Knowing - What Did You Think?

Now that you've seen it, what did you think? Director Alex Proyas is best known and loved for two films from his past - The Crow and Dark City. When he directed I, Robot in 2004, many people thought he finally hit the bottom of the barrel, but now he's back, five years later, with another edgy new dark thriller. So is this Proyas' triumphant return? Did Nic Cage make a comeback, too? Was this as formulaic and as boring as most people seemed it would be? Or was Knowing as edgy and thrilling as Proyas' two prior cult classics? Sound off below, leave your thoughts, and let us know what you thought of Knowing!

To fuel the fire, I'd say Proyas is definitely back. In fact, he was never gone, as I even enjoyed I, Robot. But as for Knowing, despite Nic Cage's marginal acting, it really was one hell of a unique cinematic experience.

Movie Review: The Incredible Hulk [2008]

Contributed by Sarhan "Tsar" Rashid

Considering the fact that it took WB almost 10 years to get a Batman reboot into cinema halls it's amazing what a swift job Marvel has done with bringing the Hulk back on screens. The question on everyones mind is if the movie will be worth the trouble? I hope to help answer that question with my review of The Incredible Hulk later today.

Look out for that!

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - What Did You Think?!

Paramount Pictures and Lucasfilm's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is now playing in theaters worldwide and we've created this spot for you to tell us and your fellow moviegoers what you thought about the Steven Spielberg-directed film, starring Harrison Ford, Shia LaBeouf, Cate Blanchett, Ray Winstone, Karen Allen, John Hurt and Jim Broadbent.

You can use the comments below to write your mini-review for the film. As with all the comments here at ComingSoon.net, keep it clean, on-topic, and friendly.

What did you think?!

'Semi-Pro' dribbles to #1

Despite making a lay-up for the top box office spot Friday, New Line’s “Semi-Pro” scored low among Will Ferrell’s laffers, grossing $5.4 million in 3,121 theaters.

Receiving no assist from its R rating, the first Friday for “Semi-Pro” is just shy of the $6.2 million generated by 2003’s “Old School,” also rated R. Typically Ferrell’s top comedies, thanks to their PG-13 rating, have posted respectable first days, i.e. 2004’s “Anchorman,” ($10.8 million), 2006’s “Talladega Nights” ($18.0 million) and last spring’s “Blades of Glory” ($12.4 million).

Despite its weak Friday, “Semi-Pro” is expected to keep its game up for the No. 1 spot throughout this weekend.

Posting a 53% drop from a week ago, Sony’s “Vantage Point” lost sight of some Friday auds, but that didn’t stop the thriller from clipping second place with $3.7 million from 3,150 locales and a running eight-day tally of $31.7 million.

Ranking third Friday was another Sony film, the Natalie Portman-Scarlett Johansson period pic “The Other Boleyn Girl,” luring in $2.8 million on its first day from 1,166 theaters.

Fox-Regency’s “Jumper” landed in fourth with $2.2 million from 3,128, a 42% tumble from a week ago. In the midst of its third frame, the Doug Liman helmed-actioner has generated $61.4 million in domestic coin.

Par’s “The Spiderwick Chronicles” weaved its way into fifth place, spinning up $1.9 million from 3,654, a 36% downtick and a domestic B.O. of $48.2 million.

The weekend’s other new entry, Summit’s Christina Ricci-James McAvoy topliner “Penelope” fell outside of the day’s top five, grossing $1.1 million last off 1,196. However, the PG-rated pic’s business could uptick today among younger girls.

Coming off its Oscar best picture win, Miramax’s “No Country for Old Men” saw an 82% hike in its Friday B.O. thanks to its theatrical expansion from 1,101 to 2,037. The Coen Brothers’ film nabbed $1 million, raising its domestic cume to $66.6 million.

Among frosh specialty fare yesterday, Paulo Morelli’s “City of Men” scored $35,000 from 75 hardtops. The Brazilian gangsta film is a companion piece to Fernando Meirelles’ epic “City of God” which was nominated for four 2003 Oscars.

