Trailers Galore - Dark Knight Rises, Hobbit, Wrath of the Titans...

The previous week has seen the release of some of the most awaited Hollywood movies for 2012. These are flicks where every build up is scrutinized till the real deal comes out. So it goes without saying that the directors have to get it right with the trailers as well, to the smallest of details, and set the correct tone for the movie that will follow. These three flicks do exactly that...

The Dark Knight Rises: The problem Christopher Nolan faces here is himself. What he made with the second movie of his Batman trilogy was something so gigantic and memorable that even living up to it, forget exceeding it, remains his greatest challenge. The teaser trailer of The Dark Knight Rises had come out a long time back making it clear that this would be the concluding chapter of Nolan's trilogy. The latest trailer gives us more glimpses as to what to expect. Quite clearly, Nolan is trying to build up his latest villain Bane as the thing to watch out for. The footage in the trailer moves in and out of Bane, showing bits and pieces of his actions and the havoc he is going to create. Nothing much is hinted about the fugitive Dark Knight (as he had become by the end of the previous movie) nor do we get to see Anne Hathaway in her Catwoman outfit. But this is where the problem could lie. While Tom Hardy is an astute actor to play Bane, the arch nemesis of Batman would always remain in many minds the Joker, especially after the incredible performance given by Heath Ledger. If this movie would turn out to be a Batman versus Bane battle, then it would be difficult not to draw comparisons with the Batman versus Joker clash seen in The Dark Knight, and I doubt those scenes can ever be surpassed. So while the tone of the movie seems to be sufficiently dark (the way we want it to be), I hope it turns out more than just another good vs evil clash. With such high expectations of the fans, the second trailer hopefully would explore further and help to rid off the comparisons that this movie would no doubt draw with predecessor.

The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey: While The Dark Knight Rises releases four years after its predecessor (and has been discussed literally for each of those four years), The Hobbit comes a decade after The Lord of the Rings trilogy swept away the world with its cinematic beauty and exceptionally artistic story telling by Peter Jackson. This is where The Hobbit should infact benefit. Assuming that the movie itself would be another masterpiece (that is hardly a tough assumption to make considering that Jackson has returned at the helm of things once again after the oh-so-many years of delays), any similarities seen in the trailer of The Hobbit (such as background score or cinematography) with the original The Lord of the Rings series is refreshing and welcomed, as it simply makes us nostalgic! The trailer starts off slowly, acclimatizing us again with the Shire but the chills kick in as soon as the dwarf starts singing the song in a very hushed backdrop indicating the calm before the storm... "Far over, the misty mountains cold...". And then the trailer rightly ends off with the emergence of Gollum! Precioussss...

Wrath of the Titans: Clash of the Titans had been the surprising hit of 2010 grossing close to $500 million in worldwide revenues and a sequel had been promptly announced. While Wrath of the Titans is likely to be another visually superb action flick with not much effort given to the plot outline, the released trailer, I must admit, is nothing short of brilliant. And in fact I found it to be the most gripping of these three trailers (keeping the nostalgic and the larger-than-life bits aside, that the other two franchises carry in abundance). Liam Neeson, playing Zeus, has got a voice to die for and the trailer aptly opens with his words (after few seconds of loud destructive sounds). Once Zeus has spoken about the impending doom and Persus (Sam Worthington) has enquired on what role he can play, the trailer picks up gears as the song Sweet Dreams by Marilyn Manson plays in the background (top notch song choice!). Mystical creatures, battles, blood, Gods and Titans... and high octane action... few things that summarise what the trailer and the final movie have to offer. And even if the movie turns out to be half as good as its trailer... I will not be disappointed!

Best Lines of the Summer...

What will a movie be without dialogues? Like a lion without a roar, like a guitar without melody. Dialogues are not merely lines, not merely words, but connecting pieces of the puzzle. When delivered with the perfect timing and oomph, a dialogue can change from a simple statement to a piece of art. Much like those three words from the 1984 hit Terminator “I’ll be back!” or the creepy chattering of a deranged creature in the 2001 classic The Lord of the Rings "My precioussss!". So with the mood set, I look back at the big-budget / highly anticipated movies of this summer season from a different angle... what was the best they could deliver when it came to memorable lines?

Fast Five: "And above all else we don't ever, ever let them get into their cars!" (That is the Rock shouting out to his team on how to capture Vin Diesel's gang. But we know for sure that this ain't ever happening, don't we?)

Thor: "Whoever wields this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor." (You have to love Anthony Hopkins for his style of delivering the simplest of lines in the classiest of manners. This one he utters when his character Odin is about to banish the hammer Mjolnir along with Thor.)

The Hangover 2: "We had a sick night bitches!" (The movie was all about crude thrash talk and Ken Jeong as Mr. Chow made a name for himself with the best of these lines in this sequel, that for me never lived up to what the original delivered)

Kung Fu Panda 2: "But how can kung fu defeat something that destroys kung fu?" (While Oogway had some of the best lines in the original movie, and Soothsayer took his place in the sequel, it is still this casual but brilliant line uttered by Po that sticks out. Still do not know the answer!)

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides: "It's a pirate's life for me... Savvy?" (All that Jack Sparrow says is gold! He has uttered some of the memorable and splendid lines in the last decade, mixed with idyllic mannerisms that enthrall us all. This, the last line of the movie, was no exception either... savvy?)

X-Men: First Class: "Peace was never an option!" (A classic movie that continued telling the tale of the conflicting ideologies of Charles Xavier and Magneto. This line was uttered by Michael Fassbender playing Magneto in response to Charles' statement 'Killing Shaw will not bring you peace'. Just defined the intensity that burned within the younger Magneto.)

Green Lantern: "In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight! Let all who worship evil's might, beware my power, Green Lantern's light!" (A disappointing movie that struggled to be anything more than a good-looking guy in a green suit. But the age-old anthem of the Green Lantern Corps still stands out, everytime.)

Cars 2: "He who finds a friend, finds a treasure..." (The Pixar tale continued narrating the journey of friendship between McQueen and Mater and nothing better to describe the crux of it all than this wonderful line)

Transformers: Dark of the Moon: "Today, we take the battle to them!" (With robots so huge, the humans were hardly going to have any of the popular lines. Optimus Prime voiced by Peter Cullen had the bulk of the memorable lines and I loved this one in particular as you saw a slight nasty and aggressive side to the otherwise peace-preferring Autobot.)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2: "Come on, Tom! Let's finish the way we started... together!" (Oh, kudos to Harry Potter as he called out Voldemort by the name he disliked... Tom. Not many would have dared! He shouts this out before Voldemort and Harry plunge down where the final duel will decide their fate and that of the wizarding world, forever.)

The First Avenger comes Last!

