‘The Hobbit’ remains #1!

This week ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ remained at number one with $36.7 million dollars. Although it’s still holding on to a big chunk of the box office money, it had a significant drop and it’s behind what ‘Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’ earned. Peter Jackson might be hoping the holidays will bring in more profit for his film.

Tom Cruise’s action film, ‘Jack Reacher’ took the second spot with $15.6 million dollars. The story and his character come from a book by Lee Child, which describes his protagonist as a very tall blond man, and this might be putting some people off. Despite that Cruise might have enough pull and talent to keep this picture afloat.

‘This is 40’ Judd Apathow’s latest effort is at number three with $12 million dollars. His comedies have lost a lot of their charm and have become very formulaic and this one is no different, which means it won’t be in the box office for long.

The Top 10 in the Box Office are:

1. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – $36.7 mil

2. Jack Reacher – $15.6 mil

3. This is 40 – $12 mil

4. Rise of the Guardians – $5.9 mil

5. Lincoln – $5.6 mil

6. The Guilt Trip – $5.4 mil

7. Monsters, Inc. 3D – $5 mil

8. Skyfall – $4.7 mil

9. Life of Pi – $3.8 mil

10. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 – $2.6 mil

‘The Hobbit’ is #1 at the box office!

Peter Jackson’s ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ the first part of the prequel trilogy, took over the first spot with $84.8 million dollars. This makes the film the best debut for the month of December, which is good news for the studio. It still remains to be seen how much more it will earn or drop during the upcoming last weeks of the year, to see if it can match up to its predecessors LOTR numbers. The movie has received mainly good praise from critics and audiences alike, which is something that’s bound to help it.

‘Rise of the Guardians’ held on to second place with $7.4 million dollars, which gives it just a total of $71.4 million since its opening. This film has not brought in nearly as much money as the studio expected it to.

‘Lincoln’ jumped one spot up reclaiming number three with $7.2 million dollars. The Golden Globe nominations might have helped the film regain interest by those that have not seen it yet; since surely Spielberg is bound to win a couple of awards for this one.

The Top 10 in the Box Office are:

1. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – $84.8 mil

2. Rise of the Guardians – $7.4 mil

3. Lincoln – $7.2 mil

4. Skyfall – $7 mil

5. Life of Pi – $5.4 mil

6. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn- Part 2 – $5.2 mil

7. Wreck-It Ralph – $3.3 mil

8. Playing for Keeps – $3.2 mil

9. Red Dawn – $2.4 mil

10. Silver Linings Playbook – $2 mil

Ice Age: Continental Drift

‘Ice Age: Continental Drift’ is 94 minutes of fun for all; this might be the best out of the last two sequels. It’s hard for three main characters to entertain over so many movies, perhaps the reason why it works here is because they take a back seat at points and let the new characters tell the story. This movie combines drama with comedy very well, so that even in the most dramatic moments there’s an upside to it all. Also, the 3D works well throughout the movie, but it works best in the first part where there are a lot of objects popping out of the screen.

In this chapter thanks to Scat’s (Chris Wedge) endless pursuit of the acorn, he triggers a continental drift. As Manny (Ray Romano) is learning to deal with his teenage daughter Peaches (Keke Palmer), Sid (John Leguizamo) is reunited with his Granny (Wanda Sykes) and Diego (Denis Leary) ferociously helps them both. The gang all learn a lesson after they get separated from part of their pack and they face a rare group of pirates that use an iceberg as a ship. Their captain, Captain Gutt (Peter Dinklage) rules the oceans and with the help of his best crew members Shira (Jennifer Lopez) and Squint (Aziz Ansari) he will fight anyone that gets in their way.  

My favorite new character is Sid’s Granny, everything she does and says it’s adorably cranky and funny; she’s one of those old people that don’t hold back. Also, the tiny hyraxs (chipmunk like animals) are awesome with their ‘Braveheart’ skit. One of the most substantial new characters is Louis (Josh Gad), a molehog who is Peaches’ best friend.

The new group of villains is an interesting mix but Captain Gutt is the only that’s worth mentioning, his yellow teeth really shine with the 3D making him all the more disgusting and scary. One thing I could have lived without is the pirate jig they use to introduce Gutt. Manny still has a lot of screen time and is certainly the leader, but Sid and Diego really are secondary characters. There are also appearances by Nicki Minaj and Drake, which obviously were just added to the film to draw in a bigger audience.

