Bridesmaids Trumps “Sex And The City” To Set Box Office Record

Guys and dolls just can’t get enough of Bridesmaids — which explains why the cinema sidesplitter has surpassed Sex and the City to become the highest-grossing R-rated, female-driven comedy of all-time.

Hmmm…the phrase “Girls Rule, Boys Drool” springs to mind.

The film, which stars Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph and follows a group of women as they prepare for their friend’s wedding, has now earned $152.9 million at the North American box office, eclipsing the $152.6 million earned by Sex back in the Summer 2008.

The Judd Apatow production has also earned acclaim as Universal Pictures’ most successful romantic comedy ever, a much-needed boost for the ailing studio. Universal’s other 2011 comedy releases — among them The Dilemma, Paul, and Your Highness — have failed to make much of an impact at the box office. The crude comedy — a genre generally reserved for gents — has already become Judd Apatow’s most successful venture so far, trumping the domestic takes of Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby ($148.2 million) and Knocked Up ($148.8 million).

“There’s an enormous neglected community of moviegoers who want to see films like this,” Apatow told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s great that [now] there’s proof that there is a big market — and proof that men want to see movie[s] about women.”

Three Musketeers Release Delayed By a Week

The release of the movie The Three Musketeers has been delayed by a week. Director Paul WS Anderson's latest film was to hit the theatres on October 14. But Summit Entertainment has announced a new release date for the 3D flick, which will debut in cinema halls on October 21.

The Three Musketeers is an adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' novel with the same name. The hot-headed young D'Artagnan reunites with three former legendary Athos, Porthos and Aramis to stop the evil Cardinal Richlieu, Duke of Buckingham as well as the treacherous Milady de Winter.

Logan Lerman is playing the role of D'Artagnan, while Matthew Macfadyen, Ray Stevenson and Luke Evans reprise the roles of Athos, Porthos and Aramis respectively. Milla Jovovich is essaying the role of Milady de Winter, while Orlando Bloom appears as Duke of Buckingham. Juno Temple, Christoph Waltz and Mads Mikkelsen are also in the supporting cast.

Fast And Furious 6 Release On May 24 2013

Mark your calendars, Film Fans: Universal Studios has announced that engines will roar on another Fast & Furious film. The sixth edition of the franchise is set for theatrical release on May 24, 2013.

News of another Fast hit comes as little surprise — after all, Fast Five, the latest in the longrunning Fast and the Furious film series, left the competition in the dust to top the weekend box office in North America last month. The film stars Ludacris and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and sees screen hunks Vin Diesel and Paul Walker reprising the roles they made famous in the 2000 original. Fast Five took in an estimated gross of $83.6 million — that’s the best opening for a film so far this year. The sum also speeds past the $71 million haul of its predecessor, Fast & Furious, which opened two years ago. Fast Five also posted April’s largest opening day ever with $33.2 million in tickets sold on Friday. The action flick added $81.4 million overseas to bring its worldwide total to $165 million.

Predator Vs Mission: Impossible II and III

When we’re grandparents, our scornful warnings to little grandchildren who refuse to eat their greens won’t be of the wicked wolf, or monsters under the bed; they will be of Tom Cruise. The once golden man-child of mainstream movies may be something of a laughing stock nowadays — a tiny, little, oh-so-punchable laughing stock — but his weird cartel of Scientology nuts and desperately overpaid lawyers has sent movers and shakers around Hollywood running to the hills in order to avoid a casual suing. This is all well and good, but we’d love to see him try and take the Predator — the most badass trophy hunting alien in the galaxy — to court.

Die Hard Vs Live Free or Die Hard

Aging sucks. Sure, that might be a tad discriminatory, but we’re pretty sure even your grandparents would agree. Stuff starts sagging, memory fades, limbs become untrustworthy, chronic moaning sets in; it’s not a good look for anyone. So why are we innocent children of the 20th century constantly being forced to watch the retirement home sequel to all our Eighties faves nowadays? 1988’s Die Hard was undeniably awesome, an epoch defining film that spawned at least one more unforgettably good action movie and prompted hours of recess time spent using fingers as guns and screaming catchphrases (“Yippee ki-yay, motherf****er!”) as you PWNED your school chums, pretending to be Bruce Willis and ridding the under-siege tower of your terrorist friends.

Die Hard 4.0? It was a farfetched, patronizing reminder that Bruce Willis’ character will soon be able to ride the bus for free. Timothy Olyphant was a less satisfying white collar crook than even Philip Seymour Hoffman in MI:3 and the less said about the teen sidekick (played by Justin Long) the better. And no one but no one struts their stuff on a moving fighter jet; not even John McClane.

