I had a rough go of it this summer. My summer box office predictions were all over the map and I was way off on most of my guesses. I was close on Star Trek (11 million off) but I completely whiffed on "The Hangover" and also didn't give Sandra Bullock enough credit for "The Proposal".

As it stands, the Summer Box Office Top Ten is: 

1    Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: $380,342,669
2    Up :   $283,945,084
3    Star Trek: $254,089,632
4    The Hangover: $247,929,964
5    Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: $225,318,990 
6    X-Men Origins: Wolverine: $179,485,955
7    Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian: $173,108,283
8    Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs: $172,649,364
9    The Proposal: $140,919,419
10    Angels & Demons: $133,015,117

My picks? 

10. Wolverine - 205 million: I wrote, "I don't think it will make more than X3. I think it will have a huge opening and then drop by 65%." Not too bad. It fell 69% in the second weekend. Unfortunately, I didn't really figure that percentage into my actual prediction and the film's crapped out at 179 million.

9. Angels & Demons - 207 million: I really wanted to leave this off of my top 10 but I just thought that it was the film that proved me wrong so I went with it. It's still holding in at #10 but should get knocked out pretty soon. It only made 133 million.

8. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs - 210 million: I'm going to blame the recession. If there was no financial problems, the movie would have made closer to what I guess than the 172 million it's stuck at now.

7. Night at the Museum 2 - 218 million: Well, this and Ice Age are holding at #7 and #8 on the charts so  was good wih that but I was, yet again, way over on this one, which has made 173 million.

6. Up - 220 million: On the bright side, I didn't overestimate this one. Instead I severely underestimated it as it's clocked 283 million so far.

5. Terminator: Salvation - 245 million: Stop. Believing. Trailers. This movie was garbage and ended up making about half of what I thought. It's at 124 million. This is probably the guess that I'm most happy about getting wrong.

4. Star Trek - 265 million: The proverbial nut to my blind squirrel.

3. 3. GI Joe: Rise of Cobra - 275 million: I think I should probably lower this one but I'm hoping it does well. I just bought stock options on Hasbro.

2. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - 310 million: Two weeks in, it's at 225 million but it had a pretty big second week drop so 300 million could be a reach.

1. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - 335 million: Way off again, making 380 million.

So it's pretty obvious that I shouldn't quit my day job. Ah well. I can't wait until a few weeks when I can get started on the other thing I'm terrible at judging: fantasy football. 

Posted by SoulHonky at 03:24 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

Some people often wonder why I don't particularly care for the Sports Guy on ESPN. He's a good writer, funny, and occassionally knows what he's talking about but too often he pulls a stunt like his latest article. Around the draft, Bill Simmons wrote a long article about how bad the Clippers were, saying they were cursed, and claiming that it sucks that Blake Griffin is going to have to waste 5 years of his career there.

Fast forward to today. The Clippers have made one big trade, dumping Zach Randolph, and now apparently everything has changed. In fact, they not only have a "killer under-22 foundation" and a "a fun team for this season" but they are now the best destination for LeBron James. In fact, the future is so bright for the Clippers that he believes that someone should pay double to buy them. He'd recommend that someone pay 600 million dollars for the Los Angeles Clippers.

Now, Simmons isn't always like this, he occassionally goes down with the ship like with his Theo Epstein hate, but there are just too many times when he writes a long article preaching one thing and then weeks later makes the pronouncement that is a complete 180. He also likes writing articles that predict 20 things and if 2 of them happen, he acts like he's amazing. It just annoys me.

That is all. 

For now. 

Posted by SoulHonky at 08:22 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

I didn't really spend much time looking for a new group but at a first glance, this album by The Features seems pretty good. It's the debut album from this Nashville outfit and I like the first songs I've heard and think they could grow on me a bit.

EDIT: It appears that these guys are the first release from the Kings of Leon's label. So if you like the Kings, check out The Features.

Posted by SoulHonky at 06:14 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

"The Ugly Truth" could have been a good movie. Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler are very talented actors, both with nice comic flair, and had good chemistry. Unfortunately, the movie was shoddily made and the script definitely needed at least one more pass to beef up the jokes.

