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Movie Reviews: “Armored”
19 hours ago
It's hard to figure out why those who devised the marketing campaign for Armored elected not to show it to critics in advance. After all, it costars Laurence Fishburne, an Oscar-nominated actor (What's Love Got to Do with It?) and Matt Dillon (Drugstore Cowboy, Crash), one of the few actors to achieve critical respect after getting his start as an androgynous teen featured regularly in the pages of Tiger Beat (a typical feature article: "Take a Bath with Matt"). A.O. Scott in his New York Times review may have put his finger on the problem when he described the movie as "a blunt and unpretentious action thriller too unassuming to show itself in advance to critics." Ty Burr in the Boston Globe added: "This is exactly the kind of lean, unpretentious B-thriller that people who watch movies for a living tend to appreciate, even if paying audiences no longer do." But Bruce DeMara wrote in the Toronto Star that a studio's decision to block weekend reviews usually means that it's expecting "a slew of tepid reviews. Well, at least they got something right." Actually, with a few exceptions -- DeMara's being one of them -- the reviews have turned out to be mostly favorable. Joe Neumaier in the New York Daily News described it as "a tense, gutsy crime drama ... and, for this genre, surprisingly ethical." The Times's Scott pronounced it "an unabashed B movie: basic, brutal and sometimes clumsy, but far from dumb, and not bad at all." And to the Los Angeles Times's Glenn Whipp, it's "a solid heist flick." »
Movie Reviews: “Transylmania”
19 hours ago
Not showing Transylmania to critics in advance didn't help the movie any, it would seem. It had the worst opening attendance of any film in modern times with many theater complexes no doubt screening it to empty seats. The film averaged about $270 per theater for the three days. To be sure, the vampire spoof wouldn't have been helped by the reviews, either. If vampires draw blood, the affliction suffered by this film is that "someone has drained all the laughs out of it," commented Mike Hale in the New York Times. Robert Abele in the Los Angeles Times used the words "moronic," "inept" and "tiresome" to describe the script. Tom Russo in the Boston Globe called it "lowbrow." And Frank Scheck in the Hollywood Reporter summed up: "Bottom Line: Lame vampire spoof has no bite." Most critics simply ignored it. »
“Blind Side” Turns Out “Twilight’s” Lights
6 December 2009 5:46 PM, PST
The Blind Side turned out to be a real eye-opener for box-office analysts over the weekend as the movie took over first place in its third weekend with an estimated $20.1 million -- about what the analysts had predicted it would make in its first weekend. The film, which was released with little buzz amid reports of unexceptional tracking, has now taken in $129.3 million and seems certain to become the highest-grossing sports movie ever produced. Meanwhile, The Twilight Saga: New Moon clearly has lost its bite. It dropped a steep 63 percent to about $15.7 million. (Nevertheless, its current tally stands at an astounding $255.6 million.) On the other hand Disney's A Christmas Carol continued to be the gift that keeps on giving for Disney as it brought in an additional $7.5 million in its fifth week to bring its total to $115 million. Four films opened wide over the weekend but made little impact. The best performer of the lot was Brothers, which took in an unexceptional $9.7 million. Armored, which was not screened for critics in advance, brought in just $6.6 million. Everybody's Fine was anything but fine as it opened with just $4 million. And then there was Transylmania, which proved that vampires don't always flourish in the darkness of movie theaters. Earning a total of $274,000 at 1,007 theaters, it instantly gained the record for the least amount of money ever taken in by a movie opening in more than 1,000 theaters during an opening weekend. In limited release, Up in the Air with George Clooney flew sky high, earning around $1.2 million in just 15 theaters -- or an average of $79,000 per theater. The film received solid reviews on Friday, the same day it was voted best film of the year by the National Board of Review. »
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