RoboCop Vs The Fast and the Furious

1987’s RoboCop was one of those movies that wasn’t necessarily the number one Eighties action flick, but that played an absolutely crucial role in the delicate popular culture continuum of the decade. Imagine, if you will, the Sixties without The Mamas & the Papas, or the Seventies without bad haircuts or the color orange. It would take away a vital part of the times. This is the case with RoboCop. It was a great movie. RoboCop himself was a half-man-half-machine policeman from the future, with a penchant for delivering justice the hard way and taking crap from no one.

Were RoboCop to exist in world of The Fast and The Furious, we dare say the smug grins would be wiped rapidly off the faces of Vin Diesel and his flatulent buddies as they got served some brutal justice for doing 55 in a 40 zone, an activity they seem particularly proficient at in the boring 2001 movie about illegal street racing. Vin Diesel would cry like a toddler. And we would laugh our asses off.

Terminator Vs Casino Royale

For anyone growing up in the 1980s, Arnie was boss. It was his decade; he may as well have had the copyright. His finest moment for many was of course his first foray into the robot-based action flick genre, playing the Terminator in the eponymous 1984 movie classic. Arnie portrayed a leather jacket-clad badass from the future, pursuing the protagonists through the streets of LA with an array of different weapons and a total disregard for human suffering.Scroll forward 22 years and said human suffering is the only thing ‘action’ hero Daniel Craig has in common with Arnie, making us all suffer through his pudgy, smirking, pudding-faced reboot of Bond in what might have otherwise held the potential to be a good movie. Killing off this particular 007 cannot come soon enough. Even Timothy Dalton would look better in a fight.

Aliens Vs Avatar

James Cameron waited 15 years until he turned his original script for Avatar into an Oscar-winning movie (following the George Lucas excuse of allowing CGI techniques the time to improve sufficiently), so it’s a real shame it blew. Sure, Avatar was arguably one of the most overwhelmingly colorful movies ever made — with the use of modern 3D techniques only furthering its stunning visual clout — but it also had the most contrived storyline since Smug Cop 4: Smugger Bastard. The storyline was a sort of fermenting temaki roll of Pocahontas, Dances with Wolves and An Inconvenient Truth all crammed together, and what’s more, the aliens in it sucked.Pit those freaks against the HR Giger conceived extra-terrestrials of our childhood favorite Aliens and there’d be a blue bloodbath with facehuggers and chestbursters scampering gleefully all over the place. Plus, Sigourney Weaver, as seen in Aliens, is buff — especially with a pulse rifle in her hands. As blue CGI in Dances with Smurfs? Not so much.

Commando Vs Crank

If this is one generation’s flagship badass versus another, we’d say the poor unfortunate kiddies that are being brought up on the likes of Crank are being drastically sold short by the R-Rated movie. When we were little it was absurdly over-the-top action goodness courtesy of former Governor Schwarzenegger that got our tiny hearts beating, and whilst Crank does utilize a slightly bonkers level of simulated of violence, when it’s delivered by a whiny cockney smart-ass like Jason Statham it just doesn’t cut the mustard.Arnie’s charms came from his one-liners, his expert wielding of rocket launchers and machine weaponry, his poise and his pure monosyllabic class as he rescues his daughter from that Australian bad guy with a ‘tache. Plus, in the case of 1985’s Commando, the levels of gore are so inherently Eighties — read: inherently exaggerated — it was never going to be knocked from its pedestal by some balding guy from London playing with a handgun or two.

Horrible Bosses Movie Reviews Posters

Oh look, Movie Fans: Horrible Bosses posters have been released, including this one, which features Jennifer Aniston and a bang. By now, millions have seen the trailer for America’s Sweetheart next soiree at the box office, in which the usually clean-cut bombshell stars as a sex-crazed dentist who harass her subordinates and enjoys a banana in lingerie. Jen shares the screen with Jason Sudeikis and Colin Farrell in Seth Gordon’s raunchy comedy, in theaters July 8.

Pirates of The Caribbean

Then Pirates of The Caribbean came roaring into theaters, and that was the end of Johnny Depp as an actor. Yes, he’s made a few smaller films since that film shattered everyone’s expectations, and yes, he’s still one of the most talented people working in Hollywood. But Pirates of The Caribbean: Curse of The Black Pearl seemed to mark the beginning of the end for the Ed Wood-Johnny Depp. In his place, we got…Captain Jack Sparrow. At first, this was fine and dandy– we all loved Jack Sparrow– but three films and a billion dollars at the box office later, the schtick’s worn thin, Ed Wood-Johnny Depp is a rapidly-fading memory, and Pirates of The Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides is here to rub it in all our faces.On Stranger Tides? It’s more like The Curse Of The Bloated Blockbuster as the series’ much-heralded back-to-basics approach founders on the rocks of dull backstory, too many characters and a sense of tiredness.With that are-we-nearly-there-yet? running time, Pirates 4 offers convincing proof this franchise has lost its sea legs.It kicks off in 18th century London with Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) cheating the gallows only to be ensnared by former love Angelica (Penélope Cruz – her eyes practically screaming, ‘get me out of here’).Forming an uneasy alliance with her and her dad Blackbeard (Ian McShane), they sail off to find The Fountain Of Youth, also being sought by the Spaniards. Along the way, they meet man-eating mermaids, zombie deckhands and Sparrow reunites with one-legged pal Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush).

