Go Iron Man Go

Iron Man dominated theaters all around the world with last weekend gross of $50.5M, and cumulative of $177.1M. It will defiantly make $250M. Did you see Captain America’s shield in the film? The scene in which you can see the shield is after Iron Man returns from Afghanistan after he fights the two F-22 fighter jets, it shows him back in his lab trying to remove his armor but having trouble. Right as Pepper Potts walks down into his lab and asks him “what is he doing?”, the shield can be seen sitting on one of his tables behind him in the lower left corner. I thought Captain America wasn’t around at this time and I thought he got his shield from S.H.I.E.L.D.?

On the other hand Speed Racer struggled in its opening weekend with opening weekend gross $20.2M, It will defiantly not reach $60M. IT also got off to a slow start overseas grossing just $12.8M from 30 markets. South Korea saw the largest international opening with $2.4M helped by the film’s casting of Korean pop star Rain.

This is the US weekend to ten for May 9- 11

1- Iron Man $50,500,000 Cumulative $177,134,000
2- Speed Racer $20,210,000 Cumulative $20,210,000
3- What Happens in Vegas $20,000,000 Cumulative $20,000,000
4- Made of Honor $7,600,000 Cumulative $26,275,000
5- Baby Mama $5,770,000 Cumulative $40,381,000
6- Forgetting Sarah Marshall $3,778,000 Cumulative $50,723,000
7- Harold & Kumar $3,155,000 Cumulative $30,716,000
8- The Forbidden Kingdom $1,900,000 Cumulative $48,261,000
9- Nim’s Island $1,325,000 Cumulative $44,257,000
10- Redbelt $1,140,000 Cumulative $1,237,000

Did you see Samuel Jackson in Iron Man?

I hope by now you’ve seen the greatest Marvel movie Iron man witch it made in the first weekend $100.8M in the US and $201M internationally, and I hope that you have seen the final scene at the end of the credits where Samuel Jackson as Nick Fury tells Tony Stark he’s not the only superhero out there and that he wants to talk to him about the “Avengers Initiative.” An Avengers movie has been rumored for quite some time but now it seems like it could be a reality.

Summer Box Office Predictions

Last week Entertainment Weekly the summer movie preview edition, featured a page of box office predictions, and I disagree with there predictions.

This is Entertainment Weekly prediction

1. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - $355.9 million
2. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - $310.8 million
3. Hancock - $280.4 million
4. Wall-E - $280.3 million
5. Iron Man - $262.7 million
6. The Dark Knight - $255.0 million
7. Kung Fu Panda - $224.6 million
8. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - $176.5 million
9. The Incredible Hulk - $147.2 million
10. Tropic Thunder - $142.6 million

I’m not good with money but this is my prediction

1.Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - $320 million
2.Iron Man - $280 million
3.Hancock - $270 million
4.The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - $250 million
5.The Dark Knight - $238 million
6.Star Wars: The Clone Wars - $220 million
7.Wall-E - $215 million
8.Speed Racer - $188 million
9.The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - $180 million
10.Wanted - $179 million

What is you’re prediction?

US BOX OFFICE

The showdown between two martial arts legends Jackie Chan and Jet Li as their new fantasy action film The Forbidden Kingdom opened at number one which grossed $21.4M from 3,151 theaters. In the film, an American teen mysteriously travels back to ancient China and embarks on a quest to free the famed Monkey King. Chan and Li, who each got to play a double role, provided the star power to pull in paying audiences. I do like all Jackie Chan and Jet Li Honk Kong films, but I did not like any of there Hollowed films.
This is the list of top ten films in the US:

1- The Forbidden Kingdom $21,401,121
2- Forgetting Sarah Marshall $17,725,330
3- Prom Night $8,670,364
4- 88 Minutes $6,957,216
5- Nim’s Island $5,687,072
6- 21 $5,520,362
7- Street Kings $4,179,505
8- Horton Hears A Who $3,511,834
9- Leatherheads $3,049,465
10-Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed $2,970,848

It will be an awesome summer

One month from now the summer season will start, and I think this year will be great one. This is 12 reasons why this summer is a great one.

Iron Man

Release Date: May 2nd, 2008
Director: Jon Favreau (Elf, Zathura)
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges

It is the first summer film, and each time I see the trailer I get more exited. Everything about this trailer and this movie look perfect.The movie was written by Art Marcum, Matt Holloway, Mark Fergus (Children of Men, First Snow), and Hawk Ostby (Children of
Men, First Snow).

