Quick clips for Monday March 23

Expendables now 50 Cent cheaper

Sometimes, the Internet's power is harvested in the most perfect and awesome way possible. For example, you may have heard that I'm a little interested in this Expendables movie. This has been, in part, because the casting is awful-tastic. It's so full of mongoloids and freakshows that I almost feel like I'm peering into a carnival tent. Love dat. Well, when 50 Cent was added to the cast, Sly Stallone went on Aintitcoolnews.com to defend him. What resulted can only be described as a forum fight club, wherein the erstwhile Raptor was savagely mauled by anyone with a keyboard. Since Sly realizes that the success of his film relies 100% on the nerds bantering back and forth on their blogs...50 Cent has been unceremoniously dumped from the film. In his place? The guy who played the president in Idiocracy, Terry Crews. Now, Crews has been applauded for his acting and whatnot in roles that didn't see him looking insane like he did in Idiocracy. I don't care. I will always remember him with that stupid hat and, most importantly, those insanely bulging biceps. Physically, he is perfect for the part. In terms of his acting, insofar as he is not Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, he has already proven his worth. What I find interesting is that this really does appear to be a move caused by the furor of a bunch of half-wits on a message board. Because what they really needed was a little stroking of their ego to convince them to keep going. We are now dangerously entering a world where the opinions of these people matter. God help us all.

I live in a world with a Coen Brothers remake of a John Wayne movie

Variety blew my mind. They're putting forth the news that The Coen Brothers are going to film True Grit. John Wayne won his Oscar for that film. Wowza. Now, they're supposedly going to be more faithful to the book that was the basis for the film, but here's what I know. The Coen Brothers will be making a full-on Western, and not just any Western, a John Wayne Western. I suppose, when you think about it, they're the only guys with the collective directorial stones to take on a monumental undertaking like this. I admire them, if for no other reason, than I admire anyone willing to make a Western these days. What used to be an entire prospering genre has now been reduced to a few films ever couple of years. Hell, the Western Movie Channel on my digital cable barely has enough programming to get by (and every time I turn the damn thing on it's the same three movies). My grandpa loved the things. Every time I visited he would force me to watch one...until such time as he fell into his afternoon post-snack nap and I could nab the remote from his tummy to change the channel to Voltron. Something must have passed into me, though, as I find myself longing for a good saddles and spurs spectacle every once and awhile. Hell, the Coens could win an Oscar for this and help resurrect the whole thing like Chicago resurrected the musical (and made Hugh Jackman so very, very happy). You never know.

Weekend box office results: Two for two? I'm feeling light-headed

I know, I can't believe it either. I figured for sure that all life on the planet would be wiped out before I actually managed to have two consecutive, non-suck weeks. Now, I don't imagine I'll get used to this (and it's not like I killed it like I did last week), but it's nice to have something go well for a little while. What's interesting is that the box office head-of-steam has seemingly slowed. This leave us asking a terrible, terrible question: Is it possible that people ACTUALLY wanted to see Paul Blart and Taken? Could they actually be hits and not an indication of a trend in general box office? I know, I don't like it any more than you do. The thought that the people WANT that stuff is making my guts go all "Dancing with the Stars."

Here's how it went:

1.) Knowing - $25 million (Accuracy of prediction - 74%)

Nicholas Cage still sucks, but at least he didn't drop a Next bomb on us. Or Bangkok Dangerous. Lord, what the hell was that movie? I walk buy it at the video store and it makes me queasy. I'm not sure what happened, as I once found him quirky and fun. Now, watching him feels like watching something embarrassing about to happen. I tend to turn the channel with the guy on the sitcom is about to make an ass of himself. That's now become Cage's career GPS system.

2.) I Love You, Man - $18 million (Accuracy of prediction- 84%)

I really thought this would open slightly higher than this. Apparently, the world has yet to develop the man-crush on Paul Rudd that I've worked up. This film is generally viewed as a minor work from the comedian and will most likely still do crazy business on DVD. At this time of year, it's pretty much what you expect.

3.) Duplicity - $14.5 million (Accuracy of prediction - 89%)

Nice to see some adult fare do decently well. There was a time, though, when a Julia Roberts movie was a huge hit. Now...it's kind of just nice. It's surprising that she chose this little ditty as her reentry into the movie world, but whatever. I can't say I really care. My affection, like most of America's, has moved on to other ladies (and men, sorry Paul Rudd).

4.) Race to Witch Mountain - $13 million (Accuracy of prediction - 77%)

I really thought this would hold better. I guess we're not looking at $100 million movie after all. It will likely finish north of $80 million, but that's not enough to guarantee a franchise. Looks like the Rock is still open to your invite for another movie series.

5.) Watchmen - $7 million (Accuracy of prediction - 93%)

And this is how the adaptation of the greatest comic novel of all time goes out. Whimpering, tail between legs. Thought it would do better, but I guess good is good enough. You can rest now, Watchmen. That'll do.

Overall accuracy of prediction - 84%

Not to shabby. I'll take a solid B any day. Next week is dicier, but whatever. I've proven I'm not a total boob (in this regard). I'll take that on a Monday.