Last Holiday Tagged Articles at Cinematical

• The Call Of Cthulhu - The H.P. Lovecraft Preservation Society, a group of dauntless fans that created the brilliant, Cthulhu-themed musical, A Shoggoth On The Roof, have created the ultimate fan film, an incredible tribute to the writer whose work seeded modern horror favorites like Re-Animator and From Beyond. Shot like a 1920's era silent film, the 47-minute feature is technically amazing, shot (in black-and-white), lit and performed like an authentic film of the period would have been (although it would have horrified people of the time right into Arkham Sanitarium.) Considered Lovecraft's most famous story, the story of a man who inherits a collection of documents detailing the ghastly Cthulhu Cult, it is very faithfully adapted, not to mention super-efficient. The title cards are in the viewer's choice of an astonishing 24 different languages, and the lush, symphonic score can be played in hi-fi and the kitschy-fun, lo-fi "Mythoscope". A skillful build and an extremely satisfying payoff (think creature design King Kong '33 style) add up to one of the smartest horror films of recent memory.

According to early box office estimates, Screen Gems' clever ploy of not screening Underworld: Evolution for critics had the desired effect: the film took in about $27.6 million this weekend, more than doubling the take of any other film and even bettering the open of the first installment in the series. This weekend's other major release was End of the Spear which, though it didn't make much (about $4.2 million) depending on your source), was shown in fewer than as half many theaters as Underworld; it ended up in the eighth spot. Holding steady in second was Hoodwinked, which made just over $11 million in its second week of release; it was followed by Glory Road and Last Holiday, both of which took in $9.1 million in week two.

Among Oscar hopefuls, Brokeback Mountain's expansion to about 1200 screens earned it fifth place and just under $8 million - I guess all those Golden Globes didn't hurt, huh? And appearing for the first time in the charts this weekend is Terrence Malick's The New World, which was released in its recut form on Friday. The film took in a modest $4.3 million, which was good enough for the final spot in the top 10. The growing audience bodes well for both Malick and his film, as does the positive critical response to the new edit. (For the purposes of comparison, Hostel, which is in its third week of release, also made $4.3 million - but on 2,258 screens to The New World's 811.)

New releases took the top three slots at the box office this weekend, ending Hostel's short-lived reign and pushing last year's blockbuster holdovers down to the bottom of the pile. Glory Road, a mushy sports drama directed by newcomer James Gartner, landed at the top of the heap with an unremarkable $13.5 million; Last Holiday, Wayne Wang's surprisingly well-reviewed remake of the 1950 film starring Alec Guinness, came in not far behind with $13 mil. The Weinstein Company's long-delayed CGI meta-fairy tale Hoodwinked! landed in third, and with hostel falling all the way to fifth, that left room for only one 2005 flick in the top five. That slot went to The Chronicles of Narnia, which managed to scrape together $10.1 million in its 700th week in release. On awards watch: heading into tonight's Golden Globes it looks like Munich is just about dead. Spielberg's drama dropped out of the top ten this weekend and isn't likely to recover.

Four big new movies open wide this weekend, and there's something for pretty much everyone in the mix. (Unless, of course, you're look for gay cowboys. But then, you know where to go to find them by now.) In brief: Queen Latifah rules, James Franco doesn't; Hoodwinked gets people excited, Glory Road doesn't. For details, read on.

• Last Holiday: That sound you hear, friends, is the sweet music of 95% of all American critics falling completely in love with Queen Latifah. I've never read a group of reviews so enamored of a movie's star, and of her effect on what would otherwise be an utterly forgettable film. Roger Ebert summed up the general feeling best when he said "Last Holiday plays like a hug." (I know. But they're almost all like this. It's awesome.)

• Glory Road: While most critics are bit more generous than Jette, everybody agrees that the based-on-a-true-story flick is formulaic and predictable, so much so that "you could be forgiven for thinking Stouffer's produced it, not Disney." That said, however, its young actors win praise, and a few critics feel the film addresses the racism at the core of its story with surprising grace. And, as a bonus, the basketball scenes don't suck!

• Tristan & Isolde: Nobody (apart from Roger Ebert, who praises its realism) really likes this one. At best, it's bland with good action scenes; at worst, "like a Monty Python movie with the jokes removed." Not only do they not like the movie as a whole, but several critics also set a little space aside to rip on poor James Franco, who hasn't really successfully conveyed an emotion since Freaks and Geeks.

• Hoodwinked: Holy divergence of opinion, Batman! Reactions to this one range from raves to pure, unadulterated hatred, and include pretty much everything in between. Either it's clever and snappy, or it's a big pile of crap - and you're going to have decide for yourselves. If it helps at all, most people come down somewhere in the middle, but going to see this one really is going to be a crapshoot.