Other titles out this week include Christopher Nolan’s conversation starter Inception, Shrek Forever After, two Roger Corman releases about memorable ladies with guns, a renamed Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre, and more.

Click on any of the titles below to magically head over to Amazon.com and pick up the DVD. And don’t forget to check out Neil Miller’s almost legitimately titled This Week In Blu-ray for reviews on the latest high definition Blu-ray releases!

Big Bad Mama/Big Bad Mama II (Roger Corman’s Cult Classics)

Pitch: Angie Dickinson would like to introduce you to her two trampy daughters…

Why Buy? Shout! Factory drops a new double feature DVD about a gun-toting family of femme fatales, and while they’re not both winners they do both contain gunfights, nudity, and the Roger Corman stamp of quality approval. The first film from director Steve Carver manages to be surprisingly funny and sexy, and it features the incomparable talents of Tom Skerritt and William Shatner to boot! You haven’t lived until you’ve seen Shatner emote during a love scene. The sequel from Jim Wynorski features a Playboy Playmate but lacks the original’s spark of fun and naughtiness. Even so the two together along with commentary, interviews, and a retrospective featurette are a double feature worth owning.

Extra Features? Commentaries, interviews

Inception

Pitch: Folks like Cole Abaius are used to seeing Leonardo DiCaprio in their dreams, and now the rest of us can get in on the fun…

Why Buy? Cobb is a thief who enters people’s minds to steal information, and like every film about master thieves he’s out for one last score. Cue the intense score, spinning rooms, snowy fortress assaults, and incredibly cool special effects set pieces. Like most of Christopher Nolan’s films this one gets a little shaky under close scrutiny, but the ride and overall experience is a thing of beauty. The movie works both as pure popcorn entertainment and multifaceted thriller… it’s only a matter of how deep you want to go and where you come down on the spinning top. (Read Dustin Hucks’ overly zealous full review here.)

Extra Features? Making of

Crazy Mama/Lady In Red (Roger Corman’s Cult Classics)

Pitch: Starring Christopher Lloyd as “Frognose” and a frequently nude Nancy Drew…

Why Rent? Another double feature from Shout! Factory and Roger Corman pairs a comical but tame Jonathan Demme flick with a more straight forward tale about a gangster’s moll from director Lewis Teague. Cloris Leachman is the titular mama who finds the best family outings are the ones involving armed robbery. It’s goofy and lightweight, but worth watching for Demme fans. The second feature follows the downfall of John Dillinger (Robert Conrad) through the eyes of the woman who held his heart and sealed his fate. And yes, it does include a brief excursion into women-in-prison territory.

Extra Features? Commentaries, interviews, trailers

Harpoon: Whale Watching Massacre

Pitch: Who’s up for some gory murders and political incorrectness on the open seas? A gaggle of tourists apparently…

Why Rent? A group of tourists in Iceland have the misfortune of boarding a boat captained by Leatherface, but things get even worse when they’re “rescued” by a boat load of homicidal fishermen. Slashers at sea are a rare breed, and this one manages a solid mix of bloody kills and unexpected laughs. The tone isn’t always consistent, but it’s an entertaining watch for genre fans unfamiliar with the international slasher scene. (Read my full review here.)

Extra Features? None

Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel

Pitch: The best documentaries are the ones that introduce you to people and events you’d never heard of before. This one’s pretty good too…

Why Rent? Hugh Hefner has made a career off the backs, fronts, and profiles of naked ladies. This is his story. The focus here is less interested in the strictly biographical and more about Hefner’s various struggles with folks afraid of boobies. He saw a few decades worth of legal battles and strong moral opposition, but his stance on free speech never faltered. Boobies are a powerful motivator it seems.

Extra Features? None

Hunter Prey

Pitch: What starts as a Boba Fett reunion in the world of Red vs Blue soon turns into an Enemy Mine remake…

Why Rent? Sandy Collora made an internet splash a few years ago with a short called Batman: Dead End (watch it here), but has now made partial move into feature length entertainment. Instead of Batman facing off against The Joker and two angry alien species this new film is an original tale about an interplanetary game of cat and mouse. A ship crash lands on a planet that resembles Southern California and the crew’s prisoner escapes into the desert. This is indie sci-fi so don’t expect lots of flash and it doesn’t hold the same appeal as his short, but it’s still an interesting next step for Collora’s slow move into the mainstream.

Extra Features? Commentary, making of

Reformat the Planet

Pitch: If word of this chiptunes craze gets out Nintendo may have a hit on their hands with the Gameboy machine…

Why Rent? Everyone knows Gameboys are fun game machines as well as chick magnets, but few users know they have a third even more impressive purpose. They can be modified into 8-bit synthesizers and used to make fun, retro sounding tunes suitable for rocking out at parties, get togethers, and hipster hangouts. This doc takes a surprisingly enjoyable look at the craze in NYC and beyond, and spends time with performers and fans of the music. Now excuse me, I’m off to the record store to find the latest album from Bitch Shitter.

Extra Features? Commentary, interviews, deleted scenes, music videos, booklet

Restrepo

Pitch: Welcome to the Korengal Valley. Population fifteen US soldiers and an unknown number of possible enemy combatants who want them dead…

Why Rent? A cameraman embeds himself with a platoon in “the most dangerous place on Earth” and gets to experience war on the front lines. There’s no before or after, no politics, and no judgment… just soldiers living day after day in the crosshairs of the enemy. Most will live, some will die, but regardless of your views on the war itself you will feel for these men and the journey they’ve voluntarily undertaken so we don’t have to. Fascinating, interesting, and harrowing (especially in the section that follows a three-day operation called Rock Avalanche), this is important filmmaking.

Extra Features? Deleted scenes, interviews, updates on soldiers, photo gallery, PSAs

Shrek Forever After

Pitch: Following in the long history of the Shrek series the supporting characters are once again more entertaining than the three leads…

Why Rent? The Shrek franchise sees a fourth and probably final entry, and the biggest surprise is that it’s actually not terrible. The green lug is tricked by Rumplestilskin into accepting a world where he never existed and chaos predictably ensues. The character dynamic isn’t all that strong anymore and the laughs aren’t as frequent as in the first two films (but it’s far funnier than part three), but it still manages to be a solidly entertaining CGI flick that appeals to both kids and adults. (Read Robert Levin’s full review here.)

Extra Features? A short about a donkey

The Year Of Getting To Know Us

Pitch: The Jimmy Fallon Experiment continues…

Why Rent? A man returns to his hometown and discovers truths about himself and his relationship with his Asian girlfriend. Family issues past and present force him to confront the man he is, the man he wants to be, and the logical explanation behind his late night longevity. The film is based on two short stories by Ethan Canin and while it follows an oft-traveled plot path there is some fun to be found here.

Extra Features? Press conference footage

Caged Animal

Pitch: Ving Rhames is Cain. And you will feel his wrath. If you drop the soap in the shower…

Why Avoid? Rhames plays an inmate sentenced to life and an ironic diagnosis of brain cancer. He decides to use his remaining time on Earth trying to help his two sons. Who are also inmates. So, yeah, a little too late on that one. But who would have thought a prison fighting movie could be so bland. On the up side, the film stars someone named Nipsey Hussle. On the down side, well, watch the movie.

Extra Features? None

Scouts Honor: Badge To the Bone

Pitch: It’s a sad day when not even the comedic stylings of Chris Kattan can redeem a film…

Why Avoid? I try not to feature titles here that I haven’t actually seen with my own eyes and ears, but I make some exceptions when a label of BUY, RENT, or AVOID is an extremely obvious choice to make. Exhibit A, the only piece of evidence I’m going by, is this trailer here. Watch at your own risk.

Extra Features? None

In the interest of full disclosure, I received review copies of the following DVDs for this week’s column:

Big Bad Mama/Big Bad Mama 2 (Roger Corman’s Cult Classics)
Caged Animal
Crazy Mama/The Lady In Red (Roger Corman’s Cult Classics)
Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist, Rebel
Hunter Prey
Reformat the Planet
Restrepo
The Year Of Getting To Know Me

Also out this week, but I haven’t seen the movie/TV show and review material was unavailable:

Anywhere USA
Barry Munday
Cronos (Criterion)
Disciples Of the 36th Chamber
Fistful Of Brains
Mademoiselle Gambon
The Milk Of Sorrow

Read More: This Week in DVD

What are you buying on DVD this week?

This Week in Blu-ray

Inception

My colleague Cole Abaius recently took time on an episode of Reject Radio to call Inception “the movie that saved the summer of 2010.” Aside from Pixar’s most recent trip down Delightful Drive with Toy Story 3, Christopher Nolan’s dreamscape crime thriller was the definitive cinematic event of the summer. It had the big visuals, the awe-inspiring sound design and score, the big names and of course, a narrative that was equal parts complex and simply spell-binding. It’s exactly the sort of mammoth experience that we’ve come to expect from Nolan, a man who has delighted us on so many levels ever since Leonard Shelby was writing stories in his skin. The best part about this whole ordeal is that Inception works wonders on your home theater system via the high-quality video and audio that only Blu-ray can offer. Just as impressive as it was when it was 100-feet tall in IMAX. Add to that the “Extraction Mode” on the Blu-ray, a feature that runs along with the movie and moves in and out of featurettes and behind the scenes tidbits, and we’ve got ourselves a very easily identifiable must-own Blu-ray. A comic prologue, a featurette about Hans Zimmer’s score, a nice little BD-Live featurette, a copy of the DVD and a Digital Copy for your portable devices all complete the experience. As if you needed anything more than the “Extraction Mode” and the movie itself.

