This Week in Blu-ray may be coming to you a few days later than usual, but fear not, as it was worth the wait. Fox and MGM decided to drop a number of great films on me at the last minute, meaning long hours of pouring over special features, drinking heavily and ultimately turning myself into a late-1970s Woody Allen character by the end. It was all worth it, as you’re about to experience 2500 words or so of the most full edition of this column we’ve seen in a long time. Plenty of unsung heroes of 2011, classics of yesteryear and boxing robots to go around. Also, Rob Hunter stops by for some cross-column reviewing with Rebecca.

50/50

In a week that will see the release of a bevy of classics coming to Blu-ray for the very first time, it would be a crime to overlook one of 2011′s most heartfelt works, complete with some ranged performances from the likes of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen and Bryce Dallas Howard. Jonathan Levine (The Wackness), working from a script by Will Reiser based on a true story, tells the tale of Adam, a 27-year old guy who gets diagnosed with spinal cancer. Dealing with his overbearing friends, his smothering mother and a relationship that hangs on the edge, Adam must find a way to not only beat cancer, but all the situational drama it’s caused between him and those he cares about most. It’s funny, touching and full of memorable performances. Just the kind of thing that could beat Annie Hall to Pick of the Week, especially with a decent amount of special features on the Blu. Don’t let the tagline on the cover — “from the guys who brought you Superbad” — that’s just salesmanship on Summit’s part. This one has far more heart than you’d ever expect.

Wings (1927)

The Pitch: It’s a tale as old as time, just like this movie.

Why Buy? Paramount is making a big deal of the fact that Wings is the first Oscar Best Picture winner, and rightfully so. The 1927 film was, in fact, the first film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. It’s also a story that has been told and retold several times since: two young men, one rich and one middle class, fall in love with the same woman, then get sent off to become World War I fighter pilots. Hilarity ensues. The kicker here is that for a film created in the mid-1920s, it sure looks swell in 1080p. Some Blu-ray buyers are all about the crisp, clean presentation of today’s modern movies. But if you’re that special breed that also loves seeing the cracks and imperfections in a film preserved from a time long gone, presented as perfectly as possible in HD, then this one will feel right at home in your collection. I’m also absolutely in love with the cover art, which adds a bit of celebratory flair to Paramount’s excitement over this particular release. We should all be so excited about this well-aged beauty.

Rebecca

The Pitch: Joan Fontaine is my black & white crush. I would travel through time for this woman…

Why Buy? A young woman (the lovely Joan Fontaine) is drawn into a relationship with a mysterious and wealthy widow (Laurence Olivier), and when the two get married she discovers the secret behind his enigmatic behavior and the possible murder of his dead wife. Alfred Hitchcock’s adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s bestseller was the director’s first Hollywood film, and it remains somewhat of an odd duck on his resume. His vision was compromised at every turn by uber-producer David O. Selznick, and the result is a film that never quite feels Hitchcockian. Still, the movie is a compelling gothic mystery (that went on to win Best Picture at the Oscars) and features three strong and charismatic lead performances. Especially from Fontaine. MGM’s new Blu has a solid, albeit predictably unremarkable transfer, and includes a handful of special features that offer fascinating insight into the film’s production. - Rob Hunter

Annie Hall

The Pitch: Boy meets girl, girl discovers that boy is Woody Allen, somehow girl sticks around for a while.

Why Buy? Believe it or not, I had never before seen Annie Hall. We all have our detestable cinematic blind spots, and one of mine happens to be much of Woody Allen’s pre-2000 filmography. That said, I’m here to report to you 35 years after the release of the film in question that it is quite good. Woody Allen shines as the neurotic Alvy Singer, a comedian who is convinced that life is meant to be miserable. Even when he meets and dates the love of his life, Annie Hall (Diane Keaton), he still seems intent on being miserable. So she leaves. And he wises up for a moment and follows her, and learns a lesson or two along the way. It’s a charming film that proves Woody Allen to be one charismatic fella, and on Blu-ray it looks darn good for its age. A little digital noise here and there will only appear to those with the keenest of eyes. For everyone else, it will look like you’re seeing Annie Hall for the first time all over again. Unless, like me, you’re seeing it for the first time, period. The only wish, of course, would be something in the way of extras. For something labeled as part of ‘The Woody Allen Collection’, you’d think we’d at least get a few extras. Sadly, there are none. That shouldn’t stop you, however, from adding this to your Woody Allen collection.

Notorious (1946) and Spellbound

The Pitch: Two Alfred Hitchcock movies in glorious HD.

Why Buy? First, to answer your initial question: why put these two together? For one, they are kindred spirits, both in the way they were cast and executed by the master himself and in the way they are being released on Blu-ray. Both star Ingrid Bergman. In Spellbound, she’s a psychiatrist who falls for one of colleagues, only to find out later that he may not be a psychiatrist after all, but an amnesiac who was once a murderer. In Notorious, she is a troubled beauty who is recruited by Cary Grant to help him infiltrate a German spy ring in post-war Rio. And of course, like any of us, she falls in love with Cary Grant. To their equal credit, both Blu-rays are presented with shiny 1080p transfers. Presented in their original full frame aspect, they have a clarity that is unexpected from what otherwise feels like a catalog release. No special box art, no big “Special Limited Collectors Edition” taglines, just a good transfer and a buffet of special features. That’s exactly what one might hope to get from such a release. And exactly why you’d be wise to invest your money in this version before MGM wises up and releases the same thing with new cover art for $10 more.

Manhattan

The Pitch: Woody Allen falls for Diane Keaton… again.

Why Buy? Yet another brilliant Woody Allen movie that I had unintentionally ignored up to this point. Allen takes his beloved town into the frame of black and white for this 1979 folly of sex, romance and neurosis. He plays Isaac, a guy who hates his job, has a 17-year old girlfriend, a lesbian ex-wife who’s writing a tell-all book about him and a new love interest in Mary (Keaton), a sexy, intelligent and challenging new conquest. It’s another of those situations in which Woody Allen chases love down the rabbit hole, kicking and screaming about it all the way. But it’s so effortlessly breathtaking visually that it’s impossible not to get wrapped up in the majesty of Manhattan. Like Annie Hall, Manhattan on Blu-ray is a bittersweet pill. It’s a gorgeous movie transferred with considerable effort to the high definition medium. But there are no supplements to speak of. That said, it’s the kind of delightful film that any film fan should own.

Due to its wild length, this week’s edition is broken up into two pages. On page two, you’ll see all the titles I’d buy or avoid, plus all the titles that weren’t reviewed, but still released.

Welcome to This Week in DVD! Lots of titles hitting shelves today, and we’re covering nineteen of them below. High profiles like Real Steel and Paranormal Activity 3 are releasing alongside indies like The Woman and Beware the Gonzo. There’s also several older titles worth checking out including Punishment Park, The Arena with Pam Grier and a Criterion release of Godzilla.

As always, if you see something you like, click on the image to buy it.

The Whistleblower

A female cop (Rachel Weisz) from the Midwest takes a temporary but high paid job as a UN peacekeeper in Bosnia and discovers despicable crimes and criminals in her midst. Her instinct as a cop is to help people and bring the guilty to justice, but the systematic corruption may be too widespread and unbeatable. Weisz gives a strong and emotional performance, and the film pulls no punches in its exploration of the sex trafficking trade that exists in Bosnia (and around the world). It manages to be both powerful and suspenseful too while never feeling the need to glamorize or Hollywood-ize the story. This isn’t the sexiest release of the week and there are some better films below, but it’s an important and well made movie with a message worth sharing.

50/50

Pitch: And you thought there would never be a funnier movie about cancer than Terms Of Endearment…

Why Buy? A young man named Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and given a one in two chance of survival. Let the comedy begin! Director Jonathan Levine’s funny and affecting film features a stellar cast including Anna Kendrick in her most well rounded role yet, Seth Rogen as the far less than annoying best friend, Matt Frewer as a pot-loving cancer patient and more. Screenwriter Will Reiser based the premise on his own experience and battle with cancer, and the result is a movie that never shies away from the effects on Adam and his family/friends but also never gives up on the notion that laughter, humor and a positive attitude are amazing medicines.

Godzilla (Criterion)

Pitch: He’s so badass he taught his preteen son how to blow smoke rings…

Why Buy? This Japanese production is the granddaddy of cautionary monster tales, and while there were creature features before him there’s never been one as scaly. Unless you count the dozens of sequels, remakes and ripoffs. The film follows the exploits of a giant bipedal reptile awakened by nuclear testing who descends on Japan with a vengeance while mankind tries in vain to fight back with all kinds of model tanks, rockets and jets on wires. It remains a classic of the genre, a fact that Criterion has cemented by releasing it under their banner. Their disc includes a new transfer, new interviews with cast and crew members, two commentaries and more.

Punishment Park (UK)

Pitch: The Hippie Games…

Why Buy? This pseudo documentary sees a British film crew visit the United States to examine the government’s treatment of radicals, flag burners and draft dodgers. It alternates between a group of young men and women who’ve chosen three days in Punishment Park over a multi-year jail sentence and another group enduring the “trial” that seems predetermined to find them guilty. Writer/director Peter Watkins’ 1971 film offers up an alternate reality response to the protests and violence of late sixties America, and in the process he created a film that stands just as shocking and prescient now as it did forty years ago. What exactly separates a patriot from a threat to national security? **NOTE – This is a region2 DVD which requires either a region-free player or the willingness to watch on your PC.**

Sherlock: Complete Series Two (UK)

Pitch: You could say that buying this set is abecedarian. You shouldn’t of course, but you could…

Why Buy? Haven’t seen this set yet, but my region-free Bluray is currently making its way across the ocean via submarine and should be in my player any day now. Series One set a very high bar, and by all accounts the show-runners behind the scenes including Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss have delivered yet again. Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Dr. Watson (Martin Freeman) return for three feature-length episodes adapting the classic stories A Scandal in Belgravia, The Hound Of the Baskervilles and The Reichenbach Falls. The character of Holmes is a big enough creation that he can happily exist through the darkly horrific Murder By Decree, the very funny Without A Clue and the blockbuster antics of Guy Ritchie’s films, but modern day audiences are missing out if they’re not also enjoying this brilliantly executed series. **NOTE – This is a region2 DVD which requires either a region-free player or the willingness to watch on your PC.**

Beware the Gonzo

Pitch: We need to talk about Gonzo…

Why Rent? Eddie ‘Gonzo’ Gilman (Ezra Miller) is a high school rebel with journalism and justice on his mind, but when he starts up his own school paper to combat the cool kids he ends up way over his radically coiffed head. This is basically a nerds vs the world movie, and it works in a lightweight and mildly entertaining way. Miller is joined by a few recognizable faces including Zoe Kravitz, Amy Sedaris and Campbell Scott (who should really be in more goddamn movies). The movie makes a misstep in its attitude toward one character’s date rape experience, but that aside it’s good, forgettable fun.

