BOX OFFICE ANALYSIS

1. Paranormal Activity $54M –  Thus far this franchise has kept its promise to scare us to death, and look how that’s paying off at the box office. The budget on this one was only $5 million and you can bet a fourth is on the way.

2. Real Steel $11.3M — With a total take of $67M in only three weeks it’s no blockbuster but still respectable.

3. Footloose $11M — After a disappointing opening, the remake held on and is now officially not an embarrassment.

4. The Three Musketeers $8.8M — As much as I love what Milla Jovovich and her director husband Paul W.S. Anderson have done with the fantastic “Resident Evil” series,  nothing about the concept of introducing “wire-fu” to this beloved story or the trailer itself made me want to see it for free on HBO, much less in a theatre.

5. Ides of March $4.9M — Clooney’s drama has yet to crack $30 million after three weeks.

9. The Thing $3.1M — The other eighties reboot released the same weekend as “Footloose” but unable to hang on.

MENDES WANTS AN OSCAR: NEW BOND TO BE PERFORMANCE PIECE, LIGHT ON ACTION

Cubby Broccoli, the originator of the Bond franchise, must be rolling over in his grave.

Rumours are growing that new British director Sam Mendes is planning to ditch a host of stunts and action scenes from his first Bond film.

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This year things were really looking up for the world’s most famous Latino husband and wife team. First, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony were invited to Barack Obama’s intimate Super Bowl Party, and then Jennifer joined Randy ‘Big Dawg’ Jackson as one of two new American Idol judges, the other of whom was Steven Tyler of Aerosmith.

In April Jennifer talked to People magazine about her beauty regimen and used the occasion to effusively gush that she is the “happiest” when she’s “home with husband Marc Anthony and their 3-year-old twins, Max and Emme.”

On the American Idol finale, Marc Anthony, who played Hector LaVoe, and JLo, who played Puchi in the movie “El Cantante” treated the public to a steamy exhibition of marital affection. Marc, accompanied by Shelia E, performed the vocals and music from the lively “Aguanile.” As an added attraction, Mrs. Anthony emerged in a fringed Dancing with the Stars outfit and proceeded to do a bootylicious salsa.

Just 90 days after Jennifer’s “happiest at home” interview and two months after she whispered what appeared to be a naughty remark in her husband’s ear on the stage of the Kodak Theatre, the pair announced their seven-year marriage is over.

Between the two of them, the Anthonys have managed to rack up five official marriages, six children, and a long list of ex-lovers. Jennifer was once married to restaurateur Ojani Noa, who’s presently shopping around a steamy “home video” starring a conjugally-preoccupied Lopez and Noa. Jenny’s split-second-long second marriage was to Chris Judd, her Love Don’t Cost a Thing backup dancer.

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If Hollywood supporters of President Spread-The-Wealth — specifically Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire – allegedly participated in alleged high-stakes poker games and allegedly won alleged money, did any of them report their alleged winnings to the IRS? Or, if they were concerned about the alleged illegality of these alleged high-stakes poker games, did they blindly donate the appropriate tax-the-rich portion to the treasury?

Greg Pollowitz at NRO:

Interesting. Maybe the next time Maguire is in D.C. for a photo-op with President Obama, he can explain to the president why he’s exempt from paying his fair share of taxes on the winnings — you know, to spread the wealth — or stop by the I.R.S. and drop off a check. 

Fox News reports on other potential legal problems:

Aside from Maguire, RadarOnline reported that entertainment industry power players such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon also tried their hand in the high-stakes game, and that the illicit enterprise was still taking place in the home of a top Hollywood producer.

The Los Angeles Police Department did not immediately respond to our request for comment regarding whether or not an investigation was pending, however it seems these big names could all be in big trouble should legal proceedings escalate.

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Radar Online:

Spider-Man star Tobey Maguire is among more than a dozen high-profile Hollywood celebrities being sued in connection with a mega-millions illegal gambling ring that ran high-stakes underground poker games, Star magazine is reporting exclusively.

Maguire, 35, won more than $300,000 from a Beverly Hills hedge fund manager who embezzled investor funds and orchestrated a Ponzi scheme in a desperate bid to pay off his monster debt to the star and others, it’s alleged.

