Too busy last week to go through all the movie news? Here’s a look at what you missed!

* Thor comes out on top in this weekend’s box office race. Goes to show you never mess around with a dude carrying a giant hammer. Fast Five drops down a notch — in all fairness with the huge opening business it did last weekend, there ain’t no place to go but down — while wedding rom-coms Jumping The Broom and Something Borrowed land in third and fourth place. Rounding out the top five is 20th Century Fox’s animated birdfest Rio.

* Elrond fans, rejoice! Hugo Weaving will be gluing on the pointy ears for The Hobbit. Oh yeah, and there are a few other casting bits, but hey…Elrond’s back y’all!

* Osama Bin Laden may not be around anymore. Good news, right? Of course. But there are several movies in the works that will need a bit of tweaking with Obama’s real-life surprise ending.

* Like zombies, but wish they were more kid-friendly? The makers of Coraline hear you! They’re working on an animated zombie movie called ParaNorman. If it’s any bit as eerily quirky as Coraline, it could pull a whole new generation into braaaaaains. Fingers crossed the 3D will be just as amazing, too!

* Bradley Cooper may be playing the devil in Paradise Lost…just another in a long list of roles where he’s the pretty but kinda screwed-up guy? Hopefully they’ll keep the basic story of how Lucifer fell and skip the boring stuff that made so many folks go straight to the Cliff Notes in school.

* Wanna see the new no-Arnold Conan The Barbarian trailer? Yeah you do. Check it out! Go get ‘em, Khal Drogo…er, Conan!

Too busy last week to go through all the movie news?  Here’s a look at what you missed!

Well, it looks like most people punted the Royal Wedding and headed out to the movies this weekend.  Could be that summer blockbuster season is revving up.  That’d be next weekend, since the summer movie season has been bumped up from Memorial Day Weekend to the first weekend of May (though to be fair a few places are saying this past weekend started the season.)  In a few years it’ll start on Valentine’s Day.  But ‘til then, the box office top five has Fast Five sitting at the top, Rio lagging far behind but still a firm second, Madea’s Big Happy Family at third, and Water For Elephants and Prom rounding out the top spots. (Numbers from Deadline Hollywood)

* Wondering when the Joss Whedon penned The Cabin in the Woods will open (or if it ever will)?  There may be a light on the horizon.  The much buzzed about fan favorite has a tentative release date of October 28, 2011.  Let’s just hope the movie lives up to the hype….

* The former Governor of California may be stepping back into the movie-biz bigtime.  Arnold Schwarzenegger is slated to star in Cry Macho. Ah-nld and macho in the same sentence?  Sounds promising.

* Were you as ticked-off as I was when Wonder Woman got a remake for the new series?  (Hey, I’m still wrapping my head around the new looks she’s sporting in DC Comics.  Though that’s nowhere near as horrible as the Hot Topic getup the series came up with.)  Well, then you’ll be glad to hear that Captain America will get a wardrobe tweak for The Avengers, and “it’s pretty rad”.

* What’s a Monday Rewind without some Hobbit news?  Rob Kazinsky, cast as Fili, leaves the production, but Orlando Bloom is “confident” about reprising his LOTR role in The Hobbit .  If you can’t remember exactly how he looked unless you see Legolas on the big screen, the extended cuts of The Lord of the Rings will be making a re-appearance at AMC theaters next month.  Sweet!

* And if you’re still in the partying mood from the Royal Wedding festivities, you can get cracking on your Golden Globes and Oscars parties; the Golden Globes have been announced for January 15, 2012, and the Oscars red carpet will unroll on February 26, 2012.

* To the folks who have said that Stephen King’s The Dark Tower would never be filmed?  I laugh in your general direction!  Javier Bardem has been cast as the the mighty gunslinger himself, Roland Deschain.  With Mr. Bardem starring and Ron Howard directing, I’m getting all warm and fuzzy about this film.

* To end things this Monday, a link to the Bridesmaids red-band trailer on Funny or Die.  (NOTE: red-band trailers have mature, R-rated content, so if you’re under age?  Don’t bother clicking.)  I’ve been excited about Bridesmaids ever since I heard about it’s “chicks do The Hangover” premise.  And any time I can see Mad Men’s Jon Hamm bust out his comedic chops is golden in my book.  (Bonus: seeing Gilmore Girls/Mike & Molly’s Melissa McCarthy pull out all the stops as a Fight Club grrrl.  Awesome.)  ‘Til my review hits this Friday the 13th, consider this an aperitif.

For fans of The Lord of the Rings, the idea of Peter Jackson taking on The Hobbit was like a fairy tale come true. And much like a fairy tale, there have been many twists and turns that have had fans wondering if this project would ever get off the ground.

Worry no longer; production has started! For those that have been waiting with baited breath, Peter Jackson released a production video from the set of The Hobbit, and it’s eye candy for anyone excited about the movie:

In a hole, in the ground, there lived a hobbit….” Gives me chills. “To be continued”, indeed.