Happy Happy

Pitch: I think at least one of those happys is meant to be ironic…

Why Rent? Kaja leads an unhappy life with a distant husband and a prickish son, but when a new couple and their adopted son move in next door her life takes some decidedly unexpected turns. While the four adults engage in relationship drama the two preteen boys develop an odd back and forth of their own involving a slave and his owner. It’s a mix of black comedy and real emotional suffering and may not be to everyone’s taste, but if you enjoy strong acting, interesting characters and interludes featuring a four man barbershop quartet singing in English then give it a chance.

Hell and Back Again

Pitch: You’ll never look at Wal-Mart greeters the same way again…

Why Rent? Like many other young men and women, US Marine Sergeant Nathan Harris returned from his tour of duty in Afghanistan a broken and damaged survivor. This often quiet and occasionally jarring documentary offers a visceral and intimate look into one soldier’s life. The filmmakers were embedded with Harris’ unit and they capture some intense firefights alongside the more humdrum side of daily patrols, but as the movie moves between the war and Harris’ efforts to settle in back home his true suffering comes clear. He zones out, gets angry over small things, has nightmares and grows overly attached to two handguns. The scene that flashes between combat footage and Harris playing a first-person war shooter is a bit obvious and on the nose but it’s still some very telling commentary.

Lethal Ladies Collection 2 – The Arena, Cover Girl Models, Fly Me

Pitch: “I want to hear your ass bumping good and hard on the floor…”

Why Rent? Roger Corman and Shout! Factory strike again with this trio of exploitation flicks with naked ladies kicking ass, posing for photos and serving drinks. The Arena is a flesh and violence-filled romp that sees Pam Grier and some white chicks enslaved by the Roman Empire and forced to fight as gladiators. Cover Girl Models finds a group of models caught up in espionage and kung fu in Hong Kong, and yes, they do get naked along the way. And finally, Fly Me sees kung fu terrorists foiled by sexy stewardesses. It’s almost not at all like United 93.

Paranormal Activity 3

Pitch: You sheet in my bed I keel you…

Why Rent? The ghostly box office behemoth continues with a second sequel that moves the story back a couple decades in the form of a prequel. The two sisters whose adult lives have been turned upside down in parts one and two are seen here as young girls, and we’re shown the story behind the origin of their family’s haunted curse. Like its predecessors this found footage film relies on a handful of spooky as hell scenes set amidst a lot of bland exposition and chit chat. The answers, explanation and ending may not suit every taste, but it deserves credit for offering a bit more than the first two. And seriously, the sheet in the kitchen scene? Crazy creepy.

Punished

Pitch: Only a fool would kill Anthony Wong’s daughter and expect to get away with it…

Why Rent? A business tycoon’s (Anthony Wong) bitchy daughter is kidnapped for an enormous ransom, but when the bad guys leave her for dead after getting their payoff the businessman decides to get his hands dirty. This Hong Kong flick is produced (but not directed) by Johnny To and it lacks his signature visual style, but it still manages to engage through plotting, structure and character. It’s Wong’s right-hand man who does the heavy lifting while his boss stews in anger and sadness, and the dynamic is an interesting one. Also interesting? The DVD cover’s double reference to Mel Gibson films! “First the ransom. Then the payback.” Indeed.

Real Steel

Pitch: More emotionally satisfying than The Fighter? Yeah, I said it…

Why Rent? A down on his luck robot-boxing manager (Hugh Jackman) takes his estranged son on the road with him as they try to find success with a new bot named Atom. Director Shawn Levy injects the movie with a lot of shmaltz, no doubt about it, but he also makes room for entertaining fight action and real heart. Oh, and several shots featuring Evangeline Lilly’s deliriously sexy shoulders. The effects used to bring the robots to life are top notch, the kid transcends his early annoyance factor to become mildly appealing and Jackman proves once again that Dr. Cox’s hatred of the man is unfounded.

Revenge of the Electric Car

Pitch: “It would be a good time for a little humility…”

Why Rent? The makers of Who Killed the Electric Car? return to explore the resurgence of electric and hybrid vehicles in the US and abroad with the Toyota Prius, Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt and more. Tim Robbins narrates, and while we all know the overall story it’s the smaller character studies that truly engage. Tesla founder Elon Musk, GM’s VP Bob Lutz and Greg “Gadget” Abbott are fascinating characters and offer real insight into the motivations and personalities needed for this revolution to succeed. The film ends on a high note, but consumers are a fickle breed and all it will take is a major drop in gas prices for people to fall back into their own ways.

Shut Up Little Man!: An Audio Misadventure

Pitch: The profanity here gives Casino a run for its money…

Why Rent? Two college grads come to San Francisco in 1987 and discover their neighbors are a couple of loud, abusive and occasionally hilarious older men. They record the verbal battles, share them with friends and years later discover the recordings have become a viral sensation eventually becoming comic books, recreations and even a play. This documentary starts as a simple look at some humorous recordings but quickly becomes a fascinating exploration of friendship, curiosity and even avarice.

Today’s Special

Pitch: I enjoy eating Indian food. I just don’t like looking at it…

Why Rent? A sous chef (Aasif Mandvi) in NYC thinks he’s in line for a chef position, but when he’s passed over he quits in frustration and plans a trip to Paris. Those plans are interrupted though when his father falls ill and he’s forced to take over the family’s rundown Indian restaurant. Mandvi does a fine job with his first lead role and maintains a good balance between the comedic persona he’s known for and a more dramatic sensibility. Jess Weixler injects some white into the otherwise ethnic proceedings, but the entire ensemble works well together to tell an American tale with real flavor.

Two-Lane Blacktop (UK) (Blu-ray)

Pitch: Features the only lead performances from James Taylor and Brian Wilson. You’ll understand why once you’ve watched it…

Why Rent? Two young men (James Taylor, Brian Wilson) driving without a destination cross paths with a free-spirited young woman (Laurie Bird) and a thirty-something guy (Warren Oates) undergoing a midlife crisis. Their universal aimlessness stands in for the country’s own uncertainty just as their attempt at a singular focus (racing) serves as a much needed distraction. I poke fun at Taylor and Wilson’s performances because they’re clearly not actors, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exhibit a certain degree of charisma. It’s a dated piece of cinema and a fascinating time capsule of the people, cars and attitudes of our past. **NOTE – This is a region B Blu-ray which requires a region-free player.**

The Confession

Pitch: Kiefer Sutherland stopped saving the world one day a year so he could do this? For shame…

Why Avoid? A hitman (Kiefer Sutherland) enters a confessional booth and begins sharing his sins with a priest (John Hurt), but soon his real plans are revealed… and they just may be exactly what you expected. This film originated as a webisode series online, and as such the budget and scope are pretty limited. Most of the movie is spent in the confessional with the two leads, and while they both give fine performances the story is too obvious and uninteresting to really maintain viewers’ interest.

Essential Killing

Pitch: It’s basically the opening to a cool action movie but stretched to 85 minutes…

Why Avoid? A Taliban fighter (Vincent Gallo) is captured in Afghanistan, tortured and moved to an undisclosed location, but an accident en route leads to his escape and run for his life. Director/co-writer Jerzy Skolimowski executes some solid action sequences early on, but once Gallo’s unnamed and silent terrorist escapes it becomes an odd, seemingly pointless exercise in moral obfuscation. It opens with him killing two Americans, and his actions that follow don’t earn him any additional sympathy. It’s unclear what the point of it all is exactly… is he the bad guy? Is the US government the aggressor? Is the fat lady who unwillingly breastfeeds Gallo the true mastermind? I don’t know, and sadly, I also don’t care.

The Woman

Pitch: She is woman, hear her growl…

Why Avoid? A supposedly normal family man who runs a tight ship at home finds a feral woman in the woods, captures her and chains her up in the barn. All in the name of helping her to become a good woman. The film has plenty of fans so consider my dissent to be the minority opinion, but it simply never worked for me. It’s neither frightening nor shocking, and while it teases black comedy at times it becomes far too frustrating. Character behaviors are nonsensical and stupid, there’s no one worth caring about and the point, that civilized people can be the truly animalistic and cruel ones, is obvious and uninteresting. The ending has a couple small joys but it’s too little too late.

Also out this week, but I haven’t seen the movie/TV show, review material was unavailable, and I have no blind opinion:

The Moment of Truth (Criterion)
Restless
Time Traveler: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Read More: This Week in DVD

What are you buying on DVD this week?

When a boxing robot movie was first rumored about, a lot of people rolled their eyes and shook their heads. It’s bad enough that we’ve got adaptations of the board games Monopoly and Battleship coming down the pike, but a Rock’em Sock’em Robots movie just seemed ridiculous.

The result was Real Steel, which is a pretty cool flick, believe it or not. It’s not going to win any awards (except maybe Best Visual Effects, thanks to an Oscar nomination this week), but it’s still an entertaining action film about a father and son and a robot beating the bolts out of other robots. And like any good sporting event, it is more fun to drink while watching it.

And now, to cover our butts… This game is only for people over the age of 21. Please drink responsibly, and don’t bet on robot boxing unless you have the money to cover it.

TAKE A DRINK WHEN…

• A robot dances
• A round of fighting begins
• A robot is completely destroyed
• A robot is powered up or powered down

TAKE A DRINK WHEN YOU SEE…

• A soda can
• A new robot
• Charlie driving
• A robot’s control screen

TAKE A DRINK WHEN SOMEONE SAYS…

• “Max”
• “robot”
• “Charlie”
• A number

CHUG YOUR DRINK WHEN…

• The final fight is over

Click here for more Drinking Games

As you may have noticed, this final week of 2011 has been almost completely taken over by our third annual Year in Review. It was born in 2009 out of our love for lists and your thirst for reading, discussing and ultimately hating them. And each year the entire project gets a little bigger, a little bolder and slightly more absurd. With that in mind, I’m once again proud to present you with The Best Films of 2011: The Staff Picks. Each of our 14 regular staff writers, contributors and columnists, almost all of whom have been with us the entire year, were asked to present their top 5 films, in no particular order (although many of them placed their top film at the top, as logical people tend to do), each with an explanation. Some even included curse words as a bonus to you, the reader.

Read: The Best Films of 2010: The Staff Picks | The Best Films of 2009: The Staff Picks

Once again, the Staff Picks are a testament to the diversity we have here at Film School Rejects, with picks ranging from the likely suspects (Take Shelter, Hugo, Shame) to the slightly more nerdy (Attack the Block, Super 8, The Muppets) to several movies that may not yet be on your radar (see Landon Palmer’s list for those). And once again, it’s with a deep sense of pride that I publish such a list, the best of 2011 as seen through the eyes of the movie blogosphere’s most talented team.

Enjoy!

Cole Abaius, Managing Editor

You’re Next
Do I care that this only played at Fantastic Fest? Do I care that it wasn’t released theatrically in 2011? Of course not. I didn’t care when I put The Last Circus on my list last year, and I don’t care now. Why not? Because this was such a Goddamned breath of fresh air (from a stale old mansion) that it demands to be celebrated. Director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett alongside a hell of a cast have done something wondrous to the world of horror. Not only that, they tackled the oldest trick in the book, swung an axe into its forehead, and left it with a smile on its face in a bloody puddle. You’re Next is (and will be next October) the best thing to happen to the genre since Scream.

