Paul Blart Mall Cop Tagged Articles at Cinematical

If you're feeling bored at your desk and you don't feel like playing good games while toggling between work documents and your desktop, might we suggest a few Paul Blart time-wasters? (And by suggest, I mean, go straight to PopCap Games and get Peggle or Plants vs. Zombies.)

You have two choices for Blart-tastic web-based fun, and one downloadable game as well. In "Mall Cop The Game," you ride your Segway around the mall looking for criminals, alarms, and special goodies that increase your time or give you extra points. And in Paul Blart: Mall Cop Slalom, you're just zooming away on your little Segway trying to avoid a skateboarding punk, potted plants, and benches. Paul Blart: Mall Cop - Mall Maze is actually the best of the bunch, relatively speaking, as it's a sort of Pac-Man game where you avoid criminals and collect candy and badges.

So where are the Observe and Report games? It could be totally old school, with Ronnie as Pac-Man trying to collect his pills and avoiding Detective Harrison and Brandi as Ms. Pac-Man collecting lipsticks and margaritas. The Yuen brothers could be like Super Mario Brothers. Or Hey, 2K Games! Call me!

Valkyrie
Tom Cruise wants to kill Hitler. "Worth seeing for its irresistible ensemble of character actors, a handful of really well-crafted sequences, and a truth-based story that simply deserves to be repeated," wrote Scott Weinberg. Directed by Bryan Singer. Available in single-disc and double-disc editions, and also on Blu-ray. Rent it.

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Paul Blart: Mall Cop
Kevin James as a plus-sized man in uniform. "Harmlessly humorless, Paul Blart tepidly goes through its motions, but that doesn't mean you have to," opined Nick Schager. Directed by Steve Carr. Also on Blu-ray. Skip it.

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My Bloody Valentine 3D

Remake of 1981 slasher flick. "Cheesy, corny, gimmicky, gory fun ... low-brow entertainment with high-tech execution," declared William Goss, and I concur. Consider this movie a love letter to horror fans. With Jensen Ackles and Kerr Smith. Directed by Patrick Lussier. Also on Blu-ray. Rent it.

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True Blood: The Complete First Season

Southern Gothic vampire weirdness translated remarkably well to television, despite some wonky faux-Louisiana accents. Not every episode works, yet even the imperfections and blemishes are fascinating to watch. With Anna Paquin. Also on Blu-ray. Buy it.

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After the jump: Indies on DVD, more Blu-ray picks, and Collector's Corner!

Like thousands of others, I lost an important source of income earlier this year, so I've keenly felt the impact of the current economic recession on my greatest passion: watching movies. But though it may "sound counterintuitive," CNN reports that "movie ticket sales are way up in this down economy" because "struggling people are looking for a $10, two-hour escape."

They point to the stunning box office success of the critically slammed Paul Blart: Mall Cop, He's Just Not That Into You, and Bride Wars, and quote Paul Dergarabedian of Hollywood.com, who claims that "only movies that turn away from financial realities will succeed during the recession." Dergarabedian also cites the opening weekend success of the new version of Friday the 13th and declares: "If Jason is scaring the crap out of you, you can't really be thinking about your mortgage, you know?" Riiiiiiiiiight. Of course, most of the younger crowd that were scared by Jason don't have mortgages yet to worry about.

In my case, I recently raced out to a late morning screening to catch Clive Owen in The International because the first weekend screening of the day at my local multiplex costs only $6.00, compared to $8.00 for early afternoon shows and $10.00 for anything after 4:00 p.m. I shaved down my Netflix account, canceled the premium movie channels from my satellite TV subscription, and now shop only for bargain-priced "gotta have" DVDs online.

What about you? Is the recession impacting your movie watching? Are you choosing different types of movies -- comedies and thrillers instead of dramas? Are you going to more matinee shows? Are you watching fewer movies in theaters and more on TV, your computer, and your cell phone not for the convenience, but because it's cheaper?

If I seemed distressed about Paul Blart: Mall Cop handily winning its debut weekend, imagine how I feel about it spending two weeks at #1. Its family film bona fides helped it edge out Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (at least in the estimates), despite the latter winning Friday. Underworld's $20.70 million opening is the weakest of the franchise, dipping just below the first film's $21 million and change; it's a good thing they saved money by ditching Kate Beckinsale in favor of Rhona Mitra, though I sense that the fourth film may go straight to DVD.

