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A feat not often happening anymore, Pirates hangs on the top spot for its third week, with a more than healthy $35 million (cume at $321.7). It also managed to beat SW:III, reaching the $300 million mark in 16 days, down from Revenge of the Sith’s 17 days.
At the runner-up spot is Monster House, the second movie to use performance capturing (after The Polar Express), with $23 million.
Third spot is for M. Night Shyamalan’s Lady in the Water. With $18.2 million, it’s a new low since his break-out hit The Sixth Sense, with industry watch dogs even considering it a flop.
You, Me and Dupree drops to number 4 with $12.8 million. Rounding out the top 5 is Little Man, proving to have shorter legs than Dupree’s, with $11 million. Little Man opened slightly better last week, but cume is now lower (resp. $40.6 million vs. $45.3 million).

Pirates stay on top of the box office this week, taking in another $62.1 million, with a total heading for $300+ million mark next week or so (currently at $258 million). Competition is not a laughing matter, though, with Little Man taking in $21.7 million, and You, Me and Dupree taking in a slightly lower $21.3 million.
At 4, Supez is taking another dive, taking $11.6 million, and a total of $163.6 million. Kryptonite will probably make it a tough race for the $200 million mark.
And rounding out the top 5 is The Devil Wears Prada, with $10.5 million and a cume of $83.6 million. While that is half of Supez total, The Devil can be considered a huge succes as it is only 1/8 of Supez budget.

Another long title for another long movie, but is it worth breaking the box office record for ? Comparing it to the first part, I’d say nay. The first being new and fresh, you really have to come up with something groundbreaking to make it stand out. This sequel clearly doesn’t. Moving away from character exploration, instead of elevating it to character development, it drops the stone so far it’s non-character specific story telling. The story itself is simple, though they try to make it appear more complicated than it is.
This all means the movie has to have it from the action and the jokes, and there are quite a few of those (including a few innovative action sequences). And all that makes it worthy of an average grade.7.

By far the best psychological thriller this year. Not only is the story surprisingly good and subtle, it’s also able to grip you from the very start till the very end. Basically a masterful duel of words, Patrick Wilson had already proven himself years ago with the Angels in America miniseries (while still keeping a low profile ever since), it’s Ellen Page who will take most of the credits with her breakthrough performance (even though her resume is longer than Wilson’s, plus she’s in a Hollywood blockbuster, X-Men The Last Stand).
Direction seems to lean a bit too much towards close-ups, but later on you’ll feel the effect of it. With other simple but effective tricks to segue from scene to scene, former music video director David Slade proves to be insightful for a beginner.
If you ever wonder if only two people at one location can keep your full attention for over a hundred minutes, this movie is definitely what you should try.7½.

The box office is under attack by pirates this week. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, despite mixed reviews, not only break a first day release record ($55.5 million, beating SWIII’s $50 millon), it also breaks the 3-day opening record ($132 million, beating Spidey’s $115 million).
One victim of this, is Superman Returns, appearing to lose his powers of flight, dropping hard (56%) with just $21.9 million. Rounding out the top 5 are last week’s left-overs, all dropping one spot, resp. The Devil Wears Prada with $15.6 million, Click with $12 million and Cars with $10.3.

Simple outline, simple script, but executed with a reasonable amount of fun and solid pace. While the mission is basically the same throughout the movie, and the action takes place in a limited environment, the script is written with such a variety you won’t notice it all. Characters are distinctively designed, and dialogue clicks well. This is all glued together by an experienced team, and hence delivers high quality cinematography (rendering with nice focus/zoom/fade effects). While there have been more and more slip-ups when it comes to 3D animation (not just Dreamworks, but also Pixar/Disney, Fox, and the others), this one is definitely not one of those.7½.

Superman Returns with a bang, flying his way straight to the top spot, with $52.1 million (with the 5 day cume since its release at $84.2 million). Strong as he is, compared to last year’s War of the Worlds, it seems the Stephen Spielberg/Tom Cruise combo is more steely, with an opening of $77.1 million, and a 5 day cume of $112.7 million.
At number two, counter-programmed for the ladies, is The Devil Wears Prada, opening with a respectable $27 million.
Click has to do with the third place, dropping some 52%, with $19.4 million. Other left-overs round out the top 5, Cars with $14 million and Nacho Libre with $6.1 million.