Videodrome

Aside from being one of the most insanely original and provocative movies to be released on Blu-ray this or any other year, the Criterion release of David Cronenberg’s mind-melding film Videodrome might just be one of the coolest BD packages that I’ve seen in a long while. The outer slip-cover includes details of the movie and some stunning poster art, while the actual plastic case that houses the disc is made to look like a Beta tape, with the words “Long Live the New Flesh” written on its label. The disc itself presents Videodrome wonderfully. The transfer is very clean, considering the film’s year of production. The mono audio track is perfectly tweaked. And the warped vision of David Cronenberg comes sprawling out into your living room, ready to grab you and drawn you into the very cerebral, often visceral world of Videodrome. Sure, this is a VHS cult movie if there ever was one, but this Blu-ray feels like the way Videodrome was meant to be seen. Long live the Criterion Collection, I always say. In addition to a great presentation, Videodrome gets a wide array of extras. From a booklet of critical essays about Cronenberg’s work to two commentary tracks, to a short film that Cronenberg directed in 2000 called Camera and a long line of featurettes that explore the deviant splendor that is Videodrome, this release is filled to the brim with things that go beyond the film. Trust me when I say that this Blu-ray could very well become the one you take to bed with you.

Cronos

Want to see where it all began for director Guillermo Del Toro? Better yet, how about seeing where it all began for director Guillermo Del Toro with the glossy veneer of a Criterion release? That’s what we get with Cronos. It’s yet another example of how Del Toro has carefully mastered the world of dark fantasy, and he’s been doing so for years. It also represents the first team-up between Del Toro and Ron Perlman. With his now patented make-up effects brilliance and his dark sensibility, Del Toro weaves and unforgettably haunting tale. The best part, as always, is the fact that it looks great, it sounds great and the extras are plentiful. It’s proven to me that it’s hard to review two Criterion releases in one column without reusing the same adjectives over and over again. Marvelous, detail-oriented, fantastically and meticulously crafted. Every moment of movie and bit of supplemental features on Cronos are cast in this mold, just as those movies that have come before in Criterion’s ever-wonderful collection.

Shrek: The Whole Story

Here’s the toughest call of the week. On one hand, the fourth Shrek movie was the least of them all. So by itself, it’s not worth going out and spending Blu-ray money. However, if you do not already own any of the Shrek quadrilogy on Blu-ray, this is a good way to make it happen. The first two films in the series are fun, with the second two being nothing more than hollow cash-grabs with the occasional enjoyable quip. On the whole, it’s a franchise that the kids like. And if you’ve got kids to entertain, this box set isn’t a bad one to have in your collection. Special features are healthily spread among the films, creating hours and hours of emotions that range between smiles and outward laughter. But the kicker is that just about every retailer out there is selling this four film set for around $40, a worthwhile price if I’ve ever seen one. Especially for four movies on Blu-ray. So take the deal and suck it up, that fourth movie isn’t the worst thing you can spend your money on. There’s always Rush Hour…

Nothing up for rental recommendation this week. As you will see in the “Also Out This Week” section below, there were quite a few titles that didn’t hit my desk. Taking a chance on any of those is at your own risk, but not necessarily a bad idea.

Rush Hour

You may have wondered to yourself one cold, wintery night, why you would ever need a copy of Brett Ratner’s seminal work Rush Hour on Blu-ray. Unfortunately, Warner Bros. does not answer that question with this release. The teaming of Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker for a no-holds-barred action romp wasn’t necessarily a bad one. In fact, many a moviegoer (including yours truly) had a good time with this movie. Just know that I was 15 years old and still completely clueless when I first saw it. That said, I do own it on DVD. The reason why I wouldn’t recommend you pick it up on Blu-ray: while there are a good amount of special features (including a long-awaited isolated score track with commentary from composer Lalo Schifrin), this is not the kind of movie that demands to be seen in high definition. And the extras — including the likes of the Dru Hill How Deep is Your Love? music video — can all be found on previous DVD releases. So unless you are that rare bird known as a completist with money coming out of your ears, your dollars are better spent elsewhere this week. I would suggest buying groceries.

A big list of titles that didn’t quite make it to my desk this week…

• About Last Night… (Image Entertainment) (Image)
• Across the Line: The Exodus of Charlie Wright (Maya)
• Alice in Wonderland – 3D (2010) (4-Disc Combo Pack) (Disney/Buena Vista)
• The Big Hit (Image Entertainment) (Image)
• Closer (Image Entertainment) (Image)
• The Deep (Image Entertainment) (Image)
• Half Past Dead (Image Entertainment) (Image)
• Harpoon: Whale Watching Massacre (Image)
• Harsh Times (Vivendi)
• Les Gamins (Happy Chicken)
• Lost in Translation (Universal)
• Mademoiselle Chambon (Kino)
• Nature: Echo – An Elephant to Remember (PBS)
• St. Elmo’s Fire (Image Entertainment) (Image)
• The Year of Getting to Know Us (E1)

Remember back on Thursday when I said I didn’t see too many more $50-million plus opening hitting our theaters before the end of the Summer?  You can scratch that, because The Karate Kid has already proven me wrong.  We knew Shrek Forever After wouldn’t be in the top spot this weekend, and we were pretty sure The Karate Kid would be beating out The A-Team in the battle of new releases.  What we weren’t expecting was how big of a hit the winner would be making.

The Karate Kid‘s $56-million opening proves the power of this particular brand.  It has already topped the combined, total grosses of both The Karate Kid Part III ($38.9 million) and the Hilary Swank-starring The Next Karate Kid ($8.9 million).  It also gives Jackie Chan his second largest opening weekend to date.  It’s going to take quite a showing for one of his films to best the $67.4 million Rush Hour 2 opened with.  With a budget of only $40 million, Sony is already in the black on this one.  You can rest assured a sequel is already being punched up.  My guess is this was already being done, and Sony was just waiting to see what kind of a success they had on their hands before officially announcing it.  Expect them to strike right while the iron is white hot and Jaden Smith is still relatively young.  We can probably look forward to an announcement this week that The Karate Kid Part II will be hitting theaters in 2012.

What didn’t have the explosive weekend I’m sure it wanted was The A-Team.  While I’m sure a $40-million opening weekend were what 20th Century Fox was aiming for, they hit a decent but, ultimately, disappointing opening in the mid to high $20-million range.  When looking back over the history of the TV adaptation and how well they’ve done in their opening weekend, you find this is more in line with The Wild Wild West than Charlie’s Angels.  One of those films got a sequel.  One of them didn’t.  I’ll leave it up to you to connect those dots.  Granted, The A-Team only cost $110 million, and good word of mouth could help carry it up to and past that point.  I’m not sure how feasible that is, though.  It’s not at a good starting point, and films like Jonah Hex and Knight and Day have the action card pretty well filled for the coming weeks.

Shrek Forever After continues to build and build and build.  It broke past the $200-million point this weekend.  Now, its sights are set on the first Shrek‘s final numbers.  I’m sure DreamWorks Animation doesn’t want it to go down that this fourth and final entry in the series ended up being the lowest grossing.  In order for that not to happen, it has to top the $267 million 2000′s Shrek ended up with.  Don’t expect that to happen.  The computer animated feature slot will be filled with Toy Story 3 beginning next weekend.  It appears it’s going to be 50% drop-offs for Shrek Forever After from here on out, and that’s just not going to work out to nearly $60 million more at the box office.  Expect more like $30 million and a total tally around $240.

In other milestone news, Iron Man 2 is right on the cusp of $300 million.  When final numbers hit early in the week, it could very well have reached that point this weekend.  For now, though, it’s holding at $299.3 million.

Here is how the weekend box office shaped up:

1. The Karate Kid – $56m NEW
2. The A-Team – $26m NEW
3. Shrek Forever After – $15.8m (-38%) $210m total
4. Get Him to the Greek – $10.1m (-42.5%) $36.5m total
5. Killers – $8.1m (-48.4%) $30.6m total
6. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time -$6.6m (-52.9%) $72.3m total
7. Marmaduke – $6.6m (-55.2%) $84.4m total
8. Sex and the City 2 – $5.5m (-55.2%) $84.7m total
9. Iron Man 2 – $4.5m (-42.5%) $299.3m total
10. Splice – $2.8m (-61.3%) $13m total

All in all, the weekend did better than anticipated pulling in $141.4 million in total box office.  Sure, much of this came from Karate Kid‘s surprise numbers, but everything else performed adequately, too.  This marks a 17.8% increase from last weekend’s $120 million.  This isn’t that big of a surprise considering the two tent pole films that hit theaters this weekend.  The total box office also rise by 9.7%  from the same weekend last year.  While the two new film this weekend help accomplish this, much of it has to do with how little the second weekend in June of 2009 had to offer for new movie goers.  The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 and Imagine That aren’t exactly in the same league as The Karate Kid and The A-Team, and the box office proved that.

