Year: 2011

Categories
Movies

It stands with no clear favourite!!

As Oscar ballots go out, where does best picture race stand?

What screener goes best with eggnog and leftover Christmas cookies? That’s the question academy members have been asking their families — and each other — while scanning the stacks of DVDs the studios have been sending them over the last several weeks.

Since (nearly) everyone’s home for the holidays and nomination ballots went out Tuesday, let’s run down the leading best picture candidates and see how they’re faring as we ring out the old and ring in the new.

“The Artist”: Nomination locked. Now up to Harvey Weinstein and his awards minions to convince voters that it has enough substance to deserve a win.

“The Descendants”: It’s in, but Fox Searchlight needs to find a way to jump start interest in the film after the nominations are announced. The huge push now is to somehow land the movie a below-the-line nomination or two, particularly in the editing category. It might be a losing battle.

“The Help”: A sleeping giant. Figures to clean up at the SAG Awards with wins in drama ensemble and perhaps for actresses Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer.

“War Horse”: DreamWorks has been smartly targeting older academy voters, trotting out a huge pull-quote from roughly 186-year-old film critic Rex Reed in advertisements and playing up the film’s nods to the great John Ford. Its solid crafts work should deliver five below-the-line nominations, provided voters can relieve the ringing in their ears from John Williams’ score. And if the box-office receipts are huge, watch out.

“Midnight in Paris”: “The screener,” as one academy member puts it, “that everyone can agree on this holiday season.”

“Hugo”: Ben Kingsley’s Georges Méliès character arc moistens academy members’ eyes with as much precision as anything in “War Horse” or “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” and, arguably, in a much more honest fashion. As with “The Descendants,” its handlers need to keep it in the conversation. A Kingsley nomination would help.

“The Tree of Life”: A screener that, for many, goes the eject route right about the time the dinosaurs trample through the forest. The question remains the same: Do enough academy members love the film to put it at the top of their ballots?

“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”: Not that Oscar voters necessarily care, but the reviews have been brutal. Again: Not just bad. Brutal. A bigger issue, though, lies with the child actor. The Hollywood Reporter’s Todd McCarthy writes that “Thomas Horn gives an exceptional, natural performance.” But one academy member compared that “natural” performance to “having a child kick your airline seat nonstop on a five-hour flight from New York to L.A.” Natural, yes, but also deeply annoying. Or as Wall Street Journal critic Joe Morgenstern put it: “The boy is so precocious, you want to strangle him.” That, folks, is a problem, one of many for this late-arriving contender.

“Moneyball” and “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”: Fine movies both. But neither has much traction in the best picture category, though as other contenders stumble, perhaps they can take some small comfort in this wisdom from Brad Pitt’s “Moneyball” general manager: “When your enemy’s making mistakes, don’t interrupt him.”

Categories
Doctor Who

Honestly, it would be okay with me if he did leave.

Matt Smith says he has no plans to leave ‘Doctor Who’

Doctor Who actor Matt Smith has insisted that he has no plans to leave the BBC One series despite the impending exits of his co-stars Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill.

It was reported earlier this month that Gillan and Darvill, who portray the Doctor’s companion Amy Pond and her husband Rory Williams respectively, will leave the sci-fi show during its next series.

But Smith, who has played the Time Lord since 2010, revealed on The Graham Norton Show that he didn’t see himself following in their wake and remained committed to the programme.

When asked by the chat show host if he would also be leaving, Smith replied: No. I am very happy to stay. I love it and love making the show.

He went on to say of Gillan: “I’ll miss her because she’s my best mate. She’s mad as a box of cats but she’s a firecracker.”

Earlier this week, Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat hinted that the show’s 50th anniversary will feature multiple specials. He also rubbished reports that a planned Doctor Who movie will ‘reboot’ the story from its TV origins and start again.

Categories
Business

It was a bad year for movies on all sides!!

Movie crowds dip to 16-year low as apathy lingers

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hollywood has more tricks in its bag than ever with digital 3-D and other new film tools. Yet as the images on screen get bigger and better, movie crowds keep shrinking — down to a 16-year low as 2011’s film lineup fell well short of studios’ record expectations.

