However, I was dead wrong about which one would be an achiever and which would be a loser.

(1)  The Final Destination ($28.3 million, $9079 per screen):  This, frankly, is a bit stunning.  Not only did it trounce the Rob Zombie movie, it also handily beat the openings of the first three films in its own series … without having one single star in the cast.

Is there any doubt left that 3D can be a big draw?

(2)  Inglourious Basterds ($20 million, $6332 per screen, $73.7 million total):  Here’s an interesting fact.  This movie’s gross on Friday was down about 60% from its Friday gross last week, which is usually a sign of doom and gloom.  However, the weekend overall ended up being down only 47% from last weekend, which is a big turnaround from that second Friday.

What does this mean?

Well, who can say for sure, but it seems highly likely to me that it means the movie has good word of mouth among older audiences, who tend to go to the movies on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

They also tend — as we’ll see with at least one other movie further down the chart — to cause a movie to stick around for a number of weeks, so this might be excellent news for the long-term prospects for the Basterds.  Tarantino and Pitt (not to mention the Weinsteins) are undoubtedly smiling widely over this one.

(3)  Halloween II ($17.4 million, $5754 per screen):  A very disappointing opening, considering that the first film in Zombie’s series opened to nearly $30 million.  Clearly, this movie was the victim both of disdain for the first movie and of the unexpectedly stout competition from The Final Destination.

I’d guess it’ll be a while before Hollywood opens two same-genre films on the same weekend agaain.

The budget on this movie was apparently only $15 million, so nobody will lose any money on the deal.  Still, a disappointment.

(4)  District 9 ($10.7 million, $3365 per screen, $90.8 million total):  Down 41% this weekend, it’s another good performance from the Blomkamp flick, which is now a lock to make $100 million.

(5)  G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra ($8 million, $2307 per screen, $132,4 million total):  Down 35%, which isn’t bad, I continue to be fairly impressed by how well this movie is doing.  Not a huge hit, by any means, but it’s doing similarly reobust business overseas, which probably means a sequel is a go.

(6)  Julie & Julia ($7.4 million, $2956 per screen, $70.9 million total):  Word of mouth continues to propel this movie into strong business.  It dropped only 16% this weekend, and I’m now starting to wonder if that magic — and mostly meaningless — plateau of $100 million isn’t doable, after all.  As I mentioned earlier, movies that really entertain older audiences tend to have long shelf lives, and if you want a great argument for that fact, look no further than this movie.

(7)  The Time Traveler’s Wife ($6.7 million, $2278 per screen, $48.1 million total):  This movie is also holding up well, and while Eric Bana can’t quite claim to be a box-office star yet, it’s clear that he still has potential.

(8)  Shorts ($4.8 million, $1568 per screen, $13.5 million total):  There isn’t much kiddie business to be had during this part of the summer, but this movie dropped only 24%, which is at least a mild rebound from a poor opening weekend.

(9)  Taking Woodstock ($3.7 million, $2691 per screen):  Not good.  Clearly, nobody much cared to see a movie about Woodstock that wasn’t really about Woodstock.

(10)  G-Force ($2.8 million, $1477 per screen, $111.8 million total):  If Disney World ever opens a ride based on this movie, I’m gonna crap in its doorway.

Elsewhere on the charts, there was another strong late-run performance from Harry Potter; the sixth film in the series is up to $294 million, and seems likely to hit the $300 million mark, which will make it the most successful entry since the first one.  Looks like those IMAX screens were pretty darn helpful, after all.

Also, both (500) Days of Summer and Ponyo continue to hold up well (dropping merely 9% and 19%, respectively).  Both films have proven to be very successful with the audiences they were aimed at.

Next weekend is Dragon*Con weekend for me, so this column will be taking a one-week hiatus.

Ponyo

I can’t claim to be any expert on the work of Hayao Miyazaki, but I’m certainly an expert on at least one subject: my own tastes.  I don’t know art, but I know what I like, in other words; and so far, I haven’t failed to love a single one of the Miyazaki films I’ve seen.

