At the movies...

I went into to work early tonight to check out Whip It. Initially, I thought it wasn't that great. Drew Barrymore did a good job for her directorial debut, but nothing extraordinary. The writing was downright awful, and as a result, the acting suffered dearly. I only caught a big chunk of the middle, but from what I can tell, its not a very funny or dramatic film.

The most memorable moment was a scene (stolen from about 50 other teen rom-coms) where Ellen's character and her new boy toy break into an abandoned indoor swimming facility and proceed to get naked underwater. At first, my male instincts told me this was a good thing, that the only good girl is a naked one. But wait a minute, girl? Isn't Ellen Page a woman by now? Yes, but not in this movie. She plays a 17 yr old that looks all of 15. Now I'm sure for some creeps out there this might be life altering or something stupid, but honestly for me, it was really uncomfortable, like walking in on your grandmother changing. See thats my problem with it: the scene is done very well, very romantic (props Drew). But then they start ripping off clothes and it turns into this sexual encounter with the illegal kind. They don't get completely naked, but again, Ellen Page in her skivvies just feels wrong.

If your looking for funny, you should probably go see Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (its seriously HILARIOUS!). But if you like the actresses as much as I do (Kristen Wiig for the win!) or if you're just looking for a cool indie flick with some really great music (including Kim Deal and The Strokes!) then definitely go for Whip It. Although considering all the other options out there + over-priced concessions, I would just suggest you see a matinee, use your student discount or wait for the video.

Anyways, we were really busy down at the old theater tonight. These last three weeks have been huge for us. First, we opened I Can Do Bad All By Myself on September 11, which due to the demographics of our area, has done extremely well. Then on the 18th, we got Cloudy with A Chance of Meatballs. With that playing in 3-D in two separate screens, Love Happens in its first week, Tyler Perry's movie only in its second week, and All About Steve old enough to accept passes and coupons, people came in droves! It was busier than I had seen it all summer. Then finally last weekend we began to see a slight drop in attendance as the only new movie was Surrogates. However Cloudy and I Can Do Bad were still pilin' 'em in.

Tonight was exciting. We opened the Toy Story 3-D double feature on the big screen, and moved Cloudy into the 2nd smallest theater in the building. It was packed. And as I mentioned, we also opened Whip It. I Can Do Bad and Love Happens were squished together on our smallest screen, but still did pretty well. 4 weeks in and Madea don't quit. Beliee dat.

Here's my early prediction for the weekend box office:

1. Toy Story 3-D Double Feature $20m

2. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs $18m

3. Zombieland $17.5m

4. Capitalism: A Love Story $15m

5. Whip It $7m

6. The Informant! $5m

7. Surrogates $4m

8. I Can Do Bad All By Myself $3.5m

9. The Invention of Lying $3m

10. Fame $2.5m

11. A Serious Man $2m

If I'm wrong, then Zombieland will be #1. It was really hard to choose because I don't know which is going to reach more theaters. Toy Story should make more money A. Because its Disney/Pixar B. Because 3-D movies generally cost $2 extra for the special projector thats required to play them. And I'm not sold on Zombieland. The previews just really didn't do it for me. I don't think Woody and Jesse are big enough to beat Buzz and Woody.

We'll see...