The previous weekend had been dedicated to magic, wizards and witches, Hogwarts and Ms. Rowling, Harry and Tom and everything else that has ever had anything to do with the Harry Potter series. The final movie of the franchise (or so it seems for the present), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, lived up to all the hype and drama that had surrounded it, and stole the box office with earnings of $169 million in the US. This appears even more impressive when one is told that the earnings are about $10 million more than Nolan's classic The Dark Knight, thus making the weekend collections of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 the highest ever in the history of US box office! And while Harry Potter and gang were saving the world from the Dark Lord, at the other side the Autobots too were busy defending the planet from the evil Decepticons as Transformers: Dark of the Moon became the first movie of the year to hit the $300 million jackpot at the US box office. Who said that franchises ever lose their sheen? But these movies would be pitted against a formidable opponent this weekend in the form of Captain America, a symbol of valour and patriotism, or at least that is the way he is being portrayed. Captain America: The First Avenger will probably mark the end of all the big budget movies of this year's summer period and more importantly to many, start the ticker for the release of The Avengers movie scheduled for next year. For those who are still in the dark, Captain America is the last of the Avengers to be hitting the big screen after Iron Man, Hulk and Thor, and all the four are going to combine their forces next year in The Avengers. Mouth-watering indeed! (The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises within space of a few months?! Too much to handle!) I for one, have not read the comics of Captain America and know very little so I will avoid pointing out what to expect from the movie. Though the trailers have looked good and a cast that includes the likes of Tommy Lee Jones and Hugo Weaving apart from Chris Evans in the lead, promises much. Quick fun fact: Chris Evans is one of the rare personalities to have depicted two different superheroes - the other being Johhny Storm in Fantastic Four series. Only Ryan Reynolds comes to my mind now,who has achieved a similar feat having featured in recently released Green Lantern apart from playing Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Keeping the trivia aside, I can only reiterate what I said at the time of release of Thor, that Captain America: The First Avenger better turn out to be good and do well on the box office for the greater good, which is the success of The Avengers!

Recap: What I had to say before release of Thor --> http://bucksandcorn.blogspot.com/2011/05/god-of-thunder-thor.html

The Pottermania ends!

"This boy will be famous. There will be no child in our world who doesn't know his name." So said Professor McGonagall to Professor Dumbledore, a decade back, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The child she was referring to was of course, Harry Potter or the Boy who Lived. And how true were to be her words! Potter not only became a phenomenon in the wizarding world but also took our world, the muggle world, by storm. And it all comes to a riveting conclusion this weekend with the release of the eighth and final movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. While the penultimate movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, fell only $50 million short from earning $1 billion in worldwide revenues, its successor is tipped to reach that mark. And if starts are anything to go by, the movie has already ripped the best opening day earnings ever in the US box office, with $92 million revenues earned on Friday, much ahead of the previous record holder, 2009's The Twilight Saga: New Moon ($73 million).

It does not take a genius to predict that the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is going to be a massive hit, that the producers will go home richer, and that the cast will be all smiles (and rich of course!). And hence I will not state the obvious! But what interests me is the phenomenon that has been created around one character that probably is unmatched in the history of movie making. What started off from the pen of the author, J.K. Rowling, has led to so much more than just seven books and eight movies. I am not talking of only the theme parks, the merchandises or a new lingo that has been created, but way much more... maybe another attempt to appreciate the long old battle of good versus evil, how courage of even the young can inspire so many, and of principles that one must adhere to even in the darkest of times. And of friendship that stands by you when everything else fails!

The story of Harry Potter has transcended language and geographical barriers, has been seen by young and old, and appreciated by millions. And so it is no surprise that the last movie of this franchise should be so highly anticipated, so much talked about. It is one of those things that years later a new generation will ask you 'Where were you when the last Harry Potter movie was released?'. I can recollect very few franchise-ending movies that created such a fervour. The mother of all series, Star Wars, comes to mind easily and its final chapter, The Revenge of the Sith, released in 2005, had been a beacon calling across its followers from far and wide to be a part of the final chapter, eventually earning $850 million in worldwide revenues (do not count the animated series that followed as part of this epic movie series). Maybe The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King would also count, but then it has The Hobbit releasing soon that would act as a prequel, so the franchise has not exactly ended. Similarly, some other great franchises that were slated to end reemerged, such as the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, while the superhero movies based on Batman or Spiderman may never end. But for what appears now to be the case, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 would be the final movie of this series, and this is what makes it more special! The possibilities of Rowling revisiting her series and continuing it forward always exists for nothing is written in stone, but keeping that possibility (and for some, a hope) aside, we bid adieu to a grand series, with style!

"And now Harry, let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure!" (words of Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)

Autobots Assemble!

Aliens invading our planet Earth has been well documented, described, talked about in Hollywood, from every possible angle, envisaging seemingly improbable yet possible scenarios, tapping onto various hidden emotions. These aliens have taken various forms, their colours varying from green to blue, with fangs or without them, some dwarf-like puny and some huge. But Hollywood is not even close to being done with this concept yet. And nothing gives this concept that bigger-than-life feel than Michael Bay's Transformers series. What started off in 2007 with the release of Transformers and the beginning of the fight between Autobots and Decepticons on our planet, culminated in such a rip-roaring success with $708 million in worldwide revenues. To not have a sequel, was simply out of the question. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen released in 2009, again pitting Optimus Prime with Megatron as humans watched and scurried and did their best to help the good guys (which are the Autobots, in case you are one of the few ones still to catch the movie), and outdid its predecessor with $836 million in worldwide revenues. The third instalment has released this weekend titled Transformers: Dark of the Moon, that toys with the reasons behind the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon - to search for an alien ship atop the moon! Obnoxious, right? But Michael Bay's series has played with that word whole-heatedly so far, and has still emerged succesful. Even though reviews of the movies in this series are never great, the bucks earned in fact are quite the opposite. So why does this series sell so well? The Megan Fox

loyalists would like to name their goddess to be behind this. And some would point out Shia LeBouf's simplistic, annoying but likable acting to be the key. But it is not just that. It is the backdrop that Bay has created. The gigantic robot-like aliens bringing their battle to earth wherein the race of humans simply appear like midgets, the deep booming voices of Peter Cullen and Hugo Weaving, voicing Optimus Prime and Megatron respectively (we got Leonard Nimoy as well in the third one, yay!), the slick movements of these giants when they coolly convert between fast cars and giant robots back and forth, the never-ending fight scenes that make you shout like a child for the Autobots to win, and in the midst of all the chaos, a simple guy (like you and me) and his good-looking girlfriend, showing the simplest of human emotions that we all crave to have in abundance when it matters, courage! This is what the first two movies was all about, and again, this is what the third movie is about. Will it continue to work? The movie released early on Wednesday, and has grossed about $97 million in its first 3 days. So that is not bad. Plus the worldwide revenues would continue to be steaming hot. My advice to fellow movie-goers would be to go to the theatre to enjoy the show, the battle cries mixed with a bit of wit. Go out there to save the day, to be a part of the campaign to save earth, to root for the Autobots and bring the end of Decepticons! Let the child inside of you enjoy the adrenaline rush, and I bet, you will figure out that it was fun after all...

While the latest Transformers movie would be attempting to match its predecessors, there is someone who has already done that. Say hello once again to the beloved Captain Jack Sparrow! Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides had reported the weakest numbers in the franchise at the US box office. But when you are such a massive global brand, the international markets take centre stage. And in this case the spotlight remains very much on the fourth instalment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise that has grossed more than $1 billion in worldwide revenues, something done only by 7 Hollywood movies before it, which incidentally includes Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest at #5. Remarkable feat indeed! And this makes Johnny Depp the only actor to have three movies in this elite club (Alice in Wonderland being the third, apart from the two movies of the Pirates in the Caribbean franchise). Way to go Johnny! Will Transformers: Dark of the Moon come close to matching it? The war cry has been called out... Autobots Assemble!