An FBI investigation into Brad Ruderman, the CEO of Ruderman Capital Partners, uncovered how he lost $25 million of investor money in clandestine poker games held on a twice weekly basis in suites at the luxury Beverly Hills hotel, Four Seasons, and the Viper Room on Sunset Boulevard.

Tinsel town A-listers Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon also played in the no-limit Texas Hold ‘em games which had a buy-in of $100,000, multiple members of the ring told Star. DiCaprio, Affleck and Damon are not being sued.

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I’m too lazy to research it, so instead I’ll make an audacious unfounded proclamation: there has never been a one-two punch comeback like Steven Spielberg had in 1993.

After the misfire of “Always” and the colossal misfire of “Hook,” he returned to the director’s chair for “Jurassic Park” and “Schindler’s List,” two vastly different movies that demonstrate the different ways that a movie can inspire awe.

Even aside from Spielberg’s contributions, 1993 was a pretty solid year.

The Nominees:

“The Fugitive” – Easily the benchmark for big-screen adaptations of TV shows, featuring an Oscar winning supporting turn from Tommy Lee Jones.

“Schindler’s List” – This was not the sure-fire home-run it seems to be in retrospect. Spielberg turns artsy, but wisely remains high concept in doing so.

“The Piano” – As contrived a movie as you’re ever likely to see. Feel free to tell me where I’m wrong. I can’t be swayed.

“Remains of the Day” – Anthony Hopkins. A shotgun. Awesomeness ensues. Not really, but don’t tell me you wouldn’t go see that movie. Merchant-Ivory. Like Simpson-Bruckheimer. Only…boring.

“In the Name of the Father” – I feel like I should remember this movie more than I do. It’s about…jail, or something. Right?

What should have been nominated: (more…)

“The Company Men” tells the story of three businessmen who lose their jobs during an economic recession. As the story begins, the three men begin their day tying their neckties and planning another normal day in the office. However, all of their lives change dramatically when the company that employs them starts laying people off.

The three company men are Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck), Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones), and Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper), who all work for a corporation called GTX. Bobby is the first one to lose his job at the company. He walks into his office confident and enthusiastic and walks out embarrassed and unemployed. He leaves his office with a severance package, a box of belongings, and hope that he will find another job soon.

Gene is eventually laid off as well, despite the fact that he helped found GTX and used to be close friends with the company executive who is making all of the cuts. That executive is James Salinger (Craig T. Nelson), a man who is focused on the company’s bottom line. Gene had previously noted his displeasure with James’s earlier cutbacks, so it’s no surprise that he’s let go. Like Gene, Phil loses his position in the second round of cuts. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have the youth or the energy that Bobby has or the financial safety net that Gene has built up. Phil is overwhelmed by the bills that keep stacking up and knows that few companies want to hire a man of his age.    (more…)

Most film critics start off each year with a list of their top 10 movies for the year before, an act of timing that often masks the fact that the first week of a new year is used to dump on an unsuspecting public the absolute worst garbage produced. This year is no exception, with the godawful-looking “Season of the Witch” coming out on Friday.

And so it is that I’ve taken a look back over the more than 100 movies I’ve seen in 2010, picking my 10 personal favorites. I won’t presume to say that they’re objectively the 10 best — I would have had to see more than 250 films last year to give an honest assessment of that. And while I know “The Social Network” is great filmmaking and appears to be the unanimous favorite for this year’s Best Picture Oscar, I think it’s too easy to simply agree with the pack. So, instead, I’m offering up 10 flicks that moved me, made me laugh, or thrilled me the most. Many of them were underrated and little-seen, but they are well worth renting now.

1. “Cyrus.” This indie film came out in July and served up what appeared to be the most unusual love triangle ever: Marisa Tomei as a lonely single mother, John C. Reilly as the even lonelier guy who is saved by her love, and Jonah Hill as her grown-up son, Cyrus, who seems way too close to his mom. Thankfully, nothing is as it first appears, and this crazily funny and surprisingly touching film winds up being my favorite gem of the year. (more…)

Every year we regular folk are blessed with wisdom from Hollywood’s elite: how to vote, worship, eat, what to drive, raise our kids, who in corporate America is making too much money, and who we should love and who we should hate. All while stars gorge themselves on private jets, third homes, and shaped tofu holiday dinners at 5-star resorts.

