Box Office Scares Up Dough

1. Saw II - The top movie of this past weekend is a sequel that had a shooting budget that was 5 times as large as it's predecessor. Granted, that's still only 5 million, so a 30 million opening weekend is not all that bad. It's actually pretty great, so expect Jigsaw to show up for a Saw III next year. I haven't seen either of the installments yet, but my wife was pleading to go rent the first one this past weekend. Why do I bring this up? Because she hates scary movies. I think my wife was replaced by the pod-people.

2. The Legend of Zorro - This family/action/comedy sequel that's about 5 years too late in coming did decent business. Not enough for Catherine Zeta Jones to stop doing T-Mobile commercials, but enough for a couple of house payments. Hey, I know how it is. Rich people have to pay bills too. And their bills are usually larger than our poor plebian bills. I don't have 500 bucks to pay for a brazilian bikini wax myself, so I have to use tweezers. But I also haven't starred in two Zorro movies, so I don't expect myself to have money to get a fancy schmancy nether-region wax job.

3. Prime - The real scary movie that should have captured the top spot in the box office this weekend. Anything with aging women getting it on with young guys is just terrifying. Specially if the mother knows that a 40 something year old is banging her young son. All the trailers/commercials I have seen for this make me want to commit sepuku on myself . . . which is great if you hate me. Buy me a ticket if you want me to die.

4. Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story - It's been reported that Dakota Fanning actually convinced the screenwriters of this movie to change the main kid character from a boy to a girl so she could star in it. I am imagining it went a little like that scene in Pet Sematary when the little boy comes back and cuts the ankle of the guy that played Hermann Munster. Creepy. She probably used those jagged yellow teeth of hers.

5. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit - When watching this movie, a little girl in the audience actually screamed out when Wallace was undergoing his transformation to the were-rabbit and it was just . . . oh wait, did I just spoil the movie for the 5 people who have not seen this yet? Oops. Teehee.

6. The Weather Man - It's not great when you have reviewers calling your main actors "Acting Royalty" and your movie still opens at the bottom 5 of the countdown. Even if they actually do a good job in the movie. Nicholas Cage seems to be undergoing some sort of acting renaissance. He's just picking better and better projects. Not that this makes me want to watch this any more. I mean, I might not scoff at it while I pass it at the video store.

7. Doom - This is the kind of movie that made most of it's take on the first weekend and now it's steadily declining. Expect it not to show up next week. Mostly because it has zero story, and it'd make a great rental or DVD purchase. I enjoyed it, but not the consequences of taking my wife to watch it. We had to check out Elizabethtown as a result of that . . . and there's nothing scarier than Kirsten Dunst trying to be cute. Yuck.

8. North Country - This movie won't make a ton of money. But it's bound to get some nominations for Golden Globes or Oscars . . . especially if Charlize Theron bares her Golden Globes. She'll surely get an award from BAFW if that happens. Of course, I'd have to watch the movie first . . . unless Ms Theron wants me to personally review said Globes.

9. The Fog - Still plunging steadly to oblivion is this remake of the John Carpenter classic movie about killer weather. Ok, fine . . killer phantom pirates that call the mist their home. Or something like that. All I know is that the remake has Maggie Grace in panties, and people seem to like that.

10. Flightplan - This movie's ridiculous set up has given it some wings as it finally is getting off the top 10. I just want to know how many souls were offered up to the Devil to get it to keep the top spot for two weeks.