The Week: Most Recent Hollywood Blockbusters

Men in Black 3: Surprisingly touching?

The Week — Fri, 25 May 2012 17:07:00 -0400

After reports of expensive reshoots and script rewrites, expectations were low for Men in Black 3, which reunites Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as alien-fighting agents for the first time in a decade. Think again, says A.O Scott at The New York Times. In the franchise's third outing, Agent J (Smith) travels back in time to 1969 to stop an evil alien from killing Agent K (Jones) — and finds the younger but no less deadpan K (Josh Brolin channeling Jones). The movie's true surprise, says Scott, is that it is "touching as well as hectic and whimsical." Agrees Lisa Schwarzbaum at Entertainment...

Life after Twilight: Can Kristen Stewart be taken seriously as an actress?

The Week — Thu, 24 May 2012 09:45:00 -0400

Bella who? Twilight star Kristen Stewart is in Cannes promoting her new film, director Walter Salles' adaptation of Jack Kerouac's Beat classic On the Road, and she seems downright eager to escape "the silly straitjacket of servile moping she has to perform" as Twilight's Bella Swan, says James Rocchi at IndieWire. In On the Road, Stewart trades Bella's "chaste charmlessness" for the "bed-hopping, nudity, and overall sexual licentiousness" of Marylou, the 16-year-old bride of Dean Moriarty (Garrett Hedlund). And this isn't Stewart's only departure from the Twilight mold. In June, she stars as a...

Why Battleship flopped: 5 theories

The Week — Mon, 21 May 2012 14:42:00 -0400

Battleship has capsized. Despite its bloated $300 million production and marketing budget, gung-ho advertising campaign, and predictions for a massive Transformers-like opening weekend, the effects-heavy naval warfare blockbuster starring Taylor Kitsch debuted to just $25.3 million (especially odd since it's already grossed $226 million overseas). It's the worst domestic opening ever for a movie budgeted at over $200 million. Here, five theories why Battleship sank at the box office:

1. The Avengers is unstoppable
Like Johnny Depp's Dark Shadows, which bombed last weekend, Battleship was...

What to Expect When You're Expecting: Which cast members escape unscathed?

The Week — Fri, 18 May 2012 11:59:00 -0400

What to Expect When You're Expecting, a film based on the self-help bestseller, is exactly what many critics expected: A subpar romantic comedy. As with similarly A-list ensemble rom-coms such as He's Just That Not Into You or Valentine's Day, critics are largely panning the new film. It's superficial, "spun from stale scenarios," packed with "predictable laughs," and short on emotional impact, says Sheri Linden at The Hollywood Reporter. The sprawling cast, playing couples expecting their first child, includes Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Dennis Quaid, Chris Rock, Elizabeth Banks, Anna Kendrick...

Is there anything good about Battleship?

The Week — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:35:00 -0400

Will critics sink Battleship? Though they've dropped an arsenal of damning reviews on the film, the $200 million behemoth seems destined for a Transformers-sized opening at the box office, says The Hollywood Reporter. Based none-too-tightly on the Hasbro board game of the same name, Battleship finds Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgaard, Liam Neeson, and Rihanna engaging in naval warfare against a fleet of grumpy space aliens. Explosions dutifully follow. (Watch a trailer below.) Does the widely excoriated film, which begins midnight screenings Thursday, have any redeemable qualities? Here,...

The Dictator: Has Sacha Baron Cohen's shtick gotten old?

The Week — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:35:00 -0400

The Dictator introduces moviegoers to the latest outlandish character from Sacha Baron Cohen: Admiral General Aladeen, a despot from the fictional North African nation of Wadiya who takes refuge in New York City after an assassination attempt. (Watch a trailer below.) Following Borat and Bruno, this is Cohen's third attempt to wrings laughs from a foreign character's ignorance of Western culture and societal norms. Is The Dictator, which hits theaters Wednesday, as fresh and despicably delicious as those first two hits?

Cohen's shtick has gotten old: The Dictator settles it, says Rene Rodriguez...

Rock of Ages first listen: Can Tom Cruise actually sing?

The Week — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:10:00 -0400

The audio: Tom Cruise is, apparently, "hot sticky sweet." But can he sing? Ever since the Mission: Impossible star was cast in the upcoming musical Rock of Ages, based on the jukebox Broadway show of the same name, critics wondered whether he had the vocal chops to pull off the role. In the film, out June 15, Cruise plays Stacee Jaxx, a bare-chested, chaps-wearing rocker in the mold of Poison's Bret Michaels, who is tasked with belting out rock and roll classics like "Paradise City" and "Wanted Dead or Alive." The first audio clip of the actor singing the Def Leppard track "Pour Some Sugar On Me...

Dark Shadows: Did Tim Burton's campy tone switcharoo pay off?