Perhaps the most distracting part of the movie was the music. Most of it sounded like generic library music that you'd hear in a reality TV show and it was almost always too loud. All of the music was too loud, especially in the case of one dialogue heavy scene which had a song in the background with lyrics that were competing with the dialgoue. The sound editing also seemed sloppy. In the very first scene there was an obvious cut moment in which, in response to people arguing at her desk, Heigl's character blows a whistle to shut everyone up. You'd think they'd cut the music there was well but instead they let it fade out, somewhat deadening the moment.

The sound editing wasn't the only thing that was off. The pacing of the film wasn't sharp, some scenes just kind of ended, and the final fade to black seemed slapped on. 

In the end, most of the film had the feel of a rough cut of dress rehearsals.

All of that being said, the film still has some very funny moment and Heigl, Butler, and Bree Turner do some nice work, although Turner should not have been cast in this. She's a very pretty girl playing a desperate woman and it just doesn't work. Unbeknownst to me, I saw it at the same time as the friends and family of the object of Heigl's affections, Eric Winter (or maybe just his fan club). When his name came up, half of the audience hooted and hollered. I thought he did a solid job but he really wasn't given much to do.

So I can't recommend "The Ugly Truth". It's probably best to wait for when it hits cable (or throw it on the ol' Netflix queue for a rainy week of unemployment or something).

On a side note, Katherine Heigl can no longer whine about misogynist movies because this film is far worse, in terms of empowering women, than "Knocked Up". The moral of the story seems to be, "Let men do what they please and they'll learn to love" or something. Maybe "Let him be a man!" is the rallying cry but the film (much like 27 Dresses) basically makes women who want to be in a control seem like a bad thing and a trait that will keep them from finding love. Yes, in this case the control freak stuff is over-the-top but the message is still the same.

It'd be nice to have one of those old time Battle of the Sexes movies but this doesn't come remotely close to that. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I dislike it.

Posted by SoulHonky at 12:27 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

I should be back up and posting next week but in case I'm not (or even if I am), check out "Spaced" which is now available on Hulu. Season 1 is top notch. Here's the pilot.

Posted by SoulHonky at 05:18 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

I'm working on a tight schedule on my new job so I might not be posting much these next couple of weeks.

Posted by SoulHonky at 08:40 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

I have to start off by saying that I, like most everyone in the world, have not seen Quentin Tarantino's soon-to-be released "Inglorious Basterds". Maybe it will somehow shake the slasher-action genre and come out as a strong political statement but I highly doubt that. It would be nice to think that Tarantino could expand his universe to actually recognizing the existence of, if not his influence on, the real world but none of the early reviews have made it seem as if the film is anything more than a shoot 'em up (or baseball bat 'em up as the case may be).

So that leads to the obvious question: why would anyone think that, in this particular time, that a movie about Americans slaughtering their enemies is a good idea. Even if those enemies are Nazis, it still seems to be sending the wrong message and affirming the worst stereotypes of our soldiers. Or is QT just playing it up for the Red States? He's watched filmmakers of his generation try time and again to make message movies about the war and almost always fail. Instead, Tarantino has gone the other route and seems to be giving the extreme members of The Fox Nation just what they want: America exacting revenge, one bashed skull at a time.

Part of me wants to think this is true and that Quentin is a neo-con because then I could at least respect him for sticking to his beliefs, both artistically and politically. But if he does think of himself as even a a semi-moderate conservative, I have no idea how he could believe that this is the film he should be making. It's disappointing that one of the iconic directors of his generation could be so enamored and obsessed with particular film genres and gore that he embraces it, in spite of the impact it could have or the statement that it sends out. Tarantino will never be Hal Ashby but even Roger Corman's films usually had some sort of positive message buried deep within the shlock.

Normally I'm not a political person and I don't think that filmmakers should have to make message movies. And, admittedly, part of me thinks "Oh get over it, it's just a movie." Still, when someone comes out with a movie that is so out of tune with what the country needs or, rather, is in tune with a growing sentiment that could help pull the nation apart, I simply can't blow it off with, "Eh, but it's just supposed to be a pulpy, b-movie actioner."

