The Hot Blog

Coraline is pleasantly strong....Pink Panther pleasantly weak. Maybe there is hope in the world....and hope for stop-motion.

A sad result for "Fanboys," one of the most over hyped films in recent years...

This "bully" will acknowledge Fox's success with "Taken," the 30 something straight rotten movies notwithstanding...but Fox's schedule heading into their tentpole loaded summer is far far weaker than last year's...at least that's the way it looks after this point. With Bride Roles reeling in almost 20 million less domestically than 27 Dresses, I suspect "Taken" will be their top grosser until May.

Is that "Taken" figure correct?
Finke had it at $6-million-and-change earlier this morning which sounds a tad more plausible.
"PP2" should get a matinee boost over the weekend thanks to the trolling kiddies (as will, hopefully, "Coraline"), so I wouldn't count it out just yet. Sigh.
I don't see any silver lining to that weak opening day figure for "Push," though. You would have thought that Chris Evans might have drawn a few more "Fantastic" fans into the theater.
Guess Evans isn't as big a star as Jessica Alba, although you could possibly make the case that he's prettier.
And "Paul Blart" keeps chug-chug-chugging its way to $100-million. Any chance of it eventually outgrossing Sandler's "Bedtime Stories"? (Since its costs were considerably lower, it'll definitely be a bigger cash cow for Happy Madison.)
Looking ahead, am I the only one who smells a potential sleeper in "Fired Up"? The fact that it's being hyped to kingdom come (just try avoiding the ubiquitous TV spots) doesn't hurt. And the shockingly wide berth its receiving that weekend--with Tyler Perry's latest opus being the only other wide release--can only help.

Taken has the best marketing of any film in ages. The 30 second spot is as damn near perfect as any i've ever seen.

It made me think of the Ransom trailer, where Mel is behind the table and he offers the 2 million to whoever brings him the kidnappers.

But that was a Ron Howard film with, at the time, one of the biggest stars in the world. Taken has a reputable actor with zero box office clout. And every person i know who has seen the commercial has said 'i want to see that'

It's all about the marketing baby.

Even though I've seen the Push trailer many times, I somehow missed that this was its opening weekend.

Chris Evans' biggest problem is his bland moniker. I'll bet you that 99.9% of Fantastic Four fans couldn't tell you his name.

Yeah, I think the number for TAKEN is wrong. It opened to $9.4M last weekend (and even B.O. Guru has it showing with a 33% drop.) Which - shockingly - would still leave it in second place.

B.O. Mojo has "Taken" at $6.3 with a per-screen average of $1,979.
Still pretty impressive for a standard-issue programmer that looked like a one-weekend-wonder at best.

"Looking ahead, am I the only one who smells a potential sleeper in 'Fired Up'?"

The movie looks like Bring It On, Pt. 82! Shouldn't ABC Family be airing this on a Saturday morning? The only thing notable about the cast seems to be the fact that one of the lead actors is closer to his 20th high school reunion than his day of graduation.

I saw that commercial for Fired Up and thought, "Wait...isn't that the guy who was already too old to be playing a teenager when he played one in Not Another Teen Movie, like, nine years ago?"

Why isn't Slumdog on more screens? Why isn't the Wrestler on more screens? Who's dropping the ball on this?

I didn't say that "Fired Up" looked good, only that it looked as though it had the makings of another "how-the-hell-did-that-happen-and-why?" sleeper hit. Kind of like "Taken" was last weekend.
As for Eric Christian Olsen, yeah, he's much too old to be playing high schoolers. But I have to confess to a soft spot for him since he played Anne Hathaway's brother in one of my favorite
"one-season-and-you're-out" TV dramedies ("Get Real") not produced by the Zwick./Herskovitz company. That was the same series where "Squid and the Whale"'s Jesse Eisenberg played their kid brother.
And I seem to remember hearing rumors to the effect that Olsen had tested for George Lucas to play Anakin Skywalker in the last two "SW" movies--a role he, obviously, lost to Hayden Christensen.

So Kate Beckinsale is 'an arty actress in spandex' and Rhona Mitra is just a plain-old regular actress in spandex?

