Weekend Box Office Results: This just in, Will Ferrell's career not totally dead

After a few uber bombs and insignificant displays of ineptitude, it looked like Will Ferrell was on the Jim Carrey train to wherever it is we store humans we used to find hilarious until they can reemerge as old people we find hilarious. Hang in there a few more years, Jim, you'll get there. Thankfully, The Other Guys debuted as Ferrell's second biggest opening ever, which is kind of shocking when you think about it. Hopefully this will build some momentum for Anchorman 2, as Ferrell tries to cling to what fame he has left and the studio sees him as more financially viable. In other news, Step Up fell down and Dinner for Schmucks barfed.

Here's the haiku breakdown:

1.) The Other Guys - $35.5 million (Accuracy of prediction - 89%)

Bigger than I thought,
I don't like that it out grossed
Hot Fuzz already.

2.) Inception - $18.5 million (Accuracy of prediction - 86%)

This is just insane.
This could do $300 mil
just domestically!

3.) Step Up 3D - $15 million (Accuracy of prediction - 70%)

I don't get you folks.
It's the same as the last flick,
but it's in 3D!!!

4.) Salt - $11 million (Accuracy of prediction - 85%)

Another good week,
It is not remarkable,
but a solid job.

5.) Dinner for Schmucks - $10.5 million (Accuracy of prediction - 80%)

A rather big drop.
This means word of mouth is bad.
Sorry there, Paul Rudd!

Overall Accuracy of Prediction - 82%

It was an off week.
Summer must be at an end.
I should try harder.

Okay, that's it. You have a great Monday. Hang in there!

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Fearless, Flawless Box Office Predictions

Woo hoo! If we're doing prediction haikus, we must be at the end of the week's bloggery! Huzzah! This week's box office doesn't really inspire much fanfare, as Inception finally sulks away from number one, albeit with tons more money than most people (including myself) thought was possible. In it's place comes a Will Ferrell comedy. Oh, the days when that used to mean something. If my guess is right, this will have a nice opening weekend and then disappear. If I were Ferrell, I would be INSISTENT upon Anchorman 2. His career needs it more than anyone else's in that film. I mean, Carrell is a bonafide box office draw now after Date Night and Dinner For Schmucks in the same year, Rudd can continue to make mildly funny rom-coms in which he's the straight man to some wacky other character until the cows come home, and Christina Applegate is available...like, really available. So, make that happen. I imagine that almost all of you will be out seeing Step Up 3D this weekend. Feel free to not mention that to me ever. I kid. But really don't tell me about it if you see it, I want to think better of you. Okay, enough already, let's predict!

1.) The Other Guys - $28 million

Will Ferrell was king
or at least the head jester.
Now he makes this stuff.

2.) Step Up 3D - $21 million

Does this way suck less?
If you see 3D booties,
is the movie good?

3.) Inception - $17 million

You keep going, you.
I may squeeze one more screening.
God I love this flick.

4.) Dinner for Schmucks - $12.5 million

They should know better.
Other Guys is targeting
the same demo. Duh.

5.) Salt - $10 million

Quite respectable.
Not particularly great,
but respectable.

WILDCARD - Despicable Me - $9.5 million

A nice little run.
Actually, not so little.
$200 million!

Okay, that's it for today. Be good. Be productive. Be lazy this weekend!

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Weekend Box Office Results: Inception, Inception, Inception

It's Inception's world, we're just living in it. I'm not even getting sick of saying this: the film is just dominating right now. It's going to clear $200 million domestic today, has taken in something like $150 in the rest of the world, and has a strong shot at $300 million domestic and a cumulative total of somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 million. For an original movie that is complex, sophisticated, and intelligent. I wanna cry. In other news, everything else went pretty much exactly to plan. You'll see below. This is the last post of the day for me, so back atcha tomorrow y'all.

Here's the haikus:

1.) Inception - $27.5 million (Accuracy of prediction - 99%)

This is like a dream,
another week in first place.
Keep it going, gang!

2.) Dinner for Schmucks - $23.5 million (Accuracy of prediction - 97%)

A solid debut
for something run-of-the-mill.
No harm and no foul.

3.) Salt - $19 million (Accuracy of prediction - 97%)

An impressive hold.
Not too shabby, Miss Angie.
Now, go eat something.

4.) Despicable Me - $15.5 million (Accuracy of prediction - 88%)

No signs of slowing,
for this inexplicable
semi-juggernaut.

5.) Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore - $12.5 million (Accuracy of prediction - 72%)

On the positive,
this should be gone really soon,
and it beat Efron.

Overall accuracy of prediction - 90.5%

As always, not bad.
Who knows what I could have done,
if I had tried hard.

Okay, happy Monday gang!

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Movie Review: Dinner for Schmucks

Here's Justin's review of the weekend's top new film. I say top NEW film because Inception can't be stopped.

Fresh Leftovers
Dinner for Schmucks is tastier than the usual
Justin Senkbile

Like any sensible mouse stuck in a corporate maze, financial something-or-other Tim (Paul Rudd) is eager to find the cheese. To do so, he has little choice but to accept an invitation to a dinner where eccentrics (thinking they're attending some lavish talent contest) are secretly mocked by their more socially sound hosts. His girlfriend Julie (Stephanie Szostak), who runs an art gallery, isn't thrilled by the idea, just as Tim isn't too fond of her latest client Kieran (Jemaine Clement), a monstrously macho painter. For each of them, these details are just unfortunate parts of paying the bills.

By chance, Tim stumbles upon the perfect dinner date: Barry (Steve Carell), an unquestionably dim IRS auditor with a large, probably unhealthy body of taxidermic artwork. But before they even make it to the party, Tim discovers Barry's uncanny ability for absent-minded meddling and destruction. Smashed sports cars and severed fingers are the kinds of destruction we're talking about here. Director Jay Roach's Dinner for Schmucks is the sort of chaotic slapstick comedy that everyone seems to have something of a taste for, only with smarter jokes, better performances and more feeling than its contemporaries.

Not that the movie's overarching moral is anything refreshing (everyone's a winner, dorks are people too, etc). What's interesting instead is that Schmucks finds time to explore Barry with unusual sharpness. The details of his divorce and his inferiority complex in the face of his boss Therman (Zach Galifianakis) are revealed to be acutely painful. Pathetically funny, sure, but the laughter comes uneasily.

And who doesn't get a kick out of the relentless bashing of callous corporate caricatures like Tim's higher-ups (one of which is Office Space's inimitable Ron Livingston)? It's almost America's pastime these days, and in a genre comedy like this, it's a bulletproof ingredient.

Carell, whose stardom has put him in a position where he seems capable of doing everything besides surprising us, turns in what is perhaps his best performance since the early days of “The Office.” Sure, Barry is the kind of geek that Carell already excels at, but here he has added a host of wonderful little nuances and gracefully handles all the character's emotional scars mentioned above.

We can't praise Carell, though, without mentioning the other two standouts. Clement (“Flight of the Conchords”) is perfectly cast as the droll Kieran, giving Russell Brand's Aldous Snow a real run for his money as the accented, libido-crazed “artiste” of the year. And though he only has two real scenes, Galifianakis is unforgettable. Finally, he's found a big-screen role on par with the surreal brilliance of his stand-up work.

Dinner for Schmucks is very funny, but in many ways it’s still just more of the same. Consequently, one can't help but look on it as little more than a welcome improvement on a tiresome comedic formula. In terms of the big picture of movies, it isn't incredible. Among its peers, it's one of the best comedies of the year.

Grade: B

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