It says a lot that Pirate veterans Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom have jumped ship, but Depp is back thanks to a reported £40m pay cheque. As far as value for money goes, that makes him the Fred Goodwin of acting, with his turn as the fey and unbalanced seaman rather one-note, while Sparrow’s backstory clogs up the film’s first 40 minutes.His relationship with Angelica is also so simplistic and devoid of spark it could have been written by a child.If you can be bothered, look out for small, pointless appearances from Judi Dench and Rolling Stone Keith Richards as Sparrow’s dad. Again.Depp said this movie was going to take us back to the pared-down but exuberant first film, The Curse Of The Black Pearl. But director Rob Marshall has taken us back to the lob-everything-at-the-screen formula of Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End. Even compared to these, the gags are a little less funny, the action a little less gripping and the gaps between both a little bit longer.

The Dilemma Movie Reviews

Film: The Dilemma

Director: Ron Howard, Producer: Brian Grazer under Universal Pictures.

Script: Allan Loeb

Cast: Vince Vaughan, Winona Ryder, Kevin James, Jennifer Connelly, Channing Tatum, Queen Latifah.

The Dilemma is a movie based on the storyline of best friends Ronny ( Vince Vaughn) and Nick ( Kevin James) who are also partners in business. The two set up a design house and while trying to make it big in their business deals and catching up on a big project sooner or later.

All goes on fine until Ronny discovers one fine day that Nick’s wife Kevin James (Winona Ryder) was into the kissing thing with another man Zip Hanson ( Channing Tatum). Ronny searches desperately for answers until he discovers that Nick has a big story of his own going on behind everybody are back.

The hilarious situations of Ronny trying to find a way to tell Nick about his wife and her cheating ways makes the entire movie into a complete laugh riot.

Despite the first promo of the movie falling into some sort of entangle due to the use of the word Gay in an inappropriate manner, it was sorted out after the word was taken off. However, the movie itself has the term as it was originally incorporated into it.

The movie is to hit theaters this Friday, so don’t miss it!

The Green Hornet Movie Preview

Directed by Michel Gondry, the movie The Green Hornet tells the story of Britt Reid (Seth Rogen), who is a playboy kind of man. He is the son of a rich newspaper publisher called James Reid (played by Tom Wilkinson). Following the sudden death of his dad, Britt becomes the new publisher of Los Angeles’ ‘The Daily Sentinel’.

Being the sole heir of his father, he meets an employee of his father called Kato (played by Jay Chou). Kato has something more in him than he apparently looks and he is a kung fu expert. After some time, he realizes that he and Kato are not utilizing their hidden abilities to its best. Then, the duo decides to fight against crime in the guise of the ‘Green Hornet’.

Britt’s new secretary Lenore Case (Cameron Diaz) helps him to discover that the city’s criminal underworld is controlled by that Russian criminal Benjamin Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz). On the other hand, Chudnofsky is stressed to think that he is losing his position as a crime boss. He unites all the crime gangs of the city and proposes to get hold of the Green Hornet, whom he believes to be the greatest threat of his plans.

Britt and Kato also become able to stop a robbery as the masked superhero ‘The Green Hornet’. Douglas Young has written the story of the movie, which is releasing tomorrow.

The Tourist Movie Review

This job gives me the chance to enjoy and then enthuse about original and compelling movies that distil universal truths from specific stories. The Lives of Others, the feature debut of director von Donnersmarck, was one such film.

But occasionally I catch myself wondering whether I’m being paid enough to sit through derivative tosh of such tonsil-aching banality that I want to eat my fist. The Tourist, the second feature by director von Donnersmarck, is one such film.

Based on a 2005 French caper flick about the chase for a money-launderer in the Riviera, the ferociously silly new film moves the setting to Venice, which is where Elise (Jolie) heads after being delivered a mysterious message from Alexander, an old flame.

Alexander has nicked a gangster’s millions and both Scotland Yard and the gangster (Berkoff, who else?) are on Elise’s trail because she’ll lead them to him. Instead, she hooks up with Frank Tupelo (Depp), a milquetoast maths teacher from Wisconsin, and invites the astonished tourist to join her in a flash hotel. When bullets start flying all she can say is, “I’m sorry I got you involved in this”.

