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The Soloist
It seemed like the sort of project to explode with praise and critical acclaim -- Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx in the story of a talented homeless musician who once went to Julliard. The reality, however, didn't live up to expectation. In her review, Jette Kernion said: "the overall film isn't compelling, and the plot falls into the easy traps of traditional melodrama." Still ... Rent it. Also on Blu-ray.

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Obsessed
One of the classic cases of reviewer v. audience. The story of a psycho Beyonce didn't charm the critical eye, and Scott even said: "Obsessed feels a lot like a refugee from the Lifetime Network that just happened to have a budget." Nevertheless, it exploded. I say Skip It ... but I have a feeling that won't matter. Also on Blu-ray.

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The presence of Beyoncé Knowles plus appropriately sultry/trashy advertising scored a big hit for Screen Gems this weekend, with Obsessed raking in a cool $28.5 million between black audiences and thriller audiences. Depending on how it holds up, the airport novel of a film could compete with The Exorcism of Emily Rose for the title of highest-grossing Screen Gems release ($75 million). It's a marketing triumph and a minor April surprise.

Three more films debuted in wide release and all posted comparatively strong numbers. That's a somewhat controversial claim for The Soloist, whose $9.7 million, fourth-place finish doesn't seem too robust. It's certainly not overwhelming, but for an arty, detached film that was moved from awards season to April, it's not awful. Rogue's Fighting finished slightly ahead with $11.4 milion, beating last spring's street-brawling movie, Never Back Down. And Earth, the DisneyNature documentary that opened Wednesday, picked up $8.5 million for the weekend -- the second biggest all-time opening for a documentary -- and $14.2 million for the five days. Good for them.

Out of the top ten, the critically panned The Informers -- Senator Entertainment's first attempt at a theatrical release -- floundered with $300,000 in semi-wide release. Senator, you will recall, is the distributor that has kept All the Boys Love Mandy Lane on the shelf for approximately forever. Make of that what you will.

Last weekend's main holdovers, 17 Again and State of Play each fell around 50%. The latter is a bit of a disappointment, as I had hoped that the exceedingly entertaining film would coast at least slightly on good word-of-mouth.

The full top 10 after the jump.

Hollywood loves to stereotype people with mental illnesses as being merely quirky, or easy to cure if you just give 'em a lot of the right kind of love. The Soloist aims for a more realistic portrayal, and even tries to build awareness about the problems of homeless people in America. Unfortunately, the overall film isn't compelling, and the plot falls into the easy traps of traditional melodrama.

Steve Lopez's nonfiction book was adapted by Susannah Grant (Erin Brockovich, Catch and Release). Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.) is always on the hunt for more material to fill his LA Times column space, even cannibalizing his own cycling accident to tell a good story. When he encounters Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx) playing violin by a statue of Beethoven, and learns that this homeless man once attended Juilliard, he figures he's hit the columnist jackpot. Little by little he starts to try to "fix" Nathaniel -- finding him a cello and a safe place to play, taking him to symphony rehearsals -- but it's not all that easy. And naturally, Steve's life starts to change too, and he's not sure how to handle it.

Some people might think Jamie Foxx has jumped the proverbial shark (and I don't necessarily disagree), but apparently Iron Mike Tyson didn't get the memo. Some extremely brave soul at MTV interviewed the former heavyweight champion, who once again revealed that he wants Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx to play him in a biopic.

Tyson told MTV, "I don't know [who might direct]... Jamie discussed the things he wanted to do. He didn't know which way he wanted to go, but it was something he wanted to do. He told me not to tell anybody [too much]. He's just interested in doing it."

Foxx's The Soloist is getting mixed reviews, and the movie itself was pushed back twice, from November 21, 2008, in what some thought would be an Oscar bid, to March 2009 and then once more to this weekend. However, it's possible that James Toback's doc on the fighter, Tyson, could drum up interest in a biopic.