"I didn't say that "Fired Up" looked good, only that it looked as though it had the makings of another "how-the-hell-did-that-happen-and-why?" sleeper hit. Kind of like "Taken" was last weekend."

I don't think so. Maybe it will, but...I look at the advertising, and whenever I see the two leads in a shot, I get deja vu from "Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd". It's like they're the recast stars of a sequel to a movie that never existed. As if these were the two great character we knew and loved three years ago, but now they're back and going to cheerleading college!

Yeah, maybe it will; maybe it won't (be a sleeper). But every time I see those damn TV spots I can hear the voice of some addled teen saying, "That looks like some funny shit!"
Certainly Sony/Screen Gems is being handed a gift on that date since nothing else is even opening in competition (the T/Perry movie has a demographic unto itself which has nothing to do with the potential audience base for something like "FU").
And "Get Real" was a terrific show....did anybody else on here watch it? It debuted in the fall of '99, and I remember actually preferring it to Z/H's (also first-rate) "Once and Again"....that's the series that intro'd Evan Rachel Wood and Shane West.

TAKEN kicks soooooooooooo much ASSSSSSS!!!!!!!! I had to watch You've Got Mail afterward to get rid of all the scary testosterone risen up in me.

Taken is probably doing so well because it's actually a decent movie. Nothing amazing, but it does the job and does so without being pretentious or downright terrible. Although somebody needs to tell Maggie Grace that she was playing a 17-year-old, not a bloody five year old. My partner and I cracked up everytime that girl ran (which was, surprisingly, a lot).

Movieman, props for that Get Real shout out! They aired it down here at, like, 1am a couple of years after the fact that I loved it.

re: get real......looooooved the show (still have the pilot on vhs)....but i freaked for a minute because i thought you were referencing 'get real' the brilliant coming-of-age movie w/ben silverstone.....

"Get Real" must occupy the same Before They Were Stars void of ZERO recollection for me as that apparent AMERICAN TV show with Heath Ledger *in 1997* that was some kind of Xena-esque period adventure.

For all you folks chortling over 31-year-old Eric Christian Olsen playing high schoolers:

How was now *45-YEAR-OLD*, then *32-YEAR-OLD* Harold Perrineau still playing teenagers in 1995/1996's "Smoke" and "Romeo + Juliet"?

lex -- certainly not surprised the memory bank is crumbling..... but old folk playing high schoolers is a sad tradition....

Lex, Roar. It was... not good.

Scoot, Get Real (the movie) is surprisingly good, I agree, although I wouldn't call it "brilliant". As far as queer cinema filmmakers' penchant for reimagining their lives via wish fulfillment cinema, it was quite good. Much better than usual.

I AM GOING TO SEE PUSH SIX MORE TIMES before it leaves theaters.

M A S T E R P I E C E.

And in other news:

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEMBURGER!
DA-BURGER!
EEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHM BURGER!

(Always funny.)

kam -- when it comes to commercial art, i bow to your genius...after that, i bow to mine.... and 'get real' was brilliant in knocking down a few walls in this country (not to mention the giant boner i carry for silverstone....he is to me what jamie bell is to you)....
the irony (?) is that, i've interviewed bell countless times and, my one shot at silverstone, i had to assign it out....sometimes, there is no god.....

Scoot: Have you been keeping up with the drama over at HE? Because... well, it's rather sad, isn't it? I mean, he pulled something similar here in Houston at World/Fest just a few years ago.

Ha! I saw Roar on cable a few months ago. It was very strange, and Verma Farmiga was in it too as his love interest, despite her being 6 years older than Ledger (when Ledger was 18).

That Push was an odd movie that rated high on the unintentional comedy meter with my audience. Shooting on location in China can't save a movie with a derivative story and script. And watching Chris Evans is like watching the QB from your high school football team. Not an ounce of star in there, just a thick neck.

Chris Evans rules and is in every way a superior human being to you or me, because he dated Jessica Biel and costarred opposite Jessica Alba.

He is your GOD. Admit it. ADMIT he has done something you and I cannot do and probably will never do.