Ponyo does nothing to break that streak.  Pure magic through and through, this is the tale of a fish out of water, quite literally.  Ponyo is a goldfish who yearns to break out of her isolated conditions and explore the world around her; this leads to her taking the form of a young girl and befriending a young human boy.

The animation might look somewhat rough to eyes accustomed to American toons, but those eyes adjust pretty rapidly to Miyazaki’s style, which is packed full of inventive detail.

I do have one complaint about the film: the climax is a bit of a letdown, coming too abruptly and carrying too little weight for my tastes.  And the song over the end credits is quite possibly one of the worst songs I’ve ever heard.

Otherwise, Ponyo is an instant classic.

District 9

Speaking of instant classics, here’s another one.

Director Neill Blomkamp’s first feature film, District 9, is a cinematic pearl, and it’s one that comes as an especially welcome breath of fresh air when you stop to consider how genuinely rare it is becoming for Hollywood’s hype machine to get rolling over a movie that isn’t a sequel, a remake, or an adaptation of a novel, comic book, or action figure line.

District 9 is, like Ponyo, perhaps not a perfect film — it feels as if some of the plot developments are maybe not quite as rational as they might have been — but in a lot of ways, it gets close.  The most impressive aspect, to me, was that I simply had no idea where the movie was going.  The subtlety of the marketing campaign (especially the trailers) is probably responsible for that as much as the movie itself is … but whoever gets the credit, I thank them for it.  It’s always fun to be surprised by a movie, and usually when that happens, the movie builds up a rabid fanbase.  I expect that to be the case here, as well.

The plot, acting, and filmmaking in general are all great, but the most significant aspect of the film may well be its visual effects.  The CGI character work is simply terrific, and seems even more so when you consider that most of the effects scenes take place in broad daylight.  It’s tempting to say that you can feel the guiding hand of director Peter Jackson here, but Blomkamp’s short films also feature pretty great CGI effects, so it’s clear that he is no slouch in this department.  Either way, the aliens in this movie set a new standard for believability of CGI-realized characters.  They also represent some of the most alien of aliens to ever be depicted on film, but Blomkamp manages that trick and simultaneously manages to make them seem like genuine individuals; it’s a trick that feels inspired more by sci-fi literature than by sci-fi movies.

There’s a lot more that could be said about this fine film, but for now, I’ll leave it there.

(500) Days of Summer

At my local theatre, this movie came out on the same day as both Ponyo and District 9, and I saw all three on the same day.  That was one of the better moviegoing days I’ve ever had, and certainly the best since the triple feature consisting of No Country for Old Men, The Mist, and Enchanted.

(500) Days of Summer has been billed as being not a love story, but a story about love.  That’s both a great tagline and an accurate description of the movie, which — thanks to a droll, no-nonsense voiceover — lets you know right at the outset that if you’re looking for a happy ending, well, you might be in for a letdown.

However, the film is far from being a bummer.  Instead, it establishes early on that one character is an incurable romantic and the other is an incurable realist, and it does so convincingly enough that when things start to go sour, you have empathy for the romantic but also realize that this is the only way the realist knows how to be; therefore, you’ve got sympathy for both sides.

The film is ingeniously structured so that it bounces back and forth chronologically, going from (as an example) day 350 of the relationship to day 7 to day 48 to day 320 and so forth.  This might be confusing and unwieldy in the hands of, say, Michael Bay, but director Marc Webb does a great job of keeping the audience well aware of when, emotionally speakingeach scene is taking place.

A lot of the credit for the film’s success has to rest with its stars, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zoey Deschanel.  Deschanel, of course, seems to have been (successfully) engineered by some sort of supercool mad scientist to be the most adorable person on the face of the planet; she’s great here.  Gordon-Levitt is also excellent.  Both actors have to play their characters so that we like them but also see their (many) flaws; we have to intensely like them from a slight remove, in other words, and that is subtle stuff that would not have worked at all without two fine actors such as these in the roles.