In the end, I have to repeat that I haven't seen the movie and hopefully Tarantino will prove me wrong but right now I have a feeling that the last thing the world needs to see coming out of America is "inglorious Basterds".

Posted by SoulHonky at 07:18 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

I'm not sure if I would call "Better Off Ted" a laugh out loud funny TV show but it is one of the most clever shows I've seen in a very long time. There are some great one liners and funny wordplay but all too often there are some bland jokes that you see coming from a mile away (like the opening scene in this episode). But the cast is great and Andrea Anders is the most plainly sexy actress since Dollhouse's Miracle Laurie.

Posted by SoulHonky at 09:37 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

This trailer for the latest Nick Hornby adaptation looks pretty good. Even more intriguing is that he is adapting his own novel, making this his first screenplay since 1997's "Fever Pitch" (the British version, not the Drew Barrymore/Jimmy Fallon one). It also features the up-and-coming Carey Mulligan and the forever up-and-going-nowhere Peter Sarsgaard. I'm a huge fan of Sarsgaard's but arguably the best thing he's done of late is a short film called High Falls. He seems to do better when he sticks to low key productions so this could be a return to form.

Posted by SoulHonky at 07:59 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

I just noticed the Milwaukee Bucks roster and good lord, they are terrible. What's even worse is that they have 41 million in salary tied up for 2010-11 and that's just: Michael Redd, Andrew Bogut, Charlie Bell, Dan Gadzuric, Joe Alexander, and Luc Mbah a Moute. If they do re-sign Ramon Sessions (as well as adding rookie Brandon Jennings), they'll be close to the 2010 salary cap limit.

Making matters worse, their best player is Redd who is coming off of injury so he doesn't have a ton of trade value. Also, I don't see many teams wanting to waste 18 million in 2010 cap space on him. I was thinking that they could deal Redd for Andrei Kirilenko but then who scores for them? If Redd is healthy by mid-season, maybe they could find someone to take him for an expiring contract but I'm really not sure what they can do.

Right now, they're going to have to make a major move or I don't see any way that they won't be the worst team in the NBA by a great deal.

Posted by SoulHonky at 07:11 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

A buddy of mine from high school was one of the editors on this music video so I'm here to spread the word. It's a cool looking video and the song is pretty good as well. Might have to keep an eye out for this band. And, of course, a big congrats to Dan for a job well done.

Posted by SoulHonky at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

I'm looking forward to the indie rom-com 500 Days of Summer more than most any other film on the horizon so I thought that I'd give the film a shout out and make the soundtrack the Tryout. It's your typical indie soundtrack with bands like the Smiths, Doves, Feist, and the possibly ironic inclusion of Hall & Oates (although it's a shame if people can't just openly admit that they like Hall & Oates). Anyway, it's a solid soundtrack and it seemed better than anything else that came out this weekend. I just wasn't feeling Jack White's latest side project or any of the releases I checked out.

Posted by SoulHonky at 07:44 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

I thought this was going to turn into a horror film midway through... and it kind of does. This trailer also features the most awkward dialogue from little kids I've ever seen in my life

Posted by SoulHonky at 07:42 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

For a while "Terminator: Salvation" was the worst movie I'd seen this year but because some of the January/February releases are now coming out on DVD, I have a feeling that the bottom of my list could be getting crowded. Take for example, "Push".

The film stars Dakota Fanning and Chris Evans as people with superpowers who are trying to get something that they think will do something to save people like them from being hunted down by "The Division", a government agency that kidnaps superpeople and experiments on them. Although it's a bit odd that "The Division" seems to be made up completely of people with superpowers. So basically, people with superpowers are being hunted by other people with superpowers because they hold the key to finding another person with super-superpowers (Camilla Belle) who could help bring down the aforementioned people with superpowers (the hunters, not the huntees).

Imagine reading the above paragraph for two hours and you'll basically have an idea of what watching "Push" feels like. It's one of those films that, once you make sense of it, doesn't really make sense.

