Tuesday, November 3, 2009

November Rain AKA Dartflix Edition #68

The CGI update of the legendary anime/manga "Astro Boy" had an incredibly disappointing showing in North America. It suffered for several reason: First, only hardcore oldhead anime fans were really amped to see it as Astro Boy was never super popular in the States. Secondly, "Paranormal Activity", "Saw VI", "Where The Wild Things Are" and "Law Abiding Citizen" had essentially all the bases covered for filmgoers over "Astro Boy". That lead to an anemic $6.7 million dollar opening weekend. The film had a $65 million dollar production budget so it'll have to rely on overseas box offices to break even. It's only made $11 million in North America in under 3 weeks. Ouch!


Fellow Bostonian Troy Duffy who managed to ruin a situation where he had the entire world handed to him on a platter with a raging ego and poor decision making abilities. After a long absence he returns with the long awaited sequel to the cult classic "Boondock Saints". "The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day" opened on Halloween in 68 theaters and pulled in a respectable $546,687. Hopefully it continues to open in more theaters and eventually makes it nationwide. I'm looking forward to the DVD release more than anything. If you haven't seen "Boondock Saints" or the Troy Duffy documentary "Overnight" please do so.

The posthumous Michael Jackson concert film "This Is It" made $23,234,394 in it's opening 5 day weekend which was good for 1st place at the box office. Problem is that the studio expected "This Is It" to generate at least $30 million in that amount of time. North American audiences once again disappointed but the film has done huge numbers worldwide to make up for the low turnout of American support for the project. To date, it's passed the $37 million mark to go along with a $70 million worldwidebox office take. I imagine Sony Pictures will try to bring this concert film to the PS3 somehow before they put out the DVD & Blu-Ray edition near the holiday season.

November is going to be an interesting month for the film industry as it tries to build momentum towards the holiday film season. Will we see an increase in theatergoers this year or will this be the first year in a while where a new box office record doesn't get broken? Enough writing, onto the film recommendations for the first half of November.

Films I recommend in theaters (11.1.09 -11.15.09) or to add to your queue early or for rental from either Netflix or Redbox:

