How to Spend $20
By Eric Hughes
March 22, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Pick of the Week
How Do You Know
James L. Brooks' first writer-director credit since Spanglish didn’t earn back nearly enough money to justify How Do You Know’s reported $120 million budget. Instead, it stumbled out of the gate with a little over $7 million in its opening weekend, and final domestic tally of $30.2 million.
No, How Do You Know isn’t a strangely named sequel to The Lord of the Rings or The Matrix, but a romantic comedy that ended up costing Columbia Pictures a total crap load to distribute. I mean, if I had $120 million to do with what I wanted, I certainly would not choose to produce a rather generic looking piece of fiction and spend nearly half of the money on talent alone.
Disc includes: Blooper reel, deleted scenes, Extra Innings: Making Of featurette, audio commentary, A Conversation with James L. Brooks and Hans Zimmer featurette
Skyline
An official synopsis to Skyline: After a late night party, a group of friends are awoken in the dead of the night by an eerie light beaming through the window. Like moths to a flame, the light source is drawing people outside before they suddenly vanish into the air. They soon discover an otherwordly force is swallowing the entire human population off the face of the earth. Now our band of survivors must fight for their lives as the world unravels around them.
And in Battle: Los Angeles, released a week and a half ago: …Earth is attacked by unknown forces. As people everywhere watch the world's great cities fall, Los Angeles becomes the last stand for mankind in a battle no one expected. It's up to a Marine staff sergeant (Aaron Eckhart) and his new platoon to draw a line in the sand as they take on an enemy unlike any they've ever encountered before.
What the Skyline synopsis leaves out is that the movie takes place in, yep, Los Angeles – all but guaranteeing that Skyline and Battle: Los Angeles are more or less the same movie. So much so that the filmmakers hired to do Battle: LA’s visual effects, Greg and Colin Strause, were suspected to have created their own LA-based alien flick – what would become Skyline – using the knowledge they gathered from Battle: LA.
Of course, this isn’t the first time competing studios played an expensive game of copycat. Just a few years ago, we got two movies centered around magic (The Prestige, The Illusionist) and Truman Capote (Capote, Infamous). Back in the ‘90s, we got served two flicks about attempting to prepare for and then hopefully destroy a large comet (Deep Impact, Armageddon).
Disc includes: Audio commentaries, deleted and extended scenes, alternate scenes, Pre-Visualization featurette
The Tourist
One thing Ricky Gervais did right as host of the most recent Golden Globe Awards is call out The Tourist as a movie probably undeserving of its three Golden nominations: Best Picture (Musical or Comedy), Best Actor (Johnny Depp) and Best Actress (Angelina Jolie). In fact, when nominations were unveiled in Los Angeles in December, the press room laughed. Why would the Hollywood Foreign Press Association nominate a romance thriller? Gervais argued it was the HFPA solely wanting Depp and Jolie to fill seats at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
Well. I haven’t seen The Tourist, nor do I intend to. That’s because I did a little light research around the time the movie debuted in theaters and happened upon a review that poked fun at The Tourist’s silly twist. And by silly twist, I mean what may be the worst idea in Hollywood since Freddy Got Fingered.
Disc includes: Outtakes reel, alternate animated title sequence, audio commentary, A Gala Affair featurette, Bringing Glamour Back featurette, Action in Venice featurette, Tourist Destination featurette, Canal Cheats featurette
Yogi Bear
Warner Bros. averted an expensive failure when its 3D take on a popular cartoon, Yogi Bear, managed to cume nearly $100 million domestically after opening to a relatively weak $16.4 million. Yogi Bear, actually, is still workin’ it in more than 400 theaters, and has proven to have as good a pair of legs as [insert your favorite female actress here]. Its multiplier - comparing opening weekend to total gross - is a pretty 6.06.
Disc includes: Fun on the Yogi Bear Set featurette, Tour of Jellystone Park featurette, Pic-A-Nic Demo, Jellystone Park Jewel featurette, New Looney Tunes Cartoon Rabid Rider, Spending a Day at Jellystone Park featurette, Are You Smarter than the Average Bear? featturette, Yogi Bear Mashup featurette
March 22, 2011
Blu-ray
Adventures of a Teenage Dragonslayer
Against All Odds (Special Edition)
Alpha Dog / Assault on Precinct 13
Anastasia
Awakenings
Battle of Los Angeles
Because of Winn-Dixie
Beyond The Darkness: Buio Omega
The Bible
Blood
The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection
Concert For George
Death Race / Death Race 2
Devolved
Django / Now They Call Him Sacramento
Dr. Dolittle
Elizabeth: Golden Age / Elizabeth
Ernest Goes To Camp / Ernest Goes To Jail
Firebreather
Flicka
Friday Nights Lights / The Express
Galaxina / The Crater Lake Monster
Garfield: The Movie / Garfield: Tail of Two Kitty
Green Day: Awesome As Fk
How Do You Know
How to Train Your Dragon
Iron Man
Jet Li's Fearless / Unleashed
Kurokami Animation: Volume 6
The Last Gun / 4 Dollars of Revenge
Mercury Rising / The Jackal
Nature: The Himalayas
Our Hospitality( Ultimate Edition)
Random Hearts
Riddick Trilogy
Robots
The Sandlot
Scary Movie 4
Skyline
Spy Game / State of Play
Stand By Me (25th Anniversary Edition)
The Times of Harvey Milk (Criterion Collection)
The Tourist
Vanquisher
The Venture Bros.: The Complete Season 4
Yogi Bear
DVD
Adventures of a Teenage Dragonslayer
The Adventures of Ma & Pa Kettle Vol. 1
Against All Odds (Special Edition)
Aries Spears: Look At Me Now
Battle of Los Angeles
The Bill Cosby Show: The Best of Season One
Blood
The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection
Devolved
Firebreather
Frontline: Battle for Haiti
Green Day: Awesome As F**k (Music CD +)
How Do You Know
Nature: The Himalayas
Our Hospitality (Ultimate Edition)
The People I've Slept With
Piece of Cake: The Complete Series
Psych: The Complete First Season
Psych: The Complete Second Season
Skyline
Stand By Me (25th Anniversary Edition)
The Times of Harvey Milk (Criterion Collection)
The Tourist
Vanquisher
Yogi Bear