It’s just a month until people will be queuing up around the block for The Dark Knight Rises, and now a new trailer has arrived to further whet our appetites. Despite his tarnished reputation after the events of The Dark Knight, in which he took the rap for Dent’s crimes, Batman feels compelled to intervene to assist the city and its police force which is struggling to cope with the villainous Bane’s plans to destroy the city. And then there’s also the mysterious Selina Kyle. The film hits cinemas July 20th.
Madagascar 3 Stays Atops The US Box Office – With Rock Of Ages settling for third spot
New releases Rock Of Ages ages and That’s My Boy slightly faltered in their first weekend in US cinemas, which has allowed Madagascar 3 to steal the show for a second week, topping the box office with $35.5 million. It’s good news for Deamworks Animation, as it means the movie is now ahead of where the previous Madagascar movies were after 10 days in cinemas.
Prometheus stayed in second spot with $20.2 million, while newcomer Rock Of Ages had to settle for third place with only $15 million, despite a star-filled cast and a prime summer release spot. Musicals always tend to be difficult beasts, but Universal had hoped they’d be able to ape Mamma Mia! and Hairspray, which both opened in the $27 million range. It seems that while the movie was hoping audiences would see cheesy fun, they just saw cheese and stayed away.
Doing even worse was Adam Sandler’s That’s My Boy, which only grossed a pretty miserable $13 million. Sandler has become one of Hollywood’s more dependable stars when it comes to making money, but this is his worst opening for a live-action comedy since Happy Gilmore in 1996!
Take a look below for the US box office top 10 for the weekend on June 15th-17th.
| Rank | Title | Weekend Gross (millions) | Total Gross to date (millions) |
| 1 | Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted | $35.5 | $120.4 |
| 2 | Prometheus | $20.2 | $88.8 |
| 3 | Rock Of Ages | $15.0 | $15.0 |
| 4 | Show White And The Huntsman | $13.8 | $122.6 |
| 5 | That’s My Boy | $13.0 | $13.0 |
| 6 | Men In Black 3 | $10.0 | $152.6 |
| 7 | The Avengers | $8.8 | $586.7 |
| 8 | The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel | $2.2 | $35.1 |
| 9 | Moonrise Kingdom | $2.1 | $6.7 |
| 10 | What To Expect When You’re Expecting | $1.3 | $38.7 |
Shawn Levy Gets Monster Problems – A post-apocalyptic comedy road movie
Thanks to Night At The Museum and Real Steel, Shawn Levy is one of the studio’s favourite directors at the moment. He’s got quite a few films in development, and now he’s added another, as THR reports that Paramount is in negotiations to pick up Monster Problems, a spec script by Brian Duffield for Shawn Levy and his 21 Laps banner to produce.
Plot details are being kept secret, but the movie has been described as a post-apocalyptic road movie in the vein of Mad Max and Zombieland, but with a John Hughes-esque love story at its centre. Quite how that works isn’t known, but it’s certainly intriguing, and the title suggests it’ll also serve up some monsters.
At the moment Levy is just set to produce, but could end up directing. That won’t be for a while though, as he’s planning a July shoot for his next movie, The Internship, which will reteam Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. He’s also got several other movies in development, including a new take on Frankenstein.
Expendables 2 Poster Gets Masculine – The men line up for action
I’m presuming the background of this new Expendables 2 poster is proof that if there’s too much testosterone in the air, things get explosive. As with the first film, it’s sure selling itself on the line-up of action stars and their general manliness.
This time around, The Expendables are reunited when Mr. Church enlists them to take on a seemingly simple job. When things go wrong, the Expendables are compelled to seek revenge in hostile territory, where the odds are stacked against them. Hell-bent on payback, the crew cuts a swath of destruction through opposing forces, wreaking havoc and shutting down an unexpected threat in the nick of time – five tons of weapons-grade plutonium, more than enough to change the balance of power in the world. But that’s nothing compared to the justice they serve against the villainous adversary they seek revenge from. It hits cinemas on August 17th. (Poster via Yahoo!)
Watch The Amazing Spider-Man UK Premiere Right Here – See the red carpet arrivals for the upcoming superhero flick
The UK premiere of The Amazing Spider-man is tonight (June 18th), and if you can’t be there (which is pretty much guaranteed if you’re reading this), then you can watch the red carpet arrivals streamed live right here, kicking off at 6pm BST. Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans and Marc Webb (plus many more) will be there, and thanks to skymovies.com we can bring you all the action. So take a look below to see what’s going on.
Carnage (DVD) – Facades fade away and tensions break in this realistic comedy
After two boys get in a violent confrontation their parents meet up to discuss what to do. Initially cheerful proceedings slowly descend in to chaos as each of their true sides starts to be revealed and they all come to hate one another.
The film succeeds when the comedy is kept realistic, which is helped by it being set in real time and all in one location. The vomit scene is probably one of the only scenes to not make me laugh, but even then the events that result from it make it worthwhile. The slow burn of some of the jokes is particularly brilliant (especially the phone joke).
At its heart, Roman Polanski’s film is really a character piece, so its success or failure is on the cast’s head. Thankfully the four leads (and only characters) are all excellent, each having their own distinct personality and mannerisms.
Jodie Foster starts off quiet and reserved before revealing a deep political agenda. John C. Reilly appears to be whipped by his wife, but then reveals a deep seated hatred for her. Kate Winslet goes from mediator to a little psychotic, while Christoph Waltz stands out as the best of the quartet, getting the wittiest lines as the straight man of the lot but even his mood darkens. The ways these characters eventually snap is very lifelike, each having their own breaking point before admitting this is the worst day of their life.
In terms of special features all you get are four interviews with the cast analysing the film, which while interesting are a bit too long. There’s also the original trailer.
Overall Verdict: A great character piece about stretching people to the breaking point that is surprisingly funny.
Special Features:
Interviews with each of the cast analysing the film.
Reviewer: Matthew Mallinson
You must be logged in to post a comment.