The film they were trying to make Hitchcock already made, of course: To Catch a Thief with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, which it freely quotes. But even the Oscar-winning writing talent Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park) and Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) can’t breathe any life into this pallid imitation of a romantic thriller.

That’s because von Donnersmarck is tone-deaf to the genre he’s dealing with – comedy-drama that is equal parts thriller and farce. To carry it off requires the tongue-in-cheek insouciance that Grant had in spades but which Depp, for all his considerable skill, just can’t summon. It doesn’t help that there’s zero chemistry between him and Jolie, but the fact is that there’s zero chemistry anywhere in the film: the scene between a hapless Frank, arrested in his pyjamas, and a sceptical police chief, would, in Billy Wilder’s hands, have been both dramatic and hilarious. Here it is neither. The one-liner just makes matters worse and an outrageous twist at the movie’s end (you can see it coming from about minute 20) just adds insult to injury.

What’s left is pretty gowns and a nice setting. If off-the-shoulder Jolie and Venice are your idea of eye-candy, you’ll be in heaven. Me, I’m hoping the skin on my knuckles grows back.

Cast: Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany, Timothy Dalton, Steven Berkoff
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Running time: 103 mins

Gulliver Movie Review

The really annoying thing about Jack Black’s ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ is not so much that it`s a bad movie — it is bad, but only run-of-the-mill bad, not epic-misfire bad — but that the movie sullies a piece of literature that has endured for nearly 300 years for the sake of a cheap kiddie flick that`ll be forgotten in a month.

With Black`s giant footprints all over it, Jonathan Swift`s tale of Gulliver’s voyages is pretty much out of bounds for any filmmakers who actually might have wanted to make a good, faithful adaptation (you never know, it could have happened).

You can hear some studio executive listening to the pitch a decade or so from now: “Gulliver? Didn`t somebody make that piece of shipboard adventure 10 or 15 years ago?”

Hollywood runs in cycles, and Black`s movie takes Gulliver off the table for a good long time.

The live-action filmmaking debut for Rob Letterman, a co-director on the animated movies ‘Shark Tale’ and ‘Monsters vs. Aliens,’ ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ is set in modern times and borrows only a few key elements from Swift`s work.

Black`s Lemuel Gulliver is a mailroom sluggard at the New York Tribune who bluffs his way into a travel-writing assignment in the Bermuda Triangle to impress Darcy (Amanda Peet), an editor on whom he has a huge crush.

Gulliver sails into some sort of vortex that transports him to an alternate world, where he washes up on Lilliput, an island of tiny people 3 inches high.

Initially imprisoned as a beast, Gulliver gabs his way into the hearts of the Lilliputians with tall tales of his exploits borrowed from ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Titanic’ and ‘Avatar’ (all movies in which ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ studio 20th Century Fox has a stake, in case anyone`s counting).

Gulliver winds up as guardian of Lilliput against the enemy Blefuscians and befriends commoner Horatio (Jason Segel), who has his own crush on Lilliput`s Princess Mary (Emily Blunt), daughter of the goodhearted king and queen (Billy Connolly and Catherine Tate).

But evil General Edward (Chris O`Dowd), displaced as his realm`s protector, plots to expose Gulliver and banish him from the land.

‘Gulliver`s Travels’ has been adapted a few times before, most notably in Max Fleischer`s 1939 animated version. Richard Harris played Gulliver in a 1977 adaptation, while Ted Danson starred in a 1996 TV version.

In Black`s version, Swift`s biting satire is softened to innocuous family fare, with enough cute little gags and mugging by Black that young children should stay interested, if not enthralled, for the movie`s brisk running time.

There`s not much there for older kids and adults, the simple-minded story from screenwriters Joe Stillman (‘Shrek’) and Nicholas Stoller (Segel`s director on ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’) giving Black little to do but bumble and bray.

The story is so slight — Lilliputian, really — that the clever visual effects continually dominate ‘Gulliver`s Travels.’ Black tugging an armada of Blefuscian ships or simply strolling among the sand-castle-sized buildings of Lilliput are far more interesting to watch than any of the exchanges he and the little people have among themselves.

The movie was needlessly converted to 3-D. The images are not blurry and distracting as some 3-D conversions have been, but neither are they terribly impressive, adding nothing but a few extra dollars to the price of a ticket.

‘Gulliver`s Travels’ is preceded by an animated short featuring Scrat, the squawking little guy from the ‘Ice Age’ movies, whose next feature-length instalment is due out in 2012.

Scrat`s been chasing his beloved acorn for so long, and the new short pounds him into such a pulp, that it`s all starting to seem a little sadistic.

As for ‘Gulliver`s Travels,’ maybe by the book`s 300th anniversary in 2026, it`ll be time for a new big-screen version. And maybe a new quality-over-commerce attitude will have taken hold in Hollywood then, so we`ll get a smart, classy take on Gulliver.