Inglourious Basterds

I’ve been a devoted Quentin Tarantino fan since about sixty seconds into the first time I saw Pulp Fiction some fifteen years ago.  He’s at it again with this World War II fantasy, which has been frustrating some critics and viewers.

I can’t say that I don’t sympathize, because I do: the first time I saw this movie, it frustrated me, too.  I’d been expecting to see one type of movie, and instead of that, I saw something almost completely different.

The second time I saw it, I knew what to expect, and armed with that foreknowledge, I not only enjoyed it more, but enjoyed it a LOT more.

The third time I saw it, I became convinced that it was the best movie of 2009 to date.

As with District 9, there is a lot to be said about this movie, and I’m going to say virtually none of it for the time being.  However, I’d definitely like to talk briefly about certain aspects, key amongst them being the performances.

The two that most people will talk about are the ones by Christoph Waltz, the Austrain television actor whom Tarantino has probably just made on Oscar nominee, and Brad Pitt, the American superstar who cotinues his hot streak here with a wonderful comedic performance.

Waltz plays Colonel Hans Landa, the “Jew Hunter,” who seemingly speaks every language except for Klingon, and does so flawlessly.  Landa is immediately one of the best villains in recent film memory, and one of Tarantino’s best characters ever.

Pitt plays Aldo Raine, “Aldo the Apache,” the American Lieutenant who heads a secret band of killers whose singular mission is to kill as many Nazis as they can get their hands (and feet, and knives, and baseball bats) on in France.  Landa is a model of eloquence, and so is Raine, in his own blunt, uneducated way.  Pitt plays him with considerable comedic flair, but with enough weight that he isn’t just a caricature: you kinda get why people who follow him on a secret mission likely to end in despair, agony, and death.

Tarantino proved himself to be a genius at directing actors long ago, and he certainly re-emphasizes it with this movie.  It’s one thing to get a great performance out of someone speaking your own language, but it’s another thing entirely to do so with a character speaking a language you don’t speak.  Waltz is merely one example; it seems as if about two-thirds of the movie is in either German or French, and there is not a single one of these performances that feels anything less than 100% genuine.  (I can’t quite say the same for Mike Myers, who is okay playing a British officer, but seems a bit too much like Austin Powers playing a British officer; it was an ill-advised move, but not a particularly harmful one.)

There are also two fine female performances from Melanie Laurent, who plays a cinema owner, and Diane Kruger, who does a very credible job of playing a ’40s film star.  Laurent elicits a tremendous amount of sympathy in her role, and ends up being as crucial to the film’s success as either Pitt or Waltz; I hope to see her in more American movies.  Kruger’s role is smaller, but she performs it flawlessly.

The final thing I want to say in this review is to mention that I think it’s time we start re-evaluating Tarantino.  For too long, he’s been seen as a writer first, and as a director second.  That has meant that his visual style has been too neglected; Inglourious Basterds is good enough visually that continuing to neglect it is simply no longer an option.  He’s always been strong visually, of course; going all the way back to Reservoir Dogs, it is clear that Tarantino can do exactly what he wants with a camera.

Inglourious Basterds, however, is his best-looking movie to date, and I think it’s about time more critics started acknowledging his tremendous skill with the camera.

Halloween II

Lest you think I’ve enjoyed every movie I’ve seen lately, allow me to review the new Rob Zombie flick.

I’ve been a Zombie fan since House of 1000 Corpses; and in many ways, I thought his remake of Halloween was his best effort to date.

Unfortunately, the sequel is a giant backwards step for the budding auteur.  It isn’t a complete misfire; there are a few good sequences, and the last couple of minutes are quite good.  Then there’s the rest of the movie, which is poorly lit, upleasant, and nonsensical.

The story involves Laurie Strode’s attempts to come to terms with the events of the first movie, and Michael Myers’ attempts to kill as many people as possible while tracking her down.  At least one scene is downright head-scratchingly confusing; it involves a man who’s been in a car accident sitting in shock, saying “fuck” over and over again and trying to figure out how badly he is hurt.  I’m confused, not as to what is going on, but as to why any director or editor would allow the scene to play for as long as it plays.