30 Minutes or Less
It’s difficult to explain why an R-rated comedy that was fairly straightforward made its way to the top of the pile, but Ruben Fleischer’s follow-up film caused me physical pain from the amount of laughing I was doing. It was great to see a movie unabashedly made for adults that took a ridiculous premise and mined it for all the comedy gold it was worth. For all the movies trying to be the next Hangover (including Hangover 2), this actually delivered. Fleischer is two for two.

The Skin I Live In
There were two films that left my eyes wide and my jaw lowered to my chest this year. The Skin I Live In was one of them, and with its raw, bizarre, perversely compelling power, it’s an outstanding return to the kind of filmmaking Almodovar was tackling back with Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! Hell, it’s Matador levels of goodness. Antonio Banderas’s turn as a mad scientist was only made better by all the Puss in Boots promos that were playing right after I saw this weird, fantastical, psycho-sexual horror. Almodovar is probably the only director who got to legitimately raise an eyebrow and unnervingly whisper “Gotcha…” to his audience in 2011.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
I know, I know. It’s obvious. But my goal here was not to be cunning; it was to pick the films that hit the hardest, and few even had the potential to swing a bat as heavy as the final Harry Potter. It delivered on every level – picking up where the sobriety of the 7th movie left off and wasting no time in building to a massive battle set piece that put true heroes on display. It was the perfect high note on which to end an era.

Take Shelter
The other movie that grabbed me by the jaw this year, Jeff Nichols’s drama about a small town man tortured by portents of the end of days is peerless at every level. Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain deserve every statuette on the shelf. Take Shelter is a living thing. It’s a giant, terrible, foreboding masterpiece that sets up shop in your mind and never leaves. It’s flawless filmmaking that needs altars built to it.

Robert Levin

The Descendants
Alexander Payne’s first film since Sideways is also his best one yet. It’s a movie that understands what it means to face the death of a loved one, to live on in the face of unspeakable personal tragedy. At the same time, the screenplay brilliantly interweaves that specific focus into a broader portrait of a developing Hawaii grappling with its past. The picture reveals the unexpected fortitude of the human spirit in its beautifully understated, truthful depiction of lawyer Matt King (George Clooney) and his daughters reconnecting and persevering after their wife/mom slips into a coma.

The Interrupters
It’s astounding that documentarian Steve James (Hoop Dreams) got snubbed by the Academy again for this extraordinary doc. It’s a herculean effort that goes inside CeaseFire, a Chicago program that uses a public health blueprint to stop gang violence before it happens, with a specific focus on three of the organization’s best “interrupters.” In its depiction of the program’s unmistakable success, the film offers a deeply moving indictment of the oft-held belief that the violence destroying so many of our cities is endemic and unsolvable.

Hugo
Somehow Martin Scorsese made a mega-budgeted, 3-D family movie about Georges Méliès, the early special effects innovator best known for A Trip to the Moon (1902). We’re all extremely fortunate he did. The Oscar-winning legend’s latest masterpiece is a picturesque, elaborately conceived, highly emotional tribute to the magic of cinema. Its core reflects the medium’s unparalleled ability to bring whole universes alive.

Another Earth
I saw this underrated science fiction-tinged romance at the Sundance Film Festival last January and it’s stayed with me ever since. A haunting tone poem, it’s a moody evocation of loss and regret set against an imposing, mysterious celestial phenomenon. From filmmaker Mike Cahill and starring Brit Marling (who co-wrote with Cahill), this is the movie Melancholia wishes it could be.

50/50
Most cancer movies are grim affairs, extended funerals, slow and uncomfortable marches toward death. 50/50 is not one of them. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen, it’s the life-affirming and relentlessly upbeat portrait of a man who just won’t let his discomforting diagnosis or his debilitating treatments prevent him from living his life, following his dreams and being the man that he wants to be. It’s not easy to wring a genuine message of hope out of such relenting despair, but this cathartic picture does it.

Some other sites or site runners may look down on lists, but those people are what are known as no-fun douche bags, because really, lists are awesome. They are short, easy to digest little morsels that you can wash down with a carbonated beverage, argue about, and take recommendations from. If you don’t like lists, you are worse than Hitler.

You know what’s better than Hitler? Lots of stuff, like peanut butter cookies with little peanut butter cups pressed into them. That, and also these ten action movies, which are my favorite for the year. Yeah, you’ll probably disagree, so comment below or get your own damn website.

11. Hanna

Eric Bana is a secret action star with a few good turns in a couple of flicks, but in Hanna he really gets to shine as an ass kicking secret agent. That being said, it’s the young Saoirse Ronan who really brings home the bacon and drop kicks it through a door. There are several very good fight scenes in the movie, but it doesn’t rank higher because I don’t understand how Bana’s character never decides to just get a gun and kill these assholes. Still, the movie is worth a watch if just to see what happens when Hanna thinks she has her target within reach the first time.

10. Captain America: The First Avenger

This was by no means a perfect film, but the story really resonates. Chris Evans did a fantastic job as both Steve Rogers and Captain America, plus his transformation was kick-ass and inspiring. The middle of the movie was an action montage extravaganza that brought back fond memories of The Rocketeer and Indiana Jones flicks. The action is good, but it’s the heart that lands this film on the list.

9. Battle: Los Angeles

Sure, it might be kind of a silly film with some laughable dialog, but in terms of action, the film is on overdrive pretty much the whole way through. In a year absent the really guilty pleasures of shoot-em ups like The Expendables, this was the gun violence choice of the year, with thousands of rounds expended and plenty of explosions to be had by all.

8. Real Steel

Action just isn’t about killing people, it’s also about boxing robots. Real Steel had a charming performance from Hugh Jackman, an entertaining enough kid, great action pieces in the ring, and a surprising amount of heart delivered from the vacant stare of Atom. This film got to me for some reason, possibly because I get a boner for robots, but probably because it was just good action entertainment, especially when a robot fights a bull.

7. Kung Fu Panda 2

This movie was so good, it made me mad enough to write a boiling point asking why a children’s cartoon was the best action movie I’d seen thus far in the year. KFP is a lot of fun with a great cast and some excellent action. It’ll please the kids in your family and keep everyone else entertained. Thumbs up.

6. Drive Angry

It just wouldn’t be a Robert Fure list without some violence and nudity on it some where. Drive Angry could be a contender for horror lists thanks to its supernatural elements, but I think the film does better as an action movie. It has car chases that rival or exceed those in Fast Five and enough blood and guts to satisfy even my warped tastes. Plus Amber Heard. Amber Heard. Amber Heard. Ya heard?

5. Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Is it an action movie or something smarter? Does it have to be one or the other? Rise was a surprise to many, a film that managed to be both smart and entertaining, intelligent without being overly preachy. Plus, once the monkeys decide it’s time to fuck shit up, things get exciting really fast.

4. 13 Assassins

There was nothing but praise for this Takashi Miike flick, so it was hard not to have high expectations going in. The film starts off by giving you all the plot and back story you can handle for about an hour. They just need to set you up so there are no more questions once the battle begins, because it rages and doesn’t stop for the last hour. The entire affair wasn’t overwhelming, with many undeveloped characters, but in the end when 13 guys with 50 swords slash and murder their way through 200 people, it gets a spot on any action list.

3. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol

A worthy successor to the fun and exciting M:I:III or whatever they called it, Brad Bird’s first foray into live action brought plenty of action and a good bit of comedy along for the ride. With some truly breathtaking sequences in IMAX and lively action sequences, this film would have been at home opening up in the middle of Summer.

2. Transformers: Dark of the Moon

We can argue all day over the merits of Michael Bay or the Transformers franchise, but to be honest with you, if you don’t at least acknowledge these films for the jaw-dropping action, you’re just being a stubborn dick. Transformers 3 overstays its welcome a little bit in length, but makes up for it by including some of the best CGI of the year and some of the most frenetic, ass-kicking action sequences of the year. With tons of military goodness and rampaging robots, this is an adrenaline fueled pre-teen wet dream of mashed up metal.

1. Ironclad

With a similar death toll to 13 Assassins, Ironclad decided to intersperse the violent action and story a bit more and ultimately created a more satisfying experience. The film follows a troubled Templar Knight, a Magna Carta loving Baron and his men as they defend the Castle of Rochester against King John, the King of England who decided to give up considerable power to stop a rebellion only to not actually give up said power. King John recruits an army of Danes and lays siege to Rochester, but few hold out against many for an absurdly long time resulting in an absurdly high number of deaths. Ironclad is extremely violent, with dozens of gruesome injuries, fractured faces, and removed limbs, but it never dwells too obsessively long on the gore. It is most likely the most accurate portrayal of the brutality of medieval warfare ever recorded.

Honorable Mentions: Fast Five almost made the list, but a lackluster fight between Vin Diesel and The Rock coupled with stale car chases leave it off. Warrior was also a strong contender, but ultimately this sports movie suffered just a few too many cliches to make the final list.

We’re just getting started with our 2011 Year in Review.

You’ve probably notice we’re still at the beginning of November and haven’t been transported magically to December 21st when The Adventures of Tintin gets its US release, and you’d be both observant and right. However, Tintin, world figure that he is, got his release in several foreign markets on October 26th-28th. The ignorant American that I am didn’t bother to address this until now. Well, here you go, foreign markets. It’s your day to shine.

The Adventures of Tintin has already pulled in $125.3m in foreign territories, pretty much guaranteeing its worldwide success well before its North American release. The film is already generated income from over 5000 locations in 21 foreign markets, but most of its dollars have come from the United Kingdom and France so far. It made $21 million from France last weekend and $10.9m from the UK. Spain and Germany were also big markets for the film, pulling over $10m from the locations combined.

Foreign and worldwide box office isn’t a factor many of us consider when we’re talking box office. Part of that is how much more films make in the United States compared to foreign markets. Another part of this is how few headlines foreign box office make. However, a dollar is a dollar is a dollar, and it all spends the same way. Okay, soap box has been removed. Back to the domestic news.

Puss in Boots had an incredible second weekend drop, 3% in all, and was able to once again take the #1 spot with another “over $30m” weekend. It was easily able to swat newcomers Tower Heist and A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas to the ground, neither of which were able to come close to the $30m mark, let alone top it. With $75.5m under its leather belt, Puss in Boots is slowly making its way towards becoming a success, even though it’s nowhere near the level of DreamWorks Animation’s other big hitters, Shrek, How to Train Your Dragon, or even last year’s Megamind. After 10 days, Megamind was able to scrap together $88.8m and eventually went on to make $148.4m domestic/$173.4m foreign for a $321.8m worldwide total. Puss in Boots has made $114.5m total in worldwide sales.

