“Tree of Life” grossed a pretty pathetic $13 million, “Happy Feet Two” grossed an abysmal $60 million, and “Moneyball” grossed only an okay $75 million. But in this market, where the concept of the movie star is all but dead, Brad Pitt was named the “top money-making star of the year.”

Number two was George Clooney who released two films this year that probably won’t gross $90 million combined.

Bosses at Quigley Publishing Company have asked theatre owners and film buyers to vote for their top 10 box office generators and this year exhibitors credited Pitt with bringing in more traffic than any other celebrity due to his acting and/or vocal appearances in Moneyball, The Tree of Life, and Happy Feet Two.

Coming in at number two was Pitt’s pal George Clooney for both The Ides of March and The Descendants, and last year’s winner, Johnny Depp, fell to third with The Rum Diary, Rango and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

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“It’s happened again,” Phil (Bradley Cooper) says at the beginning of the new film, “The Hangover: Part II.” For fans of the original, what has happened is pretty obvious. The “Wolfpack,” composed of Phil, Stu (Ed Helms) and Alan (Zach Galifianakis), have spent another wild night partying and can’t remember anything about it. Like in the original, the men have lost one of their friends and must spend a day trying to find him before a big wedding.

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The sequel begins a few years after the original. Stu is now engaged and his fiancée’s family is waiting for him to arrive at the wedding in Thailand. Phil calls to inform them that another late night has turned disastrous for the “Wolfpack.”

The story then flashes back to the events leading up to the wedding. Alan, who drugged his friends in the original, is waiting for his invitation to Stu’s wedding but Stu, for obvious reasons, doesn’t want to invite him. After Doug (Justin Bartha), whose wedding took place at the end of “The Hangover,” pressures Stu to invite his brother-in-law, Stu relents. Joining the “Wolfpack” and Doug on the trip to Thailand is Teddy (Mason Lee), the teenage brother of Stu’s fiancee.

When the group arrives in Thailand, they decide to have “one drink” on the beach at night a few days before the wedding. The next morning, the “Wolfpack” wake up in Bangkok hung over. Doug left the beach early so he’s back in his hotel room but Teddy is missing. As the story continues, the “Wolfpack” spend their day investigating what happened the previous night and trying to find Teddy.

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Admittedly I have never seen a television episode of the “The A-Team.” So I went into the theater not knowing the plot of the show or the film. Unfortunately, I left disappointed with an unexciting and uninspired “A-Team” that failed to bring its“A-Game.”

The movie revolves around a group of four military men who work together as a covert team. As the story begins, we are introduced to the four main characters that the film’s website refers to as a “colorful team of former Special Forces soldiers,” and notes that they are composed of its leader Hannibal Smith (Liam Neeson), Templeton “Face” Peck (Bradley Cooper), B.A. Baracas (Quinton “Rampage” Jackson), and H.M. “Howlin’ Mad” Murdock (Sharlto Copley). Unfortunately, none of these characters is particularly memorable, save for Hannibal Smith who is played well by Neeson.  

The film opens with the formation of the “A-Team.” Smith is attempting to rescue “Face,” a ladies man in trouble with a lady’s man, and enlists the help of Baracas, who is a complete stranger to him. To complete the rescue, the three men appropriate Murdock, a mental patient and pilot. Murdock is mentally unstable and yet the team invites him to join the group even after he lights one of them on fire. (At this point, believability burns up along with one of the character’s shirts.) (more…)

Movies based on TV shows are often some of the most painful offerings studios have to offer. Whether suffering through the big-screen versions of “The Beverly Hillbillies” or “Car 54, Where Are You?”, “My Favorite Martian” or this summer’s mega-bomb “MacGruber,” the ratio of awful adaptations to successful ones is vastly disproportional.

Of course, once in awhile, some work: “Wayne’s World,” “The Blues Brothers” and (at least financially) the “Mission: Impossible” films come to mind. But with the new film version of “The A-Team,” Fox has concocted a wildly uneven yet (at many moments) even more wildly entertaining edition of the ridiculously fun ‘80s NBC series that manages to both disappoint and enthrall action fans within the span of a rollicking two hours.

Series purists may find plenty to grouse about, as the film kicks off with a somewhat-different take on the group, having Col. Hannibal Smith (played by Liam Neeson here and George Peppard on TV) meet B.A. Baracus (Quinton “Rampage” Jackson here, and the immortal Mr. T on TV) for the first time, as he forces him to let him hitch a ride en route to saving his friend “Faceman” (Bradley Cooper here, and Dirk Benedict on TV). They are immediately at odds before bonding over their mutual Army Rangers tattoos, a trait they share with Faceman and their final member, an insane chopper pilot named “Howling Mad” Murdock (Sharlto Copley of “District 9” here, and Dwight Schultz on TV). (more…)

It’s pretty clear from the loud and explodey and awesome trailer of the upcoming A-Team remake that the script version the Sucker Punch Squad’s source obtained was a draft or two back from the final shooting script.  That’s a good thing, because the old script was a little slower, left out some treasured icons (Where’s the van!) and its B.A. Baracus had nowhere near the original show’s essential Mr. T-errificness.

