Sad news arrived Thursday afternoon for fans of colorful actors. John Phillip Law, who appeared in dozens of movies over a career that spanned more than four decades, died on Tuesday from undisclosed causes, according to the Associated Press. He was 70 years old.

As noted at his official site, Law took on roles both big and small, in epic blockbusters and tiny independents, all over the world. He began his acting career on Broadway before getting nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Most Promising Newcomer for playing an endearingly sweet Russian seaman in Norman Jewison's The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming in 1965. He swiftly moved on to meatier parts in films that later became enduring cult favorites -- Giulio Petroni's Death Rides a Horse, Mario Bava's Diabolik, and, especially, Roger Vadim's Barbarella, in which he played a blind angel.

As his career continued, the overall quality of his films varied wildly, but he could be counted upon for level-headed performances, always looking like a proper dignified gentleman no matter his surroundings. I think my first exposure to him was when he played the title role in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad; he looked very heroic to me as he battled mythical creatures, but I also loved him in Open Season, snapping off words as the nastiest kind of all-American villain. Demonstrating his versatility, both films came out the same year (1974).

Just when you thought they had run out of time traveling ideas, comes word that DreamWorks has picked up the sci-fi comedy spec script Gullible's Travels, written by Open Season scribes Ron Friedman and Steve Bencich. While Marty and Doc used a DeLorian and Bill and Ted accessed the past through a magical phone booth, the main character in Gullible's Travels -- supposedly, the world's most gullible man -- will travel through time via a portable toilet. (Better make sure there's enough toilet paper, because I'm pretty positive there was none of that extra fluffy stuff back in 1868.)

Story follows our hero as he hops between the future and the past in search of the woman he loves ... only just when he thinks he's found her, he realizes that it's not his lover, but distant relatives of the woman he's seeking. On the surface, the plot seems a bit odd -- did his girlfriend venture off to take care of business, then suddenly disappear (literally) when she flushed the toilet? And, is he now making it his quest to find her? Why a portable toilet? Are they supposed to be funny ... because every portable toilet I've encountered has left me with the need to take back-to-back-to-back showers in order to wash the stench of death from off my body?

Friedman and Bencich made a name for themselves by penning animated scripts for Open Season, as well as Brother Bear and Chicken Little, though Gullible's Travels appears to be heading in the live action direction. And that about wraps it up ... for some reason I really need to go to the bathroom right now. Cheers!

We're a few hours late with this report -- and when I say "we" I actually mean "me, Scott" -- but Sundance saps a whole lot of strength from even the most ardent movie freak. With apologies we I now offer you this week's big fat DVD titles ... and a few old-school pieces of ultra-cheese.

Catch a Fire -- Philip Noyce (Rabbit-Proof Fence) goes political again and delivers a fast-paced and very efficient thriller that focuses on the ways in which governments often create the very enemies they're trying to thwart. (Governments are ironic that way.) Tim Robbins and Derek Luke contribute some very fine work. Extras include a multi-filmmaker commentary and a few deleted scenes.

Farce of the Penguins -- From what I've been hearing from reliable sources, this simplistic spoof is way too little way too late. But if you simply must see a movie in which Bob Saget, Samuel L. Jackson, Dane Cook, Jim Belushi, Whoopi Goldberg, Jon Lovitz and the rest of the Friar's Club provide raunchy voice-over dialogue for a bunch of innocent penguins, hey, here's your dream come true. Extras include a Saget-track, deleted scenes, featurettes and a bunch of other penguin-related silliness.

Flyboys -- Big-budget derring-do war flick ... that dropped absolutely dead at the box office. (Budget: $60 million / Domestic Gross: $13 million) I've yet to see the movie myself, but I do look forward to giving it a fair shake -- even if that "running across the blimp" sequence looks like something out of a post-apocalyptic anime story. Extras include a Tony Bill / Dean Devlin audio commentary, more than a half-dozen featurettes and some deleted scenes.

Gymkata -- Yes! Mid-'80s kung fu wackiness combined with hardcore Mitch Gaylord gymnastical stuff! I swear this movie's funnier by accident than most comedies are on purpose. Extras include the knowledge that you now on Gymkata on DVD.

Now here's a weird Oscar rule that you probably never knew (I sure didn't): In order for there to be five Best Animated Feature nominees, there have to be at least sixteen eligible titles. The last time this happened was in 2002, when Miyazaki's Spirited Away proved to be the year's best ieffort n animation. (According the The Academy, anyway.)

