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#1 Taken 2 from 20th Century Fox opened at #1 with a gross of $49.5 million in 3,661 theaters. Budget was $45 million.
#2 Hotel Transylvania from Sony/Columbia fell from #1 to #2 with a gross of $27.1 million (-36.4%) in 3,352 theaters (+3). Total gross to date is $76.7 million. Budget was $85 million.
#3 Pitch Perfect from Universal rose from #6 to #3 with a gross of $14.8 million (+188.3%) in 2,770 theaters (+2,435). Total gross to date is $21.7 million. Budget was $17 million.
#4 Looper from TriStar fell from #2 to #4 with a gross of $12.1 million (-41.8%) in 2,993 theaters (+1). Total gross to date is $40.2 million. Budget was $30 million.
#5 Frankenweenie from Buena Vista opened at #5 with a gross of $11.4 million in 3,005 theaters. Budget was $39 million.
#6 End of Watch from Open Road Films fell from #3 to #6 with a gross of $4 million (-48.7%) in 2,370 theaters (-410). Total gross to date is $32.6 million. Budget was $7 million.
#7 Trouble with the Curve from Warner Bros. fell from #4 to #7 with a gross of $3.8 million (-47.4%) in 3,003 theaters (-209). Total gross to date is $29.7 million. Budget was unknown.
#8 House at the End of the Street from Relativity fell from #5 to #8 with a gross of $3.75 million (-47.3%) in 2,720 theaters (-363). Total gross to date is $27.6 million. Budget was $10 million.
#9 The Master from Weinstein Company held at #9 with a gross of $1.9 million (-30.5%) in 864 theaters (+8). Total gross to date is $12.3 million. Budget was unknown.
#10 Finding Nemo (3D) from Buena Vista fell from #7 to #10 with a gross of $1.6 million (-59.7%) in 1,746 theaters (-893). Total gross to date is $39 million. Budget was unknown.
#11 The Perks of Being a Wallflower from Summit Entertainment rose from #13 to #11 with a gross of $1.56 million (+41.9%) in 221 theaters (+119). Total gross to date is $3.3 million. Budget was unknown.
#12 Resident Evil: Retribution from Sony/Columbia fell from #8 to #12 with a gross of $1.2 million (-61.2%) in 1,361 theaters (-1,020). Total gross to date is $41 million. Budget was $65 million.
The combined gross of the top 12 movies this weekend was $132.7 million.
Sausage Fest 3 is next weekend! We’ve reached out first goal of exceeding last year’s pre-event donations and there’s a rumor that Tony might shave his head if we hit $2,000 before October 13th. Check out sausagefeststl.com to donate and check out the perk levels!
Release date: 7/20/2012
Warner Bros.
Directed by
Christopher Nolan
Produced by
Emma Thomas
Christopher Nolan
Charles Rovan
Screenplay by
Jonathan Nolan
Christopher Nolan
Story by
Christopher Nolan
David S. Goyer
Based on
characters by Bob Kane
Cast
Christian Bale
Bruce Wayne
Gary Oldman
Commissioner Gordon
Tom Hardy
Bane
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
John Blake
Anne Hathaway
Selina Kyle
Michael Caine
Alfred Pennyworth
The hosts review:
Quick and dirty to start things off… all the hosts liked it. They drift off for a few minutes to the Avengers, whether one was better than the other, possible future Avenger projects and general TV commentary. David thought it wasn’t as good as The Dark Knight, but Deuce disagreed. Tony didn’t really get the full effect of the movie until a few days after seeing it, mostly because some of the timelines in the story were compressed and some weren’t. He brought up Bruce Wayne’s time in prison as a prime example. David thought Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s John Black character was unnecessary; not because of bad acting, but just the character in general. The argument was that Blake is the young character who will carry on the story.
Deuce said that The Dark Knight Rises should be viewed (and reviewed) as a trilogy, not just as a stand-alone film. What follows is an in-depth discussion about whether Christian Bale is fat or muscular… and the best part is that there isn’t one single female partaking in this discussion!
