the lucky ones Tagged Articles at Cinematical

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.

Many films have sought to portray the terrible damage inflicted by war against a soldier's mental and physical health, but The Lucky Ones takes this concept to new depths by depicting a trio of Army personnel who have been messed up only in amusing, sitcom-y ways. It has three strangers with nothing in common but their uniforms driving cross-country to get everyone home, and if that sounds like an ill-conceived cross between Stop-Loss and Planes, Trains & Automobiles, you're right on the money. Especially on the "ill-conceived" part.

Sgt. T.K. Poole (Michael Peña) is a horny young man who's been rendered impotent -- hilarious! -- by shrapnel from an IED. He can't bear to tell his fiancee, though, because without sex, "we got nothing to talk about." Pvt. Colee Dunn (Rachel McAdams) is taking a guitar that belonged to her boyfriend, who was killed in action, to his family in Las Vegas, deluding herself into thinking they'll take her into their home, too, as she has no family of her own. T.K. and Colee are on 30-day leaves; Sgt. Fred Cheever (Tim Robbins), a career Army man from St. Louis, is heading home for good, having injured his back in combat. Well, OK, a porta-potty fell on him. But still, he's retiring.

A blackout at JFK Airport suspends all flights indefinitely, so Cheever opts to rent a car and drive to Missouri. T.K. and Colee tag along, figuring they'll fly out of St. Louis, but the three wind up sticking together after T.K. and Colee witness Cheever's home life falling apart the very minute he arrives. Don't worry if that sounds sad -- the film's jaunty, light musical score, played in nearly every scene, serves to keep you feeling upbeat.

After making a fair impression in 2004 with Mean Girls and The Notebook, and then pulling a hat trick the following year with Wedding Crashers, Red Eye, and The Family Stone, it seemed to me that Canadian cutie Rachel McAdams was primed to take off in the years to come... and yet, here we are in 2008, with her one release since having been in the not-bad period drama Married Life (which grossed a not-great $1.5 million this past spring).

However, it looks her profile is about to rise yet again, between the star-studded drama State of Play next year and two other releases this fall: the long-awaited adaptation of The Time Traveler's Wife and, before that, the Iraq War drama The Lucky Ones, in which she, Tim Robbins, and Michael Peña all play returning vets who bond on an impromptu road trip to Vegas.

Judging from the trailer, it really seems to be a change of pace for director/co-writer Neil Burger, as he follows up the modest success of The Illusionist. Do I honestly believe that some bar skank would pull such open mockery if she wasn't scripted to? Not at all, but do I believe that McAdams' character would react as she does? Absolutely.

Regardless, it's just nice to see a genuine talent working her way back into the limelight. Who knows, maybe audiences can convince her to stay there.