Source: Variety

'Golden Compass' is big in Japan

TOKYO -- "The Golden Compass" has had a golden bow at the Japanese B.O.

Skedded for a 700-screen release by Gaga on Saturday, the pic scooped Y270 million ($2.5 million) in sneak screenings last Saturday and Sunday.

The audience demo was wider than expected, mixing families, teens of both sexes and fans in their 50s and 60s.

Gaga has not set a B.O. target, but the pic's take was 159% better than sneaks for "Night at the Museum," which scooped $33.4 million in Japan. A reasonable B.O. projection would be $51 million -- not bad for a pic that finished in the U.S. with $70 million.

let us hope thats as muchs as they nee to do the sequel.

Source: variety

Vantage Takes the advantage

The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend. Be sure to check back on Tuesday for final figures based on actual box office.

With a strong ensemble cast including Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox from "Lost" and Forrest Whitaker, Sony's political thriller Vantage Point carved itself a definitive lead at the box office this weekend, grossing an estimated $24 million for first place in 3,149 theaters, averaging roughly $7,600 per site.

Second place was a horse race between the top two movies over Presidents' Day weekend,
Doug Liman's sci-fi action flick Jumper (20th Century Fox) and Paramount Pictures' fantasy The Spiderwick Chronicles, both which grossed roughly $12.6 million in their second weekends. Despite its 54% drop from last weekend, Jumper is being given a slight advantage, having grossed $56.2 million in 11 days, compared to the $43.6 million for the children's fantasy film.

Touchstone Pictures' latest dance hit Step Up 2 the Streets added another $9.8 million this weekend, a drop of 48% from its opening weekend, with a total box office of $41.4 million.

Fifth and sixth place were filled by two romantic comedies with the action-adventure
Fool's Gold (Warner Bros.), starring Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson, amassing another $6.3 million to bring its total to $52.4 million. In its second weekend, the Universal romantic comedy Definitely, Maybe, starring Ryan Reynolds, grossed $5.2 million, down 47% from its opening weekend.

Michel Gondry's Be Kind Rewind (New Line), starring Jack Black and Mos Def, tied for seventh place with the indie comedy Juno (Fox Searchlight). Both movies grossed approximately $4.1 million for the weekend, with "Rewind" averaging roughly $5,000 in just 808 theaters. Enjoying its tenth weekend in the top 10 after opening in limited release back in early December, Juno has grossed nearly $130 million to date, more than all of the other Best Picture nominees have grossed. Last night, the film, lead actress Ellen Page and screenwriter Diablo Cody won Independent Spirit Awards on its way to tonight's awards ceremony, and the movie was down just 11% from the holiday weekend.

Also in preparation for its big Oscar night, Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood (Paramount Vantage), up for eight nominations including Daniel Day-Lewis for Best Actor, saw a ground swell of viewers, reentering the Top 10 with an estimated $2.6 million bringing its total to $35 million. It's Anderson's highest-grossing film in his eleven year career. Its main Oscar competition, Joel & Ethan Coen's No Country for Old Men, also saw a bump back into the Top 12 with $2.3 million, bringing its own total to $64 million.

Opening outside the Top 12, Larry the Cable Guy's third solo comedy Witless Protection (Lionsgate) did worse than last year's Delta Farce, making just $2.2 million in 1,333 theaters, but coming out ahead of the indie comedy Charlie Bartlett (MGM), starring Anton Yelchin and Robert Downey Jr., which ended up with just $1.8 million in 1,222 theaters.

In limited release, the Oscar nominated Austrian film The Counterfeiters (Sony Classics) took in $100 thousand in its opening weekend in 8 theaters, an average of $12.5 thousand per venue.

Based on estimates, the gross of the Top 10 movies was down 11% from the same weekend last year when Ghost Rider reigned in its second weekend over Jim Carrey's thriller The Number 23 and Fox's comedy Reno 911!: Miami.

