nights in rodanthe Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Pictured above (clockwise from upper left): Nights in Rodanthe, W., Frozen River, Chocolate.

Nights in Rodanthe
I'll quote our own Jeffrey M. Anderson: "If you're the type that likes crying at the movies, you'll love it. If you loved Richard Gere and Diane Lane together in a thriller like Unfaithful (2002) but you don't like to cry, you probably won't like it. Me, I found a few things to like and much to loathe." The DVD includes two mini-features, alternate scenes, and a music video. Also on Blu-ray. Skip it.

Add to Netflix queue. | Buy at Amazon. | Read Jeff's review.

W.
Oliver Stone's biopic is more bromide than probing drama, but as a comedy it's pretty entertaining, and Josh Brolin is superb as the confoundingly charming George W. Bush. DVD includes an audio commentary by Stone and the featurette "Dangerous Dynasty: The Bush Presidency." Also on Blu-ray. Rent it.

Add to Netflix queue. | Buy at Amazon. | Read James Rocchi's review.

Chocolate
Thai action has never hit harder than under Prachya (Ong Bak) Pinkaew's direction in Chocolate, featuring the irresistible young star Jeeja. She plays an autistic girl with a forcibly-retired assassin for a mother and an absent Yakuza for a father, and the girl has mad skills with her hands, feet, elbows, and knees! This has endless replay value for action fans. DVD includes interviews with the director and a "making of" mini-feature. Also on Blu-ray. Buy it.

Add to Netflix queue. | Buy at Amazon. | Read my review of the import DVD.

Also out: Spike Lee's WWI drama Miracle at St. Ann; Samuel L. Jackson and Bernie Mac in Malcolm D. Lee's comedy Soul Men; and Julianne Moore in Fernando Meirelles' thriller Blindness.

Eric D. Snider tried his best to trick me into watching Beverly Hills Chihuahua this week. It didn't work on me, but it worked on millions of Snider acolytes all over North America, who joined forces to give the talking-animals kidflick a strong $29 million, first-place debut. I didn't see it, as I say, so it would be wrong for me to bemoan the decline of civilization that this surely (if unsurprisingly) represents. Feel free to do so in the comments.

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist opened to $12 million and third place, which I'd have to say is okay for the low-profile, borderline-niche film. That number, though not terribly impressive, is actually a fair testament to Michael Cera's star power, since his presence was literally the only mass-marketable aspect of the movie. So the debut is at least a draw for Sony.

It was an interesting weekend in that there were several films opening in, or expanding into, semi-wide release. The biggest winner of that bunch has to be Religulous, Bill Maher's aggressively anti-faith documentary, which did $3.5 million on around 500 screens for $6,972 per screen. Given the preaching-to-the-relatively-small-choir quality of the film, I don't expect it to hold up too well in the weeks ahead, but this level of interest is a mild surprise. Facing off against Religulous ideologically was David Zucker's conservative spoof An American Carol which, according to the estimates, edged out Religulous with $3.8 million on over 1,600 screens.

Ed Harris's lightweight western Appaloosa expanded to roughly 1,000 screens and took in $5 million -- which is okay, but seems like a missed opportunity. Faring worse were Flash of Genius (1100 screens) and Blindness (1700), with $2.3 and $2 million respectively, both landing outside the top 10. The grim Blindness was a no-sale from the beginning, especially since the critics never got on board, but the unabashedly populist Flash of Genius underperformed. Maybe the ads emphasized windshield wipers too much.

A bit more plus the weekend's top 12 after the jump.

Not a lot of people liked Eagle Eye (I thought it wasn't bad, myself), but at least it broke up the box office monotony a bit. Its $29.2 million finish is the highest weekend gross for any movie since the first weekend in August (The Dark Knight's third week at the top). A combination of strong marketing and Shia LaBeouf's draw probably did the trick for the film, which had a slew of bad reviews to overcome.

The Nicholas Sparks weeper Nights in Rodanthe took in $13.6 million for second place. That is actually almost precisely in line with Sparks' hit The Notebook, but that film hung around for weeks back in 2004, buoeyed by strong word-of-mouth. That seems unlikely for the more soap opera-ish Rodanthe.

