Denzel Washington (The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3) strolls his way off of Unstoppable, the film being spewed out of Twentieth Century Fox. Originally negotiating re-teaming yet again with Tony Scott, he jumps ship after the estimated release date and production budget took too long to gather together. 

Currently onboard with the upcoming production is Chris Pine who was set to co-star alongside the actor and Tony Scott possibly sitting along in the director’s chair again. This would have been another pairing between him and Scott, working with him already in The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 and Deja Vu. Despite all of this, money issues overall prevented continuing this pairing.

Denzel’s latest role will be the title character in The Book of Eli, opening on January 15th, 2010.

For the first time which in this reporter’s opinion seems to be a long while is a tie for first over this past 4th of July weekend. Dreamworks’ Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs ties up with the robot-clad Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen both coming in with 42.5 million each. The third installment of the Ice Age animated trilogy involves the fuzzy mammoth Manny (Ray Romano) and his wife Ellie (Queen Latifah) expecting, while Sid (John Leguizamo) gets himself into some big time hijinks that even his friend Diego (Dennis Leary) cannot save him out of as they discover a world underneath them of dinosaurs. Even though Ice Age 3 did have a really strong opening, especially on this past holiday weekend, Transformers 2 definitely is starting to loose steam which is most likely coming from the big time negative reviews on the flick.

Also slinking its way into the top three is Michael Mann’s 1930′s gangster drama, based off of true events, Public Enemies. Starring Johnny Depp, Chrisitian Bale and Marion Cotillard, the thrilling dramatic tale took in 26.1 million. With an estimated budget of 80 million, one can easily see this movie make it all back and then some with the fairly positive word of mouth.

Earlier released movies such as The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 and Year One have thrown themselves into bomb status, making this summer movie season evenly matched with overly outstanding pics and ones that just fall straight on their faces. Pelham only scrapped in 58 million total despite its 100 million dollar budget which it does not seem it will make back, along with Year One having 38 million despite its 60 million budget. Enough chit chat, lets take a look at the results below:

Weekend Box Office (July 3-5)

1. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs  ($42.5 Million)
2. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen  ($42.5 Million)
3. Public Enemies  ($26.1 Million)
4. The Proposal  ($12.7 Million)
5. The Hangover  ($10.4 Million)
6. Disney/Pixar’s Up  ($6.5 Million)
7. My Sister’s Keeper  ($5.2 Million)
8. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3  ($2.5 Million)
9. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian  ($2.1 Million)
10. Year One  ($2.1 Million)
11. Star Trek  ($1.8 Million)
12. Away We Go  ($1.1 Million)

Note: The list is extended due to two ties in total numbers over the weekend

Time to draw out another huge selection of movies with this Friday’s new releases that include I Love You Beth Cooper, Bruno, Blood: The Last Vampire, Soul Power among many others. Keep on going to your local theater fellow movie goers!

The Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock romantic comedy (I don’t care what you say about the genre Sandra) The Proposal topples over its competition during its opening weekend marking its territory in first place. Raking in an estimated 33.6 million, this film caught the right audience, despite the mixed reviews, and still shows that people will never get tired of watching movies from this genre. Tapping into Philip’s weekly piece, The Wrong Guess, he underestimated what The Proposal would end up doing in the box office.

Poor Ryan Reynolds, two big time openings in one summer, boo hoo.

Regarding The Hangover, the comedy behemoth finally resided in second place, still taking a great amount of bank within the realms of 26.7 million. Sorry there Philip, you were really close with your numbers (29 million) but not on the spot. The overall intake now makes it a whopping 152 million, making sure that this Todd Phillips 35 million budget film has plenty of extra cash to spread around.

What’s that you say? There still was another film that was released along with The Proposal? Why yes there was, the Harold Ramis directed comedy called Year One, starring Michael Cera and Jack Black. Making a modest amount around the lines of 19 million (so close!), this film better get more people into it fast if they plan to make back their 60 million dollar budget. Right now it’s not looking too good.

