Box Office Mania: Twilight To Devour Bolt, Bond November 19, 2008
Posted by moviejacuzzi in Box Office Mania.Tags: Movie Jacuzzi, Harry Potter, Quantum of Solace, Twilight, Box Office Mania, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Bolt
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Guten tag, Film-Fans. After two weekends of great $60+M openers, we have another very interesting weekend on our hands that could possibly continue that trend. And we don’t need Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to boost the box office way above last year’s (even though it would help a lot if he stayed on his original release date this Friday): this weekend brings us the highly-anticipated teen novel adaptation Twilight and the Disney animated comedy Bolt. And with Quantum of Solace heading into its second weekend and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa entering its third, there will be something for everyone at the multiplex.
Bella Swan and Edward Cullen finally hit the big screen in Twilight, starring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. The best-selling book/movie is about a girl named Bella (Stewart), who moves from Phoenix to the small town Forks, Washington. Her life turns upside down though when she falls in love with this Edward Cullen (Pattinson, who’s a vampire! The book or movie does not have the universal appeal that the Harry Potterseries of books/movies had, but this romance fantasy has millions of rabid fans who will come in droves to see their favorite characters in the movies, not to mention the ‘dreamy’ Pattinson. I know I am right about the fact that this movie will be awful, because it has limited screening for critics, which means Summit Entertainment is expecting mostly bad reviews and they don’t want them to ruin a great opening weekend. But even if this movie will make their eyes bleed, and as much as I want this movie to crash, burn, and have a remake 5 years from now, Twilight’s fanbase will come out and it will have a huge opening. But will it approach Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa or Quantum of Solace? That’s hard to tell. You have to keep in mind that those movies cost $150M and $200M to make, and this one cost only $37M. Sex and the City, another heavily-anticipated movie with a rabid female fanbase that I think had more sellouts at my nearest theater than The Dark Knight, ‘only’ opened to $57M, and that was with a super-popular TV show. But with a commercial-friendly PG-13 rating, more sellouts than Quantum and no movie to steal its audience, I see a dazzling opening weekend of $58 million.
As if we needed another movie to help the overall box office, Walt Disney Pictures is bringing us their new animated comedy Bolt, starring the voices of John Travolta and Miley Cyrus. The PG-rated tale is about a dog named Bolt (Travolta), named so because of his Harry Potter-like scar, who has his own TV show where he and his owner Penny (Miley Cryus) go on adventures to stop the classic bad guys. But he runs off the set in New York, where he meets a cat named Mittens (Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Susie Essman) and a supposedly-scene-stealing hamster named Rhino (Mark Walton), who help him find Penny, who is now in Los Angeles. The only problem is he thinks the TV show is real. Like many of their films, Disney has been marketing the hell out of this one, from their Disney Digital 3D showings to a trailer which features Rhino singing songs from High School Musical, conveniently shown with Senior Year. A little help from its producer and head of Pixar John Lasseter has given this movie fantastic reviews as well. But Bolt will seriously struggle when it will go against Twilight, which will take away the females, Quantum, which will take away the males, and Madagascar, which has been preforming amazingly with families and is only entering its third adventure. The advertising has been fierce, but at least for me nothing has screamed ‘GO SEE BOLT NOW!!’, at least not yet. With its reviews I expect it to preform exceedingly well in the 5-day turkey session next week, but for now I see a solid if not rather quiet $34 million.
After getting the biggest Bond opening ever with $67.5M, will Quantum of Solace take the lead once more? No. It probably won’t even beat Bolt for second place, as close as that could be. But why not? For starters, its original $70.4 million estimate for the weekend was much higher than its actual amount, due to a larger-than-expected drop-off over the weekend. Looking at it, it may not seem like much, but these are the signs of poor word-of-mouth. I would not pay to see it again, nor would millions do the same. A 55% drop to $31.5M would bring the total past $100 million, the third to do that this fall after Eagle Eye (that’ll get there this weekend) and Mad 2. And speaking of Mad 2, the Central Park Zoo animals will fight off against Bolt, so a 53% drop to $16.5M would push the total over $138 million. Role Models is holding up very well, and with no competition it should only drop around 35% to $7 million. Even without Potter, this should continue one of the biggest November movie month yet.
