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What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday

BuzzSugar — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 06:30:00 -0700

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 the titles below, Guy Ritchie's Revolver and Southland Tales starring Justin Timberlake, The Rock, and Sarah Michelle Gellar are also available today.

Enchanted
Is it just me or does it feel like we've been waiting for this movie to come out on DVD for forever? Enchanted is a treat for anyone who grew up loving those good old-fashioned animated Disney films (remember life before Pixar?). I truly enjoyed this trip down Disney Memory Lane and I know a lot of you did, too. The movie, starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, Susan Sarandon, and James Marsden is a wonderfully fun twist on the classic princess tale.

The story centers around Giselle (Adams), an amalgamation of Disney heroines from the days of yore who lives in a land called Andalasia. Giselle's chief concerns are marrying Prince Edward (Marsden), singing, and dancing with forest creatures. Edward's stepmother (Sarandon) is unhappy with Gisele and Edward's relationship, and she uses her evil magic to boot Giselle out of the animated world and into real-world Times Square. Once there, Giselle's simple, optimistic outlook on life is challenged by a force much darker and more cynical than any evil witch: a New York divorce attorney (Dempsey).

This DVD comes with lots of special featurettes including bloopers, a glimpse behind the creation of Andalasia, and extra shorts about Pip's (Giselle's trusty chipmunk friend) adventures.

More romance and adventure coming out this week, so read more.

I am Legend
I Am Legend was hit or miss with folks when it came out, but now that it's on DVD it's the kind of movie that will do the trick if you're looking to kick back and be entertained by some action. Plus, it's Will Smith and he's always good entertainment.

The film is based on Richard Matheson's 1954 sci-fi novel and follows Robert Neville (Smith), one of the few people who survives a virus that nearly renders humanity extinct. Robert's not alone however, there is another group of people, the infecteds, who have turned into "the night seekers." These scary things are like vampires/zombies that go around at night trying to infect surviving humans. Robert, a scientist, is working hard to find a cure for the disease before the creepies can get him. Thus, this sci-fi thriller takes you through a suspenseful race against time.

Special features include four animated comics as well as bonus material "exploring the history and current status of life-threatening viral infections."

Love in the Time of Cholera
I'm a big fan of Gabriel García Márquez’s wonderful 1985 novel Love in the Time of Cholera, as are many, but when I heard it was being adapted to film I had a hard time figuring out how that would work. In the book, plot isn't necessarily the driving force so much as the long, gorgeous sentences and the poetic feeling of the exquisite torture of longing for something you love. Like many, this film slipped off my radar and I still haven't been able to see this story brought to life onscreen.

I'm adding this to my queue partly out of curiosity, but also because the Oscar-winning super dreamy Javier Bardem stars as Florentino Ariza, a young man who falls hard (seriously, he loves her forever) for Fermina Daza (played by Giovanna Mezzogiorno). The film is directed by Mike Newell (Donnie Brasco, Four Weddings and Funeral) and was filmed in Columbia. Add it all up and this is one romantic drama I'm excited to get lost in at home.

Juno Was the Real No. 2 Movie Last Weekend, Not Legend

BuzzSugar — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 14:29:14 -0800

Though the initial estimates on Sunday put I Am Legend as the No. 2 movie at the box office this past weekend with $16.4 million and Juno in the No. 3 spot with $16.2, the actual numbers indicate that this order is really reversed! Thus, Juno is the No. 2 movie in the country, beating out the big Will Smith thriller I Am Legend at the box office. Hooray for Juno!

In related news, Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody just won the Critics' Choice Award for her screenplay. She's currently working on her next project, a teenage horror movie called Jennifer's Body, starring Megan Fox and produced by Juno director Jason Reitman. Now there's the news that Girlfight writer/director Karyn Kusama has signed on to direct.

Cody, whose favorite horror movie is apparently Rosemary's Baby, recently told the MTV Movies Blog that Jennifer's Body is "a horror movie, and it’s also about teenagers...It’s a lot darker [than Juno], and it also has comedic elements. Horror is my favorite genre - and like Juno, I like horror movies." I can't wait to see the next project to come out of Cody's awesome imagination.