Atomic Popcorn brings you yet another Top 10 list! This time we are bring you a list of some of the best on-screen duo’s there are! Below is a list of my top 10 on-screen duo’s of coarse you will have your own opinion. I promise to not use the word chemistry more than 4 times also!

If you all have any ideas for a top 10 list or want to see something specific send us an email at top10@atomicpopcorn.net and we will try and get it up here for you.

Without further ado, here is what I think are the top 10 on-screen duo’s of recent memory.

10. Ben Affleck & Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting- This unlikely duo of two kids from Boston making a movie based on something they wrote. Well the movie was a hit and the duo are still just that in Hollywood. Damon and Affleck both have a great career both behind and in front of them.

9. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in Bad Boys- who can see these guys without at least humming “Bad Boy Bad Boys, whatcha gonna do?” I know I can’t. A great on screen chemistry between these overly large men. The acting is on par with any action flick but these two bring to the table something special. I think they may be channeling a little something from another of our top 10 contenders for Top 10 Duo’s.

8. John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction – These extremely violent yet stupid criminals made a movie and a career for a certain Director. While these two came onto the scene quietly, they left with a very large bang after this film. Such chemistry and great writing lead these guy’s onto our Top 10 list.

7. Sam and Frodo in LOTR Trilogy – This unlikely duo has melted ring’s around the world. All jokes aside about being gay lovers, this on-screen duo shares a lifetime of pain and love throughout these films. This duo was something that I don’t we had seen on screen in a while. A true chemistry between two guys in the midst of uncertain times.

6. Brad Pitt and George Clooney in the Ocean’s franchise – two of Hollywood’s leading men, leading the charge for some awesome bank robbing. What more can you want from two Joe Cool’s. Great acting, great suave, these two ooze cool.

5. Tyler and The Narrator in Fight Club – Didn’t we just mention Joe Cool above this, well he is back along side Edward Norton as number 5 on our list. These two really gave us a run for our money in Fight Club. Writing aside, the acting between these two made the movie what it is today.

4. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in the Lethal Weapon franchise – oh my, two entirely different people trapped with one another made these two real men of the 80′s. The boys of Lethal Weapon brought to the screen an on-screen chemistry that not many have or will match. The laughs, the tears, the fights, true brothers ended up on screen with these two crazies!

3. Woody and Buzz from the Toy Story franchise – Yes I am well aware that they are artistically enhanced characters. Yes I am also aware I have a animated feature as my number 3. Without a doubt you have to include Tom Hanks and Tim Allen on this list. Starting as fierce rivals for Andy’s love, they have grown into a duo among the best. The interaction and delivery from this duo brings to life what we only know as animated history!

2. Robert Redford and Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting – Suave and complete. The acting and everything that follows and it includes these guys had it and brought it to the screen. These movies are classics for two reason and the two reason are the men above and below this blurb. These guys we looked at the men of men and rightfully so.

1. Steve Martin and John Candy in Planes, Trains and Automobiles – the funny men of the 80′s paired together to bring to the screen one of the best on screen duo’s ever. With Candy gone we can only assume what could of been but this was and is still a great movie. Due in large, or in whole, to these two completely crazy comedians.

I must say I would love to see the original saga unfold on Blu. Blu-ray is such an awesome technology and really is now just gaining some legs with the release of LOTR. Recently IGN spoke to one of the Lucasfilm Directors, Steve Sansweet  and he confirmed that the Star Wars films will soon be coming to Blu-ray. While this is not a surprise to most of us, someone inside the compound saying it is nice to hear.

“We have been at work for a couple of years working on—I won’t call it the Ultimate Set because we keep finding stuff—but, a very full set of all six movies on Blu-ray with lots of extra material. We’re finding all kinds of scenes from dailies that have never been seen before. Beyond all of those things that you know about… there are some real treasures.”

When will the set come out? Sansweet says, “We’re not ready to announce exactly when it’s coming out, but it won’t be in the too distant future.”

Steve Sansweet also spoke to IGN about plans to re-release the Star Wars films in 3D:

“George has publicly expressed an interest in doing Star Wars 3D. Right now there are a number of different technologies, there’s some criticism out there about some of the movies that have quickly changed to 3D, so you have to pick the right technology, you have to get it to a cost that makes sense, and you have to have the time of the director and producer — George — to actually go in there, because you can’t push a button and stuff goes in one end and comes out 3D…

“Saying all that, George remains very interested in doing the Star Wars movies, all six, in 3D, and I hope it will happen someday in the not too distant future.”

So what say you? Are you excited that the force will be strong amongst those with Blu? Let us know your thoughts below.

