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Beverly Hills Chihuahua is tops at the box-office

“Beverly Hills Chihuahua” was barking up the right tree with movie-goers, who put the Disney comedy at No. 1 for the weekend with a $29 million debut, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Featuring a talking Chihuahua with Drew Barrymore’s voice, the family flick about a pampered pooch lost in Mexico led a surge of new movies that boosted Hollywood business, which generally has slumped the last two months.

The top-12 movies hauled in $95.4 million, up 42 percent from the same weekend a year ago, when “The Game Plan” was No. 1 with $16.6 million.

The previous weekend’s No. 1 movie, the DreamWorks-Paramount thriller “Eagle Eye,” slipped to second-place with $17.7 million, raising its total to $54.6 million.

Hollywood’s other new wide releases had fair to poor premieres.

Sony’s “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist,” starring Michael Cera and Kat Dennings as teens who fall for each other on a wild New York City night, had a sturdy No. 3 debut of $12 million.

The Warner Bros. Western “Appaloosa,” which had played two weeks in a handful of theaters, expanded solidly to come in at No. 5 with $5 million. “Appaloosa” was directed by Ed Harris, who stars with Viggo Mortensen and Renee Zellweger.

Vivendi Entertainment’s “An American Carol,” a satire of Hollywood’s liberal politics from director David Zucker (“Airplane!”), debuted at No. 9 with $3.8 million. The movie stars Kevin Farley as a Michael Moore-type filmmaker aiming to abolish the Fourth of July holiday.

Universal’s “Flash of Genius,” starring Greg Kinnear as the engineer who invented intermittent windshield wipers then spent decades suing automakers over the innovation, opened weakly with $2.3 million, finishing at No. 11.

Two other movies, the comedy “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People” and the apocalyptic “Blindness,” both bombed.

Miramax’s “Blindness,” featuring Julianne Moore, Danny Glover and Mark Ruffalo in a nightmare tale about a plague of sightlessness, took in just $2 million, averaging an anemic $1,185 in 1,690 theaters.

“How to Lose Friends and Alienate People,” released by MGM and starring Kirsten Dunst and Simon Pegg in a celebrity satire set at a slick magazine, did $1.4 million in 1,750 theaters for a feeble $801 average.

By comparison, “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” averaged $9,020 in 3,215 theaters; “Nick and Norah” pulled in $4,957 in 2,421 locations; “Appaloosa” did $4,799 in 1,045 cinemas; “An American Carol” took in $2,325 in 1,639 sites; and “Flash of Genius” did $2,120 in 1,098 theaters.

In narrower release, Bill Maher’s documentary “Religulous” opened well, placing No. 10 with $3.5 million in 502 theaters, averaging $6,972. The Lionsgate release follows Maher as he travels the world to mock one of his favorite topics, organized religion.

Anne Hathaway’s “Rachel Getting Married” had a strong start in limited release, taking in $302,934 in nine theaters for a whopping $33,659 average. The Sony Pictures Classics drama stars Hathaway as an addict who leaves rehab to come home for her sister’s wedding and forces her family to relive the anguish of past tragedy.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. “Beverly Hills Chihuahua,” $29 million.

2. “Eagle Eye,” $17.7 million.

3. “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist,” $12 million.

4. “Nights in Rodanthe,” $7.4 million.

5. “Appaloosa,” $5 million.

6. “Lakeview Terrace,” $4.5 million.

7. “Burn After Reading,” $4.08 million.

8. “Fireproof,” $4.07 million.

9. “An American Carol,” $3.8 million.

10. Religulous, $3.5 million.

Rodrigo Garcia lines up ‘Mother and Child’ with ‘the three amigos’

Rodrigo Garcia is ready to tango with his three amigos for the ensemble drama “Mother and Child.”

Alfonso Cuaron, Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu will produce the writer-director’s next feature for their Focus Features International-funded outfit cha cha cha.

The $4.5 million project, produced with Mockingbird Pictures president Julie Lynn, follows the intersecting lives of a 50-year-old woman, the daughter she gave up for adoption 35 years ago and a black woman looking to adopt a baby.

Set to begin a Los Angeles shoot in late December or January, the film continues Garcia’s examination of female characters found in his dramas “Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her” and “Nine Lives.”

“Alejandro read a nearly finished draft and challenged me to finish it,” said Garcia, who has been working on the script for more than seven years. “It all takes place in the present, but it was difficult to write because it explores 30 years in the lives of these three women.” Casting for the leads is under way.

Garcia credits his cha cha cha friends — one of whom, Inarritu, executive produced “Lives” — for getting the film off the ground at a time when “hard-nosed realistic dramas” are having a tough time getting financed. “If it wasn’t for those three guys, I’m sure I’d still be shopping it around with extremely little luck,” he said.