Has Pixar fallen short finally?

A movie about fast running cars has already performed well on the box office in the form of Fast Five that has grossed about $600 million in worldwide revenues. But this weekend saw fast cars, in a different form altogether, light up the silver screen. These cars are brighter, more cheery, have no human intervention, and most importantly, talk! You got it spot on. I am talking about the much awaited Pixar release, Cars 2. Not surprisingly, Cars 2 opened at the top of the US box office this weekend earning $66 million in its first 3 days. While it is nowhere near the $110 opening weekend that Pixar's last movie, Toy Story 3, had seen (Toy Story franchise is a different class altogether!), it still pretty much matches up with the openings of other Pixar hits like Up, Wall-E and Cars. So Cars 2 seems very much destined to reach the $200 million mark at the US box office and keep the Pixar success story going. Or will it? While the revenues are strong, Cars 2 has had sub-par reviews, which is quite unlike a Pixar movie. And frankly, I got to admit that it does not deserve the kind of applause that the previous movies won. For a long time I wondered if Pixar could go ever wrong, and somewhere I feel that they did this time. Don't get me wrong. The animation is great, the story is well thought of, the characters are brilliant. But where Cars 2 seems to fall short is with that emotional bonding seen in the past, that can move the audience to tears. Be it with Wall-E calling out EVE's name in Wall-E, or Remy finally getting the chance to live his dream in Ratatouille, or even Doc Hudson grudgingly providing racing tips to McQueen in the original Cars, these were moments that so easily made you forget that you were in a cinema hall. They stirred your heart, made you feel for the characters, and made you root for them! In Cars 2, you hardly go that mile. This movie starts off as an adventure and remains that way... a lovely and fun-filled adventure, but not something that remains with you when you leave the theatre. It has its moments, trying to show the camaraderie between the so-different Lighting McQueen and Mater, but such moments are very few and far away. With Pixar you expect so much more. Apart from the Toy Story franchise, Pixar had never worked on sequels despite so many successful movies because they believed in creating something new each time around... and that is what I hope they will stick to. So are we to lose faith in Pixar? Of course not. Cars 2 is going to be another hit for them, the creative team still remains strong, and maybe they will bring back the magic formula of stirring your heart, from the next movie on! The release of Cars 2 also meant bad news for our green hero, Green Lantern that managed only $18 million in its second weekend, a sharp decline indeed! Makes you feel a bit sorry for Ryan Reynolds though I would pin the blame on the screenwriters who could not put together a strong enough story despite so much material around them. No sequels here, I am sure...

This superhero is Green

It is a superhero's world right now! Thor and X-Men: First Class have already been raved about by critics and their box office collections have not been bad either. Captain America is slated for a late-July release that will complete the introduction of all the Avengers. But for this weekend Marvel comics is taking a backseat as a DC comics character is going to fly in the sky. Green Lantern starring Ryan Reynolds as the lead, is the story about Hal Jordan, the first human to become part of an intergalactic squadron called the Green Lanterns that are tasked with maintaining peace within the universe. There is a lot of material about the Green Lantern in the comic world and so there should be enough to create an interesting plot for a movie. But Green Lantern has never been the leading superhero character in DC comics. He is more known for being part of the Justice League which features more prominently the likes of Batman and Superman. Fans of The Big Bang Theory might also find a connection as Sheldon is seen wearing a Green Lantern t-shirt (the green one!) quite regularly. With the lack of a big built-in fan base, Green Lantern will be counting a lot on the trailers generating enough curiosity amongst the audience and maybe good reviews to support its cause. With a production budget estimated to be about $200 million (some interviews mention total cost of $300 million!), the stakes are quite high for this movie. While collections of above $100 million in US are all but guaranteed, reaching big highs, say $250 million, seems a long shot, given that movies of superior franchisees like Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides are finding it hard to achieve. All said and done, Green Lantern will definitely be at the top of the US box office this weekend, pushing Super 8 to the second spot. Super 8 has done well for itself, with $35 million collections in its first weekend. And in comparison to Green Lantern, its production budget of $50 million appears measly that would help it attain the hit status quite quickly. Will Green Lantern be able to keep its producers happy too? Will the ring of the Green Lantern be able to mesmerize the audience? Questions that will be answered this weekend....

PS: An old blog on the superhero movies of the past --> http://bucksandcorn.blogspot.com/2010/09/superheroes-that-walk-amongst-us.html

Mutants take on Abrams' Super 8

Can mutants co-exist with men? Or does one race have to end for the other to survive? The question that is posed forever in the X-Men series, the question on the basis of which two friends go on separate paths with Professor X forming his band of gifted youth called X-Men and Magneto putting together the group called Brotherhood. X-Men: First Class, that released previous week, connected the missing dots as it brought forward the beginnings of these two mutant leaders, and their differing ideologies. While the movie took the top spot at the US box office on its release, its earnings of $55 million are much lower than the $85 million earned by the previous movie in the franchise, X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Having said that, the movie is earning one of the best reviews in the franchise and having recently watched it myself, I must admit that it is possibly one of the best movies of this summer. The movie is engrossing, mixed with the right tone and pace, swapping between scenes and characters smoothly, that keeps the audience happily glued to the adventure. Not for a single moment, do you sit back to check your watch, for in that moment you might miss a cool line, a great action scene or maybe one of the many references to connections with the previous movies of the franchise. And the acting by James McAvoy as Professor X and Michael Fassbender as Magneto is excellent, keeping the very spirit of these two characters alive, which in the previous films have been displayed by stalwarts Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan. This is a must watch for sci-fi fans! Last weekend also saw Fast Five become the first movie of this year to cross the $200 million mark at the US box office. Once the weekend numbers for this week are out, The Hangover 2 and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides will also be joining this short list (still no one to make it to 300?).

While the summer season is filled with sequels or sequels of sequels, this weekend sees the release of an original sci-fi thriller, Super 8. Why the buzz around it? Well, it is directed by the creator of Alias, co-creator of Lost, director of Mission: Impossible III, director of the 2009 hit Star Trek, the talented J.J. Abrams. And if that was not enough, the posters of the movie prominently highlight the name of Steven Spielberg as producer of the film. The interest of movie-goers is also piqued by the mysterious trailer of the film that shows something heavy trying to smash itself out of a train bogey, but gives no further hint of the immense creature. Intriguing, thrilling, captivating... words that would possibly describe what Abrams has to offer this time around. A movie that falls in my must-watch category, especially for the ones who love the sci-fi genre. The summer season has come a long way but more importantly, it has a long way to go indeed!

Will the new X-Men be First Class?

