Monday, January 26, 2009

FILM: SAG Awards, "The Last Templar," and Hader Horror

Paul Blart: Mall Cop won the box office again this weekend, reaching $65 mil. Meanwhile, the prequel Underworld: Rise of the Lycans didn't fare as well. It may have come in at #2, but it only opened with $21 mil. Inkheart, however, debuted at #7 with nearly $8 mil. Maybe it's the frigid weather or maybe Brendan Fraser lost his Mummy-flare. A few shake-ups include Slumdog Millionaire getting a wider release and shooting up from #10 to #5 with $56 mil, Benjamin Button moving back into the top 10 at #9 with $111 mil, Hotel for Dogs moving up one spot with $37 mil, My Bloody Valentine 3D dropping after the 2nd week from #3 to #6 with $38 mil, and Notorious plummeting from #4 to #10 with $32 mil after several in-theater acts of violence reported. Films that departed the top 10 were Defiance ($18 mil), The Unborn ($39 mil), and Marley and Me ($138 mil). Next weekend there'll be a few options to occupy the non-Super Bowl obsessed, but the box office might still take a hit.

Slumdog Millionaire won the best ensemble cast at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Check out the rest of the winners.

• NBC's miniseries "The Last Templar" premiered Sunday night, and even though I didn't see The Davinci Code, it was pretty clear that it was practically a copycat. The religious treasure hunt starring Mira Sorvino and Scott Foley ("Felicity") will end its two-part adventure Monday night. But let's put aside the fact that I can never take Foley as an FBI agent seriously, and focus on the fact that the first two hours were kind of slow and...boring. Even with a few fight scenes, I was bored by half way through the first hour. However, I will say that Sorvino has a future in action films--not that we didn't already know that from her '98 film The Replacement Killers--and snarky comedy after hearing her say, "I'm the sequel to the prequel," in response to an Indiana Jones comparison.

Judd Apatow may fund Bill Hader (Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Superbad) and "SNL" writer Simon Rich's comedic horror flick. Hader said he's a fan of true crime shows and wanted to do a film with the premise of: "What if that guy decided to come to your house? What would you and your dips--- friends do about it?" It's supposed to be "Straw Dogs meets Halloween meets Home Alone meets Monster Squad," which just sounds plain hilarious to me. Honestly, anything related to Monster Squad sounds down-right ridiculous.

No comments:

Post a Comment