Larry Ratliff

'Rio,' bravo! ... 'Scream 4'? So-so

 

Blu (center), voiced by Jesse Eisenberg flies, sort of, for the first time in "Rio." 

(Courtesy:  20th Century Fox)

The bird can't fly, but 20th Century Fox's color-splashed animated yarn about the landlubber macaw certainly can and did.

"Rio" flew past expectations to take domestic box-office honors over the weekend with a whopping $40 million in 3,826 theaters, according to published reports.

And that was just in the U.S.  Worldwide, according to a post on the Hollywood Reporter Web site, the Blu bird of 3-D paradise (voiced by Jesse Eisenberg of "The Social Network") has nested $169 million in just a dozen days.

It was a good rebound movie weekend overall.  "Scream 4," directed once again by Wes Craven, scared up $19.2 million to come in at No. 2 for the weekend.

Craven wasn't the only familiar name linked to the horror franchise who returned, though.  "Screamers" David Arquette, his estranged wife Courteney Cox and Neve Campbell hopped back on the bandwagon as well.

Hollywood scares up spooky seasonal B.O.

 

Nina (Naomi Snieckus) finds herself in a rather tight spot in "Saw 3D."  (Courtesy:  Lionsgate Entertainment)

BOO!  That's the seasonal message from Hollywood this year and in years past.

But it doesn't all have to do with Halloween, according to an article posted on the Hollywood Reporter Web site.

That's despite the fact that "Paranormal Activity 2" made film-goers squirm in their seats last weekend and the blood-letting "Saw" franchise sharpens its grisly scare tactics for the sixth time in "Saw 3D" beginning Friday.  Also, "Monsters" opens in some markets (including Dallas) on Nov. 5.

By the way, the scariest movie I ever saw was the original "Alien" of 1979.  The photo on the left features great character actor Harry Dean Stanton and, of course, the saliva-slinging "Alien" title character.

"Alien" was directed by Ridley Scott.  It sports what I still consider the most effective sci-fi horror catchphrase of all time:

"In space no one can hear you scream."

Maybe not, but the kid scooping stale, gummy leftover popcorn at the concession stand at a Grand Prairie theater almost heard my guttural yelp when the baby monster made its eruptive entrance from inside the stomach of one of the characters.

Getting scared out of our wits seems tailor-made for Halloween week, doesn't it?  Well, it is.  But according to the Hollywood Reporter article, the timing is more about revenue at the box office than cinematic trick-or-treating.

"Genre-pic distributors gravitate toward early fall partly because they don't have to face major tentpole releases, giving movies with more modest ambitions space to operate. That's literally true in multiplexes, where screens are more available than during most other times of year, but the absence of major titles also makes prospective patrons more likely to focus on the marketing messages for less star-driven fare," the article says, adding:

"Because horror pics tend to boast skimpy marketing budgets, they need to find a setting where they can maximize their dollars."

Oh, so it's all about money.  Well, that's scary enough for me.

("Alien" photo courtesy:  Twentieth Century Fox)

Bad to the bone, but fun

Does this look infested to you?  Jerry O'Connell in "Piranha 3-D."  (Courtesy:  Dimension)

We go to the movies for all kinds of reasons: to be entertained, to be enlightened, to revisit history, etc.

Sometimes, though, whether it was our original intention or not, we spend an evening in the dark doubling over in delight at the expense of filmmakers who have -- for whatever reason -- brought something laughably bad to the movie screen.

My personal favorite is Ed Wood's "Plan 9 From Outer Space," which almost starred Bela Lugosi.  Lugosi died of a heart attack before "Plan 9" even began shooting.  So, according to several on-line sources, Wood used some old footage of Lugosi in a Dracula cape he shot as a test for a planned vampire picture that didn't pan out.

When Wood depleted the Lugosi test footage, he fretted not.  He just hired Tom Mason, his wife's chiropractor, to double for Lugosi in several shots.

Ah, but a post of Movies So Bad They're Good on the Yahoo.com movie Web site begins with something much more recent.   It involves vicious little fishies and some current stars and semi-stars that opted to mix it up with them in "Piranha 3D."

Click here for the Yahoo.com list.  See how many of the films you love to hate are on the list.