Predicted Weekend Top 5:
1. Twilight: $58.8 million
2. Bolt: $34.3 million
3. Quantum of Solace: $31.5 million
4. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa: $16.5 million
5. Role Models: $7.3 million
DVD Watch: WALL-E, Tropic Thunder, And More! November 17, 2008
Posted by moviejacuzzi in DVD Watch.Tags: DVD Watch, Movie Jacuzzi, Movie Reviews, Tropic Thunder, WALL-E
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Howdy, cinema crazies. This week at DVD shelves brings Pixar’s animated gem WALL-E, the very funny Ben Stiller comedy Tropic Thunder, and much more.
Hitting Blockbuster and Netflix and everywhere else fine DVD’s and BD’s are sold is WALL-E, the fantastic toon from the good folks at Pixar. The G-rated tale is about a little robot named WALL-E (he doesn’t have a real human voice, but the beeps and boops he makes are from Ben Burtt, who ‘voiced’ R2-D2 in Star Wars), who is cleaning up all the garbage we left on Earth during the 2800’s. We, of course, are on the big spaceship Axiom, where our fat little bodies are carried around by robots who will do our every bidding. WALL-E is obviously quite lonely, but when the Axiom sends the robot EVE to check and see if the Earth is habitable again, WALL-E takes a shine to her and would follow her back into space to be with her. Despite the fact that the movie has like 20 minutes of total dialogue in a 105 minute movie, WALL-E is tied with The Dark Knight for my favorite movie of the year, at least so far. It has a heart unlike any other animated movie (I’m telling you, it nearly made me cry- and I have never cried at the movies), it gives a simple but scary and very possible vision of a post-apocalyptic future and brings us the most memorable character in Pixar history. The movie got reviews so good many top critics said it was Pixar’s best film to date, the movie’s $462M and counting global blockbuster tally makes it a hit, and with a new animated short film named BURN-E attached to the DVD, this is clearly my Pick of the Week. Buy it. Now. Movie Jacuzzi Temperature: A boiling 100°
If you have already seen WALL-E and/or want to see something really funny instead, I suggest Tropic Thunder, the most hilarious movie of 2008. The R-rated farce is about very spoiled actors named Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), and Jeff ‘Fats’ Portnoy (Jack Black). Tugg’s rising star is quickly falling, Kirk as a method actor is playing his role painted black, Jeff is trying to prove that he can go beyond his ever-so-popular ‘Fatties’ franchise, and they are all shooting the Vietnam war movie Tropic Thunder. But when the director Damien (Steve Coogan) finally has enough of these Prima Donnas, he decides to dump them in the middle of a real war. The movie is a laugh-a-minute comedy, powered by a great cast, particularly Downey Jr’s hilarious potentially-Oscar-nominating role. The movie got great reviews, a solid $110M stateside (very good for the not-so-popular movies about movies genre), and with a special unrated-Blu-Ray edition, this is clearly worth at least a rental. Movie Jacuzzi Temperature: 92°
If you are not into good movies, there are plenty of other titles for you to choose from: the girly book adaptation of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, Jeff Dunhan’s Very Special Christmas Special, DVD boxsets of Hannah Montana, SpongeBob SquarePants, Bones, Star Trek, and The Universe, and of course a lot more. That’s all for this week on DVD Watch; tune in next week when we talk about Hancock, Fred Claus, and, as always, more!