Speed Racer

Release Date: May 9th, 2008
Director: Larry Wachowski & Andy Wachowski (The Matrix Trilogy)
Starring: Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, Matthew Fox

It is literally live-action cartoon. Wachowski brothers literally replaced all the cartoon characters with real actors, but kept the same colors, look, style, focus, everything.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Release Date: May 16th, 2008
Director: Andrew Adamson (Shrek, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)
Starring: Georgie Henley, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Ben Barnes

I did like the first and from the trailer it looks a lot darker, grungier, and more intense. The story is that the Perverse siblings return to Narnia, where they are enlisted to once again help ward off an evil king and restore the rightful heir to the land’s throne, Prince Caspian.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Release Date: May 22nd, 2008
Director: Steven Spielberg (Every one should know who is he)
Starring: Harrison Ford, Shia LaBeouf, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Ray Winstone

He protected the power of the divine. He saved the cradle of civilization. He triumphed over the armies of evil. Now he’s back! Indiana Jones returns this summer in a new adventure that stretches from New Mexico to South America. directed by the legendary Steven Spielberg with a story by George Lucas and screenplay by David Koepp (Mission: Impossible, Spider-Man, War of the Worlds). The movie is the fourth in the Indiana Jones series and takes place 30 years after Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in the 1950s

Incredible Hulk

Release Date: June 13th, 2008
Director: Louis Leterrier (The Transporter, Unleashed)
Starring: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson

The movie is a completely new envisioning of the big green abomination that has no connection to Ang Lee’s 2003 Hulk film

Get Smart

Release Date: June 20th, 2008
Director: Peter Segal (Naked Gun 33 1/3, Anger Management, 50 First Dates)
Starring: Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, Terence Stamp, Alan Arkin

Steve Carell, have to do good in this movie especially after Evan Almighty the biggest flop in 2007. The Trailer looks funny and I hope it does will in the box office.

Hancock

Release Date: July 2nd, 2008
Director: Peter Berg (The Rundown, Friday Night Lights)
Starring: Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman)

A hard-living superhero who has fallen out of favor with the public enters into a questionable relationship with the wife of the public relations professional who’s trying to repair his image. The trailer is very funny.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Release Date: July 11th, 2008
Director: Guillermo del Toro (Blade II, Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth)
Starring: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Luke Goss, Thomas Kretschmann

The mythical world starts a rebellion against humanity in order to rule the Earth, so Hellboy and his team must save the world from the rebellious creatures.

The Dark Knight

Release Date: July 18th, 2008
Director: Christopher Nolan (Memento, Batman Begins, The Prestige)
Starring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal

Christian Bale is back as The Dark Knight and the late Heath Ledger as the Joker, what do you want more. This is already on its way to becoming the best movie of 2008.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Release Date: August 1st, 2008
Director: Rob Cohen (Fast and the Furious, xXx, Stealth)
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Maria Bello, Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, Luke Ford

In the Far East, trouble-seeking father-and-son duo Rick and Alex O’Connell unearth the mummy of the first Emperor of Qin - a shape-shifting entity who was cursed by a wizard centuries ago.

Tropic Thunder

Release Date: August 15th, 2008
Director: Ben Stiller (The Cable Guy, Zoolander)
Starring: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr, Brandon T. Jackson, Jay Baruchel

It is Ben Stiller movie-within-a-movie comedy about the Vietnam War. The story is a group of actors shooting a war movie includes Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), an over-the-top Australian-born method actor who has gone to extremes to get into character, novice thesp Sandusky (Jay Baruchel), gross-out comedy star Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte), the real-life inspiration for the film, pampered action superstar Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) and rap star Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson).

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Release Date: August 15th, 2008
Director: Dave Filoni

You might have thought that no Star Wars movie would ever show in theaters again, at least not until Lucas re-releases them in 3D sometime after 2010. Good news - that’s no longer the case, Warner Brothers decided to kick off the series with this theatrical release after they were shown the first footage from the series. Star Wars: The Clone Wars will run around 100 minutes in length and will take place between Episodes II and III. Anakin is not Darth Vader yet and the story will be focused around the ensuing Clone Wars that began in Episode II: Attack of the Clones.