(Bela Lugosi photo as Count Dracula from "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" courtesy:  mptvimages.com)

Vampires suck big entertainment bucks

(Courtesy:  Warner Bros. Pictues)

It all started back in the early 19th century with perhaps the oddest possible romantic bad-boy scenario:

Let a creepy vampire suck your blood and you will live forever with no worries.  With the possible exception, of course, that some people aren't particularly fond of being slaughtered and kidnapped from their human existence in this grisly form.

That minor setback aside, the movie industry and, lately TV, have -- according to an item posted on the Hollywood Reporter Web site -- sucked billions of dollars from our entertainment budgets in movies, TV shows like "True Blood," books ("Twilight" lately) and merchandising. 

"'By starting with one simple mythological creature that's been part of our literary universe for centuries, you can create a story that has it all: romance, horror, action, special effects, sex, epic love, wish fulfillment, romantic leading men, delicious bad-boy villains, female badasses, damsels in distress, death, monsters and, ultimately, the perfectly flawed hero who would give it all up if it meant they wouldn't have to spend eternity alone,' says Julie Plec, writer and exec producer of the CW series 'The Vampire Diaries.' It doesn't get more universal than that."

"That gets to the bloody heart of it," the Hollywood Reporter post states. "Because they're not specific to genre, vampires have the freedom to roam not just across mediums but from romance to horror to political commentary to humor. Their versatility is endless, swinging from chaste innocence to sexy violence, so the potential audience is everyone."

The latest teen fad -- excuse me a moment while I check that.  Yes, the latest teen fad is going to the dentist and insisting that Mommy and Daddy pay big bucks to have perfectly good incisors whittled into something resembling fangs.

Some stronger-willed parents are bucking the trend, however.  They insist it would make more sense for the canine teeth to do the pointy thing.

In the past week alone, the "Twilight" spoof "Vampires Suck" grossed (a fine choice of words, if you ask me) $20 million in its opening weekend on the big screen, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Click here to read the entire Web post.

Note to parents:  Please warn your impressionable children that all eternal bloodsuckers don't look like Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt or Antonio Banderas did in "Interview With the Vampire" back in 1994 or even Robert Pattinson in the current "Twilight" franchise.

Often, during daylight hours at least, the bloodsuckers look perfectly normal; like ambulance-chasing attorneys or health insurance underwriters.

'Twilight: Eclipse' has arrived; should you care?

The werewolf (Taylor Lautner), the girl (Kristen Stewart) and the vampire (Robert Pattinson) of "Twilight" are back on movie screens.  (Summit Entertainment)

As second sequels (or the third installment in a movie franchise) go, "The Twilight Saga:  Eclipse" can't hold a pull-string to "Toy Story 3" when it comes to entertainment or quality, or story, or performer talent, or production value, or directing or yada, yada, yada.

The "Twilight" 100-year-old-vampire-boy-meets-small-town-Washington-state-moody-girl yarn has something else going for it, of course.  It's a pop culture phenom in full, teen-girls-waiting-in-line-for-hours-for-a-midnight-screening bloom.

Should you invest your time, your money and/or your teenager's tender emotions?

Click here for my review of "Twilight:  Eclipse." 

'The Ring' a-ding 3 opts for 3-D

(Courtesy:  DreamWorks)

The creepy little girl who died a grisly death in a well and tends to crawl out of TV sets to vent her revenge in "The Ring" made my skin crawl enough in the standard 2-D, flat format.

Now comes word from an article posted on the Hollywood Reporter Web site that Paramount -- "combining two of Hollywood's consuming passions, sequels and 3-D" -- is moving forward with a third installment in the Americanized version of the horror-thriller franchise.

"The third entry based on the Japanese horror movies is being called 'Ring 3-D.' David Loucka, who wrote the now-shooting thriller 'Dream House' for Morgan Creek, has been tapped to pen the script," the article states.

For those who don't remember the first time the Americanized version re-booted the 1998 Japanese horror gem in 2002,  Naomi Watts was out front as a journalist trying to get to the bottom of an urban legend about a videotape:  Watch it and you die seven days later.

No word yet if the deadly videotape will be updated to DVD status in the new film.

New film choices: Polanski, cops & throbbers

Director-in-exile Roman Polanski, left, and Pierce Brosnan on the "Ghost Writer" set.

(Summit Entertainment)

Looking for a new movie to attend this weekend?

I've got some very good news, some extremely bad news and an escape to yet another zombie flick as cinematic choices.

Frankly, I don't care much for Roman Polanski, the person.  I'm not here to judge character, even when it comes to taking an international hike instead of facing justice for a late '70s charge of having sex with a minor.