A new king of the box office is sure to be crowned next weekend, as well, with the yearly PIXAR release finally hitting theaters.  Many have been highly anticipating Toy Story 3, and it is sure to be a rousing success both critically and financially.  The other new movie next weekend, Jonah Hex, may not be such a clear-cut winner on either front.  We’ll be back on Thursday evening to hand out how we see the weekend playing out.

It’s become more than just an era.  The reign of Shrek Forever After can now be considered a dynasty becoming only the third film this year to come out on top of the box off for three weekends (after Avatar and Alice in Wonderland) and the first film of the Shrek franchise to do so.  It has had a number of other films coming at it, but nothing has been able to whittle its weekend take enough to knock it off its post.  This weekend seems to be the moment that happens.  When Sunday night comes around, Shrek will likely not be the reigning champion.  Instead, the top slot will go to one of two new films hitting wide release.  It’s going to be a tough call on which one of those films will truly win out.

BIG HITTERS

The two films vying for the number one spot are both running on the steam of brand loyalty.  First up is The Karate Kid.  A 26-year gap separates the first film’s release and this remake.  A lot of people who were children themselves when Johnny Lawrence swept Daniel Larusso’s leg will be taking their own children to see Jackie Chan teach Jaden Smith to take off and put on his jacket.  It’s going to be interesting to see how successful this new Karate Kid is really going to be.  Jackie Chan is not the biggest opener when it comes to headlining films.  Outside of the Rush Hour Films, which were helped by Chris Tucker, Chan’s biggest opening was 2008′s The Forbidden Kingdom.  Even that film didn’t rely on Chan alone, as Jet Li helped get it above the $20-million opening weekend.  We won’t count Kung Fu Panda‘s $60-million plus opening, since Chan was such a small cog on that wheel of success.

Neither Jaden Smith nor director Harald Zwart offer much in regards to selling points, either.  It looks like The Karate Kid is going to have to rely on Jackie Chan and its name branding to get it to that top spot.  The film’s running time is going to be a hindrance, as well.  When it comes down to it, The Karate Kid is a family movie, and family movies at 2-hour plus running times just don’t work as well as they might otherwise.  Talk to the Wachowski Brothers about that problem.  Speed Racer did have a solid opening, though, based pretty solely on its name.  Chan’s presence and the fact that Sony has been pimping the hell out of this movie could give it a nice weekend take even if its legs are likely to be swept out from under it pretty quickly.

To see Jackie Chan wuss out and use a flyswatter, check out the trailer for The Karate Kid right here:

The other sampling of brand loyalty used to back a tent-pole movie is found in The A-Team.  Based solely on the idea of being based on a TV series is somewhat of a gamble with today’s box office.  Opening weekend numbers for TV-based movies have been all over the map in recent years.  Even popular series like Miami Vice, Bewitched, and The Dukes of Hazzard weren’t enough to push the films based on them to huge numbers, opening weekend or for the long haul.  It’s probably best to compare The A-Team‘s opening potential to something like Charlie’s Angels, which had similar popularity and looks to have something of the same level of appeal going in.  Charlie’s Angels opened with $40.1 million in 2000, so you can kind of gleam the potential here from that.

The A-Team also has some star power driving it.  Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, and Sharlto Copley aren’t exactly the A-team when it comes to movie stardom, but the combination of who they are could easily substitute as A-list itself.  Each actor brings a slightly different demographic to the table, and I have a feeling all of them put together could give The A-Team some respectable opening numbers.

If you want to pity the fool before heading out to see it, check out the trailer for The A-Team right here:

FAMILIARITIES

The battle for third place doesn’t seem like it’s going to offer up any surprises.  Shrek Forever After will surely take it as a consolation prize for being knocked out of its stop spot.  Don’t expect its numbers to trail off all that much, though.  It’s weekend drop-offs have been in the high 30 to low 40% range.  There isn’t any reason to expect this to be much higher here in its fourth week, and Shrek Forever After will likely top the $200-million mark by the end of the weekend.

Good word of mouth should allow Get Him to the Greek to have a respectable second weekend.  With any luck, it’s second weekend drop-off won’t be higher than 35%, and it should be close to breaking even with its $40-million budget by Sunday.  It’s final tally will probably be in the Forgetting Sarah Marshall range in the low $60s, not bad for a film that wasn’t exactly sold as a sequel and wasn’t allowed to get any fuel from its own brand loyalty.

LITTLE OPENERS

A number of indie films are getting their limited releases this weekend including two favorites from this year’s Sundance Film Festival.  Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work opens on seven screens in New York, L.A., and San Francisco.  It’s a hysterical and revealing look at a year in the life of the pop culture icon, and you can check out our very own Lauren Flanagan’s review of it.

You can also check out Joan in this two and a half minutes of glory:

The other films opening in limited release this weekend that made waves at Sundance is Winter’s Bone.  Roadside Attractions did themselves a favor by picking up what some (myself included) considered the best film at Sundance this year.  In fact, it is my favorite film of 2010 to this point.  I cannot recommend this film noir set in poverty-stricken, rural Missouri enough, and, if my cries of positivity aren’t enough, check out Landon Palmer’s review.  It opens in New York and L.A.

Get your redneck chill on with this trailer for Winter’s Bone:

Other films getting limited release this weekend include Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky in New York and L.A., Gangster’s Paradise: Jerusalema in New York and L.A., the documentary The Lottery in in New York, and King of Evening in Atlanta and Charlotte.  The documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage from the crew that made Iron Maiden: Flight 666 plays one night only in a number of cities throughout the country.  Additional nights are being added for shows that have already sold out, though.

Here’s how the top 10 is shaping up this weekend:

1. The Karate Kid – $35.2m NEW
2. The A-Team – $33.9m NEW
3. Shrek Forever After – $14.9m (-41%)
4. Get Him to the Greek – $11.4m (-34.8%)
5. Killers – $7m (-55.6%)
6. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time – $6.8m (-51.4%)
7. Sex and the City 2 – $6.7m (-45.5%)
8. Marmaduke – $6.4m (-44.3%)
9. Iron Man 2 – $5m (-36.7%)
10. Splice – $3.6m (-50%)

With this rundown, this gives this weekend $130.9 million in box office grosses.  That would be an 8.5% increase from last weekend’s $120.6 million take.  This would also be an extremely slight increase (less than a percent) from the same weekend last year.  At that time, neither The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 nor Imagine That could put much of a dent in the numbers The Hangover and Up were getting in their second and third weekends, respectively.

These predictions are reasonably low when you consider two fairly large films are getting released this weekend.  However, judging by the lackluster numbers many films are getting this Summer, it doesn’t seem likely we are going to have too many more $50 million or more opening weekends between now and the end of the season.  There will be a few more for sure.  Toy Story 3 and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse are sure to have gangbuster openings, and that’s just before the end of the month.  However, it’s going to be a major surprise if any films like The Karate Kid or The A-Team pull in record-breaking numbers. We’ll be back on Sunday night to go over the weekend numbers.

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Even with four new contenders all vying for the top spot, it came as no surprise when Shrek Forever After was, yet again, announced as the number one film of the weekend. Princes from Persia and Cougars from the City couldn’t take him down, so no one was expecting talking dogs, annoying killers, genetic mutations, or even British rock stars to get the job done either.

First comes Shrek, though.  With its third weekend on top of the charts, Shrek Forever After has done something the franchise hasn’t been able to do since its inception.  The first Shrek and Shrek the Third only had one weekend each in the number one spot, while Shrek 2 had two weeks at the top of the charts.  It’s not so much that Shrek Forever After is pulling in epic numbers, but it hasn’t been faced with the challenges the first, three films faced in their second or third weekends.  The first films in the Shrek franchise were knocked out of the number one spot by Pearl Harbor, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, respectively.  Those three films were all major Summer movies that brought in tons of cash for their respective studios, and 2010 hasn’t had the level of openings we’ve come to be accustomed to during these tent pole months.

A quarter into the Summer movie season we’ve only had two absolute smashes so far.  It almost seems as if the studios are saving their big cards for later in the Summer or a different year altogether.  Granted, Get Him to the Greek and Killers had okay openings this weekend.  With their weekend numbers, they more than likely would have been in the number one spot had they been released any other time of the year.  But, for every Get Him to the Greek, we have a Splice, a release that doesn’t even break past the $10-million mark.  It’s a shame, too, since the positive reviews and deserved buzz about these two films should have translated into bigger numbers this weekend.