Sneaking its way to fourth place on just over 800 screens is a movie called Fireproof, which you may not have run across unless you're a regular churchgoer. (We literally have not mentioned it here on Cinematical.) The Christian-themed movie starring Kirk Cameron had the second best per-screen average in the top 10, demonstrating the continued potency of marketing to religious audiences. Spike Lee's more obliquely religious Miracle at St. Anna, on the other hand, flopped with $3.5 million and 9th place.

A bit below the top 10, in semi-wide release, the Chuck Palahniuk adaptation Choke performed unspectacularly with $1.3 million on 435 screens. Still further down you'll find one of the year's most undignified crash-and-burns: Neil Burger's The Lucky Ones, about three soldiers returned from Iraq, which landed in 25th place with $208,000 on 425 screens, for $489 per screen. Ouch.

Find the full weekend estimates after the jump.

Welcome back to another installment of Insert Caption -- our imaginary award-winning weekly contest in which you won't lose friends and alienate people, but you will walk away with some cool prizes (assuming you make us laugh, like, a lot). Last week we snuggled up next to Richard Gere, Diane Lane and a big box of tissues in preparation for their new flick Nights in Rodanthe, based on the Nicholas Sparks novel. Congrats to our three winners who all somehow managed to write their captions without shedding even one tear.

1. We've secretly replaced this couple's '94 Zinfandel with new Folger's Crystals. Let's see if they notice. -- Kurt P.

2. "Don't look now but there is a couple who looks exactly like us in the next room." -- Frank T.

3. "I'm going to be honest. You looked better on MySpace." -- Kyle S.

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This week we're losing friends and alienating a whole bunch of people while celebrating a new film called -- wait for it -- How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. In the flick, Simon Pegg stars as a British writer who bumbles and fumbles his way through a new gig at a high-profile magazine in New York City. Megan Fox, Gillian Anderson, Jeff Bridges and Kirsten Dunst round out the cast. The folks behind our three favorite captions this week will take away one very cool How to Lose Friends and Alienate People poster signed by the man himself, Simon Pegg. Go for it ...



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From time to time, I'm known to check the Facebook and the Twitter and the Digg and all those social networking hot spots -- and one thing everyone is talking about today is not the long-awaited arrival of Nights in Rodanthe on the big screen, but the first presidential debate. In case you haven't heard, John McCain will indeed participate in what could be one of the most watched debates in television history ... unless you Nicholas Sparks fans have something to say about it.

Which brings me to another hot topic today: With such a steamy little number on the boob tube tonight, how many people do you really think will be going to the movies or renting a DVD? Will the box office fall silent? Or will more folks head out to the movie theater in order to escape the depressing realities back home? And where do you stand? Are you one of those people who'd rather avoid all this economic bailout stuff in favor of a movie or three? Or, have you been super-glued to your television set -- wishing for Anderson Cooper to just whisk you away to your own private paradise in Rodanthe (ahem, Ms. Rappe)?

Sound off below ...

Movies like Nights in Rodanthe are beyond reviewing, because intellectually analyzing them cancels out their intended effect. This is a weepie, pure and simple. If you're the type that likes crying at the movies, you'll love it. If you loved Richard Gere and Diane Lane together in a thriller like Unfaithful (2002) but you don't like to cry, you probably won't like it. Me, I found a few things to like and much to loathe.

Diane Lane stars in Nights in Rodanthe as Adrienne Willis, a frazzled single mother with a young son and a teenage daughter; the latter has just begun talking back and expressing her universal disdain for everything her mother does. Adrienne's no-good husband (Christopher Meloni), who, we learn, has had an affair, arrives to pick up the kids so that Adrienne can go help her happy-go-lucky pal Jean (Viola Davis, playing a typical movie "best friend") look after a sexy, beach-side North Carolina hotel during its off-season. Unfortunately, the husband now wants to get back together.

Confused Adrienne arrives at the hotel, which is decorated head-to-foot in all kinds of colored, tinkly bric-a-brac and prepares for its one and only guest. Dr. Paul Flanner (Richard Gere) is a doctor struggling with a dark secret, and who has arrived for an equally mysterious errand. The attractive duo eventually warm up to one another and talk, but their dark secrets get in the way. Meanwhile, a huge storm threatens to blow away everything that isn't nailed down. I guess it's not too hard to guess what happens next. (Trivia hounds: this is Gere and Lane's third movie together. Besides Unfaithful, they were in Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club together way back in 1984.)

