the Crank movies. Neveldine & Taylor were originally supposed to direct this as well, but left due to creative differences and so, from what I understand, their script was heavily altered.

Jonah Hex is also the latest comic book-to-movie adaptation out there. Now, I am a comic fan, but I was never a devout Jonah Hex reader. I’ve read a story or two with, to me anyway, always his most memorable stuff from writer Michael Fleisher (and now his latest series by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray is getting much acclaim). Now even though I wasn’t a fan, I do know a little something about the character and one of the things that I know was that Hex never had any sort of paranormal abilities.

I go into most comic book adaptations knowing that liberties will be taken, but this one seems to come at us right from left field. It doesn’t really help that the whole way in which Jonah acquires this ability is told through a bit of animation and voiceover. And while the animation is nice in it’s limited sort of way, it doesn’t really have any sort of weight for how the use of this power plays out. It’s there to speed things up and get us right into the action. Because this does get sped up, well there’s not a whole lot here to really get invested in.

The whole movie suffers from an edit job that seems more like a salvage operation more than anything else. There’s lots of jump-cutting from scene to scene and not really a lot of glue to hold the whole thing together. Oh sure, it’s plot does progress forward, but it does so at the expense of making this a fuller experience. As such there’s really little to care about when it comes to our main character. From what I understand of the character in the comics, there’s a lot more to him than this two-dimensional drive that he has here.

Now none of this is the fault of lead Josh Brolin who plays Jonah Hex. when I first heard Brolin was taking the part, I thought it was pretty cool, especially since Brolin was coming off of some high-profile work in things like American Gangster, Milk and No Country For Old Men. I think Brolin has certainly invested himself here, and it’s seen through little bits with his character. But as to a big picture, it’s hard to tell, because the editing of the film doesn’t really allow anything to breath.

Much ado has been made about Megan Fox being in this movie. She plays Lilah, a cold prostitute who has a warm spot in her heart for the disfigured Hex. My expectations were pretty low for her coming into this, and while she’s only on-screen for a short portion of the movie, I actually think she does a pretty decent job with what she has (and this isn’t really making huge demands on her, considering what’s on screen) and certainly looks good. My bigger problem is with John Malkovich who plays Quentin Turnbull. Now I’m a fan of Malkovich’s, but here he comes off more disinterested than anything else. There’s no magnetism to the character and you’re sort of hoping you’ll get him as he was in Con Air or In The Line Of Fire but it’s more like he’s just reading the lines and waiting for the check to clear. Even though I’m saying that, it’s still a little hard to fault him due to the editing of the movie and it’s bigger concern to just get action on the screen more than letting anything develop.

Other members of the cast include Michael Fassbender, Will Arnett, Tom Wopat, Michael Shannon, Aidan Quinn and Jeffrey Dean Morgan who’s uncredited as Quentin’s brother Jeb. Everything here from these guys is certainly serviceable, with standouts being Fassbender, who’s definitely eating things up being Quentin’s right hand man, and Morgan who has a pretty good scene as Hex raises him from the dead.

To the movie’s credit, it does have a nice look to it and in the words of SCTV’s Big Jim McBob and Billy Saul Hurok, they blow things up real good. But that’s about it. The way this is edited, it doesn’t want to do anything fuller let alone do anything that could make it be a nice western adventure. Of course though, I have to wonder just what they had originally which would cause this, and unfortunately, I doubt we’ll ever find out. It’s a shame, there’s a lot of talent here and (from what I understand) a rich comic book mythos to mine from and it’s all squandered away.

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Theatrical Review: Toy Story 3

Young Andy isn’t as young as he used to be, he’s now 17 and he’s not playing with his toys any more. Andy’s about ready to go off to college and now Woody, Buzz Lightyear and all of the rest of our Toy Story friends are worried about their future. Woody, of course being the leader of the group tries to calm everyone down and tells them that they’re going to be going to the attic and still being all together and there for whenever Andy should need them next. But the worries continue, and now Andy’s mother has issued him an ultimatum that he needs to decide what he’s going to do with the toys- either put them in the attic or put them in the trash.

Well, Andy decides to put all of his toys except for Woody in the attic. Woody, gets to go with Andy to college. As Buzz and the rest are ready to be put in the attic, something unexpected happens and they end up mistakenly being put out for the trash. Well, Woody sees this all happening and naturally he wants to save his friends and he does, though his friends aren’t convinced that Andy wanted them to go in the attic. The toys make the jump to another box marked for donations and soon they find themselves in an all new adventure at a daycare center where it looks like their life after Andy is going to be rosier than ever… but of course, it’s not.