While we at Big Hollywood are quick to point out that celebrities can use their soapbox to do some good, but each time they open their mouth to tell us how to behave, they run the risk of losing the magic of their screen persona.  So to help remind you who spoke up on behalf of “all people” this year, here is a rundown of the 10 most asshat celebrity comments of 2010:

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10.  When Whoopi Goldberg went on O’Reilly to discuss her reason for walking off The View (i.e. plug her new book Is It Just Me?: Or is it nuts out there?”) rather than defend her position about the world having a “Muslim problem,” the two also touched on the issue of whether a Jewish kid or a Muslim kid is more likely to be bullied in the US because of his religion.  O’Reilly had the facts but like most good, Hollywood liberals, Whoopi just said, “I don’t believe it.”

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9. Mel Gibson finds himself on the list for having a long history of racist rants, drunk or not. He gets an extra asshat mention for not checking for a wire when being honest in the face of a Russian. (more…)

Because we’re fans of  “Gone Baby Gone,” “The Town,” and feel he was unfairly destroyed by the gossip press (and the all kinds of awesome “Reindeer Games”), Big Hollywood has been good to Ben Affleck. So we’d like to respectfully request he leave The Stupid to his less-talented homeboy Matt Damon.

From our friends at NewsBusters:

On Tuesday’s Morning Edition, actor Ben Affleck was selling his new movie about corporate layoffs, Company Men, and anchorman Steve Inskeep carefully led the left-wing actor onto a soapbox to lecture about the immorality of American capitalism and financiers who do nothing but “move money back and forth”:

AFFLECK: The banks shouldn’t — people shouldn’t make such a giant profit off just moving money back and forth. And CEOs’ pay shouldn’t be 200 times the average worker. It used to be nine times.

NPR didn’t have the contrarian populist toughness to ask about whether that sentiment about overpayment counts for movie stars that make $250,000 for simply showing up at a casino grand opening.

But then, Affleck somehow this resentment of “giant profits” and overpaid CEOs is universal, and is shared by the Tea Party: (more…)

Joining the family business – whether following in a parent’s footsteps as a doctor, lawyer, plumber or tow-truck driver – is a frequent American tradition. But for dozens, perhaps hundreds, of men in the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown, the family business is robbing banks.

The FBI has singled out Charlestown and its one-square-mile radius as the area of America that has produced more bank robbers than any other place in the nation. And in his new movie “The Town,” Ben Affleck plays Doug MacRay, who leads a gang of thieves even as his conscience gnaws at him and makes him want to walk away from the thug life. Yet, it’s the only life he knows, since his father (played by Chris Cooper in a harrowing one-scene cameo) is rotting in prison on five life sentences for crossing the line by killing a guard on one of his own robberies.

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Seeing his father waste away and watching his best friend Jem (Jeremy Renner) walk ever closer to the edge of killing innocent victims himself, Affleck is working up the nerve to get out once and for all when Jem takes a young bank executive named Claire (Rebecca Hall) hostage amid the film’s opening heist. The gang later learns she lives smack in the middle of their neighborhood and fear that she might recognize them, so Doug volunteers to test a meeting with her and see if their masks were effective.

Seeing her shaken by the traumatic aftereffects of the robbery, and realizing she doesn’t know he was involved, Doug starts to hang out with her out of genuine interest and soon falls for her. Dreaming of finally having someone to run away with, Doug is ready to make his stand – until twist after twist after twist start to unfold and unravel his best intentions.

Coming within a month of the wildly entertaining “Takers” and the brutally realistic French double-feature gangster epic “Mesrine: Killer Instinct” and “Mesrine: Public Enemy Number One,” it’s easy to think that “The Town” is just another product of the Hollywood assembly line. Yet as good as the other three heist films are, “The Town” has far greater ambitions and, with Affleck at the helm as director and co-writer, it achieves every one of them. (more…)

The television ads comparing “The Town” to “Heat” and “The Departed” are more than a little misleading. Though it does have its moments, director/co-writer Ben Affleck’s sophomore effort is nowhere near as operatic as “Heat,” and unlike “The Departed,” this compelling and at times moving story about the price of misguided neighborhood loyalties doesn’t suck with the power of a thousand black holes. In fact, it doesn’t suck at all. After climbing his way out of tabloid hell with the superb “Gone Baby Gone,” Affleck’s done it again. “The Town” might lack the emotional staying power of his debut, but the artist formerly known as Bennifer has proven he was not the beneficiary of beginner’s luck and that he’s now an evolving filmmaker with a real talent worth keeping an eye on.  

