film criticism by maryann johanson | celebrating 25 years: 1997–2022
It’s all those balloons holding it aloft: 1. Up: £3.8 million (3rd week; drops 26%) 2. Saw VI: £1.7 million (NEW) 3. Fantastic Mr. Fox: £1.5 million (NEW) 4. Couples Retreat: £.93 million (2nd week; drops 49%) 5. Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant: £.798 million (NEW) (actual numbers, not estimates) Up had edged close … more…
Oh my god, is Owen Wilson gonna be a huge star or what? This weekend, millions of people who have never seen Bottle Rocket, have never heard of Wes Anderson, and have no idea that Wilson is a screenwriter of no small talent will be cheering on an Owen Wilson who channels the spirit of Steve McQueen while kicking some collective Bosnian ass and being all that he can be. Cuz Bruce Willis is gettin’ too old for this shit, I guess.
Can it be a coincidence that both of the big new flicks this Memorial Day weekend — the kickoff for Hollywood’s first summer movie season of the twenty-first century — are basically Hong Kong action movies? The people who think about these kinds of things — current-events journalists, mainly — have already predicted that if the 1900s were the American century, the 2000s may well be the Asian century… but they were speaking economically and politically. I guess it’s probably inevitable that Asia would start to hold some cultural sway in the West, too.
