Box Office: 'Underworld' Wins Friday, 'Slumdog' A Multi-Millionaire

A few observations about the Friday night box office numbers: Inkheart is a bomb, My Bloody Valentine might be something of a cult hit, and Universal missed a great window of opportunity with Frost/Nixon. And that doesn't even touch on the big stories, including another number one finish for an Underworld movie and Slumdog Millionaire cashing in on its Oscar nomiations.

Yes, Underworld is headed for a number one finish, a little softer than expected, though, with an estimated $8 million on Friday. Slumdog Millionaire will probably finish in the top five, because Fox Searchlight expanded the film's run into 1,000 theaters this weekend, one day after it received ten Oscar nominations. Whether or not it wins Best Picture, Slumdog is still the Oscar hopeful with the most forward momentum at the box office. More on that in a minute... Paul Blart and Gran Torino finished Friday behind Underworld, and My Bloody Valentine was right there with them, headed for another $10 million this weekend, with another $20 million or so left to earn. Not a huge hit but certainly profitable, proving that for all the things Lionsgate may do wrong, that studio sure is tuned into its horror audience.

Click to read more ...

Movie Review - 'Inkheart'

Inkheart Starring Brendan Fraser, Paul Bettany, and Andy Serkis Directed by Iain Softley Rated PG

Taken from the pages of Cornelia Funke’s young adult novel, Inkheart creates its own little world of fantasy and reality, one filled with familiar characters and brand new ones, and above all else, it encourages kids to read. Of course, a movie about reading is slightly counterintuitive, but Inkheart simply can’t contain its love for a good book, and how can you judge it for that? Mo Folchart (Brendan Fraser) was reading a bedtime story to his daughter Meggie when he noticed the strangest thing. While describing Little Red Riding Hood’s little red riding hood, it suddenly appeared outside his window. Mo could make things in stories pop out of the books and into the real world. That’s fine if it’s just a clothing accessory, but what if he read In Cold Blood out loud, or Lady Chatterly’s Lover? Mo clearly didn’t hear that warning in his head when he read Inkheart aloud to his wife and daughter. Out from the pages of the tattered old fiction came a rogue’s gallery of villains, led by Capricorn (Andy Serkis from Lord of the Rings), as well as a kind of magic user named Dustfinger (Paul Bettany), who was just in the wrong paragraph at the wrong time. The problem is, once these characters are no longer in the book, their places needs to be filled by something from the literal world. That explains why we don’t see much of Meggie’s mother, who has been sucked into the Inkheart universe. As a Silvertongue – the name for Mo’s unusual ability – he can always talk her back home by reading a description of her character. However, Inkheart is a rare book, and Mo spends a decade trying to track one down. Is this concept a little too heady for kids? On the contrary, it’s exactly the kind of spark that really blooms in a young, imaginative mind. Transporting from the here and now into the story of one of your favorite reads or summoning a great character into your own life is ideal for children of a certain age. That it promotes discovering new adventures within old books is just a bonus.

Click to read more ...

Brendan Fraser Swears He's Not Gung Ho in 'G.I. Joe'

On the heels of a summer that saw his two films, Journey to the Center of the Earth and The Mummy: Bitter Beer Face, take in a whopping $625 million internationally, Brendan Fraser has a new family-friendly adventure movie on the way in a couple of weeks. Inkheart is based on a wildly popular children's book, and even though the film was delayed from its original 2008 release, I have a feeling it will still do pretty well.

But the real item on the agenda for Fraser right now is the cameo he shot for this summer's G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra, which the actor has gone to great lengths to downplay. "I was there for a morning," he told Worst Previews. "It was a cameo." He also explained to Emirates Business 24/7, "I'm a fan so I told the producer I'll do anything for a part. G.I. Joe to me is what SpongeBob Squarepants is to my kids." There had been talk that the cameo was a covert casting of Fraser as Gung-Ho, a rumor Fraser drops right on its head.

Click to read more ...

We've finally got some news on Inkheart, the young adult action-adventure fantasy starring Brendan Fraser that was plucked off the 2008 schedule back at the beginning of the year. Now, the only thing worse than being pulled of the release schedule a couple months before hitting theaters is being pushed back nine months to the dead zone of early January. Welcome to the suck, Inkheart. This past January, New Line announced that the movie would not open in 2008, but at some point indeterminate in '09. The move was partially because of all the changes at New Line this year, aftershocks of silly things like lawsuits from Lord of the Rings and expensive moves that didn't pay off as handsomely as the company would've liked (The Golden Compass). But moving it to the second weekend in January? Well, that generally means the movie's not very good. Don't believe me? Here are the films that have opened in wide release within the first ten days of January since 2005: White Noise, Hostel, BloodRayne, Grandma's Boy, Happily N'ever After, Code Name: The Cleaner, Freedom Writers, Home of the Brave, and One Missed Call. So what's the ceiling for Inkheart? Somewhere between Grandma's Boy and Freedom Writers? In defense of Inkheart, the trailer's not that bad. I mean, you wouldn't look at it and think, "Yeah, first ten days of January" or "How about Labor Day?" It's got big effects, Paul Bettany, Andy Serkis, Helen Mirren, and Encino Man. Take a look for yourself. So what gives? Is it going to be lousy? I dunno; it doesn't look irredeemable. Maybe New Line's just tired of dealing with it, knows it'll lose money, and believes putting it on the most wide open weekend is kind of the most hopeful thing they can do with it at this point. That sounds reasonable. But what if it's good and nobody sees it, because nobody goes to the movies on those first two weekends of the year?