While these two films with positive reviews had completely different opening weekends, two films with overly negative reviews had the same type of distance between them.  Killers proved to be somewhat critic proof, as it made decent money this weekend even if it was far from being either of its two leads’ biggest hit.  Of course, judging from the film’s $75-million budget, it doesn’t seem likely it will break even when all is said and done.

The same goes for Marmaduke, which seems to be the exception to the rule when it comes to talking animal movies.   Sure, it got into the double digits, but don’t expect Owen Wilson to be called back into the studio any time soon to provide a voice for the follow-up.

Everything else this weekend seemed to drop off a little more than expected.  Iron Man 2 is sure to break past $300 million at some point in the weeks ahead, even if it doesn’t seem likely to beat out Alice in Wonderland as the biggest film of 2010.  I’m not sure if anything released between now and the end of the year can catch up to that film’s success.  Robin Hood will likely get past the $100-million point, though that isn’t quite what the people behind that film were looking towards.  It seems we can officially dub this film, along with Prince of Persia, as the first bombs of the season.

Here is how the weekend box-office shaped up:

1. Shrek Forever After – $25.3m (-41.6%) $183m total
2. Get Him to the Greek – $17.4m NEW
3. Killers – $16.1m NEW
4. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time – $13.9m (-53.8%) $59.4m total
5. Sex and the City 2 – $12.6m (-59.2%) $73.4m total
6. Marmaduke – $11.3m NEW
7. Iron Man 2 – $7.7m (-52.7%) $291.2m total
8. Splice – $7.4m NEW
9. Robin Hood – $5.1m (-50.7%) $94.2m total
10. Letters to Juliet – $3m (-48.6%) $43.3m total

This weekend’s $119.8 million is a much larger drop from the previous weekend than was anticipated, down 16.4% from last weekend’s $143.4 million take.  In fact, this past weekend is the lowest weekend take since the Summer movie season began.  It’s also down 23.9% from the same weekend last year when The Hangover and Up helped bring $157.5 million to the top ten.

Next weekend doesn’t seem like it’s going to be one for the record books, either, though the Shrek dynasty may be nearing its end.  The Karate Kid and The A-Team will likely be duking it out for the number one spot.  Between you and me, I saw Rampage Jackson’s last fight, and I think Jackie Chan can take him.  Jaden Smith may even be able to get a few licks in.

We’ll be back on Thursday to run through our predictions.

This is what happens when movie marketing goes wrong. This week, McDonald’s will recall about 12 million Shrek drinking glasses because federal regulators found they contain the toxic metal cadmium, which poses some potentially serious health risks.

Made in promotion of the recently released Dreamworks animated film Shrek Forever After, the glasses each feature a different beloved character. The film, which has already grossed $154 million dollars domestically, is currently primed to win the box office race for a third weekend in a row, assuming it can stave off the 20th Century Fox release Marmaduke.

The question becomes: how will this effect the film’s performance? Aside from the perception that the movie is trying to kill your family, the situation does raise public awareness of the film.

Alright fine, that’s all nonsense. This situation has nothing to do with the movie itself. In fact, your kids may have more risk of damage from actually seeing the intensely subpar flick than from the cadmium, which is said to cause kidney, lung, intestinal and bone damage. Seeing Shrek Forever After could cause perceptive film quality syndrome, and that’s much worse.

Purchasers have been advised to keep the glasses away from children and to return them to McDonald’s for a refund. More info can be found at the website of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The mighty ogre, Shrek, has fended off his foes.  So far, he has taken on and made haste of the Iron Man, the Sex and the City trolls women, and the Prince of Persia.  This week, however, he faces his greatest challenge yet, an onslaught of four new films that run the gamut in terms of genre and demographic.  Genetic monsters, talking dogs (which may or may not be caused by an attempt to create a genetic monster), Ashton Kutcher (who we know was caused by an attempt to create a genetic monster), and a drugged up rock star are all on tap in an attempt to tear and claw their way to the top of the box office heap.  Needless to say, it’s going to get ugly

BIG HITTERS

Let’s just be honest here.  There really is very little chance any of the new movies this weekend are going to come out on top.  Shrek Forever After, only in its third weekend, isn’t declining fast enough for any of the films on the new slate this weekend to pull ahead of it.  Two films, however, could come closest to Shrek’s numbers, two films that couldn’t be further apart in target audience if they tried.  Second place this weekend will fall to the feet of either Russell Brand, Jonah Hill, and Get Him to the Greek or a talking dog.  Let’s hold off on talking about Marmaduke for now.

When the film Get Him to the Greek spun off from, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, debuted in April of 2008, it pulled in $17 million in its opening weekend.  This after a massive campaign to let the world know it was part of the Judd Apatow camp.  I’m sure many thought Apatow, actually, directed the film when it came out.  It seems fairly certain Get Him to the Greek will be able to get the same type of numbers and, more than likely, a little better.  It will play on the same number of screens (a little over 2700), but it’s also playing during the Summer and has proven star power in Russell Brand and Jonah Hill.  Worst case scenario is Get Him to the Greek ends up being another Walk Hard, which pulled a MacGruber and only made $4 million its opening weekend.  This doesn’t seem likely, though.

To get yourself to the Greek, check out the film trailer right here:

If there is any aspect to a kids movie that is tried and truer than the talking animal, I sure have never seen it.  You can’t really go with an Owen Wilson comparison on Marmaduke, since he’s not the selling point on the movie.  The selling point is the talking dog wearing sunglasses.  For that, you have to look at the track record for such films as Cats and Dogs, Garfield, and G-Force.  All of these films had solid openings, and, for the most part, all of them opened with other, family offerings elsewhere in the market.  Garfield even opened to $21.7 million in the midst of Shrek 2 making its way to box office royalty.  On just over 3000 screens, Marmaduke has the highest screen count this coming weekend, but even people who enjoy talking animal movies are scratching their heads at this one.

To see more of the talking dog before heading out to the theater, check out the trailer for Marmaduke right here:

Which leads us to Ashton Kutcher.  I don’t know why that naturally progressed, but it kind of seemed to, didn’t it?  Some people are already referring to Killers as Knight and Day lite even before either of the two films have been released.  Nonetheless, Killers, while it doesn’t have the Tom Cruise-level potential of being a box office smash, will still likely have an admirable performance this weekend.  Even Katherine Heigl has been known to open films in the Summer.  Knocked Up aside (Apatow sold that movie), her starring role last year in The Ugly Truth pulled in $27.6 million and 27 Dresses in January of 2008 made $23 million its opening weekend.  She was, however, in 2006′s Zyzzyx Road which opened to an astonishing $20 (note, there’s no million attached to that.  The film made a twenty dollar bill from its one-theater opening weekend), but we won’t hold that against her all that much.  Surprisingly enough, Kutcher isn’t quite as successful when it comes to opening numbers with high and low numbers alike.  Director Robert Luketic brings in the low to mid $20-million openings, but you can’t really use him as a selling point here either.

If you want to see what Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz made with Splenda looks like, check out the Killers trailer right here:

The fourth and final, new film opening wide this weekend is Splice, a happy film about a cute, little, genetic creature who Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley come to love and who teaches these wayward doctors a valuable life lesson.  Of course, things get quite horrific during the course of the film, and the less like a cute, family movie with a cute creature this film becomes, the lower the numbers get for its opening weekend go.  How much Splice makes this weekend, though, depends solely on how well Warner Brothers has marketed it to its core demographic.  Neither Brody, Polley, nor director Vencenzo Natali are much of a selling point.  What it boils down to is how excited horror fans are.  Splice‘s opening weekend numbers could be as low as something like 2002′s Eight Legged Freaks and its $6.4-million take.  I don’t, though, see Splice getting much higher than the $17 million Species pulled in in 1995 if it can even get that high.

To see just how cute the creature in Splice gets, check out the trailer right here:

FAMILIARITIES

As mentioned previously, this coming weekend belongs to Shrek Forever After, but the remaining question is just how much the jolly, green box office giant is going to take in in its third weekend out of the gate.  In its second weekend (the three-day weekend, not the full, Memorial, four-day), Shrek had a drop at just under 40%, and there’s no indication this coming weekend will be any different.  Also, look for Shrek Forever After to surpass its budget of $165 million this weekend putting the film in the domestic black.

Elsewhere on the familiar front, after the disappointing opening weekends for both Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Sex and the City 2, don’t expect either of them to make much of a second weekend impact on the whole.  Sex and the City is likely to have a bigger drop than Prince of Persia, no thanks to the poor word of mouth both films have gotten so far.  When all is said and done, look for Sex and the City 2 to touch just on the other side of $100 million and Prince of Persia to hit just under it.

LITTLE OPENERS

Two, smaller films open into the New York and L.A. markets.  The first one is Ondine from Magnolia Pictures, which also debuts this week (Wednesday, 6/2, to be precise) on HD-Net.  It opens this Friday on two screens in L.A. and one in New York with a wider release coming closer to the end of the month.  Ondine is the latest film from director Neil Jordan, stars Colin Farrell, and made the rounds at a few film festivals in late 2009.

