Although normally we do push a weekend box office report, since it is summer time and there are a fairly larger number of films being released mid-week, we cannot ignore it any longer. Sam Witwicky and his friendly Autobots have succumbed to the fallen after this past Wednesday. No, I am not referring to The Fallen in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen but to the cute and cuddly mammals in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

Taking in around 13.8 million on its opening day, reptiles and weasels alike reigned at the top of the box office. Optimus and his own Matrix of Leadership managed to take in 10.9 million, and all though it does not seem that impressive, it just brings them even closer to making around 300 million domestically (and in its second week too). Now you must be pissed and or wondering, what’s the deal with Michael Mann’s latest cinematic achievement of sorts, Public Enemies? It still made a smaller but still noticeable amount, bringing in 8.2 million for its first day.

The weekend has not even begun though, and then is when these three films will really duke it out. Stay on here to check out Philip’s weekly box office prediction article, The Wrong Guess along with the monday released weekend box office from myself.

Video game adaptations will never die, despite what we all might think after the abomination trilogy  on the big screen that is Resident Evil. Still taking great advantage of this semi popular genre of sorts, Universal Pictures nabbed itself the rights to the hit 1979 Atari game, Asteroids. For those of you who do remember the game, its the one where…you just hit asteroids and ocassionally a flying saucer. Yeah, I know.

Matthew Lopez will pen the script with Lorenzo di Bonaventura producing, and yes Di Bonaventura is attached as producer to the upcoming late summer movie, G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra. Pertaining to the actual storyline, it has not been revealed but due to the very simple nature of the video game and overall lack of plot, Universal Pictures will conjure up some form of an original storyline for this feature. After all, this is the booming studio that is coming up with ideas for features out of such classic board games like Candyland.

It’s likely you’ve seen Clifton Collins Jr. but haven’t known it. He took on Captain Kirk and company as Ayel, Nero’s right hand man in Star Trek as well as making Chev Chelios’ life more of a living hell as El Huron in Crank: High Voltage. Entertainment has spanned his family for generations, notably with his grandfather Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez who did a number of roles in the 1950s and 60s, the best known being his take as an innkeeper in Rio Bravo. Likely Pedro would be proud of his grandson, who’s coming into his own with projects like Boondock Saints II, a new Mike Judge film, and even taking a turn behind the camera.

I was fortunate enough to catch up with Mr. Collins Jr. and discuss his recent turns in blockbusters, his grandfather, and his hand in directing. The interview was conducted around the time of his birthday so that’s why there’s well wishes at the start.

First of all, this isn’t a question but happy birthday to you!

Thank you for the birthday wishes! I was planning on skipping it this year,
but then I got invited to go to the CMT awards with my Zac Brown family to
partake it the celebration of The Zac Brown Band double CMT nomination! A
bit surreal I must confess!

You’ve directed two music videos for the Zac Brown Band (”Chicken Fried” and
“Whatever It Is”.) Do you plan to jump into features sometime in the future
or strictly keeping it to acting for now?

I am already in a deep collaboration with producers on a film that I am very
passionate about. I believe that a love of story telling can be explored in
many different avenues. That’s one of the reasons why I like country music
so much, the stories. However, to answer your question, yes, I am moving on
to directing movies. Continue Reading…

Confirmed by the guys over at Ain’t It Cool News, the director to take part in the latest eighties remake has been chosen. Director Nimrod Antal, and no that is his real first name, who’s most recent work Armored will crash into theaters December 4th is filling up the seat. Previous work of the filmmaker includes the 2007 thriller Vacancy.

In an interview with Robert Rodriguez, he discloses a tiny bit of information in regards to the plot:

But it still involves a very intense group of people stranded on a Predator planet discovering unspeakable horrors (that are not always from outside their group). So like the original movie, the title does have a double meaning.
Aliens was a different take on the Alien idea, and an original movie in it’s own right, and that’s what we want to do with this.

As to how this movie will be viewed, one of the guys at Fox told me “No one is ever going to talk about AVP again after this film, I will stake my life on it.”

Rodriguez is currently attached as a producer on this film, also with his well known company Troublemaker Studios.

Columbia has moved Michel Gondry’s upcoming adaptation of TV’s The Green Hornet back two weeks to accommodate Denni Dugan’s comedy, Grown Ups. Green Hornet will be moving from June 25, 2010 to July 9, 2010 while Grown Ups moves from March 12th to a spiffy new June 15th date.
Columbia is hoping to rake in some cash before the third entry in the tween vampire series, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, drops in to swoon suburban goth girls.
The Green Hornet stars Seth Rogen as newspaper publisher Britt Reid. When not working to save his daily from the evil of the economy, he puts on a green mask and saves damsels.

According to an interview by Rogen while promoting Monsters vs. Aliens in Australia earlier this year, the co-scribe and star, stated that the film will be an “origin story,” but not in the traditional sense. “…it’ll be unlike every other superhero film out there,” he mentioned to The Jono & Dano Show. The story will mainly focus on Green Hornet’s origin as a news man, but will also highlight the special bond between Hornet and his faithful man-servant Kato (played by former Green Hornet director Stephen Chow). Adding another info-nugget, the story will also present Britt Reid as a “normal guy” whereas Kato is the “superhero.”