Movie Review: Quantum of Solace November 15, 2008
Posted by moviejacuzzi in Movie Reviews.Tags: Bond, Movie Jacuzzi, Movie Review, Quantum of Solace
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Hello, movie people. This weekend, the heavily anticipated sequel to the James Bond reboot Casino Royale Quantum of Solace opened in theaters with good but not great reviews. The critics said that as great the action was, it was not as good as Casino. After judging it for myself, I thought that standing alone Quantum was a solid movie. It did have great action, along with solid characters and a decent plot, not to mention another good performance by Daniel Craig as Bond. But if you are expecting another Casino Royale, then yes, you will be disappointed.
Quantum (was that really the best title they could come up with?) picks up an hour minutes after Casino, and Bond is pissed over the death of his love Vesper Lynd, even if she was still working for the terrorist organization Quantum the whole time. Because of this, he develops a habit of killing anyone from or relating to Quantum, and M16 head M (Judi Dench) doesn’t really like it. In the meantime, Quantum is up to something, and because M16 has not even heard of Quantum it’s up to Bond and company to stop them. After being joined by this flick’s Bond girl Camille Montes (Olga Kurylenko), M begins to think that Bond can no longer tell his friends from his enemies when she believes he killed a British agent, and forces him to return to London, revoking his passports and credit cards and restricting his movement. But it’s at this time when James finds out what Quantum is actually up to, and he must stop them…. before it’s too late.
At 1 hour and 46 minutes, Quantum of Solace is the shortest James Bond film ever, 4 minutes shorter than previous shortest ones Dr. No and Goldfinger, and also 39 minutes behind Casino. It definitely shows here: Solace has twice the action and twice the budget, but by having this it loses nearly all of the emotion and drama that made Casino so memorable. Sure, most of the time Bond is dealing with forgiving and forgetting Vesper, but couldn’t they have made the movie a bit longer so we could have a scene about this that is not interrupted by a shaky but admittedly spectacular action scene every 3 minutes? As the first true sequel in the franchise’s 22 film history, Solace feels like the less-memorable 2nd part of a trilogy, with a plot that is pretty hard to follow and new characters that will be forgotten by Bond 23. We still have great preformances by the returning cast with a script that suits them well enough, and action so amazing that we see chases by boat and plane. So don’t think I am completely trashing Quantum, I actually was quite enjoyed by it all, even the theme song. But I was expecting another Casino, and that there was the movie’s problem. Movie Jacuzzi Temperature: 82°
5 Reasons For Why You Should Start Watching 30 Rock November 14, 2008
Posted by moviejacuzzi in Lists on Movies.Tags: 30 Rock, Lists on Movies, Movie Jacuzzi, TV shows
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Welcome back, film freaks! For this post we are going to take a break from the Wonderful World of Movies and head to TV land (the place I just made up, not the channel), where very funny TV shows like Family Guy and The Office reside. But one comedy has the ability to stand above them all. On October 30, NBC’s 30 Rock, the TV show about a head writer named Liz Lemon (played by Tina Fey) who has to deal with her crazy fellow writers, cast members like Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) and Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) and the head of NBC East Coast Programing and Microwave Technology Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), came back for its third season. After discovering the show a few months before, I was anxiously awaiting the return of what I think is the funniest show on TV, period.
But unfortunately, not enough people are as dedicated to the show as others. The show’s first season had an average of 5.8 million viewers an episode, while the second season averaged 6.4 million views an episode. That same first year, American Idol averaged 37.7 million viewers an episode. It is a terrific show that many more people should watch (before-gulp-cancellation.), and here is why. This is Movie Jacuzzi’s 5 Reasons For Why You Should Start Watching 30 Rock!
1. The cast. Right now, I cannot think of better stars for a TV show than what 30 Rock has. You have obviously seen Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin skits in Saturday Night Live. If you have not, where have you been these past few months? Under a rock? Tina Fey does just as great a job here as Liz Lemon, the head writer for TGS With Tracy Jordan, an SNL-like variety comedy show on NBC. But she can’t do it alone- Tracy Morgan plays Tracy Jordan, a washed-up star that Morgan perfectly puts off with great lines and intentional idiocy. Alec Baldwin plays the rich, corporate executive friend and boss of Liz Lemon Jack Donaghy, who is just plain funny. Here you can watch Morgan and Baldwin at their finest in a therapy class:
And that’s only a sample of the talented cast here: there is also the spoiled Broadway cast member Jenna (Jane Krakowski), the page boy Kenneth (Jack McBrayer), and plenty more very funny characters.