I just saw Tyson, which is also opening this weekend (read our review), and while it didn't totally change my opinion on Tyson the man, it's absolutely engrossing. Other than clips of Tyson in the media, including footage of him with his mentor Cus D'Amato and with ex-wife Robin Givens on Barbara Walters and, oh yeah, him threatening a heckler ("I'll f*ck you until you love me, [homophobic expletive]"), the doc is literally all Tyson talking and it's hypnotic. While Toback doesn't pull any punches (har), the trust he established with the fighter over the years allows the viewer an unprecedented look into Tyson's mind and life. Plus, as someone who occasionally dons a pink pair of Everlast gloves, I was totally rocked by the footage of him fighting as a young man.

Besides, a star turn as an ear-biting convicted rapist has Oscar bait written all over it.

17 Again marks Zac Efron's second number one opening in six months. The Russell Crowe thriller State of Play took a respectable second place with Crank: High Voltage taking sixth place with only $6.9 million. Here's the top five:

1. 17 Again: $23.7 million
2. State of Play: $14 million
3. Hannah Montana The Movie: $13.4 million
4. Monsters Vs. Aliens: $13.2 million
5. Fast and Furious: $11.7 million

Four new releases this week:

Earth
What's It All About: A 99 minute tour of life on Earth edited down from a 12-hour TV mini-series. This one releases today to commemorate Earth Day.
Why It Might Do Well: Dude, check out the baby polar bears! Also Rottentomatoes.com is giving it an 83% Fresh rating.
Why It Might Not Do Well: It's a smaller release and much of the footage has already played on TV
Number of Theaters: 1,800
Prediction: $8 million.

Fighting
What's It All About: A morose-looking small town boy comes to the big city and finds he has a talent for competitive bare-knuckle brawling.
Why It Might Do Well: I suppose anything is possible.
Why It Might Not Do Well: The overly complicated title may confuse some.
Number of Theaters: 2,100
Prediction: $7 million

Not too long ago, it seemed as though his career knew no heights. Jamie Foxx established his comedy credentials in the early 90s with his work on the groundbreaking, star-making TV show In Living Color, showcased his dramatic acting ability with Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday in 1999, and really knocked it out of the park in 2004 with the 1-2 punch of Taylor Hackford's Ray, for which he won an Academy Award, and Michael Mann's Collateral, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.

Ray made people sit up and take notice of Foxx's musical capabilities. Since then he's been busy with his music career, selling millions of CDs, and has also been hosting a comedy show on satellite radio. As far as his movie career, though, it's been more problematic. Only a handful have been released in the last five years -- Stealth, Jarhead, Miami Vice, Dreamgirls, The Kingdom -- and, while his performances have been fine, they haven't set the world on fire.

He plays a schizophrenic musician opposite Robert Downey, Jr. in this week's release of Joe Wright's The Soloist, and told the Los Angeles Times he's decided to be more selective: "I've asked my agent to find me beautiful-character movies. That's where we flourish." He only has one other upcoming project set, the thriller Law Abiding Citizen, which is due next year, and the way he's talking, the 41-year-old Foxx sounds like he'd be content to be a dramatic character actor from here on out. Of course, this is the same man who made tasteless jokes about Miley Cyrus on his radio show last week, so maybe this is just a phase.

Has Jamie Foxx's career as a movie star jumped the shark? Take our poll and let us know.

For more on Jamie Foxx, check out Moviefone's interview with the actor.

Steve Lopez first stumbled onto Nathaniel Anthony Ayers near a tunnel in Los Angeles, not far from Skid Row. Lopez, a weekly columnist for the Los Angeles Times, was hard up for a column topic, heard an unusually talented street musician in an unlikely place, and struck up a conversation. Articulate, clearly unwell, and doing impressive things with a broken-down violin, Ayers half-intrigues and half-amuses Lopez, who comes back to see him. On his second visit, Lopez notices Ayers scrawling names in the asphalt. "Who are those people?" Lopez asks. "Oh, those are just my classmates from Juilliard," Ayers answers.

