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    • Archive for February, 2009

    Perry On Top


    2009 - 02.25

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    Posted in Weekend box office | No Comments »

    Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail topped Oscar weekend box office by a huge margin last weekend as the “monster of indy black comedy” swallowed first position hole with a total take of $41 million in its initial bow. No Kohler faucet were harmed in the making of that movie, either!

    But the rest of the weekend box office was hurting as only two other films broke the $10 million barrier; children’s animated fantasy Coraline, as well as the thriller-action flick Taken, but with about $11 million coming in last weekend. Everything else was down, but most notable was the plunge taken by Friday the 13th, which dropped over 80 percent on bad word-of-mouth. The slasher rehash took in just under $8 million, falling all the way from first to sixth.

    Worst initial bow of the weekend goes to Fired Up, which managed only $5.4 million.

    AMPTP/SAG showdown imminent


    2009 - 02.19

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    Posted in SAG Strike 2008-09 | No Comments »

    According to online reports, the AMPTP has offered the Screen Actors Guild their, “last, best and final offer” to avoid the second work stoppage in Hollywood in less than a year. According to reports, the latest offer is an enhanced version of their previous final offer, and the result of recent talks between the two groups.

    With the grandstanding ultimatum made, it remains to be seen whether SAG will reasonably review the AMPTP’s offer over the next 60 days, or whether they will push toward a work stoppage. You can bet that if a second Hollywood strike does hit California, it could sink not only the entertainment industry, but the state of California as well, and services like an IT job search will be more in demand than ever before.

    Former Cali guv in luv with “fairness doctrine” revival


    2009 - 02.19

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    Posted in Opinion | No Comments »

    One of Jane Fonda’s former flames, former Dem guv of California Jerry Brown, is making sweet, mad, passionate luv to… a revival of the fairness doctrine? Take away the man’s Sony Vaio, for heaven’s sake!

    What Guv Luv doesn’t realize is that state control over “balance” and “speech” may sound good when your party is in the majority… but it’s darn scary when it’s not. That’s what all these HollyLefties need to consider before reviving government control over free speech; someday the GOP may be back in the majority and whither the liberal hegemony then, eh?

    Still, you can’t shut a faithful liberal up. Said Gov. Luv on the Michael Savage show of late: “Well, a little state control wouldn’t hurt anybody.”

    Want to tell that to the folks living in a the “state” of Iran, with Mahmoud Achmadinijad in control?

    Jason hacks up box office


    2009 - 02.16

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    Posted in Weekend box office | No Comments »

    The 2009 makeover of the original Friday the 13th movie, with a more Jason-centric storyline and a fresh cast that includes Supernatural’s Jared Padalecki, did runaway business at the box office over the Friday the 13th weekend, scoring a solid $40.7 million at the box office against a $19 million production budget, over twice as much as the nearest competition. That secured a solid first place in the box office race.

    In second position was last week’s champion, He’s Just Not That Into You, which added only $19.6 million in its second weekend of release. Taken, the proving-durable action-suspense drama starring Liam Neeson, was only a whisper behind for third place with $19.0 million in its third week. Confessions Of A Shopaholic took in a disappointing $15 million for fourth place, and the Top Five was rounded out by Coraline, which took in $14.7 million.

    Sixth place saw Paul Blart: Mall Cop hanging in there with $11 million in its fifth week of release, enough to beat out the most disappointing wide release movie of the week, The International, which opened in seventh place with $9.3 million against a $50 million production budget.

    SAG to meet with AMPTP


    2009 - 02.12

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    Posted in SAG Strike 2008-09 | No Comments »

    Don’t sell the office furniture just yet; both SAG and the AMPTP have confirmed that they have talks scheduled for the first time in months, on February 17 and 18. Since new, negotiation-minded leadership has emerged with SAG, there is hope that the two-day negotiation session could lay the groundwork for a deal at last, ending the possibility of a second Hollywood strike in less than a year.

    Of course, not everyone is happy; the ousted SAG leadership is still griping that the union ought not settle for terms close to what WGA, DGA and AFTRA settled for, but it looks like economic realities have finally caught up to these folks… at last? Time will tell.

    Chuck could see game-changing changes


    2009 - 02.09

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    Posted in NBC | No Comments »

    Building up toward a season finale and preparing for a third season, Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak tease that the hit NBC spy-comedy, Chuck, could see a game-changing finale and set-up for an all-new direction next season. While they aren’t spilling the beans on the nature of this game-changing stunner, we do know that Jordana Brewster, who plays Chuck’s ex, is filming at least one new episode this season, though whether it’s the finale or not remains uncertain.

    While it’s unlikely to involve anything as pedestrian as a new barcode scanner for BuyMore, or anything as wild as the kind of twists Lost regularly throws our way, we remain fans of Chuck and certainly interested to see how this all plays out.

    Reaper return moved up!


    2009 - 02.09

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    Posted in The CW | No Comments »

    Don’t check your eyeglasses, you read that right; the CW mini-hit of the strike-shortened season last year, Reaper, has seen its season debut moved up from April to early March.

    Make that March 3, to be exact. The show will air Tuesday at 7 PM central, followed by 90210. Not exactly a thematic match, but at least the show’s back on the air.

    Notable for the casting of Twin Peaks alum Ray Wise as Satan, the show centers around the adventures of Bret Harrison, Tyler Labine and Missy Peregrym’s characters after Harrison’s parents reveal they have sold his soul to Wise’s devil, who makes Sam (Harrison) his special errand boy.

    The show debuted to some acclaim due to the involvement of indy filmmaker Kevin Smith, who continues to serve was an executive producer though he is largely uninvolved with the series on a regular basis.

    Moviegoers “Into You,” even if “He’s” not…


    2009 - 02.08

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    Posted in Weekend box office | No Comments »

    The bluntly-worded relationship advice bestseller, “He’s Just Not That Into You,” is now the box office champion relationship movie of the weekend. Raking in $27.4 million, the flick blew away the competition.

    Not as literally, however, as Liam Neeson’s latest thriller, “Taken,” which posted a strong second weekend, adding around $20.3 million to its now 10-day total of $53.3 million. Not bad for an actor who allegedly “quit” the movie biz a few years ago after his involvement with the Star Wars franchises; since then, Neeson’s wowed audiences with his portrayal of Ras Ah Ghul in Batman Begins, as well as his intense turn in Taken. In fact, Neeson’s arguably appeared in better roles since “quitting” Hollywood than before; he’s appeared in about a dozen films since souring on Tinseltown after 2002’s Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, and he has at least five more roles scheduled between now and 2011, in which he’s expected to turn in a performance as Abraham Lincoln in a bio-film named, simply, Lincoln.

    Coraline, the twisted children’s film from the pen of Neil Gaiman, came in third with $16.3 million, while Steve Martin’s sequel, Pink Panther 2, managed only $12.0 million for fourth place, despite appearing on over 1,000 more screens. Paul Blart: Mall Cop rounded out the Top 5 with $11.0 million and the sci-fi, comic book-inspired thriller Push could manage no better than sixth place with an anemic $10.2 million.

    Everything else trailed badly.