Through New Year’s Eve on Saturday, projected domestic revenues for the year stand at $10.2 billion, down 3.5 percent from 2010’s, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com. Taking higher ticket prices into account, movie attendance is off even more, with an estimated 1.28 billion tickets sold, a 4.4 percent decline and the smallest movie audience since 1995, when admissions totaled 1.26 billion.

Just what has put the movie business in the dumps is anyone’s guess — though safe bets include the tight economy, rising ticket prices, backlash against parades of sequels or remakes, and an almost-limitless inventory of portable and at-home gadgetry to occupy people’s time.

The year got off to a dismal start with what could be called an “Avatar” hangover, when revenues lagged far behind 2010 receipts that had been inflated by the huge success of James Cameron’s sci-fi sensation.

A solid summer lineup helped studios catch up to 2010, but ticket sales flattened again in the fall and have remained sluggish right into what was expected to be a terrific holiday season.

“There were a lot of high-profile movies that just ended up being a little less than were hoped for,” said Chris Aronson, head of distribution for 20th Century Fox, whose sequel “Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked” has been part of an under-achieving lineup of family films for the holidays. “The fall was pretty dismal. There just weren’t any real breakaway, wide-appeal films.”

Big franchises still are knocking it out of the park. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” the finale to J.K. Rowling’s fantasy epic, was the year’s biggest earner and the top-grossing film in the series at $381 million domestically and $1.3 billion worldwide.

“Transformers: Dark of the Moon” pulled in $352 million domestically and $1.1 billion worldwide, while “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1” has climbed to $271 million domestically and $650 million worldwide.

Other franchises did well in 2011 but came up short of their predecessors on the domestic front, among them “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” ”The Hangover Part II,” ”Kung Fu Panda 2,” ”Cars 2″ and “X-Men: First Class.”

Strong overseas business has helped make up for shrinking domestic revenues and declining DVD sales. But 2011 was the second-straight year that domestic attendance declined sharply, and audiences generally have been shrinking since 2002, when admissions hit a modern high of 1.6 billion.

It could be a case of the same-old same-olds, with fans growing tired of over-familiar characters and stories. It could be overcrowded weekends such as Thanksgiving, when studios loaded up on family films that cannibalized one another’s audiences. It could be the economy, with fans growing more selective on how often they spend their spare cash to catch a movie, particularly at a time when so many films play in 3-D with premium ticket prices.

And it could be the times we live in, when audiences have so many gadgets to play with that they don’t need to go to the movies as much as they once did.

“It’s not any one thing. It’s a little bit of everything,” said Jeff Goldstein, general sales manager at Warner Bros., whose Robert Downey Jr. sequel “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” has done solid business, yet is coming in well short of the first installment. “But consumers are being more specific with their choices on how to spend their money. The options are a little greater than they were a few years ago with gaming and social-networking opportunities.”

The year’s animated slate failed to produce a $200 million hit, the first time that’s happened since 2005. Likewise, comic-book superheroes slipped in 2011, the genre unable to deliver a $200 million hit for only the second time in the last 10 years.

Even Adam Sandler, one of Hollywood’s most-bankable stars, had a mixed year, managing a $100 million hit with “Just Go With It” but barely crossing $70 million with “Jack and Jill.”

Studio executives typically blame slow business on “the product” — weak movies that leave fans indifferent. But during the first few months of the year, when business lagged as much as 20 percent behind 2010’s, studios were confident they had great product coming, with many executives predicting that 2011 would finish with record revenues, topping the all-time domestic high of $10.6 billion in 2009.

The movies themselves turned out fairly good, and surprise smashes such as “Bridesmaids,” ”The Help,” ”Rise of the Planet of the Apes” and “The Smurfs” boosted business.

But the year was littered with duds (“Happy Feet Two,” ”Tower Heist,” ”Cowboys & Aliens”). And with only days left in 2011, Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol” is leading a batch of holiday releases that so far has done only so-so business, despite generally good reviews and high marks from the fans that are showing up.

Hollywood is left right where it was 12 months ago, finishing the year quietly and looking ahead to a promising lineup to turn its fortunes around next year.