Tower Heist didn’t have a particularly bad weekend. It’s nowhere Brett Ratner or Ben Stiller’s worst openings and performed rather well considering it’s a non-branded property. It doesn’t come off as a rather inexpensive film. Its cast list is probably what made up most of its budget, but expect Tower Heist to end up being somewhat of a success in the long run, especially once it hits the home video market.

Audiences weren’t as kind to A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas. They apparently weren’t in the mood for 3D or an early Christmas, and the film ended up performing worse in its opening weekend than the second film of the series, Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay. That film opened to $14.9m in 2008 and went on to pull in $38.1m domestic/$5.3m foreign for a $43.4m worldwide total. 3D Christmas might end up pulling that same kind of longevity, however, with the slight inflation of ticket prices combined with the additional dollars for 3D prices, the $13.1m it pulled in this weekend has to be seen as a pretty large setback for the franchise.

Elsewhere at the box office, Paranormal Activity 3 is nearing $100m domestic here in its third weekend of release. It’s already surpassed the $84.7m domestic Paranormal Activity 2 made and is eyeballing the $107.9m domestic made by the first film in 2009. Granted its dollar intake is slowing, down 53% from last weekend, and it might not get there. However, it’ll be a close one. Regardless, Paranormal Activity 3 ($114.5m worldwide total so far) is already another huge hit for the series.

Here’s how the weekend broke down:

1. Puss in Boots – $32.1m (-3%) $75.5m total
2. Tower Heist – $25.1m NEW
3. A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas – $13.1m NEW
4. Paranormal Activity 3 – $8.5m (-53%) $95.3m total
5. In Time – $7.7m (-36%) $24.2m total
6. Footloose – $4.6m (-17%) $44.8m total
7. Real Steel – $3.4m (-29%) $78.8m total
8. The Rum Diary – $3m (-42%) $10.4m total
9. The Ides of March – $2m (-29%) $36.8m total
10. Moneyball – $1.9m (-20%) $70.3m total

And that’s a $101.2m weekend for you, not as big as what we saw a few weekends ago when Paranormal Activity 3 hit its first weekend, but definitely up from “downturn” we’ve been seeing lately. Both Puss in Boots and Tower Heist performed well above expectations, even though 3D Christmas‘ disappointing weekend curbed that a bit. The box office looks in good shape, and, if Puss in Boots is able to hold onto these tiny drops from weekend to weekend, it’ll end up looking even better.

And that’s not even considering the weekend we have coming up. J. Edgar will likely be pulling the adult crowd, though Clint Eastwood-directed films don’t have much history in box office success. Immortals probably won’t be vying for that #1 spot, either. However, Jack and Jill hits. Yes, that Jack and Jill, the one with Adam Sandler and…gulp…Adam Sandler. Hating it already isn’t going to do us much favors when it finally hits next weekend. Sandler, box office Midas that he is, will likely be walking away with the top spot once again. It’s okay. You can stop flinching now.

We’ll be back on Thursday to see how the weekend is shaping up.

As much as we’d all like to see Brett Ratner go down in flames to the might of Harold & Kumar, that outcome might not be so foregone. Doesn’t matter to our Christmas spirit, though. We’ll still be singing carols and hanging out underneath the mistletoe. Alone. Practicing on the back of our hands. Oh, right, the box office.

BIG HITTERS

Tis the season. For smoke and nudity and laughs and Harold and Kumar and 3D, that is. A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas is only the third film of the franchise, but the steady build in box office returns and the buzz surrounding this latest film are proof positive the formula works. Now, courtesy of Star Trek, John Cho is a slightly bigger star than he was in 2008 when Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay opened to $14.9m, and Kal Penn, thanks to his White House position…well, John Cho is a bigger star regardless. It will be extremely surprising if 3D Christmas falters in the upward swing of the series, but whether it has enough to put it over the $20m mark remains to be seen. More than likely it’ll come in around $17-18m thanks to the 3D bump and the established brand of its stars. Not exactly a high water mark, but it’s better than what any of the Cheech & Chong movies did.

Did we mention Neil Patrick Harris is along for the ride, too? He has a few Christmas moments under his belt. Here’s one of them. Ooh, so serious:

Yes, we gave Brett Ratner a hard time in the opening, and, no, most film-savvy movie watchers aren’t too fond of him. But, for the casual movie-goer, the type of patron who will make Tower Heist such a huge hit, Ratner’s name probably won’t even come up before, during, or even after the movie. Instead, they’ll be looking at Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, and how funny that movie starring that girl from Precious looks. That’s precisely what Universal is expecting this weekend, and they’ll probably get it. Tower Heist has a very good chance of coming out #1. It’s PG-13 accessible, unlike Harold & Kumar. The trailer makes it look funny, probably because, even with Ratner on board, it is. The only thing standing in Tower Heist‘s way of fully expecting the crown is an adventurous, CG cat and his boots. But the audiences are different. Tower Heist‘s main competition this weekend is without a doubt Harold & Kumar, and the only thing that might put the latter up and over are those 3D dollars. Expect Tower Heist to come in just under $20m. Expect Brett Ratner to continue making accessible movies until the day he dies.

Tower Heist? Sounds like an arcade game. Kind of like Elevator Action. Remember that? Well, here’s a refresher:

FAMILIARITIES

Puss in Boots didn’t exactly have the swashbuckling opening weekend many were anticipating. In fact, it opened softer than any of the Shrek movies, probably the reason we didn’t get an announcement about Puss in Boots 2: Puss’ Pride this week. Without any other family films out there fresh enough for audiences to seek out, Puss in Boots‘ second weekend won’t have that huge of a drop. It will probably somewhere in the average, between 40-45%. Even with that, it will still come out with around $20m this weekend. That could very well be enough to give it a second #1 spot in a row. It all depends on how well Tower Heist and Harold & Kumar do. Regardless of its placement on the charts, expect Puss in Boots to deliver another healthy weekend for DreamWorks Animation. Puss’ Pride might not be too far off.

LITTLE OPENERS

Opening in limited release are Charlotte Rampling: The Look opening in New York City, The Son of No One opening in select cities, and Young Goethe in Love opening in New York and L.A. It’s a slow weekend all around.

Here’s how the weekend is shaping up:

1. Tower Heist – $19.6m NEW
2. Puss in Boots – $19.5m (-42.5%)
3. A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas – $17.4m NEW
4. Paranormal Activity 3 – $8m (-55.7%)
5. In Time – $6.1m (-48.8%)
6. Footloose – $2.9m (-46%)
7. The Rum Diary – $2.2m (-55.5%)
8. Real Steel – $2.2m (-54.8%)
9. The Ides of March – $1.5m (-44.6%)
10. Moneyball -$1.3m (-39.2%)

Where that line is drawn is up to each person. One person might see a kid reading “National Geographic” in It’s a Wonderful Life and think it’s quaintly appropriate while another person might find it craven and conspicuous. To the same extent, different film productions have delivered brands with means ranging from the slyness of near-imperceptibility to almost Doritos-Scorchin’-Habanero-Flavor levels of obviousness.

It’s far from new, and even though sold items have sneaked their way into movies for almost one hundred years, there’s been an explosion in recent decades, seeing a new revenue stream for studios and a new annoyance for film fans.

One of the first examples was the integration of Red Crown Gasoline into the 1919 Fatty Arbuckle-starring silent film The Garage – a move that was criticized heavily by motion picture journal Harrison’s Reports (yes, people have been complaining about product placement for as long as it’s been around). It’s also not a sole example of the bygone era. Best Picture winner Wings (1927) featured a Hershey’s Chocolate Bar, there’s a banner ad for Wrigley’s Gum in Fritz Lang’s M, The Marx Brothers built jokes around Life Savers Candy and the Mobil Logo, and then of course there’s the Wonderful Life/National Geographic tie-in. The point is that the practice had its early seeds in motion picture infancy, but those marketers and filmmakers couldn’t have even imagined the levels it would get to.

Like the level it got to in 1995 when sales for the BMW Z3 soared after James Bond drove one in GoldenEye. The result of that success? The marketer who put it together, Karen Sortito, created a $100m campaign for Tomorrow Never Dies which saw Bond mingling with all sorts of products (from L’Oreal make-up to Heineken beer). It was around that time that the new era of product placement that we know and tolerate really took off.

However, there was a Golden Age even before that. Unsurprisingly, this bastion of all things commercial took place during the 1980s, and it’s there that some of the best questions about how and why in-movie marketing works or doesn’t. Listing all the examples would take a much longer column and an intestinal fortitude only offered by eating a diet solely consisting of Doritos for four months straight, but the more blatant offenders are perhaps the best to shine a light on.

One of the worst of the bunch might be Back to the Future, a movie so viewed through nostalgia glasses that even the advertising in it seems kitschy and harmless now. The Pepsi partnership is over-the-top to the point that Marty McFly actually orders a Pepsi Free (something no one has ever drunk). It even jumped into the sequel when Marty goes to a Cafe 80s in the year 2015 and needs a $50 bill to buy a Pepsi. There’s also the Pizza Hut pizza they just add water to, the shoes, and maybe the most shining, silent product – the DeLorean itself. Documentarian Morgan Spurlock claimed that his Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold was inspired by a scene in an episode of Heroes where Hayden Panettiere’s character squeals at getting a Nissan Rogue (even calling it out not just by name, but by maker), but the DeLorean went beyond product placement to become an integral icon of the film as a major character. Maybe it’s because of that heavy-use status that we don’t think of it as advertising, or maybe it’s the quality and staying power of the film that gives it a pass.

Or maybe we can appreciate product placement when it’s utilized while being mocked:

Because, on the other side of things, there are movies that blow Back to the Future out of the water, but they are so blatant that they seem criminal. Chief among them is the McDonald’s sponsored Mac & Me, a horrible movie that features an E.T.-like alien who loves McDonald’s. He loves the stuff more than Reese’s Pieces. From studying these films, it seems clear that to get away with product placement 1) your movie has to be good if not downright brilliant 2) the product can be cloaked by hiding it in plain sight or beyond several other products (like the DeLorean hiding behind Pepsi) and 3) the product has to make some kind of logical sense in the universe that’s created by the movie.

Take for example, The Wizard. The entire film is a giant advertisement for Nintendo that succeeded in making a slogan about the Power Glove the most quotable line. In one way, it’s pure marketing, but in another, it’s a movie about youth culture with a mainstay of that culture front and center. The advertising of The Wizard makes sense specifically because of how embedded it already was as entertainment, and because of the connection between Nintendo as a video game console company and the plot concept of a video game competition.

On its face, an alien that loves fast food hamburgers is sort of mentally challenged, and audiences responded with hostility. However, two stoners who love White Castle are totally kosher as a plot/advertising device.

With the farcical levels of product placement in movies like I, Robot; Transformers; Minority Report; You’ve Got Mail (AOL is its DeLorean); The Island and more, it would appear as if we as film fans are either fine with advertising in our narratives or that we have no choice but to roll our eyes at it. The most recent film to suck at the teat of paid advertising even looked like it might be going for the record. Even in the future, the arena in Real Steel is sponsored by Bing, X-Box has created the 720, and every soda ever is still going strong. It’s both the latest in the trend, and an example of it turned up to 11.