Click here for the full box office estimates of the top 12 films

Jumper Review

"A guy can teleport."

That's the basic plot of Doug Liman's alternately dry and ridiculous new action thriller Jumper, and the film takes great pains to NOT introduce anything that might distract from that one paltry premise: One really uninteresting guy can teleport wherever he wants (including bank vaults, beaches, and the head of the Egyptian Sphinx) -- up until the day that a ferocious (but also ridiculous) villain shows up to ruin all the teleport-y fun. And then we get a half-decent chase, a bunch of hyper-kinetically edited action, and a sequel teaser. For a 90-minute flick that focuses on a guy who moves real quick, it sure doesn't move all that slick.

Frankly, I expect a little more creativity from Doug Liman at this point, who seems to be coasting on fumes after delivering rock-solid action flicks like The Bourne Identity and Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Jumper feels like it was made with a test-screening audience in mind, and those who consider themselves fans of the source material -- a series of novels by Steven Gould -- will probably find themselves sorely disappointed in the movie version.

The screenplay (which was cobbled together by professional script surgeons Jim Uhls, David Goyer, and Simon Kinberg) feels like 11 or 12 isolated sequences that were simply lifted from Gould's books, regardless of how well they actually mesh together into one cohesive movie. Once the heavy-handed voice-over narration subsides ... just give up. The movie stabs wildly at a small collection of plot points, finds none to its liking, and then just keeps on chugging towards the end credits.

Yes, this one rather unlikable guy, who spends his days stealing money and bounding across the planet, is our hero. In a movie that's actually interested in its characters, we could definitely go somewhere with this guy. In a quick-fix and entirely disposable action flick like this one, he remains rather unlikable for the whole movie. So as we deal with disapproving parents, nefarious villains, endless (faceless) henchmen, and a bunch of flashy-yet-hollow action bits, we're left pondering WHY we should even care.

As the gratingly pedestrian story unfolds, our sorta-hero must tangle with a fellow "jumper" (Jamie Bell) who doesn't like company, an army of "paladin" henchmen who wield these silver electrical jump-ropes, and more absent-minded plot-holes than any finished film should have. Even at its best moments (when Liman cuts loose with a multi-location chase, for example) the movie feels like a collection of skimpy ideas and missed opportunities. Even at 90-some minutes, the flick begins to feel like a chore, saddled as it is with an editorial approach set firmly on "Play Act One, and then just hit random."

Lead "jumper" Hayden Christensen, apparently in no real hurry to convince his detractors that he's actually a good actor, delivers an action-flick leading man who's about as engaging and appealing as a car wash attendant. Love interest Rachel Bilson certainly knows how to scrunch her face into very cute expressions, but she delivers lines like they're printed just off-camera on giant neon cue cards. Watching Raych and Hayden throw puppy-eyes at each other is kinda sweet and all ... for about 1.3 seconds. This is supposed to be an action flick, after all. And really, guys, make up your mind: If you're shooting for a 90-minute action film, jettison all that tiresome character development (that you do nothing with, anyway) and just get to the meat of the matter.

You'd expect that, at the very least, Samuel L. Jackson as a villain would add some sort of flavor, color or intensity to the proceedings, but all the actor really contributes is his typical bombast -- and several looks at one egregiously silly wig. (Sam's head looks like the easter bunny!) Michael Rooker and Diane Lane bounce around the periphery, mainly in aimless sequences that tell me that the Jumper DVD will have one hell of a large "deleted scenes" bin.

Slick-looking and stylishly shot, but hollow to the core and (ugh) actually really dull when there's not some action on the screen, Jumper is a (hopefully) rare misfire from one of Hollywood's more consistent popcorn-flick-makers. It's got just enough charm, story, and action to fill a half-decent trailer -- and the trailer doesn't set you back nine bucks.



Source: Cinematical