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Ghost Rider Spirit Of Vengeance

February 17, 2012 by · Comments Off on Ghost Rider Spirit Of Vengeance 

Ghost Rider Spirit Of Vengeance, After last weekend’s record-breaking pre-Valentine’s Day frame, Hollywood is feeling hopeful about box office prospects during the upcoming holiday weekend, which will include four days of box office receipts.

We’re likely headed another frame of four $20+ million grosses — possibly even five!

Three new movies are hitting theaters — action sequel “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance,” romantic comedy “This Means War,” and animated import “The Secret World of Arrietty” — but “The Vow” won’t relinquish the top spot so easily. Here are my predictions for the four day holiday weekend:

1. “The Vow” — $30 million

Last weekend’s romantic victor has played well throughout the week — it broke midweek records with its $11.6 million Valentine’s Day haul — and according to Fandango, “The Vow” is still this weekend’s number one choice, accounting for 17 percent of Thursday’s ticket sales — the most of any film (“Ghost Rider” accounted for just 5 percent). It seems that the poorly-reviewed film has become something of an event film for women — it may not be totally well received, but people want to see it because their friends have. “The Vow” may fall by about 25-30 percent over the long weekend and take in another $30 million.

2. “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance” — $29.5 million

Not many people thought that the original “Ghost Rider,” which hit theaters over this very weekend in 2007, would earn a sequel. That film grossed just $115.8 million against its $110 production budget (a figure that does not include marketing costs), but apparently, its $228.7 million global haul was enough for Sony to greenlight a second film. Nicolas Cage is back as the flame-headed comic book character for “Spirit of Vengeance,” which cost somewhere in the mid-$70 million range to produce. The presence of 3-D ticket prices should add a few million dollars to “Spirit’s” opening, but because of the tepid reactions to the original “Ghost Rider,” which opened with $52 million in its first four days, it’s unlikely that this one will fare better. The film might ride away with a bit less than $30 million.

3. “Safe House” — $27 million

The Denzel Washington/Ryan Reynolds action flick should ride its “A-” CinemaScore grade to a successful second weekend. Direct competition from “Ghost Rider” may result in a slightly inflated 35 percent drop over four days, which would give “Safe House” a terrific $27 million.

4. “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” — $26 million

More than any other film, “Journey” will benefit from the holiday weekend. The 3-D sequel remains the top choice for families, many of whom will be eager to keep their youngsters busy over the extended weekend. A tiny 5 percent drop would give the $79 million adventure a robust $26 million, lifting its total to $59 million after ten days.

5. “This Means War” — $17 million

Reese Witherspoon’s last romantic comedy, “How Do You Know,” was a critical disaster that crashed and burned at the box office, taking in a measly $30.2 million against a $120 million budget. Thankfully, “This Means War,” which features “Star Trek’s” Chris Pine and “Inception’s” Tom Hardy alongside Witherspoon, will fare better. Granted, the film’s breakout potential has been severely reduced by the complete box office dominance of “The Vow,” which will steal away female audiences, but on a busy weekend, “War” could still find a decent crowd — it drew about $1.7 million on Valentine’s Day sneaks. Fox spent $65 million on the action-comedy, which will play in 3,189 theaters this weekend, and it seems headed for about $17 million.

The Secret World Of Arrietty

February 17, 2012 by · Comments Off on The Secret World Of Arrietty 

The Secret World Of Arrietty, If you’re tired of all the hoopla surrounding the silent film The Artist, open your ears to The Secret World of Arrietty, which features some of the most arresting, inventive sound design in years. But keep your eyes open as well for its deliciously old-school hand-drawn animation, splashed across the screen like pastel-coloured sidewalk chalk drawings after rain. It’s not even in 3-D; it doesn’t have to be.

The source material is Mary Norton’s 1952 children’s book The Borrowers, which has been adapted for TV several times and was made into a live-action movie of the same name in 1997. This version, adapted by Japan’s master animator Hayao Miyazaki (Ponyo, Princess Mononoke) and directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, is much quieter than that one, which featured a farting bloodhound and John Goodman.

The story opens with young Shawn (David Henrie) arriving at the suburban home of his aunt Jessica. The boy is frail and has been sent there for rest and relaxation. However, on his arrival he catches a glimpse of a tiny girl in the garden.

She is Arrietty (Bridgit Mendler), one of a family of 10-centimetre-tall Borrowers who live under the floorboards. (I must pause briefly to point out that they are a disingenuously named race; though they abscond only with what they need, and never in large amounts, they are in fact Takers, not Borrowers.) Her father is the taciturn, stony-faced Pod (Will Arnett). Homily, her mother, is more volatile and voiced by Amy Poehler.

A long scene early on shows Arrietty and her father creeping through the walls of the house on a hazardous expedition to “borrow” some sugar and tissue paper. (It’s not often that a shopping trip ends with the line: “I’m happy you made it home.”) They use fishhooks and string to rappel down the furniture, and double-sided tape on their hands and feet to climb up again.

You could get lost in the minutiae of how these miniature people go about their work. Yonebayashi focuses on tiny details: a jerry-rigged elevator inside the wall; Arrietty’s homemade rucksack. A Borrower teapot delivers liquid in large blobby droplets, held together by surface tension. Even the sugar grains have been scaled up in size.

But more amazing still are the sounds; every movement and object resonates as it would if you were four inches tall. Footsteps echo as though in a cathedral. When someone picks up a sewing pin, it rings like a steel sword. The cube of sugar they liberate sounds like — well, like a giant cube of sugar.

Trouble arrives when Shawn, a light sleeper, catches sight of Arrietty once again. Though he’s clearly not a threat, the Borrower family decides they must move to another house now that a “human bean” knows they exist. Aunt Jessica’s dotty housekeeper Hara (Carol Burnett) poses a clear danger, as she’s determined to catch these little people and make them pay for their thieving ways.

The plot is simple. Shawn must earn the trust of Arrietty and try to help her avoid detection by Hara, who turns into quite the villain by film’s end. When Pod sprains his ankle while searching for a route for his family’s exodus, he’s brought home by Spiller (Moises Arias), a Borrower who’s more of a Hunter-Gatherer. This scene allows for one of the film’s most beautiful images, when Spiller unexpectedly unfurls a tiny glider and flies away (apologies to Clement C. Moore) like the down of a thistle.

The kid-friendly story features Celtic-flavoured music by French singer/harpist Cecile Corbel — perhaps a little too much, since the lyrics often compete for attention with the dialogue. I must also carp at the decision to release both a (North) American and a British dub of what was originally a Japanese-language film. Surely we could have made do with the voices of Saoirse Ronan, Mark Strong and Olivia Colman as the Borrowers.

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