CHRIS EVANS IS A MAN OF IMPORTANCE IN THIS WORLD.

WE ARE NOT.

LIFE SUCKS.

"Taken" was fan-frigging-tastic. I'm shocked that Dave thinks it sucks. Granted, it's not "B13," and sure, it caters to our basest revenge fantasies, but it worked on me like gangbusters. I was also pleasantly surprised that it took time in the first act to lay some emotional groundwork -- nothing deep or original, but more than you get in the average contemporary action fest. I've generally been lukewarm on Liam Neeson, but he really sells this thing.

I feel bad that I missed "Get Real." A story editor I worked with was a writer/producer on it.

I'll start praying to Chris Evans if it means that he'll quit acting. So bland.

Sloanish, you ever date Jessica Biel?

Loser = You.

By that logic George Clooney (or any person on the planet who didn't date her) would be a loser. I don't think that's true. You can wallow in that hole alone, Lex. Life is good over here.

Why is life good?

Are you famous? Rich? Get lots of different pussy every night of the week?

ANYTHING ELSE IS BULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLSHIT.

Family, friends, job, EVERYTHING = worthless if you're FAMOUS and FUCKING HOT FAMOUS WOMEN.

IF ONE FUCKING MAN CAN DO IT, EVERY MAN SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO IT.

Or the man WHO CANNOT is a BITCH.

Oh, great. Lex is drunk and has internet access. Why is life good? It's not because Lex is around, that's for sure.

Back on topic:

I hope all those DOUGHY DUMB FAT WHITE CHICKS who dragged their sadsack boyfriends to see that chickflick bullshit this weekend GOT THEIR ASSES FUCKING DUMPED by their men on the ride home.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA It fucking RULES when men put the foot down and tell their women THEY WANT TO FUCK HOTTER WOMEN, and DOMESTIC LIFE is for LIMP-DICK BITCHES.

LEYKIS 101, D.... T..... B.... BABY!!!!!!!!!!

HIT IT AND QUIT IT! Be a fucking MAN.

just in my own little world here, but i quite like chris evans. the first time i saw him was in griffin dunne's 'fierce people' (holy crap, he and kristen stewart played sibs, now that i think about it) and i thought he showed some promise there; he's gone on to some utterly forgettable perfs, but showed glimpses of maturity in 'sunshine' - managing to leave that cocky, youthful goofiness behind - so he may yet develop into a better-than-average 'well-built, good-looking guy' actor given some seasoning and time to marinate, you never know, he's still quite young.

KRISTEN STEWART 4 EVA!!!!!

LEAHNZ knows what's up.

Chris Evans is your GOD.

LONDON is fucking A W E S O M E.

I quite liked Evans in "Cellular." I don't think his cockiness was nearly as charming in the FF flicks, but the scripts were no help there. "Push" looks like a better showcase for him (except box-office-wise, I guess).

I want you to kill yourself now.

If this was a movie, Lex would then kill himself, and I would feel bad and help homeless people (like The Fisher King).

But since this is real life, I would just feel bad for a couple of days and proceed to go about my daily business and forget the name 'LexG' after a few months had gone by.

Check out 3am McDouche clearly schmokin' down with the roommates! (One of whom is ALMOST ASSUREDLY Big Perm.)

What type o' weed did you and the feelas scrape up enough scratch to plunk down for today?

I don't do pot, Lex, just liquor. See, we have something in common!

KRISTEN STEWART.

Chris Evans won't last long if his publicist keeps that ridiculous "keep your shirt on" rule she put in place last year. The only reason he is famous is because he's incredibly incredibly good looking. I mean, his character in The Nanny Diaries is listed as "Harvard Hottie". Agreed that he did his best work in Sunshine though.

My god, he's hot. (pardon the teeniness of such a comment)

KC, I mean this with all due respect, but if you noticed Chris Evans in his dorky structure shirt in a movie with SCARLETT JOHANSSON and ALICIA KEYS...