This is the premise to Pixar’s and Disney’s latest chapter in the lives of these magical toys for Toy Story 3 and right off the bat, I’m going to tell you this is the best movie I’ve seen all year.

This one has it all- comedy, action, adventure, romance and sentiment. It’ll probably end up being one of the funniest movies that you’ll see all year and at the same time it’ll get you all welled up by it’s end- it certainly did for me.

I’m continually stunned at just how well Pixar makes movies. Oh sure, we know that their computer animation is just the best all around, but the fact that all of their movies are terrific stories is truly amazing. They’ve come so far since the first Toy Story (and that’s still brilliant), especially with their cinematic techniques, but none of it has ever been at the expense of their stories or their characters.

Pixar has always managed to truly make something for everyone, and Toy Story 3 is no exception. There’s plenty of entertainment for the kids to be sure, but there’s always something there for the adults as well. I saw this preview screening in a packed house with probably a 50/50 split of adults and kids, and from what I could tell, all were entertained.

All of your favorites are back, but we also get introduced to some brand new characters- Lotso, the “kindly” but villainous old teddy bear who’s in charge of the toys at the daycare center, Big Baby, Lotsie’s “enforcer,” and my personal favorites, Ken and Barbie. Barbie starts off with the rest of the crew at Andy’s house, she being one of Andy’s sister’s toys and getting ready to be donated. We’re introduced to Ken at the daycare center and of course, it’s love at first sight for these two. For me, the funniest gags in the whole movie revolved around Ken and of course, his impeccable fashion sense.

The voice cast is truly fantastic. Of course Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, Estelle Harris, Wallace Shawn are all back and it wouldn’t be a pixar movie without John Ratzenberger. New to our main cast is comedian Blake Clark taking over for the late Jim Varney with the voice of Slinky Dog. New to this movie are Ned Beatty as Lotso and Michael Keaton as Ken, and they perfectly fit in with the main cast. Out there on the side though is Timothy Dalton doing one of the voices and it’s only for a couple of scenes, but he’s truly memorable with what he does.

I saw this in 3D, and much like the 3D was with Up, the 3D here is used mainly for depth of scenes more than give you an eye-popping effect. It’s good, but it’s not essential to your enjoyment of this movie. Like all of the previous Pixar features, we get a short film with this as well. This little film is called Day & Night and really this is more of a showcase for their use of 3D than the main movie. It’s a really nice combination of 2D and 3D animation that features two characters, one filled with night and the other filled with day and it will not disappoint.

Don’t miss this. As I said above, this has now become for me the best movie that I’ve seen for the year, and I’m looking forward to seeing it again in a couple of weeks. Pixar knocks another one right out of the park, and I can’t wait to see what they do next.

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Weekend Box Office: June 11-13

#1 The Karate Kid from Sony debuts at #1 with an opening weekend gross of $55.6 million in 3663 theaters. Budget was $40 million.

#2 The A-Team from Fox debuts at #2 with an opening weekend gross of $25.6 million in 3535 theaters. Budget was $110 million.

#3 Shrek Forever After from Paramount/Dreamworks drops from #1 to #3 with a weekend gross of $15.7 million (-38.1%) in 3868 theaters (-518). Total gross to date is $210.0 million. Budget was $165 million.

#4 Get Him to the Greek from Universal drops from #2 to #4 with a weekend gross of $9.9 million (-43.4%) in 2702 theaters (+5). Total gross to date is $36.4 million. Budget was $40 million.

#5 Killers from Lionsgate drops from #3 to #5 with a weekend gross of $8.0 million (-49.4%) in 2859 theaters (no change). Total gross to date is $30.2 million. Budget was $75 million.

#6 Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time from Buena Vista drops from #4 to #6 with a weekend gross of $6.4 million (-53.7%) in 3108 theaters (-538). Total gross to date is $72.2 million. Budget was $200 million.

Rounding out the top 12 are:

#7 Marmaduke drops from #6 to #7 with a weekend gross of $6.0 million (-48.2%) in 3213 theaters (no change). Total gross to date is $22.2 million. Budget was $50 million.

#8 Sex and the City 2 drops from #5 to #8 with a weekend gross of $5.4 million (-55.9%) in 2750 theaters (-695). Total gross to date is $84.6 million. Budget was $100 million.

#9 Iron Man 2 drops from #7 to #9 with a weekend gross of $4.5 million (-42.9%) in 2305 theaters (-702). Total gross to date is $299.2 million. Budget was $200 million.