Check out Colin Farrell playing Prince Eric (yes, that’s a Little Mermaid reference.  Live with it.) in the Ondine trailer right here:

The other, notable but limited release is Cropsey, a documentary about an urban legend turned killer.  The film hit hard when it played Tribeca and Fantastic Fest last year.  It opens at the IFC Center in New York this weekend.

Get a very creepy glimpse at Cropsey right here:

Outside of these, two films, other limited releases this weekend include the very cult-sh Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead playing in New York, the comedy Finding Bliss in New York, and BoyBand in the booming market of Worcester.  Rajneeti, a Bollywood drama, opens on roughly 100 screens throughout the US.

Here’s how the top 10 is shaping up this weekend:

1. Shrek Forever After – $25.8m (-40.2%)
2. Get Him to the Greek – $17.8m NEW
3. Marmaduke – $16.4m NEW
4. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time – $16.1m (-46.1%)
5. Killers – $15.5m NEW
6. Sex and the City 2 – $14.7m (-52.3%)
7. Splice – $12m NEW
8. Iron Man 2 – $11.2m (-31.4%)
9. Robin Hood – $5.8m (-43.8%)
10. Letters to Juliet – $3.7m (-35.5%)

The way this weekend is shaping up, it’s going to be down both in comparison from last weekend and from the same weekend in 2009.  Even looking at the three-day take from last weekend, which pulled in $143.4 million, this weekend’s expected $139 million is a 3% drop on the overall box office.  That’s still relatively disappointing considering neither of the two, new films last weekend were able to make much of a splash.  This is also an indicator of the B-level offerings, plentiful though they may be, this weekend has to offer.

This would also account for an 11.7% drop from the same weekend in 2009 when The Hangover and Up both made around $44-45 million.  This wasn’t surprising for Up in its second weekend, but The Hangover was a huge shock to the box office.  It also had amazing longevity that took it through the rest of the Summer and into the Fall ending up at $277 million domestic and the highest grossing R-rated comedy in history.  Don’t expect the same from Get Him to the Greek, the only comparable film in current release.

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

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Two, big, new movies.  One, giant ogre still holding down the fort at the top.  Neither Sex and the City 2 nor Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time could take the lead from  Shrek Forever After.  The shock isn’t so much that Shrek Forever After made so much, but that neither of the new films did all that well, yet another indicator of the economic backlash the movie industry is getting hit with week in and week out.  Film franchises across the board, those untested that are just getting started as well as those with their own, built-in audience, are just not guaranteed to have instant success.

Shrek had an impressive, four-day take, bumping its weekend total by $12 million on Memorial Day alone.  This is comparable to the Memorial Day weekend the first film had in 2001, when it pulled in $55.2 million from Friday to Monday.  All four, Shrek films had the Memorial Day weekend as their second weekend, and, while Shrek Forever After has had the weakest of them, it still succeeded in rising to decent numbers.  Shrek 2 made $95.5 million and Shrek the Third made $67 million in each of their, respective Memorial Day weekend runs.  Shrek Forever After has, thus far, made $145.4 million in domestic box office, and, unless Marmaduke is the surprise smash no one expects it to be, DreamWorks Animation is sure to have the family niche in their pocket at least until mid-June when The Karate Kid comes out.  This, too, resembles the market when Shrek came out.  The first film didn’t have any animated films to contend with until June 15th when Disney’s Atlantis went wide, and that film didn’t shave much off Shrek‘s eventual total.  What all of this adds up to is Shrek Forever After making much more coin than previously anticipated.  While the first film’s $267 million doesn’t seem likely for the new film, you can never say never in this situation.  It doesn’t appear to be completely out its grasp.

The number two and number three slot is filled by different movies depending on if you look at the weekend as a three-day or a four-day box office take.  As of Sunday, Sex and the City 2 was in second place, making $31.1 million.  This number doesn’t count the $14.2 million it made in Thursday night, midnight shows, and it consistently lost $2 million on daily box office throughout the rest of the weekend, making only $6 million on Memorial Day.  This brings the film’s four-day total to $37.1 million just behind Prince of Persia‘s $37.8 million, four-day take.  When the finalized numbers come out, though, there’s no telling who is going to be on top.  One thing is for certain.  Both films had disappointing openings.

For the Sex and the City crew, the $51.3 million it made since Thursday night is a 10% drop from the opening weekend the first film had.  This might not be considered all that big of a disappointment, but, when you look at the reported $35-million increase in this film’s budget from the first film as well as the notion that a sequel should always make more than its predecessor, you can see how it didn’t quite live up to expectations.  The bad word of mouth coming out on Sex and the City 2 won’t completely steamroll its longevity, and its chances of making the same $152.6 million the first film made in domestic box office seems likely.

Prince of Persia, on the other hand, is a Jerry Bruckheimer produced, Summer, tent pole film, and the $37.8 million it made this four-day weekend is a disappointment.  This is the worst opening for a Bruckheimer film in the Summer months since 2004′s King Arthur landed like a wet blanket.  The comparisons are reasonable since that film cost $120 million versus the reported $200 million Prince of Persia cost to make.  Looking at King Arthur‘s budget versus final, domestic take, we see that it made back only 41% of its money back.  If the same holds true for Prince of Persia in the coming weeks, expect it to not even break the $100-million barrier.  This is also pretty standard when it comes to video game adaptations, with Lara Croft: Tomb Raider the only film of its kind to top $100 in domestic box office.

Here is how the weekend box office (four-day) shaped up:

1. Shrek Forever After – $55.7m (-21.3%) $145.4m total
2. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time – $37.8m NEW
3. Sex and the City 2 – $37.1m NEW $51.3m total
4. Iron Man 2 – $20.6m (-21.9%) $279m total
5. Robin Hood – $13.6m (-27.5%) $86.3m total
6. Letters to Juliet – $7.2m (-19.5%) $37.8m total
7. Just Wright – $2.7m (-37.1%) $18.6m total
8. Date Night – $2.2m (-22.8%) $93.9m total
9. MacGruber – $1.9m (-53%) $7.5m total
10. How to Train Your Dragon – $1.4m (-22.9%) $213m total

The total, weekend take for the four-day is $179.8, but, to compare it to last weekend or the same weekend last year, you have to look at the three-day take.  The top 10 films made $143.2 million from Friday to Sunday, up 1.2% from last weekend’s $141.4-million take.  This is rather sad since two, potentially big movies came out this weekend, and neither of them were able to claim the top spot.  They were together, however, able to beat Shrek Forever After‘s first weekend take, and the three combined helped the weekend incline slightly.  The same cannot be said for the difference in weekends from 2009 to 2010, though.  PIXAR’s Up, in its first weekend, helped the last weekend in May of 2009 pull in $159.9 million.  This put the weekend box office at a 10.4% drop from year-to-year.

Next weekend bears four, wide releases, each covering different genres and sub-genres, but none that look to have massive openings.  From the R-rated horror (Splice) to the PG-rated talking animals (Marmaduke) to the Ashton Kutcher action comedy (Killers) all the way back to the R-rated comedy (Get Him to the Greek), next weekend is going to be very interesting in terms of where everyone is going to end up.  Shrek‘s chances of continuing its reign as king of the mountain are looking relatively safe, but there could be a few surprises in store.  We’ll be back on Thursday to run through our predictions.

The two, big movies this weekend underperformed, one much more than the other, while Iron Man 2 stays right on schedule. Also, a new, limited release surprised everyone with a nearly $5000 per screen average.  All in all, it was a somewhat disappointing weekend, and much of that falls at the feet of Shrek Forever After, which didn’t have the lowest, opening weekend for a film from that series, but it certainly didn’t live up to expectations.

Shrek Forever After‘s $71.2-million opening is nothing to sneeze at.  Most films, whether they are part of a much larger series or not, only dream of having opening weekends that big.  However, it seems that bad taste Shrek the Third left in everyone’s mouth continues to haunt the franchise.  Not even 3-D and IMAX could boost the fourth and supposed final installment past the $100-million opening mark.  Depending on the longevity the film has at the box office, it could very well be the last entry regardless of what DreamWorks Animation had planned.

With a $165-million budget, the film will more than likely make money when you count up the worldwide totals.  The amount of money it’s going to make on DVD/Blu-Ray will be rather large, as well.  Also, when you look at the films in DreamWorks Animation catalog outside the Shrek franchise, you see the green ogre is still king of the studio.  The opening weekend for Shrek Forever After is still bigger than anything they have put out outside of the Shrek series.  While this may change in the coming years with Kung Fu Panda 2 and the How to Train Your Dragon sequel, this franchise is still their biggest money-maker, and that speaks volumes.