X-Men, released in 2000, is credited by many for reviving the genre of superhero movies. The likes of Spiderman, Batman and Iron Man followed much later on, after Charles Xavier and his mutants had set the stage once again for movies based on the traditional theme of good versus bad, where a man (or in this case, men and women) with power and ability superior to those of a commoner has to step up and take on the responsibility of vetting out justice wherever the system fails. The sequel X-Men 2 did better than the first and was followed by the third movie of the trilogy, X-Men: The Last Stand, that grossed $459 million in worldwide revenues to become the biggest hit of the franchise. The X-Men series is however filled with numerous characters, enacted by known stars like Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen and Halle Berry and relatively unknown stars who were climbing up the popularity charts like Anne Pacquin and James Marsden. And with the rising salaries, the studio decided it best to stop bringing them all together and instead create spin-offs on the individual characters. Not a bad decision! They first talked about the story of the most popular of the mutants, Wolverine, in the 2009 movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine. And now they are entering the past lives of two of the oldest mutants, Xavier and Magneto, in X-Men: First Class.

X-Men: First Class will unravel the story of the creation of Xavier's X-Men and Magneto's Brotherhood. It will bring forth the difference in ideologies of two of the most enigmatic characters of the series and explain the reasons why the two friends chose to go on separate paths though with the same objective in their mind, to save their kind. X-Men: First Class has the potential to be more than just a sci-fi/superhero movie. it has the potential to make the audience question about what is right and wrong, about the paths one can take and about the consequences that each path has to offer. And that is what the fans of this franchise will be expecting. Maybe the movie does not have the same box office potential as its predecessors with most of the popular mutants missing (but wouldn't you just love to glimpse a cameo of Wolverine in the movie?), but it can very well turn out to be an intelligent one that would keep the franchise alive. With Wolverine 2 in the makings, and even a possible movie about Deadpool, there is a lot more that the X-Men series still has to offer, and it takes just one bad movie for the audience and the studio to lose faith in a series. I hope X-Men: First Class is not the dubious one. So with fingers crossed, we await its release and hope that mutants will continue to look cooler with each passing day... and that many more movies follow in the series unraveling the past and explaining the future.

The hangover of The Hangover remains...

Do sequels work? This is a common question that people debate about, though the answer seems simple. That they generally do! At least it is always worth a shot to make a sequel, if the first movie has been a phenomenal success. And if sequels did not work, we would never have had so many franchises that in the past have ran over an entire decade or two, at times. So when The Hangover, released in the summer of 2009, stunned the production studio by grossing $277 million at the US box office and $469 million in worldwide revenues on a meagre production budget of $35 million, they did the smart thing that anyone eager to earn more would have done. They made a sequel. They named it The Hangover 2. They brought in the same cast. They wrote a similar script. And they released it in the summer of 2011. And then what? They started counting the moolah. The Hangover 2 has had an amazing opening weekend, grabbing $118 million in the first four days itself (it is a long weekend in US, remember) which is more than double of what the original earned in its opening weekend. But while the original movie grew through word-of-mouth, the sequel should see a strong decline second weekend onwards. The Hangover 2 should however earn enough to make the producers want to make a third one in the series. But if they do, my request to them would be, at least bring in some freshness to the plot. Don't start again with a call from Bradley Cooper, then wind up backwards for the search of some missing person and end it finally with a bunch of photographs revealing the happenings of the forgotten night. The cast is good enough to pull up something new next time round, so try it! Though with this kind of response to The Hangover 2, advices like mine are bound to fall flat.

Kung Fu Panda 2 was the first big animation movie of the summer season released during the weekend, but the competition from The Hangover 2 has acted as a damper to Po and the Furious Five. The movie raked in $54 million in its opening weekend, which is slightly less than the original. Dreamworks would be disappointed with the numbers, I believe, as they would have expected Kung Fu Panda 2 to better its predecessor, which appears now to be a tough task. What has gone wrong is tough to say, as the reviews for the movie remain strong. Cars 2 is still a few weeks away, and maybe that could help Kung Fu Panda 2 reach around the $200 million mark at the US box office before its stint ends. But for me, if there was a third movie that I would wait for, it would have to be about the adventures of Po rather than learn about another missing person due to a hangover! Guess my taste for once, differs from the others...

The Many Avatars of Johnny Depp

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides opened last weekend with $90 million at the US box office, about $25 million short of what the previous film of the franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, had gathered in its opening weekend four years back. But if you feel On Stranger Tides fell short here, then the $260million earned in the international market pretty much made up for it. This is the best overseas opening of all time, edging out Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince collections of $236 million. That not only tells you about the aura that the franchise carries with it worldwide, but also that Johnny Deep and his quirky character, Jack Sparrow, still rule! The 47 year old actor who started off his movie career in the 1984 cult slasher movie A Nightmare on Elm's Street, has come a long way indeed. His journey has been different, adventurous, quirky, unconventional and more importantly, successful. He has worn different looks, got various tattoos and has chosen roles that stood out, irrespective of what they could achieve on the box office. Here is a look back at the various avatars of the exceptional talent called Johnny Deep!

Glen Lantz in A Nightmare on Elm's Street (1984): A character that did not essentially get noticed much in the film then, but has become more famous over the years as the first character portrayed by Johnny Depp on the big screen. A young Depp played the role of the boyfriend of the leading lady of the movie, who eventually makes the fatal mistake of falling asleep and meets the infamous, Freddy Krueger. Great careers do have humble beginnings!

Edward Scissorhands in Edward Scissorhands (1990): The role that brought Johnny Depp into the limelight and marked his long association with Tim Burton. The story of an artificial man who has scissors instead of hands, and his love for a young girl (played by Winona Ryder, who incidentally was dating Depp at that time), Edward Scissorhands was the first of many out-of-the-ordinary roles Depp was to play, a role for which he was to be nominated for his first Golden Globe. The movie earned a respectable $54 million on the US box office as against its production budget of $20 million. Johnny Depp had been announced to the world!

Sam in Benny & Joon (1993): The role that got Johnny Depp his second Golden Globe nomination was the romantic comedy film, Benny & Joon. Playing an eccentric character comes with ease for Depp, and so it was no surprise that he excelled in his role of Sam, an eccentric man who emulates the antics of a silent movie comedian of the past. A role perfectly made for Depp!

Ichabod Crane in Sleepy Hollow (1999): Johnny Depp had been rising steadily as an actor during the 90s, collecting his third Golden Globe nomination on the way for the role of cult filmmaker Edward Wood in the 1994 movie Ed Wood. But his role of a 18th century forward-looking and innovative police constable and his battle with the Headless Horseman was to become noteworthy and mark his first $100 movie, Sleepy Hollow, at the US box office. And in the backdrop of an ancient New York, the character became all the more memorable. What Johhny Depp showed in Sleepy Hollow was how easy it was for him to be different, and that is what people loved about him the most!

Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean Series (2003 - 2011): At times you need just one role to turn yourself from a great actor to a legendary one. And the role of the tipsy, courageous, witty (can add numerous other adjectives here!) Captain Jack Sparrow did it for Depp. A series that has won hearts across the globe, Jack Sparrow has become one of the most unforgettable characters in cinematic history. Love him or hate him, you cannot ignore him! This is a character that Johnny Depp made his own, characterising it on the The Rolling Stones guitarist, Keith Richards (who plays a cameo too in the movies!). The way Sparrow clumsily walks, the manner in which he talks, even the dialogues at times, have a Johnny Depp trademark over it. A character wherein the lines of right and wrong fade away and then resurface and blend with each other, making Jack Sparrow a truly unique character that would hold its own in Hollywood forever!

