Maybe Nick Cage Knew he would be in first?

The Nicolas Cage studded film Knowing took the cake for this box office weekend as it breezes past the competition. Following very swiftly on its tail are two other films that opened this weekend. The second in the trio of new releases is the Tony Gilroy film Duplicity. Starring Julia Robers and Clive Owen, it follows along two spies who go through with a con against their former bosses while tackling away the old spark the two have for each other. The other in the mix was the John Hamburg directed flick, I Love You Man. Centering on Peter (Paul Rudd) who goes looking for a friend to fit the bill of best man for his wedding and finds a new friend in Sydney (Jason Segel), it places a strain on the relationship between him and his fiancee Zooey (Rashida Jones) that could possibly end in disaster.

Although I Love You Man has the same kind of comedic style that mirrors Apatow flicks, the marketing was far stronger for the action thriller Knowing. With the premise being on how John Koestler (Nicolas Cage) stumbles upon a paper that predicts the past catastrophes that have taken place and ones that will in future time, I’m sure the crowd that loves the strangely bizarre kind of scenarios flocked over towards the theatre (I have to admit it got me intrigued too). Duplicity seemed to get swept under the rug but with the trailer’s seeping of witty charm, it lured itself in a surprising amount of people to their screen (well it kind of surprised me).

Trailing onto other films, Disney’s Race To Witch Mountain still held on strong taking in a good $13 million. Watchmen continues to seep downward, only making $98 million total so far. The Warner Bros flick still has quite a few bucks to rake in to catch up to its budget ($150 million). Take a look below at the box office results for this weekend.

Weekend Box Office (March 20-22)

1. Knowing ($24.8 Million)
2. I Love You Man ($18 Million)
3. Duplicity ($14.4 Million)
4. Race To Witch Mountain ($13 Million)
5. Watchmen ($6.7 Million)
6. Last House On The Left ($5.9 Million)
7. Taken ($4.1 Million)
8. Slumdog Millionaire ($2.7 Million)
9. Madea Goes To Jail ($2.5 Million)
10. Coraline ($2.1 Million)

In a not-so-surprising turn of events this past weekend, Race to Witch Mountain breezed past the grim Watchmen.

Dwayne Johnson is even surprised Witch Mountain is on top.

Race To Witch Mountain, held up by Disney and starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson managed to come up on top with an estimated $25 Million. The Disney induced remake stars Johnson as a cab driver who picks up a couple of strange kids and gets greatly entangled in their chase away from the government and back to their spaceship. Being an overly friendly Disney kids movie, I did not see any sort of problem that it would rake in a fair amount of bank.

As for Watchmen fans, the worry continues to settle on in. Despite their slot as number 2 in this weekend’s box office, the Zack Snyder film only managed to scrape in $18 Million, already doing a lot less than what its expected to have made. With the bad word of mouth from the general public who I say saw it and didn’t understand it, the odds of this monster making its budget back does not look to be in their favor.

Finishing up with the last two releases, The Last House On The Left reeled in some audience members as it strongly held onto the third spot with $14.6 Million. Although the fates did not look kindly upon Miss March, the playboy bunny injected story that barely managed to squeeze itself into the top ten. Below are the weekend tallies.

Weekend Box Office (March 13-15) )

1. Race To Witch Mountain ($25 Million)
2. Watchmen ($18 Million)
3. Last House On The Left ($14.6 Million)
4. Taken ($6.6 Million)
5. Madea Goes To Jail ($5.1 Million)
6. Slumdog Millionaire ($5 Million)
7. Paul Blart: Mall Cop ($3.1 Million)
8. Just Not That Into You ($2.9 Million)
9. Coraline ($2.6 Million)
10. Miss March ($2.3 Million)

Race to Witch Mountain

I love The Rock, no matter what name he goes by. Yes, his name is now Dwayne Johnson but he’s always going to be the all-around, smackdown people’s champ to me. He’s worked out fairly well as a movie star, even if he’s veered off from his action roots. Some of us (myself included) wish he would go back to films like The Rundown and Walking Tall and less The Game Plan and Get Smart. Race to Witch Mountain, even with its comedy, looks to put Dwayne Johnson back in those shoes.