Posted by SoulHonky at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

District 9 is one of those movies that I'm very interested in seeing, even though I know that there's a 50% chance that it could be terrible (aka the next Cloverfield). The latest trailer makes it seem more like an action film than I was expecting, with all sorts of crazy robots/alien things. I'm still there opening weekend but I still have no idea whether or not it'll be any good. Bad reviews could dissuade me from seeing it, as they did with Wolverine, but right now, it's one of the few films left this summer that I have any measurable interest in.

Posted by SoulHonky at 07:27 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

The question of Will Wyc? still remains because while the Celtics did sign Rasheed Wallace, they were able to do it while lowballing him in terms of years (only a two year deal). It remains to be seen if Wyc will be willing to spend the bi-annual exception and also agree to a trade that deals Tony Allen and Brian Scalabrine's expiring contracts for a player on a longer deal.

Still, the Rasheed Wallace deal is a great one. Wallace is a perfect backup to both Perkins and Kevin Garnett and singlehandedly replaces Big Baby Davis and Mikki Moore. (Although, a cardboard cutout of Rasheed Wallace with a Bob Marley wig could probably have replace Mikki). However Danny's job is only a third of the way done. The Celtics still need a backup PG (Eddie House is nice but they need someone who can bring the ball up against pressure) and, more importantly, they need a legit swingman to spell Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. The Celtics simply can't expect those two to play the minutes they did last year. Even with the 'Sheed signing, if Boston goes into the season with Tony Allen and Bill Walker backing up the swing spots, it will have been a disappointing offseason for the Celtics.

As for the other NBA news...

The Pis-done-s:  Joe Dumars admitted that the team isn't contending for anything right now, which is why he said he didn't feel the need to hire an expensive coach. He opted for a guy with no head coaching experience whatsoever. Maybe former Cavs assistant John Kuester knows what he's doing but I really don't think an owner can be thrilled to watch his team lose in the Conference Finals three years straight, then see Chauncey help the One That Got Away get to the Western Conference Finals while the 'Dones imploded, and now they've spent 90 million dollars on two guys who are probably backups on a contending team (and neither can play much defense).  Next year is basically a waiting game until 2010 and I wouldn't be stunned if the Pistons were eclipsed by a team like Toronto, Washington, or even Charlotte.

Turk 180: Despite his great play in the playoffs, part of me is skeptical about Hedo Turkoglu. I didn't love him on the Blazers and when he made an about face and signed with the Raptors, I wasn't sure that he was worth it. He strikes me as a guy who won't be worth his contract in a couple years. Making matters worse, word from ESPN is that the Raptors are also tossing 50 million dollars at #1 overall disappointment Andrea Bargnani. The Raptors might be better next season but I don't think they'll be anything more than first round fodder and I really don't see these moves as helping them keep Chris Bosh from fleeing south in 2010.

Artest and Ariza: I love the Artest signing for the Lakers because, at the very least, he won't let them just sit around and be complacent. The only reason I'd opt for Ariza over him is because Trevor should be cheaper but since he was expecting the same amount as Ron-Ron, it only makes sense to opt for Artest. Ariza is supposedly hedging on his decision to go to Houston but I'm not sure why he'd go to Cleveland unless the team is planning on using him as a Rashard Lewis-type PF.

Marcin the Maverick: Everyone's favorite backup center is going to where backups always go to get paid: Dallas. It's a solid move but I'm not sure about the Jason Kidd re-signing. The Mavs squeaked into the playoffs last year and it's not like Gortat is going to make them that much better. The team still needs to move Erick Dampier's expiring deal and maybe swing a trade with Josh Howard before I can see them really being a contender.

David Ain't Goliath: David Lee might be a monster statistically but I really don't think he's worth 12 million dollars or even 10 million dollars. Granted, people get overpaid all the time in the NBA but to expect it seems a bit silly. Lee is solid but what he brings to a team is pretty replaceable. It's a real shame that Leon Powe got hurt again because he could have earned himself some hard earned dough this offseason as a sensible alternative to these other good-but-not-great power forwards.

As for the next big targets, it will be interesting to see where Grant Hill, Antonio McDyess, and Lamar Odom end up. Also, Andre Miller is still floating around out there and the Sixers still need to figure out there PG problem. Could they make a run at Raymond Felton or Jarrett Jack?