I worked (for an entire day) on the set of Iron Man, and what I remember most from the production trailer set out in a pile of sand outside Culver City was a wall of folders, clearly labeled for each department’s use. The folder for product placement was fat with paper, and I finally understood why when I saw Tony Stark eating from a Burger King wrapper. This stuff is everywhere now, and some filmmakers are better at hiding it than others, but with studios struggling to find new revenue streams in the face of lower audience turn out, we’ll most likely be seeing silver screen heroes using Apple computers, driving BMWs, and eating shitty hamburgers.

And why am I so curious about embedded advertising? Because I’m hungry too:

Sell out by reading more Culture Warrior

Luckily for Paramount, audiences were in the mood for chills this weekend, as Paranormal Activity 3 had a dump truck of cash backed up to its haunted house doors and unloaded. The third entry in the now-never-ending series not only trounced the competition and stunned box office analysts, its broke the records for both October opening weekend and Fall opening weekend. Both of those records were previously held by last year’s Jackass 3D, which debuted to $50.3m.

This bodes extremely well for the Paranormal Activity series, the fourth entry of which is sure to be announced sometime this coming week. The previously reigning champion of October horror, the Saw franchise, never even dreamed to have an opening this big. It’s biggest opening weekend was in 2006 when Saw III made $33.6m in its first three days. Of course, the Paranormal Activity films trumped the Saw films long ago when the first PA ended its domestic run with $107.9m, a number none of the Saw films ever even came close to. It seems likely we’ll be getting a new Paranormal Activity film every October until the day comes a new franchise take over, and people begin to tire of watching stationary shots of kitchens. Spooky stuff.

That new franchise sure as hell won’t be The Three Musketeers. That film opened even lower than expected and gave director Paul W.S. Anderson his worst opening numbers since 1998′s Soldier debuted with $6.4m. As you all probably know, there wasn’t a Soldier 2, and the sure won’t be a Three Musketeers 2. Actually it might be called The Six Musketeers. Or Three Musketeers Squared, which would be Nine Musketeers. This movie is making my brain hurt, and I didn’t even see it. Point is, it bombed, so we’ll move on.

Real Steel and Footloose had respectable drops this weekend, as did pretty much every other returning film out there. That is, except for The Thing, which dropped liked the Arctic temperature at night. Zing. With a reported budget of $35m, The Thing will be lucky to even break even in theaters, let alone make a little profit for Universal. Sounds kind of like the budget-to-gross ratio for the 1982 The Thing. So we’ll just apologize in advance to horror fans in 2040.

Johnny English Reborn and The Mighty Macs were movies that got released this weekend. I, much like most of you, was shocked to learn of this knowledge. I was also shocked to learn that Cowboys and Aliens finally broke $100m. Some movie called The Worst Movie EVER! made $12. $12. That’s like two tickets in a week. Matinee price.

Here’s how the weekend broke down:

1. Paranormal Activity 3 – $54m NEW
2. Real Steel – $11.3m (-30.5%) $67.2m total
3. Footloose – $10.8m (-30.3%) $30.8m total
4. The Three Musketeers – $8.8m NEW
5. The Ides of March – $4.9m (-31.1%) $29.1m total
6. Dolphin Tale – $4.2m (-32.6%) $64.3m total
7. Moneyball – $4m (-25.8%) $63.7m total
8. Johnny English Reborn – $3.8m NEW
9. The Thing – $3.1m (-63.3%) $14.1m total
10. 50/50 – $2.8m (-34.3%) $28.8m total

Thank you, Paranormal Activity 3. With your contribution to the total box office, we are happy to report a grand total of $107.7m, up 43.3% from last weekend, though not quite as big a weekend as we saw when Paranormal Activity 2 hit last October. Of course, Jackass 3D was in its second weekend at the time, and the combination of the two pulled in some sick dollars.

Next weekend will be an interesting one. Paranormal Activity 3, even with a decent sized drop, will bring in some major bucks, but three new movies hit theaters as well. In Time, The Rum Diary, and Puss in Boots all have the opportunity to score big, especially since all three feature Hollywood heartthrobs. By that, I mean Timberlake, Depp, and Puss. That’s right. Puss. Those eyes. They’re just so enchanting. Like you just want to pet the little guy until he nuzzle up under your arm…never mind all that.

We’ll be back on Thursday to see how the weekend is shaping up.

They took the stage. They did their dance. But in the end one side decided to throw mechanized punches while the other side fought a tyrannical small town with the power of fancy footwork. That is to say Real Steel took the top spot from Footloose this weekend but only by a narrow margin. When the actual numbers hit Monday evening, it could be another story altogether, but, as of right now, the robot have it for the second weekend in a row.

It was relatively impressive weekend for both films. Real Steel in its second weekend had a respectable drop, just over 40% from its opening weekend numbers. The IMAX price difference probably made up most if not all of the $200,000 difference between the #s 1 and 2 movies. Footloose, on the other hand, had name recognition and the teen crowd wanting to see another dance movie, a crowd just slightly older than the “kids who want to see giant robots punching each other” crowd. You can also attribute Real Steel‘s #1 holding to the parents who had to accompany those kids. They have to buy tickets, too, you know.

When all is said and done, though, both films will be coming out smelling like winners. Footloose, with its reported $24m budget, is well on its way to recouping. The magic number for it, though, is $80m, the total gross the 1984 original film was able to pull in. Real Steel has already managed $73.8m worldwide. Its budget hasn’t been reported yet, but the $100m worldwide mark is well within its grasp.

A movie the doesn’t looks to recoup, doesn’t look to have realistic aspirations for $100m any time soon, is The Thing remake. Granted, the John Carpenter film wasn’t able to make much at the box office in 1982. That film opened to $3.1m and ended up with $19.6m before dropping out of theaters altogether. Perhaps this new version of The Thing will find its own cult status on DVD and Blu-Ray, and, in 30 years, someone might take a chance on yet another prequel/sequel/remake/what-have-you.

A film that won’t be remade, won’t be sequelized, will probably be long forgotten by this time next week, is The Big Year. Apparently people just don’t have an interest in watching other people bird-watch, even when those people are Steve Martin, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson. The Big Year just barely made it into the top 10, only came in $600,000 ahead of The Lion King in its fifth week of release. You can expect The Big Year to be scuttled out of theaters in just a matter of weeks and hit DVD shelves within a couple of months where it will surely find the numbers it needs to become a cult classic of its own. I’m sorry. I almost got through that sentence with a straight face.

Here’s how the weekend broke down:

1. Real Steel – $16.3m (-40.3%) $51.7m total
2. Footloose – $16.1m NEW
3. The Thing – $8.7m NEW
4. The Ides of March – $7.5m (-28.4%) $22.1m total
5. Dolphin Tale – $6.3m (-30.5%) $58.6m total
6. Moneyball – $5.5m (-26.2%) $57.7m total
7. 50/50 – $4.3m (-23.7%) $24.3m total
8. Courageous – $3.4m (-30.2%) $21.3m total
9. The Big Year – $3.3m NEW
10. The Lion King in 3-D – $2.7m (-41.1%) $90.4m total

Here we are with a $74.1m weekend, not a tragic number by any means but still lower than expected. A lot of that comes from The Thing‘s inability to even break past $10m and The Big Year‘s abysmal offering to the weekend whole. The weekend was down again from the previous, but it still hasn’t dropped so low as to consider a slump. It wasn’t even the lowest weekend of the post-Summer movie season.

Next weekend certainly looks to be on an upswing, though, with Paranormal Activity 3 surely bringing impressive opening numbers. Elsewhere in theaters we’ll be seeing Johnny English Reborn, The Three Musketeers, and The Mighty Macs helping to supplement whatever number the Paranormal Activity franchise has in store to scare the other studios away. It goes without saying that the Paranormal Activity films have taken over the pre-Halloween horror slot, and, until they stop making Paramount beaucoup bucks, we can expect this to be the potential upswing at the box office for the coming Fall movie seasons.

We’ll be back on Thursday to see how the weekend is shaping up.

…of the world. Maybe of the entire universe. Who knows what kind of movies or box office receipts they have in the far galaxies? Still, regardless how much money The Sands of WeepWoo makes on planet Brackle, it couldn’t have been stepped up to the how well the giant robots did this weekend. Real Steel didn’t break any box office records. Even for a robot movie, its opening was on the high end but still South of movies like A.I. Artificial Intelligence ($29.3m opening) and Robots ($36m). It did, however, have the biggest opening for a boxing film, topping Rocky IV‘s $19.9m debut from 1985. A nice sized opening like we see hear combined with how crowd-pleasing the film is could prove Real Steel to have some solid longevity.

The Ides of March might have some equally good longevity, not that a film like The Ides of March is looking to break the $100m bank. The George Clooney directed political drama opened to just over double digits, a bit lower than expected but still admirable considering it’s running on star power alone. Opening just above The American President ($10m in 1995) and just below Bulworth ($10.5m in 1998), The Ides of March is looking more towards those golden statues than a black profit. Judging by how little buzz the film is gathering with critics, it might end up with neither.

The rest of the weekend was fairly standard with The Lion King coming out with the biggest drop from the previous weekend. But does that really matter considering how much money the movie has made overall? Disney initially planned to re-release it for only two weeks, a plan that got scrapped as soon as the animated film starting coming it at #1. Expect Beauty and the Beast to have the same level of success when it sees 3-D re-release on January 13th.

The Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence made $54,000 on 18 screens this weekend, a middle-of-the-road $3000 per screen average. Granted, the first Human Centipede made $181,467 domestic, so Tom Six is well on his way to financing Human Centipede 3: The Secret of the Ooze. No, that’s not the official title, but it gives Six something to consider.

Here’s how the weekend broke down:

1. Real Steel – $27.3m NEW
2. The Ides of March – $10.4m NEW
3. Dolphin Tale – $9.1m (-34.2%) $49m total
4. Moneyball – $7.5m (-37.7%) $49.2m total
5. 50/50 – $5.5m (-36.4%) $17.3m total
6. Courageous – $4.6m (-49.5%) $15.8m total
7. The Lion King in 3D – $4.5m (-57.1%) $$85.9m total
8. Dream House – $4.5m (-44.6%) $14.5m total
9. What’s Your Number? – $3m (-43.7%) $10.3m total
10. Abduction – $2.9m (-48.3%) $23.3m total

And there we have a $79.3m weekend, not as successful as expected but not an abysmal flop, either. The robots weren’t able to break the post-Summer calm waters we’ve been having for the past month and a half try as they might. In fact, the weekend was down from the top 10 last weekend when Dolphin Tale swatted the competition away with its newly acquired prosthetic.