This new Witch Mountain has The People’s Champ playing Jack Bruno, a down-on-his-luck former thug trying to make things right by driving a taxi in Las Vegas. Along the way, he runs into Dr. Alex Friedman (Carla Gugino), an astrophysicist who he drops off at a UFO Convention. He’s then met by two children Sara (AnnaSophia Robb) and Seth (Alexander Ludwig) who give him a lot more than allowance money to drive them all the way out of Vegas and to an abandoned home. They’re chased by government agents (led by Hollywood’s go-to guy for this role, Ciarán Hinds) who all but destroy Jack’s taxi. Jack discovers, at the house, that the kids are aliens who have to find an artifact that will prevent Earth’s destruction. They’re then chased by an alien being called a Siphon, who wants the children dead so his side can invade the earth. It’s up to Dwayne, the kids, and Sally Jupiter to save the day.

For one thing, this film is surprisingly violent for a kid’s film. No one is raped brutally or blown up in a fire, but there are a lot of gun shots and cars are destroyed like it’s a demolition derby. This role also asks that The Rock beat people silly and while there where no Rock Bottoms or People’s Elbow’s, he does wonderfully beat two guys down using prop Stormtrooper guns. There are scenes where the Siphon wades through the government team with tons of explosions. There’s no blood (Disney doesn’t do that), but it’s not what’s normally expected from the House of Mouse. The action scenes themselves are thrilling, often actually giving the audience a sense of danger. The beginning and middle are the best examples of this, when the kids and Jack Bruno are being chased by the Siphon and are about to ram face to face with a train. Of course we know the outcome but the film tricks you into thinking they may not make it.

One of the joys of watching Dwayne Johnson as a rassler was his banter with the others, and dare I say it’s just as much fun watching him wit it up with Sam and Seth. AnnaSophia Robb is eventually going to be a great actress and here she does a great job playing off The Rock. The only time it feels like she’s over-doing it is at the end of the film, but more on that later. I wasn’t familiar with Alexander Ludwig until this flick and the boy didn’t fail to impress. Just like AnnaSophia, he holds his own with The Rock and never feels like he’s the typical over-the-top “too cool for school” type that most child actors tend to fall into. He’s protective, soft spoken, and has potential to be a future action star. The rest of the cast is serviceable, with Carla Gugino doing a solid job as Alex Friedman. It was surprising to see her a week removed from playing ‘a bloated whore’ into a geeky scientist but she makes the transition wonderfully. Ciarán Hinds is essentially playing his Agent Fujima from Miami Vice where all he’s required to do is give his lines in a tough manner, capture the kids, and foil The Rock’s plan. Where some actors become stereotyped, he’s starting to become the face of the “tough, quiet” FBI head honcho. Both cameos by Garry Marshall and Cheech Marin are a treat and I wish more had been done with the latter character. He could have been a good “sidekick” for Jack Bruno.

For all Race to Witch Mountain does right (which is a lot), it loses its steam toward the end. The film does follow a pretty basic formula but for most of the ride you don’t notice. What happens is Witch Mountain stops hiding the fact it’s sticking to the formula. It also stops making us feel like the characters lives are in danger, something it did so well for the first forty-five minutes of it. Sure, it should have been expected the film would end like it did but the rest of the film was so great at keeping the mask on. The ending to this gives us a predictable “life or death” scene, an escape, and a happy denouement. It’s Disney, so certain things have to be considered but I felt one scene was ripped right from The Matrix that didn’t need to be – and with shoddy visual FX. It stings because this is an otherwise good, fun flick.

But really, this isn’t going to matter to the market for this film: the kids. They will love it, and they should. It’s one of the best action-adventures out right now (that includes both adult and kid films) and has a perfect lead. The jokes are made for both kids and adults even if one reference is made for the parents in the audience. It’s really tough to hate this film, and most likely kids and adults alike won’t. It’s formulaic and does lose it’s mojo by the final frame and yet it’s still enjoyable. There’s thrills, excitement, and laughs to be had on the Race to Witch Mountain. Here’s hoping not only that it’s a hit, but that it returns Dwayne Johnson to his action roots next go-around.

Rating: ★★½☆☆ 

It’s now March which means the NCAA Tournament is on the horizon (YES!), St. Patrick’s Day is close (UH OH!) and the spring movie season is in full swing. Over the past few years, the spring season has become pretty lucrative thanks in large part to films like 300. Today we’re gonna break down the movies that lead us into May and give you six flicks to watch this Spring Season.

