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If I seemed distressed about Paul Blart: Mall Cop handily winning its debut weekend, imagine how I feel about it spending two weeks at #1. Its family film bona fides helped it edge out Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (at least in the estimates), despite the latter winning Friday. Underworld's $20.70 million opening is the weakest of the franchise, dipping just below the first film's $21 million and change; it's a good thing they saved money by ditching Kate Beckinsale in favor of Rhona Mitra, though I sense that the fourth film may go straight to DVD.

The other new wide release this weekend was Inkheart, and it's the year's first genuine flop. Kid-friendly, pervasively marketed fantasy based on a popular book seemed like a recipe for success, but it didn't take, with the film opening to $7.7 million in a not-terribly-crowded marketplace. Possibly not enough whole-family appeal.

Oscar nominations were announced on Thursday; that, combined with a screen count boost, combined with already steamrolling word-of-mouth rocketed Slumdog Millionare to its first double-digit weekend and an 80% gain over last week. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button -- the nomination leader -- managed to hold the line from last week without the benefit of a screen count increase, which is good news.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present for your consideration the first candidate for Best Actor for next year's Academy Awards. Michael Sheen gives a blistering, fierce, and romantic performance as the enslaved hero of Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, which opens in wide release today. It ain't art, but it is hellaciously entertaining.

No one is more surprised than me. The first film in the series, Underworld (2003) brought a centuries-long blood feud between vampires and lycans (AKA werewolves) to a head in the modern day. The sequel, Underworld: Evolution (2006), explored what might happen if the two feuding clans could somehow be brought together through the presence of a hybrid wolf / bat / human. Both movies were directed by Len Wiseman, both movies were stylish to the point of being mannered, both featured CGI werewolves * transformations, and both were defined by the heroics of the murderous Kate Beckinsale, memorably packed into a skintight, black leather bodysuit atop monstrous black boots.

Without Beckinsale and Wiseman, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans charts its own path, aided immeasurably by the return of Sheen and Bill Nighy. The two had supporting roles in the first film -- Sheen as the rebel werewolf leader Lucian, and Nighy as imperious vampire lord Viktor -- and have been elevated to top billing, joined by Rhona Mitra as Sonja, Viktor's willful, defiant daughter and Lucian's love interest.

As a whole, the picture lives up to the juicy lead performances, neatly leaping over.the stumbling blocks so common in prequels (and third installments in a series), and delivering generous amounts of fast-paced action and bloody battles to satisfy both faithful fans and curious newcomers.

A record setting Martin Luther King weekend was led by the Kevin James comedy Paul Blart: Mall Cop, out distancing the second place Gran Torino by $10 million. Here's the top five:

1. Paul Blart: Mall Cop: $31.8 million
2. Gran Torino: $21.9 million
3. My Bloody Valentine 3-D: $21.2 million
4. Notorious: $20.4 million
5. Hotel for Dogs: $17 million

We're down to just two new flicks this week, each representing an aspect of the fantasy genre.

Inkheart
What's It All About: Brendan Fraser stars as a man with the ability to literally bring characters from books to life by reading aloud.
Why It Might Do Well: A 60% rating at Rottentomatoes.com isn't stellar but it's still fresh, and the film should have strong youth appeal, while fans of the book will want to see it.
Why It Might Not Do Well: There's always the possibility that it could be mistaken for a documentary on the art of tattooing.
Number of Theaters: 2,500
Prediction: $22 million

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
What's It All About: This third installment of the franchise is a prequel, detailing the origins of the animosity between vampires and werewolves.
Why It Might Do Well: Underworld and Underworld Evolution took in $52 million and $62 million respectively, this prequel may do similar numbers. Also having a colon in the title worked pretty well for Paul Blart: Mall Cop, so maybe it will help here.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Director Patrick Tatopoulos is best known as an effects artist. Does he have the chops to helm a feature?
Number of Theaters: 2,800
Prediction: $18 million

So Erik-with-a-k covered the coming comedies of 2009, Scott was all over the horror picks (though his inclusion of Race to Witch Mountain still boggles my mind), Eric-with-a-c nabbed the family-friendly fare, and Elisabeth went over the geek fodder that awaits. But while I respect their calendar years and made-up math alike, I've opted to divide my list of 2009's action and adventure flicks into four categories: Action Flicks I Couldn't Care More About, Action Flicks I Couldn't Care Less About, Action Flicks That I Hope Surprise Me, and Those Which Fell In Between. Enjoy!