Posted by SoulHonky at 12:38 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

I've been struggling to find any good new music or really any album at all that I care to listen to in heavy rotation so I thought I'd back and look at some albums that I overlooked in the past... to see if I really overlooked them.

I thought about Imogen Heap, and zero 7 but decided to go with Remy Zero, a group from whom I have a bunch of singles but no album. After listening to a few songs, I can't say that their breakthrough album Villa Elaine has me all that upset that I missed out on it but it's still catchy enough pop music.

Posted by SoulHonky at 12:18 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

More importantly, Rasheed Wallace is coming to Boston. If you thought the Celtics talked a lot of trash last year, get ready for 'Sheed and KG yapping away all game. What does that have to do with the new trailer for "Jennifer's Body", the latest film from Diablo Cody? I don't know. I just didn't feel like making a separate post for the 'Sheed signing.

Anyway, the trailer for the film looks cool (it was directed by Karyn Kusama) but it seems like the haters of Juno will have more than their opportunities to bash Cody and her quips. I can't say that the trailer made me any more interested in seeing the film but it looks like it should be good for what it is.

Posted by SoulHonky at 12:48 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

Fans of Michael Mann's films will like this but anyone who found Miami Vice to be slow and boring or viewers who expect some character development or any real depth or insight will be bored. "Public Enemies" is two and a half hours yet you learn nothing about any of the characters. In fact, the most interesting stuff is between Billy Crudup's J. Edgar Hoover and Christian Bale's Melvin Purvis but that lasts a handful of minutes. The film left me with a similar feeling as "The Assassination of Jesse James..."; when the lights came up I thought, "That's an interesting story. Someone should make a movie out of it."

Katey Rich's review at Cinemablend says it best.

There are a million interesting things about 1930s gangster folk hero John Dillinger, from his expert manipulation of the press to his trick of robbing banks and letting the customers keep their money. But somehow Michael Mann, who has made an entire movie about Dillinger, Public Enemies, seems interested in none of it. Letting the story plod by almost glumly, in the script he co-wrote with Ronan Bennett, Mann saves all his directorial zeal for the visual style, using high-def digital cinematography to lend the feel an urgent, crisply modern feel. The result is a film that sings in the visually dynamic sequences-- the shoot-outs, the bank robberies, any scene with Marion Cotillard-- but feels excruciatingly slow as soon as someone opens their mouth. Public Enemies is a series of theses, not a story, and nothing in Mann's bag of tricks makes it cohere.

For more reaction (with spoilers), read on.

At the end of the film, a title card comes up and tells the audience that Melvin Purvis quit the Bureau a year later and later killed himself. That seems like it would have been a more interesting story. The rise and fall of Purvis and his realization that his methods wouldn't be enough to catch Dillnger were the best parts of the film but that was only three or four beats, and one of the beats didn't even seem to fit. He calls in help from old school law enforcement types but then when they have Dillinger surrounded, he ignores them. Why he'd do this wasn't really established enough, especially since he seemed to have had an epiphany about his own shortcomings earlier.

Also, there were a few moments that just seemed to Hollywoodized. Dillinger walking out of the car, gun drawn, when Billie is arrested yet NOBODY sees him? I'm sure that event happened but I really doubt he walked out of the car as far as he did in the film. Similarly, I thought the scene with him walking into the Dillinger Investigation Unit seemed fake.

But the main problem was that the film just dragged and gave us literally no insight into Dillinger. Depp played him as a borderline emotionless man. I could believe it when nobody saw him in the movie theater because Depp kind of blended in with the HD background for most of the film. Dillinger was supposed to be a personable guy but he came off like the least intriguing person in the film. Also, the movie dragged so much that you'd never have guessed that the film really just was focused on a one year period.

While the sound in the film was great, I'm just not a fan of the HD look. I felt like it served a purpose in "Collateral" but in this movie, I didn't think it helped much.

There's a great mini-series and many great movies to be made about the stories hinted at in "Public Enemies" but this film just doesn't do a good job telling any of them.