#10 Splice drops from #8 to #10 with a weekend gross of $2.9 million (-60.2%) in 2450 theaters (no change). Total gross to date is $13.1 million. Budget was $30 million.

#11 Robin Hood drops from #9 to #11 with a weekend gross of $2.6 million (-51.3%) in 1895 theaters (-704). Total gross to date is $99.4 million. Budget was $200 million.

#12 Letters to Juliet drops from #10 to #12 with a weekend gross of $1.6 million (-44.2%) in 1331 theaters (-631). Total gross to date is $46.7 million. Budget was $30 million.

The combined gross of the top 12 movies this weekend was $144.7 million (+18.5%).

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:
Box Office Mojo

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Text Reviews Theatrical Review

Theatrical Review: The A-Team

By coincidence, (or as one character of this movie might think, extreme planning), four elite Army Rangers come together on one special mission. Those men are:

• Colonel Hannibal Smith, known for having a plan for everything.
• Lt. Templeton “Faceman” Peck, a smooth talker and Smith’s comrade for this mission.
• Sergeant Bosco “B.A.” Baracus, a disgraced Ranger who unexpectedly gets drafted into this mission.
• Captain H.M. “Howling Mad” Murdock, their pilot who is “recruited” at the hospital where he’s being held for reasons of insanity.

Their mission is a success, and eight years and 80 missions later, this team is now highly regarded as an elite unit who basically specialize in the impossible. Now stationed in Iraq, the team is contacted by a CIA Agent named Lynch to take on a mission. Lynch reveals that the Iraqi are in possession of U.S. treasury plates being used to manufacture counterfeit currency. Lynch wants the team to steal the plates and over a billion dollars in cash before it can make it out of Baghdad. At the same time, a Department of Defense captain, named Sosa comes into play, warning her ex-lover Faceman to stay far away from this mission. Of course, the team takes the mission and they’re successful with that, but it all falls awry in the end, and now the team finds themselves all dishonorably discharged and having to serve prison sentences.

Six months into their sentences, Agent Lynch makes contact with Smith again, and gives them the chance to clear their names.

That’s the premise to The A-Team, the big-budget film re-birth of the iconic 80s TV series from producer Stephen J. Cannell. When the TV series made it’s debut, I saw a few of them, but wasn’t really a big fan of the show (though I wasn’t really against it either). It was criticized for being the most violent hour of television on the air and along with that, of course, a sign that TV was going to hell in a handbasket. It was in essence, a big live-action cartoon with bigger than life characters and ridiculous situations and that’s certainly recognized by director Joe Carnahan.

Carnahan knows he’s dealing with a live-action cartoon and he surely amplifies that with this movie. The characters, at least to me, are even more extreme and the film’s action scenes are just really ridiculous… but for the most part, it all works and it’s a pretty fun ride, as long as you know what you’re getting into.

Yes, the action scenes are ridiculous, but they’re also pretty thrilling and very well-made. They fit this film and if Cannell and company would’ve had the budget back in the day, they probably would’ve done the same type of stuff on television. For the biggest set pieces, Caranhan does a pretty skillful job of interweaving the action with the description of the plans. It’s a nice touch and if this should go to a franchise, this should remain as a signature for future films.

I do have a few problems with the film though, and those are mostly with the casting and an element of the casting.

Now our main players are really well cast. Liam Neeson plays Smith, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson plays B.A., Bradley Cooper plays Faceman and Sharlto Copley plays Murdock. Neeson was the big surprise to me when I first heard about this movie. Even though it is a huge cartoon, putting an actor of his calibre here is a huge, huge plus and he genuinely looks like he’s having fun in the part. Jackson’s really rock solid as B.A. and while I’m not exactly looking for huge depth in something like this, he actually does try his best to bring some to the role and it works. Cooper and Copley were both coming off of some big films before making this (Cooper had The Hangover and Copley had District 9 and I still think Copley should’ve been Oscar nominated for District 9) so their stars are on the rise. Copley’s my favorite in this cast and yeah, he’s nuts, but he also brings a huge zest for life in just about every scene he has. Cooper is smooth and suave and he certainly looks good. He does a nice job with the part, but he’s also one of my problems with the film.

Basically, near the end of the film, this starts to lose the team dynamic that was built up so well at the start and it becomes the Bradley Cooper show. Now this isn’t really Cooper’s fault, it’s more in the script and taking advantage that this guy is popular now and on the rise. I get that, I understand why they’re doing it, but it does hurt the film and shortchanges the rest of the main cast, in particular Copley. I would’ve liked this even more had they been more even with everyone for the final action scene.