The biggest shocker of the weekend, though, was with MacGruber.  Despite the film’s moderate reviews (the film’s fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes has plummeted from 89% to 54% in the past week) and the love being dished out by those who find merit with it, it’s opening was staggeringly low.  Even with a $10-million budget, it will be hard pressed for MacGruber to make its money back in domestic take, as it is sure to be pulled from theaters sooner than anticipated.  Just to relay how bad this film’s opening is, we’ll compare it to The Ladies Man, which opened on 500 less screens and made $1.3 million more in its opening weekend.  It’s been ten years since Saturday Night Live pushed one of its properties to the big screen, and, if it’s ever going to happen again, expect to wait another decade.

A big winner for the weekend is Kites, which opened on just over 200 screens and found its way into the top 10.  An opening on 200+ screens isn’t all that limited, and the film only needed a per screen average of just under $5000 to break in.

Here is how the weekend box office shaped up:

1. Shrek Forever After -$71.2m NEW
2. Iron Man 2 – $26.6m (-48.9%)
3. Robin Hood – $18.7m (-48.1%)
4. Letters to Juliet – $9.1m (-32.8%)
5. Just Wright – $4.2m (-49%)
6. MacGruber – $4.1m NEW
7. Date Night – $2.8m (-26.1%)
8. A Nightmare on Elm Street – $2.2m (-50.9%)
9. How to Train Your Dragon – $1.8m (-63%)
10. Kites – $1.0m NEW

Even with the disappointing numbers from Shrek Forever After and MacGruber, the top 10 for the weekend ended up with a collective $141.7 million, up 8% from last weekend.  However, the weekend was down 15.6% from the same weekend last year when Night at the Museum II and Terminator Salvation pushed that weekend’s top 10 to $168 million.  Neither film hit very hard in 2009, but both together were enough to give Shrek Forever After a run for its money.  MacGruber wasn’t even in that fight.

Next weekend has two, new films in wide release to pump up the box office.  Carrie and the girls are back for more Cosmos in Sex and the City 2 and Jake Gyllenhaal looks to break into movie stardom with a little help from Jerry Bruckheimer and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.  It will be an interesting weekend to see which of the three films, either of these two or Shrek, comes out on top.  Sex and the City 2 will be opening on slightly fewer screens than Prince of Persia, plus it’s rated R and runs 30 minutes longer.  However it does have an extra day leading in, as it opens on Thursday night.  We’ll be back on Wednesday to see how it’s shaping up.

The weary Shrek franchise is such a relic that it took all the way until this third sequel for it to employ 3-D. In today’s Hollywood, that’s so ancient it’s practically biblical. The nine-year old series shows its age in Shrek Forever After, its fourth and supposedly final installment, as the creators finally run out of creative ways to spin the basic fairytale satirizing conceit.

To mask that absence of strong ideas, that lack of a compelling non-financial reason for being, director Mike Mitchell and screenwriters Josh Klausner and Darren Lemke simply regurgitate the original. They do so through the handy alternate history device, often employed by creative minds not named Dickens or Capra to mask failures of imagination.

A misguided contract with Rumpelstiltskin (Walt Dohrn) gives married father Shrek (Mike Myers) the chance to relive his Ogre outcast days or yore, at a price. The petite, dastardly villain snatches away the day of Shrek’s birth, so that Fiona (Cameron Diaz), Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and all the staples don’t recognize the green lug. With 24 hours to go before he evaporates into pixie dust forever, Shrek must make Fiona fall in love with him again to break the curse.

After four movies, a comic series, 10 video games and one Broadway musical the life has been sucked out of what once seemed the daring, hip notion of a Jeffrey Katzenberg production mercilessly mocking his former employer Disney. It’s no accident that Shrek received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this week. He, Donkey, Fiona and the supporting characters — ranging from the Gingerbread Man to the German Three Little Pigs and an extra whiny Pinocchio — are now so rooted in the cultural firmament that there’s not much fresh or surprising left to be done with them. An anti-establishment milieu has become as much a part of the establishment as ever, as commercialized and watered down as Disney’s straight to video sequels.

It follows, then, that the filmmakers were up against it from the start, facing the unenviable task of finding some way to enliven the formula while still holding true to the franchise expectations. Little bits work, keeping the picture from collapsing into irredeemably painful territory: Rumpelstiltskin makes for an amusing villain, as Dohrn’s solipsistic whining conveys a unique sense of self-loathing. With Murphy in his usual motormouth mode, Donkey offers his usual quota of amusing pop cultural laden quips. An escape from captivity involving witches, flying brooms and a big crystal ball makes effective use of the extra dimension’s enhanced immersive visual possibilities.

Still, the fourth Shrek runs out of steam from the start, cribbing from its predecessors in a last desperate attempt to evoke some of that old magic. Plagiarizing, even self-plagiarizing, is never an adequate solution. By the time yet another cover of “I’m a Believer” plays over the closing credits the sad truth is perfectly clear: It’s time for the denizens of Far Far Away to live happily ever after off the big screen for good.

The Upside: The film has its entertaining moments. Shrek fanatics will treasure the opportunity to bid the series adieu.

The Downside: It brazenly rips off the earlier movies, to an even greater extent than most sequels.

On the Side: Let’s hope Toy Story 3, out June 18, does a better job of enlivening its franchise. Given Pixar’s pedigree, I’m optimistic.

This is it, folks.  The weekend we’ve all been waiting for.  The answers are finally going to be revealed to the world.  Is Donkey really the smoke monster?  Who will Fiona choose between Shrek and Puss in Boots?  Will Lord Farquaad make a surprise appearance at the last minute and take out everyone with sticks of dynamite lifted from the Black Rock?  All of this and more will finally be answered in the final installment, Shrek Forever After.

And, whether those answers are revealed or not, this new Shrek movie is, nonetheless, being touted as the last one, the end-all-be-all in the Shrek series, and it is sure to rake in some of that green to go with the lovable ogre’s complexion.

Big Openers

In 2001, the first Shrek made $42 million in its opening weekend.  Since then, the green ogre has been Mickey Mouse for DreamWorks Animation, acting as mascot for the perpetually-in-second-place studio.  Like clockwork, every three years hence, a new Shrek movie has hit theaters.  In 2004, Shrek 2 (cute and clever titles, evidently, weren’t invented until 2007), became the most successful film of the franchise, opening with $108 million and going on to make $441 million in domestic and $919 the world over.  2007′s Shrek the Third (See? Cute titles.) had a massive opening with $121 million, but poor word of mouth and the overall consensus that it was the absolute worst film of the series only allowed it to make $322 million domestically and just less than $800 million worldwide.  $800 million off a $160-million budget?  What a bomb.

So this brings us to 2010, with Shrek Forever After, what is being labeled as the final, Shrek film, hitting theaters.  While it is sure to work like gangbusters this weekend and in the weekends ahead, I don’t see it making as much as the second or third films.  The bad taste Shrek the Third left in everyone’s mouth hasn’t gone away, and there is very little chance this will be the most successful film in the series when all is said and done.  Despite this, the film is the first Shrek release to open in 3-D and IMAX, and this is sure to boost any numbers it would have garnered, anyway.  DreamWorks has been smart in their marketing of the film, making sure everyone knows the same characters they know and love are back and in claiming this will be the last film of the series.  We’ll see just how accurate that claim is when Sunday’s numbers roll in.  They also made a smart choice opening in the same spot as the first, three films, right in the middle of May when the Summer, movie season hasn’t hit its peak, yet, but we’ve already got our feet firmly planted in the sand.  All of these factor into an equation which results in big, big numbers for the film, even if they aren’t quite as high as the previous, two entries.

To get your donkey on like Donkey Kong, check out the Shrek Forever After trailer right here:

Also opening in wide release is MacGruber.  MacGruber!  I know.  You were doing it, too.  Admit it.  When you sit back and look at the SNL film, you begin to wonder just how much money it’s going to make.  There are a lot of factors riding against it.  It’s rated R.  The biggest name in the cast (unless you’re just an avid, SNL fan) is Ryan Phillippe.  It’s a first-time, feature film director.  The only thing this film has going for it is a hilarious, 10-second skit and the good buzz it has been receiving out of SXSW.  These positive reviews (our own, Brian Salisbury’s isn’t one of them, though) could be why Universal decided to push it back from its original, April release to the third weekend of the Summer season.  Or maybe Universal just needed to dump The Losers and they felt MacGruber would fare better in the Summer.  Either way you slice it, it’s coming this weekend.

Now to look at its potential numbers.  SNL hasn’t, exactly, been a grand breeding ground for film projects.  The most successful film to come out of it is still Wayne’s World, and, nearly 20 years later, the $121 million it pulled in is still looked upon as quite an accomplishment.  Wayne’s World made $18 million in its opening weekend, and inflation mixed with the fact that that was a February release versus a May release now makes some think MacGruber has a shot to top it.  I am one of them, and mixed with the fact that the market is void of a crazy, R-rated comedy makes me think this all the more.