Wait, what? That last sends Lopez back to his office to do some Googling and make some phone calls. Indeed, it turns out that Mr. Ayers attended Juilliard as a bass violinist before paranoid schizophrenia drove him out and eventually onto the streets. If the word "Juilliard" means nothing to you, suffice it to say that musicians with the chops to get into the immensely prestigious New York City academy do not ordinarily wind up homeless. Here, Steve Lopez thought, was a column. Maybe a couple.

A whole bunch of new movie posters have been unveiled as part of this year's ShoWest conference and convention in Las Vegas, which runs through Thursday. ShoWest is like a trade show for film exhibitors who use this as a way to communicate with studios and the MPAA -- sort of like a 'State of the Union' for all parties involved. Apart from theater-related panels (future of 3D, etc) and a massive convention floor, studios arrive to promote some of their upcoming films, as well as screen entire movies. This year the films being screened in their entirety include The Soloist, The Proposal, Whatever Works and Battle for Terra, among others.

As you can see above, ShoWest is also a place to debut brand new movie posters, and Coming Soon has up a gallery of several -- including Sherlock Holmes, New Moon, Star Trek character shots, Sorority Row, 500 Days of Summer, The Hurt Locker, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and a few others. We highlighted the two we thought you'd be most interested in, but also feel free to hop over to CS' gallery for larger looks at all the new posters. We'll report back if anything sensational happens in Vegas a little later in the week.

The first thing I noticed the morning after the Oscars was that a lot of people were searching for images of Marisa Tomei as a stripper. Guess it's good folks took something away from last night's ceremony. For those of you who didn't make it to the end credits or simply changed the channel as soon as Slumdog Millionaire was announced the winner of Best Picture, the Oscars did a little something different this year. Instead of showing us a recap of the night while the credits scrolled, they aired brief snippets of video from some of 2009's hottest and most anticipated films.

The Academy rules were that these clips be brand new, and while there was no dialogue, folks enjoyed their first looks at movies like Sherlock Holmes , Funny People , The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 , Public Enemies , Julie & Julia , The Soloist , Up , Fame , Terminator Salvation , (500) Days of Summer , Amelia , Whatever Works , Inglourious Basterds , Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian , Monsters vs. Aliens , Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince , Angels & Demons , Old Dogs , Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs , The Boat That Rocked , An Education , State of Play , Imagine That and G-Force.

Check out the video below and let us know which flick you think looks the best.

Here are some stuff and things for your (very cold, if you're on the East Coast) Wednesday:

-- Nicole Kidman may join Joaquin Phoenix in actor's retirement land real soon as she told press in Australia that she's not too sure she wants to keep going at it. Kidman says, "In terms of my future as an actor and stuff, I don't know. I am in a place in my life where ... I've had some great opportunities and I may just choose to have some more children. I've no idea what is in my future but I am very at peace with where I want to be. There are many things I want to do besides act." Like ... become the next Top Chef? Which is worse for Hollywood: The loss of Kidman or Phoenix ... or do you not care much either way?

-- The 2009 Sundance Film Festival has announced its opening film ... and it's a clay-animated feature starring the voices of Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Toni Collette. Directed by Adam Elliot, Mary and Max "follows a 20-year, pen-pal friendship between an 8-year-old girl in Melbourne and an obese, 42-year-old man in New York." Calm down Dateline, it's only a film! Sundance director Geoffrey Gilmore says, "This portrait of a global friendship between two marvelously dysfunctional people is an exceptionally moving, funny and thought-provoking work." [Variety]

-- If you've been wondering where The Soloist (starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr.) has moved to, Variety reports that the current release date has been pushed to April 24 instead of March 13. In addition to this move, Paramount has shifted Paul Rudd's I Love You, Man from January 16 to March 20.