Not to get down on a bunch of kids, but check out the string parts in this video of a child mariachi ensemble currently making the Web rounds, and tell me this isn't custom-made for some kind of Shining-esque psychological thriller. Or maybe a Radiohead album. And then there's a trumpet! All it's missing is Shia LaBeouf behind the camera. Rock out, freak out and read on for more Buzz Break.
It's no Worst Movie EVER!, but it's close: Over the weekend the indie horror pic Creature, opening in a surprising 1,500 locations, made box office history, all right... just not the kind filmmakers were hoping for. Despite attempts to create what they described as a "new template" for indie film distribution, the folks behind Creature -- including Sid Sheinberg, former president of Universal Pictures -- instead earned a place among the worst wide-release openings of all time.
Academy Award-winner Cliff Robertson passed away on Saturday just a day after his 88th birthday, but the dependable actor (and underrated, in terms of '60s Oscar winners -- right up there with my girl Sandy Dennis!) enjoyed roles in more than 100 films. As we say goodbye to his great talent, here's an exciting quintet of films to help you admire his versatile appeal.
At the risk of piling on, today we need to recognize the rare cultural milestone achieved by Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star. No, not its approval from a leader in the porn community, and not its status as one of the biggest mainstream flops in years. Nope. The Adam Sandler-produced, Nick Swardson-starring comedy has managed that ever-rare zero-percent approval rating among the critics of Rotten Tomatoes.
Contagion handily won this weekend's unremarkable box office race, but it was an even bigger smash on Twitter, where 140-character raconteurs offered up every version of your standard germ/Purell/Paltrow jokes. In our new feature "Twit Wit," we'll highlight nine tweeters who make us laugh, make us think or just say likable things about a new movie. With Contagion, the tweets ranged from supportive to silly, and our No. 1 is a rigorously scrubbed gem.
Happy Monday! Also in today's edition of The Broadsheet: Bobcat Goldthwait explains his pop-culture revenge fantasy ... Amitabh Bachchan is the only one not getting rich off Baz Luhrmann's Great Gatsby ... A Hollywood terror may soon be back on the street ... and more.
Hark, a new film hath unseated The Help for the #1 crown! All it took was Steven Soderbergh's hypochondria-inducing Contagion, a picture that will surely also boost worldwide sales of Purell during flu season. And while there's no love lost in seeing last week's Shark Night 3D and Apollo 18 drop precipitously down in the ranks, the heartstrings pull for Warrior, a finely acted MMA film that only got a fraction of the theater count of its competitors, and performed accordingly. But! At least it fared better than Bucky Larson...
Don't let the PG-13s fool you: Adults have taken over the box office. For the fifth consecutive week, a sophisticated film more reliant on story, casting and filmmaking than it is on VFX bloat, franchise bulk and/or superhero ardor has claimed the No. 1 slot. Meanwhile, the late-summer phenomenon that it supplanted came in second, and you don't even want to know where the puerile Bucky Larson wound up. (Or maybe you do. Hint: Not in the top 10!) This is your Friday Box Office.
This week we learned a lot of important lessons: First, that no matter how ridiculous something sounds -- like Eddie Murphy hosting the Oscars, what a joke! Oh, right -- things can always get ridonkulouser. Also: Madonna LOATHES hydrangeas, you serf! I mean, really. Pour a scotch and try to relax as we take you back through this increasingly silly week in Movieline news.
Now, now: The word "Indonesian" should make my description of The Raid's red band trailer intriguing enough. Will there be expensive coffee? Komodo Dragons? Beautiful Sumatran supermodels? Even better: Gareth Evans's The Raid (Serbuan Maut) has the harshest, roughest, bloodiest, fastest-paced action of any trailer I've seen this year. It is a rush, and it is shocking as hell. It's the rare movie that warrants a "red band trailer;" type in your birthday, click play, and let your jaw drop.
"No, I have no idea about any of it. All I know is that it doesn't preclude Paul [Greengrass] and me from doing another one of ours," original Bourne series star Matt Damon teased recently when asked if he'd show up to pass the torch to Jeremy Renner in Tony Gilroy's 2012 sequel The Bourne Legacy. Cheeky as that answer is, Damon was quick to play nice anyhow. "He's got a whole other thing that they're doing and I wish them well," he added, "and Tony [Gilroy's] really smart. I'm sure they're going to be great." So, no hard feelings. Really. [MTV]
Betcha you thought this weekend's only new game was the (excellent) MMA drama, the porn comedy, and that one coughing movie! Think again: An independent horror movie called Creature has snuck into the opening weekend line-up to compete for your ticket dollars in 1,500 theaters across the country. Pray tell, what is this Creature all about?
In this weekend's Warrior, Nick Nolte assumes his most personal role to date: that of a recovering alcoholic who can't seem to redeem himself in the eyes of his sons, or at the end of the day, himself. How did Nolte transform himself from a strapping TV miniseries rebel to a gravelly-voiced vet actor mirroring his own notorious demons onscreen?
Turns out Frank Marshall's mysterious Back to the Future tweets this week weren't just for a cash-grab retro Nike tie-in shoe, but part of an entire operation created to raise money for the Parkinson's research charity of Michael J. Fox, the film series star. As of 9:30pm PT Thursday, one hour into the 10-day auction of 150 pairs of the limited edition kicks -- fully replicated from Marty McFly's shoe closet and pimped out in futuristic detail -- bids were already in the thousands for a single pair. Worth the money? Check out specs, photos, and more on the worthy cause.
That was fast: "Mel Gibson has shown nothing but antagonism and disrespect to Jews. [...] Casting him as a director or perhaps as the star of Judah Maccabee is like casting Madoff to be the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or a white supremacist as trying to portray Martin Luther King Jr. It's simply an insult to Jews." [THR]
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