That’ll teach ‘em to count Tom Cruise out. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, the fourth movie in the Mission: Impossible franchise, this weekend became the highest-grossing film of the series with a worldwide gross of $571 million, according to Box Office Mojo. The movie is on track to become Cruise’s highest grossing movie ever. (more…)
Liam Neeson’s The Grey dominated the weekend with an estimated $20 million. It was followed by Underworld Awakening, dipping 51 percent in its second week to an estimated $12.5 million.
One for the Money came in third with $11.75 million followed by Red Tails, a George Lucas-produced action drama about the Tuskegee Airman. It earned an estimted $10.4 its second weekend.
Man on a Ledge came in a disappointing fifth.
Movies like Albert Nobbs annoy the hell out of me. Co-produced and co-written by Glenn Close, who not only also stars but even acted as a location scout, Albert Nobbs seems to exist for one purpose – to win Close an Academy Award.
(At that, it just might succeed: Close was nominated this week for a best actress Oscar for her role though, personally, I’d love to see Janet McTeer get the prize for her fine work here in a supporting role.) (more…)
We won’t have George Lucas to kick around anymore. Maybe.
Lucas, who produced and financed Red Tails, the just-opened drama about the Tuskegee Airmen, says he is through with the blockbuster movie business. One of the men most responsible for the ascendancy of expensive, high-concept, comic book-style action fare says he wants to make small, independent films now. (more…)
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is the most objectionable kind of manipulative and sentimental Hollywood exploitation, but because it deals “sensitively” and “respectfully” with a large and noble subject – New Yorkers dealing with the aftermath of 9/11 – the movie all but begs to be treated as a sacred object. (more…)