Unsurprisingly, the Samuel L. Jackson thriller Lakeview Terrace won box office honors last weekend with a solid $15 mil. Of the week's two wild cars, one fizzled (Ghost Town), while the other prospered (Igor). Lesson learned: Never underestimate adorable hunchbacks.

1. Lakeview Terrace - $15.0 million
2. Burn After Reading - $11. 0 million
3. My Best Friend's Girl - $8.2 million
4. Igor - $7.8 million
5. Righteous Kill - $7.4 million

This week's openings:

Eagle Eye
What It's About: Shia LaBeouf is forced to do all sorts of nasty things by an unfriendly cell phone caller.
Why It Might Do Well: LaBeouf is insanely popular, and so is talking on your cell phone wherever you go (including screenings of Eagle Eye).
Why It Might Not: Reviews have not been kind, but most PG-13 LaBeouf fans could probably care less.
Number of Theaters: 3,300
Prediction: $26 million

Welcome back to another installment of Insert Caption -- the game that's nothing compared to a romantic night in Rodanthe. Last week we asked you to cough up a caption for those fellas from Righteous Kill, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. Congrats to Matt N (who grabs an excellent DVD pack featuring The Godfather, Scarface and Heat) for a caption we definitely won't fughetabout.


1. "This is interesting... he just saved a bunch of money on his car insurance." -- Matt N.

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Once again, this week we're reuniting with a memorable on-screen duo and celebrating the romantic Nights in Rodanthe, starring Richard Gere and Diane Lane. And once again, Diane Lane seems to be the unfaithful one (what is it with these two?) as she, playing an unhappily married woman, strikes up a spark or two with a doctor (Gere) traveling to to visit his estranged son. The three folks behind our favorite captions will take home one Nights in Rodanthe Sloan Beach/Book Tote with embroidered title treatment, one insulated tote with wine and cheese service for two, two wine charms, one copy of "Nights in Rodanthe," one book light, one Ultra Hyde bookmark, one long sleeved Nights in Rodanthe t-shirt and one key tag photo frame. Now if you can't do a little wooing with all of that ... well, you're on your own. Sound off below.



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No, I'm not talking about Paul McCartney and Wings' "Venus and Mars" (though that is a pretty awesome tune). I suppose you would be hard pressed to find a movie with no romantic angle at all, but these five trailers focus specifically on male/female relationships.

Nights in Rodanthe
No, this doesn't have anything to do with that radioactive pterodactyl occasionally seen hanging out with Godzilla (that's Rodan to the uninitiated). Actually this one (which Erik first posted about here) stars Richard Gere as a doctor on his way to reconcile with his son. His trip takes an unexpected turn when he begins a love affair with an innkeeper whose loveless marriage is on the skids. Christopher Meloni plays the estranged husband, which doesn't seem all that different from his role on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. It looks like a competent production, but it just reeks of Bridges of Madison County. There may be something worthwhile here, but it's not my cup of tea.

He's Just Not That Into You
If nothing else, the cast of this adaptation of the novel by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo will make you sit up and take notice. Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck, and Justin Long star with Barrymore also producing. The film follows several interconnecting stories, with the trailer showing us several romantic missteps that could easily come from any romantic comedy, but the cast is so top-notch that I find myself wanting to see more. This one hits theaters on October 24. Here's Elisabeth's take on the trailer.

I'm frankly surprised that Lasse Hallström hadn't tried his hand at a Nicholas Sparks adaptation before now. Sparks' middlebrow weepies (so far we've gotten Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember and The Notebook) are perfectly suited for Hallström's slick, crowd-pleaser style and his prestige-picture tastes. Hallström and the producers of the forthcoming Dear John have clearly realized this, as the director has signed on for the film, which starts shooting in December.

Dear John is like every Nicholas Sparks plot rolled into one, with a shamelessly sentimental treatment of 9/11 thrown in for good measure. It's about a rebellious kid (played by Channing Tatum in the film) who joins the army for lack of anything better to do, but falls in love with a family-oriented college student while on leave in North Carolina. He decides that after his tour of duty is over he'll settle down and start a family with his new love, but September 11th gums up their plans and he has to choose between love and country.

Hallström is currently wrapping up Hachiko: A Dog's Story, where Richard Gere plays a college professor who takes in an abandoned dog. And Sparks is responsible for this fall's Nights in Rodanthe, starring Gere and Diane Lane, about a love affair between an unhappily married woman and a doctor trying to reconcile with his estranged son. I think I just swooned a little bit.