Next weekend doesn’t look to turn things around much, either. We’ll have the start of the October horror season with the prequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing, the Jack Black/Steve Martin/Owen Wilson comedy The Big Year, and Footloose, so expect this week’s Reject Report to have some kind of headline about everybody cutting…in line. Oh, man! That just made me LOL. I’m not even sorry.

We’ll be back on Thursday to see how the weekend is shaping up.

Want to hear what Kevin has to say on the Fat Guys at the Movies podcast? Click here to listen how religion comes to the Magical Studio in the Sky with Reverend Scott, a frequent guest on the Outside the Cinema podcast.

REAL STEEL
Studio:DreamWorks

Rated: PG-13 for some violence, intense action and brief language

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo, Evangeline Lilly, Anthony Mackie, Kevin Durand and Hope Davis

Directed by: Shawn Levy

What it’s about: A once-great fighter (Hugh Jackman) is struggling to make ends meet in the world of robot boxing. After getting his ashcan kicked in a low-rent bout, he is saddled with his eleven-year-old son for the summer. Reluctantly, he takes the kid under his wing, and together they refurbish an old sparring bot, making it an unlikely champion in the major league.

What I liked: I wasn’t sold on the idea of a Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em robot movie until I saw the first trailers of this film. It’s one of those rare instances where Hollywood – and the notorious hack director Shawn Levy – actually gets things right.

Real Steel isn’t a complex movie with deep meaning. It’s a simple story about a father trying to reconcile his non-existent relationship with his son. It’s a button-pusher, both with the father/son cliches and the sports movie cliches, but sometimes a button-pusher movie can be fun. Just look at films like The Help.

The cast is quite likeable, which is expected for Hugh Jackman but quite surprising for the young Dakota Goyo who seems to channel 1999-era Jake Lloyd. But as annoying as the kid can be in the beginning of the film, I really did warm up to him throughout the movie.

And then there’s the robots. Almost any movie can be improved by giant robots beating the lube out of each other, and this is the film’s crutch. But it’s a crutch that’s fun as hell. Unlike the Transformers movies which represent the overblown EEE breast implants of giant fighting robot movies, Real Steel is easier to take and much more approachable.

What I didn’t: As I said earlier, I initially wasn’t sold on Dakota Goyo, and he still represents the obligatory kid thrown into a movie to widen its audience base. But when you forget that this is a DreamWorks production and is actually co-distributed by the Touchstone arm of Disney, it seems entirely appropriate.

Real Steel runs a bit long, which seems to be a strange side effect of giant fighting robot movies, and there’s a lot of cheese that can be milked out of this film for a sequel. Still, those are the problems of what comes next rather than this movie itself.

Who is gonna like this movie: Kids, families and fans of robot boxing.

THE IDES OF MARCH HOUSE
Studio: Columbia Pictures

Rated: R for pervasive language

Starring: Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Evan Rachel Wood, Marisa Tomei and Jeffrey Wright

Directed by: George Clooney

What it’s about: Ryan Gosling plays Stephen Myers, a young, idealistic political strategist who is working in a campaign during the Ohio Democratic Primary. He has thrown down his support for candidate Mike Morris (George Clooney) because he believes this man can do the country a lot of good. However, as the campaign gets more heated, Stephen gets a lesson in dirty politics and how things really run behind the scenes.

What I liked: Like many people, I rolled my eyes at the thought of a political movie directed by George Clooney. After all, the guy is well known for being a partisan activist. That’s not to say I’m against one side or the other, but rather I wasn’t looking forward to a politically preachy movie. If I wanted that, I’d watch a Michael Moore movie.

But for as politically active and opinionated Clooney is, he keeps personal politics out of the film. Instead of being about one party or another, The Ides of March is about the morally ambiguous workings of politics in general, and it is ultimately an indictment of the whole system. By framing the film around a single party (with which Clooney is aligned, by the way), there’s no finger pointing, aside from those pointing at the sad state of American politics.

The film has a fantastic pace, taking the audience on the journey from the wide-eyed wonderment of working on a campaign to the soul-crushing betrayal found in the business. It’s also got a fantastic cast, featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti as dueling political strategies and Evan Rachel Wood as the young tempting intern.

This is not an uplifting film, nor is it optimistic in any way. But it gives an uncomfortable but keen insight into a world most of us only read about in the news.

What I didn’t: Not much at all. This is easily one of the best films of 2011.

Who is gonna like this movie: Political junkies and anyone frustrated with the political system.

MACHINE GUN PREACHER
Studio: Relativity Media

Rated: R for violent content including disturbing images, language, some drug use and a scene of sexuality

Starring: Gerard Butler, Michelle Monaghan, Kathy Baker, Michael Shannon and Madeline Carroll

Directed by: Marc Forster

What it’s about: Sam Childers (Gerard Butler) was a criminal, drug addict and sinner. After hitting rock bottom, he finds God and builds his own church for other wayward members of society. After taking a mission trip to the Sudan, he tours the war-torn region and decides to do whatever he can to help. He builds an orphanage in the most violent area and defends it against the warlord of the region, putting a strain on his relationship with his wife and daughter back home.

What I liked: There are some good things to take away from this film. At the very least, people in the first world can go to the safe and secure cineplex to see that our problems are not that huge. For the most part, the film resists shaking its finger at us who worry about getting the latest iPhone while there are children in the Sudan getting their homes set on fire and the families mutilated. It doesn’t completely avoid this, but considering the temptation to do so non-stop, it’s relatively light.

Butler does a fine job in the role, though he lays it on a bit thick in his earlier moments as a criminal. Michael Shannon also impresses as Childers’ friend who helps hold the fort down with his family while he’s in Africa.

Ultimately, the film’s heart is in the right place, but that’s not enough to save it from its own pitfalls.

What I didn’t: Like any movie that’s based on a real person, there are no easy answers, and the pacing can be a bit awkward. There are no easy answers, and there’s very little resolution. Such is the case with most biopics. Add to this the fact that Marc Forster is the kind of director who likes to leave things somewhat open-ended, and he doesn’t like to deliver a happily ever after story, especially if it’s not called for.

But unfortunately, this makes the film a lot less hard-hitting. Even though it avoids beating the viewer over the head with a message, it does get a little preachy at times. And in the end, Childers is presented as a bit of a jerk, neglecting his family at home over the Sudanese children. More over, these points are driven home with painfully obvious lines, like when his daughter yells, “You care more about little black babies on the other side of the world than you do about me!” Yeah, that was a little much.

With a title like Machine Gun Preacher, I was hoping we’d get an African version of Hobo with a Shotgun, so I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed when it wasn’t that.

Who is gonna like this movie: People who like an out-of-the-box biopic.

Real Steel is all about the performance (both in and outside of the ring) and the swagger filled soundtrack will get your adrenaline pumping as you root for the underdog team of former boxer Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman), his son Max (Dakota Goyo) and their robot, Atom. From the moment we meet Max he has headphones around his neck and as the story unfolds, music becomes as much a part of the world of Real Steel as the robots.

Within the movie, the songs are interspersed with score from Danny Elfman that help to enhance the more emotional moments of the story, but on the soundtrack, the beats come at you one after another making it feel as though you were living in the middle of the stadium ring. Yes, this is a loud mix with booming bass and percussion, but in a world where eight-foot tall robots fight to the “death,” you would need a soundtrack that is able to rise above the noise of metal on metal carnage.

The soundtrack kicks off with “Fast Lane” from Bad Meets Evil, the rap duo of Royce da 5’9” and Eminem. Eminem also has a solo track, “’Til I Collapse,” and his flows pop up throughout the film giving an almost subconscious impression that Eminem is the sound of the future (or at least the future world of robot boxing). Considering Eminem began his career as an underdog rapper who was constantly bet against, his story and frenetic raps make him a perfect match for the tone and feel of a film about people not only trying to make it as a boxing team, but as a family.

Eminem is certainly not alone as the soundtrack also boasts tracks from fellow hip-hop artists Beastie Boys with “Here’s a Little Something for Ya,” 50 Cent’s “The Enforcer” and a new track from Timbaland, “Give It a Go.” But the soundtrack is not all hip-hop with Foo Fighters and Rival Sons bringing the rock on “Miss the Misery” and “Torture” and The Crystal Method and The Prodigy (joined by Tom Morello) mixing in some alternative tracks with “Make Some Noise (Put ‘Em Up)” and “One Man Army.” Morello even has a solo track with “The Midas Touch,” giving the soundtrack one of its few all instrumental (but still driving) tracks.

The theme of the film is made pretty clear looking at the song titles alone, Real Steel is a David versus Goliath story of a father/son team going against a corporate machine to the actual David and Goliath battle between their junk yard robot and the undefeated champ. One of the more mellow moments on the soundtrack (and in the film) comes from Alexi Murdoch’s “All My Days,” which you may sound familiar as his LP (“Time Without Consequence”) was one of the most licensed albums of the past decade. Even though the song is one you may have heard before, it actually works within the film (even though it may stand out a bit from the pack on the soundtrack).

Real Steel is a fun time and a large part of that was due to the soundtrack that never let up. The walk out to the ring is usually paired with a rocking track to get the crowd (and those headed into the ring) pumped up, and Real Steel takes this idea and applies it to its full two-hour run time. It’s hard not to love a killer action scene set to equally pulse pounding music, and that music holds up both in and out of the movie.

The Upside: The music helps keep the energy of the film pumping from beginning to end and the soundtrack on its own would be a kick-ass gym mix (whether you’re in training or not).

The Downside: After eleven straight tracks of high octane beats, ending with Murdoch’s toned down track and one of Elfman’s scored tracks end up bringing the energy to a sudden halt.

On the Flipside: Real Steel does not just leave the music to the background, it becomes a part of the film with Max proving that he is not just good with supping up robots, he’s got some moves too. And with a robot that can mirror his movements, dancing quickly becomes as much a part of the act as winning the fights.

This soundtrack is available through Interscope Records.

1. “Fast Lane” – Bad Meets Evil
2. “Here’s A Little Something For Ya” – The Beastie Boys
3. “Miss The Misery” – Foo Fighters
4. “The Enforcer” – 50 Cent
5. “Make Some Noise (Put ‘Em Up)” – The Crystal Method
6. “’Til I Collapse” – Eminem
7. “One Man Army” – The Prodigy
8. “Give It A Go” – Timbaland, Veronica
9. “The Midas Touch” – Tom Morello
10. “Why Try” – Limp Bizkit
11. “Torture” – Rival Sons
12. “All My Days” – Alexi Murdoch
13. “Kenton” – Danny Elfman

BIG HITTERS

In this box office corner we have the start of the Fall blockbuster season, those big budget movies the whole family heads out into the cold to see. The big budget movies usually don’t start in the Fall until late November, prime Thanksgiving realty, if you will. But the people behind Real Steel are banking on striking early and striking hard. And there’s no reason to think they won’t do just that. It’s got Hugh Jackman, an actor who is hard to deny credibility when it comes to opening these blockbuster films. It’s directed by Shawn Levy who, with movies like Cheaper by the Dozen ($27.5m opening) and Night at the Museum ($30.4m opening) knows how to open these Fall hits. But most importantly, Real Steel has giant robot on its side, always a plus when it comes to box office returns. No, these giant robots are battling Decepticons, but it’s impossible to ignore how well any big budget movie with robots at the forefront can do. Even the Fox animated flick Robots opened to $36m in March 2005. You can rest assured Real Steel will be coming in somewhere in that area. Hugh Jackmans battle cry from the film of “Let’s make some MONEY!” should just be splashed on the poster at this point.