Posted by SoulHonky at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments ()

When word broke of a "Monopoly" movie on the horizon, I thought it was odd but then I learned that Hasbro was helping pay for the film and Hollywood will always take the money and make a movie no matter how ridiculous it might seem. But yesterday's news was that a god's honest bidding war broke out over "Asteroids". Does Hollywood really think that the name recognition of the old Atari game is worth something? Would a movie called "Meteors" really do any worse?

It's kind of stunning that Hollywood keeps throwing money at name brands that don't really affect the box office, be it titles like "Land of the Lost" or stars like Nicole Kidman. Also, how many video game movies have to fail before they realize that they aren't a sure thing and probably aren't worth the investment. Especially a game that came out almost three decades ago and is basically the same premise as "Armageddon" or "Deep Impact". Maybe this film is the Aliens to Armageddon's Alien and will have a lot of asteroids that need to be shot down rather than just one big one but, again, does the name "Asteroids" really add to anything besides the ability to mock it?

On the other hand, is the problem the purchasing of these titles or just that they are buying the wrong ones? I still think an animated action film based on Frogger could be amazing and Cloverfield could have been a much better movie had it been based on Rampage.

In the end, I'd have to go back to my usual stance: 9 times out of 10, it makes more sense just to rip something off than remake it. Most times the brand name doesn't help. Would "The Fast and The Furious" have done better as "Point Break on Wheels"? Just make a film that's like Asterioids and spend the money on FX to make a cool trailer rather than wasting it on the brand name.

If i get bored this weekend, maybe I'll start work on a b-movie script about a giant Werewolf, Ape, and Gila Monster that decide to tear apart NYC. I'll call it "Frenzy" or "Monster Ruckus!"

Posted by SoulHonky at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

The NBA free agent market started off with a whimpering bang. Yes, there were a few of big name deals but I don't think that they'll actually do much to help the teams. Perhaps the main lesson we can take away from these first two moves is: Be wary of dumping talent for cap space.

Case in point: The Detroit Pistons. They dumped Chauncey Billups during the season and are letting Rasheed Wallace walk but now they've added Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva. I'm just not sold on either guy. They seem like younger yet still poorer version of Billups and 'Sheed. They might be decent bench players but the Pistons just dumped 18 million a year on the two of them. The 'Stones will still have a lot of cap space come 2010 but how many big name free agents want to play with a backcourt of Rodney Stuckey and Gordon? Charlie V. strikes me as a good player on bad teams. Unless there's someone on the market who love rebounding and playing help defense, I'm not sure how enticing playing for the Pistons will be. It also doesn't help that the franchise is located in Detroit.

Example #2: Memphis Grizzlies. Memphis dumped Pau Gasol's contract and a year later decided to add Zach Randolph. Huh? Pau might not be a true #1 star but Z-Bo is a perennial loser. He's the type of player who gets his points but doesn't help his team win. He has some of the best post moves in the league but he's a black hole who has little-to-no passing skills. 

Even worse, the Grizzlies only gave up Quentin Richardson in the deal so they added 7 million in salary this year and a full max contract in 2010. So the Grizzlies came away worse on the court, in the books, and they now have a headcase/gunner who is pretty much the last guy that you want around your young talent. This deal won't be as bad as current Grizz GM/former C's GM Chris Wallace's Vin Baker deal but it's certainly not going to help the Memphis win many games.

As for the Celtics, they seem to be making a big push for Rasheed Wallace, who would be a nice pickup and a sign that the owners are willing to spend money. Hopefully they can land 'Sheed because if he goes to Orlando or Cleveland, it might be too much for the Celtics to overcome. I still think that the team should be planning for the worst and coming up with some possible Ray Allen or Rajon Rondo trades to help beef up the roster but, for now, all efforts need to be on trying to add talent via free agency and keeping the core together.

Posted by SoulHonky at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments ()

I've had this bit in my head all week. I didn't really think it was that funny when I first saw it but now it pops into my head every so often and seems funny. Kind of like the SNL "You Like-a the juice?!" skit.

Posted by SoulHonky at 07:27 PM | Permalink | Comments ()