To get yourself a little more familiar with MacGruber, check out this trailer.  It’s red band, so you know it’s good:

Familiarities

Even without the number one spot at its fingertips, Iron Man 2 is still sure to make decent numbers this third weekend of its release.  It dropped nearly 60% from its first weekend to its second, but don’t expect that level of decline to continue.  I do, however, like to think that, if any film is going to get hurt by the “Lost” finale airing pretty much all day Sunday, it’s going to be Iron Man 2.  Expect the film to have a reasonable drop, make around $25-30 million, and continue its trek towards just being within reach of the $300-million mark.  Unfortunately, unless a resurgence happens in the next month or two, or unless Paramount decides to re-release it late in the Summer, I don’t see Iron Man 2 getting over that hurdle.

A lot of bad buzz is coming out of Robin Hood‘s opening weekend.  Of course, along with the bad buzz comes all the talk on the other side of the coin, people who build it up to balance the debate out as well as people who are going to be intrigued to see it just to see if it is as bad as many are saying it is.  Spoiler alert: it is, but the belief that no buzz is bad buzz will keep its drop at under 55%.  That’s kind of been the average on Ridley Scott’s films in the past, five years, what some are calling the lag in the film maker’s career.  All of this adds up to the very real possibility that, in 2010, a Ridley Scott/Russell Crowe film will make less in its second weekend than an SNL film will make in its first.

Little Hitters

The biggest, little release this weekend is a documentary called Racing Dreams about three kids competing in the World Karting Association’s National Pavement Series.  It’s kind of a niche film, and one that’s only seeing its way to 31 screens across the US.  Hanover House is doing something smart with the film’s release, though, opening it this weekend in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and a number of other states across the South, states where NASCAR is prevalent and the people who see the film will, actually, appreciate it.  Not sure what that will do for the film’s numbers.  It doesn’t open in New York or LA until June.

Also in the world of the limited release, Holy Rollers is opening in New York and LA (check out Neil’s rather negative Sundance review here); as does the Michael Douglas-starring Solitary Man; and After the Cup: Sons of Sakhnin United, a documentary about a soccer team in Israel.  The documentary 180 South opens in the bustling markets of Minneapolis and Seattle; and Kites, a love story set in the deserts of Mexico, opens across Canada.

Here’s how the top 10 is shaping up this weekend:

1. Shrek Forever After – $101m NEW
2. Iron Man 2 – $26.8m (-48.4%)
3. MacGruber – $19.5m NEW
4. Robin Hood – $17m (-52.6%)
5. Letters to Juliet $7.4m (-45%)
6. Just Wright – $3.9m (-51.4%)
7. How to Train Your Dragon $2.6m (-46.9%)
8. Date Night $2.4m (-35.5%)
9. A Nightmare on Elm Street $2.3m (-49.8%)
10. The Back-Up Plan $1.1m (-50.4%)

Overall Glance

Last weekend’s top 10 films pulled in $129.4 million, a lower, weekend total than the weekend before and a slight drop from the same weekend in 2009.  This weekend, however, looks to blow last weekend out of the water, with expectations in the $180-185m range, a28-30% increase.

This time last year, the new films were Night at the Museum II, Terminator Salvation, and Dance Flick, none of which dropped A-bombs on the box office world.  In fact, the weekend takes for the top two films last year ($54m for Museum and $42m for Terminator) combined won’t top Shrek Forever After.

Of course, in a perfect world, there will be zero tickets sold on Sunday evening, as the entire country should be glued to its collective TV set watching to see who makes it off the island and what will be left of the smoke monster.  However, we aren’t in a perfect world, and the “Lost” finale probably won’t make much of a dent in the likes of Puss in Boots and Dieter Von Cunth.  Actually, now that I think of it, this is a pretty racy weekend for movies.

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

In April, Film School Rejects will once again send our crack staff of NY-based critics (we call them “the cool ones”) over to the neighborhood known as Tribeca to cover the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival. There, they will be delighted with a wonderful slate of uniquely artful and uniquely New Yorky films. And Shrek Forever After.

Tribeca announced on their festival blog today the the Dreamworks Animation film would open up the festival on April 21, following in the footsteps of films like Woody Allen’s Whatever Works and Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3. It continues Tribeca’s trend of completely uninspired opening night selections, many of which seem to be meant not as pieces of their overall slate, but as audience-grabbing headliners. It shows a lack of confidence in an otherwise smaller film, something that now Tribeca chief Geoff Gilmore showed last year, in his final year atop Sundance, when he premiered Mary and Max. Now in NYC, Gilmore is continuing the lame-duck trend of Tribeca by bowing not only to kiddy fair, but to a 3D spectacle opening. I’m not saying that Shrek Forever After won’t be a good movie, but I refuse to accept the fact that there wasn’t something better for opening night. This is Tribeca, after all.

Yesterday saw a flurry of trailer debuts, including the first Iron Man 2 trailer and the newish Clash of the Titans trailer (which I will be posting with comments shortly). Today, we get the first trailer for Shrek Forever After. That makes one point for yesterday, zero points for today.

Perhaps I’m being a bit harsh with the fourth Shrek movie, which once again returns Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy and Antonio Banderas to the film’s core voice cast. Perhaps I’m not giving it a chance when I think to myself that there’s really no story left to tell, and that the one presented in the trailer seems too easy, and potentially dumb. Yes, dumb. So I watched the trailer again. On second thought, I’m right. This just seems to be pushing the cash-grab that is the Shrek franchise a bit too far. But who can blame Dreamworks, who is yet to find that next big animated franchise. Sometimes you need to go back to the well — otherwise known as parental wallets.

Directed by Mike Mitchell, Shrek Forever After hits theaters on May 21, 2010.

After challenging an evil dragon, rescuing a beautiful princess and saving your in-laws’ kingdom, what’s an ogre to do? Well, if you’re Shrek, you suddenly wind up a domesticated family man. Instead of scaring villagers away like he used to, a reluctant Shrek now agrees to autograph pitch forks. What’s happened to this ogre’s roar? Longing for the days when he felt like a “real ogre,” Shrek is duped into signing a pact with the smooth-talking dealmaker, Rumpelstiltskin. Shrek suddenly finds himself in a twisted, alternate version of Far Far Away, where ogres are hunted, Rumpelstiltskin is king and Shrek and Fiona have never met. Now, it’s up to Shrek to undo all he’s done in the hopes of saving his friends, restoring his world and reclaiming his one True Love.

Since the Shrek films have made four hundred trillion dollars worldwide in plastic bobble-heads alone, a fourth movie is coming out, hilariously titled Shrek Goes Fourth. Get it? Neither do I.

But since the popularity of the flicks hasn’t dropped off that much since Shrek 2 became the 10th highest grossing film of all time, The Hollywood Reporter is Hollywood reporting that a spin-off is definitely going to happen featuring Puss in Boots.

Despite Antonio Banderas not being able to complete a sentence in the recording booth without ripping his shirt off, the studio is willing to deal with that too-sexy inconvenience and has hired on Tom Wheeler to write the script.

What do you think? How far can one franchise get away with popularity?

Someone forgot to tell India’s Reliance ADA Group that the American market collapsed the other day. If all you read is movie news – and, yes, there’s other stuff going on out there besides new The Spirit posters emerging – you may have missed that we all went bankrupt forever the other day when Lehman Brothers, AIG, and Bank of Merril Lynch America lost all their money betting on horses and had to ask the government for $1,000 Billion in bailouts. Now, terms like “regulation,” “liquidity,” and “Holy shit, we’re all going to starve to death” are becoming commonplace.

Amidst stories about us staring into the gaping maw of poverty, The Wall Street Journal reported that Dreamworks executives finalized their deal with Reliance, the giant conglomerate based out of Mumbai, to create a new studio. The deal involves Reliance fronting a $500 million investment equity alongside another $700 million in debt funds through the, shockingly still operating, JP Morgan Chase.

The development means Spielberg and company have the assets needed to split from Paramount after months of deal-seeking and bad blood.

With that shift, the fate of several projects is up in the air. Spielberg will still be involved with Paramount despite moving on, but it’s still unknown how the business structure behind Paramount-partnered projects like Shrek Goes Fourth and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will be laid out.

If we’re not all begging from each other on streets corners in 2009, we’ll have those answers for you.

What do you think? Is this the right move for Dreamworks? Do you believe we actually read The Wall Street Journal? Seriously?

Although this is very much a rumour at this point, certain factors make it sound legit:

1) Cruise has worked with Mike Myers before on Austin Powers in Goldmember.

2) Cruise has never voiced an animated character before, which goes against SAG bylaw #66G7 requiring all actors/actresses who’ve starred in two or more blockbusters to do a voice for Pixar or Dreamworks. (Actors who continually make box-office bombs have to do animated films for The Weinstein Company.)

3) Cruise is in the middle of a career makeover of epic proportions, and anything different from the norm is looking good to him… particularly if it involves comedy. His star-making turn in Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder was just the biggest and loudest salvo. That film’s success bodes well for his next pairing with Stiller in a grown-up remake of The Hardy Boys, which is also due in 2010.

Can you picture Cruise voicing an animated character? Who wouldn’t want to hear Cruise telling Shrek to take one step back and fuck his own face?