Zombie feels almost totally disengaged from the film, almost as if he didn’t actually want to make it in the first place.  And I would guess that that is exactly the case.  I’m still a fan, and I think Zombie — who frequently shows a nice, realistic touch at directing actors — has more good movies within him.

This is not one.

Overall, though, between the other movies I reviewed and Julie & Julia, this has been an exceptional August.  Hopefully, that’s a trend that will continue next year.

Oh, well.  String theory suggests that I was right somewhere.

(1)  Inglourious Basterds ($37.6 million, $11,881 per screen):  Setting a new record for last-half-of-August opening weekends, this one is honestly a bit of a surprise to me.  Even more surprising is the fact that it played well throughout the weekend, rather than just opening big on Friday and then dying off by Sunday.

My guess is that you can credit Brad Pitt with a lot of this success, and the trailers for much of the rest.  I would wager that a lot of people saw their first Tarantino movie this weekend, and it’ll be interesting to see what next weekend looks like for the film.  It has been greeted with a certain amount of vitriol by a large segment of the fanboy community, but it may be that the film is playing well for people it wasn’t necessarily intended for.

I’m going to predict a 60% dropoff, which is large but not catastrophic.  Either way, it looks like Tarantino has successfully recovered from the box-office disappointment of Grindhouse.

(2)  District 9 ($18.9 million, $6197 per screen, $73.4 million total):  Dropping 50% this weekend, that’s a much softer decline than the somewhat similar Cloverfield suffered in its second weekend.  It looks as if people are embracing this movie fairly warmly; good news for all concerned, especially fans of original, high-quality science fiction films.

(3)  G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra ($12.5 million, $3162 per screen, $120.5 million total):  Showing some signs of stability in its third weekend, the dumb-as-a-box-of-nail-clippings action flick has probably started to catch on as a family film.

(4)  The Time Traveler’s Wife ($10 million, $3355 per screen, $37.4 million total):  Down 46% this weekend, that’s a steeper drop than is common for romance films, and I think I know the reason why…

(5)  Julie & Julia ($9 million, $3654 per screen, $59.2 million total):  …Julie & Julia is finally showing some leg.  Dropping only 25% this weekend, the culinary-centric movie actually made more per screen than did The Time Traveler’s Wife.  Word of mouth seems to finally be getting around that Julie & Julia is a good time at the movie; I doubt it’s in time for the final gross to hit $100 million, but stranger things have happened.

(6)  Shorts ($6.6 million, $2126 per screen):  Debuting with a smaller per-screen average than the second weekend of Ponyo, Robert Rodriguez’s latest kidsploitation opus is a bona fide dud.  Robert, can you please cut this shit out now?  And by the way, thank you in advance for Machete.

(7)  G-Force ($4.2 million, $1642 per screen, $107.3 million total):  If were one of those hot True Blood vampires — not the faggy Twilight ones — I’d have bloody eye corners every time I had to write about this fucking movie.

(8)  Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ($3.5 million, $1816 per screen, $290.2 million total):  Continuing its solid run, can this movie squeak its way to $300 million?  It’s gonna be close.

(9)  The Ugly Truth ($2.8 million, $1446, $82.8 million total):  Good run, fine total, blah blah blah.

(10)  Post Grad ($2.8 million, $1429 per screen):  Not a good debut by any means.

Elsewhere on the chart:

(12)  Ponyo ($2.4 million, $2620 per screen, $8.1 million total):  Down 32% from last weekend, the Miyazaki import is doing fairly well.  I wouldn’t be surprised if this helps him become a bigger name here in America; I suspect a lot of people have been exposed to his work for the first time.

Next weekend is an odd one, with two high-profile horror flicks debuting simultaneously: Rob Zombie’s Halloween 2 and The Final Destination, which really ought to have been titled Final Destination 4 3D.