Patrick Wilson plays CIA Agent Lynch and Brian Bloom (also one of the film’s writers) plays a leader of a private military contractor group and they’re the bad guys of the movie. They both do a pretty good job with this with Bloom getting to be the more venal of the two and Wilson getting to have the better dialogue moments. Jessica Biel plays Sosa and she’s my other problem with the movie. I’m sorry, I’m just not a fan and with the exception of her part in the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I tend to think she’s ill-cast in everything else that I see her in. This doesn’t really make any huge demands on her, but she doesn’t really bring anything to the table either.

This is the second of the three big “men on a mission” movies for the year. I prefer The Losers over The A-Team so far and am still hoping for greatness from The Expendables. Overall, director Joe Carnahan and the writers do a nice job of translating this TV series to the big screen, with the stumbles just being in a part of the casting and the amplification of one of the main characters over the others by the film’s end. If you have an appreciation for the TV series or love big over-the-top action films, you’ll have a pretty good time with The A-Team.

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Weekend Box Office: June 4-6

#1 Shrek Forever After from Paramount/Dreamworks holds at #1 with a weekend gross of $25.4 million (-41.2%) in 4386 theaters (+19). Total gross to date is $183.2 million. Budget was $165 million.

#2 Get Him to the Greek from Universal debuts at #2 with an opening weekend gross of $17.5 million in 2697 theaters. Budget was $40 million.

#3 Killers from Lionsgate debuts at #3 with an opening weekend gross of $15.8 million in 2859 theaters. Budget was $75 million.

#4 Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time from Buena Vista drops from #3 to #4 with a weekend gross of $14.0 million (-53.4%) in 3646 theaters (no change). Total gross to date is $59.6 million. Budget was $200 million.

#5 Sex and the City 2 from Warner Brothers drops from #2 to #5 with a weekend gross of $12.3 million (-60.2%) in 3445 theaters (no change). Total gross to date is $73.1 million. Budget was $100 million.

#6 Marmaduke from Fox debuts at #6 with an opening weekend gross of $11.5 million in 3213 theaters. Budget was $50 million.

Rounding out the top 12 are:

#7 Iron Man 2 drops from #4 to #7 with a weekend gross of $7.9 million (-51.9%) in 3007 theaters (-797). Total gross to date is $291.4 million. Budget was $200 million.

#8 Splice debuts at #8 with an opening weekend gross of $7.3 million in 2450 theaters. Budget was $30 million.

#9 Robin Hood drops from #5 to #9 with a weekend gross of $5.3 million (-48.4%) in 2599 theaters (-774). Total gross to date is $94.4 million. Budget was $200 million.

#10 Letters to Juliet drops from #6 to #10 with a weekend gross of $3.0 million (-48.0%) in 1962 theaters (-863). Total gross to date is $43.3 million. Budget was $30 million.

#11 Raajneeti debuts at #11 with an opening weekend gross of $0.8 million in 124 theaters. Budget is unknown.

#12 Date Night drops from #8 to #12 with a weekend gross of $0.7 million (-57.3%) in 658 theaters (-468). Total gross to date is $95.3 million. Budget was $55 million.

The combined gross of the top 12 movies this weekend was $122.1 million (-15.9%).

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:
Box Office Mojo

Categories
Text Reviews Theatrical Review

Theatrical Review: Splice

In the world of genetics, Clive Nikoli and Elsa Kast are rock stars. They’ve been working on combining parts of the DNA of various animals and they’ve been succeeding. They’re working for a pharmaceutical company who’s end goal is to profit from the protein compound that they’re promising to deliver. Clive and Elsa want to take the work to the next step and now add human DNA into the mix. Their employers don’t want them to do that and being ambitious scientists, this doesn’t sit well with Clive and especially Elsa. They agree to go along with their employers, but secretly, they plan to take their work to the next step.

After a few failures, they finally strike gold with a successful combination. Their creation starts to grow at an alarming rate, and soon our ambitious scientists are way too caught up in their experiment, naming their creation Dren and virtually treating it as their child, all the while fighting over the ethical aspects of their experiment. And then there’s Dren, who of course is developing into her own.