The Week — Fri, 11 May 2012 13:57:00 -0400

Dark Shadows marks the eighth collaboration between Johnny Depp and Tim Burton — and perhaps also the strangest. The film is an adaptation of the cult classic TV soap opera from the late '60s, a show as famous for its uber-serious gothic tone as for its laughable production values. The first trailer for Burton's adaptation threw fans for a loop when it revealed that the director ditched the soap's melodrama in favor of cheeky comedic camp. (Watch the video below.) Depp plays Barnabas, an 18th century vampire who emerges from his coffin in 1972, turning the film into a kooky fish-out-of-water...

The Avengers' record-breaking opening weekend: By the numbers

The Week — Mon, 07 May 2012 11:42:00 -0400

It took a prickly crew of superheroes to topple the record for the biggest domestic box-office opening of all-time. Marvel's The Avengers, uniting Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Hulk, and more, raked in $200.3 million in North America, clobbering the previous opening weekend record set by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 last year. A look at how that historic haul breaks down:

$200.3 million
The Avengers' opening weekend box-office total in North America, a new record

$169.2 million
The previous record, set by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

25.6 million
Tickets...

Summer's 12 most buzzed-about movies: A slideshow

The Week — Mon, 07 May 2012 10:16:00 -0400

Iron Man, Captain America and their merry band of superheroes kapowed a record-breaking $200 million at the box office this weekend, kicking off the summer movie season with a lucrative bang. But, of course, The Avengers is not the only movie Hollywood will be hyping during the dog days. Here's a look at the most buzzed-about movies hitting theaters this summer:

The Avengers: For comic-nerds only?

The Week — Thu, 03 May 2012 14:10:00 -0400

Midnight screenings for The Avengers are just hours away, and the reviews for Marvel's superhero family reunion blockbuster are in — and overwhelmingly positive. The film boasts an impressive 92 percent approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with critics calling it the "best Marvel movie yet." (Watch a trailer below.) Co-written and directed by Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), The Avengers brings together seven of Marvel's most iconic and bankable superheroes — Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man, Chris Evans' Captain America, and Mark Ruffalo's The Hulk...

How big will The Avengers be?

The Week — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:57:00 -0400

The Avengers doesn't hit theaters stateside until Friday, but, given that it's already yielded a record-breaking $178.4 million in its international release's first weekend, pundits are predicting a similarly colossal U.S. opening for the flick, which unites Marvel superheroes Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Hulk, and Black Widow for one special-effects-heavy adventure. In the past 12 months, box office records have already fallen to franchise flicks such as The Hunger Games and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2, and the summer season is packed with major blockbuster releases...

The Dark Knight Rises' awesomely complex viral marketing campaign

The Week — Tue, 01 May 2012 13:45:00 -0400

A new trailer for the surefire summer blockbuster The Dark Knight Rises was released Monday night — and Batman's superfans worked hard to get it. (Watch the video below.) As part of a buzz-driving marketing campaign for the final installment in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, Warner Brothers announced the trailer on the film's website, telling fans that to see it, they had to help the Gotham City Police Department locate Batman by tracking down hundreds of pieces of graffiti from around the world. For every piece of graffiti that a fan found and tagged on social media, Warner Brothers...

How Think Like a Man dethroned The Hunger Games: 5 theories

The Week — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 11:06:00 -0400

After an impressive four-week run on top of the box office — a winning streak that was bound to end eventually — The Hunger Games has finally been defeated. And surprisingly, the new champ is Think Like a Man, an ensemble romantic comedy based on a self-help book by comedian Steve Harvey. The film grossed a higher-than-expected $33 million over the weekend, even though it boasts no A-list stars, no special effects, and received decidedly mixed reviews. (The Hunger Games, which grossed $14.5 million, came in third, behind the Nicholas Sparks weepy The Lucky One, which grossed...

The Hunger Games sequel loses its director: A major blow?

The Week — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 11:51:00 -0400

Gary Ross did not survive The Hunger Games. The director, who earned borderline raves for his faithful film adaptation of Suzanne Collins' hit novel, is abandoning the franchise. "I have decided not to direct Catching Fire," the second installment of the series, Ross said in a statement. "I simply don't have the time I need to write and prep the movie I would have wanted to make because of the fixed and tight production schedule." This leaves Catching Fire — in which Katniss Everdeen deals with fallout after defying a corrupt dystopian government during a lethal reality-TV competition &mdash...

Should school libraries ban The Hunger Games?

The Week — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:45:00 -0400

The film adaptation of The Hunger Games just roared past the $300 million mark at the box office, but the massively popular books that launched the craze haven't been forgotten. Collectively, Suzanne Collins' hit trilogy ranks third on the just-released list of U.S. library books that drew the most complaints last year, according to the American Library Association. The Hunger Games focuses on a 16-year-old girl from a dystopian country who is drafted to fight other teenagers to the death in a government-sponsored reality TV competition. In 2010, The Hunger Games ranked No. 5 on the list, but with...