Sweeney Todd in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007): After 7 Golden Globe Nominations, Johnny Depp finally got his due when he won the Golden Globe for his role of the vengeful barber in Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd. With the shadows of Jack Sparrow all over him, Depp managed to break out of the mould with a classy performance in this musical and with a completely different avatar, the salt and pepper hairstyle bringing out the chills in the audience. It was a performance that landed him his third Oscar nomination as well. An avatar that can be hardly forgotten!

Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland (2010): Who could have played this any better, I wonder, and I can think of no one. The colourful Mad Hatter, with a craziness in his eyes, a strange smile, and a mind that wanders in and out of his head... who could have played this any better, I ask again. No one. It was meant to be Johnny Depp! Another venture with Tim Burton, Alice in Wonderland has proven to be Depp's biggest hit outside the Pirates franchise, earning $334 million at the US box office and about $1 billion in worldwide revenues (#6 on the all-time list).

Rango in Rango (2011): Eh, if you think I got the picture wrong, then... no! This is Depp in another avatar, as the animated chameleon in the 2011 hit Rango. A different animated look than the ones being made by the likes of Pixar and Dreamworks, Rango tells the story about a strange chameleon who gets appointed as the sheriff of a town. And when it comes to strange, Depp does it best. Depp's previous foray into animation, Corpse Bride, had managed only $53 million at the Us box office but Rango has grossed more than twice that amount and grabbed in $240 million in worldwide revenues so far. Even Depp's voice sells!

Johnny Depp stands out from his peers in more ways than one, and many of us look forward to a lot from this talented actor in years to come. And the wait shall not be long for his next movie The Rum Diary is slated for a release in October of this year, in which Depp is enacting a freelance journalist in the Caribbean. Keep it rolling, Johnny!

Johnny Depp in an interview in 2002: 'Film star', 'movie star' — whatever they want to try to call you is limiting, in the sense that I think an actor has to be able to play characters. I guess if I want to be close to anything, it would be a character actor, which is what I think an actor should be.

Aye Aye Captain!

Water! Ships! Pirates! Captains! Swords! And we are back in the world of Jack Sparrow... Eh, sorry, there should be a "Captain" in there somewhere! The phenomenal series is into its fourth instalment now with the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. The anticipation is high, the thrill is back and so is Johnny Depp, reprising once again the role of the swashbuckling and at times bumbling pirate that landed him his first Oscar nomination. The summer season has started off well with Thor and Fast Five receiving strong comments coupled with strong earnings on the box office, but Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is the movie that holds the green ticket to a possible $300 million mark on the US box office. Each of the previous 3 movies achieved this feat and also grossed about $2.7 billion in worldwide revenues. Staggering to say the least! The story for this instalment of the franchise embarks on to a new adventure with Jack Sparrow hunting for the mysterious Fountain of Youth. While the presence of Captain Barbosa would continue to keep the charm alive, introduction of Angelica (Penelope Cruz) and Blackbeard (Ian McShane) will surely fire up things. The signs are bright, the sails have been set and the ship is off again... hopefully for a successful cruise!

Smile, and smile again...

I usually do not deviate much from what I talk about on this blog, which is movies and money and movies and money again. But a really interesting discussion with someone, gave me something new and different to write about. The 5 best smiles in Hollywood (all-female list, of course)! This list has been compiled with a lot of thought, but remember that it is finally a subjective list, one that you are free to refute and argue about. Though bettering this list would be a tough task. For these are the smiles that will make you sit back and respond with a smile of your own, with a babyish kind of happiness or maybe leave you just staring with awe and wonderment, with your heart thudding a few extra beats per second. But being me, I cannot just let the smiles snatch away the headlines... somewhere along the way the 'bucks' have to be involved!

No. 5 -- Elisha Cuthbert

You may remember her from The Girl Next Door, and if you don't then you haven't seen the movie yet. Elisha Cuthbert dazzled the screen in The Girl Next Door with her smile, a role that would have won her many new fans. She was also a part of the wide cast in Love Actually (that collected $248 million in worldwide revenues). Though she has gradually moved on to TV shows, 24, The Forgotten, Happy Endings, her smile still keeps the magic alive!

No .4 -- Meg Ryan

This one should not be a surprise. Meg Ryan ruled the late 80s and then the 90s with her bewitching smile that lit up the scenes in most of her romantic films, the more famous ones being When Harry Met Sally ($93 million at the US box office), Sleepless in Seattle ($127 million), French Kiss ($39 million), City of Angels ($79 million) and You've Got Mail ($116 million). Meg Ryan's smile has always been pleasant on the eyes, an endearing feature of her personality that even with time will fail to diminish!

No. 3 -- Marisa Tomei

When you talk of Marisa Tomei, you are swiftly taken back to 1992 and her unforgettable role as Mona Lisa Vito in My Cousin Vinny, a role that won her an Oscar, and a role where her smile was contagious, and even her frown seemed worth holding on to. Tomei has always been a bit different than commercial actors, mixing her roles between hits such as Anger Management and Wild Hogs with gritty tough roles in Wrestler (that won her an Oscar nomination) and the more recent The Lincoln Lawyer. And though the smiles have faded in her newer roles, the ones Marisa Tomei left behind in My Cousin Vinny would forever remain etched in one's memory.

No. 2 -- Elizabeth Banks

Holding one of the most charming smiles in the industry, Elizabeth Banks appears not to be ageing at all. A smile that can make you go ga-ga like a child, Elizabeth Banks has been around for about a decade in the industry and has not done badly for herself. She played the pretty Ms. Brant in the Spiderman series (the numbers for this series, of course, are huge) and the tough Laura Bush in W. But to see Elizabeth Banks at her charming best, one needs to catch hold of the romantic/comedy movies like Definitely, Maybe and Role Models. Elizabeth Banks also dazzled in the TV series Scrubs making J.D. go hippity-hoppity about her, and then in 30 Rock. With still a lot to come from Elizabeth Banks, this is one of the smiles that you ought not to miss!

No. 1 -- Rachel McAdams

When you are at the top position on a list, you are probably the one that will be the most dissected, questioned and attacked. But make any such list of the most amazing smiles, and if you fail to put Rachel McAdams on the top, then I am sorry to say, you are going wrong somewhere. Part of the Mean Girls gang ($86 million at the US box office), Rachel McAdams made a name for herself thanks to her fiery role as Allie in The Notebook ($81 million). This was followed up with the big hit The Wedding Crashers ($209 million) where McAdams' smile would have made the strongest of hearts skip a beat or two. This beatific smile made even the famous Holmes lose his judgement when McAdams played Irene Adler in last year's big hit Sherlock Holmes ($209 million in US & $524 in worldwide revenues). Rachel McAdams is set to reprise her role as Adler in the sequel later this year. And while we hope her career flourishes and reaches newer heights, one thing that would always continue to set her apart from her contemporaries is, of course, her smile...

A lull before the storm?