Even more so than 2011’s schedule once looked, the 2012 film list looks colossal. Among the highlights: the superhero tales “The Dark Knight Rises,” ”The Amazing Spider-Man” and “The Avengers”; the latest in the animated franchises “Ice Age” and “Madagascar,” along with “Brave,” the new adventure from animation master Pixar; Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones’ “Men in Black 3”; Daniel Craig’s new James Bond thriller “Skyfall”; Johnny Depp’s vampire story “Dark Shadows”; Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus,” a cousin to his sci-fi classic “Alien”; and Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” the first in a two-part prequel to his “Lord of the Rings” films.

That’s just a small sampling of 2012’s big-screen titles, which also include 3-D reissues of “Titanic,” ”Finding Nemo,” ”Beauty and the Beast” and “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace.”

Looking ahead, there’s good reason for optimism in Hollywood. Looking back, though, the past year spells caution.

“I’m not prepared to be Chicken Little yet, but if the films coming in 2012 can’t reverse this trend, then I think we need to reevaluate our expectations,” said Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “We are living in a different world today than we did in the mid-’90s in terms of the technology available to deliver media. That may finally be having an impact.”

Categories
Awards

It is a great list this year!!!

‘Forrest Gump’ to be preserved in US film registry

WASHINGTON (AP) — Forrest Gump’s oft-imitated line, “My momma always said, ‘Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get’ ” will be immortalized among the nation’s treasures in the world’s largest archive of film, TV and sound recordings.

The Library of Congresson Wednesday announced that 1994’s smash hit “Forrest Gump” starring Tom Hanks was one of 25 films chosen to be included this year in the National Film Registry.

The oldest reels are silent films both from 1912. “The Cry of the Children” is about the pre-World War I child labor reform movement and “A Cure for Pokeritis” features the industry’s earliest comic superstar John Bunny.

Also from that silent era is Charlie Chaplin’s first full-length feature, “The Kid,” from 1921.
Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, each year the Librarian of Congress names 25 films that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant. This year, 2,228 films were nominated.

“These films are selected because of their enduring significance to American culture,” Librarian of Congress James H. Billington said in a statement. “Our film heritage must be protected because these cinematic treasures document our history and culture and reflect our hopes and dreams.”

For each title, the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation works to ensure that the film is preserved for future generations. That comes either by the Library’s massive motion-picture preservation program or through collaborating with other archives, motion-picture studios and independent filmmakers.

The most recent film chosen is “Forrest Gump,” which won six Academy Awards including for Best Picture.

Also starring in that movie about an everyman who ended up being part of the most iconic events of the 1960s and 1970s was Sally Field. Her perhaps most famous role playing “Norma Rae” in the movie of the same name from 1979 also made the list. She won an Academy Award for her portrayal of a poorly educated single mother who fought successfully to make her Southern textile mill a union shop.

Making the list is the animated Disney classic, “Bambi,” made in 1942 about a deer’s life in the forest, “The Big Heat” from 1953, a post-war noir film, and 1991’s disturbing, “The Silence of the Lambs,” which won Oscars for stars Jody Foster and Sir Anthony Hopkins. Hopkins plays cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter in the psychological and violent thriller.

The original “War of the Worlds” from 1953 also will be preserved along with “Porgy and Bess,” ”Stand and Deliver” and John Ford’s epic Western, “The Iron Horse,” from 1924.

Lesser known films were chosen for their significance to the art.

“A Computer Animated Hand” from 1972 is by Pixar Animation Studios co-founder Ed Catmull. The one-minute film that is one of the earliest examples of 3D computer animation displays the hand turning, opening and closing, pointing at the viewer and flexing its fingers.

Making the list were notable documentaries as well.

“Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment,” focuses on Gov. George Wallace’s attempt to prevent two African-American students from enrolling in the University of Alabama and the response of President John F. Kennedy. “Growing Up Female” from 1971 was one of the first films to come from the women’s liberation movement.

Also included was “The Negro Soldier,” produced by Frank Capra. It showed the heroism of blacks in the nation’s wars and became mandatory viewing for all soldiers from spring 1944 until World War II’s end.

Categories
Awards

It is an exciting time!!!

Oscar voters: Your ballots are in the mail

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Academy Awards season is officially on. Nominations ballots for the 84th Oscar show have just gone in the mail.