Action Flicks I Couldn't Care More About: First and foremost -- Watchmen (March 6th). It's one hell of a graphic novel and looks to be one hell of an adaptation (with or without the Giant Blank), but the only problem is it may not hit theaters on time if 20th Century Fox has anything to say about it. Both Fox and Warner Brothers are fighting over who actually owns the rights, and if a judge favors Fox comes January 20th (when the court date is set), we're looking at a delayed release and a whole ton of angry fans. Then there's Public Enemies (July 1st), which has me sold on not the subject matter, but sheer pedigree: Michael Mann directs Johnny Depp and Christian Bale as '30s gangsters. (It doesn't hurt that the earliest word ranges from damn good to great.) On the skimpier side, I can only hope that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (July 17th) streamlines its source material as the previous one had, and I can only hope that Crank 2: High Voltage (April 17th) lives up/down to the depravity of its predecessor. There's one last action movie that I couldn't care more about because, well, I've already seen a version of it. The international cut of Taken (January 30th, though reportedly opening with some R-dodging trims) is about as brisk and butt-kicking as one might hope out of a man-on-a-mission kidnapping thriller, and if you disagree, I'll send Liam Neeson to change your mind.

Gallery: Watchmen

We've got a pack of new trailers this week, and this being the Halloween season it's not surprising that quite a few are for horror flicks. We've also got super heroes, introspective middle aged men and angsty teens (as pictured above). Let's dive in, shall we?

Friday the 13th
The first trailer for the new Friday the 13th remake arrived online during the week before Halloween. Kids. Screaming. You get it. Just as modern audiences seem to prefer the fast zombies of Zach Snyder's Dawn of the Dead, Jason is much more nimble here than I remember him being.

Notorious
The first trailer for the much-hyped Notorious B.I.G. biopic introduced itself to to us the other day. The film tells the life (and eventual death) story of the famous rapper from Brooklyn. Jamal Woolard stars as B.I.G. and Derek Luke does his best P. Diddy. This one is set for January 19.

Trick r Treat
Scott first posted about a trailer for this cool looking horror anthology back in July of 2007. This looks great and word from a recent press screening is extremely positive, but unfortunately Warner Bros. doesn't know what the hell to do with it. Hopefully the new hype will convince them to chuck it out in a few theaters and give it to us on DVD sooner rather than later.

Naturally, today's release of Saw V (read our review) brings with it numerous trailers for early '09 horror offerings. Earlier this week, we received the first trailer for that Friday the 13th remake (which you can see here), and now we have two others.

First up is My Bloody Valentine 3D, the crotch-targeting poster for which Scott made mention of earlier today. Lionsgate is going to have trouble actually marketing this in 3-D, as family-friendly fare continues to dominate that format; thus, we have this somewhat hokey green-band number courtesy of IGN. (For what it's worth, several little birdies who had the good fortune to see some footage recently -- in all its R-rated, three-dimensional glory -- were seriously impressed. Nothing sells quite the same as airborne eyeballs...)

Finally, there's Underworld: Rise of the Lycans: third in the franchise to date, but first in our hearts terms of story continuity. Since Rhona Mitra came to so very much resemble Kate Beckinsale in last spring's Doomsday, it only makes sense that she formally take up the mantle in the war between werewolves and vampires. Be sure to check out this recently released trailer if you also want to see what it looks like when Michael Sheen isn't feuding with the werewolf-like Nixon.

Our Comic Con came to a sweet finish last night at the Wrath of Con mega party hosted by folks like IESB, Bloody-Dee and Lakeshore. The roof at the Hard Rock Hotel here in San Diego was packed with writers, celebrities, dancers, rock stars and girls with tape on their boobs. It was a pretty fun night, and since the Crank 2 trailer screened at one point, the whole thing is a write off! While our tired Cinematical crew travels home today, here's a bunch of stuff to keep you busy till we come back tomorrow with the remainder of our coverage, including a very cool interview with James Gunn and our annual "Celebrities Love Weinberg" gallery.

• Disney debuted a teaser thingy for Pixar's Up, which will hit theaters next summer.
  
• The Terminator: Salvation panel was a blast, McG came out pumped and the extended trailer looked awesome. We'll have more from the panel and our interviews, but a couple things: The next trailer will debut with Quantum of Solace, it's not a definite PG-13 at this time (they have the studio's blessing should it turn into an R-rated affair), the film will end on a cliffhanger, the Con poster is to the right and a model of the T-600 is above, and, finally, watching Yelchin (as a young Kyle Reese) say "Come with me if you want to live" in the trailer gave me goosebumps.
  
• AICN tells us that Punisher: War Zone director Lexi Alexander has been booted from the film. She didn't show here at Con because she was on her "honeymoon," and she's wrapped up in a non-disclosure which means she ain't talking either. Why can't anyone make a Punisher flick without f**king it up? Is it really that hard to get one right?
• John Campea interviewing the girls from Bitch Slap in their hotel room ... in bed with them ... has to go down as THE interview at Con. Special Cinematical props go out to the entire team from Bitch Slap for marketing the hell out of their film at Con, guerilla-style throughout the entire weekend.
• Sam Raimi told the audience during his Drag Me to Hell panel that he's considering an Evil Dead 4.
  
• EW has a whole slew of photos from Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.
• Watchmen website now online. I'll be reading this as soon as I get home.
• Moviefone has some great preview and wrap up posts, along with even more galleries.
• Francis Lawrence making prequel to I Am Legend starring Will Smith.
• Who's buying this Heath Ledger as the Joker bobblehead doll?
• Finally, IGN has debuted a red band trailer for Quarantine.

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