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The big budget always wins, and in this case 2012 took the title in a landslide.  My dark horse, Pirate Radio, the other new release this weekend, came in at a paltry number eleven!  This, my friends, is why I don’t bet the horses.

Source: BoxOfficeMojo.com

2012

Slim pickings this week, since it looks like nobody wanted to go up against the next great disaster flick.  Having consumed just about every variation of “Natural Phenomena Gone Wild” over the years, somebody at Sony Pictures thought, “Hmm, we’re out of ways to destroy the world, so why don’t we just combine them all into one?”  Predicated on the absurd notion that because the Mayan calender ends in 2012 there must not be anything after that, this movie is sure to be the big budget thriller of the week.  Granted, it’s the ONLY big budget thriller this week….

Pirate Radio

Now, this is my kind of movie. From the description:

In the 1960s this group of rougue DJs, on a boat in the middle of the Northern Atlantic, played rock records and broke the law all for the love of music. The songs they played united and defined an entire generation and drove the British government crazy. By playing Rock n Roll they were standing up against the British government who did everything in their power to shut them down.

Nothing I like better than sticking it to the man, and if you go see this instead of 2012 that’s just what you’ll be doing.  JOIN ME IN SOLIDARITY AGAINST THE MAN!  SEE GOOD MOVIES!

UP

This Disney/Pixar was a laugh riot in the theaters, and it should be no different in your living room.  Nobody brings a story to life like Pixar and this one is may be its most human story yet.  It’s the story of an old man trying to keep a promise he made to his dead wife, and the hijinks that ensue when he accidentally enlists the help of his friendly neighborhood boy scout.  If you don’t cry, you’ve gotta be some kind of zombie vampire from space.

The Ugly Truth

I don’t know about this one.  I couldn’t bring myself to sit through the obvious schlock-fest that is this movie, but that’s my problem.  From what I can tell, it’s your standard romcom wherein Gerard Butler is attempting to help the supremely overrated Katherine Heigl (I’d like to buy a vowel?) how to fall in love the right way, but the silly girl falls in love with him instead.  I just threw up in my shoe, but hey, to each his own.

Ink

When looking up the description for Ink, I came across this little nugget from IMDB: “Ink has been hailed as the new “it” movie and compared to cult classics Brazil, Donnie Darko, The Matrix, Dark City and Pan’s Labyrinth.”  So there you have it, no further description necessary, it’s cool so you must see it.

As expected, the top spot over the weekend was taken by the Jim Carrey animated remake of the classic holiday story, Disney’s A Christmas Carol.  The posthumous MJ concert flick This is It slipped to number 2 in its second week in theaters, and the third spot was held by my personal favorite movie of the weekend, The Men Who Stare at Goats.  Not a lot of surprises here, though Paranormal Activity continues to stubbornly refuse to go away, holding a death grip on the number 5 slot in its seventh week on the charts (the longest streak of any movie in the top twelve).

Source: BoxOfficeMojo.com

The Men Who Stare at Goats

For a movie that is only opening in limited release I have seen more previews for this one than any of the movies below. It seems to me that it could either be largely stupid or immensely entertaining. The movie focuses on a secret military unit whose focus is psychic warfare. What the unit has turned into however is a unit specializing in rather strange interrogation techniques.

Disney’s A Christmas Carol

Now there are so many different versions of this movie floating around and in a month we will all be subjected to watching them over and over again in a month’s time. Perhaps that is the reasoning for this movie being released so early but I really think that a release closer to Christmas would have given this movie better box office returns. This is a CGI version of the classic tale with Jim Carrey doing the voice of Ebeneezer Scrooge. While this tale is a classic and this does look like a very cute version I’m wondering if there are no other Christmas stories out there.

The Box

This is another new take on a classic tale. In this movie a couple is given a box with a button. They are told that if they push the button, someone will die and they will be given $1 million. Unlike some versions of the story in this movie the box will only kill someone that the person pressing the button does not know.  This movie stars James Marsden and Cameron Diaz as the uphappy couple who are granted the box and forced to make this terrifying decision.

The Fourth Kind

This movie tells the story of a psychologist who travels to a small town in Alaska where every year a number of people disappear from the town. Despite numerous investigations the truth has never been discovered that is until this psychologist starts videotapping sessions with traumatized patients. What she uncovers is truth of encounters of the fourth kind – alien abduction. This movie threatens to be another in the recent trend of really good horror movies.

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3

This new take on the original had a mash up that most people were dying to see. Travolta and Washington are amazing actors on their own and seeing them on opposite forces match wits was very impressive. The problem lies in the fact that the movie struggles to incorporate new technology and it does fall short of the intrigue and mind games of the original version. If we are not drawing comparisons though, this movie is entertaining and it is great to see the interaction between these two big names.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

This movie was advertised as a great summer blockbuster and it fulfilled that requirement. It was action-packed, slightly cheesy and the plot was almost completely predictable, but above all it was entertaining and that is all that is really required of a summer blockbuster. The movie differs greatly from the cartoon and the comic and for that reason it was probably a small disappointment to die hard fans. If you are looking for a detailed plot and thrilling dialogue, this movie is not going to impress you but for a brief escape full of action and explosions it is great.