Oscar organizers mailed ballots Tuesday to 5,783 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Ballots are due back Jan. 13, and Oscar nominations will be announced Jan. 24.

The Oscar ceremony is set for Feb. 26, with Billy Crystal returning as host for the first time in eight years.

Among this season’s best-picture prospects are the black-and-white silent film “The Artist,” the Deep South drama “The Help,” George Clooney’s family tale “The Descendants” and Steven Spielberg’s World War I epic “War Horse.”

Categories
The Couch Potato Report

Happy Holidays, and Happy Movie Watching!!!

The Couch Potato Report – December 24th, 2011

Inside this week’s Couch Potato Report is one of the best films of the year…and not much else. It is a pretty slow week actually.

Many people don’t, I actually know a lot of people who don’t, but I love Woody Allen’s films.

From his earliest, late sixties releases TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN and PLAY IT AGAIN SAM, through his seventies classics ANNIE HALL and MANHATTAN, into the eighties with HANNAH AND HER SISTERS and CRIMES & MISDEMEANORS, and even his more recent films MIGHTY APHRODITE, SWEET AND LOWDOWN and MATCH POINT, I love his work…I am a fan…but I know not everyone is. The man can be an acquired taste, and he has sure made more than a few stinkers over the years as he continues his torrid one release a year pattern.

I have not recommended all of his films, even as a fan I know that a bad movie is a bad movie, but I will recommend his latest, and not just to fans…MIDNIGHT IN PARIS is a great movie that I think everyone will like, and credit for that goes mostly to the cast.

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS stars Owen Wilson from WEDDING CRASHERS and MARLEY & ME. Wilson is a great comedic actor and writer – he co-wrote RUSHMORE and the Academy Award nominated THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS – and he is at his best here as a man who is in love with the city of Paris, it’s art, it’s legacy and history.

It is the most romantic and inspirational place in the world to him, and one night – as he walks the streets and alleys of the city – he suddenly finds himself back in time, in the Paris of his dreams, the Paris of the 1920’s, where he meets many of his idols…and some of the best known artists of all time!

Canadian actress Rachel McAdams of THE NOTEBOOK and SHERLOCK HOLMES plays his materialistic fiancé and she is also great in the film.

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS is a movie about nostalgia, full of great performances, and I highly recommend it.

Even if you have never been a huge Woody Allen fan…I still say that you should check this one out…it is a very enjoyable film…one of my favourites of the year!

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS also features Carla Bruni in a small role as a Museum Guide. In real life, she is better known as Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the wife of Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of France.

Mr. Sarkozy is the focus of the biographical French film THE CONQUEST, which takes a look at his rise to power.

I didn’t really know that much about President Sarkozy before I watched the film, and I was entertained and informed by this film about him. But THE CONQUEST is never great…it is very good at times, but never great. I would recommend it to anyone who also enjoys biographies, everyone else should skip it.

And unless you love Mixed Martial Arts…the full contact combat sport that allows the use of both striking and grappling techniques, both standing and on the ground, including boxing, wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, karate, judo and other styles…unless you love MMA, you absolutely should skip WARRIOR, an exceptionally well acted movie, that ultimately has too many plot holes to recommend.

WARRIOR is about an estranged son who returns to the home of his alcoholic former boxer Father to seek his help in training for an MMA tournament.

It is also about his older – also estranged – older brother – and the path of desperation that leads him to the same tournament.

As happens in films like this, the brothers are on a collision course to fight in the finals…but which one do we root for?!?

I didn’t care who won, because while WARRIOR isn’t totally predictable, holes in the plot get in the way, and I never felt emotionally connected to either brother, or the Father.

Plus, I am not really a fan of Mixed Martial Arts…so this movie had very little for me to enjoy, or recommend.

It is truly for MMA fans, only.

Doing a complete switch of topics now…I have never hidden the fact that I find the musical numbers on the television show GLEE to be very entertaining. I don’t always care about the teen melodrama on the show…but I like the musical numbers.

Not the music, necessarily, the music numbers.

Well, if you take away the well choreographed numbers, and the melodrama, you are left with just the characters from the show singing songs.

