The more I read scripts that come out of Hollywood, the more I wonder how Tinseltown manages to make money. Oh wait, I remember – the Palace Guards hype the tripe so that the peasants don’t realize what’s about to hit them until it’s too late to demand a refund.

That’s not to say there are no good movies made anymore  (The Blind Side is a recent example). Even when movies are bad, we expect them to be bad because of a poor script, poor directing or poor acting – or a combination of all three. What we are sick and tired of are movies with a “message” that Hollywoodists deem acceptable, wrapped up in the guise of innocent entertainment. And we are even more sick and tired of those movies being aimed at our children.

Take Furry Vengeance. Please. Ba dum bum. Coming out on April 30, this “family film” follows the adventures of Dan Sanders (Brendan Fraser), along with his wife Terry (Brooke Shields) and son Tyler (Matt Prokop), whom Dan has temporarily moved from Chicago to Oregon to oversee the building of a housing development in Rocky Springs. (more…)

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Pairing Brendan Fraser of “Mummy” movie fame with Harrison Ford, the iconic actor behind Indiana Jones and Han Solo, might seem like a brilliant stroke of casting that would result in one of the greatest action movies ever. But in the new film “Extraordinary Measures,” they team up for a medical drama that is so lacking in excitement it would be generous to even describe it as ordinary. 

“Measures” follows the true story of John Crowley, a pharmaceuticals executive who has three children – one who is healthy but two suffering from the rare and fatal affliction called Pompe Disease, a very rare genetic disorder which causes a deficiency in the enzyme that breaks down glycogen, causing muscle weakness throughout the body while enlarging the heart and other vital organs. 

The average lifespan of a person with Pompe is just nine years, a fact that drives Crowley to an obsessive quest for the cure since his afflicted children are 6 and 8 years old. The best doctor in the country devoted to finding a cure is  Robert Stonehill (Ford), a research scientist at the University of Nebraska who’s constantly hampered by a severe lack of funding and a bad attitude.  (more…)

Liam Neeson is officially a full-fledged action star. The Irish-born actor has often played heroes, whether it was Oskar Schindler in Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece Schindler’s List, the wise Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace or determined sex researcher Alfred Kinsey in 2005’s biopic Kinsey, Neeson has always had a knack for playing the earnest-but-flawed good guy. In his new movie Taken (Fox), writer/producer Luc Besson and director Pierre Morel have turned him into a Dad with the “mad skills” of a super-spy – think Mike Brady crossed with Jason Bourne.

The result is a well-reviewed (56% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) action film that will help to satisfy blockbuster-hungry audiences waiting for Warner Bros’ Watchmen (due March 6). Taken has scored big on its opening weekend. After grabbing an estimated $9.4M, the movie surged on Saturday to $11.62M (up almost 24% from opening day) and, despite today’s Super Bowl, the film could reach $24.62M according to studio estimates. That will be more than enough to win the Super Bowl 3-day, and positive word-of-mouth could get this one into the $70M-$75M range domestic.

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The chubby guy on the Segway rallied for a come-from-behind win over the Beckinsale-less Underworld sequel, but regardless, it was a 1-2 finish for Sony. When I originally predicted that Paul Blart: Mall Cop as the likely weekend winner over the MLK 4-day, some online sites questioned my pick. Even I didn’t expect an opening close to $40M, and now the Kevin James vehicle has surprised again.

The Adam Sandler-produced comedy has broadened its audience, showing real family appeal. That led to stronger Saturday and Sunday matinees for a stellar $21.5M by Monday morning. That gives the movie a 10-day cume of just shy of $65M, which is impressive considering that it was budgeted at just $26M. After success as a supporting star in movies like Hitch ($179.5M cume) and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry ($120M cume), it appears that James can open a movie without the help of Will Smith and Adam Sandler. Mall Cop dipped only 32% from last Friday-thru-Sunday (and that was part of a 4-day weekend, which can often lead to a sharper drop). (more…)