The marketing for The Final Destination has been pretty soft, but it’s still a well-known franchise, and the lure of 3D could work again.  Overall, though, I’d say the weekend probably belongs to Zombie.  Let’s say $25 million, with the possibility of a repeat at the top for the Basterds.

(1)  District 9 ($37.3 million, $12,251 per screen):  Sony’s marketing department seems to have learned all the lessons there were to be learned from the successful opening of last year’s Cloverfield, and as a result, they got a pretty great opening weekend themselves.

It’s always impressive when a movie that is free of star actors opens well, and it’s doubly impressive when that movie isn’t based on a comic book or a bestselling novel or some other source with a built-in audience.  In this instance, it’s tempting to say that the star responsible for the successful launch is producer Peter Jackson; however, since his only hits were reliant not on his name but on the source material on which they were based, you can’t realistically say that the name “Peter Jackson” being on a poster is a name that guarantees ticket sales.

Instead, it appears that people responded to the trailers, which promised an inventive and substantial sci-fi action flick.  It’s an unmitigated triumph for director Neill Blomkamp, who will likely find himself in a situation to do whatever he wants to do next.

(2)  G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra ($22.3 million, $5571 per screen, $98.5 million total):  Falling 60% from its opening weekend, Paramount nevertheless has a solid performer on their hands with this one, which probably won’t make $150 million, but will certainly make enough of a dent that a sequel might well be a good investment.  Nobody seems to genuinely like the film except people who wear sweatpants out to eat, but the reception for the film has been surprisingly decent, and I’d expect the film’s dropoffs to level off quite a bit from here on out.

(3)  The Time Traveler’s Wife ($18.6 million, $6233 per screen):  Not an especially terrific opening weekend, but it’s respectable enough.  It’s been a busy summer for Eric Bana, who — between Star Trek and Funny People and now this — has been in a slew of high-profile releases.  This is the only one that leaned on him as a lead, and the mixed results are indicative of the kind of career he’s having: good enough that he keeps getting work, but never quite good enough to push him into the next level.

The same might be said of co-star Rachel McAdams, who at one point seemed like she might turn into the next Julia Roberts circa 1995, but now seems like she might turn into the next Julia Roberts circa 2005.

(4)  Julie & Julia ($12 million, $5121 per screen, $43.3 million total):  Down a surprisingly hefty 40% this weekend, it seems unlikely that it’s going to be a big performer.  With the summer coming to an end and the glut of high-profile pics aimed at women slowing down, though, don’t be surprised if it starts picking up steam.

(5)  G-Force ($6.9 million, $2256 per screen, $99 million total):  In the dregs of a deep recession, America can still find $100 million dollars lying around to spend on the movie about a secret spy force of talking guinea pigs.

Motherfucker.

(6)  The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard ($5.6 million, $3070 per screen):  The moment I realized that I had no interest in seeing this movie was the moment I found out that the film’s title is not The Goods, but The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard.  Looks like America also couldn’t be bothered.  Looks like that boost from co-star Ed “The Hangover” Helms never happened.

(7)  Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ($5.1 million, $1855 per screen, $283.8 million total):  Factoring in inflation, it looks like this is one is going to be very marginally less successful than Order of the Phoenix.  I guess the series has gotten as popular as it’s going to get, but that’s proven to be pretty darn popular.

(8)  The Ugly Truth ($4.4 million, $1628 per screen, $77.4 million total):  Probably will only get one more weekend in the top ten, but it’s been a solid performer.

(9)  Ponyo ($3.5 million, $3868 per screen):  Making nearly twice what I expected it to make, you can’t quite call this movie a hit, but I don’t think it’s something anyone ought to feel ashamed of, either.  Miyazaki’s movies, apart from a cult crowd, have never caught on here in America, so the fact that (out of the top ten movies) Ponyo had the fifth-best per-screen average this weekend seems like a small triumph.  It’ll probably fade fast, but a final gross of close to $10 million is likely, and that’s not bad for a low-scale release like this one.

