I wasn’t surprised that David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises topped this week’s Box Office Power Rankings, but I was surprised by the margin. Even though the Russian-mob movie took fifth place in overall box office this past weekend (its first in wide release), its per-theater average and enthusiastic reviews gave it an easy victory.
In this week’s rankings, 3:10 to Yuma staved off The Brave One to retain its crown, assisted in large part by movie critics giving the Jodie Foster vehicle mediocre reviews.
The grief in Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke is heartbreaking. Unfortunately, the anger in it is misinformed, facile, naïve, misplaced, unfair, inconsistent, unsupported, or some combination of the seven.
It must be the fall movie season, because last weekend’s box-office champ brought in all of $14 million. What we’ll discover in the coming months is how the youthful Box Office Power Rankings (started in May) react to an autumn environment, with its decidedly different dynamic. My guess is that absent summer blockbusters, critical reception will carry more weight.
Sick sick sick movies.
Eat some people, fuck the dead.
It’s time for haiku!
Are you Ravenous?
Do you see the potency
That human meat gives?
Guy Pearce, his cheekbones,
Gold-rush cannibalism –
What’s there not to like?
There is nobody like Andrew Bird in the world, a songwriter and a performer who makes his whistling, his glockenspiel, and his violin at home with guitars, drums, and vocals in detailed, pitch-perfect pop songs that never seem precious or forced, as eccentric as they are. But when you’re as idiosyncratic as Bird is, that means there aren’t many people whose vision matches your own.
Superbad, after spending the past two weeks in our rankings behind The Bourne Ultimatum, finally took the top spot over the Labor Day weekend … by finishing second in all four of the criteria.
With Rob Zombie’s remake in theaters this weekend, I thought it would be a good opportunity to explore why Michael Myers (or “The Shape”) worked so well in John Carpenter’s 1978 movie Halloween.