How could we resist? Of course we’d show you a classic Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots commercial in lieu of the Real Steel trailer. Enjoy:

In addition to being that time of year when the Fall blockbusters are upon us, the Oscar hopefuls start to trickle out, as well. This weekend sees George Clooney’s latest directorial effort, The Ides of March. Granted, the films Clooney has directed haven’t exactly been gangbusters at the box office polls. Leatherheads had his biggest opening with $12.6m. As an actor, outside of the Summer months, his biggest opening was Burn After Reading with $19.1m. The Ides of March lead, Ryan Gosling, isn’t really a pied piper either when it comes to drawing crowds to the theater. $19.1m is his biggest opening, as well, with Crazy, Stupid, Love from this past Summer. Still, with the serious political aura about it, The Ides of March won’t even hit that stride, and will likely slide in somewhere around the mid-teen figures. But don’t worry. Come Monday George Clooney will still be George Clooney, Ryan Gosling will still be Ryan Gosling, and I’ll still be using “Hey Girl” as a way to get the Starbucks barista’s attention. This is my life. I’m glad you’ve come along for the ride.

FAMILIARITIES

With Real Steel and The Ides of March duking it out up top – spoiler alert: it won’t be much of a match – films like Dolphin’s Tale and Moneyball will still be bringing in reasonable amounts in their third weekends in release. Both films have already crossed $40m and will be well on their way to $50m, not big hits, but respectable earnings nonetheless. Meanwhile, with its 3-D re-release, The Lion King has knocked Spider-Man out of the all-time domestic top 10. Its total domestic gross currently stands at $409.4m domestic, $884.2m worldwide. It sits in the #23 slot on that list but will quickly move into the top 20 before its current run is finished. So all of that spells Hakuna Matata for Disney, who announced plans earlier this week to re-release more of their classic films with the added 3-D treatment. So, yay, Disney. Yay, Lion King, Yay, all kitties who feel the love tonight!

LITTLE OPENERS

In the headline for his The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) review, our very own Cole Abaius said director Tom Six might as well have been massaging his privates on camera for 90 minutes. He called it trash, insipid, self-mocking, and moronic, and there aren’t too many critics out there who would disagree with him. Still, if you want to judge for yourself, the film gets a small release window this weekend. Of course, even if you didn’t like the first Human Centipede, you almost have to see this follow-up before Six’s Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence) is unleashed on the world. It’s all about closure at this point. Let’s get through this so we can just move on to the next piece of trash-laden film. The Human Centipede II opens in select cities.

Also opening in limited release are 1911 opening in select cities, Blackthorn opening in New York and L.A., Dirty Girl opening in select cities, Flying Monsters 3D opening in select IMAX theaters, The Heir Apparent: Largo Winch opening in select cities, Hell and Back Again opening in New York City, The One – not the one with Jet Li – opening in select cities, The Sons of Tennesee Williams opening in select cities, and The Way opening in select cities.

Here’s how the weekend is shaping up:

1. Real Steel – $34.2m NEW
2. The Ides of March – $15.1m NEW
3. Dolphin Tale – $9.5m (-31%)
4. Moneyball – $7.2m (-39.5%)
5. The Lion King in 3-D – $5.2m (-50.4%)
6. Courageous – $5.1m (-42.4%)
7. 50/50 – $4.4m (-47.7%)
8. Dream House – $3.4m (-57.6%)
9. Contagion – $2.9m (-39.8%)
10. Abduction – $2.8m (-49.9%)

We’re looking at an $89.8m weekend with these numbers. While that doesn’t seem too high considering we’re looking at what is basically the start of the big Fall movie season, there’s really only one movie giving that overall number the boost it needs. Not even Real Steel can carry the weight for ten films into the world of $100m+ box office. But don’t blame Real Steel. Don’t blame Shawn Levy. Don’t even blame Hugh Jackman. I blame Tom Six. Why? Because I can, and because no one will be looking to stand up for him after witnessing Human Centipede 2. So there you have it, folks. If anyone is to blame for a lackluster weekend box office, it’s Tom Six. Don’t worry. He can hack it.

We’ll be back on Sunday to go over the weekend numbers.

Click here for more of The Reject Report

Anyone familiar with the work of Shawn Levy — the commercialism auteur behind films like Night at the Museum and Cheaper by the Dozen — won’t have their outlook on life remodeled by the revelation that with his latest film, he’s got very little to say. They may, however, be surprised to hear that the guy who brought the world Just Married has delivered a wicked family-driven action movie that, when put up against the ropes, delivers some of the best robot-on-robot CGI mayhem we’ll see all year. And yes, I’m including Transformers: Dark of the Moon in that category. With a story borrowed from every sports redemption film you’ve ever seen, Real Steel moves quickly through exposition and delivers on its promise of big, bad robot boxing that ultimately finds a way to be a whole lot of fun.

The story revolves around Charlie Kenton, a down and out former boxer played by Hugh Jackman and his still-handsome 5 o’clock shadowed jaw line. He was once a prolific boxer, known for his toughness and never-say-die spirit in the ring, but he’s now a guy struggling to find his place in a world where human boxing is gone and only robots remain. After several ambitious, but impetuous decisions lead Charlie further into debt and without a working robot, he’s all but out of the game. That’s when something magical happens — his long forsaken son Max, played by the charming Dakota Goyo, reenters his life to bring a renewed sense of optimism to team Kenton. They struggle to get along, only to find that the one thing that can bring them together is an undersized sparring bot named Atom. Excavated from a junk yard, Atom is a special little robot that can take a beating. And with the right amount of spirit — and a copious amount of funky pre-fight dance moves — we watch as Charlie and Max learn to work together, as father and son, to lead Atom up the ranks of the robot boxing world, all the way to an epic final showdown with Zeus, the ultimate robot fighter.

There are also, as you might imagine, a few side stories. There’s Charlie’s relationship with Bailey, as played by Lost starlet Evangeline Lilly. They’re bonded together by a mutual love for boxing forged by her gym-owning father, the man who gave Charlie his big break back in the day. It’s that time-tested love story, delivered about as flat as you can do it. As someone who loves Evangeline Lilly for many reasons, it’s sad to see this barely there presence she’s brought to almost all of her big screen work. The lack of chemistry between her and Jackman almost bares not mentioning, but there, I just did it anyway.

In between all of this mush and “story” is the real meat of what makes Real Steel a surprisingly entertaining and vibrantly energetic experience. When two robots step into the ring to beat the nuts and bolts out of each other, it’s exciting. Using a mix of practical and CGI effects, Levy and the folks from Digital Domain deliver rich colors, blistering movement and an astonishing amount of brutality. We can almost believe that in this implausible future world — one in which Bing is a major sponsor of an arena in Detroit (yeah, right) — there’s a reason why robot boxing is so popular. Because there’s something raw and exciting about watching two entities, both of whom can be rebuilt if destroyed, completely eviscerate each other.

Thankfully, the script from John Gatins, Dan Gilroy and Jeremy Leven — based very loosely (seemingly only in concept, as the nitty gritty of this film feels nothing like Matheson’s work) on the story “Steel” by Richard Matheson — doesn’t linger. And Real Steel spends more time with the interesting characters (the robots) and less time borrowing a mish-mash of clichés from every other sports movie you’ve seen. If it weren’t for ambitious effects and high energy, this would be a painful experience. One that feels as if it were written by a first year creative writing student just off of a Rocky franchise bender. But it’s not painful, at least not for the audience, because it’s so much fun to watch these extremely cool robots kick serious ass. It’s safe, base-level family fair that’s worth sitting through to get to the good parts. That, and there’s no denying that even when given some worst case scenario dialogue, Hugh Jackman remains charming. How does he do that?

So kudos to Shawn Levy, he’s made a movie many of us didn’t expect — the personification of what a Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots movie should be.

The Upside: The robot effects and action is blistering, energetic and hell of a lot of fun.

The Downside: It’s one of the most derivative stories you’ll see all year, complete with groan-worthy dialogue and plenty of familiar sports movie clichés.

On the Side: Much of the robot boxing fights were motion-captured using professional boxers, supervised by Sugar Ray Leonard. Which actually explains a lot about why it’s so entertaining.

I’m standing on the edge of the The Detroit River which is also the edge of the set for Real Steel – the forthcoming robot boxing movie with a heart of gold. Twenty or so feet away from the Cobo Arena, the wind is picking up, and the view looks out over the glass of the water toward Ontario. This might not seem like a dramatic moment for anyone who lives there, but there’s something poetically jarring about looking out at a different country (and looking southward to see Canada). Right across the water is another world. It’s a world separate from Detroit that hasn’t been beaten down by a lagging economy and the failure of major auto manufacturing. It’s not that Detroit isn’t as impressive, it’s that Windsor seems newer, fresher, and more alive.

A precipice with a view to another world seems like the perfect place for the Shawn Levy-directed, Hugh Jackman-starring film to shoot as it promises to tell a story both embedded in the seedy underground and the glittering, life-filled stadiums of the near future. To hear Levy talk, the movie sets out to feature a man living in one world, testing his limits to live in the other.

Sitting in the arena itself is a hollow experience. Off in the distance, but still inside, is a scene set up with cheering spectators, a boxing ring, a robot and Jackman putting his acting chops to good use. On the end where they’ve placed the journalists, we’re saved from and denied the bluster of the working set, content to sit on uncomfortable seats bolted into concrete. What we aren’t safe from is Shawn Levy.

The man behind the Night at the Museum movies speaks in Hollywood buzz words. Standing directly in front of us, he spews out the kind of kinetic phrases that must make studio executives wet themselves, appearing as though he’s given a strict regimen of Angel Dust every five minutes. He’s a blur of energy, ideas and F-bombs that’s just as likely to talk about the massive box office potential of the concept as he is to invoke classic emotional dramas like Paper Moon when describing a film where machines beat the grease out of each other.

In one world, there’s a fakeness to his delivery, like a too-polished salesman trying to hype you up. Don King with less impressive hair. In another world, he’s crafting yet another film about genuine daddy issues. Even the title gives away a sentimentality that we the audience and Hugh Jackman’s character Charlie Kenton will have to learn what “real” (undoubtedly metaphorical) steel is made of. But that’s what Levy does best. There’s a 90s charm in the movies he makes – throwbacks to a City Slickers era where men need to grow up a little in a commercially safe, satisfying way. His films are what happens when the two worlds of slightly crass commercialism and heartfelt familial situations collide.