Tony thought that Bane’s plans shouldn’t have worked and, more than that, both of his plans were terrible (he also thought that The Joker’s plans shouldn’t have worked, either). Deuce compared the three movies of the trilogy, likening the 1st and 3rd to Bond-type films with gadgets, terrorists and espionage, except that in The Dark Knight Rises, it takes you half way between a superhero film and a Bond-type film. They also get into a discussion as to whether Superman and Batman can exist at the same time and place.
David thought that every character in the movie rose to the challenge except Batman… everyone else disagreed. Deuce brought up that part of the story of this film is that Batman can’t be Batman forever. Tony said that Wayne’s biggest challenge was breaking out of prison. Part of Wayne’s “rise” is going from a state of action to inaction, rising above vengeance to live as a person and not a superhero, and that’s where the disagreements come in. In the end, Wayne is comfortable enough to be able to walk away from (rise above) Batman.
Beginning the discussion of acting performances, David thought that Christian Bale was good, but not in the film very much. Darrell thought that the two best performances came from Tom Hardy and Anne Hathaway, but there was a little bit of disagreement with Tom Hardy because his face is covered throughout the movie. Two other fantastic performances, according to David and Tony agreed, were from Michael Caine and Gary Oldman.
Talking about the three movies as a whole, they thought up that The Dark Knight was more about the characters. Each movie had its own set of flaws, but each one is entertaining as a whole and on its own. They said that it was a credit to Christopher Nolan that he was able to elevate each movie.
They loved the Bane character – he wasn’t a thug, he was as intelligent as Batman. They also agreed on the Catwoman character – well played, especially because they put a lot of focus on Selina Kyle and not just Catwoman. Regarding the women in all three movies, they were all in agreement that Katie Holmes was the least talented. They also liked Marion Cotillard’s Miranda character. They thought SPOILER REDACTED.
Trivial bits ‘n pieces:
Around 10,000 extras were used to shoot the Gotham Rogues scene in Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A number of Pittsburgh Steelers played football players, as well as a former Steelers Coach and the mayor of Pittsburgh.
Tom Hardy described Bane as an absolute terrorist: “He’s brutal, but also incredibly clinical in the fact that he has a result-based and oriented fighting style. The style is heavy-handed, heavy-footed… it’s nasty. It’s not about fighting, it’s about carnage!”
Hardy said he based his voice for Bane on Bartley Gorman (1944-2002), an Irish Traveller who was the undefeated Bare-knuckle boxing champion of the United Kingdom.
This movie brought together a number of actors from “Inception” – Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Caine, Marion Cotillard and Cillian Murphy.
Nolan said that this film’s theme deals with “Pain”. For Batman Begins, it was “Fear”, and The Dark Knight was “Chaos”.
If you’ve read any of my past reviews about “Found Footage” horror films, then you already know that I’m a huge fan of this sub-genre. Now I’ll certainly grant you that they all haven’t been winners, but I love the immediacy that they bring as well as that sense of always seeing something in the corner of your eye. I think this style of filmmaking is very effective with the genre and thanks to the success of movies like The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield, it’s definitely here to stay.
I guess it was only a matter of time before someone made an anthology film with this subgenre and now it’s here with the release of V/H/S. The best way I can think of to describe this is think of George Romero’s film Creepshow made for the YouTube generation.
This starts with the premise of a group of criminal misfits who’ve been hired by an unknown third party to raid a desolate country house in search of a rare video tape. This group of guys record everything they do, so naturally they take their cameras along. Once they get to the house, they find a dead body, a hub of old TVs and a supply of video footage with each one more stranger than the next. Within this framework, V/H/S tells five separate stories ranging from a crime of passion to tales involving cultists, vampires and aliens, each one all told in the “Found Footage” format.
