Made of Honor

Traditionally, Memorial Day weekend is very kind to Summer blockbusters, and this year was no exception for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. According to Variety, the return of the Steven Spielberg franchise was his biggest movie opening ever, hauling in an estimated $126 million over the four-day holiday.

While these results are a career high for Spielberg, the film itself did not break any box office records related to this holiday weekend or any other long weekend openings.

Disney's The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian dropped to second place followed by Iron Man. The fourth spot went to What Happens in Vegas, which continues to perform well, followed by Made of Honor at No. 5 and Baby Mama at No. 6.

John Cusack's War Inc. — also starring Hillary Duff — opened in limited release and did not make the top 10.

Photos courtesy of Paramount

Patrick Dempsey got in touch with his preppier side posing with Michelle Monaghan at a photocall for Made of Honor in Amsterdam yesterday. Their romantic comedy wasn't exactly a box office homerun, but luckily Patrick still has his day job at Seattle Grace to fall back on. Speaking of which, who's excited for the big Grey's Anatomy finale? Tonight is clearly all about which David will be crowned American Idol, but tomorrow the spotlight is reserved for the eternal question of whether or not Meredith and McDreamy belong together.

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• Iron Man took the top spot at the weekend box office with an impressive $104.2 million in ticket sales. In case you were one of the few who didn't see it, stay after the credits to see a teaser for Iron Man 2! Made of Honor came in at number two, followed by Baby Mama at third. — BuzzSugar
• Prince Harry was awarded a military service medal today for his 10 weeks of service on the front lines in Afghanistan earlier this year. — CitizenSugar
• Miley Cyrus unexpectedly performed at the Disney Channel Games over the weekend, where she avoided questions about her controversial Vanity Fair photos but thanked fans for their support. — The Orlando Sentinel
• Bruce Springsteen, Meryl Streep, and 13 other famous New Jerseyans were inducted into the state's Hall of Fame last night, despite the fact that the building hasn't been constructed yet. — AP
• Amy Winehouse is said to be making a special appearance at an upcoming London performance by Pete Doherty, who is set to be released from prison tomorrow. — The Mirror

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

It wasn't just comic book fans that lined up this weekend for Iron Man, it was everybody! And I mean, everybody. The film raked in an extremely impressive $104.2 million its opening weekend, which is a staggering amount for any studio, much less for the first title fully produced and paid for by Marvel Studios.

I recently watched some footage of director Jon Favreau at a 2007 Comic-Con panel where he said, "If you make a good movie, the box office will be there." And boy, was he right. He also said that he cast the movie the way he might approach casting the (mostly independent) films he normally works on. Again, his instincts are proven right as the stellar reviews (including my own) praising the performances no doubt aided such a successful opening.

Variety reports Iron Man is the 10th best opening ever and "the second-best debut for a non-sequel after Spider-Man," which opened to $114.8 million on the same weekend in 2002.

Meanwhile, it was the romantic and the comedic films that rounded out the rest of the top five. Patrick Dempsey's so-so romcom Made of Honor was No. 2 and pulled in a respectable $15.5 million. It was followed by Baby Mama in the third spot, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall came in at No. 4. Finally, Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay earned $6 million in the No. 5 spot.

Who saw Iron Man? Did you catch the teaser trailer after the credits?

Photos courtesy of Paramount Pictures

• I can't tell you how much fun I had at the Tribeca Film Festival this year. In addition to making new friends, I saw some terrific (if quirky) movies, like The Wackness, Trucker, and Bart Got a Room. I also gave a word of warning for the bleak and disturbing Savage Grace which still makes me feel kinda icky.
• I saw The Life Before Our Eyes, a movie adapted from my April book club selection and I found the movie to be visually gorgeous but also puzzling. Ah well, the book was still a lovely read. Which reminds me — check out my May selection for the book club.
• The title Made of Honor confused me and much of the blogosphere this week. Baffling non-puns aside, the movie was, well, boring. All is not lost, though, because it gave me an excellent picture for the Caption It contest.
• Woo-hoo! May is going to be a fun month! I've rounded up some of my must-haves for the month, including the Sex and the City movie. Speaking of which, I put together a slideshow all about the essential episodes to catch before the big movie release on May 30.
• American Idol was shaping up to be a bit of a snoozer with the Neil "Sparkly Tops" Diamond songbook. But then, just when I was about to doze off, PaulaGate came crashing through. What did you think about her little on-air hiccup?
• So now that shows like Gossip Girl and Grey's Anatomy are back in full swing are you still watching as much TV? Or are there some shows you've quit?
• There were some cool and even moving music videos out this week, like this one from R.E.M. and an important message from Radiohead. Coldplay even gave us a glimpse of a song from their upcoming album.
• Finally, if you're looking for entertainment this weekend I highly recommend seeing Iron Man in the theaters and settling in Sunday night for the season premiere of This American Life on Showtime.

Here's the thing about Made of Honor: If one intends to make a weak, watery romcom that is essentially the remake of a preexisting movie (My Best Friend's Wedding) with the genders reversed, at the very least one should seek out a supremely charismatic lead actor. Patrick Dempsey's sniveling, whiny, soulless depiction of Tom, our womanizing protagonist, is just not entertaining. Sometimes he's downright annoying. And when the audience doesn't really feel like rooting for the main character of a romcom, what's the point?

As the previews for the movies have explained ad nauseum, Tom (Dempsey) is a "dashing" New Yorker who sleeps with every woman in sight — except for his best-best-friend Hannah (Monaghan), with whom he pals around the city, eating desserts and taking her to his father's many weddings. Hannah also patiently listens to all of Tom's latest sexual escapades, which he prevents from becoming Something More by adhering to a strict set of rules (i.e. no sleeping with the same woman two nights in a row). He's a commitmentphobe nearly to the point of absurd paranoia. The assumption is that he'll never settle down. Or will he? Of course, you know the answer to that but still, read more

Just today, Cinematical pondered a question I've been asking myself a lot lately: What could the title Made of Honor possibly mean?

As a pun on the term "maid of honor" (which is what Michelle Monaghan's character asks Patrick Dempsey's character to be in the movie), it doesn't actually work. As Cinematical points out, "a pun usually involves conflating two words or expressions that make sense in the same context and happen to sound alike. In this case, I only count one." Having seen the movie, the writer is more confounded because the use of "made" is never explained (i.e., it's not the character's last name or anything), and Dempsey's character is never really made out to be "honorable" at all.

So, I asked around. Anyone know why it's titled Made of Honor? Anyone? Beuller? No. A friend of mine joked that they named it Made of Honor because My Best Friend's Wedding was already taken. Ha! (It's funny because the premise of both movies appears to be exactly the same with just a gender reversal.) So tell me: what else could they have titled Made of Honor? I thought of a few to get the brainstorming started, so to see what I thought of and to add your own ideas, read more

Welcome to the Caption It game on BuzzSugar! Every other Wednesday, I'll post a funny TV or movie photo here and challenge you to think of the most hilarious caption possible. I'll announce the finalists the following Tuesday, and you'll get to vote for the best caption; the winner will get a fabulous BuzzSugar T-shirt!

Last week's Caption It from Samantha Who? was very intimate, but I'm excited about the winning caption because it's such a fun Christina Applegate career reference:

Samantha: "OMG, you said he's Married... with children!"

Congrats to jspark!.

Now for this week's challenge, from the upcoming romantic comedy Made of Honor starring Patrick Dempsey:

Leave your captions in the comment space below before 5 p.m. PST on Monday, May 5 to be considered for a spot in the voting round. Have fun! To see a photo of the BuzzSugar T-shirt, just read more