In Real Steel, Charlie is tied to life by his last thread, desperate to re-enter a spotlight and reclaim a glory he once enjoyed. He’s a human boxer in a future where the sport gave way to MMA which gave way to more intense fighting which eventually necessitated non-human combatants to deliver the level of destruction the crowds demanded. He’s a character left in the past, clawing to join the present. He lives squarely in an environment of dumpster-diving for robot parts and underground matches where money and recognition is on the line, but right across the way, just in sight is the high-dollar, legitimate world of the World Robot Boxing League.

The high concept action is one thing, but the heart of the film is sold as a father-son tale where a kid (played by Dakota Goyo) who was abandoned falls in the lap of the “broken soul” who abandoned him. That Levy describes his main figure like that is another telling sign that the movie is planning to be a sheep in wacky conceptual clothing. Then again, when The Twilight Zone adapted the same source material for an episode, the result was a hell of a lot more heart than most might grant its underpinnings.

That’s what is so striking about the entire project, and what stands out most as I talk with Jackman and Levy, see some impressive pre-viz innovation and shake hands with the inanimate robot figure named Atom that they’ve built for filming. This is a movie set in divergent worlds. Aspirations and contradictions flow as freely as the Detroit River. The American city looms darkly against its counterpart. False buzzwords battle heart strings. Commercial appeal fights intimate emotionality. The underground that Charlie inhabits squares off against the caviar-soaked reality he sees for himself after winning. Fate and advancement get in the ring with motivation and hard work.

The bottom line? There are constantly two worlds at work on the set of Real Steel, and they couldn’t have chosen a better city to film in than Detroit.

More set visit coverage is coming soon, so stick around.

For the next few weeks we’ll be taking you through the gritty underground fighting world and into the sparkling, brightly lit arenas where the premiere robots brawl it out for fame and fortune. Diary from my top secret time traveling experiment into a Dystopian future or my Real Steel set visit? We’ll let you be the judge.

We’ll also let you be the judge of these new character posters. One of the most impressive things about watching them film the movie and learning a bit about it was the design of the robots that act as the non-human centerpiece of the story. The pre-viz, CGI and practical all blended together to make some very, very cool machines which get a fresh introduction to the world today.

Meet Atom, Ambush, Midas, and Noisy Boy. Click on all of them to make them way, way bigger:

My absolute favorite thing about these ads is that they all make it look like Hugh Jackman is a killer robot with its arms outstretched.

Do these make you want to go see it?

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s a nightly movie news column, sure. But at its core, it is a hunter. A hunter of the most interesting film-related tidbits of the day. Can you feel the heat?

It’s not enough for director Alex Proyas will make Paradise Lost, the story of the break between Heaven and Hell. But he’s also bringing Djimon Hounsou as the Angel of Death. If there is one actor that I look at on a consistent basis and think, “that man would bring death to me,” it’s Hounsou. It sure beats Bradley Cooper as Lucifer, so we’ll see how it shakes out.

Did you see Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life and leave confused as to why Sean Penn was in that movie? If you did, don’t worry so much, because Sean Penn doesn’t seem to know either. As he explains, his storyline should have been more defined — that’s where all the emotion was in the script.

According to people who sit in lawn chairs outside film sets, Michael Shannon has been spotted in a motion-capture suit on the set of Man of Steel. This means that Warner Bros., the studio that gave Green Lantern a full CGI wardrobe, could be doing the same for General Zod. Okay, I’m interested in seeing how that comes out.

Speaking of film sets and things I don’t understand — apparently this is news. The Dark Knight Rises is done shooting in Pittsburgh. The only people who are sad about this are the guys who run a Suburu WRX fan blog who were getting mad traffic by posting videos they took on set. Beyond that, does anyone really care? Must this news appear on every film site? I won’t stand for it! … next time.

In the following featurette, Hugh Jackman shows you why robot boxing will be awesome in Real Steel:

Now that he’s about wrapped on The Avengers — my, that went fast — Robert Downey Jr. is ready for Iron Man 3 and a tour of duty with director Shane Black. Based on Black’s involvement, this is easily the most interesting post-Avengers project from Marvel, as it may represent a bit of a tonal shift. Hopefully toward darkness.

On that same track, Disney held its D23 expo this past weekend, with previews from the likes of The Muppets, The Avengers and Pixar’s upcoming slate. The most interesting — at least to me — is Pixar’s Brave, the lady-led hero flick. Over at /Film, Germain Lussier counts 11 things we’ve learned about Pixar’s Brave, about 9 of which have me very excited.

At Movies.com, Peter Hall writes exceptionally about why Fright Night is a refreshing vampire movie worth your time. It seems later in the game now that Fright Night has already stumbled on opening weekend, but he makes a strong argument. This sentiment seems to echo that of Rob Hunter, who reviewed the film for us last week.

Bill Cody at Rope of Silicon makes an interesting case of his list of 10 lessons Hollywood can learn from this summer’s movies. Chief among them is the fact that Comic-Con is a giant waste of marketing money. This point is proven more emphatic by the success — at least in the press — of Disney’s D23 expo. They didn’t need no stinkin’ Comic-Con, after all.

With its win at this weekend’s Hugo Awards at the 69th World Science Fiction Convention in Reno, NV., Doctor Who has now eclipsed Star Trek as the winningest TV show of all-time. That, as you can imagine, is no small accomplishment.

And finally, this video — a supercut called ‘Movie Line Rhymes’ by Jordan Laws — made me giggle. Yes, I still giggle. I live a joyous life. It should do the same for you:

What is Movie News After Dark? It’s the only nightly movie news column to be cast in both The Dark Knight Rises and The Hunger Games. It will play the same character in both: a movie news column that, after delivering the news unto the people, rides off into the sunset on a badass motorcycle. It will make sense in context in both films, we promise.

We begin tonight with an image of Jack Black in Richard Linklater’s black comedy Bernie, about a small-town mortician who makes friends with an elderly woman (played by Shirley MacLaine). The mustache looks creepy, but the last time Black and Linklater teamed up (School of Rock), Black was at his best. Here’s hoping that happens again when the film opens next month’s LA Film Festival.

Like many members of the press, I caught The Hangover Part II. And while our full review is coming (soon, I’m told) I will say this. Few movies earn their ‘Part II’ status like The Hangover. It’s like the first film, but it feels a little dirtier. That said, here’s a great, quick interview with Ken Jeong, who again steals the show.

The folks behind the upcoming Romeo and Juliet film, which will star Hailee Steinfeld as Juliet, have shown their hands a bit by casting Gossip Girl star Ed Westwick as Tybalt. They’re clearly trying to keep things aimed at that younger, teenier demographic. And who can fault them for chasing that Twilight money.

A great teaser poster for Real Steel was released today. I’m thinking surprise hit of the fall. Anybody want to grab my hand and take that leap with me? Come on, lets do it. It’s robot boxing! Anyway, here’s the poster. Special note for the confused: ComingSoon.net doesn’t have anything to do with the film, even though their logo is on the poster. They are just the kind who need to mark their territory with their ugly logo.

Our own Matt Patches has put his skills to use over at UGO with an exposé on the legacy of The Spielberg Face. Ellie Sadler did it best, you know.

Movies.com’s Peter Hall is always a great source of cool things that might otherwise go unnoticed. This week he’s delivered a piece about sculptor Jordu Schell, a name you probably don’t know, but someone whose work you’ve undoubtedly seen. It takes a village to make films, you know.

Chris Hardwick’s Nerdist podcast is headed up to the next level, heading to BBC America as a TV show. Awesome. Now if only we could get NPR to pick up Reject Radio…

While his film was winning awards at Cannes last week, director Terrence Malick was off somewhere sitting in a dark room contemplating the origin of the universe. Brad Pitt said that he likes “building houses, but not selling real estate.” He’s that pretentious guy that everyone likes, because his films are interesting, even if he doesn’t give a f**k what you think of them. That said, Kim Voynar has some interesting thoughts on Malick and the artist’s right to privacy.

The first teaser poster for Shark Night 3D has been unleashed unto the web this week. And if you look close, you can feel the death and destruction that’s about to happen all up in that water. Aside from the ‘From the Director of The Final Destination’ part, that’s one of the coolest teaser posters we may see all year.

Lenny Kravitz has been cast in The Hunger Games as Cinna. You Hunger Gamesites Hunger Gamers (what do you call yourselves, anyway?) can let me know if that works for you or not. Kravitz is no acting slouch. He’s also quite dreamy.

The Dark Knight Rises has added two more names to its roster. Chris Ellis, best known for his work in Apollo 13, will play a priest. Brett Cullen, whose face you’ll recognize from just about every TV show ever (including Lost, The West Wing and Make It or Break It), will play a judge. Put that in the great story predict-o-matic and we know that TDKR will meditate on law and order, as well as religion. That Chris Nolan and his layers.

Vulture explores The New Summer Blockbuster Economy: Reboots, Prequels, and the End of the Superstar Cash Grab. In the jump to criticize studios for simply reusing ideas, we missed the part where bankable stars were relied upon for box office success. Gone is Will Smith, in is concept (The Hangover 2) and brand properties (X-Men, Transformers).

Disney’s space epic John Carter of Mars will known simply as John Carter from now on. That’s stupid.

“We envision it as Lord of The Rings, but set in a world of candy… We don’t see it as a movie based on a board game, although it has characters from that world and takes the idea of people finding themselves in a world that happens to be made entirely of candy where there are huge battles going on… We are going for real comedy, real action, and real emotions at stake.” That’s writer Jonathan Abel, describing the vision her and Glenn Berger have for their Candyland adaptation. Yes, Candyland, based on the game with pink candy canes.

Today was the year anniversary of Lost ending. Remember that one? It was kind of a big deal. If you’re still wondering, we did publish an insightful and definitive guide to WTF just happened on Lost. For those who just want to remember the journey, here’s a well-made tribute narrated by Sam from Lord of the Rings:

What happens when you work your way to the top of the game, and the game changes? You have to change it back.

What’s been lovingly dubbed the “Robot Boxing Movie,” Real Steel hasn’t shown much in the way behind the high tech monstrosities that its CGI has brought to life so far, but this trailer gives a more intimate look at what the movie’s really all about: a father and a son connecting in a garbage heap.

It’s about an underdog made of metal, an underdog made of flesh, and working your way back up to the top.

Check out the trailer for yourself:

Okay, so we’re approaching some cheesy territory. Getting close to it. Edging right up. Smiling right at it. Any sports movie about redemption is going to have that risk, and it’ll be interesting to see how the film avoids it (especially with the number of cliches slamming us in the face here).

But it’s also got heart, and undoubtedly a lot of that will be provided by Hugh Jackman‘s acting talent. Including Anthony Mackie is a solid bet as well.

We’ll have to wait until October see to whether director Shawn Levy pulls the balancing act off and creates a tender movie with a lot of flying metal or creates yet another boxing cliche wrapped in spare parts.

Would you go see it?

Source: Yahoo!

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