I enjoyed all of the stories for the most part. Director David Bruckner’s story “Amateur Night” mixes amateur POV voyeur “porn” with a highly effective take on the vampire genre. Ti West (the director of the terrific film House of the Devil) give us the second story “Second Honeymoon” and I honestly admit, I did not see it’s ending coming at all. Director Glenn McQuaid gives us “Tuesday the 17th” which is a pretty nice twist on the classic slasher genre. The collective group of directors known as Radio Silence tells the story “10/31/98” which follows a group of four decent guys going to a Halloween party with decidedly unexpected results. I enjoyed all four of these a great deal and really thought they did a nice job of taking the classic formula of horror stories told in old EC Comics and translating them to the modern video format.
Less successful for me was Joe Swanberg’s “The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger” which uses a format of computer video calling to tell it’s story and Adam Wingard’s “Tape 56” which is the “glue” for this whole piece. Swanberg’s piece is certainly twisted and it’s format worked fine, but there were aspects of it’s story that just defied logic. Now with that said, I certainly realize that there’s probably aspects of all of the stories that do that and some you can just go with and others stand out to far. This one stood out too far especially when physical things started to happen to one of it’s leads and you just had to wonder why she didn’t then go seek out proper medical attention. Wingard’s “Tape 56” just seemed to me like it wasn’t edited into this properly. It’s story comes to an end, which then should’ve been the end of the film, but then the film went on to tell Radio Silence’s story “10/31/98.” “Tape 56” just need maybe one or two more scenes along with a bit of re-working in the final edit to make this more the capper to the whole thing.
Even with these qualms, I still enjoyed V/H/S quite a bit, but I can only recommend this movie to fans of this sub-genre. If you’re not already into this style of filmmaking and you’re put off by shaky handheld camera films, then more than likely, you’ll absolutely hate this all the way through. But for fans of the sub-genre, I think it’s a lot of fun and certainly worth seeing. Even further, I hope these guys do it again. Along with this movie, we got to see a special preview of another upcoming horror anthology called The A,B,Cs of Death a collection of 26 stories from 26 directors with this preview spotlighting a story called “D is for Dogfight.” This was extremely riveting stuff and I’m absolutely looking forward to the final film.
Plot summary – In the near future, the world is falling apart, the recession has all but crumbled the nations of the world and OASIS, a virtual reality universe of both games and everyday life (and escape from life). Ray Halliday, the creator of OASIS, dies, and leaves a cryptic will stating that his entire fortune, and OASIS, to the first player to uncover a series of clues and pass through secret gates. Wade is a 17 year-old high school student who finds solace from his impoverished home life in the many worlds of OASIS and is the first to find and complete one of Halliday’s clues. Life takes a drastic and fantastic turn as he is not only thrust into the spotlight but also targeted by a big bad conglomerate that also has its eyes on winning Halliday’s prize.
Quick thoughts –
The bastard offspring of Snow Crash and Scott Pilgrim with 80’s references for the sake of 80s references and a happy ending.
It’s like a big MMO, where you can watch everyone else’s winnings and failings.
The character of Wade is likable because he’s a pitiful, relatable “loser,” who tried to rise about his surroundings.
Cline’s conversational style of writing was easy to follow and necessary because the main character is only 17, with comparisons made to Harry Potter and The Hunger Games as other books that have that same conversational style.
The camaraderie between the game-playing characters started as very remote and wary and turned into close friendships, even before the characters met in person was also relevant in today’s society and seemed to be drawn from how many people live and meet today.
The characters are all flawed, and remain so through the story, which speaks of the more realistic tone of the story.
Which 80s references felt necessary to the plot and which one seemed more like name-dropping for the sake of adding as many 80s references as possible? They Might Be Giants: “No one in the world ever gets what they want and that is beautiful”
Was the depiction of Shoto and Daito a representation of the Japanese nerd stereotype or did it cross the line into a racist stereotype?
Wade infiltrating IOI is one of the best parts, but it’s also filled with flaws.
If Ready Player One is made into a movie, how do you translate the game play into a film format for the big screen? And, would this movie work as a video game?
Can the characters be called socially autistic or socially awkward because of their environment?