Before the story begins, we’re informed that Charlestown, a working class, one-square mile Boston neighborhood, has produced more bank and armored car robbers than anywhere else in the country. Someone looking to help his hometown retain that dubious distinction is Doug MacRay (Affleck), the brains behind a four man crew whose job is to carefully work out the details necessary to make their daring heists a little less so. Unfortunately, the most unpredictable element on every job is Jem (Jeremy Renner), a volatile, violent and increasingly paranoid ex-con willing to kill or be killed in order to avoid a return to prison.

Jem’s paranoia leads to the crew’s first ever taking of a hostage. Claire, a young, attractive bank employee is blindfolded, taken for a ride and eventually released, but afterwards Jem can’t over the fact that she feels like a loose end that needs to be dealt with. Though he’s most certainly a hardcore thief willing to pull the trigger in a getaway situation, Doug doesn’t want to cross the line where innocent people get hurt and so he convinces Jem to let him keep an eye on Claire in order to find out if she really is a loose end.  And because most every movie needs a contrivance to make that movie work, though she has no idea who he is, Doug and Claire fall for one another, which obviously complicates things in ways that go well beyond Doug’s sense of brotherly loyalty to Jem, his best friend since childhood. (more…)

Five years ago, had anyone told me that one of the films I’d be most excited about in the far-off year of 2010 would be directed by and star Ben Affleck…  Well, you all get where this is leading.

But here we are and here you go:

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For some reason I’ve always been somewhat of an Ben Affleck fan, probably because he’s a decent screen presence and whenever appearing as himself on a talk show or documentary like “Project Greenlight,” he comes off as a genuinely decent guy with enough modesty left in him to still seem a little dazed by just how charmed of a life he leads. Self-awareness is as attractive a quality in an actor as it is rare. It also helps that he’s forever linked to Matt Damon, and by comparison anyone would look like a winner next to that classless, charmless, overrated piece of hardwood.

No one’s forgotten that Affleck’s relationship with Jennifer Lopez came thisclose to killing off his career and forever turning him into a Late Night punchline. And it wasn’t just the self-indulgent Gigli,” where the two obnoxious lovers tried to spin tabloid frenzy into box-office gold. Equally off-putting was the 24/7 Bennifer hype-machine that coincided with Affleck making one dreadful career choice after another (though “Paycheck” kinda rocks my B-movie loving world). (more…)

Inspired by Howard Zinn’s movement to hear the people’s version of history, Big Hollywood now asks the the people to challenge the powerful (Damon, WGA) and finally have their voices heard over the ongoing controversy involving the true authorship of the Oscar-winning film that launched Matt Damon to fame and fortune.

For years, rumors have swirled that Matt Damon and his co-writer Ben Affleck received more than just advice and “notes” from Kevin Smith and/or Oscar-winning screenwriter William Goldman, but did you know Damon grew up next door to Zinn – the same Zinn mentioned in the film?

So connect the “Good Will Hunting” dots and tell us how you like them apples…

UPDATE From Andrew Breitbart:

I liked ‘Gone Baby Gone’ a lot. Affleck comes across as a lovable Marxist. Same with this Chris Moore guy, who I interviewed at the UCLA ‘People Speak’ event. As far as I can tell a truly likable bloke. He was very forthright that he’s not the most informed guy in the world. He seemed like a smart-ish guy, though. Wish he’d think through these issues. I’d love to have a guy like him on the sane side. (more…)

Writer/director Mike Judge’s “Extract” is being promoted as: “The creator of OFFICE SPACE heads back to work,” but this isn’t exactly true in the purest “Office Space” sense. Our protagonist Joel (Jason Bateman) does spend time at the company he owns, a flavor extract plant, but for the most part those goings on are a subplot to what is essentially a relationship comedy — and only a mildly amusing one at that.