What makes this movie more entertaining than the 3rd part is the fact that there are two simultaneous stories developing, the action shots of one complements the heart of the other. The introduction of new characters that lead the story gives it a more refreshing look. Of course Scrat is basically a third part of the story that always makes it all the more interesting as he’s the catalyst to everything that occurs.

If you are a fan of The Simpsons make sure to arrive early as there’s a short 3D film ‘The Longest Daycare’ with Maggie. This movie is better rounded than the last one of the series and there’s a lot more humor that will keep you and your children entertained. There are a few lessons the film tries to teach as an undertone, but they don’t over take the movie, this is more fun, action and laughter than anything else.

Guillermo Arriaga to unveil new horror short at Sundance

Acclaimed Mexican screenwriter, director and producer Guillermo Arriaga’s next project is a short horror film called ‘Broken Night’. The interesting thing about this short is that it has been shot entirely with a Nikon D800, which the movie’s website describes it as giving “the highest possible image quality.”  Not to get too technical, but worth mentioning, “the camera has a 36 megapixel FX- format CMOS sensor; spectacularly low noise and high dynamic range.” The camera is so versatile that the page states “it’s as much at home on a movie set as on a landscape shoot or in a photo studio.” Pay attention film students, your film might just have gotten cheaper to shoot.

‘Broken Night,’ is about a young mother and her four-year-old daughter who are driving across desolated hills on a joyful trip that suddenly becomes a nightmare when they get into a car accident. Arriaga spoke on a video about how it is based on a car accident he had a couple of years ago. He continues on to say that he became involved in the project because he wants to play with horror, which he describes as an unexpected event such as a car crash.

He worked on this short horror film with Janusz Kamiński, one of the preeminent cinematographers in Hollywood who won the Oscar for ‘Schindler’s List’ and ‘Saving Private Ryan’. He was also nominated for ‘Amistad’, ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’ and ‘War Horse,’ also beautiful looking movies. 

Arriaga got Hollywood’s attention with ‘Amores Perros’ a story that is certainly known as one of Mexican cinema’s best films. Soon after he was asked to write ’21 Grams’ a crime thriller, which started Naomi Watts, Benicio del Toro and Sean Penn; the aforementioned actors won an Oscar for their performances. He went on to write ‘Babel’ another acclaimed film, which was nominated for an Oscar and starred Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Gael García Bernal. To bring my point home, he wrote and directed ‘The Burning Plain’ with Charlize Theron, Jennifer Lawrence and José María Yazpik and went on to win an award at the Venice Film Festival. 

This man has an impressive resume and is certainly one of the best storytellers of our time, whether he’s putting his stories down on paper or getting behind the camera.

It’s been announced that ‘Broken Night’ will be part of Sundance’s 2013 Short Film program, which will take place from Jan 17-27 and it’s under the “U.S. Narrative Short films” category. Out of the 65 films in this list, this is definitely a film many are keeping their eyes on.

For more info check out the movie website http://brokennightmovie.com

‘Skyfall’ reclaims #1 spot

The box office was shaken up this week when ‘Skyfall’ reclaimed the number one spot, after having lost it for three weeks with $11 million dollars. The movie has been out for five weeks and now has become Sony’s highest earning film. This is a big deal for the Bond franchise all around.

The animated film ‘Rise of the Guardians’ also made a jump this week taking the second spot with $10.5 million dollars. Perhaps its theme and Santa Claus hero character have made it more appealing with the holidays nearing. Surprisingly though this film has not been a success for Dreamworks Animation.

After three weeks at number one ‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2’ fell to number three with $9.2 million dollars. Either way this last chapter of the saga is the highest earning out of all of them, holding on to $751.1 million dollars world wide it probably will reach the $800 million mark before its run is over.

