Reject Report: Bourne is Back— and so is Underdog.

Posted by John Cairns (jcairns@filmschoolrejects.com) on August 2, 2007

There’s no need to fear, THE REJECT REPORT is here! Whether you have to fear the latest movies remains to be seen. This week we have a spy thriller sequel The Bourne Ultimatum, a revival of a popular Saturday cartoon show in Underdog, and a movie featuring yet another Saturday Night Live cast member trying to break into feature films. What’s with Hollywood these days? Every movie is just a big TV show.

Anyway, here’s a look at this week’s flicks and what to look for at the box office.

The Bourne Ultimatum is the third of the series of successful spy movies based on the Robert Ludlum novels. Once again it stars Matt Damon as the assassin Jason Bourne. According to the official site, Jason has “lost the love of his life and is back afain for vengeance and answers as he is trailed by people who’ve made him the killing machine that he is.” So he basically comes home to face his creators.

This ought to be the Number One flick at the box office, way ahead of The Simpsons Movie, and I keep reading all these predictions that it will top 60 million dollars. Personally, I don’t know why it would do that well– it seems like these action movies this year tend to do a lot less business. I think the number will be closer to $53 million. It’s showing on about 3,800 screens.

Next I am predicting $14 million for the utterly-dog-awful-looking Underdog revival of the TV cartoon show. Only this time it’s live action, and the live dog is voiced by Jason Lee. Jason Lee is also supposed to appear later this year in the revival of Alvin and the Chipmunks, which no one is looking forward to seeing, either. Anyway, Underdog is back and so is Polly Purebred, and the evil Simon Bar Sinister.

The reason I am predicting $14 million for Underdog is because I noticed that a lot of kids in the movie theater I was at were tugging at their parents, saying how cool this movie looked and could they go see it?! Personally, I hated the trailer for this movie. I think this movie is a travesty waiting to happen, ruining this great cartoon character. But who knows? Maybe this movie will turn out to be good. Anyway, that’s my bet for Underdog. It’s also running on 2,800 movie screens.

Next, Hot Rod is a comedy starring Andy Samberg (of Saturday Night Live fame) and Isla Fisher (the crazy chick from Wedding Crashers). The plot revolves around Evel Knievel wannabe Rod and his attempt to clear fifteen buses to raise money to save his ailing step-father’s life. It opens in 2,500 theaters and is supposed to be a comedy, so I predict $11 million.

Finally, Bratz opens wide in 1,700 theaters. It’s based on the best-selling line of dolls and it focuses on four teenage girls with a “passion for fashion”: Cloe, Jade, Sasha and Yasmin. I say $7 million.

So here’s my prediction for this weekend.

That’s it! Back with the recap on Monday with all the box office news from the weekend.

Read more articles by John Cairns