Paul Greengrass takes on a daring project, and finishes it off in a matter-of-fact-ly manner. It plays out pretty much as a live action chronicled documentary, while of course you’ll have to keep in mind some bits of the plane scenes are subject to conjecture. Controversy aside, I think he won’t bump heads with anyone, as it’s mostly documented events with the least bit of bias involved.
This is the first time in my life I’m seeing a movie based on true events which happened in my lifetime, and it didn’t provide me with any new information. Emotional resonance comes from the fact it’s only been 5 years ago, and no real resolve has come to pass. It’s for sure this movie isn’t for anyeone, know what you’re getting yourself into.7+.

Finally, an unpretentious lighthearted funny horror flick. Haven’t seeing those in years, it feels like a soft breeze. No Gremlins fun though, it needs a bit of time to get things going, and there’s no real intelligent storytelling around, but at least it’s midly entertaining (whereas most of the “serious” ones will have your toes cringing within minutes). For that alone, it’s probably why there will only be two names under the horror year-in review section at the end of the year (sharing honors with Saw II).6½.

Adam Sandler topliner Click zaps its way to the first place, opening with $40 million. Co-star Kate Beckinsale’s starpower notwithstanding, it’s Adam Sandler who’s proven to be as bankable as ever for the past decade, landing $40+ million in the opening week with most of his movies.
Runner up spot is for Cars, with $22.5 million. With just a 33% drop, it proves to run a very energy efficient engine. At number 3, Nacho Libre has to suffer a bigger drop, with 57% it takes in $12.1 million.
Urban actioner Waist Deep opens with $9.4 million at number 4. And rounding out the top 5 is The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, where the braking mechanism seems to be working quite well, making up for a 66% drop. Tough with $9.2 million this week, and a cume of $42.6 million, it will probably at least be close to break even at the end of the run.

The Hills Have Eyes: Well, the hills may or may not have eyes, but a story it certainly does not have, making this quite the brainless slasher flick.4.
The Squid and the Whale: Very reasonable indie drama, if you forgive the fact that is not really a well-rounded story.7-.

I think this is the first Disney/Pixar flick that I actually don’t really like. But of course, there’s always a first time (for Dreamworks Animation it was Shark Tale).
Several reasons pop up. First, with cars, you kinda limit the distinctiveness of the characters. But look isn’t all that’s at fault here. It actually wouldn’t be such a big thing if they didn’t give the characters such a hollow, one dimensional and non-meaningful content. Henceforth, the resulting relationships are painful to watch, and later on, the false sentiment will feel pretentious. Layers and layers of cliche storytelling will follow, with predictibility finishing first. All that makes the superbly fluid polygon-hiding animation with splashy reflective technology on top of the already super texturing and lighting effects pretty much useless. Too bad the script couldn’t get a complete overhaul at the local garage.5.

Cars finished the finish first for another week, with $31.2 million. While admirable, with a 48% drop, it’s steeper than what happened with Finding Nemo or The Incredibles in their second week.
Second up is Jack Black starrer, Nacho Libre. With $27.5 million, this will be his best opening comedy (Upping his $19.6 premiere of School of Rock from 2003) yet.
Another opener at 3, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift races together some $24.1 million. Short of any big name star, it’s nowhere near the $50.5 opening of 2 Fast 2 Furious from 2003.
At 4, WB is counterprogramming for the females, The Lake House opens with $13.7 million. Rounding out the top 5 is left-over The Break-Up, with $9.5 in its third week (closing in on the $100 million cume).

One of the most uneventful rom-com this year. There’s not one point in this movie that’s new or untold. On top of that, the phases don’t move along at all, with the story stuck already after 10 minutes. While the acting performances are okay, the script fails them big time, with nothing really to laugh or cry about. Just stick with the trailer, I assure you, you’ve seen enough.5-.

Richard Donner must be really getting old. After the excellent Lethal Weapon series I thought he suicided with Timeline (I would’ve, if that piece of $h1at was mine), but he’s going old school with this one again. Entertaining as the oldies were, there weren’t many brain twisters amongst those. And that’s where 16 Blocks will fit in. It’s like sliced and diced cheese blocks ready for consumption.
So, to average things out, the acting performances are pretty standard (Bruce Willis’ performances after the M. Night Shyamalan projects never really impressed me), with only Mos Def having a slightly different role than we’re used to. Story is predictable, and jokes only intermittent. Also, Donner’s direction is mostly uneventful. Nothing special, slightly entertaining, and most important, it’s not boring. If you already know what you’re getting yourself into, it’s not bad at all.7+.