You are left with the failed late Summer concert film GLEE – THE CONCERT MOVIE, which flopped at the box office.

None of the grown-ups from the show appear in the film, including Sue Sylvester – although she does pop up in the special features – GLEE – THE CONCERT MOVIE is just the kids singing the songs, mixed together with clips from fans at the concerts…and if you are a fan of the music the show offers up, you may enjoy it.

I didn’t care for the film at all, it looks like they are lip synching – and not even singing – most of the time, the songs – when performed by the cast without musical numbers – aren’t as great as the originals, and even at only 84 minutes, it was till much too long for me.

This one is only for true, very dedicated Gleeks.

GLEE – THE CONCERT MOVIE is just a pale imitation of the show itself, just as CONDUCT UNBECOMMING is a pale imitation of director Rob Reiner’s 1992 film A FEW GOOD MEN.

That film features a lawyer defending Marines accused of murder, who say that they were acting under orders.

This one is about a Marine – who defends himself – against war crimes.

In both people fight for their lives and honour in the unfamiliar battlefield of a military courtroom.

A FEW GOOD MEN was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, CONDUCT UNBECOMMING is best forgotten.

If you stumble across this made-in-Toronto release, skip it and pick up the Oscar nominee…now THAT is a tremendous movie.

CONDUCT UNBECOMMING…not so much.

This movie came out a while ago, and I finally had the chance to see it this week, and I am glad I did as I love – and still love – Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts…but the movie they did together this year – about a man named LARRY CROWNE – is a stinker!!

Hanks – who also directed the movie, and co-wrote it with Winnipeg’s Nia Vardalos – stars here as a middle aged man named Larry Crowne who – after losing his job – tries to reinvent himself by going back to college.

Julia Roberts is one of his professors, whose life needs some reinventing itself, and wouldn’t you know it, they fall in love.

LARRY CROWNE isn’t a bad movie, per se, but it is absolutely nothing special. If you love the cast – as I do – and you want to see it, go in with low, extremely low expectations, and you might enjoy some of it.

Otherwise, skip it…at all costs.

The great animated television series FUTURAMA, which aired from 1999 to 2003, before ceasing production. It was revived in 2007 as four mediocre straight-to-DVD films, and then last year it was brought back full time, and now the 13 newest, half-hour episodes are available on FUTURAMA – VOLUME 6.

Yes, the Planet Express crew is back and you can once again spend time with Fry, Bender, Leela and the rest of the gang…and I am happy to report, that these new episodes are as good as many of the ones from the original series.

The show remains fun and clever, and I really enjoyed it!!

FUTURAMA – VOLUME 6 is a blast!!

We leave the future of FUTURAMA now, to head to the past to meet the PREHISTORIC PREDATORS OF THE PAST.

This single disc, three episode feature has a trilogy of shows that look at – as the title implies – the PREHISTORIC PREDATORS OF THE PAST, and how they became extinct.

The documentaries here also take a look at the lineage these beasts have left behind.

I love nature, wildlife and dinosaur documentaries, and eat them up and PREHISTORIC PREDATORS OF THE PAST is no different. It features some very interesting stories.

No, the computer graphics they use to bring the creatures to life aren’t always completely effective…but I still enjoyed it.

I wanted to enjoy the biographical film about composer and conductor John Philip Sousa, but I did not…there just isn’t enough about the man in this film about him.

This is the man who is known as “The March King”, and among his best known pieces of work are “The Washington Post”, “Semper Fidelis” – which is The Official March of the United States Marine Corps, and “The Stars and Stripes Forever” – The National March of the United States of America.

STARS & STRIPES FOREVER came out in 1952 and it looks at Sousa’s life, from his early days in the Marine Corps Band through the Spanish-American War in 1898, and for me it has always failed because it is not a comprehensive look at his life, it is just a portrait of him.

STARS & STRIPES FOREVER is new on blu-ray and even though I have never enjoyed the film, the music it contains will last forever!!

Another old film that is new on blu-ray is the impressive 1970 Academy Award winning action movie TORA! TORA! TORA! about the attack on Pearl Harbour.

TORA! TORA! TORA! shows both sides of the attack, the Japanese planning, and the series of blunders on the American side that allowed it to happen.