2. The writing. But, of course, a show is nothing without decent writing (yeah, I’m including reality shows). But thanks to great writers and executive producers that include Fey herself and SNL’s very own writer and producer Lorne Michaels, the show complitments its cast with terrific lines, scenes, and, well, everything needed to make a show work.
3. The awards. 30 Rock is a great show, and they only have a bunch of Emmys, Golden Globes and a Peabody to prove it. Just last September at the Emmy Awards, the cast and crew took home the awards for Outstanding Comedy Show (just like it did the year before), Lead Actor, Lead Actress, Outstanding Writing for Comedy, and I could go on. Plus, Fey and Baldwin got a Golden Globe for their preformances in the show, it recieved a Peabody award this year, and they got SAG Awards, NAACP Awards, you can see the whole list here.
4. The guest stars. Like the cast, I cannot think of a better TV show that has better guest stars, with of course the exception of the 100+ guest stars The Simpsons has had. But not only did it have Jerry Seinfeld, Al Gore, Conan O’Brian, and James Carville, they actually put these celebrities in good roles, instead of just having a fun little cameo for like many shows do. For example, it was fun to see Oprah sitting next to Liz Lemon on a plane in a recent episode, but the twist her role had was something I would never expect. Some episodes have found cool ways to make the entire episode about them- like in ‘SeinfeldVision’, where Jack Donaghy uses clips of Seinfeld from Seinfeld in every show on NBC without any of it being approved, and Jerry doesn’t like it one bit. Every star they have had on so far has been used very well, and with Jennifer Aniston and Steve Martin to appear in the near future, I wouldn’t expect that to change soon.
5. Season 3. So, the show has been great in the past, but what are the newest episodes like? Just as great, if not better. On Hulu, you can watch the newest episodes of 30 Rock and judge for yourself. The newest episodes have included the Oprah one I mentioned above, an adoption interview that goes spectacularly wrong, and much more.
So those are my reasons. If you like a funny TV show with a great cast, writing, awards, guest stars, and shows just as funny as the last, Thursdays at 9:30 on NBC is your answer.
Box Office Mania: Bond Set To Have The Box Office Shaken, Not Stirred November 12, 2008
Posted by moviejacuzzi in Box Office Mania.Tags: Bond, Box Office Mania, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Movie Jacuzzi, Quantum of Solace, Role Models
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SATURDAY UPDATE: Even though I was pretty generous in my weekend prediction for Quantum of Solace, it seems like I will be right after all. According to BoxOffice.com, the 22nd James Bond movie scored the franchise’s biggest day ever, with $27 million dollars yesterday, thanks to heavy anticipation and many sold-out showings. It should finish the weekend squarely on my $70.9M estimate. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa fell a somewhat surprising 54% from last Friday to $8.1M, but Dreamworks need not worry too much- as a sequel a larger-than-usual Friday-to-Friday drop was expected, Bond completely stole moviegoers yesterday and weekend matinees should be helpful. I see an OK $33M weekend, followed by a very good $11M second weekend for Role Models.
Welcome back, movie lovers. This weekend, already coming off a blockbuster opening from Madagascar, we have yet another movie set to open well above the pack, one that already breaking dozens of records across the globe: QUANTUM OF SOLACE!!! The 22nd James Bond movie is selling many advance tickets due to its shy-high anticipation, but the real question here is how high can Bond go?