Wow, you really ARE gay.

i second that, kam, that boy should have to have a license to walk about half-nekked like he did in 'cellular'. who gives a rat's ass about scarjo and keys, yawn

JOHANSSON, ALICIA KEYS, KRISTEN STEWART, ALLISON LOHMAN, ROSARIO DAWSON, JESSICA BIEL, EVAN RACHEL WOOD, CHRISTINA RICCI, and MAGGIE GRACE should all star in a film called "HANGING OUT AT LEX'S APARTMENT."

I'd pay to see it.

"FAMOUS and FUCKING HOT FAMOUS WOMEN" sounds delightful (for three months) but being happily married and working as a screenwriter is just fine for me, Lex. I'd say try them out, but I doubt you could handle either.

I'm not saying Chris Evans doesn't try, but every time I see him I think of a bad romance novel cover. There's no edge, there's just beefcake.

Lex, I mean this with all due respect, but if you believe half of the things you say...

Wow, you really ARE a douchey pathetic loser with a shit job, bad taste, no social life and a personality as endearing as roadkill.

It's interesting to learn that my beloved "Get Real" is apparently better known (and appreciated) in Australia than in the U.S.
I sure hope that Fox eventually releases its one-and-only season on dvd: it's long overdue.
The first thing C. Evans made an impression on me in was "The Perfect Score" (apparently I've drawn a blank on everyone in--and everything about--"Not Another Teen Movie") costarring his future "Nanny Diaries" squeeze Scarlett Johansson.
I've always liked the kid (and he still seems like a "kid" to me) in a road company, early '80s Tom Cruise-y sort of way. He just hasn't had the breaks (or the scripts) that helped turn Cruise into a Reagan-era superstar. And yeah, he is damn pretty in an all-American, Wonder Bread kind of way (again very much like the young TC).
I think his best perf to date may have been in the barely released "London" w/ Jason Statham and Jessica Biel.

Teehee, I liked The Perfect Score, actually.

I wouldn't go so far as to say Get Real is better known here. As I said, it aired at around 1am and I only knew about it because, for whatever reason, I was always up at that time of night back then. I doubt many people would know it at all. And it's not available on DVD at all.

Damn. Those weekend numbers are pretty impressive--especially for "Into You," "Coraline" and holdovers like "Taken," "Torino" and even "The Uninvited" and "Hotel for Dogs."
And I guess this weekend's "Paul Blart" gross answers my (rhetorical) question yesterday about whether it could surpass "Bedtime Stories"....

I'd get Lex an eighth if it would get him to nod off earlier in the night.

Wow yeah, can we get a weekend chart up?? The most impressive overall weekend in ages. Torino, Slumdog, Taken and Blart down less than 20%!? Uninvited down less than 40%??

naughty christian

I should be careful. I don't want Lex to lose his Kellog's sponsorship;]

The more and more it looks like Watchmen is going to kill it's opening weekend. Please do not be surprised by the power of Malin Ackerman's HOTNESS!

IO - I'd like to second Malin Ackerman's hotness in that Silk Spectre II getup. Word.

And whether it hits at the BO, WATCHMEN looks like it could be the comic-book movie to end all comic book movies, which is fitting considering the source material. I didn't care for 300, but Snyder's DAWN OF THE DEAD remake was outstanding. James Gunn's script had a lot to do with it too, but I'm convinced Snyder "gets" WATCHMEN. He has the goods, even though the marketing department deeming him a "visionary" in the trailers is kind of annoying.

My schedule request for the 6th of March off has already been approved down at the plant. Can't wait.

Sorry for the attempted hijack. And I know this is nothing new that hasn't been said before...

Go on with the borophyll...

WATCHMEN = worst cast EVER FUCKING ASSEMBLED for a major blockbuster type motion picture.

Fortunately the movie's actorproof and will obviously be huge, so this is probably a nonissue, but a while back I was asked by an acquaintance who's NOT a regular moviegoer that age-old question: "So, who's in it?"

Naming and describing each actor took like five minutes and a fucking pie chart, and at the end they'd never heard of one fucking person in the movie except for MAAAAAAAYBE a vague idea of who Billy Crudup was. The rest, they not only had no clue, but had never heard of a single movie they'd been in.