Two strong back-to-back weekends at the US box office... two movies that are part of larger franchises... both movies backed by strong reviews... And summer season seems to have begun well! Fast Five had struck gold with the best opening weekend numbers for the year two weeks back, with $86 million, and then last week the God of Thunder, Thor, did not disappoint either with $66 million on its opening weekend. Strong numbers when you consider that Thor comics are no match for the likes of Batman and Spiderman, plus the presence of a relative unknown hero in Chris Hemsworth. But with the euphoria created in the past two weeks, a bit of lull could set-in this weekend. There are no big-budget big-franchise movies releasing this time round, and movie-goers would not be too keen on choosing between the comedy Bridesmaids (with an unknown cast) and Priest starring Paul Bettany as a priest tracking down vampires (vampires are becoming way too common!). Thor might just then continue to keep the top spot. But for only one week, remember, coz guess who's coming next.... you guessed it right.... Captain Jack Sparrow!!

The God of Thunder - Thor

The action certainly picked up last weekend and the start of summer now seems exciting. Fast Five posted the best opening weekend box office results for the year and the best results for its franchise with $86 million earnings last weekend. It has already grossed more than $100 million in its first week and to add to that, the reviews for the movie remain strong which should lead to strong earnings in the next couple of weeks as well. This all but guarantees a sixth instalment in the Fast and Furious franchise but I don't see anyone complaining...

Hollywood is awaiting with bated breath for the next potential blockbuster movie to open soon as this weekend Fast Five will have to battle it out with the hammer yielding God Thor. Part of the same Marvel world that includes Iron Man and Hulk (and the soon to be released Captain America), Thor is the story of an arrogant prince who is banished by his father from the mystical world of Asgard to the rather dull Earth. If you would have stuck around for the post-credits scene in Iron Man 2, you would have been introduced to the all-powerful hammer of Thor lying in the middle of a crater it created, implying the arrival of the Thunder God on this planet. And ever since then, Thor has been one of the most eagerly-awaited movies, especially for comic lovers. The movie boasts of a strong cast with the likes of Natalie Portman and Anthony Hopkins. But the lead role of Thor is being played by a relatively unknown Chris Hemsworth (who you could remember as the deceased father of James Kirk in the recent Star Trek movie). Chris Hemsworth carries a heavy burden on his shoulders for not only the earnings of this movie would be important to decide whether we would have a Thor 2, Thor 3 etc... but also for the role it will play in the buzz that is surrounding the 2012 release of Avengers. Casting a relatively unknown could turn out to be a big plus point in this movie, for if you recollect, Robert Downey Jr. had receded in the shadows before he emerged back with Iron Man and Christian Bale became what he is now only after Batman Begins. Having said that, both of them had given stellar performances that encouraged the audience to seek and sympathize with the burdens that a superhero has to carry, the dualities of life he has to fight with, and the difference between right and wrong that he has to truly understand. Hemsworth has to pull off something similar to make Thor appear as exciting as the other great movies in the superhero genre, instead of it ending up as just a hefty man throwing around a hammer at whatever he dislikes. For the sake of Avengers, I pin my hopes on the makers of Thor getting it right!

Vrooom.... Fast & Furious!

Last weekend Rio very well set the tone for a smashing summer season to come! The macaw birds remained at the top and would be surely grossing $100 million at the US box office in their third weekend, making it probably another wonderful year for animated movies (remember Rango is currently at the revenue charts for this year). Hop meanwhile already reached that mark during the last weekend, a surprise hit indeed it has been! But we no longer hope to be talking about whether movies would be able to crawl across the $100 million barrier or not from this weekend onwards. For it is the beginning of the most anticipated time of the year - the summer season! High-budget movies are going to be rolled week after week... some with the potential to make it so big that a franchise would soon evolve... some might end up in ruins and despair... all waiting for our final judgement, us, the movie-watchers... the stakes are always high, and amongst the movies releasing in the next three month period, there would be some that would be aiming for a potential $1 billion earnings in worldwide revenues. So which one would it be is the big question mark.

This weekend kicks off in some style... fast cars, muscled men, gorgeous women, and multiple car chases! The fifth movie in the Fast & Furious instalment, Fast Five. Normally you do not associate the fifth movie of a series to have the potential to be the biggest of the series, do you? But with this franchise, the story is different. While the first movie, The Fast and the Furious released in 2001 had created a name for itself and a name for its leading star, Vin Diesel, and raked in about $145 million at the US box office (on a budget of $38 million, mind you!), the next two instalments declined in comparison notably due to the absence of the no-nonsense style of Vin Diesel. So how to sort this problem? Simple, bring back the entire cast of the original movie and wola, Fast & Furious, the fourth movie of the series, turned out to be the biggest hit of the franchise with $360 million in worldwide revenues. So the next question is how do you top it? Simple again. If Vin Diesel is not enough to fill up the screen, add another macho 'no small talk' guy to the squad. Enter Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock, as the tough-cop brought in to disrupt Vin Diesel and his team's plans. With the biggest budget yet amongst all the movies in this series, expectations are bound to be high. And with Justin Lin as the director (who worked on the last two movies too), the car chase scenes are bound to be great! So vrooom vrooom, here we go, the summer season is on!

The birds fly to the top!

First it was rodents in the movie Rango that got things moving in the right direction, and now it is left to the macaws and other exotic birds to spark things up on the US box office. Rio did pretty well, considering the disappointing numbers floating around this year, and put up a good show with $39 million on its opening weekend. The reviews have not been bad either and maybe this is what the box office wanted, a bit of dance and music, a bit of romance, a bit of colour, and maybe now the sense of belief shown by the flightless macaw Blu would seep into the movie-going audience as well. That good things (read movies) are just around the corner! Scream 4 did not do too bad either taking in the second spot on the US box office last weekend but I don't figure it to stay there for too long. A fourth movie of a slasher series, these kinds usually die out soon. If past numbers are anything to go by, this weekend should witness strong opening numbers for the next movie in Tyler Perry's Madea series, called Madea's Big Happy Family. And competing with it would be the drama Water For Elephants, which is making the rounds more because of the presence of the Twilight star, Robert Pattinson. Pattinson would be romancing his 10-year senior Reese Witherspoon in this movie and going by the popularity of both these stars, the opening numbers should be good, though where it goes from there is tough to say. And of course, expect the macaws to be there in this fray, fighting for the top berth. If you have seen the movie then you would know, birds do not give it that easy!

Scream for the Birds!

Where are we now? In the middle of April. Two $100 million earning movies. One potentially on its way to make it soon (talking about Hop). And most importantly we are on the verge of the summer season to begin. In comparison with last year, 2011 frankly has hardly been anything great. By about the same time last year, Alice in Wonderland had become a monstrous hit with earnings already exceeding $300 million, Valentine's Day had appealed to the romantics with revenues of more than $100 million, Clash of the Titans despite its not so rave reviews was appealing to the worldwide audience and How to Train Your Dragon was already on the way to hit the $200 million mark and was talked about being Oscar-stuff. Film studios are going to have their hopes pinned on the mega releases lined up for the summer session if this year has to catch up. But before we enter the month of May, there are still a few movies trying to win the hearts of the audience. And Rio is a strong contender amongst this weekend's releases. An animated movie, with colourful birds, songs and dances, and exotic settings of Brazil, the ingredients have been carefully put in by Carlos Saldanha who has previously seen success with the Ice Age series. But will it be enough? If the numbers from Friday are anything to go by, Rio will easily be on top of the US charts by the end of the weekend but is unlikely to reproduce the numbers of the Ice Age series. There is still that feeling of connection missing from this movie, the soul that was very much present in the animated movies of last year that met with such incredible critical and commercial success. On the heels of Rio would be Scream 4, the fourth movie of the horror series that made white screaming masks quite a hit. Scream series has had its share of loyal followers in the past and the movies have done well commerically with Scream 3 being the only one not to make it to $100 million earnings at the US box office. But it has been 11 years since the release of Scream 3 and that seems quite a long time to reignite the series. The loyal followers would have moved on, new ones will be hooked to a range of other horror flicks that have emerged since then, and Scream 4 would have to put together a good script if it has any chance of recreating the magic of the old movies of the series. So let us hope the mediocrity that seems to have stemmed into Hollywood this year so far is broken soon. Fingers crossed!

