Kimputer's Weblog

A Rear Window remake for the teen/young adults demographic, using rising star Shia LaBeouf as the male protagonist, while hottie Sara Roemer (maybe also upcoming star) takes care of the female side.
As contrived as the story might be, and too coincidental plot points fly off the screen, it’s still fun altogether. Mostly good acting, and frivolous dialogue keep the pace going. Kudos for director D.J. Caruso for excellent build-up and structure, mixing fun and thrills in an optimal ratio.8-.

Superbad put a stop to the rush hour, winning the battle for the top with $33 million. Judd Apatow (Knocked Up) produced low budget comedy is beyond breaking even in its first week, a job nicely accomplished for this R rated teen comedy.
This means the Jackie Chan/Chris Tucker duo has to deal with slower traffic at two, Rush Hour 3 drops some 57%, and drives in $21.4 million, and a $87.7 cume. It’s still hard to say if it will recupe its $140 million budget domestically.
Two of the best summer earners are at 3 and 4, resp. The Bourne Ultimatum with $19.9 million and The Simpsons Movie with $6.8 million, both dropping a nice 40% and some $165 million cume, but Bourne one week fresher.
At 5 is a new entry, but The Invasion didn’t really have any impact. Invasion of the Body Snatchers remake scares up an almost non-existent $5.9 million (on a modest $50 million budget).

Well, this is going to be an easy review. There’s no need to talk about character development, continuity (with the TV series), visual excellence (still TV quality) or anything else, for that matter. It’s just a big TV episode, with the quality around the same level.
For me, as a movie, it’s no surprise this falls a bit short. Sure, for TV, I pick it up now and then for one or 2 episodes, and that’s it. There’s nothing really pulling me back. So as a movie, being on the same level as TV, it’s quite a shame. You will get the same non-consequential story telling (the worst type, hence the reason it’s not really attracting to me), juvenile-ish humor, depending on the viewer’s delight for Homer’s stupidity (making it both predictable and repetitive).
So, it’s easy to say, it gets boring now and then, between the hit and miss potshot jokes. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to see this, not even on DVD. Just wait for the TV airing, where it originally should belong.5½.

This is the high energy part of the Grindhouse double feature. Broken apart outside the States, we have to watch it seperately, and deal with the loss of fake trailers shot by guest directors (no need to wait for the whole credits to roll out, it’s not there). While that’s saddening news we did get one before the movie, but since we’re paying twice as much as the Americans, I’d expect all of them to be included. With that expectation out of the way, Planet Terror does terrorise you. It’s definitely a higher quality gore slasher, with the usual buckets of blood and other slimy human tissue, but also some off the charts drama and humor. It’s a nice combo, and Rodriguez makes the most of his screen time (a great contrast to his counterpart Tarantino, who wasted about 90% of his screen time). As said, for its genre it’s quite good, but as a movie itself, the enjoyment is slightly barred by the lack of indepth story telling.7+.

Hyper cop duo Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker push away the undercover one-man show this week. Rush Hour 3 didn’t suffer any traffic jams at the top, with a total income of $50.2 million. While respectable, it’s about 72% short of Rush Hour 2’s opening.
Bourne Ultimatum has to do with the runner-up spot, this week with $33.7 million, an expected 51% drop, but still a more than satisfying $132 million cume.
At the third place, The Simpsons take $11.1 million home, now crossing the $150 million total mark. At number 4 is another new release, fantasy story Stardust doesn’t magically sway people to the theatre, a somewhat disappointing $9 million for this mid-high budget movie.
Rounding out the top 5 is Underdog, staying true to its title it only gains another $6.4 million.

Sequel to Bruce Almighty, then headlined by Jim Carrey, we basically have the same crew behind it. Tom Shadyac is behind the camera again, but script is now under sole control of Steve Oedekerk (having 2 colleagues in Bruce).
Do we get a rehash of the first story ? Only a bit (the discovery part, of course). After that, we go a slightly different path, but it seems obvious with only one writer, sometimes he can go into a wrong direction and keep going, with no one to alert you you’re going off-road.
And that’s actually where it’s heading. The story is simplistic and predictable, and can be fully described in just one line. There’s nothing extra built around it. The jokes are also not inventive enough, nor does the drama hit any emotional strings.
Does that mean this most expensive comedy ever made is totally lost on you ? Well, there are a handful of simple jokes to laugh at, and Wanda Sykes is a riot, as always. The visual effects are also there, with a pace quick enough not to bore you. But in contrast, it’s still a bit of a disappointment.6½.

Jason Bourne comes out of hiding to make a box office splash, recording the best numbers for an August opening yet. The Bourne Ultimatum hands off a not so secretly $70.2 million, riding on a wave of superb critical reviews (85 points on metacritic).
Meanwhile, the Simpsons 2D cartoon takes a steep dive, with a 65% drop coming in at $25.6 million. Still it easily passed the $100 million mark, the cume now at $128.5 million in its second week.
A new entry at number 3, Disney’s Underdog doesn’t impress much, with just $12 million. Rounding out the top 5 is I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry with $10.5 million and Hairspray with $9.3 million.