It is two stories, two films, that slowly intertwine to become one.

TORA! TORA! TORA! features plenty of war footage and it is all exceptionally well done, and looks amazing in HD.

Plus, the blu-ray is housed in a Collectible Hardcover Book, and features the original version, and a longer cut that showed in Japan.

This is a must have for war buffs!!

Finally this week…finally this year, in fact, as this is the final Couch Potato Report of 2011, the last release I have to tell you about is a spectacular set – VIETNAM IN HD!

The producers of this 2 disc, six part series searched for colour footage from Vietnam in private collections, museums, government vaults, veteran’s and news organizations as well as sources from Vietnam to tell the stories of the soldiers who fought there.

VIETNAM IN HD starts with the initial troop build-up in 1965 and goes right through the fall of Saigon a decade later.

All of it has been re-created using music, sounds and the footage itself – all remastered in High Definition, to share the story of the war.

The war itself was very rarely pretty, and there are scenes in VIETNAM IN HD that are tough to watch, but this historical look back is a fantastic piece of work, and a beautiful tribute to the soldiers and people who were there.

The spectacular VIETNAM IN HD, the very good TORA! TORA! TORA!, the could have been better STARS & STRIPES FOREVER, the entertaining PREHISTORIC PREDATORS OF THE PAST, VOLUME 6 of the very fun and clever show FUTURAMA, skip LARRY CROWNE, and skip CONDUCT UNBECOMMING, GLEE – THE CONCERT MOVIE is for huge fans only, WARRIOR – for MMA fans only, the good but never great biopic THE CONQUEST about French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Woody Allen’s MIDNIGHT IN PARIS – one of my favourite films of the year – are all available now, either on disc or on demand.

Like, I said at the start, it is a pretty slow week for new releases.

Coming up in two weeks inside the first Couch Potato Report of 2012!

The disease thriller CONTAGION, the action film SHARK NIGHT, the made-in-Vancouver sci-fi film APOLLO 18, and the punk rock fairytale SID & NANCY debuts on Blu-ray!!

I’m Dan Reynish and I’ll have more on those, and some other releases, in fourteen days.

For now, and this year, that’s THE COUCH POTATO REPORT.

Enjoy the movies and I’ll see you back here again next time on The Couch!

Categories
Van Halen

It isn’t quite the original lineup – you are missed MIchael – but I hope to see a show or two on the tour!!

Van Halen announces tour (and, yes, David Lee Roth’s singing)

There are some universal truths that most rock fans can’t deny, be they punkers, funkers, rockers or metalheads: That at their prime in the 1970s and ’80s, Van Halen was one of the greatest flat-out rock bands on the planet, and that the combination of David Lee Roth, Eddie Van Halen, Michael Anthony and Alex Van Halen was a force of nature. The band, which rose in Los Angeles in the mid-’70s, announced on Monday an extensive 2012 tour — minus bassist Anthony, unfortunately.

At their peak, the best rock band to ever come out of Pasadena had all the bases covered: As a rhythm section, Alex Van Halen and Anthony worked as a solid but fluid unit in support of Eddie with the magic riffs and fingers, who showboated his technique but understood the importance of a solid melody. (That’s him, remember, soloing on Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.”) And “Diamond” David Lee Roth: There was no better lead singer in all of rock in the ’80s than Roth at his peak, a funny, charismatic charmer whose onstage scissor kicks created a template for dozens of lesser hair metal singers who arrived in his wake.

Van Halen’s evolution has tested the limits of its fan base. There was that whole Gary Cherone nightmare of 1998; and, at the risk of taking sides in a long-running argument, the Sammy Hagar years – for some – are best left unmentioned. In 2007 three of the original members — without Anthony, who was replaced on bass by Eddie’s son Wolfgang Van Halen — undertook part of a tour. Then, in 2010, rumors started flying about Van Halen being in the studio, and upcoming tour plans. The band signed to Interscope Records in November 2011.

No word yet on a release date for the record or specific stops on the tour. But videos on the band’s website say that tickets will go on sale on Jan. 10, and show a revived band doing their best approximation of its ’80s peak — absent, unfortunately, Anthony, swinging across the stage slugging Jack Daniels. And it’s a pretty good bet that Diamond Dave won’t be singing “Right Now,” “Why Can’t This Be Love?” or anything else from the Van Hagar years.