Making Patrick Wilson THE LEAST FAMOUS "MOVIE STAR" working today.

In ANY other industry or business in the world, would you keep making CEO-level money if you weren't producing results?

Why waste money of expensive actors if your movie is "actorproof".

"WATCHMEN = worst cast EVER FUCKING ASSEMBLED for a major blockbuster type motion picture."

For those not as familiar with LexG's universe as we, a short primer:

An unknown actor is an actor that SUCKS.

An unknown actress, but one who's barely legal and gives Lex a hard-on, is AWESOME.

End of class. In many ways.

Maybe the biggest problem with casting well-known actors as costumed superheroes is that we're so used to seeing them in a more realistic context. It would be like if a co-worker showed up in a Superman suit one day (Halloween excepted). It just looks weird. This is why Chris Reeve was great as Superman -- almost none of us knew him in any other context. Maguire and Downey had the advantage of having their faces completely covered most of the time they were in costume.

Re Snyder as a visionary -- isn't the use of that word as a compliment a fairly recent development, etymologically speaking? I believe it traditionally denotes a sort of impractical dreamer, but now it always seems to refer to some supposedly forward-thinking, insightful genius.

Tell me about it. I saw a trailer for "9" which trumpeted "visionary director" Shawn Acker. WHO?? I had to IMDB the guy when I got home. His resume consists of three animated shorts and some VFX work on LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING. And this makes him a visionary? Kee-rist.

Have you seen his shorts? The short of 9 is very very good indeed.

Lex: remember this name, sir. MALIN ACKERMAN. If you want to spew about someone. Spew over someone like her. Do not believe me? Use the google image search. If she's not your new favourite in a month. We are bring in LEXG3009! The new LEXG3009 is the pinnacle of modern Indian engineering.

He comes complete with tweleve cases of Matty Ice, an Ipod full of 90s hit compilations, and a haircut direct from Matthew Perry's early days! That's right! This LEX HAS GOT IT ALL!

Watch as he uses his new catchphrase "AWESOMENESSAGE!", and has it spread like wildfire across Australia! Watch as he renounces Jessica Alba for hotter chicks without babies like Malin Ackerman and Amy Adams. Watch as he appears in a DP video with Jeff McMahon. Who he claims to be his new buddy!

You will also get great midnight ramblings such as:

"If I did not shave my taint. I WOULD NEVER KNOW HOW AWESOMENESSAGE MY SCROTE IS!"

"I accept VAG payments in Chinese, Taiwaness, and North Korean!"

"Oh jesus tity fucking christ! I just ruined my expensive sofa with my happy juice! Damn happy juice! That's the last time I buy this from 7/11!"

AND MUCH MUCH MORE!

Less caps! Less drinking! ALL LEX!

LEXG3009! He's the LEX only really smart INDIANS COULD BUILD!

HAHAHAHA!

Have no fear, IO, I saw her in that HILARIOUS Heartbreak Kid remake and practically needed a fucking ShamWow.

But she's no Alba. Or K-Stew.

Not by a LONGSHOT.

(But that Matthew Perry haircut line was particularly choice.)

Now what the hell is MATTY ICE?

Reading Lex and IO commiserate is so Gollum.
Or is that Two-Face?

Kam: no, I haven't. But my beef isn't with him; it's with the rush to judgment. A label like "visionary" must be earned, not slapped on you by some stooge in the trailer department.

Christian: I am convinced you are Jeff. So what would that make the two of you? Doucheface? HA! :D!

Hasn't the word "douche" or "douchebag" been put on one of those overused words or phrases list? Half the geeks in America would be silent were it so. And IO's posts would be cut in half.

I've never been able to understand why the words "douche" and "douchebag" should be considered insults. To me, I'm enormously grateful for douches and douchebags. Anything that makes cunnilingus even more enjoyable should be valued. It's a bit like when Lenny Bruce questioned why the word "cocksucker" should be an insult, because having your cock sucked is... well, nice. I mean, I've always appreciated it when someone sucks my cock. And I've always said thank you afterwards.

Oh my...

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