Weekend Movie Guide (1/9/2014)

Ryan

3753 days ago.

Two movies open this weekend in wide release. The director of Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger tells the ancient story of Hercules in The Legend of Hercules. Director Peter Berg tells the story of former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell and his team in Lone Survivor. Mark Wahlberg gets top billing on movie posters, but the film also stars Taylor Kitsch of Friday Night Lights fame. Unfortunately, Connie Britton is not in the film.

Recapping Last Weekend

Frozen earned another $20.7 million to take the top spot in the first weekend of 2014. It has now earned over $642 million worldwide in less than seven weeks. Only 46.7% of that has come domestically. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones opened in second place with $18.3 million and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug was third with $15.7 million. The Wolf of Wall Street earned $13.2 million and American Hustle rounded out the top five with $12.4 million.

While the newest Paranormal Activity movie has continued the franchise’s downward trend, it has still made almost $37 million worldwide on a budget of just $5 million.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire has now passed the original’s entire domestic run and has vastly improved on its foreign take to give it $832 million worldwide in under seven weeks.

Opening This Weekend

The Legend of Hercules

Director Renny Harlin’s biggest hit came in 1990 with Die Hard 2: Die Harder. He will probably always be remember for one of the biggest box office flops of all-time, 1995’s Cutthroat Island. Kellan Lutz plays the son of Zeus. He played Emmett Cullen in the Twilight movies. This is actually the first of two movies that will come out this year starring Hercules. Dwayne Johnson will play the title role in July’s Hercules. Of course, both actors will be trying to live up to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1969 portrayal.

Lone Survivor

Marcus Luttrell wrote 2007’s Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 as a tribute to his teammates that lost their lives in June 2005.Luttrell is pleased with how the movie adaptation of his book turned out. Read this Huffington Post take on the film. It’s one you want to see in theaters to truly appreciate the sacrifice that those in uniform go through.

Catch It Before It’s Gone

The Book Thief recently made its way to the “land of misfit movies”. It is set in World War II Germany and stars Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson and Sophie Nélisse. The film garnered great reviews and has led to a resurgence in sales for the 2007 book by Markus Zusak.

Make It A Redbox Night

Dispicable Me 2, Fast & Furious 6 are too big budget movies new to Redbox this week. Thanks For Sharing also is now available. Sharing stars Mark Ruffalo, Gwyneth Paltrow and Tim Robbins yet barely made over $1 million during a six-week run in theaters. It took in half of that amount in its opening weekend. The fact that its widest release was 269 theaters didn’t help its numbers. The film got fairly bad reviews on sites like Rotten Tomatoes and from critics, like this gem from Peter Howell at the Toronto Star.

“It’s frankly exhausting to keep up with these neurotic over-sharers, who are neither serious enough to care about nor humorous enough to laugh at.”

You might want to stay away from American Milkshake unless you are lucky enough to get a Buy One-Get One text.

Brought to you by Mills Properties.

Ryan

Ryan is a weird dude. He doesn't cook, yet owns a plethora of kitchen gadgets. He rationalized buying a SodaStream while unemployed. He counts Step Up 2: The Streets as one of his favorite movies along with Footloose, Rent, Grease and Paul Blart: Mall Cop. He loves Mizzou but only wants them in the SEC so he can tailgate in Nashville. He owns a ShakeWeight and AbLounger, but still loves him some John Donut and Billie's Fine Foods. You can get more of Ryan at iLoveSoulard.com or just check the stool on the far end of the bar at iTap in Soulard.