Ferrell's 'Megamind' hangs onto box office lead
LOS ANGELES — Will Ferrell's dastardly schemes continue to succeed, with the animated "Megamind" staying at the top of the box office.
The DreamWorks Animation 3-D comedy, featuring Ferrell as the voice of a super villain, made just over $30 million in its second week in theaters, according to Sunday studio estimates. It's now made nearly $90 million total. "Megamind" also features the voices of Brad Pitt, Tina Fey and Jonah Hill.
Opening in second place is the 20th Century Fox action thriller "Unstoppable," starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pine as railroad workers trying to stop a massive runaway train. It made $23.5 million. The movie is based on a 2001 Ohio incident in which a train carrying hazardous cargo traveled 66 miles without a crew.
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Source: www.kansas.com
FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA SHARES THE STAGE IN A NEW EDITION OF 'APOCALYPSE NOW'
What's it like for Francis Ford Coppola to go back into the jungle?
"In some ways," the 71-year-old filmmaker said with a warm laugh, "it feels like we never left."
This week, a massive three-disc edition of "Apocalypse Now" arrived on Blu-ray with more than nine hours of bonus features. More than simple cinematic celebration, Coppola's intense participation in the project was a mission of legacy repair on several fronts.
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'Avatar' sequels to get going
James Cameron will start writing the scripts for two "Avatar" sequels early next year, aiming to land the first one in theaters four years from now.
Executives at 20th Century Fox announced this week that Cameron has settled on two sequels to the blockbuster hit as his next film projects, with plans to begin production in late 2011.
The studio hopes to have the first of the as-yet-untitled sequels in theaters in December 2014, with the third movie in the franchise following in December 2015. Like the first film, the sequels will be shot in 3-D.
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Halloween flick 'Saw 3D' takes top slice of box office
LOS ANGELES — Psycho killer Jigsaw has come back to life at the box office.
Lionsgate's "Saw 3D," billed as the final installment in the series about Jigsaw's legacy of bloody terror, debuted as the Halloween weekend's No. 1 movie with $24.2 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
That was $10 million more than the debut of last year's "Saw VI," the first dud in the annual horror franchise.
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'Harry Potter' leads box office
LOS ANGELES — Harry Potter has cast his biggest box-office spell yet with a franchise record $125.1 million domestically over opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1″ also added $205 million in 54 overseas countries, bringing the film's worldwide total to $330.1 million.
DreamWorks Animation's "Megamind," the No. 1 movie the previous two weekends, fell to second place.
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Facebook saga 'The Social Network' remains at No. 1
LOS ANGELES — Movie fans have bookmarked the Facebook drama "The Social Network" as their weekend favorite.
David Fincher's saga about personality clashes and legal feuds among the website's founders took in $15.5 million to remain the No. 1 film for a second straight weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. Released by Sony, "The Social Network" raised its 10-day total to $46.1 million.
Debuting a close second with a so-so $14.6 million weekend was the Warner Bros. romance "Life as We Know It," starring Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel as sparring guardians to an orphaned girl.
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'Conviction' an inspirational underdog tale
The murder at the heart of “Conviction” is a grisly, disturbing one.
But the film that dramatizes the true story glosses over the dirty details to instead give us a feel-good, inspirational story of an underdog.
Director Tony Goldwyn takes a surprisingly by-the-numbers approach, a made-for-TV feel that’s boosted by a strong, urgent performance by Hilary Swank and a sizzling one from Sam Rockwell.
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Lennon's love affair with New York explored in documentary
For all of us who love John Lennon and his music, 2010 has been a year of special anniversaries. Earlier this year, we celebrated the 70th anniversary of his birth in Liverpool, and with it the memory of how the Beatles changed the world — and us — and how Lennon continued to make honest, brave and provocative music after the great band split apart. But we also must return to that terrible evening 30 years ago, on Dec. 8, 1980, when Lennon was murdered outside his apartment building in New York City.
"Lennon NYC," a documentary about Lennon's solo career, his love of New York City and his life in the United States after the breakup of the Beatles, brings back a rush of these memories. This fine work, written and directed by Michael Epstein, is airing on PBS stations and was released on DVD this week (A&E Home Entertainment, $24.95, not rated).
Much of this story is familiar, of course, to the legions of John Lennon fans. It's a story that has been told well in previous documentaries. "Imagine: John Lennon," from 1988, placed the emphasis on the personal side of Lennon's life, especially his sometimes tumultuous relationship with his wife, Yoko Ono, and his adoration for his young son Sean. "The U.S. vs. John Lennon," from 2006, focused more on Lennon's activism against the war in Vietnam and the difficult and long struggle he fought to avoid the deportation sought by the administration of Richard Nixon.
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Mildly amusing is the best that 'Megamind' can produce
A dastardly super-villain who turned evil because of a bad upbringing finds himself seduced to the good side to defeat an even badder guy.
The movie is called "Megamind," but didn't we just see this last summer in "Despicable Me"?
The latest action comedy from DreamWorks Animation, "Megamind" features dazzling computer-animated design and action. Yet despite a clever hook — what's a villain to do when he manages to defeat his superhero nemesis? —it's a thin story that feels familiar and unfolds with no surprises.
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Characters still as involving in 'Hornet's,' but story isn't
The third of the Swedish films based on Stieg Larsson’s wildly popular “Millennium trilogy” of novels, “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest,” finally brings to a close the epic, sordid tale of emotionally damaged computer hacker Lisbeth Salander and her heroic journalist friend Mikael Blomkvist.
The first films, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and “The Girl Who Played With Fire,” were solid, engrossing mysteries. But they’ve become less involving each time.
“Dragon” was a suspenseful, sometimes hard-to-watch introduction to Lisbeth (the smoldering Noomi Rapace) and why she is the way she is — defiantly independent, resourceful, feral. She met Mikael (Michael Nyqvist) when he hired her to help in his search for a woman who had been missing for decades.
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