The Golden Compass Killed New Line Cinema

We can pronounce New Line Cinema officially dead. The studio will be falling in under Time Warner and will become part of Warner Brothers.
New Line Cinema was founded 41 years ago by Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne as an independent studio under Time Warner, and they made great franchises (Austin Powers, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Blade, Rush Hour, and The Lord of the Rings) , now they will be operated by Warner Brothers, but will maintain separate development, production, marketing, distribution and business affairs operations. It will closely integrate and coordinate all of those functions with Warner Brothers in order to maximize the performance of their films and operating efficiencies.
2008 films (Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, Sex and the City, Semi-Pro, Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D, The Time Traveler’s Wife, and Four Christmases) will be released in the same time, but we do not know what will happen to The Hobbit, but it would defiantly be delayed.

I Am Legend’s Original Ending – I love it

If you did not see I Am Legend’s do not read this post and do not look at the video it is all spoilers.
In the I Am Legend’s DVD there will be the original ending and you need to watch it. It is Amazing. Most of people loved the film until the ending (where Alice Braga’s character appeared), and the end scene where the creatures break into Robert Neville’s lab is great but it wasn’t how it should have played out. To understand the original ending you have to know that the concept of Richard Matheson’s book is that Robert Neville actually is the last man on the planet. And he has switched places from our reality of what we perceive as legend. As in, vampires are to us because they’re a myth from fantasy. In the book Robert Neville is “legendary” because he is that myth and goes out day after day hunting them. In the original ending you see Robert Neville looks at the wall of photo of his “kills” and realizes that he must appear to be some sort of serial killer.

US BOX OFFICE

This weekend Roland Emmerich 10.000 BC conquered the box office with a grossing of $25.3M, I was looking forward for the film but after seeing it I was disappointed.
Disney claimed the second spot with Martin Lawrence College Road Trip which grossed $14M. I did not see the film and I have no plan to see it. This is the weekend box office (March 7-9):

1- 10,000 B.C. $35,730,000
2- College Road Trip 14,000,000
3- Vantage Point 7,500,000
4- Semi-Pro 5,750,000
5- The Bank Job 5,710,000
6- The Spiderwick Chronicles 4,800,000
7- The Other Boleyn Girl 4,000,000
8- Jumper 3,750,000
9- Step Up 2 The Streets 3,049,000
10- Fool’s Gold 2,800,000

2008 Academy Awards Winners

BEST PICTURE
Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
WINNER: No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

BEST DIRECTOR
Julian Schnabel - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Jason Reitman - Juno
Tony Gilroy - Michael Clayton
WINNER: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson - There Will Be Blood

BEST ACTOR
George Clooney - Michael Clayton
WINNER: Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp - Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Tommy Lee Jones - In the Valley of Elah
Viggo Mortensen - Eastern Promises

BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett - Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie - Away from Her
WINNER: Marion Cotillard - La Vie en Rose
Laura Linney - The Savages
Ellen Page - Juno

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Casey Affleck - The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
WINNER: Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Charlie Wilson’s War
Hal Holbrook - Into the Wild
Tom Wilkinson - Michael Clayton

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Cate Blanchet - I’m Not There
Ruby Dee - American Gangster
Saoirse Ronan - Atonement
Amy Ryan - Gone Baby Gone
WINNER: Tilda Swinton - Michael Clayton

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
WINNER: Juno - Diablo Cody
Lars and the Real Girl - Nancy Oliver
Michael Clayton - Tony Gilroy
Ratatouille - Brad Bird
The Savages - Tamara Jenkins

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Atonement - Christopher Hampton
Away from Her - Sarah Polley
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Ronald Harwood
WINNER: No Country for Old Men - Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
There Will Be Blood - Paul Thomas Anderson

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Persepolis
WINNER: Ratatouille
Surf’s Up

BEST ART DIRECTION
American Gangster
Atonement
The Golden Compass
WINNER: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
There Will Be Blood

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Beaufort - Israel
WINNER: The Counterfeiters - Austria
Katyn - Poland
Mongol - Kazakhstan
12 - Russia

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - Roger Deakins
Atonement - Seamus McGarvey
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Janusz Kaminski
No Country for Old Men - Roger Deakins
WINNER: There Will Be Blood - Robert Elswit

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
No End in Sight
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
Sicko
WINNER: Taxi to the Dark Side
War/Dance