Joel’s problem is that he can never get home from work before his wife Susie (Kristen Wiig) puts on the sweatpants at the strike of 8pm … and once the sweatpants are on there will be no sex for the Extract King. What makes him late is the personnel and personality nonsense at the office; what slows him down is Nathan (a terrific David Koecher), one of those boorish nightmares of a neighbor whose lack of self-awareness eventually forces you to be rude to them. So Joel is frustrated — very frustrated, and taking advice from the exact wrong person: His buddy Dean (Ben Affleck), a long-haired bartender who has only one answer to every imaginable problem: Narcotics. (more…)

Joel is just an average guy, a quiet yet well-to-do American living in a small town who happens to own a flavor-extract company. He’d like to sell the plant, retire early and get back to a healthier sex life with his bored, put-upon wife. 

But just as he seems prepared to make a deal with food giant General Mills to sell the plant for good, a freak accident occurs inside his plant that lops off one of a long-time employee’s testicles. The other is hanging by a thread, a metaphor that is apt for Joel’s life as it suddenly spirals out of control via a surreal round-robin of relationships that come unhinged and turn his life upside-down in the new comedy film “Extract.” 

Written and directed by Mike Judge, who has chronicled the modern everyman’s life in the long-running and brilliant Fox cartoon “King of the Hill” as well as in the short-running yet brilliant 1999 film “Office Space,” “Extract” takes a sharp-eyed and sharp-tongued look at middle-class values in Middle America. But once again, Judge proves that he possesses a true love for the common, working-class Joe that translates into comedy that uplifts rather than demeans the lives of its characters.  (more…)

In my Final Weekend Tracking column posted on Wednesday, I predicted that X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Fox) would reach $92M on opening weekend, despite soft reviews (now only 38% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes). My first fearless forecast of the 2009 summer blockbuster season appears to be close to dead-on (missed by only 5%).

Star-turned-producer Hugh Jackman has scored his second-biggest opening ever and, easily, his biggest as a solo star. Wolverine has mauled the competition with a massive $34.75M opening day (including $5M or so in Thursday midnight sales). That could translate to a 3-day of $86.8M, getting Hollywood’s most lucrative season off to a spectacular start.

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The great thing about a sequel is that it has a built-in audience. The problem with sequels is that, as the numbers after the title go up, so does the production budget. Very hard to know for sure, but sources have told me that the production budget for X-Men was in the $75M range. X-2: X-Men United may have had a budget of about $110M, while the cost of X-Men: The Last Stand was, in all likelihood, as much as $210M. Why doesn’t it make sense to just churn out X-Men 4?

Look at these numbers.

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Recording superstar Beyonce Knowles is building a bankable resume for herself as an actress with Sony Screen Gems’ Obsessed as the latest title burnishing her resume. Co-starring the excellent Idris Elba (The Wire), this low budget, PG-13 genre pic has scored a far-above-expectations $11M on Friday, and it will likely reach $27.5M for the weekend. That is the best opening yet for the former Destiny’s Child lead vocalist as an above-the-title star, topping 2003’s The Fighting Temptations and Cadillac Records from late 2008.

Beyonce does battle with the sexy Ali Larter (HEROES) in OBSESSED

OPENINGS FOR BEYONCE MOVIES
1. Austin Powers: Goldmember – $70.3M opening
2. Obsessed – $27.5M opening (projected)
3. Pink Panther (2006) – $20.2M opening
4. Dreamgirls – $14.1M wide break (after a platform start)
5. The Fighting Temptations – $11.7M opening
6. Cadillac Records – $3.4M opening

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The final weekend of April has never been Hollywood’s favorite release date. In fact, it is generally considered to be among the worst release dates on the calendar. Whatever opens on the final weekend of April gets absolutely crushed by the official start of the summer blockbuster season on the first weekend of May.

The 4 new wide releases and 1 major specialty release set to debut this weekend will face an onslaught of mega-hits over the next month. How can Obsessed (Sony), Earth (Disney), The Soloist, (Dreamworks/Paramount), Fighting (Rogue) and The Informers (Senator) possibly find an audience with X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Fox) and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (Warner Bros) arriving next weekend followed by, in successive weeks, Star Trek (Paramount), Angels & Demons (Sony), the combo of Night at the Museum 2 (Fox) and Terminator: Salvation (Fox) and Disney/Pixar’s Up?

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