Black Sheep's Blu-Tuesday

As it turns out, I'm a little blue this Tuesday.  It should be fitting considering but it's really just distracting.  Fortunately, there aren't too many films coming out today to get excited about.  And perhaps even more importantly, what is coming out is pretty funny stuff.  First off though, the following films have been announced on Blu-ray this week: SEX AND THE CITY 2 comes home on October 26 ... The incredibly gorgeous, I AM LOVE, will wow you on October 12 ... If you like French film and fashion, be sure to see COCO CHANEL AND IGOR STRAVINSKY on September 28 ... WINTER'S BONE, one of the most understated films of 2010, will impress on October 26 ... And one of my favorite films from my childhood, TREMORS, comes out from the underground on November 9.  Now, let's get back to the present ...

DATE NIGHT

20th Century Fox and director, Shawn Levy (NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM) have discovered a new comedy pairing that is certain to give everyone who watches a laugh, whether they have a date with them or not.  The premise is silly - suburban couple get mistaken for thieves while on a date and spend the rest of the night in NYC running for their lives - but Steve Carrell and Tina Fey bring depth and urgency to it regardless.  We've seen the perils of a stale marriage plenty of times before but Carrell and Fey fight just as hard to save their marriage as they do their lives on this particular night because it truly feels as though it is hanging by a thread.  More importantly, they bring the laughs and the couple that laughs together, stays together.  Click here to read the original Black Sheep review of DATE NIGHT.

DEATH AT A FUNERAL

Three years after the original Frank Oz film of the same name became a cult hit,  Sony Pictures and once promising director, Neil LaBute have decided that a remake for American audiences is a matter of life and death.    Having seen both versions, I can certainly say that this 2010 version is nowhere near as funny or poignant but it still does the trick mostly, thanks to a strong  cast, including Chris Rock, James Marsden, Zoe Saldana, Martin Lawrence , Tracy Morgan and Luke Wilson.  It doesn't deviate much from the original - even the opening credit sequence is pretty similar - so, aside from making some more dough stateside, I can't really see a need for the film.  At least it doesn't kill the life the original honoured so well.

ALSO NEW THIS WEEK: If you aren't through laughing after these two films, both NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION and EUROPEAN VACATION are available through Warner Bros.  Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal yuck it up in WHAT'S UP DOC?  And Terry Zwigoff's 1994 documentary about Robert Crumb, CRUMB, gets the Criterion treatment.

Source: Blu-ray.com

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Black Sheep @ The Box Office

Well, I don't know if anyone saw that coming.  Just three weeks after HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON debuted to what was being called a disappointing result at number one, the Dreamworks 3D adventure rises above the much hyped KICK-ASS to reclaim the top spot and throw it in the faces of all those  losers who sold their Dreamworks Animation stock prematurely.

Despite mostly glowing reviews and great internet buzz, this week's expected champion, KICK-ASS,  came in about $10 million below most predictions and had to settle for a humbling second place finish.  An R-rating for a teen film is never going to be helpful but the way folks were hyping this one, it seemed as though the subject matter would have crossed past the youth market.  I guess pretending to be superheroes is not the same as actually being one when it comes to box office dollars.  It could still trade places with HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON when the final numbers come in Monday given the close finish but I would say the sequel is now in serious question.

The Steve Carrell/Tina Fey machine, DATE NIGHT, held up very well in its second week, trailing off by only 31%.  The $17.3 million finish was enough to nab the third spot from another comedy vehicle, DEATH AT A FUNERAL.  The Neil LaBute remake of the Frank Oz 2007 film managed the strongest per screen average of any film in the Top 10, including six of my dollars from this morning.  Good word of mouth could carry the film to a respectable end and it could still end up debuting in third if DATE NIGHT overestimates like it did last weekend.

As you already know considering I reviewed it yesterday, I also saw THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO this weekend in its fifth week of expansion, but those numbers were unfortunately not reported.  Meanwhile, another film I caught last week and will be reviewing this week, THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES, this year's Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, debuted to strong results on just 10 screens.  The Spanish detective thriller earned a $17.6K average and will be expanding to more major markets next weekend.