A 100 at last....

The previous weekend saw the tough ladies of Sucker Punch being knocked to second spot by the wimpy kid of Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules. So with $19 million on its first weekend at the US box office, Sucker Punch did not have the opening I was hoping for, though I enjoyed once again the oomph brought in by Zack Snyder in the way he shoots his movies. Laded with heavy music and zooming in on the smallest of objects, the altogether different style of shooting makes his movies more enjoyable and engrossing. Cannot wait to see what kind of a tone Mr. Snyder would be bringing in to the Superman movie that he is working on now. Hope more of this continues! Moving on, Rango and Just Go With It did eventually notch up the $100 million at the US box office though the overall collection for the first 3 months still remain short when compared to the previous year. String of new movies releasing this weekend to take on the burden of giving a push to the revenues. And all aimed at a different group of audience. Jake Gyllenhal is starring in the thriller Source Code that has a very gripping theme (time travel always fascinates!) though its trailer somehow failed to spark the interest that a classic sci-fi can do (watch trailer of the yet-to-be-released Super 8 if you do not get me). Hop, the story about the Easter Bunny's son, would be aimed at the family audience while the horror flick Insidious would be targeting the other segment who love the spooks and the chills. Movies now raining in thick and fast and more importantly we are inching towards the favourite time of the year... the summer season!

Suckkkerrr Punch!!

This weekend promises something fairly exciting! Release of Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch... This is the first of the 15 'must-watch' movies of the year I am eagerly looking forward to (entire list: http://bucksandcorn.blogspot.com/2011/01/2011-beckons.html) and I am quite sure the wait would have been worth it! Baby Doll, Sweet Pea, Blondie, Rocket, these are just a few of the character names that the movie is going to throw at us, and if you have watched the trailer then you would be very well aware that these girls are going to be no pushovers. Lots of bang bang and boom boom await as the ladies prepare to fight their way out of an asylum in style. Zack Snyder's role in such kind of a genre has not been bad at all. His directorial works notably include Dawn of the Dead (2004), 300 (2007) and Watchmen (2009) and what will follow after Sucker Punch is nothing less than the next Superman movie. So we got a perfect director, a neat cast, an interesting story with a much more interesting 'alternate reality' plot to it, and now all we need are for these pieces to fit together beautifully so as to let Sucker Punch score well at the box office.

The weekend will also mark the first $100 million hit for the year at the box office. And it will be Johnny Depp ruling again though this time under the guise of the chameleon Rango. The unlikely second movie to reach that mark would be Adam Sandler's Just Go With It that has shown remarkable long legs to be only about $2 million short of touching $100 million at the US box office. So a weekend to look forward and a lot to talk about next time...

Rango to the Rescue

Are things looking up? For starters, Rango had the best opening weekend for the year with earnings of $38 million at the US box office. The animated chameleon could well be setting the pace to become the first movie of the year to hit the $100 million mark. Trust Johnny Depp to rescue things! Matt Damon starrer Adjustment Bureau did decently well with $21 million on its first weekend, though this is definitely nowhere close to the Bourne movies. The competition is getting tighter and there is a long list of movies releasing this weekend. Rango will be directly pitted against the animated flick Mars Needs Moms, though I expect the former to maintain its lead, thanks to the strong reviews it is gathering. There is a range of other genres to watch out for as well. Aaron Eckhart is starring in the sci-fi movie Battle: Los Angeles, though aliens targeting earth and attempting to destroy it is no longer a very novel concept. Then there is the movie adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre which stars the erstwhile Alice of Alice in Wonderland, Mia Wasikowska. And finally, the one that seems the most interesting of the lot, the old tale in a new light, Red Riding Hood. Red Riding Hood has an interesting touch of fantasy and horror to it, at least that is what the trailers appear like. A young girl in love with a woodcutter, a werewolf on the prowl, and a famed werewolf hunter... maybe a bit cliched but interesting nonetheless! A tough battle is on the cards this weekend...

Post-Oscars...

The Oscar ceremony was completed last Sunday and there were hardly any surprises, at least as far as the main award categories were concerned. The King's Speech picked up the best of the awards - Best Movie and Best Director apart from Colin Firth winning the Best Actor award for his portrayal of the stammering King George VI. Natalie Portman took the Best Actress award for her role in Black Swan, another well-deserved accolade. But the one award that deserved a lot of adulation was the Best Supporting Actor award won by Christian Bale for his role in The Fighter. To go back a few months, the trailer for the movie itself had piqued my interest and boldly I had made a prediction. Read the last line from my old post... http://bucksandcorn.blogspot.com/2010/09/it-is-100-for-stallone.html. This is what it says "Too early to say, but looking at the trailer I wonder if... Oscar buzz for Christian Bale?" Well, the prediction turned true and The Fighter has put another feather on this talented actor's cap. Christian Bale has hardly done anything wrong since he broke into the A-list of actors in 2005 with the role of the caped crusader in Batman Begins. What has followed have been various kind of roles ranging from the competitive magician in the classy The Prestige to the disgruntled rancher in the westerner 3:10 to Yuma to the portrayal of the legend Bob Dylan in I'm Not There. Another bumper commercial success with The Dark Knight was followed by the portrayal of the iconic character of John Connor making Christian Bale part of the Terminator Series. And now the commercial and critical success for his performance in The Fighter has been perfectly capped with the Academy Award. What's next? True to his ability to play an enormous range of characters, Bale would be part of a low-budget Chinese film, The 13 Women of Nanjing, on the Nanking Massacre that occurred during World War II when Japanese soldiers attacked the former capital of China. After this, Christian Bale would again reprise his role as Batman in The Dark Knight Rises, scheduled to be released in July 2012. Wow, that is some diversity! And the best part is that this British actor is only 37 with a long career ahead of him, one that no doubt going to continue to impress and entertain.

As for the movies of this weekend. March starts off with a range of movies, and some bigger and better names are now being heard, which is a good sign. The two big movies of this weekend would surely be the animated flick Rango with the voice of Johnny Depp behind the lead, and The Adjustment Bureau starring Matt Damon that has the blend of thriller and romance in it. One animated movie has already done reasonably well this year, the lesser known Gnomeo and Juliet, which has raked in $78 million so far and was #2 on the US box office charts for the last weekend, and Rango would be looking at keeping the interest in animated flicks still going. While both these movies may not take the box office by storm, it could mark the beginning of better things to come. Or so we can hope!