The other new wide release this weekend was Inkheart, and it's the year's first genuine flop. Kid-friendly, pervasively marketed fantasy based on a popular book seemed like a recipe for success, but it didn't take, with the film opening to $7.7 million in a not-terribly-crowded marketplace. Possibly not enough whole-family appeal.

Oscar nominations were announced on Thursday; that, combined with a screen count boost, combined with already steamrolling word-of-mouth rocketed Slumdog Millionare to its first double-digit weekend and an 80% gain over last week. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button -- the nomination leader -- managed to hold the line from last week without the benefit of a screen count increase, which is good news.

How Kevin James managed to open a movie called Paul Blart: Mall Cop to the tune of $39 million in the middle of January may become one of those cosmic mysteries, like the origin of the universe and what the "Frost Glacier Freeze" flavor of Gatorade actually is. It's kind of astonishing, and a little disturbing. What drew people, exactly? Was it the part in the trailer where he tries a rolling maneuver but misses and has to painfully drag his fat self behind a mall billboard?

Two halfway-decent newcomers languished in third and fourth, though I would think that both My Bloody Valentine and Notorious are happy with their circa-$24 million 4-day bows. Notorious, in particular, opened on just over 1,600 screens, giving it the best per-screen average on the chart. Hotel for Dogs landed just below the two with $22.5 million -- also pretty good for a fairly anonymous little family film opening against a higher-profile family film.

As a footnote, $19.7 million of My Bloody Valentine's $24.24 million came from its pricier 3-D playdates, showing that 3-D is a considerable draw (and perhaps also that filmgoers are savvy to the fact that these films play in 3-D in some theaters and in 2-D in others).

Defiance expanded into wide release, ending up with a $10.7 million holiday weekend, which seems roughly commensurate with its failed Oscar hopes. Gran Torino and Slumdog Millionare both held up well, with the latter actually seeing a gain compared to last weekend, even if you don't count Monday (and even though its screen count dropped slightly).

The full 4-day top 10 after the jump.

The other night I was sitting on my friend's couch, and while watching some television, an advertisement for Paul Blart: Mall Cop popped up. It was a bit painful to watch. (Well, really painful, but I was pitifully attempting to be nice.) However, rather than evoking a "that's not my thing" reaction, or a rant about the deterioration of Hollywood, it was like watching that earnest and untalented kid at the talent show who is trying their hardest, but just not getting a good reaction from the audience. You feel for them, but know that it's a lost cause.

As Kevin James' Paul Blart hunched down and weaved through the queue ropes, my friend said that he had nothing against James, but that the "funny" guy's roles were awful. This came from a guy who enjoys chastising the foibles of Hollywood -- the one who doesn't pull any punches.

That led me to think: What is it about Kevin James that comes off as entirely inoffensive, even when his work looks downright terrible? From what I've seen, he doesn't evoke the same vehemence saved for the likes of modern-day Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, or other comedians making questionable cinematic moves.

Is it because he didn't have a solid start to build love and fandom, so less disappointed vehemence bubbles out? The same could be said about Dane Cook, but I think his naysayers come much more from a place of a rebellion against Cook's fandom. Is his earnestness that palpable that we just can't bring ourselves to rip him apart? Do we expect that little of him?

Clint Eastwood proved to one and all that he's still got it, with his Gran Torino earning the strongest opening of his career. Personally I had expected a stronger showing for Bedtime Stories in its second week, but it placed sixth. Here's the top five:

1. Gran Torino: $29.4 million
2. Bride Wars: $21 million
3. The Unborn: $19.8 million
4. Marley and Me: $11.3 million
5. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: $9.2 million

Four more new ones this week:

Hotel For Dogs
What's It All About: Two kids living in foster care have to find a new home for their dog. After they find an abandoned hotel they are soon housing scads of homeless canines.
Why It Might Do Well: Recent flicks like Marley and Me and Bolt show there's always room for a shaggy dog story.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Looks like a cute premise for kids, but lacks that cross-over appeal for grownups.
Number of Theaters: 3,000
Prediction: $14 million

My Bloody Valentine 3-D
What's It All About: Yes, it's another horror remake, and this time it's a slasher film from 1981 that's being recycled. A young man returns to his hometown on the tenth anniversary of a series of brutal killings and finds himself suspected of committing the atrocity.
Why It Might Do Well: Although it's not being used in all theaters, the 3-D effect should bring in a lot of folks who might have otherwise passed on this one.
Why It Might Not Do Well: One of the reasons remakes are so common is they allow a studio to capitalize on an existing brand. In this case, however, unless you're an old school horror fan the title won't be all that recognizable.
Number of Theaters: 2,300
Prediction: $26 million