So, all hail the new A-Team.  I just hope they’ve fixed the one hackey sucker punch aspect – the lame use of U.S. contractors as, once again, the villain du jour.

Now, anyone who at any point in the 1980s was unable to legally drive knows The A-Team and its mythology.  Basically, a bunch of Vietnam War commandos are falsely accused of a crime, escape from a stockade and dodge the military police while acting as soldiers of fortune.  George Peppard was their leader Hannibal Smith, Dirk Benedict was Face, the good-looking con man, Dwight Schultz was “Howlin’ Mad” Murdock, the resident wacko, and Mr. T portrayed, well, pretty much himself.

Every week they crashed a lot of cars, shot millions of bullets without ever hitting anything, made smartass remarks and issued memorable catchphrases.  This was all highly entertaining – particularly if you were a college student like me who enjoyed accepting creative drinking game challenges.  Here’s a hint – designate not just a driver but a stretcher-bearer if you dare join in a round of “Let’s Watch The A-Team and Down a Brew Whenever Something Explodes.”  (more…)

Perhaps more than any other holiday, Valentine’s Day is a love-it-or-hate-it proposition. Unfortunately for prospective moviegoers, the new movie “Valentine’s Day” will provoke a universal sense of disappointment and dread.

Packing 19 name actors from diverse age groups (high schoolers through grandparents are followed) into a series of intertwining vignettes set on the titular day, and topping it all with direction by the legendary rom-com master Garry Marshall (“Pretty Woman,” “Runaway Bride”), “VD” (an acronym that sadly reflects how unpleasant the viewing experience winds up being) should be an instant classic along the lines of 2003’s vastly superior “Love Actually.” Unfortunately, the filmmakers spent so much time negotiating with actors that they forgot to find a script with characters worth giving a hoot about. (more…)

Over the past few years, Judd Apatow has unfairly forced me into sounding like something of a prude. But Todd Phillips’ “The Hangover,” an absolutely fantastic R-rated raunch-fest, has just arrived just in time with the promise of redemption.

Raunchy comedies aren’t anything new; it’s just that Apatow (and his too-many imitators) are all about the raunch. You can feel the story gears turn to get to the raunch – to get to the “big” set-piece — you can feel the strain to fashion an iconic moment. Content has little to do with whether or not something’s funny. It’s all in the set up, and with the Apatow crowd you can see the wizard pull the strings. There’s practically a sign that reads, “Cool People Laugh Here.”

No matter how dirty or over-the-top the gag, if it evolves from believable characters and situations true to the world created by the filmmaker, you’re going to laugh. No matter how many times Eugene Levy catches Jason Biggs humping that pie, it’s a thing of comedic beauty because the set-up and the character reactions show full fidelity to what we know and what came before.

For this reason, “The Hangover” is easily the best and funniest comedy to spring from this genre in years. The three main characters are well defined, the story structure is seamless and the belly laughs just keep coming. Most important, unlike an Apatow-type film, you’re laughing too hard and enjoying yourself too much to be taken out of the story with a wince and an “Oh, gross…” (more…)

Filmmaker Tyler Perry, with Oprah Winfrey as a role model, has consistently outsmarted Hollywood moguls since his debut feature Diary of a Mad Black Women. That Gospel-infused “fat-suit-in-drag” comedy was made for a mere $5.5M and scored an opening weekend of $21.9M, ultimately generating $50.6M in domestic sales.

The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well with Tyler Perry

At only 39, Perry is building an empire. He officially christened Tyler Perry Studios last October in Atlanta with a star-studded event. The multi-million dollar project is a sprawling 30-acre working production facility in southwestern Atlanta, and the opening night party featured appearances by legendary African American actors like Sidney Poitier, Cicely Tyson, Ruby Dee, Lou Gossett, Jr. and Will Smith.

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The Drew Barrymore-produced romantic comedy He’s Just Not That Into You has made the jump from catch-phrase to self-help book to movie hit. With an all-star cast this classic ‘chick flick” appears to be winning the weekend after posting a spectacular $10.5M in opening day ticket sales. That should mean a 3-day start of $27.4M or so, easily out-pacing holdover Taken (Fox) and three other new wide releases. With this kind of opening, Not That Into You could reach almost $60M by the end of next weekend (a 4-day Presidents/Valentine’s combo), which would forecast a potential $90M in US ticket sales.

The new movie developed by New Line and now released by Warner Bros is based on the book of the same name co-written by former Sex & the City scribes Greg Behrendt and Liz Tucillo. The line itself has come to be a reassuring fallback for women in the dating scene (and I’m guessing single guys have adopted the mentality as well in the rough-and-tumble world of dating).

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