A fun story, a quick read, enjoyable but not too deep.
The hosts couldn’t come to a concession to who this book is for…teens/young adults, gamers, adults who remember the 80s references, anyone who’s looking for a light, fun read.
Did the hosts pick up any 80s things while reading… a bit of Rush, The Last Starfighter, Tron, Duran Duran, Oingo Boingo, Back to the Future theme.
Is Ladyhawke awesome-awesome or 80s cheesy awesome?
Frankie Says Relax!
SilverHawks!
What do you call Dolly Parton doing the backstroke?
All this is lost, like tears in the rain.
Leg warmers, blue with little white hearts.
Massive social statements in Family Ties.
I created the OASIS because I never felt at home in the real world. I didn’t know how to connect with the people there. I was afraid, for all my life. Right up until I knew it was ending. That was when I realized, as terrifying and painful as reality can be, it’s also the only place where you can find true happiness. Because reality is -real-. — Halliday
Next weekend is Sausage Fest 3! We’re more than halfway to our pre-event goal. Go to our website, www. sausagefeststl.com, and see how you can donate, see what our perks are, see how you can help!
Congrats on all the 25s this week – Andrew, Jeff, Tony, Cougron, Tad and Father Beast. Well Done!
Thanks to Tad and Art (welcome back, Art!) for their voicemails.
We’re getting closer to Sausage Fest 3, less than two weeks to go! Please give what you can and donate to a great cause. We’re hoping to beat last year’s donations of $1,501 and we still have a ways to go. In addition to doing something good, there are also perks at different donation levels. Visit our site for more information – sausagefeststl.com.
William also added his thoughts on donating to Sausage Fest and breast cancer research. If you haven’t donated yet, we hope this will help you decide because what he said is fantastic. Thank you, William.
#1 Hotel Transylvania from Sony/Columbia opened at #1 with a gross of $42.5 million in 3,349 theaters. Budget was $85 million.
#2 Looper from TriStar opened at #2 with a gross of $20.8 million in 2,992 theaters. Budget was $30 million.
#3 End of Watch from Open Road Films fell from #1 to #3 with a gross of $7.8 million (-40.6%) in 2,780 theaters (+50). Total gross to date is $26 million. Budget was $7 million.
#4 Trouble with the Curve from Warner Bros. fell from #3 to #4 with a gross of $7.3 million (-40.2%) in 3,212 theaters. Total gross to date is $23.5 million. Budget was unknown.
#5 House at the End of the Street from Relativity fell from #2 to #5 with a gross of $7.1 million (-42%) in 3,083 theaters. Total gross to date is $22.2 million. Budget was $10 million.
#6 Pitch Perfect from Universal opened at #6 with a gross of $5.1 million in 3,083 theaters. Budget was $17 million.
#7 Finding Nemo (3D) from Buena Vista fell from #4 to #7 with a gross of $4 million (-58.1%) in 2,639 theaters (-265). Total gross to date is $36.4 million. Budget was unknown.
#8 Resident Evil: Retribution from Sony/Columbia fell from #5 to #8 with a gross of $3 million (-55.4%) in 2,381 theaters (-635). Total gross to date is $38.7 million. Budget was $65 million.
#9 The Master from Weinstein Company fell from #7 to #9 with a gross of $2.7 million (-39%) in 856 theaters (+68). Total gross to date is $9.6 million. Budget was unknown.
#10 Won’t Back Down from 20th Century Fox opened at #10 with a gross of $2.6 million in 2,515 theaters. Budget was unknown.
#11 Dredd from Lionsgate fell from #6 to #11 with a gross of $2.4 million (-62.3%) in 2,557 theaters (+51). Total gross to date is $10.9 million. Budget was $50 million.
#12 The Possession from Lionsgate fell from #8 to #12 with a gross of $1.4 million (-48.4%) in 1,618 theaters (-980). Total gross to date is $47.4 million. Budget was $14 million.
The combined gross of the top 12 movies this weekend was $106.7 million.