I spend much of my time judging movies.  And, frankly, Polanski's "The Ghost Writer," starring Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan, is the most accomplished suspense-thriller I've enjoyed in many years.

If you like suspense, intrigue and a cat-and-mouse game with stunning results, don't miss "The Ghost Writer."  Click here for my full review.

"Cop Out," an extremely lame buddy cop action-comedy pairing Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan, amounts to the bad news, even with Kevin ("Clerks") Smith directing.  Be afraid, be very afraid.  Click here for my review.

And zombie fans can get their undead-in-action fix with "The Crazies."  Click here to view the trailer.

Have fun at the movies this weekend.

And if you spend your hard-earned money on "Cop Out" despite my advice, don't say I didn't warn you.

It's official, Hollywood's gone insane over Jane

(Courtesy:  Quirk Books)

I don't know about you, but when I think of prim and proper late 18th/early 19th century British novelist Jane Austen, I think of zombies.

So does modern day U.S. writer Seth Grahame-Smith, apparently.

Grahame-Smith paid bloody homage to Austen (I'm trying not to laugh as I write this) with this year's best seller "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" published by Quirk Books.

Never heard of Quirk Books?  They're the fine folks who'll also be glad to sell you a copy of "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters," another Austen rip-off, uh, tribute.

Now comes word that Natalie Portman, on screen now in "Brothers," will take a stab at zombie slaying Austen style.  No, make that, Austen-rolling-over-in-her-grave style.

According to a report posted on the Variety Web site, Portman will star and produce "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies."

"Portman will play feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet, who is distracted from her quest to eradicate the zombie menace by the arrival of the arrogant Mr. Darcy," the Variety article says.

I'd love to tell you more about the project, but I've got to get back to "Persuasion:  Fangs for the Memories."

It's a real page-burner.  This pretty, but grim demure prep school girl, like, totally falls for this brooding hunk of a teen vampire who's really 109 years old.

Boy, that Jane Austen could write some wicked $&*@. 

Weitz up: Taking a 'Twilight New Moon' walk

 

(Left to right) Kristen Stewart, Chris Weitz, 1st  AD Mike Topoozian and make-up artist Robin Matthews on the "New Moon" set.  (Summit Entertainment)

Tween screams won't be limited to Halloween this year.

The Nov. 20 release date of "The Twilight Saga:  New Moon" looms ever closer.  There's some good news for frenzied fans waiting with baited breath for the second installment of Stephenie Meyer's young vampire romancer.

Director Chris Weitz, who took over the "Twilight" sequel when Texan Catherine Hardwicke was removed from the project, is finally speaking out about taking over the popular novel-to-big screen franchise.

As Borys Kit points out in the Q&A interview posted on the Hollywood Reporter Web site, "The man behind 'American Pie' and 'About a Boy' wasn't the obvious choice to take on 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon.'"

Weitz likes to genre hop, however.  That probably had more than a little to do with the writer-director of "The Golden Compass," a lackluster fantasy at best, hopping in the director's chair for the "Twilight" sequel.

Click here to read Kit's Chris Weitz interview. 

EW's wild Friday night in 'Zombieland'

 
Woody Harrelson gunning down the undead in "Zombieland."  (Columbia Pictures)

What a great idea.

Entertainment Weekly's Nicole Sperling spent last Friday night (Oct. 2) hanging out with the stars, director and screenwriters of the monster action-comedy "Zombieland" as they cruised Los Angeles movie houses checking out the flick's attendance on opening night.

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't expect "zombie slayer" Harrelson, who dispatches the walking dead with a banjo at least once, to go along for the ride.

Harrelson did, though, at least until they encountered an almost empty auditorium with "Zombieland" lighting up the screen.  Co-star Jesse Eisenberg stuck it out the entire evening, though.

Nicole Sperling's innovative and insightful tag-along story begins at one of Hollywood's largest movie houses:

"8:30 pm Mann Grauman’s Chinese Theater

"The cavernous 1,400 seat theater is about halfway full. Eisenberg leans up against the back wall of theater watching his character Columbus explain that one of their crazy plans wasn’t his but belonged to his traveling companion Tallahassee (Harrelson). 'I’m just kind of a Sancho Panza character,' says Columbus. The line gets a couple of chuckles. Eisenberg shrugs his shoulders in (director Ruben) Fleischer’s direction."

Click here to check out the entire EW article.