Speaking of not looking good, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (almost there Philip) ended up still flailing about still well below the budget margin possibly deeming it as a flop (money wise). Land of the Lost and Imagine That join the crowd of just-not-enough not showing any sign in sight of any sort of bumps up in sales, especially with one of the summer’s most anticipated movies rolling out into theaters this Wednesday. The rest of the weekend list is below:

Weekend Box Office (June 19-21)

1. The Proposal  ($33.6 Million)
2. The Hangover  ($26.7 Million)
3. Disney/Pixar’s Up  ($23.4 Million)
4. Year One  ($19.6 Million)
5. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3  ($12 Million)
6. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian  ($7.8 Million)
7. Star Trek  ($5.5 Million)
8. Land of the Lost  ($4.3 Million)
9. Imagine That  ($3.29 Million)
10. Terminator: Salvation  ($3.28 Million)

Keep yourself pinned here on Atomic Popcorn for the latest wave of releases with the likes of Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, Cheri, Il Divo, The Hurt Locker among many others.

Greaaat day in the morning was I off or what last week? I figured the quartet in Vegas would still pound strong but bland do-gooder Ben Stiller is proving to be a bigger juggernaut than originally thought. As far as Eddie Murphy is concerned, he better start seriously moving the ball on Beverly Hills Cop IV as that looks to be the only thing that’ll revive him now. Tony Scott’s latest fiasco was a different story and probably is underperforming. No matter, it’s not like Scott won’t find work somewhere, same goes for Denzel and Travolta. If I’d my own way, everyone would have seen Moon and the world would have been a better place.

This week is the calm before the storm, and that storm is Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen which will undoubtedly destroy everything in it’s path. Getting back to the films of the week, the headliner is some Sandra Bullock film called The Proposal. It is what it is, and certainly you could do worse but it’s going to play to it’s audience well enough. It faces competition (if any) from Jack Black and Michael Cera’s new romp Year One which should play well with anyone eight and under. Sadly, it’s not marketed toward them and word of mouth is terrible so this is going to do less than Land of the Lost numbers. The Proposal is surprisingly receiving decent-to-good reviews and since it’s the only date movie out right now, should be a strong opening all things considered.

Yet, I still see The Hangover winning out. It hasn’t dropped off too terribly from last week and it’s sill on everyone’s lips as the comedy to beat, even if most couples will head into The Proposal. Up‘s drop shouldn’t be anything major and will probably round up the last of it’s “big bucks”. Pelham 1 2 3 was overshadowed by Vegas and could possibly have a bigger drop than expected. Night at the Museum 2 MIGHT have this week left in it but with Up playing so well it should finally peter out. Land of the Lost? Yeah, at this point it’s a miracle that film was still in the top five. It’s going to fall, and hard this week. Bring on Optimus!

Predictions below:

BOX OFFICE PREDICTIONS FOR JUNE 19-21, 2009

1. The Hangover $29M
2. The Proposal $28M
3. Up $21M
4. Year One $17M
5. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 $14M

Todd Phillips’ sleeper hit The Hangover continues to ride its lucky streak, taking over the number one spot in the box office for the second weekend. Completely toppling over the competition, the raunchy Vegas comedy took in 32.7 million. Already stomping away fellow writer Philip’s prediction on The Wrong Guess (suitably fitting the title) beating it by around 4.7 million, ouch.

Us? In first place again?

Speaking of recent releases, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 squished itself into third place, with Disney and Pixar’s behemoth Up still continuing to draw in a crowd bringing in 30.7 million. Concerning Pelham, the film already is not holding up too well against competition. With a supposed 100 million dollar budget, making in 23 million is not encouraging to people who financed this film. Despite that, at least the prediction of 28 million was not that far off from the actual box office take.

Last but not least is the final mainstream release of this past weekend with Eddie Murphy’s Imagine That. Bringing in only 5 million from the general population, I doubt that it’ll make anything more than that as it continues its theater release. This time Philip, you were too generous with the prediction for this not-so-surprising flop. Not-so-honorable mentions go to the big time summer flop which is Land of the Lost starring Will Ferrell, making only 34 million total with a 100 million dollar budget. Enough of the happenings, lets check out the statistics shall we?

Weekend Box Office (June 12-14)

1. The Hangover  ($32.7 Million)
2. Disney/Pixar’s Up  ($30.7 Million)
3. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3  ($23.3 Million)
4. Night At the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian  ($9.6 Million)
5. Land of the Lost  ($8.9 Million)
6. Imagine That  ($5.5 Million)
7. Star Trek  ($5.4 Million)
8. Terminator: Salvation  ($4.7 Million)
9. Angels & Demons  ($4.1 Million)
10. Drag Me To Hell  ($3.9 Million)

This weekend on the list is Whatever Works, The Proposal, Year One among others. Also, if your curious about what the latest Woody Allen film is about, swing on over to the Under the Radar piece to get the 411 on the movie.