Garcia is about to make his big-studio debut at Sony with this month’s supernatural thriller “Passengers,” starring Anne Hathaway, produced by Lynn with Mandate Pictures and Persistent Entertainment. Cha cha cha’s first film out of the gate will be Carlos Cuaron‘s soccer drama “Rudo y Cursi,” starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Rated: R for sexual content, nudity and strong language.
Release Date: 2008-04-18
Starring: Jason Segel
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Country:USA
Official Website: http://www.forgettingsarahmarshall.com/

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Paul Newman Dead at 83

Newman died Friday only a few months after pictures surfaced of him looking frail and thin as he was wheeled from the Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City, where he was said to be receiving treatment for lung cancer.

During Newman’s rise to fame in the 1950s, cigarette smoking was used in the movies and on television to convey masculinity, sophistication and sex appeal.

Late in his career, Newman — who at one time was considered a heavy smoker — famously quipped, “It’s absolutely amazing that I survived all the booze and smoking and the cars and the career.”

It’s been reported that he quit smoking some 30 years ago.

The Lucky Ones

Rated: R for language and some sexual content.
Release Date: 2008-09-26
Starring: Neil Burger, Dirk Wittenborn
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Country: USA
Official Website: http://www.theluckyonesmovie.com/

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I can’t believe I’m going to say this, and probably never will again, but this is one of those rare times that I found a soldier film to be ‘delightfully lovable’. Yes, I said it. It is due in part to an endearing story concocted by director/writer Neil Burger and a great group of actors who turned on the charm.

In ‘The Lucky Ones’, three wounded soldiers come back from the war cherishing to return to a life of normalcy, or at least what is left of it. With flight delays threatening to hinder their plans, they rent a car to St. Louis where they hope the city’s airport will have a batch of planes ready to depart to Las Vegas. The road trip back home is where the true journey begins for these three servicemen.

Tim Robbins is a wonderful every-man’s actor. He manages to capture the reality of daily living in all his characters. Michael Peña continues to deliver solid performances demonstrating a range of emotion in his roles, even if they are confined in lawmen and soldier characters. I mustn’t dismiss though, the unexpectedly comical, yet solemn performance of Rachel McAdams, who in my mind, was the star of the film. I would dare say, this is an Oscar nominated performance. She is not known for her comic timing, nor delivering amusing lines with deadpan expressions, but McAdams not only proved she is actually funny, she showed she can carry and steal a movie from under the nose of a proven veteran actor such as Robbins.

If you are feeling lucky and in the mood for a small, independent, but very good film in the tradition of Little Miss Sunshine, do yourself a favor and see ‘The Lucky Ones’.

Eagle Eye

Rated: PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence, and for language.
Release Date: 2008-09-26
Starring: John Glenn, Travis Wright, Hillary Seitz, Dan McDermott
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Country: USA
Official Website: http://www.eagleeyemovie.com/

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Eagle Eye has all the trademark elements of a box office hit: it is a a political thriller, it has action, car chases, explosions, sarcastic one liners, good acting and – the film begins with a great action sequence and ends on the same note. For a Friday night out with your friends, what else do you need?

Shia LeBouf has been Hollywood’s “It” boy for a year now and he has been delivering on the hype. With blockbuster after blockbuster, he is positioning himself as the A list actor of the future. Eagle Eye is his new Tom Clancyesque’ project about a kid who has been summoned to kill the president by a god-like computer owned by the government.

Even though the film is surprisingly good – Billy Bob Thornton deserves plenty of credit for that – expect the ridiculous and the absurd, a la Diehard. Most of those films were fun, in a guilty pleasure sort of way.

Nevertheless, some thought did go into the premise. Director D.J Caruso (Disturbia, Two for the Money) wants us to be aware of several key messages – to what extent does technology control our lives, the invasion of privacy by the government and the ineptitude of our political commanders.

Since most of us know how this is eerily similar to real life, the film serves as an inside look at how things would play out if someone had the “cojones” to do something about it. Eagle Eye is pure high-octane fun and exactly what going to the movies is all about.

Leatherheads

Rated: PG-13 for some strong language.
Release Date: 2008-04-04
Starring: Duncan Brantley, Rick Reilly
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Country:USA
Official Website: http://www.leatherheadsmovie.com/

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Top 5 scenes from Julianne Moore’s "Blindness"

Here are the top 5 scenes from ‘Blindness’, directed by brazilian director Fernando Mereilles. The film stars Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Alice Braga, Danny Glover and Gael Garcia Bernal.

In essence, the story is a psychological thriller about the fragility of mankind. Adapted from Nobel Laureate José Saramago’s masterwork, the film revolves around a plague of blindness devastates a city, a small group of the afflicted band together to triumphantly overcome the horrific conditions of their imposed quarantine.

This week we’ll bring you the film review and our recommendation on whether you should see it or not. If you can’t wait any longer and you want to see video from the premiere, interviews with the cast, stills from the film and more, click here.