Violent Mark Wahlberg Kicks Dogs, 'W.' Out of His Way at Multiplex [Defamer Attractions]

Welcome back to Defamer Attractions, your one and only guide to everything new, noteworthy and potentially noxious at the movies. This week sees Oliver Stone officially establish the land-speed record for producing an Oscar contender, joined by skull-cracking Mark Wahlberg, sex-driving Seth Green and our diva-colored underdog. As always, someone's gotta lose; we'll call our shot there, too, along with cherry-picking through a new crop of DVD's. As always, our opinions are our own, but we have little doubt they would look great on you. Try them on after the jump. WHAT'S NEW: No one would argue that Mark Wahlberg's video-game adaptation Max Payne won't win the weekend, but with Beverly Hills Chihuahua still barking in theaters (it actually expands by 32 screens this week), the sour-cop actioner might see a tiny bite out of its margin of victory. Still, $20.8 million is a reliable bet, with Disney's purse dog settling settling with around $11.5 million. The X factor is W., the Bush biopic which some forecasters see sneaking into second place with as much as $12 million. But to project any more than $10 million, maybe $11 million max is to overestimate it as anything more than a curio, an election-year stunt that wields neither the bite nor the influence that even we thought it would when the fall movie season began. Josh Brolin drawls and squints in fitful, fascinating bursts, and certain imagined powwows leading up to the 2003 Iraq invasion make for riveting ensemble drama. On the whole, though, W. connotes the rush job it was — undisciplined, tonally dissonant (Stone's professed empathy for Bush repeatedly knocks its head on low-hanging satirical fruit) and way, way too long. The American people deserve better, and at least until Nov. 4, they'll vote with their dollars. There will be no stealing this election. Also opening: Seth Green's R-rated romp Sex Drive; Roy Disney's boat-race vanity project Morning Light; critic Godfrey Cheshire's acclaimed doc filmmaking bow

Published: 2008-10-17 Provider: Defamer Keywords: defamer attractions, Barry Levinson, Dakota Fanning, Mark Wahlberg, Max Payne, Oliver Stone, Robert De Niro, Seth Green, Sexdrive, The secret life of bees, Top, W, What Just Happened

Maxwell Smart Set to Bury 'Guru' in Clash of Stinky Summer Titans [Defamer Attractions]

Welcome to another edition of Defamer Attractions, your regular guide to what's new, noteworthy and/or nightmarish this week at the movies. Today we hold our noses for the aromatic opening-weekend duel of Get Smart and The Love Guru, crack open the L.A. Film Festival catalog for a bit of a desperately needed counterprogramming, and handpick a few fine new DVD's for the agoraphobes among us. As always, our opinions are our own, but as long as they don't involve Manoj Night Shyamalan's box-office viability, they're also without peer. WHAT'S NEW: For the second consecutive week, a pair of critical underachievers square off at the multiplex. But while the noisy, mostly terrible Get Smart is something of a masterpiece compared to The Love Guru, we expect both to lock in for decent opening frames; estimates below $40 million seem conservative for Smart, and Guru, almost-unilaterally loathed as it is, will still pull around $22 million from teenagers not knowing any better. Watch out, though, for Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, the first film based on the popular doll brand; opening in limited release in markets featuring American Girl stores, this will eventually pull every 10-and-under girl (and her mother) into a theater near you. Also opening: The Santa Monica parking ticket romance Expired and the arranged-marriage-in-London drama Brick Lane. THE BIG LOSER: We may not actually have one this week, though were taking early wagers on The Love Guru's second-week plunge. We'll even sweeten the deal: Winning bets on anything less than 70% pay double! THE UNDERDOG: The first weekend of the L.A. Film Festival offers a pretty diverse assortment of programming — and, alas, quality — but we'd be derelict in our underdog-reporting duties if we didn't single out the tiny, riveting Thai entry Wonderful Town (Saturday at 7 p.m., AMC Avco 4). Aditya Assarat's story follows a big-city architect dispatched to oversee a luxury hotel project in the ruins of the 2004 tsunami

Published: 2008-06-20 Provider: Defamer Keywords: defamer attractions, american girl, Defamer Attractions, Gawker, get smart, LAFF, Los Angeles Film Festival, Mike Myers, Steve Carell, The Love Guru, Top