MARCH 6

WATCHMEN

Pretty amazing most people are looking forward to this more than most of the summer blockbusters this year. Zack Snyder takes on the impossible task of faithfully adapting Alan Moore’s masterpiece onto film. Early buzz is dividing people right down the line (which any special film should) and it’s going to be very interesting to see how the general audience takes what isn’t exactly user friendly. If anything, the fact Snyder got this faithful, this far is a feat in and of itself.

MARCH 13

RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN

The People’s Champ, THE ROCK (Dwyane Johnson as he likes to be called now) stars in this remake of the 1975 Escape to Witch Mountain. With 2007’s The Game Plan being a hit among the childrens, it makes sense Disney would cash in on their next bankable star. However, everything released makes this look like it’s made just as much for adults as it was kids, something The Game Plan can’t say.

THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT

Wes Craven continues his success remaking all of his past films with this epic. The premise is the same, but gone are the dual murders and the urban setting. Can’t really tell if Wes remaking all of his catalogue is good or bad, but it worked for The Hills Have Eyes so why not? The only question, how many more years before Scream is remade?

MISS MARCH

Ever wonder what it would be like if your sweetheart turned out to be a Playboy model? Now what if you were in a coma for four years before she took on said job? Would you try to win her back? Those really aren’t questions but rather the plot to Miss March from 2/5 of the Whitest Kid’s U Know Zach Cregger and Trevor Moore. Buzz isn’t really strong on this film and they pretty much all but give away the plot in the trailers. Say hello to the $5.50 bin at Wal-Mart in two years.

MARCH 20

KNOWING

Oh Alex Proyas, ye so talented, but ye pick terrible projects. Actually, Knowing does have a good premise and has the pieces in place to be promising. The only bothersome thing is that it looks like it borrows too much from The Number 23 and The DaVinci Code with it’s “numbers” game gimmick. But it is Alex Proyas who did wonders with what he was given for I, Robot so there’s some hope.

DUPLICITY

Tony Gilroy writes and directs Clive Owen and Julia Roberts about two spies with a steamy past who hook up for the ultimate con. Gilroy’s perfected the spy genre being the man behind the Bourne trilogy but this looks much more cheerful. What we can hope for is a strong box-office take from this one so we can get Clive Owen back to leading man status. If not, then it’s probably time for Julia Roberts to do her next Richard Gere/Gary Marshall fiasco.

I LOVE YOU, MAN

Bro-mance comes full circle in this comedy from John Hamburg who gave us 2004’s Along Came Polly. Apatow regulars Paul Rudd and Jason Segel star in this flick about a friendless man trying to find a best man for his wedding, but his new BFF might put the strain on his relationship. True, the Apatow roots are there but this looks to be taking on it’s own life.

MARCH 27

ADVENTURELAND

Superbad director Greg Mottola directs this comedy about a man (Jesse Eisenberg) who takes a nothing job at an amusement park to realize it will get him ready for the real world. Mottola did a perfect job taking on the awkward stage with his previous film and even though Kristen Stewart is in this (who contributed to slapping the film world in the face with that horrid vampire film), the same should be expected. The question is can it duplicate Superbad’s success?

MONSTERS AND ALIENS

Seth Rogen does another animated film and joining him is Stephen Colbert, Reese Witherspoon and Rainn Wilson. Dreamworks finally made a film that could compete with Pixar’s best in Kung Fu Panda so it’s hard not to trust them with this. It’s also not gonna hurt that this is in 3-D either.

THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT

I’m pretty sure I remember this film being titled The Amityville Horror. That reveal all trailer didn’t help matters either

12 ROUNDS

John Cena and Renny Harlin is a duo that causes nausea to children in Africa. Actually, the only interesting thing about this flick is Aiden Gillen, who was perfect as Mayor Tommy Carcetti on TV’s “The Wire” (the greatest show ever.) The plot of this film is a little reminiscent of Die Hard With A Vengeance with Cena’s other film The Marine mixed in. If there’s justice, Witch Mountain will destroy this film, box office wise.

APRIL 3

FAST AND FURIOUS

As someone who thought the last three Furious films were complete crap, color me excited for this one. The trailers have been slick and Tokyo Drift director Justin Lin teams with the original cast in what is essentially a “re-imagining” of the first film. Only with something resembling a plot, and much, much better action.