NEXT WEEK: What looks like an aptly named film, THE LOSERS, will be hitting 2950 screens. Jennifer Lopez will try to woo back an audience for her flailing film career on 3000 screens in THE BACKUP PLAN. And Disney tries to do some good in the hood known as Earth with their second nature documentary, OCEANS, opening on 1200 screens on Thursday. Don't forget that if you see OCEANS in the first week, Disney will make a donation to save the Earth's coral reefs.

Source: BOX OFFICE MOJO

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Black Sheep @ The Box Office

My apologies for missing the box office last weekend.  It was my birthday weekend and I was a little wrecked on Sunday.  Just a little though.  I still had enough juice to check out HOT TUB TIME MACHINE, which I thought was plenty funny, if not a little too good to be true in the end.  Maybe casting Steve Carrell in the John Cusack part would have made for better box office because it seems like Carrell almost always does well.  Sure, DATE NIGHT is his lowest opener since THE FORTY-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN but it's not like that movie did him so bad.

DATE NIGHT, boosted certainly from Tina Fey followers as well, pulled in a strong $27 million debut to steal first place from CLASH OF THE TITANS and HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, all three of which were in position to come in first after Friday's returns.  As far as Fey is concerned, this is definitely her strongest opening to date.  The new comedy dream team already have another project in the works and the success of this film will certainly help NBC's Thursday night viewership as well.  Meanwhile, TITANS crashed an expected 56% and DRAGON managed a strong hold, dropping off only 12%.

Elsewhere in the Top 10, the cancer drama, LETTERS TO GOD, managed to crack the list but barely with an unenthusiastic average of $1300 per screen.  Below the Top 10, the art house fare made very few waves.  Apparition Films celebrated Kristen Stewart's 20th birthday on Friday by adding 120 screens to the floundering run of THE RUNAWAYS.  The total was boosted over 130% but still only managed an average of $2300 per screen.  And with news of an impending American remake, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, continues limited success, pulling in another $550K on just 125 screens.

NEXT WEEK: Super heroes get a little less super in KICK-ASS, blasting out of their pajamas and onto 3000 screens.  Neil LaBute's remake of DEATH AT A FUNERAL with Chris Rock and Tracy Jordan will hopefully not die on 2400 screens.  And Demi Moore and David Duchovny try to keep up with THE JONESES on 190 screens.

Source: BOX OFFICE MOJO

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DATE NIGHT

Written by Josh Clausner
Directed by Shawn Levy
Starring Steve Carrell, Tina Fey and Mark Wahlberg

Claire Foster: No! When he says,” vagina”, he means your face.

Before the day has even started, it is already gone. Nasal strips are ripped off your face while miniature bodies pile drive into you before the alarm even has a chance to go off. In all honesty, the alarm probably hasn’t even needed setting in years. Something will inevitably wake the Foster’s up to their routine earlier than necessary. Phil and Claire, played by the king and queen of NBC comedy, Steve Carrell and Tina Fey, sit on opposite sides of their bed and stare into the separate abysses that await them. The message is clear; being married is hard, maybe even too hard. As you look at these two comedic geniuses though, you still see hope in their nearly defeated faces – hope for both the Foster’s themselves and for the movie you’re actually about to watch. What everybody needs is a good DATE NIGHT.

I am not married and nor do I have children. In fact, I saw DATE NIGHT in the middle of the afternoon, alone. I may not be the intended audience in regard to the marital doldrums theme we have seen plenty of times before but there is a whole other audience built in to DATE NIGHT that director, Shawn Levy, plays to more often than the first. That would be the legions of Carrell and Fey followers out there, of which I easily include myself among. Before this, I essentially avoided Levy’s work altogether. I’m not saying I’m about to go back and watch the NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM series but I must commend him for rising above the complete implausibility of the film’s mistaken identity premise by allowing his stars to shine when they should. Meanwhile, getting strong character actors, like James Franco, Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis, for random bit parts also gives more credibility whenever it was needed.

Fey’s quick wit and Carrell’s endearing awkwardness may be strengths we are used to by now and just expect to some extent, but their mastery is only getting better and it is their chemistry that makes DATE NIGHT work when it so easily could have bombed. These two immensely funny people pull from their dramatic strengths to make sure the Foster’s are a real couple. They’re real because you can always see the fear on their faces – the fear that they could actually lose each other. This DATE NIGHT really needs to work. And it does.

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