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Shrek Breaks His Own Box Office Records

BuzzSugar — Sun, 20 May 2007 23:30:35 -0700

While it's no "biggest opening weekend in box office history" like Spider-Man 3's was, Shrek did well for himself when Shrek the Third opened this weekend and raked in a whopping $122 million. This is the third-biggest opening in movie history, and the biggest opening for an animated film. It looks like kids still rule when it comes to box office hits, regardless of the so-so reviews the movie has received.

Spidey did well for himself as well, bringing in a cool $28.5 million, while horror flick 28 Weeks Later came in third place with just over $5 million. Disturbia continued to hold its own at 4th place while Georgia Rule followed behind, drawing in $3.49 million.

Shrek shouldn't get too comfy, however, since Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End opens this Memorial Day weekend, and it's likely to swab the deck with the giant green ogre. It's also likely to feature many more pirate-y puns like "swab the deck." Arrrrrre you ready for it?

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Spidey Stays on Top in its Second Weekend

BuzzSugar — Sun, 13 May 2007 23:20:48 -0700

What do Lindsay Lohan, Zach Braff and zombies have in common? None of them can touch Spider-Man 3. In its second weekend, the web-slinger stayed strong at the box office, bringing in an estimated $60 million more and easily taking the No. 1 spot.

Sure, $60 million is nothing compared to the $151 million Spider-Man 3 racked up in its first weekend, but none of the weekend's other movies came close. Horror flick 28 Weeks Later, the sequel to 2002's 28 Days Later, slid in at No. 2 with $10 million. Lindsay Lohan, Felicity Huffman and Jane Fonda's Georgia Rule snagged just $5.8 million to finish third.

Disturbia finished fourth, while new release Delta Farce brought in $3.5 million and finished sixth. The weekend's other major new release, Zach Braff's The Ex, finished at No. 11 with a puny $1.3 million.

It's been a pretty easy ride for Spidey so far, but things will get tougher next weekend when he has to compete with a big green ogre as Shrek the Third premieres.

Spider-Man photo courtesy of Sony Pictures

Georgia Rule: Not In Georgia, Doesn't Rule

BuzzSugar — Fri, 11 May 2007 12:19:21 -0700

In Georgia Rule, Lilly (Felicity Huffman) has her hands full with her smart and troubled teen Rachel (Lindsay Lohan). Lilly hopes that a few summer weeks in Idaho with her grandmother, the rule-loving Georgia (Jane Fonda), will straighten Rachel out before she goes off to college. But alas, things don’t start off well. In the opening scene, Rachel walks alongside her mother’s fancy car after a fight screaming “Get out of my life!” Only later do we find out that a dark secret fuels her bad-girl antics.

It’s hard not to think about this scene in retrospect and wish that not only Lohan but the entire talented cast of Georgia Rule had been able to bolt from this shallow movie. It has a split personality: the dark script goes in one direction while the tone of the film, under the direction of Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman, A League of Their Own), goes in another. As a result, its excellent cast is adrift in a film that doesn’t know if it wants to be a comedy or a drama. Although Georgia Rule attempts to blend the two, it ends up exploiting - rather than exploring - its heroine’s demons. To find out what I mean, read more

We find out very quickly that mother/daughter strife is multi-generational. Lilly is so uncomfortable being with her mother that she leaves right away, saying she has plans with friends. When Rachel shows up and hears this obvious lie, she deadpans, “She stopped drinking, smoking and hating herself, too.” Sounds like a laugh riot so far, no? Rachel quickly tests her strict grandmother, whose set of rules the film’s name references. “Do not take the Lord’s name in vain,” goes a typical refrain. “Georgia Rule.” Rachel’s response? “Don’t tell me what to do. Rachel Rule.” And what, primarily, does Rachel want to do? Seduce men.

The first man who catches Rachel’s eye is a handsome Mormon teen named Harlan (Garrett Hedlund) who first spots Rachel dozing on the side of the road. (Her relationship with him is one of the film's lame subplots.) Shortly after he gives her a ride into town, she hops into another stranger’s car, belonging to the town’s resident hunky vet and widower, Simon (Dermot Mulroney), who, it turns out, once dated her mother. He, too, resists her big city “forward” ways, ignoring her cleavage and leg-flashing. (She’s supposed to be from California, “the land of fruits and nuts.”)

Here’s where Georgia Rule gets into big trouble. Like those around her, the film doesn’t know how to handle Rachel sexually acting out. When it’s revealed that perhaps she’s been sexually abused by her stepfather, the sensitive viewer will be troubled by how Rachel’s shockingly self-destructive sexuality has been played for laughs and how the camera has been lingering lasciviously over her scantily-clad body for the entire film.

It’s the acting, primarily from Huffman and Lohan, that made Georgia Rule bearable for me. Huffman’s performance as a weak woman trying to deal with her daughter’s demons when she hasn’t even conquered her own is heart-rending. And no matter how you feel about Lindsay Lohan’s off-screen antics, she lights up the screen with her manic energy, humor and aggression. Nevertheless, in spite of its feel-good ending, Georgia Rule doesn’t have much affection for its female characters. They remain misunderstood until the very end.

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Movie Preview: Georgia Rule

BuzzSugar — Tue, 08 May 2007 23:22:18 -0700

Just in case you weren't aware of this yet, Georgia Rule opens this Friday May 11 and it stars Lindsay Lohan in a role that seems like it was made for her. She plays a rebellious young lady whose mother (Felicity Huffman, who I love) sends her to live with her strict-but-loving grandmother (Jane Fonda). I'm excited to see this movie because the two older women are awesome, and, admittedly I'm curious to watch Lindsay Lohan do something for the cameras besides flashing the peace sign or her unmentionables. I'll post my review on Friday. You can watch the trailer and tell me what you think if you read more

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First Look: Lohan, Fonda, Huffman in Georgia Rule

BuzzSugar — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 00:00:13 -0700

Though the movie doesn't come out for two more months, the trailer for Georgia Rule, starring Lindsay Lohan, just hit the Internet. Lohan plays an uncontrollable teenager (okay, not the biggest stretch) whose mother (Felicity Huffman) sends her to live with her grandmother (Jane Fonda) in a Mormon Idaho town. Hmm... maybe that's what Dina should have done.

After all that craziness with producer James Robinson writing a letter reprimanding Lohan for her terrible work ethic and partying ways, I kind of expected this project to turn into a disaster. Turns out, Lohan was just getting into character. I might actually see this film, mostly because Jane Fonda is awesome. Check out the trailer and tell me what you think when you read more