This is the first Comedy Central movie to be released wide, and that’s probably a good choice. Two years ago, Strangers with Candy had a limited release, and the strange nature of that comedy isn’t for anyone. This movie though, is quite accessible, combining unpredictable sketches with goofy characters. Problem though is, the most good and unpredictable stuff, was already in the trailer. In the movie itself, there’s basically nothing left to surprise us with, hence leaving the big laughs out of reach. Besides the skit-like nature, there is a tiny story wrapped around it, but it’s not much. So here’s just a grade for not being boring.6.

Writer/director Brad Bird missed out a bit with his first Pixar Studios release, The Incredibles, 3 years ago. Sure it was entertaining, but lacked the warmth of his first animation The Iron Giant.
His second Pixar/Disney team-up, is a whole other story. Back in with great character design (also missing, or at least, too predictable in The Incredibles), and originality. A bit of unpredictability goes a long way, but the direction has also improved by a great margin. Great point-of-view shots keeps it interesting, with many sizzling hot chase scenes for excitement and superb atmospheric lighting amplifying the romantic Parisian feeling.
Mixing vermin rats with exotic food is an utterly bad and disgusting idea, but how this movie is presented, it’s as exquisite as the imagined prepared dishes on-screen.8½.

The Simpsons Movie might be the most lucrative deal this summer, being a simple 2D cartoon with only primary colors (still a budget of about $65 million though), but earning it all right back in the first week of release. With an opening weekend of $74 million, you can buy enough donuts and beer for Homer to last for a few decades.
The somewhat weak comedy I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, still manages a second place in its second week, bringing in $19.1 million. Following the 3 and 4 place is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Hairspray, both dropping one spot with resp. $17.7 million and 15.9 million.
Rounding out the top 5 is the second new release of this week, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart starrer No Reservations. With $11.7 million, they just might have benefitted from calling ahead anyway (though they’ll probably recover from their $28 million budget before the movie ends its run).

With a less than stellar start in 2005, my expectations weren’t that high for this sequel. So things I didn’t expect, like character development and a smart story, weren’t there to be again.
What was there, was another fast-paced story, filled with funny bits and acceptable special effects extravaganza. And without boredom, there’s no time to wonder about the simplicity of the whole, and you just keep sticking pop-corn in your mouth. In that sense, it’s another success, still not fantastic, but pretty good.7½.

The trailer will show this movie isn’t one of the best in its league, and so the movie follows the same trend. Just basically a simple story filled with the most easy jokes around, from mediocre vulgar slang, to predictable gay-tinted dialogue. Direction isn’t the best I’ve seen either, rushing through scenes, fitting as many weak jokes in the roughly 100 minutes as possible. The preachy nature, and the misplaced sentiment during the end finishes it off, enough to sigh and just forget about the whole ordeal ever existed (especially an extremely unfunny Rob Schneider, but then again, Steve Buscemi was pretty funny).4-.

While the new book is breaking the fastest selling record, the boy wizard loses his box office magic juice a little bit faster than his rival hardware friends. This means a new comedy entry takes over the top spot already. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, starring Adam Sandler and Kevin James as two straight people pretending to be gay lovers, hauls in $34.8 million, just a few points lower than Sandler previous hits (for instance, Click opened at $40 million).
This leaves Harry Potter at two, dropping some 58% (compared to just 47% for Transformers last week), but still has enough power left to conjure some $32 million (and a total racing past the $200 million mark).
Hairspray, the musical starring John Travolta as a big fat momma, scores $27.8 million.
Dropping to number 4, but still on a destructive path is Transformers, with $20.5 million and a $263 million total. Rounding out the top 5 is Ratatouille with $11 million and a total of $165 million, coming a whole lot short of Brad Bird’s previous achievement with The Incredibles ($200+ at the same week of release) despite extremely favorable reviews.

Frank Oz is a bit of everything. He’s the voice of Yoda, but also from many Muppets (including puppeteering them himself). He’s a director too, with memorable comedies in the late eighties, till the more mediocre stuff in the late nineties (In & Out, Bowfinger).
This time, he’s directing a movie a bit in the British style. The title of this movie is perfectly descriptive, and hence, there’s no need to predict what is going to happen. That’s one side of the story, as there are many many things you will see coming before it happens, but still laugh out loud about it. The other hand is the unpredictability of it all, and all of it happens only at one location (where the funeral is being held). While slow at first, the escelation of the little problems run rampage after less than 20 minutes, and keeps on going till the end. I guess Frank Oz is definitely back in the game, if he keeps making comedies like he’s never done before.8.

Harry Potter does his magic again at the box office, breaking a few records along the way. With $77.1 million take for the weekend, the total already stands at $139.7 million since its Wednesday wide opening.
Transformers did their record breaking last week, and they’re still on course for a fabulous ride, this week with $37 million and a grand total of $224 million.
Leftovers round out the top 5, respectively Ratatouille with $18 million, Live Free or Die Hard with $11.3 million (the total just passed $100 million mark) and License to Wed with $7.3 milion.