Weekend Movie Guide (2/6/14)

Ryan

3732 days ago.

A very well-received movie starring popular toys goes up against a film starring a quartet of popular actors. The director of Mean Girls teams up with his brother to bring a third film opening this weekend. The Lego Movie and The Monuments Men will vie for the top spot at the box office this weekend while Mark Waters’s Vampire Academy will seek to find enough of an audience for a sequel.

Recapping Last Weekend

Ride Along again topped the box office last weekend. It was its third first-place finish in the five weekends of 2014. The buddy cop comedy took the top spot with just more than $12 million. The film made for $25 million is now closing in on $100 million in just 19 days of release. Frozen and That Awkward Moment finished extremely close for spots two and three with the animated film taking in $8.93 million and the Zac Efron comedy taking in $8.74 million. Frozen has now topped $500 million overseas and is just above $865 million in total. The Nut Job finished in fourth place with a $7.2 million weekend and Lone Survivor rounded out the top five with $7.1 million.

Labor Day finished in seventh place with a $5.175 million opening weekend. That total put it just behind Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.

Opening This Weekend

The Lego Movie

A host of stars lend their voices to plastic block figures adventure. Will Arnett voices a Batman figure. Will Ferrell voice President Business. Will Forte, Morgan Freeman and Jonah Hill also lend their voices. Elizabeth Banks voices Wyldstyle, the female lead. Moviefone put out a list of ten things to know about the movie, including that the song “Everything is AWESOME!!!” is awesome. Word is this movie looks amazing and you should spring for the 3-D ticket. Lego Movie is directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who also put together Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and 21 Jump Street.

This is also your chance to watch Chris Pratt be a hero before Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy comes out later the year and his career takes off.

The Monuments Men

George Clooney gets a writing credit and also stars in this WWII story. He is joined by Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett and John Goodman. The film tells the story of a group of art lovers tasked with accompanying Allied troops in order to rescue valuable works of art from being plundered. The film is based on a true story as told in a book by Robert M. Edsel. ScreenRant is picking The Monuments Men to come in second to The Lego Movie this weekend.

Vampire Academy

This is the first attempt to bring the young-adult book series to the big screen. Think Mean Girls crossed with Twilight. The six books in the series have sold 8 million copies worldwide. Director Mark Waters is best known for Mean Girls and Freaky Friday in the early part of the 2000s. His most recent success was Mr. Popper’s Penguins in 2011. This film is hopefully the start of a franchise for the studio. The author of the book series, Richelle Mead, has stated she is quite happy with the way the casting and film adaptation turned out.

Catch It Before It’s Gone

Keller 8 welcomes three movies this weekend to their lineup; Anchorman 2, Grudge Match and Devil’s Due. While the numbers for Ron Burgundy’s second time on film may have been a bit disappointing, it still brought in $124 million. This is your chance to catch the greatest news team ever on the big screen for a fraction of the price.

Make It A Redbox Night

It’s incredibly cold in St. Louis and lucky for you, Redbox has a great selection of movies available right now. Escape Plan, Runner Runner and The Butler are all newly available. Another new movie is getting rave reviews. The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete features two American Idol products in Jennifer Hudson and Jordin Sparks, but really stars Skylan Brooks and Ethan Dizon. For some unknown reason this film only played in theaters for 3 weeks and never in more than 147. It’s one that is definitely worth your $1.20

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.