Splice is from director Vincenzo Natali, who’s at least best known to me for previously making the science fiction movie Cube, which I enjoyed quite a bit. It puts me in the mind of the type of movie that David Cronenberg used to make, and at least for me, that’s a good thing. Cronenberg’s earlier sci-fi/horror films manage to bring up some high ideas that get on the disturbing side thanks to the ambitions of their lead characters, and Splice certainly does the same.

Now honestly, I don’t know how accurate the science is in something like this, and I don’t necessarily care. It’s science fiction with the accent on the fiction. The story at it’s core has been done before- man plays with nature, man is successful playing with nature, nature has it’s own ideas, nature runs amok, and man must atone for what’s he’s done. That’s certainly here, but the ride getting there is another matter entirely.

Splice has a nice leisured pace and it doesn’t really go for any sort of shock scares. Oh there’s a few, mostly near the end of the movie, but for the most part, Natali is content to fully have you watching Dren’s development and to get both comfortable and disturbed by it. The film certainly has a good look to it, and I think the visual effects work with Dren are absolutely first rate.

Clive and Elsa are played by Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley and they’re both quite good at playing two exceptionally smart people who end up doing some stupid things, thanks to their own inner demons and ambition. Clive is the warmer of the two, and Brody plays him in an engaging way. Elsa, on the other hand, suffers some deep scars, and we see those play out as she engages with Dren. When the situation becomes too much for her to handle, she goes to a detached state which complicates matters even further. Polley does a good job with this and she’s not really a likeable character, but you certainly understand how she got to where she is. A real surprise here though is actress Delphine Chanéac who plays Dren in her most developed state. Chanéac’s got a tough part here, especially having to deal with special effects end of her physical form. She manages it well though and makes Dren, at least to me, the most sympathetic character of the film.

I had a great time with this. As I said above, it evokes the type of film that David Cronenberg used to make and seeing that Cronenberg isn’t making movies like this any more, it’s time for someone else to pick up the reins. Vincenzo Natali is the guy to do it, and I certainly look forward to seeing what he does next. With all of the big budget effects laden films and lame-looking comedies, even with it’s familiarities, I thought Splice was a breath of fresh air.

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Weekend Box Office: March 28-30

#1 Shrek Forever After from Paramount/Dreamworks holds at #1 with a weekend gross of $43.3 million (-38.9%) in 4367 theaters (+8). Budget was $165 million.

#2 Sex and the City 2 from Warner Brothers debuts at #2 with an opening weekend gross of $31.0 million in 3445 theaters. Budget was $100 million.

#3 Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time from Buena Vista debuts at #3 with an opening weekend gross of $30.0 million in 3646 theaters. Budget was $200 million.

#4 Iron Man 2 from Paramount drops from #2 to #4 with a weekend gross of $16.4 million (-37.6%) in 3804 theaters (-373). Total gross to date is $275.0 million. Budget was $200 million.

#5 Robin Hood from Universal drops from #3 to #5 with a weekend gross of $10.4 million (-44.6%) in 3373 theaters (-132). Total gross to date is $83.1 million. Budget was $200 million.

#6 Letters to Juliet from Summit drops from #4 to #6 with a weekend gross of $5.8 million (-35.2%) in 2825 theaters (-150). Total gross to date is $36.5 million. Budget is unknown.

Rounding out the top 12 are:

#7 Just Wright drops from #5 to #7 with a weekend gross of $2.1 million (-49.7%) in 1195 theaters (-636). Total gross to date is $18.1 million. Budget is unknown.

#8 Date Night drops from #7 to #8 with a weekend gross of $1.8 million (-37.6%) in 1126 theaters (-743). Total gross to date is $93.5 million. Budget was $55 million.

#9 MacGruber drops from #6 to #9 with a weekend gross of $1.5 million (-61.3%) in 2546 theaters (-5). Total gross to date is $7.2 million. Budget was $10 million.

#10 How to Train Your Dragon drops from #9 to #10 with a weekend gross of $1.1 million (-39.5%) in 825 theaters (-926). Total gross to date is $212.7 million. Budget was $165 million.

#11 A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) drops from #8 to #11 with a weekend gross of $0.9 million (-60.2%) in 891 theaters (-1234). Total gross to date is $61.7 million. Budget was $35 million.

#12 Alice in Wonderland (2010) jumps from #15 to #12 with a weekend gross of $0.5 million (+21.1%) in 341 theaters (-70). Total gross to date is $333.0 million. Budget was $200 million.

The combined gross of the top 12 movies this weekend was $145.3 million (+1.6%).

A note on “Gross”: On average, studios will earn approximately 55 percent of the final gross.

Sources:
Box Office Mojo