RusselCrowe Tagged Articles at Cinematical

As expected, Saw IV continued the franchise's tradition of tearing it up at the Halloween box office, and Dan in Real Life took second place, placating audiences looking for something milder. The only thing that kept me from a perfect score on my prediction was the fact that The Game Plan had a little more life in it than I thought, beating out Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married for fourth place. Ah well, whatcha gonna do. Congrats to Bubba8193 for hitting one out of the park. And now without further ado, here's last weekend's final box office numbers:

1. Saw IV: $32.1 million.
2. Dan in Real Life: $12.1 million.
3. 30 Days of Night: $6.7 million.
4. The Game Plan: $6.3 million.
5. Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married? $5.7 million

Looking for a new release this weekend? Well, here are your options:

American Gangster
What's It All About: Set in the 1970s, American Gangster stars Denzel Washington as a Harlem drug lord who smuggles heroin inside the bodies of U.S. soldiers killed in Vietnam, and Russel Crowe plays the maverick cop out to stop him.
Why It Might Do Well: Two high caliber stars, Ridley Scott at the helm and an 89% fresh rating over at Rottentomatoes.com suggest this one is going to pull in some serious coin.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Those of us who have recently suffered through the tedium that was We Own The Night know all too well how badly a period cop story can go wrong.
Number of Theaters: 3,000
Prediction: $31 million

Bee Movie
What's It All About: Computer animated comedy starring the voices of Jerry Seinfeld and Renee Zellweger. Seinfeld plays Barry B. Benson, an idealistic young honey bee who decides to sue the human race for stealing his people's honey.
Why It Might Do Well: Promotion for this film started a looooonng time ago, so the word is definitely out there. Even nine years after his sitcom finished up, Seinfeld is still a recognizable and highly bankable star, and I think this will be this weekend's number one movie.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Only if actual bees are released in the theater.
Number of Theaters: 3,500
Prediction: $38 million

Russell Crowe is about to add director to his already impressive resume. The Academy Award winning actor isn't exactly new to directing; he is responsible for two documentary shorts made in 2002. This time, however, he will be helming a dramatic feature based on a documentary he previously narrated called Bra Boys. The original Bra Boys doc is about the surfer subculture in Australia; Crowe's film will focus on three brothers within the group who lead the movement. The film has not yet been written, but Stuart Beattie -- responsible for Collateral -- will be taking on scripting duties.

Universal and Imagine Entertainment will be producing the film and Variety has stated that it's currently unclear whether Crowe will play a role in the film. It's exciting witnessing strong actors -- with even stronger personalities -- moving behind the camera. Of course, it's always a gamble whether a phenomenal actor will turn into a phenomenal director or not. Jack Nicholson might be the king, but even he directed the Chinatown sequel flop The Two Jakes; maybe Crowe will turn out to be more like the next Clint Eastwood.

This is my third post this week on dueling projects. I could say something about bad things coming in threes, but that just doesn't make sense when discussing competing pairs. Plus, dueling projects are not necessarily a bad thing. For instance, the latest is that two separate sequels to L.A. Confidential may be in the works. Sounds pretty good to me.

We told you about one of the sequels, an adaptation of James Ellroy's White Jazz starring George Clooney, back in October. Now, TMZ has word that another film, which won't be an adaptation of any source, is also being planned. This one will supposedly feature the cast (Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce, specifically) as well as the writer and the director (Brian Helgeland and Curtis Hanson, respectively) of L.A. Confidential and will pick up where that film's story left off.

Considering White Jazz should have little to do with the characters from L.A. Confidential, there is no reason both projects can't exist. Surely there will be some protest from Warner Bros., the studio that released the original film and is releasing, through Warner Independent, White Jazz. The more direct sequel from Hanson will be set up at 20th Century Fox. Regency Enterprises, which produced the original film and which was formerly based at Warner and is now based at Fox, presumably still owns the rights to the L.A. Confidential characters.

The first thing that came to my mind reading this story was Robert Wuhl in Good Morning Vietnam describing Bruno Kirby's hapless DJ, "I know funny and he's not it." That pretty much sums it up doesn't it? While there may not be one formula for comedy everybody knows when something just isn't funny.

One of the most famous quotes about comedy is "dying is easy, comedy is hard" and The Guardian has compiled a list of comic performances that John Patterson describes as "Murderers of Mirth.' There aren't many surprises on his list; Sean Penn, Uma Thurman, Russel Crowe, and Daniel Day Lewis. It got me thinking, what were the performances that made me cringe? Here is what I came up with. Number one would have to go to Helen Hunt in The Curse of The Jade Scorpion --I 've never seen Woody Allen comedy fall so flat. Number two would be Ralph Fiennes in Maid In Manhattan -- comedy doesn't work when you look like you're heading to the gallows, Ralph; and last but not least, Sylvester Stallone in Oscar --t here's not much I can say that the critics and the box office didn't already. So those were my top 3, how about you? What performances do you think deserve to counted among the worst?

[via Guardian-Film]