(10)  Funny People ($3 million, $1165 per screen, $47.9 million total):  Trust me, nobody at Universal thinks this is even the slightest bit funny.  The budget, according to Box Office Mojo, was $75 million.  Compare that to the $30 million spent on District 9, and try and figure out what good it did anybody to spend $75 million on this mess of a film.

Next weekend, it’s Tarantino versus Rodriguez, as both Inglourious Basterds and Shorts hit the screen.  Don’t be surprised if it’s neck-and-neck as to which one comes out on top.

Where you goin’, Judd Apatow?

(1)  G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra ($56.2 million, $14.025 per screen):  We live in an era that can easily find a true blockbuster making around $56.2 million on its opening day, so it’s hard to be too impressed by this opening weekend.  On the other hand, it’s a decent enough rollout, and I won’t be the least bit surprised if it holds up relatively well over the next few weeks.  The movie seems to be entertaining the type of people who are likely to be entertained by a movie like this; they might well make it a genuine hit.

Is it just me, or does the movie kinda remind you of a feature-length version of one of those clips of films Vincent Chase is supposedly starring in on Entourage?  You know, you see those clips of Aquaman or Medellin and you’re not sure if you’re supposed to actually think they look awesome, or if you’re supposed to be kinda amused by the idea that someone would think you would think they look awesome.  G.I. Joe is kinda like that, and Channing Tatum is about as appealing a lead as Vincent Chase … which ain’t sayin’ much.

(2)  Julie & Julia ($20.1 million, $8539 per screen):  This opening feels maybe just a wee bit weak to me; I was kinda thinking it might get closer to $30 million.  Still, when you consider how many of the tickets were probably sold at the discounted senior-citizen price, this is a fairly solid, if unspectacular, opening.  I’d expect the legs to be considerable; don’t be surprised when the movie ends up making $100 million.

(3)  G-Force ($9.8 million, $2816 per screen, $86.1 million total):  Speaking of movie that are going to make $100 million, please pardon me for a moment while I vomit bits of fried chicken into my upper throat region.  Mmm, they’re bitter.

(4)  Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ($8.8 million, $2570 per screen, $273.8 million total):  Looks like those IMAX screens helped a little, but only a little.  This movie has nothing much to be ashamed of, but considering that ginormous opening day was pretty darn ginormous, well, it’s all felt like a big letdown since then.  In reality, though, it’s performed the same way all of the Potter films have done since the first one.  The next one comes out in the fall, and I’ll be interested to see if the return to the days of falling leaves and visible breath prompt an uptick in the receipts.

(5)  Funny People ($7.8 million, $2615 per screen, $40.4 million total):  Judd Apatow officially takes one on the chin.  The opening weekend was a slight disappointment; the second weekend is a near-disaster, plummeting 65% and wiping away any chance that this one could turn into a word-of-mouth hit (like Apatow’s previous films, The 40-Year-Old and Knocked Up).  This may also wipe away any chance Adam Sandler may have had at becoming a bankable star in serious roles.  Since previous efforts like Punch-Drunk Love, Spanglish, and Reign Over Me all fizzled, he managed to make it to a fourth strike; surely he’s out by this point.  Kind of a shame, since this undoubtedly means we’re due for another decade of incredibly, abysmally unfunny fart gags, dick jokes, and Rob Schneider cameos.  Kill me now.

It’s also another blow to the budding stardom of Seth Rogen, who has been in several commercial misfires in a row (including Zack and Miri Make a Porno and Observe and Report).  Sony must be feeling pretty nervous about that Green Hornet movie he’s making for the director of flop Be Kind, Rewind (Michel Gondry).  If Rogen now can’t manage to hit in an Apatow flick, it may mean America has dumped him.

And frankly, the more I think about it, the less I like Funny People, which has occasional flashes of inspiration but is largely a movie with no sense of direction.

(6)  The Ugly Truth ($7 million, $2353 per screen, $69 million total):  Man, this thing has made $70 million?  Seriously?

