Although a certain spider was faster, Shrek isn’t a slow one at that. In 10 days the sequel raced past the $200 million mark. Still at number one with $73.1 for this week.
The current biggest worldwide opener, comes in second. The Day After Tomorrow scares some $70 million positive cashflow.
Third spot is for Troy, another big drop, to just $11.5 million in its third week.
With any world endangering disaster movie, it’s easy to make a comparison to either Deep Impact or Armageddon. This one would be somewhere inbetween. There is no story to speak of. But somehow, after seeing this movie, it’s actually not that necessary. The events follow up each other at such speed, smalltalk is the only dialogue possible. The rest is filled with extraordinary special effects, displayed with subtle techniques where you do get the feeling this is the biggest disaster movie ever made. To fill the other gaps, acting is very acceptable, and other cinematic tricks are well-oiled together to make a storyless movie as enjoyable as possible.7.
Green ogres must look cuter the older they get, because Shrek 2 open with monstrous numbers. $104.3 million, with some other record breaking numbers as well. Second was Troy, with $23.8 million, only slightly better than Van Helsing in the same time frame.
Van Helsing clings on number 3 with another $10.1 million. Mean Girls still means business in its fourth week with $6.9 million on number 4. Man on Fire isn’t extinguished either, on number 5 with $3.5 million.
A tragedy of epic proportion, literally and illiterally. No doubt the $180 million was well spent, and luckily, they didn’t forget to pay the screenwriters as well. Wolfgang Petersen manages to show us the things that matter. The taglines (For honor – For victory – For love – For destiny – For passion – For Troy) were not made up (unlike most movies). It’s all there, blending together into a massive movie. The first strike very early in the movie will drop your jaw, and it grips you all the way to the end. The bloodiness is definitely there, but so are the subtleties, the dialogue that gives insight to the two hero characters. Bar the slight obviousness of typecasting, the acting is intense, helping you immerse into the story much quicker.
However entertaining, in the end, be it Homer’s insight so long ago (The Iliad was written somewhere 8 or 9 hundred years B.C.), or Wolfgang’s effort to show it to the world again, the message is clear: in war there are only losers.8.
Starting off with a slow introductory pace, it’s nice to see the story takes time to explore the characters. In this case though, it’s not too deep. Throwing in a bit of drama before starting the thriller sequence is another good thing to build on. When things start getting out of hand, at no time does it really feel totally out of control, though. Along with some average acting, and a screenplay that’s not too tricky, it able to be mildly entertaining.7-.
Troy opened big, but not epic, with $45.6 million. Opening lower than Van Helsing, this movie might have bigger legs (better reviews, bigger names in the cast list) to draw in more cash, comparable for instance to Gladiator. This weeks number one has 2 things against it, the R rating, and the 2’40” running time. A big drop for the second week of Van Helsing, with $20.1 million, an expected drop of 61%. Mean Girls also drops one place, at 3 with $10.1 million. Another new release is Breakin’ All the Rules, starring Jamie Foxx at number 4 with $5.3 million. Denzel hangs on to the top 5 with Man on Fire, earning $5.25 million.
Usually, with a Stephen King concept, things get really weird. Somehow, boundaries were placed (don’t know if screenplay writer David Koepp or Stephen King himself put them there), and with that, extrapolating the maximum weirdness, the outcome is highly guessable. Even if you’re not that bright, the hints are dead giveaways. Halfway through the movie it was already clear, leaving no more room for any more thrills. With a tiny bit of humor, it’s still really half a movie you’re going to see.6.
Van Helsing kicks ass in the box office, at number 1 with $54.2 million, which is lower than Stephen Sommer’s The Mummy Returns ($68.1 million), but higher than The Mummy ($43 million). Number 2 is for Lindsay Lohan starrer Mean Girls. Number 3 is for Denzel’s Man of Fire. New York Minute, starring the Olsen twins, opens lowly at numer 4, with only $6.2 million. Number 5 is for 13 Going 30, with 5.5 million.
Another reminder that big budgets don’t make good movies. Having director Stephen Sommers touch 3 Mummy movies showed that already, and this continues throughout his career (anybody still having nightmares from Deep Rising ? Or did you block it from your memory ?) With only 2 more movies beating the budget (excluding advertisement, Spiderman 2 and Troy) on this current summer movie slate, one can only hope the worst is over. The movie is piece by piece designed for budget eating scenes and surroundings. Stitched together with chillingly cold dialogues and the occasional stiff punchline, the story is hard to find, as is the acting. All the over-acting villains sport a bad accent, and to make the tediousness complete, so does Kate Beckinsale. The score and special effects are overwhelmingly chaotic, but even then, even the insomniacs will doze off if they don’t pay attention (or the occasional self-pinch will help too).6.
Man beaten by girl, this week’s number one is for Mean Girls with $25 million, replacing Man of Fire, on number 2 with $15 million. Jennifer Garner starrer 13 Going on 30 manage to take in another $10 million.
3 new releases end up lower than expected. Fourth place is for Laws of Attraction, starring Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore, with only $7 million. Number 5 is for Godsend, this horrory pic is good for $6.9 million. 6th place is for Envy, starring comedy grand masters Ben Stiller and Jack Black, with $6.1 million.
And that marks the end of this season. Up next week is the start of the summer blockbuster season.
With 2 comedians headlining the 2 main character, you’d expect some pretty heavy laugh salvos being fired at you. Unsatisfactory not so. Of course, there’s a laugh here and there, but not the ones you can really tell other people about, and not confuse it with a scene from another movie. The story, besides being cliche, doesn’t have to much steam to make it move forward comfortably. The main characters are flimsy at most. While a relationship usually never feels that natural at the start of any movie, this one doesn’t even flourish at the end. If your brains has a variable switch, set it on low. If not, you’d better avoid it.6.
Still authentically Quentin Tarantino, but somehow different than Volume 1. No more excessive bloodshedding in neatly choreagraphed fight spectacles. More back story. More intense drama. All that drenched with superweird humor. While still a simple story, it delivers quite a punch. Still right on the spot is the musical score, while sometimes overbearing, effectively heightens the bare emotions and transferring the drama with full force to the viewer.8.
Denzel’s star power is still growing, opening nr. 1 with Man of Fire. With $23 million his best opening yet (just $0.5 million more than Training Day). Second place was for Jennifer Garner starrer 13 Going on 30, with $22 million.
A steep decline for nr. 3, Kill Bill Vol. 2 takes in another $10.4 million. An even steeper decline is The Punisher with $6.1 million on number 4.
It had potential to be a special indepth psychological thriller. It had the birth of a serial killer, and later on an FBI profiler (a very cliche character played by Angelina Jolie). My own profiling session however, showed the characters were quite shallow, and the story nothing more than a few copies & pastes from other movies. From the beginning you can feel the movie losing integrity for the sake of the pace of the story. On top of that, I already knew who did it and the plan of the killer before the movie had a good start. Inconsistencies throughout the movie finally killed my hopes of this movie reaching a satisfying end. The suspense of waiting for a thriller reaching the quality of Se7en is probably the most exciting part for the next couple of years.6-.
Revenge at the box office, with Kill Bill: Vol 2 taking the lead, earning a vengeful $25.6 million, up from the original’s $22.1 million. Runner-up is Marvel Comic’s The Punisher, with $14 million. Johnson Family Vacation stays happily at number 3 with $6.4 million. Hellboy drops to number 4 with Hellboy $5.7 million in its third weekend.