Quantum of Solace brings us our favorite British spy (again played by Daniel Craig) fighting the terrorist organization QUANTUM with assistance by this installment’s Bondgirl Camille Montes (Olga Kurylenko), as Bond is also seeking revenge for the death of his love Vesper Lynd. In 2006, Casino Royale rebooted the franchise with Pierce Brosnan stepping out as 007 and Daniel Craig stepping in with millions praising his great performance in a great movie. Now, like The Dark Knight, a sequel to a popular reboot with very good reviews and a huge fanbase is going to make a lot of money. But will it be enough to pay back that monstrously expensive $230 million dollar budget? With the movie making a lot of monies worldwide, that should be paid back nicely, and a very big opening in America should help too. I am going to go out on a limb here and say that Quantum of Solace will have the largest non-Potter November opening with a massive $71 million dollars in over 3,400 theaters.
Afraid what 007 would do to their movies, there are no other major releases opening this week, but a notable limited release is the Oscar hopeful Slumdog Millionaire. Directed by Danny Boyle, the movie is about an Indian man named Jamal Malik who goes on India’s Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in hopes of findng his childhood love. Hailed by many critics as the Movie of the Year, I expect it to do well when it expands from the 10 theaters it’s playing in this week.
With many adults and teens flocking to Quantum, kids will once again take a trip to Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. The CGI flick opened to a dazzling $63.1 million last weekend (more than WALL-E), and despite a 43% drop (remember- it is still a sequel), a solid second weekend take of $36 million will push the blockbuster over $118 million dollars. Role Models got off to a surprising start of over $19 million, and despite competition with Bond over males a second weekend of $10 million would be what most people expected for its first. With the box office way up over last year, people will still be heading to the movies as the year begins to draw to a close.
Weekend Predicted Top 5:
1. Quantum of Solace: $70.9 million
2. Madagacar: Escape 2 Africa: $36.4 million
3. Role Models: $10.0 million
4. High School Musical 3: Senior Year: $5.2 million
5. Changeling: $5.0 million
Trailer Watch: Monsters Vs. Aliens and Pixar’s Up November 10, 2008
Posted by moviejacuzzi in Trailer Watch.Tags: Monsters vs. Aliens, Movie Jacuzzi, Pixar, Trailer Watch, Up
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Greetings again, movie fans, and welcome back to Trailer Watch. This week gives us the trailer for two big upcoming CGI pics- Dreamworks Animation’s B-movie farce Monsters vs. Aliens, opening March 27, and Disney/Pixar’s balloon-filled adventure Up, due May 29.
In Monsters vs. Aliens, an evil alien lands on Earth and wants to take over the world, so the US Government brings in top-secret monsters for the job. Having quite a good cast in Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, Hugh Laurie, Seth Rogen, Will Arnett, Rainn Wilson, Stephen Colbert (he voices the President, which seems like a good fit for him) and Kiefer Sutherland and the fact that this trailer is attached to every print of Madagacar: Escape 2 Africa, it looks like an instant blockbuster. Not to mention the movie actually looks funny- we get some good lines and gags (I like the ‘E.T Go Home’ missile) and some pretty interesting characters too. I’m looking forward to this one- Movie Jacuzzi Temperature: 89°
And here we have the trailer for the upcoming Pixar adventure/comedy Up, which has broken the tradition of being released with the previous Pixar movie released (Pixar: don’t break traditions!). We see a brief montage of all the previous Pixar movies, then actual footage of the movie. We don’t see much of the plot in the trailer, but the story is about an old geezer named Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Edward Asner) who sets out to take the journey he has wanted all his life, and thanks to what looks like thousands and thousands of balloons he doesn’t even have to leave his house. Joining him is what seems like a frightened Boy Scout who is named Russell. It seems like a very different movie from Monsters vs. Aliens- this has great animation, but a concept that seems hard to sell. However, it seems like a wondrous idea, and Pixar has never disappointed me. After seeing this trailer I don’t expect that to end. Movie Jacuzzi Temperature: 90°
Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That: Bad Spoof Movie Is Real November 9, 2008
Posted by moviejacuzzi in Not That There's Anything Wrong With That.Tags: Movie Jacuzzi, Not That There's Anything Wrong With That, Spoof movies
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Good day, movie fans, and welcome to the first ever edition of Movie Jacuzzi’s Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That, where you can read about really stupid decisions someone in Hollywood makes. Today we have something that is a very, very bad idea for a movie. Slightly over two months ago on the first post I ever made, I wrote a fake movie review, just to give any viewers an idea of what the writing would be like. Having recently heard about many people hating Disaster Movie, I made up a spoof movie that would spoof spoof movies, calling it Bad Spoof Movie. You can read the false review below:
“Movie Review: Bad Spoof Movie”
Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg, the ‘2 of the 6 writers of Scary Movie’ that brought us such classics as Date Movie, Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans and Disaster Movie, bring us Bad Spoof Movie, spoofing all their previous films with, as usual, no respect. The ‘plot’ is about these terrible actors putting on films spoofing popular movies with plenty of pop culture references. We see audiences booing the scenes, so these guys get together and try to do the best spoof movie they can.