Sequels are an inevitability for two reasons… greed and a dearth of creativity. If a movie makes money the studios will work like hell to get a sequel into production. It’s a challenge to find a necessary sequel amongst all the crap, or even one that carries the original story to new and exciting places. Intentional trilogies (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, The Matrix) or series (Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia, James Bond) aside, how many truly interesting and worthwhile sequels can you name? Very few probably, and with that in mind let’s take a look at the absolutely mind-numbing and ass-curdling number of sequels heading to a Cineplex near you in the next couple years.

In the interest of brevity we’ll leave the obvious titles off the list… the series mentioned above, movies coming out before the end of the year, titles that have already been covered ad nauseum (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen), and obvious direct-to-DVD releases. The remaining sequel ideas come in a few varieties… the good, the bad, and the fugly.

Let’s start with sequels actually worth getting excited over… not coincidentally, this group also happens to be the smallest.

The Bourne Somethingorother – The fourth Bourne adventure was first rumored earlier this year, but only recently has there been official word that both Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass will definitely be returning. IESB.net has an interview with producer Frank Marshall stating that Bourne’s next adventure will probably find him in South America. Expect Bourne to be thwacking organ-stealing doctors with rolled-up magazines from their own waiting rooms, and breaking the necks of thieving little street kids in Rio de Janeiro.

Sin City 2 – Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller are back with stories rumored to come from Miller’s “A Dame to Kill For”. By the time this one comes out people will be saying “Gosh it looks like a ripoff of The Spirit!”

Terminator Salvation – This one is a tough call for the ‘good’ category. The past three films have ranged from good to great, and Christian Bale has been cast as John Connor… but it’s directed by McG and it’s supposedly going to be PG-13. You see my dilemma.

Rambo 5 – Okay, you’re thinking I’ve mistakenly added this to the wrong list. Rest assured, I haven’t. Rambo, the recent fourth entry in the steroid-fueled series kicks ass. It had no right to be as entertaining as it was, but it was fun, bloody action for almost its entire ninety-minute runtime. Don’t look at me with those judging eyes…

And that’s it for the good. Sad isn’t it? This next group consists of films that may actually end up being entertaining, but it’s highly doubtful.

The Descent 2 – Imagine being trapped in a room filled with rabid and heaving Twilighters. Imagine they think the only copy of Breaking Dawn in existence is hidden deep inside your rectum. (Am I the only one who’s had this dream?) The Descent was actually scarier then the image I’ve just put in your head. Director Neil Marshall won’t be returning this time, although the original cast will.

Jack Ryan 5 – No word yet as to which book in Tom Clancy’s library will be used, or if the story will be an original one. The same lack of specifics applies to who will be cast as CIA analrapist Ryan, although we know it won’t be Baldwin, Ford, or Affleck. What has been rumored though is the involvement of director Sam Raimi, which would be interesting.

The Brazilian Job – Bound to be far less sexy and hairless than the title implies, this is the sequel to the feature-length Mini Cooper commercial The Italian Job. That film was a surprise hit so count on Mark Wahlberg and friends (sans Ed Norton and Donald Sutherland) returning for more heist hijinks.

Shrek Goes Forth – The first two in the series were great… the third not so much. If Mike Meyers and crew can find some fresh fairytale laughs along the lines of Pinocchio’s cross-dressing, Shrek 4 stands a chance of being funny again. Dreamworks is reportedly moving forward on Shrek 5, so it’s safe to say they’re already seeing green.

The Thomas Crown Affair 2 – The original was a surprisingly good and light-hearted thriller with a perfectly scored (via Nina Simone remix) and executed reverse heist at the end. By original I mean the Pierce Brosnan remake of course, not the original original with Steve McQueen. Brosnan is back to stealing things, this time it’s treasures in Istanbul. Paul Verhoeven is directing which guarantees all sense of subtlety and style will be missing along with John McTiernan.

The Host 2 – The Host is one of the best Korean films of the past few years.  The intertwined stories of an oddball family and a rampaging monster worked beautifully.  Variety reports the sequel will explore what happens when greed takes precedence over wisdom… I think we know the answer to this one.  They make unecessary sequels.

Final Destination 4 – Yes, these films continue to be carbon copies of themselves, but the creativity and suspense behind many of the demises continue to impress. The plate-glass window squash in FD2? Awesome.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine – Technically a prequel, Origins will show in longer form what we’ve already seen in flashback in the first X-MeSpidern film. To which I say… why? FSR’s own Robert Fure may agree with me, but most folks love the hairy, black-lunged, admantium-boned hero.

Bubba Nosferatu – The continued adventures of monster-fighting duo Elvis and JFK, by way of Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis (who I believe is dead, so perhaps not.) Don Coscarelli will return to direct provided he can pull himself away from planning Phantasm 8: Swiss Army Balls. (Look, another sequel!) This entry is included solely to appease Cole Abaius, as Bubba Ho-Tep was pretty goddamn awful.

Toy Story 3 – Once rumored to be a straight to DVD release, the word is Pixar now plans a new theatrical outing for Buzz and his Woody. Tim Allen and Tom Hanks will most assuredly return, but there’s no such guarantee for the magic!

Spider-Man 4 – I know, I know, the third entry sucked hard. But don’t forget how much you loved the first two…

Cloverfield 2 – Director Matt Reeves says the sequel is on hold because they have yet to think of a worthwhile storyline. That’s a refreshing change of pace for Hollywood, although a sequel to the overrated yet entertaining monster film is inevitable regardless.

Jeepers Creepers 3 – I enjoyed the first film, and the second was a harmless creature-feature, so I expect more of the same from the third. If I had my druthers though, the flying monster dude would finally have his wings clipped for good… and director/writer//convicted child molester Victor Salva would be thrown back in jail to face some decidedly more dangerous monsters.

The Holy Road – A sequel to Kevin Costner’s Dances With Wolves, it should fall into the fugly category since Costner himself is not involved. However, The Holy Road is based on Michael Blake’s novel, which is a legitimate sequel to his first novel, Dances With Wolves, so… who knows.

Punisher: War Zone – Third time’s the charm? Thomas Jane was a huge step up from Dolph Lundgren, so maybe War Zone will continue that trend? Yeah, I don’t think so either, but director Lexi Alexander has made some hefty promises about her upcoming revenge flick so we’ll just have to wait and see.

And now for the fugly. The following sequels are guaranteed to suck and/or have no reason for existing, and yet they’ll be shooting their geysers of poo onto movie screens soon.

300 2 – Now this is just stupid.  The original film was a beautiful, yet flawed creation following the last stand of 300 Spartans against thousands upon thousands of their enemies.  The key words there are “last stand.”  Collider reports that producer Gianni Nunnari is in talks with director Zack Snyder and writer Frank Miller to create a new story that would still be authentic.  300 worked mostly due to its original appearance and feel, a luxury the sequel won’t have.

Ghost Rider 2 – For all the hatred and vitriol against Uwe Boll and petitions to get him to quit directing… wouldn’t it be a better service to this great country of ours if we convinced Nicholas Cage to quit acting?

Wild Hogs 2 – Come on America… $168 million domestic box-office for the first one? People need to read more.

Untouchable: Capone Rising – Again, technically a prequel… but to Brian DePalma’s best film. DePalma himself will be directing which means absolutely nothing. He hasn’t made a quality film since the 1987 original Untouchables. Oh, and Nicholas Cage may star as Capone.

S. Darko – The sequel to Donnie Darko, this is probably the most unnecessary and unwanted sequel of all time. It’s already hated, derided, and despised. Donnie’s sister Samantha takes a drive with a friend and they run over a rabbit. Oh, and there’s time travel and shit.

Little Fockers – I know most people loved Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers, so I know I’m in the minority here. But c’mon… these movies aren’t the least bit frustrating or annoying to you?

National Treasure 3 – Nicholas frickin Cage.

Point Break: Indo – You’ve always wondered what’s been missing in your life… now you know. A sequel to the “classic” Keanu Reeves/Patrick Swayze cops n’ robbers n’ surfers movie. All new cast, characters, crew, and hopefully cheese. And yes, this one will most likely go straight to DVD, but damnit, I had to spread the word!

This list could continue, but frankly it’s starting to depress me. Cole Abaius recently posted an interesting piece on the possible demise of indie filmmaking, and it’s that much more discouraging when you see the studios blindly pumping $$ into the crap above. Some upcoming sequels I didn’t mention… Silent Hill 2, Alvin and the Chipmunks 2, Cars 2, Step Up 3D(?), Crank 2, Fast and Furious 4, Night at the Museum 2, Beverly Hills Cop 4, Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever, Underworld 3: Rise of the Lycans, The Pink Panther 2…

As sad as all of this is, things could always be worse right? Sequels are marginally better than remakes, or “re-imaginings”… Like the upcoming Last Starfighter remake? Or Logan’s Run, Death Wish, Tron, Clash of the Titans, The Birds, Pirahna, The Warriors, Meatballs, Straw Dogs, Escape From New York, Nightmare on Elm Street, Conan the Barbarian, Battle Royale…