'Hulk' Smaaaassssh 'Happening'! (And Other Box-Office Bloodshed For The Weekend Ahead) [Defamer Attractions]

Welcome back to Defamer Attractions, your guide to the latest surges and scourges among this weekend's new movies. After a fairly predictable go of things last week, we face a pair of high-profile releases that couldn't be further apart in their critical and commercial futures, a nifty and thoroughly unnerving art-house project (hint: wheelchair sex) and a surplus of worthwhile DVD debuts for the shut-ins among us. As always, our opinions are our own and, of course, exceedingly tasteful and accurate. We are always looking out for you! WHAT'S NEW: Edward Norton still may not be doing much to promote The Incredible Hulk, but once all the behind-the-scenes drama died down and we actually got a chance to see the film, we realized, "Hey — this isn't so bad." Or rather, it is what it is: A loud blockbuster for 14-year-old boys, with top-to-bottom miscasting (with the exception of a pathologically brutal Tim Roth) exacerbated by action auteur Louis Leterrier's hamfisted touch. But! It is kind of spectacularly dumb, arresting summer viewing — we've heard it described as King Kong meets The Bourne Identity, which is just about perfect — and predictions of a $55-$60 million opening might even be understating things. It certainly won't get much competition from the paucity of what's around it this week, particularly... THE BIG LOSER: The Happening has miserable word-of-mouth and an R-rating working against it, and while we can't add much beyond our previous dispatches and what our own Reviewer X mentioned here on Monday, we can say that we'll be pretty shocked if Manoj's Folly cracks $20 million by Sunday night. And that's probably a number Fox would be happy with, even if it means third or even fourth place overall behind Hulk, Kung Fu Panda and possibly Zohan. But this isn't Speed Racer — if this does hit $20 mil, expect a backlash to the backlash by the time we reconvene next week. THE UNDERDOG: We alluded yesterday to the unhinged creepiness of Qui

Published: 2008-06-13 Provider: Defamer Keywords: defamer attractions, Defamer Attractions, Edward Norton, Gawker, Liv Tyler, M Night Shyamalan, quid pro quo, The Happening, The Incredible Hulk, Top, Vera Farmiga

Will Smith Saves A Strike-Plagued Hollywood From Year-End Disaster [Monday Morning Box Office]

We knew that Hollywood wouldn't allow itself to limp out of 2007 on the back of a crippled, armored polar bear--celebrate the studios' late-year resurrection with a quick perusal of the weekend's box office numbers: 1. I Am Legend - $76.535 million If there was any question that Will Smith is the Biggest Movie Star in the World, (a title we're fond of ironically bestowing upon the likes of Shia LeBeouf when slow weekends at the multiplex briefly brighten Hollywood's lesser lights), let I Am Legend remove all remaining doubt. In perhaps his most impressive achievement yet, Smith saved a turnaround-plagued project, gave it a a Castaway meets 28 Days Later spin by substituting an adorable German Shepherd for a volleyball given life-force by a blood-smeared smiley face, and shattered™ the December opening weekend record once held by Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. And just to add to the degree of difficulty of his amazing feat, Smith demanded that his zombie pursuers be cut-and-pasted from a first-generation Resident Evil game, a move that ensured that on the Monday morning after his latest triumph we would all marvel at his ability to overcome the handicap of a supporting cast of hundreds of low-rent CGI co-stars. Join us in genuflecting before our box office king. 2. Alvin and the Chipmunks - $45 million Thank you, Fox, for giving Jason Lee the opportunity to redeem himself after the cartoon-adaptation disaster that was Underdog. 3. The Golden Compass - $9.025 million Knowing that The Golden Compass has already died a box office death in America, New Line is redeploying its resources on the still-vital international market. At Compass's recent premiere in her Australian homeland, the studio sent Nicole Kidman to perform a daring promotional stunt to raise awareness of the film: having her attempt to twist her Botox-paralyzed face into something resembling a smile; TV cameras from every Aussie news outlet were on hand to capture Kidman's dramtic red

Published: 2007-12-17 Provider: Defamer Keywords: Box Office, i am legend, monday morning box office, Top, Will Smith