The Top 10 in the Box Office are:

1. Skyfall – $11 mil

2. Rise of the Guardians – $10.5 mil

3. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 – $9.2 mil

4. Lincoln – $9.1 mil

5. Life of Pi – $8.3 mil

6. Playing for Keeps – $6 mil

7. Wreck-It Ralph – $4.9 mil

8. Red Dawn – $4.3 mil

9. Flight – $3.1 mil

10. Killing Them Softly – $2.7 mil

The Dark Knight Rises

‘The Dark Knight Rises’ is by far the best action movie of summer 2012, while it does have some flows they are easily overseen. For those of you that have been waiting for the final chapter of the trilogy I suggest you do it right and watch it in IMAX, because it truly takes the film to an unbelievable level. Director Christopher Nolan really completed the task of the Batman trilogy on a high note, this was such a delicate project that could have easily gone wrong, but now that it is complete we can be happy to say that Nolan didn’t harm it but enhanced it. The beauty of the trilogy is that they complement each other, as some offer better things than others so there’s not really a point in comparing them; but I can say this one offers the most action out of the three.  

The story picks up eight years after the Dark Knight (Christian Bale) damaged his reputation in order to give the city of Gotham a more appropriate hero in his opinion. Bruce Wayne is urged to come out of retirement when Selina Kyle aka Catwoman (Anne Hathaway), a young police officer John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and entrepreneur Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard) show up at his doorstep. The final push come when him and Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) quickly realize that they merely put a lid on crime when Bane (Tom Hardy) the ultimate villain arrives to Gotham with catastrophic plans.     

Villain wise there’s no comparison to the Joker (Heath Ledger), he was such a well-rounded and unforgettable character that is hard for any of the new villains to match up to him. Nonetheless, Bane is a different type of character because what he may lack in wit he makes up for in strength, and his plans in large scale are what makes him the ultimate villain when at times even Batman doesn’t seem like a fair adversary. Hardy certainly became the monster behind the mask with his brute strength and cold heart, something he gave us a glimpse of in one of the best movies of 2011 ‘Warrior’. Hathaway is one of the best actresses in Hollywood because of her versatility and she proves that once more as Catwoman, she obviously dazzles in the cat suit but also gives depth to a character that we are not told much about, I won’t give much away about her performance except that she steals every scene she’s in, even some of the ones where Batman is present.

The best thing about ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ are all the surprises it delivers, it is so engaging that once it’s over you won’t feel like you spent almost 3 hours of your day in a dark movie theater. With all its up an downs it is a bit draining but quite fulfilling. Some scenes are painful to watch but the ones where there’s redemption and action truly make up for it. There are also some emotional moments that give the film a more rounded feeling. The new ride “The Bat” is quite awesome to see in action, as well as “the Batpod” showing off a couple of new tricks. The nicest thing about this film is that although Batman is the main character, and Bale was born to play the role as he shows endlessly time and time again it is not all about him. Some of the new characters such as Blake easily get our attention and that surely was done on purpose. Gordon-Levitt was the perfect choice for the role as he’s shown aptitude for these types of films like he did in ‘Inception’.

Although Bane is an excellent bad guy especially because of his look he is very hard to understand when he speaks, his speech is supposed to be sophisticated and intelligent and there were various angry comments about it when the prologue was shown last year; they went back to the studio to change it and it makes a huge difference but at times it’s still he’s hard to understand in a theater surround sound and all. Some scenes might disappointing the comic book fans, but honestly some of the changes help make the movie uplifting, relevant and even humorous. This is not a PG-13 type of movie like ‘The Avengers’ in every sense is more dark and needs every moment of comedic release it can get; this is definitely for a more adult audience. By Now Nolan has created his own world of Batman that can stand on its own, but here the complicated parts of the story come from the interaction between some of the new characters and the old ones as some seem forced, also some parts of Bain’s sinister plan get too convoluted. Finally, reality is forgotten at times which can be annoying but this is a movie after all.

Batman’s greatest appeal is that he’s a superhero without superpowers and that’s exactly what makes this last chapter the more appealing, because everyone that comes in to complement the story such as Catwoman, Bain and Blake are humans with different gadgets and abilities that cater to the audience. Nolan is a cinematic genius and he proves it once more by giving the viewers chills in some of the scenes, you get so invested in the story that there’s a connection with what happens in it; also because of the familiar landmarks shown that makes it the more real, although it takes away the whole “Gotham” myth which may bother some. To me this last part of the trilogy fulfilled all my expectations and the fact that a movie can keep you entertained for so long says a lot. Get ready to enjoy the most anticipated movie of the summer and the last chapter of a trilogy that many will cherish and already do.