Pardon me. I haven't been able to log in lately because of holiday
travel.
Information taken from Brandon Gray's
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/
7 4 Enchanted $4,222,859 -23.7% 2,752 -314
$1,534 $98,421,252
18 16 Bee Movie $408,864 -46.2% 539 -1,070
$758 $123,060,493
19 22 The Polar Express (IMAX) $397,461 +25.3% 32
$12,420 $1,809,573
20 12 Beowulf $374,112 -72.9% 352 -1,307
$1,062 $80,420,514
?? 35 Santa Vs. the Snowman - Season 6 (IMAX) $43,802 -34.8% 19 -3
$2,305 $509,435
--------------------------------
I saw "Beowulf" a couple of weeks ago in digital 3-D. I wish I
hadn't.
My brain had a difficult time resolving the clash between the imaginary
3-D of
the movie and the real 3-D of the surrounding theater. I think in the
movie's
3-D, all objects at all distances are in perfectly clear focus, which
isn't how
we view 3-D in real life. So I saw a very glaring contrast between
foreground
characters and the background, with foreground characters looking like
tongue
depressor puppets shoved in my face.
As for the movie itself, it was an entertaining enough story. The
movie's
morality play was interesting tragedy. Purists be warned though that the
movie's morality plot is very different from the poem's actual plot. The
story
is now two chapters of an apparently ongoing racket run by Grendel's mom.
She
promises power and fame to pathetic loser guys, but they have to father
for her
a son who then comes back to torment them. So poor Grendel suffers from
paranoid schizophrenia possibly due to rejection by his father, while the
dragon is filled with righteous anger about the absenteeism of his own
father.
Um, yeah. Personally, I didn't think Angelina Jolie looked THAT
alluring...
I never really thought I was watching an animated feature, because I
easily forgot that the males were mocap characters. The females I could
remember were mocaps; most plastic looking skin I've ever seen. :-)
----------------------------
If you're wondering...
http://www.variety.com/awardcentral_article/VR1117977277.html?nav=news&categoryid=1983&cs=1
So the Academy no longer considers "Alvin and the Chipmunks" an animated
feature. Therefore, >>I<< won't list Alvin as an animated feature. :-) I
never
wanted to, anyway. I admit to a subjective bias wherein I refuse to list
movies set in live action worlds with live-actors but also featuring a few
CGI
generated characters. If I let such films through, I'd have to list
practically every big budget feature that comes out nowadays. Bleah. So,
since no one can make me do otherwise :-), I only list movies with CGI
animation if nearly the entire movie consists of CGI animation, or if the
Academy says it qualifies for a BAF Oscar. Whereas a movie can have just
one
scene, albeit a lengthy or significant scene, of traditional or
stop-motion
animation for me to list it. And so I'm happy to list "Enchanted" or
"Kill
Bill, Volume 1". That's the last I ever want to talk about "Alvin and the
Chipmunks". :-P
----------------------------------------------------
In my absence, the last two big movies from the summer left the
boxoffice.
Boxofficemojo.com stopped tracking "Ratatouile" two weeks ago, with
the
movie taking in a domestic box office of $206,445,654. Everyone talked
about a
movie with a realistic looking rat as a chef being a hard sell. A movie
focusing on the motivations of an artist whose genius forms in him a less
than
approachable personality, that's a real hard sell to family audiences.
But it
still broke the $200M mark, something many people weren't even expecting.
And
hopefully the respect it's earned from critics and fans will be remembered
at
Oscar time. It's one of my favorite animated features of all time, and my
current pick for best GGI animated furry film so far.
"The Simpsons Movie" left theaters last week with a domestic
boxoffice of
$183,135,014. Never did reach the $200M mark, eh? :-) Nonetheless the
movie
did break a whole lot of first weekend boxoffice records for a
traditionally
animated movie and for a movie version of a TV cartoon. It also did get a
good
amount of critical praise.
--------------------------------------------
On Christmas day, "Persepolis" opened in seven theaters in NYC and
LA.
Good luck for it. And here's hoping it opens somewhere near Simpsonville,
SC.
- Juan F. Lara
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