Oscar Night!

The weekend is more likely to be remembered for the Oscars than the movies that are releasing. Nicolas Cage's yet another attempt to produce a hit with Drive Angry 3D is more likely to fall short. Season of the Witch released earlier this year has hardly managed $25 million at the US box office, and now it seems another of Cage's movies will make us forget what an actor he was in the likes of Leaving Las Vegas and City of Angels. Hall Pass is the other release of the weekend starring Owen Wilson and its theme seems perfect for a B-grade comedy. Quite likely that many will 'pass' this one too! But a night of accolades beckons with the Oscars inching closer. In the past, the Oscar movies have not necessarily been commercial hits, but this time it seems to have been different. While Toy Story 3 and Inception have been massive hits, it has also been good to see the likes of True Grit, Black Swan and The King's Speech, all crossing the $100 million mark at the US box office, with the Oscar fever no doubt helping them along. The Fighter and The Social Network have also not been much behind, underlying the fact that movies praised by the critics and those loved by the audience may not be necessarily different. And this should also encourage big production houses to promote such low budget ventures (production budget of Black Swan was hardly $13 million and of The King's Speech was $15 million) and give them the reach these movies deserve. So a splendid night awaits. Colin Firth and Natalie Portman look favourites to walk away with the Oscars statues, but then the Oscars do have a trick up their sleeves at times... A glamorous night awaits!

I Am Number Four is not Number 1

The disappointing numbers continue to surface. While I Am Number Four, a young sci-fi movie based on a popular book, seemed destined to gain the top spot at the weekend box office, the numbers told a different tale. The sci-fi was pipped by Liam Neeson starrer Unknown that has drawn comparisons with Neeson's 2009 surprise hit Taken. To draw parallels, Taken had also been released earlier in the year (in January 2009) and had an opening US box office collection of $25 million. Backed by strong reviews, Taken went on to earn $145 million at the US box office while its worldwide revenues totalled $225 million. Unknown has done good business with earnings of $22 million at the US box office over the weekend, considering that its production budget would not have been huge, though its collections matching up with Taken in the long run remains a big question mark. The less said about I Am Number Four, the better. And that is how I intend to keep it. More interesting would be to watch the new Thor trailer that definitely has upped the anxiousness for the release of the movie. April seems so far far away....

Will Number Four bring back the spark?

It is becoming hard not to a stifle a yawn. I understand the big blockbusters are meant for the Summer period, but the run-in does not necessarily have to be so mediocre. At least this had not been the problem last year. Shutter Island had been released in February, Alice in Wonderland came in March. Things were bright and rosy then! Come to 2011, and the skies seem to have darkened. The first hope of a $100 million movie, The Green Hornet, is still struggling near the finish line. It had reached $92 million by last weekend but the sprint has rapidly become a stroll, and the $100 million mark now seems miles away. On the other hand, Black Swan managed to edge past the $100 million mark in the previous week at the US box office, and deservedly so on on the back of numerous Oscar nominations, making it the 28th movie released in 2010 to do so.

This weekend hopes rest with a young sci-fi flick I Am Number Four. The movie should appeal to the young crowd though a strong storyline would be much needed to make up for the absence of any starpower. Comparisons have been drawn with the immensely successful Twilight series, though I find these to be quite pre-mature. I Am Number Four has not created any buzz of the intensity that hounded the Twilight movies. But on the bright side, included amongst its list of producers are the likes of Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg, and many would agree that these guys usually know what they are doing. Tough to take a call on whether I Am Number Four would revitalise what has otherwise been a drab start to the year, but it would definitely ward off the other releases of the weekend, the thriller Unknown starring Liam Neeson and the comedy Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son starring Martin Lawrence. Even if this weekend does not go well, we have the Oscars to look forward to during the next weekend! (trying to stay positive...)

February... yawn!

January pretty much disappointed and I am sorry to say, but there is not much to look forward to in February either. Three weeks have not been enough for The Green Hornet to make $100 million, which is the biggest movie of this year so far. Last weekend, Jason Statham's The Mechanic opened to really lousy numbers while Anthony Hopkins starrer The Rite was surprisingly at the top of the weekend charts despite only earning $14 million. That is lame! There is some hope left with I Am Number Four, the sci-fi thriller that has piqued my interest, releasing on the third week of this month. But apart from that, I would not surprised if February remains a dud overall. Maybe the month is only meant for the Oscars after all. Some of the movies in the Oscars list could get a boost though if the awards come their way, and deservedly so. Colin Firth for best actor and Natalie Portman for best actress. Does that sound about right? Come February 27, and we shall all find out...

A three-way contest this weekend

Natalie Portman has been in the news lately for all the right reasons. Her portrayal of a troubled ballet dancer in the Black Swan won her a Golden Globe award and she is my favourite to land the Oscar as well. Portman had previously come close to winning the Oscar in 2005 when she was nominated for her role in Closer under the category of 'Best Supporting Actress'. But this year she is likely to make the transition from being an Oscar nominee to an Oscar winner! Even with all these wonderful and much deserved accolades coming her way, it would require something really special for her latest film to have any serious impact on the box office. No Strings Attached starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher is releasing this weekend without hardly the buzz that Black Swan created. And understandably so. No Strings Attached, as the name suggests, is nothing more than a story of two friends who want to be in a relationship without any strings attached and who, I presume, would eventually fall in love that would complicate matters and thus result in a two hour long movie that the audience will have to endure. Releasing alongwith it is the Ben Affleck and Tommy Lee Jones starrer The Company Men - a story about three co-workers whose lives change after being laid off by their company. Sounds more meaningful. Both these movies would have to wrestle with The Green Hornet for the top spot that did decently well with $34 million collections at the US box office on its opening weekend. A three-way contest it would be, but the sparkling gems of 2011 are yet to come!

Who is the Green Hornet?

Seth Rogen is, if I were to answer my own question. The Green Hornet starts off the year for caped crusaders, superheroes, masked vigilantes, call them whatever you prefer. Rich man's son who seems to have lost his way, till he realises that he could be out there, on the streets of Los Angeles, in the shadiest of places, doing some good after all. But not in his true form. Aha! Step in the alter-ego, Green Hornet. With shades of the personality clashes that Bruce Wayne (aka Batman) and Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) went through, Green Hornet though does not play solo and rolls on the streets in a gun-laden car with his sidekick, Kato. Well, the masked crusaders have clicked in the recent past on the big screen and makers of The Green Hornet would be hoping to have that feel-good factor going for them as well. A January release seems ominous though and while Avatar raked up much of its moolah in this month last year, big budget movies are usually not put out in the first month of the year. The Green Hornet should easily become the first movie of the year to hit the $100 million mark at the US box office, it will still need stronger legs to ensure that its distributors are happy considering the reported production budget of about $150 million. Seth Rogen has had his fair share of $100 million hits with Superbad and Knocked Up, though these were made at much lower budgets. Keeping all this aside, The Green Hornet will be there at the top of the weekend box office, hopefully Seth Rogen will earn good reviews (highly talented guy; is the co-writer for the movie too), and most importantly... it will pave the way for what could be an year for superheroes - Green Lantern, Thor and Captain America are waiting in the ranks...