Bolt

All of the new DVD releases hit stores (and Netflix) on Tuesdays. So each week in What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday, I sort through the best of the batch and tell you what to add to your queue. In addition to my selections below, you can also add Zack Snyder's animated Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter to your queue.

Quantum of Solace
It seems like just yesterday we were puzzling over the title of the newest Bond flick and now here it is, out on DVD. The man with the killer looks and dreamy eyes, Daniel Craig, reprises his role as superspy James Bond, who is still pretty peeved at having been betrayed by Vesper Lynd, the woman he loved in the previous film. He wishes to take revenge on the company that blackmailed Vesper, though, and in his search he and M (Judi Dench) uncover plans of a shady leader of an environmentalist company to take control of Bolivia's water supply.

Bond also meets Camille (Olga Kurylenko), who has her own vengeful plan in mind. There's a lot of international locales included as well as Craig locking and loading guns throughout some intense action sequences — what more do you need?

Special features include the music video for "Another Way to Die," a featurette titled "Bond on Location," and commentary from director Marc Forster.

Two more still to come, so read more

The Academy Awards air this Sunday past your lil one's bedtime, but that doesn't mean your family has to miss out on the fun! The Best Animated Feature Film nominees, Wall-E, Kung-Fu Panda and Bolt have all been released on DVD, so why not curl up on the couch with your family for a screening or two (or three!)? You may not have the time to replicate all of PartySugar's amazing Oscar Party suggestions and recipes, but consider infusing your celebratory cinema time with extra special effort.

• Turn Decorating Into an Art Project: Print out small pictures from the three movies (just do a Google image search and pick your favorites), and set up an art station with your printouts, construction paper, ribbons, glitter, and crayons. After your children decorate the pictures, turn them into a festive banner.
• Make Traditional Movie Snacks: PartySugar is serving up popcorn with truffle oil, Parmesan cheese, and black pepper. If your tots have finicky taste buds, make a few bowls of popcorn and sprinkle in a handful of chocolate covered raisins. More truffle oil for the adults!
• Theme Your Main Course: If you are watching Kung-Fu Panda order Chinese takeout or make stir-fry, if you are watching Bolt, which takes place in the US, cook up some burgers or comfort food, and if Wall-E is your game, make futuristic food using food coloring and creative shapes (time to whip out those cookie cutters!).
• Make a Kiddie Ballot: You can cast your vote for the winners on BuzzSugar for a chance to win a year of movies, but online voting may be a bit advanced for your tots. Print out a simple homemade ballot for your children and let them pick their favorite of the three films before the award show.

Source

The Day the Earth Stood Still may not have been a critical hit but it is now officially a box office success, earning $31 million over the weekend and topping Four Christmases, which slid into second place. Twilight, Bolt, and Australia followed in third, fourth, and fifth places respectively.

Meanwhile, Variety is reporting that smaller, independent films "delivered one of the best weekends ever for the specialty box office." Movies like Doubt, The Reader and Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino all enjoyed strong debuts, while movies like Milk and Frost/Nixon continue to draw good sized audiences in theaters.

Photos courtesy of 20th Century Fox

Reese and Vince proved a potent pair at the box office once again as Four Christmases came in at No. 1 for the second weekend in a row. The holiday comedy earned an estimated $18.2 million over the weekend, bringing its overall total since debuting to $70.8 million. Meanwhile, Twilight continues to plow full steam ahead, coming in at No. 2 and bringing its overall total to an impressive $138.6 million. The top five was rounded out by Bolt in third, Australia in fourth, and Quantum of Solace at No. 5.

There are a lot of "specialty" offerings at the moment, many of which are doing very well given how many theaters they're playing in. Cadillac Records had a decent debut at No. 9, and both Slumdog Millionaire and Milk continue to thrive thanks to great buzz.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

I was surprised at how much I ended up enjoying Four Christmases starring Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn, and maybe some of the early buzz from others who also liked it helped the holiday comedy win the Thanksgiving weekend box office this year with an estimated $46.7 million since opening Wednesday.

