I CAN DO BAD ALL BY MYSELF Tops Box Office

Taraji P. Henson, Mary J. Blige, Adam Rodriguez in Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself. Photo: Quantrell Colbert.

Tyler Perry’s latest family comedy-drama, I Can Do Bad All By Myself, found its way to the top of the North American box office this weekend with $24 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates.
I Can Do Bad All By Myself got off to a strong start Friday and maintained its dominance at No. 1, scoring a solid average of $10,656 per theater at 2,255 locations. Starring Taraji P. Henson, the film follows the spiritual transformation of a troubled nightclub singer.

At a distant No. 2, Shane Acker’s animated adventure 9 collected $10.8 [...]

2009 Critics Choice Winners

The biggest Critics’ Choice 2009 winner was Slumdog Millionaire, which received five awards: best film, best director (Danny Boyle), best young actor (Dev Patel), best writer (Simon Beaufoy), and best composer (A. R. Rahman). As for the biggest loser, that was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which lost every single one of its eight nominations.
Milk fared a little better, with two wins — best actor for Sean Penn and best ensemble — out of eight nods.
Expect the Academy’s choices to be quite similar — perhaps even identical — to the Broadcast Critics’ choices in just about every category, from best film to best song. Do not, however, expect a tie for the two The Devil Wears Prada co-stars. [...]

THE AVIATOR Screening

Martin Scorsese’s 2004 Best Picture nominee The Aviator is the next feature in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ "Great To Be Nominated" series. The handsome but vapid Howard Hughes biopic will be screened on Monday, July 28, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
Following the screening, cast members Alec Baldwin, Jacob Davich, J.C. Mackenzie, and Amy Sloan, production sound mixer Petur Hliddal, special effects supervisor R. Bruce Steinheimer, and miniature effects supervisor Matthew Gratzner will take part in a discussion about the film.
The US$100-million-plus The Aviator wasn’t quite the hoped-for critical and box-office hit, though the biopic won numerous accolades and did good business thanks to the casting of Leonardo DiCaprio [...]

THE AVIATOR – Leonardo DiCaprio – d: Martin Scorsese

The Aviator (2004)
Direction: Martin Scorsese
Screenplay: John Logan
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale, Alan Alda, Alec Baldwin, Kelli Garner, Gwen Stefani, Ian Holm, Adam Scott, Frances Conroy, Willem Dafoe, Jacob Davich, Jude Law, John C. Reilly, Edward Herrmann, Stanley DeSantis, Danny Huston, Matt Ross
 

 

WHAT’S NOT GOOD FOR THE SPRUCE GOOSE. . .
Imagine Citizen Kane directed by Steven Spielberg. The final result would look something like a Barry Levinson film — for instance, the superficial and glitzy Bugsy. Or the superficial, glitzy, and bloated The Aviator. Except, of course, that Levinson is not the man responsible for the mega-production starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the eccentric, billionaire ladies’ man Howard Hughes. Strangely enough, that man is Martin Scorsese, the director of hard-hitting [...]