Coming at you now and every Friday from here on is a new thing we’re calling The Wrong Guess where I’ll do my best to predict what the weekend totals for the box office.

First we’re going to take a look at the top five from last week and I may have been the only one unsurprised The Hangover performed like it did. Granted I didn’t think it would churn out $45M but I didn’t doubt it could take the weekend from Disney and Pixar. Seeing as how dismal the year has been to Warners, they’re probably jumping for joy that they finally have a surprise hit that’s…R-RATED! Irony? You bet, and I bet Warners drops their “no more R-rated tentpole films” policy now. Up is doing just about as everyone expected it would and right now is outperforming everyone’s favorite yellow robot. Even with the competition it faces this weekend, there’s little question The Dynamic Duo (Pixar and Disney) can lose and it will continue to perform strong. The biggest disappointment of last week was Land of the Lost that only managed a meager $18.8M which was well below expectations. Bottom line was the film didn’t have a wide appeal and word of mouth wasn’t particularly strong, and it shouldn’t have been given the trailers. Getting back to family films, if anything is going to be hurt by Eddie Murphy it’ll be Night at the Museum 2 as it maybe has one more week left in it’s tank before it topples out. That, and families that don’t go see Up for the eightieth time may want something fresh. By far the biggest earner of the year (or will be) is Star Trek which still continue to perform strong a month after release. $300M is possible at this point but likely it’ll top out at $275M if it doesn’t hit three.

How will the new releases fair? The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 will be the one that performs strongest, but the top spot will be a battle with the four boys in Vegas. Word of mouth is pretty decent for Tony Scott’s opus and it certainly has gained the interest of all the adult males looking to be entertained with it’s flashy trailers and Denzel Washington. The Hangover is a machine right now though, and the great word of mouth is going to propel it again for this week. All things considered, it could win again next week but that’s for later. Imagine That isn’t going to fair strongly when you consider how strongly Up is doing and how poorly the last few Eddie Murphy films were received. It’s also unwise to doubt Night at the Museum 2 as everyone did the weekend of release. If Imagine That manages anything above $20M, consider it a minor surprise.

Personally, if I had my way, everyone would go see Moon and the world would be a better place.

PREDICTIONS FOR JUNE 12-14, 2009:

1. The Hangover – $28 Million
2. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 – $26 Million
3. Up – $20 Million
4. Imagine That – $12 Million
5. Star Trek – $10 Million

That’s it for next week. Enjoy!

PHILIP BARRETT: Give Tony Scott credit, he’s improved over his career. He went from being his generation’s Michael Bay (see: Top Gun, Days of Thunder) to developing his own style and being a legitimately good filmmaker (see: Man on Fire, Enemy of the State.) One could say he learned a thing or two from brother Ridley about putting his characters and story hand-in-hand with style (you could also make the case for Ridley as well as his films have become more stylized over the years.) The result? Better films from a very talented action director who looks to continue his partnership with The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3.

PLUS1: When I see the name “Tony Scott” I know that I’m getting an action flick that has a great sense of style and knows where the start, middle, and end should be. Enemy of the State is one of my all time favorite Tony Scott movies and Pelham 1 2 3 has the same action and gritty moments throughout the film. In Pelham 1 2 3, Tony Scott manages to put the characters and the story ahead of the “let’s blow things up” mentality that most directors seem to showcase now-a-days. By doing that, he gives a movie that has a dynamic amount of character and plots that keeps the audience hooked from start to finish.

ERIK BUCKMAN: Fans of Tony Scott’s approach to film will thoroughly enjoy Pelham 1 2 3 for its lavish effects, erratic cinematography and excitement for over-the-top violence. Others may loathe it.

PBAR: Pelham‘s biggest problem is that it truly does feel like a bus ride. When it moves, it’s on fire and accelerates at a very high pace. When it slows down, it moves at a crawl waiting for us to get on so we can advance to the next stop.