Categories
Movies

Of all the new Holiday Releases, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 4 is certainly the most entertaining…so I guess it deserves the win.

Cruise’s ‘Mission’ accomplishes box-office win

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hollywood has picked up a little Christmas bonus.

Studios generally underestimated the size of their movie audiences over the weekend, and they’re now revising the holiday revenues upward.

Leading the way is Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol,” which pulled in $29.5 million for the weekend. That Monday figure is $3 million more than distributor Paramount estimated a day earlier.

For the four-day period Friday to Monday, Paramount estimates “Ghost Protocol” will have taken in $46.2 million to raise its domestic total to $78.6 million. That’s on top of $140 million the film has taken in overseas, giving it a worldwide haul of $218.6 million.

Studios Monday also reported stronger results than they did a day earlier for Robert Downey Jr.’s “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows,” which was No. 2 at $20.3 million for the three-day weekend and $31.8 million for the four-day period; Steven Spielberg’s “The Adventures of Tintin” at No. 5 with $9.7 million over three days and $16.1 million for four days; and Matt Damon’s “We Bought a Zoo” at No. 6 with $9.5 million over three days and $15.6 million for four days.

In a tight race for the No. 4 spot were David Fincher’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and the family sequel “Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked.”

“Dragon Tattoo” did $12.8 million over three days and $19.4 million for four days. “Chipwrecked” took in $12.7 million over three days and $20 million for four days.

A few films debuted on Christmas Day, among them Spielberg’s World War I epic “War Horse,” which took in $7.5 million Sunday. Through Monday, its estimated two-day total is $15 million.

Also debuting was Emile Hirsch’s action thriller “The Darkest Hour,” which earned $3 million Sunday and had a two-day total of $5.5 million through Monday.

Opening solidly in just six theaters was Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock’s Sept. 11 drama “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close,” which took in $71,000 Sunday and $136,000 through Monday. The film expands to nationwide release in January.

Despite the upward revision on some movies’ revenues, the Christmas weekend continued a box-office slide that has persisted since Thanksgiving. Overall revenues from Friday to Monday totaled $184 million, down 10 percent from Christmas weekend last year, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.

Categories
Movies

Come on, really?!?!? I am so tired of 3D!!!

Disney Switches Marvel’s ‘Avengers’ to 3D

“The Avengers” has a new superpower: 3D. Walt Disney Studios said Thursday that the movie will be released in the format when it debuts May 4.

The movie had previously been slated for 2D only.

In the same announcement, Walt Disney Studios said another, untitled Marvel movie has moved up from a wide release on June 27, 2014, to a wide release on Apr. 4, 2014. There has been speculation that the sequel to “Captain America” might arrive in 2014.

Also, Disney shed some light on a previously untitled movie scheduled for a Nov. 27, 2013, release. It will be called “Frozen.”

A report saying “Frozen” is the untitled Pixar movie about dinosaurs — which is due in 2013 — is incorrect, a Disney representative told TheWrap.

“The Avengers” won’t be the only major 2012 superhero film released in 3D. Another Marvel movie, Columbia Pictures’ “The Amazing Spider-Man,” will also be released in 3D when it comes out July 3.

However, Warner Bros.’ “The Dark Knight Rises,” which comes out July 20, will not be released in 3D.

“The Avengers” is an ensemble movie that stars Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Chris Evans as Captain America, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner and Tom Hiddleston as villain Loki (Thor’s half-brother).

It is written and directed by Joss Whedon.

“I don’t know who doesn’t know about ‘The Avengers,’ at this point,” Disney’s distribution chief, Dave Hollis, previously told TheWrap.

“It will be an absolute phenomenon,” he predicted.

The first “Avengers” trailer was released in mid-October.

Categories
Letterman

For me, it isn’t Christmas without them!!

Odd holiday traditions for David Letterman

NEW YORK (AP) — Think holiday traditions and mistletoe, eggnog and caroling come to mind. David Letterman’s Christmas includes target practice at a giant meatball, the Lone Ranger and singer Darlene Love.

