Weekend Forecast: Can Other Guys Bungle Past the $30 Million Mark?

Due to some internal shuffling and the utter abstraction of of its name, the feature known as Movieline Attractions will not be seen this morning (or probably ever again). Welcome instead to Movieline's Weekend Forecast, your one-stop guide to everything new, noteworthy and/or rescued from oblivion at the movies. This week, it takes a pair of cops to vanquish Christopher Nolan, yet another 3D effort kicks and shimmies your way, and the art-house glut continues. Read on for the full forecast:

NATIONAL OUTLOOK

· The Other Guys: Last week's high-pressure system had Hollywood squeezing seemingly half its remaining summer product into one weekend, and yet Inception still managed to claim the No. 1 spot. We have milder conditions this week, with the latest Will Ferrell/Adam Mckay comedy -- this time pairing Ferrell with Mark Wahlberg as two midgrade New York cops who get into all kinds of coppy hijinx -- settling comfortably over most of the country. The timing is perfect: Dinner For Schmucks didn't have the juice or the goodwill last week to overpower Inception, but Other Guys has both and a breaking-up of the Nolan system over much of the U.S. Forecast: $28.5 million

· Step Up 3D: Word on the street is that the latest entry in the hotshot boogie melodrama series is a pleasingly earnest romp -- cheesy in a good way and conscientious enough of its third dimension to put it to actual use (no Last Airbender pseudo-D here, in other words). Ironically, the franchise has maintained a relatively weak presence in theaters before heading off to more robust DVD futures. This one will stay consistent with the first two thanks largely to the 3D ticket boost, but expect only a short stay parked over the bigger U.S. cities, followed by a quick dissolution in the week ahead. Forecast: $18.8 million.

STORM WARNINGS

· Twelve: Joel Schumacher's adaptation of the pulpy, decadent novel of privilege and drugs and God knows what else among young New Yorkers has been compared to everything from a harder-core Gossip Girl to the inbred, troglodyte offspring of Bret Easton Ellis. (Michelle and Kyle's critical tag-teaming says pretty much all you really need to know.) Mysteriously, distributor Hannover House made a substantial deal for this out of Sundance anyway, and its low-pressure system finally rolls out in a humid, muggy attack on America's cities. It's altogether possible Twelve is in on its own joke, but that's what DVD afterlives for: so we don't have to pay $10 or more to argue about it now. Forecast: $940,000

· Middle Men: George Gallo's sassy, flashy drama about some of the guys who mainstreamed Internet pornography in the '90s -- played here by Luke Wilson, Giovanni Ribisi and Gabriel Macht -- was caught in the studio lurch that crippled Paramount Vantage. Now, after a bold marketing campaign that included reaching out to porn viewers directly, the film lands in around 250 markets with little buzz and minimal potential to break the million-dollar mark. Unless, that is, porn wonks are the new tweens, and we have an unwitting R-rated phenomenon on our hands. (Hint: We don't.) Forecast: $810,000

THE PRIME DESTINATION

· The Disappearance of Alice Creed (NYC/LA): Granted, director J Blakeson's thriller about a young woman of the title (Gemma Arterton) and the kidnappers (Eddie Marsan and Martin Compston) for whom she represents a ransom bonanza -- and a new life -- may cop out a bit toward the end. And it seems to have a little too much self-regard for the meticulous bondage rituals of, er, holding an innocent person hostage. Yet its cast is so dedicated to the material and to each other that they override Blakeson's chilly aloofness, in some cases making suspense out of almost nothing at all. Hat tip to editor Mark Eckersley as well for his elegant cutting, the kind that rewards second viewings and maybe more.

REGIONAL OUTLOOK

· Brotherhood (NYC): Danish drama about a gay-bashing neo-Nazi grappling with -- surprise! -- his own homosexuality.

· Cairo Time (NYC/LA): Unlikely couple Patricia Clarkson and Alexander Siddig explode the Before Sunrise model all over Egypt.

· The Concert (expanding to LA): Pseudo-disgraced Russian conductor throws together a Jewish orchestra for a performance in France; Mélanie Laurent gets the solo. (See Movieline's review here.)

· Eccentricities of a Blond Hair Girl (NYC): Centenarian filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira's short-story adaptation about the foundations of romance.

· Enemies of the People (expanding to LA): Trenchant Khmer Rouge documentary hears from perpetrators and victims of the '70s-era Cambodian genocide.

· The Extra Man (expanding to LA): Kevin Kline rocks it as an eccentric male escort for Manhattan widow set. (See Movieline's review here.)

· Flipped (LA and select markets): Rob Reiner's feel-good first-love drama for all ages slips on to 45 screens essentially under cover of night.

· Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno (expanding to LA): Documentary about the infamously troubled filmmaker's infamously troubled (and unfinished) film.

· The Kid: Chamaco (NYC): Mexican import about a boy harboring dreams of being a boxing champ.

· Last Letters From Monte Rosa (NYC): Independent WWII drama reportedly scavenged from the director's 2006 effort The Fallen -- which isn't the worst thing, considering The Fallen was actually pretty good.

· Lebanon (NYC): Claustrophobic, generally overrated stunt drama told entirely from the perspective of Israeli soldiers inside a tank during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

· Lucky Days (NYC): Angelica "Daughter of Rip" Torn stars in and co-directs (with her brother Tony "Son of Rip" Torn) a microbudget romcom about a Coney Island love triangle.

· Mundo Alas (NYC): Argentine folk singer León Gieco's documentary about a tour he led with disabled musicians.

· The Parking Lot Movie (NYC): Yup -- a documentary about a parking lot.

· Patrik Age 1.5 (NYC/LA): Gay adoption dramedy from Sweden where happy couple winds up with a 15-year-old reprobate instead of the 1.5-year-old child they expected.

· Spring Fever (NYC): Lou Ye's surreptitiously filmed drama about love and surveillance in Nanjing. (See Movieline's review here.)

· Tere Bin Laden (NYC): Bollywood effort about a man who exploits an Osama bin Laden clone to fulfill his dreams of making it in the West. It's satire. It's complicated.

· The Wildest Dream: Conquest of Everest (NYC/LA): Self-explanatory?

What are you looking forward to?