The film is pathetic in spoofing things not very amusing in the first place, and the silences after terrible jokes are so painful you’ll have to leave the theater. There are countless problems with the script such as the awful twist in the plot, the fact the film runs an hour long, and a score so bad a baby could produce better music.
The talentless duo have sunk to a new low with this film, so awful if you watch it you may never, EVER laugh again. Stay away from this movie at all costs.
Movie Jacuzzi Temperature: 0°”
Well, guess what? Bad Spoof Movie is real, and it is happening.
According to the trusty movie website /Film, it is not called Bad Spoof Movie (well, these people are stupid, but not that stupid) but instead called Not Another Not Another Movie. It is also not made by those two guys who were responsible for Date, Epic, and Disaster movies, and is instead directed by David Murphy. The plot is obviously different (otherwise I would use my newly-found guru powers every chance I have), but do not expect any nicer criticism. Take a look at /Film’s description:
‘When a studio head (Chevy Chase) quits his job at a successful Hollywood movie studio, he is replaced by his ex-con brother Michael Madsen and their “equally inept gangster friend” (Vinnie Jones). David Leo Schultz plays a production assistant who is assigned to direct a spoof of the spoof movie genre, and Burt Reynolds plays an actor who is cast as the director of the movie within the movie. Confused? That’s only the beginning.
“The film features a hand full of cameos from c-list actors playing themselves spoofing their “memorable” film roles. The list includes the guy who played the villain in Kindergarten Cop and the young African-American Marine on trial in A Few Good Men. Former Howard Stern lackey turned Tonight Show announcer “Stuttering” John Melendez also has a supporting role. Is there anyone outside of the people involved in the production that honestly believe this movie is a good idea?”
My guess: no. What do you guys think of this?
Movie Review: Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa November 8, 2008
Posted by moviejacuzzi in Movie Reviews.Tags: Madagascar, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Movie Jacuzzi, Movie Review
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Hello, movie jacuzzites. Going into Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, I thought the first Madagascar from 2005 was a good movie that had a lot of good parts from a bunch of crazy penguins (who are named Skipper, Private, Rico and Kowalski), two British monkeys, a lemur king Jullian (voiced by Sasha Baron Cohen) and his assistant Maurice (Cedric the Entertainer), but the movie turn a strange left turn when Alex the lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) and Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer) got to Madagascar and Alex is hungry enough to try and eat his friends. Because every child should know that friends are not food. Escape doesn’t have any awkward themes like that and is a livelier and funnier movie overall, but still left me somewhat disappointed.
