Film.com The Big Hitter

New Moon Rules the Box-Office Weekend

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:58:00 PST

The Twilight Saga: New Moon took in an estimated $140.7 million (domestically) over the weekend, doubling Twilight's box-office opening, for the third biggest opening weekend of all time. The estimate includes a 43 percent dip for Sunday's box office, so the title could finish even stronger ... if word of the pop culture happening spreads.

The third movie in the series, Eclipse, has already been filmed and is due out June 30, 2010. The fourth book, Breaking Dawn, is rumored to start filming in…

Review: New Moon A Definite Improvement

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:33:00 PST

"A legitimate artistic expression on love, loss, and the obsessive qualities of initial attraction."

From the start of the moody and brooding opening title cards you know you're in for a better experience than the last go-round. Director Chris Weitz has delivered a treat, a legitimate artistic expression on love, loss, and the obsessive qualities of initial attraction. Sure, it has a few flaws, but New Moon succeeds on a level that few films have this year. It gives the people…

Big Hitter: New Moon, Sonicsgate, and How Critics Matter

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:17:00 PST

What I'm Seeing This Week
The Blind Side: The trailer looks cheesy, but I've heard it's better than that snippet suggests.
New Moon: The people who have seen it say it's better than the original, which wouldn't be all that difficult. By the way, there are still a few seats left in our Seattle New Moon screening contest.
Me and Orson Welles: I'm a big Claire Danes fan, and it would be nice to learn a little bit about Orson Welles. The trailer indicates a love triangle angle -- never easy to pull…

Review: Fantastic Mr. Fox is Worth the Price of Admission

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:19:00 PST

"A boisterous and magnificent treat."

Does money actually inhibit creativity? I pondered that as I watched Fantastic Mr. Fox, only a week after taking in the bloated and pricey A Christmas Carol. Evidently Christmas Carol cost around five times what Fantastic Mr. Fox did. And yet, Fantastic Mr. Fox is 10 times the film of the Zemeckis effort. Could it be that Wes Anderson was forced to make more hard decisions, had less resources to work with, and thus knocked it right out of…

Review: 2012 Slightly More Big and Fun Than Dumb

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:31:00 PST

"2012 is good pulp."

2012 is the rare case of a bad film that I'm nevertheless obliged to recommend you see. And really, the first two hours are pretty solid, it's only in the last 40 minutes or so that the story slides directly off the rails. But the special effects? Superb. The acting? Passable? The logic? Uh, not applicable? I mean, there are clearly logic holes you could drive a medium-sized aircraft carrier through, but the film is asking you to suspend disbelief, and…

Big Hitter: 2012, Avatar's Budget, Seann William Scott, and a Seattle New Moon Contest

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:20:00 PST

What I'm Seeing This Week
2012, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Youth in Revolt. I'm oddly excited for all three of these films, though for wildly divergent reasons. 2012 looks to be either a heap of fun or an absolute disaster (which could be fun). Fantastic Mr. Fox is another chance to peek inside Wes Anderson's brain, a fascinating and worthwhile cinematic vacation. Youth in Revolt was one of my favorite books of the past decade, and I think Michael Cera is the perfect Nick Twisp. So I'm hopeful!

Wh…

Review: The Box is Uber Creepy Yet Interesting

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:23:00 PST

"Not an easy film to talk about, but one worth seeing."

The Box is not an easy film to talk about. Almost every description of the film will end up as a spoiler, it's fairly high concept, and it has a few glaring problems. However, The Box also presents huge moral dilemmas and is a genuine candidate for "cult-classic" status. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about it, perhaps some amalgamation of confused and captivated. Yes, The Box confustivated me.

Borrowing from the synopsis:…

Review: A Christmas Carol Not Merry Enough

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:07:00 PST

"This version of A Christmas Carol has very little story and even less Christmas cheer."

The old aphorism goes "don't throw out the baby with the bathwater," but the makers of the latest iteration of A Christmas Carol have flipped the script; they've created a film that looks amazing and combined it with an appalling lack of story. In essence they've provided a lovely, piping hot bath, all the while forgetting to actually place the dirty baby into it. We're left with only a…

Pixar: By The Numbers

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:28:00 PST

We get into arguments about Pixar all the time around the office. Why? When your average film garners approval from 95 percent of the critics there's plenty of room for disagreement. It becomes a bit like choosing your favorite spice. Can you really find the exact difference between red and white pepper?

So we decided to strip out all the emotion and focus on four crucial categories we could measure objectively. They are, in no particular order:

1. Fan reaction
2. Critical reaction
3. Box office…

Big Hitter: A Christmas Carol, Christopher Walken, and New DVD Release Dates

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:08:00 PST

What I'm Seeing This Week
A Christmas Carol, Pirate Radio, and The Box. My quick thoughts on each: I don't quite get why Jim Carrey had to play eight parts in Christmas Carol; Pirate Radio evidently had huge problems before finally getting a new title and release date; and Cameron Diaz threw out a major spoiler for The Box when I was at The San Diego Comic-Con. If merely one of these films turns out to be worth raving about I'll be most pleased. As I tweeted last week, the writers' strike has…