APRIL 8/APRIL 10

DRAGONBALL EVOLUTION (April

There’s a world of problems surrounding this film, be it that the lead has no asian bone in him, Emmy Rossum looking bored, or the plot not even trying to honor the original. Aside from one or two die-hards (or people who won’t admit this will be bad), the fans have all but damned this film from the beginning. Two other films are planned, but those might end up being straight to DVD releases, considering the other film this one has to go up against.

HANNAH MONTANA: THE MOVIE

So what I’ve watched a few episodes or thirty of this show. Who cares if I’ve got “Nobody’s Perfect” on my iTunes? The film is the best way to send off this show seeing as Disney trashes their shows after 63 episodes and Miley is all but ready to mature. It’s that which really makes the film autobiographical in a sense, although given the great job Billy Ray has done with his child (and truly, he has) it’s tough to think Miley would throw a shoe at Tyra Banks. Still, the Zack Snyder version of this film would pull in more bank than the film is already going to get.

OBSERVE AND REPORT

On the heels of Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Seth Rogen being the comedy golden boy comes this flick about a mall security guard trying to stop a flasher from turning the mall into his playground. Unlike the other security guard film, this will be more crude and (reportedly) a nice follow up to The Foot Fist Way. Is it good or bad Rogen is starting to star in films that feature full frontal male nudity?

CASE 39

Renee Zellweger looks to continue the trend of struggling actresses teaming with foreign directors for a re-imagining. She plays a social worker who tries to defend a girl from her abusive parents, but gets more than she bargains for. Ian McShane is on tap as well which may be this film’s only redeeming factor.

APRIL 17

CRANK: HIGH VOLTAGE

If there’s one film I’m looking forward to more than Watchmen, it’d be this. Crank is one of the most entertaining films you’ll find and this one looks to ramp up everything great about the first film. What made the first so great is that it just didn’t care who it offended and played on that. Plus, any film that has a shotgun being literally stuck up a guy’s ass has to be great, yes?

17 AGAIN

Maybe this should have been called Big Jack Going On 17. Matthew Perry plays a man who’s lived life full of regrets and suddenly changes into Zac Efron, much to the delight of Leslie Mann. She’s supposed to be confused, but realistically, I think any of Perry’s dates would be thrilled if he transformed into Troy Bolton (nor would they care.)

STATE OF PLAY

Based on the 2003 BBC series, State of Play features Ben Affleck as a man on the rise in the political world, til his mistress and research assistant is murdered and Russell Crowe snoops around into a conspiracy that gets them all in over their heads. The Last King of Scotland director Kevin Macdonald hemls this which should be the tout April thriller we seem to get every year (i.e. – The Interpreter, Insomina, Identity, Inside Man, etc.)

APRIL 24

OBSESSED

The only appealing thing in this flick is Idris Elba who (much like Aiden Gillen) was perfect as Stringer Bell on “The Wire: The Greatest Television Show Ever”. In this, he seems to take the logical choice of Ali Larter over the overrated mess that is Beyonce Knowles. Then again, how logical is it when the former is a psychotic ‘obsessed’ maniac? The only way this film wouldn’t be a complete rip off is if Beyonce has a song and dance with Ali Larter in a cover of “The Boy Is Mine”. That, or Omar Devone Little shows up.

FIGHTING

Audiences get a taste of G.I. Joe leading man Channing Tatum in this flick which looks like a much more faithful adaptation of Street Fighter than the recently released “adaptation”. The film also features Luis Guzman and Terrence Howard who should give the film some form of entertainment.

THE SOLOIST

Robert Downey Jr. portrays Steve Lopez, a reporter who befriends troubled yet brilliant Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx) who lives on Skid Row. It’s not bad buzz that this was pushed from it’s scheduled October released date to now. The film is helmed by Atonement director Joe Wright, features two of the best actors working today, and should have a nice script that tells a triumphant tale. It will end the spring well.

Now, officially spring isn’t over but in the movie world, the summer starts in May. Having said that, here are my Top Six Most Anticipated Spring Films:

1. WATCHMEN
2. CRANK: HIGH VOLTAGE
3. THE SOLOIST
4. RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN
5. MONSTERS AND ALIENS
6. FAST AND FURIOUS

Enjoy the spring season that kicks off on Friday with Watchmen. My video and text reviews will follow.