Warner's Happy Feet, Weinstein's Arthur and the Invisibles and Sony's Paprika have yet to "officially" open, but once they do it means we'll get five nominees in one of Oscars' more colorful categories. (Last year we only had three, and that wasn't as much fun.) In addition to the three mentioned above, the other eligibles are The Ant Bully, Barnyard, Cars, Curious George, Everyone's Hero, Flushed Away, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Monster House, Open Season, Over the Hedge, Renaissance, A Scanner Darkly and The Wild. (What, no Ultraviolet?)

So if you had to pick only five of those flicks (aside from the three we haven't seen yet, of course), what would be your picks as "Oscar material?" If I'm predicting the field, my five picks would be Cars, Monster House, Over the Hedge, Renaissance and A Scanner Darkly. If I'm casting a vote for my favorite: Over the Hedge. Flick made me giggle.

At this rate folks, I'd expect a new Saw film for the next -- whaddya think -- 10 years or so? Saw III absolutely annihilated the competition this weekend, racking up an estimated $34.3 million for the franchise's biggest opening yet. Not only is this huge for Lionsgate, but it also ruins at least the next Halloween for everyone else, as Saw IV will most likely hit theaters this same time in 2007. Eventually, we'll get another Friday the 13th and Rob Zombie-directed Halloween sequel, but will they be enough to tackle Jigsaw and his wacky diabolical schemes?

As much as it doesn't seem possible, there were other movies playing around the country this weekend. The Departed managed to hang on, dropping only 27 percent in box office sales over the last week, taking home $9.8 million. Not far behind was The Prestige ($9.6 million) which took a bigger hit, dropping 38 percent from the previous weekend. With its $90 million budget, Flags of Our Fathers ($6.35 million) currently holds a 10-day total of $19.9 million, which means Eastwood and friends are praying Oscar and his pal Buzz help drag this flick out of the gutter. Open Season (man, will this pic ever go away?) finally forfeited the fourth spot, sliding into fifth with $6.1 million.

And what about those Dixie Chicks and their controversial documentary Shut Up and Sing? Well, that puppy made plenty of noise in only four theaters, taking in a healthy $50,798. In just seven theaters Babel ($365, 801) also brought home some hefty figures. However, Catch a Fire (which debuted in 1,306 theaters) crashed and burned without much of a fight, as it wound up with a measly $2 million.

Full numbers after the jump.

Well it seems Christopher Nolan had a few tricks up his sleeve this weekend, as The Prestige out-dueled The Departed and Flags of Our Fathers for the top spot at the box office with $14.8 million. Pic, which stars Christan Bale, Hugh Jackman and Scarlett Johansson opened to mixed reviews (our own Ryan Stewart said, "This isn't a movie, it's a game of Concentration" ), though that didn't stop people from shelling out the dough.

However, in the case of Clint Eastwood's film, negative reviews and a cast full of folks with the name, "Who is that again?" might have hurt its numbers, seeing as it failed to knock Martin Scorsese's Irish mob drama (currently in its third week) out of the weekend's second spot ($13.7 million), a place it seems to feel secure in. Eastwood's World War II epic settled for a somewhat disappointing third place with $10.2 million, though it held its own against the openings of his previous two films (Mystic River $10.4 million and Million Dollar Baby $12.3 million). (See, that's what happens when you don't have Tom Hanks in your war movie.) In its fourth week, the animated family comedy Open Season continued to do damage, securing the weekend's fourth spot with $8 million, bringing its total gross thus far to $69.6 million. Unfortunately, last week's number one flick The Grudge 2 ($7.7 million) took a scary dive at the box office and fell into a tie with Flicka (7.7 million) to round out the top five.

Full numbers after the jump.

Well, it looks like a Friday the 13th in the middle of October put folks in the mood for a good scare, as The Grudge 2 (which our own Jeffrey M. Anderson felt was "frigid and lifeless") knocked Martin Scorsese out of the top spot at the box office this weekend. Thanks, in part, to Sony's decision not to screen the sequel for critics beforehand, audiences shelled out $22 million and helped provide the studio with their 12th number one film this year. However, those numbers came nowhere near the $39 million The Grudge took home in its opening weekend back in 2004. Let's see if the late critical lashing hurts the film as it enters its second week.