In Escape, Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria are heading back to their Central Park home in New York City a crashed World War II plane that the penguins rebuilt. Yeah, big mistake. They (along with the two lemurs who hitched a ride) crash land in Africa, where they find their roots. Alex reunites with his mother and his father Zuba (voiced by the late Bernie Mac), Marty finds a bunch of zebras that look and sound exactly like him (enough for Alex to not recognize him), Melman uses his vast knowledge in the field of medicine to become a ‘witch’ doctor, and Gloria finds a love interest in Moto Moto (voiced by will.i.am), who also does several songs for the movie). But when their supposedly perfect place goes bad, thanks to a power-hungry lion named Makunga (Alec Baldwin) and some lost and crazy human tourists, the penguins have to finish rebuilding the plane… and fast.
Escape makes the first Madagascar seem quite simple. Here we have a lot going on with like half a dozen subplots, some funny and some just filler, and though the antics of the penguins, lemurs and monkeys are great to watch, they don’t get bigger roles than irritating characters like Moto Moto, Makunga and the human tourists. The movie seems like whatever the writers thought of sticking together, which has quite a few good ideas though, but in the end they do not come together as well as they should, feeling kind of rushed. It is still slightly better than the first, and I am still looking forward to Madagascar: R3turn to New York, but maybe I wouldn’t move it, move it to the theater as quickly. Movie Jacuzzi Temperature: 80°
Box Office Mania: Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa To Move It, Move It To The Top November 6, 2008
Posted by moviejacuzzi in Box Office Mania.Tags: Box Office Mania, High School Musical 3: Senior Year, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Movie Jacuzzi, Role Models, Soul Men, Zack and Miri
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DVD Watch: Get Smart, Kung Fu Panda, And More! November 4, 2008
Posted by moviejacuzzi in DVD Watch.Tags: DVD Watch, Get Smart, Kung Fu Panda, Movie Jacuzzi
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Welcome here, movie people. Welcome back to DVD Watch, this week’s DVD’s being fantastically overshadowed by the 2008 Presidential Election. Which reminds me…
OBAMA 2008!!
Anyway, this week we have the Steve Carell/Anne Hathaway comedy Get Smart, the Jack Black animated martial arts comedy Kung Fu Panda, and more.
In Get Smart, my Pick of the Week, Carell plays Maxwell Smart, a bumbling secret agent from CONTROL who finally goes on his first mission with Agent 99, played by Anne Hathaway, to stop a potential bombing in Los Angeles. The movie is based on the 1960’s TV show by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. Also starring Dwayne Johnson as Agent 23 and Alan Arkin as The Chief, I thought the movie was very funny with a strong script and hilarious performances by the whole cast, and the second funniest movie of the summer, behind Tropic Thunder. The action comedy can usually have an imperfect balance but you won’t see any action scenes without some solid laughs. Critics didn’t completely agree with me, but enough did and the movie got a healthy $230 million worldwide against a $80 million budget, not to mention a great reception by moviegoers. ‘Missed it by that much’? Didn’t think so. Movie Jacuzzi Temperature: 89°
On DVD and Blu-Ray this Sunday, the first time I have ever heard of any movie or DVD coming out that day, is Kung Fu Panda. Panda stars Jack Black as the voice of Po the panda, who works in a noodle shop with his father but hopes to become a master of the martial arts like the Furious Five warriors he idolizes. However, he is chosen by this old turtle Master Oogway to become the chosen warrior, and must be trained by Master Shifu (voiced by Dustin Hoffman) to defeat the evil warrior Tai Lung (Ian McShane). Panda is probably the most original Dreamworks Animation movie since Shrek, since movies like Shark Tale and Bee Movie have been overloaded with nods to Playstation and Cinabon and there was not one pop culture reference here. Jack Black had a lot of charismain his role, and though the supporting cast did not have so much to do the movie worked and is definitely a solid rental. Plus, it got great reviews and $600+ million worldwide. Not too shabby. Movie Jacuzzi Temperature: 87°
Also this week we have a special 40th anniversary regular and BD release of Planet of the Apes, the Futurama DTV movie Bender’s Game, and a few DVD boxsets as well. That’s all for now- tune in next week when we have Hellboy II: The Golden Army and Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