Source

Box Office: National Treasure Still Gold, Juno Keeps Climbing

BuzzSugar — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 06:30:00 -0800

For the third weekend in a row, National Treasure: Book of Secrets led the way at the box office, bringing in a respectable $20.2 million. This is nice and all, but the real success story this weekend is that of Juno, the little indie movie that has consistently jumped higher and higher in the box office ranks over its five-week run at the theaters.

More often than not movies experience a decline at the box office after the initial buzz dies down, but not little Juno. Granted, it opened in more theaters this weekend, but the numbers for this movie are still wildly impressive - particularly for an independent film. According to Variety, the movie will most likely become Fox Searchlight's most lucrative project, as it's gunning to outpace both Sideways and Little Miss Sunshine.

I Am Legend just barely pushed its way to second place with $16.4 million, just over Juno's $16.2 million. Alvin and the Chipmunks refused to budge from the top five, landing at No. 4. Rounding out the top five was newbie horror flick One Missed Call.

Photo courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures

Would You Want to See a Sequel to I Am Legend?

BuzzSugar — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 16:30:33 -0800

The rumor mill is working overtime with folks chattering about a sequel to the recent box office smash hit I Am Legend. Apparently, the author of the book on which the movie is based, Richard Matheson sold the sequel rights to Warner Bros., so the studio is clearly interested in producing a second film.

No word on castings, however, and it's possible Will Smith wouldn't be involved. Would a sequel be as good without the first movie's star? What do you think?

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

Box Office: Book of Secrets Is Truly a National Treasure

BuzzSugar — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 07:30:00 -0800

For the second lucrative weekend in a row, the National Treasure sequel Book of Secrets has taken the box office crown, raking in $35.6 million. Edging out I Am Legend for second place was Alvin and the Chipmunks, which brought in $29 million. Legend's $27 million brought it to No. 3 with Charlie Wilson's War taking in way less ($11 million) but still grabbing fourth place.

Happily, the little indie movie that could, Juno, made the list of top five movies at the box office over this final weekend of 2007! Variety points out that Juno, which took in $10 million its fourth weekend in theaters, "was up a whopping 201% from the previous weekend," and both weekends the movie played in 998 theaters. That is an awesome success, homeskillet.

Photo courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures

Buzz In: What Are the Best Book-to-Film Adaptations of 2007?

BuzzSugar — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 07:03:21 -0800

It seems to be all the rage to find fodder for movies within books these days, and 2007 featured a good number of book-to-film adaptations. Aside from the beloved Harry Potter movie, this year's projects were met with varied success. The Golden Compass, based on the first of Philip Pullman's series His Dark Materials was not exactly praised by either those who read the book or those who had not. I Am Legend, though popular at the box office, managed to irritate some fans of Richard Matheson's 1954 sci-fi novel in its transition to film.

There were some success stories, as well. Bridge to Terabithia, for example, will never be as great on screen as it is in one's imagination, but I was pleased with what they did with the movie version. And, of course, I believe Atonement is a fine example of how to create an excellent film that can stand on its own as a piece of art while still honoring the original text.

What do you think about this year's adaptations? Which ones worked the best, and which ones probably should have just stayed on the bookshelf?

National Treasure is Golden Over Holiday Weekend

BuzzSugar — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 09:15:35 -0800

National Treasure: Book of Secrets, the sequel to Nicolas Cage's 2004 hit, scored big at the box office over the long holiday weekend, bringing in an estimated $65 million in the five-day period between Friday and Tuesday.

I Am Legend finished second, pulling in an estimated $47.5 million over the five days. Fox wouldn't estimate how much money Alvin and the Chipmunks made over the long weekend, but as of Sunday it had brought in $29 million and was in third place behind National Treasure and Legend.

Two Golden Globe nominees, Charlie Wilson's War and Sweeney Todd, battled for fourth and fifth place. Charlie Wilson brought in $14.8 million over five days, edging Sweeney Todd with $12.8 million.

Other notable numbers: P.S. I Love You finished sixth with $9.1 million. Meanwhile, Walk Hard failed to match the heights of Superbad or Knocked Up, bringing in just $5.8 million.

Next week's numbers should be interesting, as three relatively big movies - Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem, The Great Debaters, and The Water Horse - opened on Christmas Day.