Dugan’s Grown Ups stars the fabo cast of Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, Rob Schneider and the lovely Ms. Salma Hayek. The story is about five best friends from high school who reunite 30 years later on a Fourth of July weekend.

Dugan has also directed Big Daddy and Happy Gilmore.

Thanks to ERC via /Film

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is the film that just won’t die. Just when you think that the headiness of its debut was over, boom, the damn thing picks up steam and is closing in on becoming the biggest movie of the year.

Not bad for a film that can not find a friend in the press.

The critic/audience gap aside, our pals over at Moviemistakes.com alerted us to the obscene amount of blunders made during production. MM counted 40 mistakes, which makes the Michael Bay feature the “most mistake-ridden movie of the year”, surpassing the 19 goofs from Angels & Demons.

My favorite mistake: When Sam is brought to the cemetery to meet Optimus, you can see the green mark on the grass where Sam is supposed to stand while talking to him.

Check out the site for more goodness.

While you’re here, how about you check out Atomic Popcorn’s review of the film from our crack staff of cinematic bloviators?

Matthew Snider – “Bay does know what he is doing whether you like him or not; he put together some of the cleanest actions shots around, if you ask me.”

Philip Barret – “As much as audiences believed a man could fly in 1978, they’ll certainly buy that Spielberg and Bay are keeping the Autobots hidden somewhere in an abandoned Hollywood lot.”

Erik Buckman – “One can have all the BOOM, hotness and amazing special effects they want but if the story is a mind-numbing waste of time, then the movie is an epic fail. Exhibit A: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”

PHILIP BARRETT: I’d never been introduced to the Ice Age films until this most recent outing. Oh sure, I’d heard of them and was mildly interesting in seeing the first one, but for whatever reason I never got to it. The first did receive pretty decent reviews while the second was pretty much reviled by anyone under seven. Fox still thinks there’s an appeal (or they heard the term “STRIKE!”) and have decided to give us a third entry in the franchise.

ANDY GATHMAN: I saw the first Ice Age when we were visiting relatives and my then-three-year-old happened upon the movie box and insisted on watching it with us. Though he was enthralled, laughing wildly throughout, I felt I could take it or leave it. It seemed very much a movie for children and not nearly as well developed as, say, Shrek (Dreamworks) or Finding Nemo (Pixar/Disney). On this third installment, however, the Ice Age franchise seems to have improved upon the original formula and worked in plot and character nuances that held my attention and interest through the duration of the film. My son (now four) loved it, and I enjoyed it as well.

PHILIP: And I’m sure the film will play well to kids, as well it should. It’s not exactly a terrible movie, but it’s not without it’s problems either. The biggest one in my opinion stems from how unnatural the actors seem to be at times. A couple of times I felt the actors were talking “at” each other rather than “to” each other. The best example I can use is in the begging when Diego and Manny are having a discussion. Denis Leary and Ray Romano seem to be operating on different plains.

ANDY: I agree that the film has some problems. In particular, it doesn’t get off the ground very smoothly. The conflict Sid and Diego have with Manny as he is preparing for a child isn’t very convincing to begin with. At the same time, I applaud the attempt to explore one of the difficult dilemmas faced by every new parent: how to maintain loyalty to one’s friends on the verge of a change that is bound to change everything. And as clumsy as the conversation between Manny and Diego was, that is when I thought things really picked up steam. Continue Reading…

It’s no secret that I think Michael Mann is the greatest director of all-time, dead or otherwise. One can throw all the Scorsese, Kurosawa, Ford, or Spielberg they want and I’ll still conclude that Mann is better than all of them. His style is unparalleled and has influenced my own approach to the way I make films. Maybe it’s how cool he makes everyone appear in his movies, or maybe it’s how no one does action better than him. Mr. Mann just has a touch to his films that really speaks to me. I’m awed by how well and how different he’ll shoot his material and how he builds his characters for the actors.  While not every one his films has been masterworks (Ali and The Keep come to mind) he rarely misses. Public Enemies, I’m proud to say, falls into the latter category.

Let’s address the look first which many have whined over since the first trailer has been released. Mann re-teamed with Dante Spinotti, the genius who helped him shoot Heat, for this picture and they used the new Sony F23 to film a good chunk of scenes. It looks nothing short of gorgeous and immerses the viewer in the 1933 era Mann so perfectly recreates. Had the picture been shot on film, the era would have been given a “glory days” type feel to it and that was never the intent of this story. Spinotti and Mann want to put the audience in the era, and shoot certain scenes as if one is next to Dillinger and company as they joyfully escape a prison or just had a successful score. Even better is a scene where Dillinger and Billie Frechette make love. Billie’s explanation of herself is inter-cut with the two engaged in intercourse to create cinematic beauty. The love-making is aggressively shot, in contrast to the stoic way Mann films the quieter moments of the scene. Perhaps though the best directed scene is Dillinger’s demise (which if you cry fowl over, do some research) and is nothing short of brilliant. Mann builds the scene by showing Dillinger watching Manhattan Melodrama and gives one the feeling Johnny thinks that’s him up on screen while Melvin Purvis and company wait patiently outside for him. It’s all subtle, yet pure magic as it unfolds to leave the viewer breathless. Continue Reading…