BUCKMAN: Once the camera stops moving long enough to spot a discernible image of our characters, we notice that John Travolta and Denzel Washington are actually starring in this. Good thing, because without them and their charm, Scott’s Pelham 1 2 3 would plummet into flames. Instead, it’s a slow burn. Mr. Travolta, who really hasn’t been this fun since Face/Off, is on the verge of bringing depth to his character but is grounded by his character’s unbelievable background and agenda. Thanks to a story focused largely on under-developed characters with desires on paper only, the convenience of the plot advances are staggering.

PBAR: Getting back to Travolta, he’s honestly the best thing on this bus ride. I love me some Denzel and while he’s good here (as always) it’s Travolta who takes the show. His character of “Ryder” (which is a reference to the original) shows that Travolta is having the most fun he’s had in years. Years from now there will probably be a drinking game of how many times he utters the word “fucker.”

Like oh mah gah! I got a gun, oh mah gah!

BUCKMAN: Seemed like 23 “motherfuckers” as well, yet only three working on this review.

PLUS1: To me Travolta and Washington were needed as I could not see anyone else playing these parts. Travolta played “Ryder” with fun, excitement, and mystery in a way that was very reminiscent of the character he played in Swordfish. As a fan, there is something amazing about Travolta and the charm he brings to the characters handed to him. As for Washington, he needed a good movie as the past few he had been in were box office flops. Pelham 1 2 3 gives Washington the vehicle needed to bring him back to the mainstream as a great actor. The trials his character Walter Garber went through from the start of the movie to the end showed that not everyone is perfect but if given the chance you can fix any mistake possible.

BUCKMAN: Aside from Denzel and Travolta, the other star of the film appears to be modern technology. Complete with web cams, Bluetooth earpieces, an insatiable gossip-hungry mainstream media and an all-mighty WI-FI connection, Scott’s Pelham also makes its most telling change yet: the bad guy worked on Wall Street which is now the epitome of evil.

PBAR: My biggest issue with the plot was how it did little to nothing with all the technology Buckman mentioned. The one kid who has the laptop with the webcam was fine and he actually had more depth than any of the other side characters, but Pelham doesn’t do anything with his camera. When the villains do discover it’s on, it’s more of an “Oh, that’s too bad” rather than general anger that they’ve now been identified on national television. Unless I missed something, they were pretty inconspicuous so I’d doubt they wanted to be caught.

BUCKMAN: In this modern tale of the Pelham train, it seems the only aspect (besides the plot) that was kept from the original was its claustrophobic fright. Standing on it’s own, does Pelham 1 2 3 work? It does. When comparing it to the original, it most certainly does not.

PLUS1: The plot was a roller-coaster ride that knew when to peak and valley at the given times keeping everyone on the edge of the seat and wondering what would happen next. For that, I give Tony Scott major props for not making a booring movie and keeping the audience entertained every step of the way.

That one snafu about the web-cam can be overlooked. If you remember, the bad guys heard the beeping of the battery dieing and when they looked at the laptop the screen had just gone blank. Yeah they should have shown some anger toward what happened but in their defense they knew they were getting off the train soon with the money promised to them.  Ok…I helped fix the plot hole…yeah, that was one major mistake that was overlooked. As for the “secondary” cast, it consisted of names that you’ll recognize: James Gandolfini, Luis Guzman, and John Turturro. Each brought their unique acting style to very cookie-cutter characters and managed to give life to characters that could have been used as filler for the plot.

PBAR: The biggest disappointment I had with the secondary cast was how little they used John Turturro. Scott’s not above having colorful characters in his films and Turturro made Mr. Deeds tolerable and was the best human character in Transformers. Turturro doesn’t feel there, like anyone else could have done this role and the movie wouldn’t have suffered any less.

At the end of the day, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 isn’t a terrible movie, it’s just a semi-decent one. Tony Scott does ok work, but his style seems out of place here and Brian Helgeland’s script is pretty bland. But, for those looking for an adult flick as it should entertain.

PLUS1: I liked this movie. I thought the action and suspense were the right formula to make this a good popcorn flick and an enjoyable evening out at the movies.

BUCKMAN: For inconsequential summer features, audiences could do worse than this but for viewers looking for an up-scaled version of the original, you may find that your money has run out

PBAR’S Grade -

Rating: ★★½☆☆