The Fourth Kind
The Box
The Men Who Stare At Goats
Pirate Radio
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
Food Inc.
The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3
Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut
Ballast
Lemon Tree
The Narrows
The Answer Man
Spread
Pray The Devil Back To Hell
Familiar Strangers
Ink
The Line
Flight Of The Conchords: The Complete First And Second Seasons (series)
Spin City: Season 3 (series)
The Shield: Complete Series (series)
Edge Of Darkness: The Complete BBC Series (series)
Up (animated)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The Complete Season One (animated)
Ruby-Spears Superman (animated)
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero: Season 1.2 (animated)
Wolverine And The X-Men: Beginning Of The End (animated)
Wolverine And The X-Men: Volumes 1-3 (animated)
Justice League: The Complete Series (animated)
Batman: The Brave & The Bold, Vol. 2 (animated)
Bleach Uncut Box Set: Season 4, Part 1-The Bount (anime)
Witchblade: The Complete Series (anime)
Moribito-Guardian Of The Spirit Volume 7 (anime)
The Tower Of Druaga: Part One: The Aegis Of Uruk (anime)
Dragonaut: The Resonance, Complete Series, Part 1 (anime)
Naruto: Shippuden-The Movie (anime)
Giant Robo-Complete (anime)
Forrest Gump [Blu-Ray]
A Time To Kill [Blu-Ray]
Empire Of The Sun [Blu-Ray]
North By Northwest (50th Anniversary Edition) [Blu-Ray]
Say Anything [Blu-Ray]
Two Girls And A Guy [Blu-Ray]
Monsters, Inc. [Blu-Ray]
Logan's Run [Blu-Ray]
Wings Of Desire (Criterion Edition)
Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics Vol. 1 (The Big Heat/5 Against The House/The Lineup/Murder By Contact/The Sniper)
Unmistaken Child (documentary)
The Genius Of Charles Darwin (documentary)
Motown: The DVD (documentary)
Sesame Street: 40 Years Of Sunny Days (documentary)
Thin Lizzy-Rockpallast (documentary)
Will Ferrel: You're Welcome, America-A Final Night With George Bush (comedy special)
Gabriel Iglesias: I'm Not Fat, I'm Fluffy (comedy special)
Where The Wild Things Are
Law Abiding Citizens
Black Dynamite
Amelia
Astro Boy
Ong Bak 2
The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day
The Ministers
Antichrist
Battlestar Galactica: The Plan
Medicine For Melancholy
The Tournament
Fear(s) Of The Dark
Zombieland
Capitalism: A Love Story
A Serious Man
Whip It
The Invention Of Lying
More Than A Game
Good Hair
Couples Retreat
The Assassination Of A High School President
American Violet
The Informant!
Pandorum
Paranormal Activity
Lymelife
Observe And Report
Away We Go
Management
Shrink
The Girlfriend Experience
Extract
Carriers
Dorian Gray
State Of Play
Sleep Dealer
Take Out
Grace
Shadow Boxer
Inglorious Basterds
Five Minutes Of Heaven
Big Fan
Surveillance
Duplicity
Adventureland
Sunshine Cleaning
The Informers
Shinjuku Incident
Trouble The Water
Tyson
Cold Souls
District 9
The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard
It Might Get Loud
The Soloist
Gomorrah
Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince
(500) Days Of Summer
Funny People
The Answer Man
Shrink
In The Loop
Thirst
Watchmen (Director's Cut) (Two Disc Special Edition)
An Empress And The Warriors
Public Enemies
Soul Power
Dead Snow
Death Trance
Night Train
Five Fingers
Resolved
Horsemen
[REC]
Explicit Ills
Waltz With Bashir
Sword Of The Stranger
Tokyo!
The Hangover
The Taking Of Pelham 123
Moon
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete [Blu-Ray]
Bane
Killshot
Star Trek
The Limits Of Control
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Incendiary
Caprica
Martyrs (Unrated)
As The Technics Spin
The Escapist
Watchmen: Tales Of The Black Freighter & Under The Hood
Elegy
Special
Timecrimes
Battle In Seattle
50 Dead Men Walking
B13: Ultimatum
Protege
Chocolate
Baby


Dart's Movie Recommendations (I personally cosign all of these joints):

The Fourth Kind
The Box
The Men Who Stare At Goats
Pirate Radio
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
Food Inc.
The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3
Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut
Ballast
Lemon Tree
Flight Of The Conchords: The Complete First And Second Seasons (series)
Up (animated)
Wolverine And The X-Men: Volumes 1-3 (animated)
Justice League: The Complete Series (animated)
Batman: The Brave & The Bold, Vol. 2 (animated)
Giant Robo-Complete (anime)
Forrest Gump [Blu-Ray]
A Time To Kill [Blu-Ray]
Empire Of The Sun [Blu-Ray]
North By Northwest (50th Anniversary Edition) [Blu-Ray]
Say Anything [Blu-Ray]
Two Girls And A Guy [Blu-Ray]
Logan's Run [Blu-Ray]
Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics Vol. 1 (The Big Heat/5 Against The House/The Lineup/Murder By Contact/The Sniper)
Motown: The DVD (documentary)
Sesame Street: 40 Years Of Sunny Days (documentary)
Will Ferrel: You're Welcome, America-A Final Night With George Bush (comedy special)


Rent/Watch these movies at your own risk:

G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra: More like "The Rise Of Bile"...

I Love You, Beth Cooper: I hate you, movie...

The Ugly Truth: Romantic comedies suck. Oh, and there is no Santa Claus....

Godzilla [Blu-Ray]: Technology somehow managed to make this film even worse? *Starts a slow clap*

Xavier: Renegade Angel-Season 1 & 2: I'll NEVER get high enough to think this show is worth wasting my time with...

Precious: A movie based on a mediocre novel with Oprah AND Tyler Perry on production duties. That screams "DART HATE"...Watch BET promote THEE FUCK outta it

2012: Why do I want to watch the world end...again? Fuck outta here. All that's gonna happen on December 12, 2012 is Dre's gonna finally drop "Detox"...



Coming (relatively) Soon To A Theater (or computer) Near You:

One.

No comments: