bolt Tagged Articles at Cinematical

OK, so lots of times when it comes to "kids' movies," I'm a few months behind. Chalk it up to the fact that I have no children, rarely review animated fare, and am frequently bereft of cash, but that's the ugly truth. (I can almost bet that you, dear reader, saw WALL-E before I did.) But, as most of you know, I'm a HUGE animation fan, and that means DreamWorks, Pixar, Disney, and all those weird little multi-national cartoon movies that arrive with voices by Sarah Michelle Gellar, Luke Wilson or Anjelica Huston. (OK, maybe not all of 'em.)

But it wasn't until a few weeks ago, while in Austin hanging out with two great friends and their two adorable daughters, that I sat down to watch Bolt. And while I could, of course because I'm a genius, spend five whole paragraphs explaining why it's a darn good flick, I choose to focus solely on the opening sequence. Matter of fact, you can see it right here.

Now THAT'S how you get a non-parental semi-grown-man to invest his interest in your animated flick. Yes, I suppose that some of the Bolt gimmick -- that a sheltered dog actor escapes his mega-heroic fantasy-land and still believes he's superheroic in the real world -- borrows from flicks as varied as Toy Story and The Truman Show ... but when you open with an action sequence this tight, colorful, and clever, it builds a lot of good will that can easily last another 75 minutes.

The rest of the film, I'm pleased to note, is old-school Disney-style 'animal adventure' fun. Most of the film is a great little road trip in which a disappointed dog, a sarcastic cat, and a hysterical hamster try to make their way back to Hollywood -- but of course there are several excellent lessons about friendship, loyalty, and responsibility. Best of all, Bolt is funny. So to the animation buffs who are still smarting from Treasure Planet or Atlantis: The Lost Continent, I say say calm down. Between Meet the Robinsons and Bolt, "Disney Animation Studios" is cruising along pretty well right now -- and all of a sudden I'm really looking forward to Rapunzel and The Princess and the Frog.

Quantum of Solace
Daniel Craig's second outing as James Bond, this time under the direction of Marc Forster, was a straight-ahead revenge drama, with rough edges intact, missing many of the character touches that we've come to expect from 007. That made it feel too much like an anonymous, overly-caffeinated action thriller for my taste, but there are enough dynamic, high-powered sequences to justify a rental. Olga Kuylenko is pretty easy on the eyes, too. Available in one and two-disk DVD editions, as well as Blu-ray. Rent it.

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Bolt
"An entertaining movie for kids," our own Jette Kernion opined. "However, there's not much here for grownups to enjoy ... apart from watching the kids get a kick out of the film." Sounds like it was made for home viewing. John Travolta and Miley Cyrus voice key roles. Available in one and two-disk DVD editions, as well as Blu-ray. Rent it.

Add to Netflix queue. | Buy at Amazon.

Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter & Under the Hood
Two vital components of the original Watchmen graphic novel that didn't make the theatrical cut; pirate saga Tales of the Black Freighter is brought to life as a 2-D animated mini-feature and features the voice of Gerard Butler, while Under the Hood uses live-action and CGI to spin a faux-autobiography of the original Nite Owl. Both may be included in a forthcoming Director's Cut of Watchmen, but if you just can't wait any longer ... Also on Blu-ray. Rent it.

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

When we were kicking around ideas for year-end superlative Cinematical Sevens, I was proudly tasked with chronicling the year's finest in big-screen mayhem, violence, destruction and other such shenanigans. When I was kicking around ideas for said feature between me, myself, and I, there were too many titles to leave off the list, so instead of highlighting only a mere couple of movies, I've opted to sort these puppies out by specific manner of cinematic excess.

So there.

1. Most pervasive destruction - The Joker may have terrorized Gotham to the tune of a destroyed hospital, a wrecked helicopter, a sunken SWAT truck, a toasty fire engine, and a golden district attorney, but even he can't top the Cloverfield monster's swath of destruction across the real-life Gotham. Statue of Liberty? Gone. Brooklyn Bridge? History. Central Park? Adios. And that's not including all the Hollister stores that our protagonists might've fled to. (On a smaller scale, though, Inside's lady in black terrorizes a pregnant woman on Christmas Eve to the point of all but painting every last wall in her house with the blood of her victims. Gotta love the French!)

Holdovers ruled the box office as no one much cared about any of the movies that opened in wide release this weekend. Lexi Alexander's Punisher reboot turned out to be a huge mistake, opening to a fraction of what the original Jonathan Hensleigh/Thomas Jane version did four and a half years ago. $4 million is painful, though not terribly surprising -- the film was marketed as a totally generic action movie, with no stars and no draw except the Punisher trademark. (The most recognizable name in the cast is probably Wayne Knight.)

Even worse off was the Alan Rickman-starring caper comedy Nobel Son. Tossed into 900 screens by indie Freestyle Releasing, the movie grossed all of $371,000, or $415 per screen -- a foregone conclusion. I'm not sure why Freestyle shelled out the money for such a relatively wide release, or what they were hoping for. Maybe a pre-Christmas miracle.

The "winner" among the weekend's new wide releases would have to be Cadillac Records, which managed a respectable $3.5 million on under 700 screens. That was enough for 9th place, just behind Punisher (on 2500 screens).

Leading the holdovers was Four Christmases, which took first place for a second straight weekend; it will have a tough time breaking $100 million, but should squeak to around $95. Twilight bummed around second place, and should be at $150 million by next week. Bolt finally took a hit after its excellent second weekend over Thanksgiving, and should top out around $95 million as well.

The full chart after the jump.

I think critics should start boycotting the yearly Christmas Family Comedy. It's amazing: these movies are never good. I can't think of another distinct subgenre with such a poor track record over the last decade. And of course, I went and saw Four Christmases, of my own free will. I'm an idiot.

In any event, it was silly of me to imply that Four Christmases didn't have the muscle to win the weekend; high-profile Christmas movies almost always do well. The $31.7 million three-day is one of the best openings ever for a movie of this kind; last year's Fred Claus, also starring Vince Vaughn, only managed $18.5 million in early November. Four Christmases even squeaked out Elf. Its five-day gross was an impressive $46.7 million.

Australia, on the other hand: oh boy. Baz Luhrmann's ultra-expensive, ultra-long epic made $20 million over the five days, which is less than inspiring -- especially considering it has now basically exited the Oscar race. Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! only ended up with around $57 million at the end of its domestic run -- but it didn't cost $130 million, either.

Transporter 3 -- the weekend's best new offering, for my money -- did okay with $12.3 million over three days and $18.5 over five. The three-day is a slight decline from what Transporter 2 did three years ago, but overall I'd put them even. This franchise continues to be profitable.

Twilight fell considerably, which isn't too surprising given the rabid-fan phenomenon that packs theaters opening weekend. Around $160 million is looking like the endgame. Meanwhile, Bolt, facing no new kid-centric competition over the weekend, held up almost miraculously well, actually gaining slightly over the three-day weekend. The folks at Disney have surely turned last weekend's frown upside down.

Slots 10 and 11 on the weekend's chart are occupied by limited releases: Milk and Slumdog Millionaire, on 36 and 49 screens, respectively. Their success bodes well for their Oscar chances.

The full five-day estimates after the jump.

What to make of Twilight's $70.5 million bow? Well, it's not quite Harry Potter, whose first-weekend outings have ranged from $77 million to $102. But when you consider that Twilight is basically a niche film -- certainly it has a lot less cross-demographic appeal than Harry Potter -- its success starts to seem pretty remarkable. Are there any teenage girls who didn't see it this weekend? And what will happen to it next weekend? All the fans may have seen Twilight already -- then again, many of the die-hards may grace it with repeat viewings. Given the incessant shrieking at the screening I attended, that wouldn't surprise me.

Disney's Bolt didn't take despite favorable reviews. The studio continues to have trouble getting its non-Pixar animated features off the ground as tentpoles. Its best go was Chicken Little three years ago; Bolt looks to land about on par with Meet the Robinsons. Disappointing.

What else. Quantum of Solace remains on track to be the top-grossing Bond film of all time. Just below the top 10, Slumdog Millionaire is riding a deserved wave of great word-of-mouth to a $31,000 per-screen average on 32 screens. It'll continue to expand in the coming weeks, and should hit the top 10 before long.

The full estimates after the jump.

The numbers just rolled in, and it looks like Twilight has grabbed a whopping $70.5 million in its opening weekend, slightly above earlier estimates of $45-65 million. For a film catered more toward young female audiences, these numbers are pretty damn impressive -- especially since these sorts of openings are usually reserved for big-budgeted action/superhero blockbusters featuring big names and lots of explosions. Twilight, however, starred the relatively unknown indie hopper Kristen Stewart and equally-as-unknown Robert Pattinson -- both of whom will no doubt return for the sequel, which was officially announced yesterday. Despite the Twilight army, Disney's Bolt still managed to squeeze out $27 million for third place, while Quantum of Solace dropped to second place with $27.4 million.

We'll have a full box office report tomorrow morning. Let us ask you this, though: Are you surprised at Twilight's $70 million take, or did you expect the film to make more?

I'm trying to muster up some enthusiasm for Disney's latest animated film, Bolt. It's cute. It has funny pigeons. My eight-year-old niece is going to like it, especially since Miley Cyrus is involved. It's the first non-Pixar Disney feature produced by John Lasseter, who directed the Toy Story movies and Cars. It's got Hollywood jokes in it, including a director voiced by James Lipton, and a comically pushy agent. And yet I never thrilled to the story or the characters; I wasn't half as amused as I'd been by Kung Fu Panda, a film for kids I saw earlier this year.

The story should sound familiar to anyone who grew up with Lassie movies or other animal-road-trip films, but with a Hollywood twist. The title character, a cute dog called Bolt (John Travolta), is fiercely attached to "his person," teenage Penny (Miley Cyrus). Bolt saves Penny's life on a regular basis as she and her dad are pursued by the evil Dr. Calico and his nasty cats ... or so he thinks. The truth is that Bolt is the star of a TV series, but the cast and crew are very careful not to let him know that he's not in real-life situations. So he believes he's a genetically engineered dog with laser eyes and amazing strength and a supersonic bark. When Bolt is separated from Penny and ends up halfway across the country on his own, for the first time he's in a world that isn't a soundstage or his trailer. Now, how will he get back to Penny?

This past weekend marked the biggest opening in history for a James Bond film and Daniel Craig proved that his successful reimagining of the character in Casino Royale was no fluke. Here's the top five:

1. Quantum of Solace: $67.5 million
2. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa: $35 million
3. Role Models: $11.1 million
4. High School Musical 3: Senior Year: $5.6 million
5. Changeling: $4.3 million

Two new releases this week, including an animated comedy and a teen romance with a hint of horror.

Bolt
What's It All About: Animated family feature from Disney about a canine actor who doesn't realize the amazing feats he performs on television are really just special effects. Featuring the voices of John Travolta, Miley Cyrus, and Malcom McDowell.
Why It Might Do Well: The trailer is appealing and slapping Miley Cyrus's name on anything geared at kids is like having a license to print money. Combine that with an 85% fresh rating at Rottentomatoes.com, and this one should open to impressive numbers.
Why It Might Not Do Well: The Madagascar sequel is still out, so it may siphon off some of the audience Bolt is shooting for.
Number of Theaters: 3,500
Prediction: $42 million

Twilight
What's It All About: A teenage girl moves to Washington state to live with her father and soon falls in love with a local boy. Her new heartthrob, however, has no heart beat as he and his family are vampires.
Why It Might Do Well: Twilight is based on a best-selling series of novels with an ardent fan following ensuring that come this Friday theaters will be filled with goth-tinged teen angst both on an off screen.
Why It Might Not Do Well: I don't see that happening. In fact I think this will be the number one flick.
Number of Theaters: 3,200
Prediction: $44 million

The big question is how well Quantam of Solace is going to do in its second week. I'm betting that both of the new releases will outdo Mr. Bond, leaving him shaken but not stirred. Here's my prediction.
1. Twilight
2. Bolt
3. Quantum of Solace
4. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
5. Role Models

Here are some stuff and things for your Tuesday (or shall we call it Almost But Not Quite Twilight Friday Yet Day):

Just Added: We don't have a Captain America just yet, but the film has two writers: The Hollywood Reporter tells us that Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian) are in negotiations to write The First Avenger: Captain America. The film is currently due in theaters on May 6, 2011.

-- Screw Heath Ledger and The Dark Knight getting nods come Oscar time, we've got one better: How about Miley Cyrus? Yup, The Envelope's Gold Derby shows us how Hannah Montana herself could be up for an Oscar for Best Song due to her writing and singing I Thought I Lost You in Disney's Bolt. Since Disney always owns this category, there's a pretty good chance Cyrus will nab at least a nod -- though, if you want my opinion, Peter Gabriel's Down to Earth (from WALL-E) should take it.

-- The Los Angeles Times spoke to South Park co-creator Trey Parker recently, and found out that the boys might be looking to end the series with another film. While they're contracted until 2011, Parker claims a big-screen finale could be the way to go: "We talked about maybe some day doing a movie to sort of end it all, and that seems like the best idea. That's been a big thought to do the last show as a movie." During the same interview, Parker also says that what eventually became the three-part Imaginationland episode was originally supposed to be their second feature film ... until the guys realized they needed more content for the season. The Imaginationland episode eventually went on to win an Emmy.