Meanwhile the highly anticipated Baz Luhrmann epic Australia opened at No. 5 after Quantum of Solace in fourth place, Twilight (which passed the $100 million mark this weekend) in third, and Bolt in second place. Gus Van Sant's biopic Milk also did very well for a limited release, coming in at No. 10 over the weekend.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

Anticipating Twilight might just be this weekend's big box office winner, I asked you guys to ring in with some possible box office headline puns for the news this morning. Well, briggs313's suggestion in the post was awesome, so I went ahead and used it — thanks briggs313!

Twilight's debut on the big screen was a smash success, earning $70.6 million over the weekend and breaking several records. It has the honor of being the biggest debut ever "for a female director and also beats the $57 million debut of Sex and the City in May." The studio was so impressed with the buzz around the screen adaptation of the popular book that they went ahead and announced plans for the sequel, New Moon, on Saturday.

It seems Twilight sucked up all the young adult love, which may have contributed to the disappointing opening of Disney's Bolt over the weekend. The animated pup earned about $27 million and came in at No. 3, behind Quantum of Solace which had the No. 2 spot. The top five was rounded out by Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa in fourth place followed by Role Models in fifth.

Photo courtesy of Summit Entertainment

I've been reporting from Comic-Con these past few days, but here's a hodgepodge of random extra bits and pieces from my weekend.

• There was a panel I basically happened to attend by accident, which ended up being for this spooky-looking movie The Wolf Man, due in theaters April 3, 2009. Then, to everyone's surprise, the stars of the film, Benicio Del Toro and Emily Blunt, came onstage to talk about it. I'll post the trailer soon, so more on the movie itself later, but for now, how cute is this picture?!
• The writers of The Office spoke to a packed house on Saturday, and while the 11 people on the panel (12 if you count moderator Rainn Wilson) felt like a few too many, there were plenty of funny moments, especially from BJ Novak, Michael Schur, and Mindy Kaling. I particularly liked this part of Novak's answer about why he likes writing for Michael Scott: "It's so interesting to see someone with authority be so innocent and so wrong."
• Also a winner from that panel: Schur's description of how Dwight would act in the event of an actual robot invasion. "He would cross his arms in the middle of the street as the robots marched down the street, shaking his head and saying 'I told you so!'"
• Yeah, the Heroes screening and Hugh Jackman appearance were cool — but one of my other favorite panels of the weekend was much, much smaller. On Friday, I got to hear some of the original voice actors from the classic Peanuts specials talk about what it was like to put together shows like A Charlie Brown Christmas and Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown. Several of the specials will be out on remastered, special-feature-laden DVDs this Fall, and I can't wait! Eventually, they're hoping to bring all the specials (more than 40 of them!) to DVD.
• Also, some of the best trivia of the whole weekend came out of that panel: Did you know Fergie was once the voice of Charlie Brown's little sister, Sally? (For more Peanuts trivia, check out today's Brainteaser!)

To find out Seth Rogen's latest dirty comment and to see Zachary Levi's hand in a compromising position, read more

Greetings from sunny San Diego! And I'm not kidding about the sunny: Though I'll be spending most of the weekend indoors, I at least got to bask in the rays (or, OK, sweat next to other sweaty people) while waiting in line for this morning's 20th Century Fox panels.

Frankly, it's been a pretty insane trip so far. The morning's big events (panels for Max Payne and The Day the Earth Stood Still and surprise appearance by Wolverine himself!) were delayed because of collapsing curtains and rods. I did have some time to wander the floor, as well as to catch a Disney panel where some of the studio's storyboard staff took us through the creation of a sequence from the upcoming Bolt, which looks like it could be pretty clever. You can check out some of my initial observations — and a whole lot of photos from the floor, including a super-geeky sequence with this year's special Comic-Con My Little Pony — if you read more