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
WINNER: Freeheld - Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth
La Corona (The Crown) - Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega
Salim Baba - Tim Sternberg and Francisco Bello
Sari’s Mother - James Longley

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
I Met the Walrus - Josh Raskin
Madame Tutli-Putli Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski
Même Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven) - Samuel Tourneux and Simon Vanesse
My Love (Moya Lyubov) - Alexander Petrov
WINNER: Peter & the Wolf - Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT FILM
At Night - Christian E. Christiansen and Louise Vesth
Il Supplente (The Substitute) - Andrea Jublin
WINNER: Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets) - Philippe Pollet-Villard
Tanghi Argentini - Guido Thys and Anja Daelemans
The Tonto Woman - Daniel Barber and Matthew Brown

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
WINNER: The Golden Compass
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
Transformers

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Across the Universe - Albert Wolsky
Atonement - Jacqueline Durran
WINNER: Elizabeth: The Golden Age - Alexandra Byrne
La Vie en Rose - Marit Allen
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - Colleen Atwood

BEST FILM EDITING
WINNER: The Bourne Ultimatum - Christopher Rouse
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Juliette Welfling
Into the Wild - Jay Cassidy
No Country for Old Men - Roderick Jaynes
There Will Be Blood - Dylan Tichenor

BEST SOUND MIXING
WINNER: The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
3:10 to Yuma
Transformers

BEST SOUND EDITING
WINNER: The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
There Will Be Blood
Transformers

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
WINNER: Dario Marianelli - Atonement
Alberto Iglesias - The Kite Runner
James Newton Howard - Michael Clayton
Michael Giacchino - Ratatouille
Marco Beltrami - 3:10 to Yuma

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
WINNER: “Falling Slowly” - Once, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
“Happy Working Song” - Enchanted, Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz
“Raise It Up” - August Rush
“So Close” - Enchanted, Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz
“That’s How You Know” - Enchanted, Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz

BEST MAKEUP
WINNER: La Vie en Rose - Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald
Norbit - Rick Baker and Kazuhiro Tsuji
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End - Ve Neill and Martin Samuel

We Are Back

I was away for the last three weeks, and because of the internet problem we could not record an episode, after the Oscars (FEB 24th) we will record new episode.

Only two months from now the summer movie season will start with Iron Man (May 2nd), but there are interesting pre-summer movies that will be release in the next 2 mothers. This is the list of movies that I think worth watching until the summer movie season start:

FEBRUARY

Be Kind Rewind
I’m really looking forward for this film, the story is that Jack Black accidentally destroys all of the VHS tapes in a local movie rental shop and must remake all of the movies with co-worker Mos Def to help save the business.

Vantage Point
There are a handful of great actors: Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker, Sigourney Weaver. It’s an action thriller set around the assassination of the president as told from 5 different “vantage points”.

Semi-Pro
Ferrell plays Jackie Moon, a singer with one hit wonder who used the profits from the success of his chart-topping song “Love Me Sexy” to achieve his dream of owning a basketball team. But Moon’s franchise, the Flint Michigan Tropics, is the worst team in the league and in danger of folding when the ABA announces its plans to merge with the NBA. If they want to survive, Jackie and the Tropics must now do the seemingly impossible win.

MARCH

10,000 BC
It pretty much looks exactly like Apocalypto, but set in 10,000 BC - a guy from his tribe gets captured, is taken to the capitol city, probably supposed to be executed, and probably goes on to escape and save the tribe

The Bank Job
The film is based on a true story and after the real life heist, the government got involved and covered up the whole thing until quite recently

Doomsday
Great Britain, 2007. A deadly plague, known as the “Reaper Virus,” has broken out, killing hundreds of thousands in its wake. In desperation, the British Government evacuates as many survivors as it can out of the infected area, and then builds a wall, preventing the remainder from escaping. Thirty years later, with the wall still up and the victims all but forgotten, the virus breaks out again. The Government decides to send a crack team of operatives, led by Major Eden Sinclair, into the hot zone to investigate the possibility of a cure

APRIL

Leatherheads
A romantic comedy set in the world of 1920s professional football starring, trailer looks very funny

.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
This is the next comedy film for Judd Apatow team Since Knocked Up and Superbad. It is about a break up that turns even worse when the two just happen to be vacationing in the same hotel in Hawaii