Source

I Am Legend: Highest-Grossing December Opening Ever

BuzzSugar — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 06:30:00 -0800

Talk about a prophetic title: I Am Legend has proven to be, well, legendary. Taking in $76.5 million in its opening weekend, the Will Smith sci-fi thriller beat out Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($72.6 million) to become the highest-grossing December movie ever. In the history of box office sales in general, I Am Legend's opening weekend is the 16th highest-grossing of all time.

In addition, the updated CGI version of Alvin and the Chipmunks did extremely well, bringing in $45 million. By contrast, however, The Golden Compass drastically underperformed at the box office, coming in third place but totaling just $9 million in sales its second weekend in theaters. Enchanted came in fourth place with No Country for Old Men rounding out the top five. The returning film that did the most pleasingly is Atonement, which jumped from No. 15 to No. 9 on the charts, this weekend bringing in $1.8 million. Yay!

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

I Am Legend: So Much Potential, Yet So Tiresome

BuzzSugar — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 13:30:25 -0800

I Am Legend is not a terrible movie. It's simply disappointing to see something that could have been great - and that starts out with some excellent things going for it - whimper out to nothing in the end. Based on Richard Matheson's 1954 sci-fi novel, this story has been adapted for film before (Last Man on Earth, Omega Man), with moderate success. Why a modern-day adaptation was supposed to work best is unclear (maybe the use of CGI was alluring?). Will Smith has a challenging task, acting almost entirely alone for the better part of the film, and he's surprisingly good at it. But his fine performance becomes the film's one redeeming quality, and one is not enough.

The movie starts out with Smith's character, Robert Neville, roaring around Manhattan in a sweet car, hunting for food. The visual construction of a barren, silent New York City is this film's strength. It's eerie to see "the city that never sleeps" half-crumbled, overgrown with weeds and devoid of human life. We discover that three years earlier, a virus took hold of the city and wiped out the entire city's population (and then the world's population) - with the exception of a few immune people, like Robert, and a group of infecteds who turned into "the night seekers." To find out more about these crazies, read more.

These former humans are now vampireish, zombielike monsters who can't stand the light and prowl around at night looking to destroy/infect any survivors. Robert, a scientist, diligently works to find a cure for the virus using his blood, though capturing an infected without being attacked himself proves challenging. Thus, it turns into a race against time: Robert trying to figure out a cure before any of the night-seekers destroy him.

The science-fiction aspects of the film are often intriguing - and far and away more interesting than the disgusting animated night-seekers who alternate between gratingly annoying and laughably ridiculous. The vicious, hairless, screeching monsters resemble larger and stronger versions of Gollum from Lord of the Rings but are emptier and more pointless versions of Gollum. As the film continues, there are more and more jump-scares, featuring a quiet scene jarringly interrupted by a sudden noise (usually the outrageously obnoxious monster screaming sound), a tactic that grows incredibly tiresome. Soon the struggle becomes that of Robert trying to stay alive against an army of night seekers - which, while more action-packed, is a far less compelling storyline than seeing Robert figure out a cure. Thus, there are ways that this movie could have been cooler and more interesting, but the cheap scares and goofy CGI monsters bring it down many notches from what it might have been.

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros.

Link Time! 11/1

BuzzSugar — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 14:28:42 -0700

SuperheroHype found a new image from the next Batman movie, The Dark Knight.
Cinematical found a hilariously groovy clip from an instructional video on how to breakdance - featuring a young Vin Deasel.
Rolling Stone's Rock & Roll Daily has details on what Alanis Morissette's up to these days, including a new album and the possibility of more parody songs.
Popwatch wants to know what the top ten viral videos of the year are.
Check out Will Arnett and Amy Poehler in a new Gap ad at Give Me My Remote.
FilmExperience explains why the kiss between George and Mary in It's a Wonderful Life is so well-done.
TV with MeeVee is loving The Simpsons video game.

ShockTilYouDrop is featuring a comic book companion piece to the upcoming Will Smith movie I Am Legend.
Lifeline Live has the details on a live Project Runway event in New York next week.
AquariumDrunkard is heading down to New Orleans for the 2007 Voodoo Fest.