With Marvel bosses and director Joe Johnston still hard at work on apparently auditioning every young male actor in Hollywood for the titular role in The First Avenger: Captain America, it seems that some other casting news has just dropped. In a decision that comes as both surprising and wholly appropriate, Cap’s arch-nemesis, the Red Skull, will be portrayed on screen by none other than Hugo Weaving.

Filmgoing audiences are most familiar with Weaving as well-dressed computer-baddie Agent Smith in all three of the Matrix films and as Elven Lord Elrond in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but with more daring roles in indies like The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and comic-book experience in V for Vendetta, Weaving has become an established and much-beloved character actor.

The selection of Weaving came as a small surprise to many who were expecting a younger pick or a German actor for the part of the evil Nazi supersoldier, but considering his work with Johnston in last month’s The Wolfman, the choice doesn’t seem so shocking.

Okay, so now that Captain America has its lead villain, we can hope to hear some definitive news soon on who will be picking up the shield and putting on the mask, and you can bet your flag that Atomic Popcorn will have the news when it breaks.

As a big fan of Peter Jackson it pains me to say this. The Lovely Bones simply doesn’t work.

Based on a dreamy, meditative book by Alice Sebold, Bones is the very definition of an unfilmable property. On paper it is the haunting story of a 14-year-old girl who is raped and murdered by a man in her neighborhood, and then watches the resulting effect this has on her mother, father and younger sister. Author Sebold, herself a victim of rape, created a phantasmal dreamscape for Susie to inhabit after she’s dead; not Heaven, but a kind of ephemeral waiting room, referred to as the ‘in-between’ by those already there.

On film and in the hands of a director as literal as Jackson (this is the same guy who once evaporated hordes of zombies with a push mower) Lovely Bones seems far too passive and breezy to account for its most sinister and disarming scene; Susie’s death at the hands of her murderer, played by Tucci as an uncomfortably sleazy pedophile stereotype. Jackson handles it with a delicate touch and doesn’t show anything terribly disturbing, but all of the surrounding details generate their own queasiness.

The technical achievements of the film are hard to argue with. The cinematography by Andrew Lesnie is spellbinding and lush and it captures such lyrical scenes as Susie’s father staring at a flickering candle and wondering if his daughter might be nearby, or Susie’s moments late in the film where she’s reaches beyond the grave to experience a few stolen moments of adolescent pleasure. The visual effects in the ‘in-between’ are also well done and relatively imaginative. Unfortunately there’s nothing for the filmmakers to grasp because in Sebold’s prose this afterlife is little more than a plot device.

The result is a series of computer-generated images that feel like a music video instead of a functioning and expansive dream world. The score by Brian Eno may be the element of the film most capable of standing on its own, but it fails to really add much commentary on the rest. Jackson’s directing has always been expressive and immediate. When he’s staging a fantasy battle between monstrous armies or a giant gorilla and hungry dinosaurs he can deliver the goods like nobody’s business. Here, where a softer, more thoughtful touch is required, he ends up decimating moments that were awkward to begin with.

On the acting front, there are some great performances on display. Saoirse Ronan proves she has the potential to become a great actress, and I hope that Jackson finds a use for her elfin features and charming persona in one of the upcoming Tolkien adaptations. As Susie she registers almost immediately and when her life is cut short, so is her character’s impact on the storyline. Wahlberg and Weisz are usually capable actors who usually elevate the films they are in. Here, where their story should be the primary focus, they are pushed to the background and have to settle for capturing small moments of grief and loss. Susan Sarandon as the hippie grandmother and Stanley Tucci as the creepy killer fare the worst. They aren’t bad per se, but the movie abuses their effort and they swamp the boat every time they show up. Jackson seems at a loss for what to do with them and when he finds something it feels ham-handed and forced. Tucci’s final moments on the film are inexcusably laughable and bewildering.

After seeing The Lovely Bones and having read its source material, it’s hard to imagine how this one could have been done effectively. When I saw the trailers I hoped that Jackson would be able to give Bones a tone and atmosphere similar to 1994′s Heavenly Creatures, but the whole production just gets away from him. The result is an emotionally empty film that wants to be important but instead comes as off creepier and more pointless than it means to be.

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 

It has been announced that the Lord of the Rings Trilogy is finally arriving on Blu-Ray April 6th.  Currently, Peter Jackson’s only film available in the format is 2005′s King Kong.  While the Kong Blu-Ray contains both the theatrical and extended cuts of the film, these Lord of the Rings Blu-Rays will contain only the theatrical versions.

In a recent radio interview, however, Jackson mentioned additional plans to release some of his ‘earlier films’ on Blu-Ray as well in the near future — a list we can only hope covers everything up to 1996′s The Frighteners.

The Lord of the Rings Blu-Ray set will span 9 discs, with the extra features on Standard-Definition DVDs and Digital Copies thrown into the mix as well.  Retail price:  $99.98.

Updated — Enjoy the trailer for the Blu-Ray