(7)  A Perfect Getaway ($5.6 million, $2670 per screen):  For a movie with not a great deal of promotion starring Milla Jovovich and zero zombies, this could have actually gone a lot worse.  Universal clearly dumped the movie into the marketplace, and can’t have been expecting much more than what they got.

(8)  Aliens in the Attic ($4 million, $1287 per screen, $16.2 million total):  Man, for a second weekend, that is a terrible per-screen average.  How on earth did Fox manage to get this thing onto over 3000 screens?

(9)  Orphan ($3.7 million, $1643 per screen, $34.8 million total):  Oughta be on DVD any second now.

(10)  (500) Days of Summer ($3.7 million, $4559 per screen, $12.3 million total):  Playing on about 800 screens, that per-screen average suggests that Fox would have been better advised to turn those 3000 screens showing Aliens in the Attic to this little arthouse darling.  Considering how many movies come out next week, it won’t be easy to get into many more theatres than it’s already in, and that might well keep it from blossoming into a true hit.

Speaking of next week, man, I dunno if I’m just out of practice from taking a week off or what, but I have no frickin’ clue what anything is going to make.

The winner of the weekend will probably be either G.I. Joe or District 9, which certainly has the ‘net a-buzzin’ … but that doesn’t always translate to bucks.  I think it’s going to end up in second place with a bit more than $20 million.

The Time Traveler’s Wife would smell like a hit in February, but in August, it seems like a castoff.  I think women might be busy seeing Julie & Julia and not caring about Eric Bana.  Also, Rachel McAdams might once have seemed sure to be The Next Big Thing, but she’s been off the radar for too long for me to think she’s got any real pull.  I think this movie will be lucky to do $15 million; then again, it’s based on a best-seller, which sometimes helps.

The Goods might benefit from a desire in fans of The Hangover to see another raunchy comedy, but I honestly have no sense of how well this movie has been promoted.  BoxOfficeMojo.com lists it as opening on only 1500 screens, which does not seem like a vote of confidence.  I’m gonna say $12 million.

Bandslam … what the fuck is a Bandslam, and does anyone care?

That leaves Ponyo, which gets an overly optimistic 800-screen release and will be lucky to crack $2 million unless I’m badly mistaken.  And in this instance, I hope I’m VERY badly mistaken.

Then, amuse yourself by thinking about the various studio executives who are –  probably right at this very moment — weeping in bathrooms, hoping nobody will walk in and catch them shedding tear over having scuttled Blomkamp’s Halo movie for fear that the director was an unproven quantity.

Well, if that trailer is any standard of measure, it looks like producer Peter Jackson was right all along (big surprise): Blomkamp was, in fact, the dude that project needed.

Speaking of trailers to make your willy wobble, here’s one for Jennifer’s Body, the Diablo Cody-penned, Karyn Kusama-directed, Megan Fox-starring horror flick coming out this September.

That’s the one showing in theatres. There’s also a red-band trailer, which is completely different.  I couldn’t find an embeddable copy, but you can watch it here.

Now, I have to admit, I was prepared to give this movie a big ole’ cold shoulder.  I was mostly unimpressed by Juno, Kusama’s Aeon Flux was a piece a crap, and I’m such a vehement Transformers hater that I can’t even manage to find Megan Fox all that hot.  Imagine, then, my surprise to think the trailers for this are pretty damn awesome.

Some of this may have to do with the presence of Amanda Seyfried, who can do no wrong, and doesn’t appear to have done any here, either.  And surprise, surprise, Megan Fox looks like she might have a bit more than simply Being Hot in her playbook; you can never really tell from a trailer, of course, but at least this movie has given her something to, uh, sink her teeth into.

Anyways, color me interested.

The film is scheduled to be released August 14. A new trailer is scheduled to be released with Bruno this week.

Scheduled for release on August 14, the film is the first feature for Blomkamp, who is possibly best known as the director Jackson chose to helm the never-produced Halo movie.