BuzzSugar

Grumpy Old Action Heroes

BuzzSugar — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 12:26:07 -0700

Perusing Cinematical and ComingSoon recently I came across these on-set photos from the next installment of the Rambo series, yet another action series I considered long dead (not dead meaning "irrelevant," dead meaning "completed"). For a 62-year-old man, Sylvester Stallone looks pretty good, but beyond that I find myself perplexedly asking the same question I wondered when Sly's old-man Rocky Balboa movie came out last year: Do we really need another one of these?

Between Rambo, Rocky, the most recent Die Hard movie, and now even Indiana Jones, it’s like these action heroes who were played by the young and spry versions of these men in the 1980s just want to keep their series gasping along (and, of course, want to keep getting paid), but at what point does this all become an embarrassing joke? When their wrinkles are distracting? When they can’t get around without a cane?

Is it worth resurrecting these characters and story lines in order to relive some nostalgic sentiment we might still have toward these movies? Why can't we just let the action heroes live on in our memories, rather than have them make endless quips about how much harder it is to disarm a bomb with arthritic fingers or run away from a giant boulder with a heart murmur?

Box Office: Transformers Pummel Their Way to No. 1

BuzzSugar — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 07:30:00 -0700

Unsurprisingly, Transformers took the No. 1 spot at the box office over the July 4th weekend. Having opened on Tuesday July 3, ticket sales easily broke Tuesday box office records and then went on to rope in summertime moviegoers the rest of the weekend, taking $152 million over the course of its 6 1/2-day opening, and approximately $67 million for just the weekend. The movie just barely beat out 2002's Spider-Man as the highest-grossing 7-day opening of any non-sequel.

In second place was Pixar's Ratatouille with $29 million and Live Free or Die Hard came up at No. 3 with $17.4 million. In fourth place with $10.4 for the weekend was License to Wed, and Evan Almighty took a respectable $8 million at No. 5.

Opening this Wednesday, of course, is the little wizard that could, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Surely Potter and friends can work some magic on these box office numbers.

Ratatouille Heats Up the Box Office

BuzzSugar — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 04:30:00 -0700

How many puns can we make about Ratatouille, the animated movie about a rat chef, taking the top slot at the box office this weekend? Ratatouille deep fries Die Hard at the box office? Ratatouille slices and dices the competition? Ratatouille gently folds in the ingredients for success?

Bringing in a sizzling (wow, this is fun) $47 million its opening weekend, Ratatouille easily came in first place, beating out Live Free or Die Hard, which raked in $33 million. Evan Almighty was No. 3, though had a much weaker showing than its opening weekend with just $15 million, which doesn't spell good things for the comedy that cost a mighty penny.

1408 continues to do exceptionally well for a summer thriller, taking fourth place. Michael Moore's documentary Sicko came in ninth with $4.5 million - the second-highest opening ever for a documentary (second only to Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11). Sad disappointment Evening groggily limped behind Sicko in tenth place.

Unfortunately, the reign of the little Pixar rodents will most likely be short lived. Transformers opens this Tuesday, just in time to rope in the July 4th vacationers looking for a cool theater and gigantic robot cars. Well, License to Wed also opens this week, but something tells me that movie won't provide too much competition for the Transformers. And that something is Robin Williams.

Image courtesy of Disney/Buena Vista Entertainment