Each has become part of CBS “Late Show” lore through the years, their appearances anticipated by fans like wrapped presents under a tree. The meatball, the Lone Ranger and Love all return Friday.

Comic Jay Thomas will be back to try to knock a meatball off the top of a Christmas tree with a football and recount his Lone Ranger anecdote again. Love will sing “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” as fake snow flutters to the stage.

“The best traditions are the ones you can’t plan,” said Rob Burnett, executive producer of “Late Show.”

“These happened very organically on our show and it is very silly and very goofy. It makes sense with the sensibility of the ‘Late Show’ to be part of our tradition.”

Letterman’s on-set Christmas tree is frequently decorated with oddities, such as the meatball on top instead of a star, Angel or bow.

It all started one night back in 1998 when New York Jets quarterback Vinny Testaverde was a guest. He and Letterman picked up footballs and began tossing them at the tree, aiming for the meatball. Watching their failures impatiently from the wings was Thomas, former quarterback at tiny Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, N.C.

Thomas had discussed trying the target practice with Letterman before the show, but no one told that to stage manager Biff Henderson. He blocked Thomas from going out on stage.

“I fake to the right and Biff goes to catch me and I run around him like a scramble,” said Thomas, who picked up a football and threw with laserlike accuracy at the meatball, accomplishing in one throw what the NFL quarterback couldn’t in several.

Testaverde has been forgotten, but Thomas is invited back each year to see if he can repeat his feat.

Around the same time — Thomas isn’t sure exactly when — Letterman heard about a story Thomas told of his time as a radio DJ in the South when he and a friend had to give a ride to Clayton Moore, star of television’s “Lone Ranger.” We won’t be spoilers; Letterman has called it the “best story I’ve ever heard.”

The story, too, is repeated each year. Thomas said he and Letterman have never discussed why it has become a tradition. It just has.

“It is the craziest thing I have ever been a part of,” he said.

Thomas practices before each appearance, taking a football into Central Park and aiming at a particular tree branch.

Two years ago Letterman knocked off the meatball with his own throw before Thomas even came out on stage, leaving the comic — whose acting career has cooled — to moan in fake distress: “This is all I have!”

Last year Thomas needed a cortisone shot to make the show after he had injured his shoulder throwing a golf ball. “They’re shooting me up like a racehorse to make $760 and hit a friggin’ meatball,” he said.

He’s heard from plenty of people who look forward to his annual appearance, including a well-known Hollywood movie director. The power player, who Thomas wouldn’t name, confessed that he’s bipolar and often plays a recording of the holiday show when he’s glum. Thomas is glad to cheer the director up. He’d like it even more if he could get an audition for one of the man’s movies.

The Darlene Love tradition has deeper roots. Letterman bandleader Paul Shafferlearned early on when he tried to play “Monster Mash” on Halloween that his boss isn’t much into holiday music. But Love’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” originally recorded for the landmark 1963 holiday album “A Christmas Gift for You,” is “the one place where his and my holiday tastes coincide,” Shaffer said. “He loves the song.”

Shaffer was performing with Love in Ellie Greenwich’s musical “Leader of the Pack” in winter 1984 and Letterman came to see them. Shaffer isn’t sure which man had the idea of inviting her on the show — then televised on NBC — but everyone was pleased with the results.

The first time, Shaffer accompanied Love with a quartet. As the years went on musicians were added to approximate original producer Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound,” and upwards of 20 musicians and singers have been onstage with Love.

Each year’s twist involves how red-suited saxophone player Bruce Kapler will appear for his solo: One year he burst through a chimney. The widow of famed sax session player Steve Douglas, who played on the original “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” recording, sold Shaffer the horn used on that session, and Kapler borrows it each year for Love’s appearance.

Letterman’s staff has a real emotional connection to the song, enhanced with the passage of time, Burnett said.

“Every year there’s a moment in the song, where she is hitting it full blast and the confetti comes down, just about every staff member — even the toughest stagehand — you can see just choking it back,” he said.

All of it — the football, the meatball, the anecdote and the song — make for an odd mix. But Letterman can be an odd man.

“If Dave didn’t enjoy it, it wouldn’t be on TV,” Burnett said.