Aliens in the Attic

This was one movie that I thought looked completely terrible in previews and it seems (at least from box office returns) that many people did agree with me. But for those with kids it is a very rentable movie that will keep them entertained for a special movie night. The movie is about aliens landing and trying to attack a family and the family’s attempts to fight back. Simple and filled with a few comedic moments that will be sure to please children.

This is also a week for Christmas movie re-releases so here are just a couple of my favorites out of the multitude that will be hitting the shelves this week.

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (Ultimate Collector’s Edition)

Now I have not been a fan of all the Lampoon Vacation movies because usually they are over the top, completely cheesy and go way too far. This one, on the other hand is viewed together with my entire family at least once during the holiday season, and finally they have released with everything you could possibly want to go with it.

White Christmas (Anniversary Edition)

I am a huge fan of the old fashioned musicals because they have a charm and emotion that is rarely captured on the screen anymore. This movie is one of my favorites because it has a great story and the usual plot twist and that amazing heartwarming ending. This new edition has a surprisingly large amount of extras including backstage stories and a commentary by Rosemary Clooney.

I was actually surprised by this weekend’s results, not by the order of course but by the numbers. I really expected Michael Jackson’s This is It to bring in much more money than it did. After all it was the only movie really opening this weekend and the hype it has been generating should have brought in more people. Paranormal Activity on the other hand continues to impress, six weeks into the box office and it still more than doubles the box office returns in its closest competitor. That movie is just astounding having made over $80 million at the box office so far when it only cost $15,000 to make. Overall though this weekend was disappointing for the box office as the top 12 did not even break $80 million, considering the box office has been over $100 million for the past few weeks this is a sharp decline. The box office hasn’t been under $80 million since the beginning of September. This may be due to the fact that it was a Halloween weekend, so we will have to since if the number bounce back next weekend.

Source: BoxOfficeMojo.com

This weekend there is only one movie opening in wide release and there is little wonder why.

This is It

The documentary movie featuring a behind the scenes look at the life of Michael Jackson is the only movie in wide release this weekend. This would probably be the case even under normal circumstances but it has been announced that this movie will only be released in theaters for two weeks. Which means a limited amount of time for a very very large amount of fans to see this movie on the big screen. There have been some mixed reviews but it is hard not to want to watch the story of one of the most influential music artists of all time.

There are a few movies in limited release that deserve mentioning.

The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day

Now I am not one for gorey movies but Boondock Saints does it with cool style, after all what is cooler than chanting in Latin before you are about to kill someone. Talk about building suspense. This time the brothers are on the case of a murdered priest and this time the case is important enough for them to leave the treasured life in Ireland.

The Fall

In a rather odd twist this movie features the problems that arise with a rising politician’s brother is jailed for murdering a priest. Perhaps you should make a double feature of these two movies.

These movies are still in theaters, if you haven’t seen them what are you waiting for?

Paranormal Activity

I have mentioned this film a few times and it is hard not to keep mentioning it. This movie is bound to make you jump and scream at least once. With ghost stories and horrors rarely being original this movie is so refreshing it is not even funny.

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

The Ice Age series hits DVD once again and this time our frozen friends are facing not a meltdown but the dinosaurs themselves. This cute and witty movie may not have been as good as its predecessors but it is still and all around good film to watch with the family.

Orphan

This creepy adopted child wrecks havoc on her family in this horror flick. Though it may not have been the best horror ever made it certainly had some big scares and a bit of originality thrown in, even though the evil child plot has nearly be done to death. So sit back and have a good scare, though you might want to leave the lights on while watching this one.

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan

This movie tells the story of the Cylons and their desire to get revenge on the humans who enslaved them. It really takes on the story of the Cylons which was largely skipped over in the series. That said it tries to do too much with too little and it may be a disappointment to true BattleStar Gallatica fans.

Night of the Creeps

This classic, cheesy yet wonderful 80s horror is finally being released on DVD and Blu-Ray. This has all the cheesy fun of a campy sci-fi horror but done as good as it can possibly be. The movie starts off about a couple in 1959 who see a meteor crash to earth. The boy accidentally swallows a space slug that shoots out from the meteor. Years later the corpse of the boy is discovered by two college freshman and once the body gets warmed up it comes to life!

This weekend the independent film Paranormal Activity becomes the number one movie with not a single movie coming even close as competition. It is normally unheard of for a movie to become more successful the longer it is in the box office but considering the initial limited release of this film and then the hype following its release it is no wonder that this movie has become such a success. Saw VI narrowly beat out Where the Wild Things Are and you can expect Saw VI and Paranormal Activity both competing once again for that top slot over the Halloween weekend. The week’s other new releases did not even make it into the top 5 with Astro Boy taking the number 6 slot and Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant taking number 8. Neither of these placing surprise me as I did not see anything particularly original or stunning in these films. I do continue to be surprised by Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs that movie took a story that I honestly thought was too short and simple to become a book and turned it into what was actually a very funny and very cute movie, and it continues to prove this at the box office.

Source: BoxOfficeMojo.com