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What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday
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 picks below, you can also add Priceless starring Audrey Tautou and Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr.
Nicolas Cage Tops a Slow Weekend Box Office
Well, the Fall movie season came in with a whimper. According to Variety, "The first weekend after Labor Day is always sluggish, but this year the frame was affected by the start of the NFL football season and was particularly dreary." Bangkok Dangerous came in at No.
Box Office: Tropic Thunder Wins Again
Labor Day weekend officially signals the close of the Summer box office season, and this year's ended on, as Variety described it, "a whimper" as opposed to a bang. Tropic Thunder landed in the top spot for the third weekend in a row, pulling in an estimated $14.3 million over four days. The second spot went to Babylon A.D.
Tropic Thunder Is No. 1 For the Second Week in a Row
Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder won the top spot at the box office for the second weekend in a row, earning an estimated $16.1 million. This makes Tropic Thunder, Iron Man, and The Dark Knight the only movies to have stayed at No. 1 for two consecutive weeks this Summer (so that's two major box office winners for Robert Downey Jr.!).
Box Office: Tropic Thunder Takes the Top Spot
Even though Tropic Thunder is technically No. 1 this weekend, The Dark Knight is still being called the biggest winner because it is "the second highest grossing pic of all time after Titanic domestically." Ben Stiller's comedy earned an estimated $26 million while the Batman sequel took in $16.7 million and has a total gross of $471.5 million.
How Well Do You Know Robert Downey Jr.?
If I had to give Robert Downey Jr. a Hollywood nickname it would be "enigma" because he has been a puzzling and contradictory force. By now everyone knows the story of his professional ascent (nominated for Oscars and such) and descent (arrests, a lot of booze, drugs, etc.). And while his talent has never been disputed, his personal antics have left many wondering if he would ever truly fulfill his enormous potential, or if his self-destructive tendencies would sabotage his work.
Tropic Thunder: Clever and Explosive
I never really thought I'd say a Ben Stiller comedy was genuinely smart and funny, but here I am, saying just that. It's partly the talented cast and partly Stiller's collaborator on the film, Justin Theroux, but whatever the cause, Tropic Thunder is a hilarious movie that doesn't completely rely on gross-out humor or cheap shots for laughs. The entire thing exists to comment on the hypocrisy, egotism, delusional sense of self-importance and backward moral codes of the people who keep the Hollywood machine churning.
Controversial Comedic Movies
Some of the best comedy provocatively pushes the envelope, and when done well, it can allow us to not take life too seriously. But sometimes it can go really wrong, and feel less like a keen observation and more just mean-spirited. There is a thin line that certain comedic movies walk between hilarious and offensive.
Have You Ever Boycotted a Movie?
According to the New York Times, the upcoming Ben Stiller comedy Tropic Thunder will be boycotted by "a coalition of disabilities groups" who object to what they say is "the movie’s open ridicule of the intellectually disabled."
The article continues:
A particular sore point has been the film's repeated use of the term "retard" in referring to a character, Simple Jack, who is played by Mr. Stiller in a subplot about an actor who chases an Oscar by portraying a mindless dolt. Mr. Shriver said that he had also begun to ask members of Congress for a resolution condemning what he called the movie’s “hate speech."
Movie Preview: Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder
With Tropic Thunder, director Ben Stiller and his cast of comedic actors attempt to poke holes in the movie industry, spoofing everything from iconic action heroes to the embarrassing obnoxiousness of professional comedians to racial stereotypes facing non-white actors. It has a lot of potential for humor. But is it funny?
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