Speaking of films in their second week, The Departed put up a good fight but ultimately failed to repeat its number one performance of last week, settling for a second place finish and $18.7 million. We're not sure whether he's Man of the Year, but we definitely know he's not Man of the Week, as Robin Williams' new political comedy opened in third place with $12.5 million. Hmm, that can't be -- were all the ballots counted? The animated comedy Open Season continued to do well in its fourth week, dropping one spot to fourth and scoring $11 million. Rounding out the top five was last week's number two film, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning ($7.75 million). Seems the only thing scary about that flick is its 58% drop from week one to week two.

Full numbers after the jump.

Thanks to one of the best casts we've seen in quite some time, Martin Scorsese had the greatest opening weekend of his career with The Departed racking up a dominating $27 million. The director's previous best was $10.3 million, set back in 1991 with the film Cape Fear. While it's a bit frightening to think that a director of this caliber has never had a pic debut with more than $10 million, do keep in mind Scorsese's films usually open on a smaller number of screens before rolling out on a larger scale. However, with an all-star team of talent, Warner Bros. decided to swing big, throwing The Departed into 3,017 theaters. And boy did it pay off.

Though it made a good attempt to keep pace, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning failed to hack its way to the top, settling for a respectable $19.15 million and the weekend's second spot. With only a $16 million production budget, I'd imagine Texas Chainsaw: The Middle and Texas Chainsaw: The End will show up sooner rather than later. The Dane Cook and Jessica Simpson comedy Employee of the Month ($11.8 million) was in third place after Friday, but bad buzz and a whole lot of youngsters demoted it down one notch to fourth, while the animated Open Season (last week's number one) scored spot number three with $16 million. And knocking Jackass: Number Two ($6.4 million) out of the top five for the first time since its release, The Guardian rounded things out with $9.6 million.

Full numbers after the jump.

Have you noticed how many animated movies have been in the theater over the past few months? There have been Monster House, Open Season, The Wild, Over the Hedge, Barnyard, Cars, and The Ant Bully to name a few, which doesn't even cover the glut of sequels and straight-to -video DVDs that have been released and re-released, including last week's The Little Mermaid: Ultimate Line Our Pockets Disney Adamantium Edition. Of those, only Monster House doesn't focus on talking animals, insects or vehicles. As a result, the novelty of both animated films, and the concepts they bring with them are making audiences weary, according to The New York Times.

Popular animated movies used to belong only to Disney, and they released them sparingly, not wanting to step on the toes of their own product. However, once Disney/Pixar became a force to reckon with, Disney was releasing CGI films on top of its own traditionally animated films, and began crowding the schedule with more films each year. These days, animated films crowd theaters with offerings from Disney/Pixar, Sony Imageworks, Dreamworks Animation, Warner Bros., and Paramount/Nickelodeon. It's a jungle out there -- or a forest, or a farmyard, or ... well, you get the idea.

This is typical of the Hollywood "me too!" syndrome that hits when something works well and starts making tons of money for a studio. Everyone else wants in on it. Horror films started making money, so now everyone is putting out a lot of horror movies. The Lord of the Rings opened the door for more fantasy films like The Chronicles of Narnia, and Eragon, and the popularity of X-Men gave rise to a slew of comic book movies including Spider-Man, Superman Returns and the upcoming Ghost Rider.

Animated films have always been a treasure for younger and older audiences alike, and are part of a dwindling part of the theater experience that people can still enjoy as a family. Are you still going to see animated movies?


Other animation on Cinematical:

The Demise of Hand-Drawn Animation

Studios Still Don't Get Animation

Dreamworks Choosing Quantity over Quality

Golden Globes Adds Animation Award

From looking at this weekend's box office numbers, it's quite obvious parents were desperate to get the kids out of the house and into a nice, comfy darkened theater. The animated flick Open Season (starring Ashton Kutcher and Martin Lawrence) topped all with $23 million, while Kutcher's live-action pic The Guardian sank into second place taking home a decent $17.7 million.

Both Kutcher films proved to be a bit too much for Johnny Knoxville and friends, as Jackass: Number Two (last week's number one) slid all the way down to third place with a crisp $14 million. However, I'm sure they're not complaining about a sweet 10-day total of $51.5 million. Not a whole lot of folks were interested in yet another dorky Jon Heder performance ( I know I wasn't), as School for Scoundrels opened in fourth with $9.1 million, and Jet Li's Fearless rounded out the top five with $4.7 million. It's also important to note that The Queen (which debuted Saturday on three screens in NYC) took home a ridiculous $123,000 in just two days, while The Last Kind of Scotland (four theaters in NYC and LA) nabbed $143,252.

Full numbers after the jump.