X-Men: First Class tops the UK box office

UK box office top ten and analysis for the weekend of Friday 4th - Sunday 6th June 2011...



The latest installment in Fox's X-Men franchise debuts in first place at the UK box office, but a weekend haul of £5.4m has to be considered less than 'First Class' considering that the figure - which includes over £2m from two days of preview screenings - is just over half the £10.4m opening enjoyed by The Hangover Part II. Discounting previews it's the weakest opening for the franchise but nevertheless, it's good enough to put X-Men: First Class in pole position as Todd Phillips' comedy sequel slips down to second place with another £3.8m, while Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides also falls one spot to third and remains the highest earner in the top ten with a cumulative gross of £26.7m.



Along with X-Men: First Class, there are another three newcomers in the chart this week, the highest of which is the 3D concert movie JLS: Eyes Wide Open, which debuts in fifth (one place behind family comedy Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules), with acclaimed racing documentary Senna and Bollywood comedy Ready opening in seventh and eighth respectively. Meanwhile, heading towards the foot of the chart is animated comedy Rio (down to places to eighth) and Fast & Furious 5: Rio Heist (down four two ninth), but the biggest drop of the week is reserved for Thor, which plummets to the bottom of the chart after finishing up in fourth last time out.



Number one this time last year: Sex and the City 2

Pos.	Film	Weekend Gross	Week	Total UK Gross
1	X-Men: First Class	£5,438,386	1	£5,438,386
2	The Hangover Part II	£3,826,158	2	£21,055,272
3	Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides	£2,144,179	3	£26,693,930
4	Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules	£645,196	2	£3,622,991
5	JLS: Eyes Wide Open	£463,914	1	£463,914
6	Senna	£375,173	1	£375,173
7	Ready	£236,868	1	£236,868
8	Rio	£94,127	8	£12,890,750
9	Fast & Furious 5: Rio Heist	£77,874	7	£18,368,657
10	Thor	£59,994	6	£13,849,095

Incoming...



DreamWorks Animation sequel Kung Fu Panda 2 (cert. PG) will likely flying kick its way to the top of the box office this coming Friday and features an all-star voice cast including Jack Black, Seth Rogan, Angelina Jolie, Gary Oldman, Jackie Chan, Dustin Hoffman, Lucy Liu, Michelle Yeoh and Jean-Claude Van Damme. Meanwhile other films looking to make an impact include dance flick Honey 2 (cert. PG), thriller Point Blank (cert. 15) and horror Mother's Day (cert. 18).

U.K. Box Office Archive

BBFC refuse to classify The Human Centipede II

The British Board of Film Classification has decided to refuse a certificate to horror sequel The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) from director Tom Six, effectively banning the film from release here in the UK. According to the BBFC, the film - a follow-up to last year's controversial shocker The Human Centipede (First Sequence) - may fall foul of the Obscene Publications Act and "poses a real, as opposed to a fanciful, risk that harm is likely to be caused to potential viewers".

In a statement released by the BBFC, the film was focussed on the "sexual arousal of the central character at both the idea and the spectacle of the total degradation, humiliation, mutilation, torture and murder of his naked victims" and that "there is little attempt to portray any of the victims in the film as anything other than objects to be brutalised, degraded and mutilated for the amusement and arousal of the central character, as well as for the pleasure of the audience".

It's nice to see that the BBFC know what's best for us viewers and we can only thank them for taking this step to protect us from potential harm. Joking aside, unless the 'victims' were actually brutalised, degraded and mutilated for the purposes of making the film, I can't see what the problem is and I'd quite like to know what qualifies the BBFC to decide what is suitable and unsuitable for me to watch - as a responsible adult, I'm sure I can make that decision for myself.

Read the BBFC's patter here.

The Week in Spandex - X-Men: First Class, Captain America, The Dark Knight Rises and more...

Our weekly round-up of all the big talking points from the world of movie superheroes...



The big news is of course the release of Matthew Vaughn's Cold War-era mutant prequel X-Men: First Class, which I have to say I found to be a little over-rated. Don't get me wrong, it's enjoyable, but in my opinion it really doesn't justify all the hype that's been coming its way this past week (you can check out my full review here). Nevertheless, Vaughn's done a good job setting things up for the next two installments in the 'First Class Trilogy', which I'm sure will be announced once the opening weekend figures come in for this first outing, while James McAvoy has been discussing a potential sequel over at Hero Complex.



Anyway, a whole raft of clips and TV spots have made their way online this past week to further promote the release of First Class (I'm sure by now someone could do a pretty good job of editing the whole film together from these), along with a couple of interesting bits and pieces including a three-part roundtable interview with Matthew Vaughn at ObsessedWithFilm, a video interview with screenwriter Jane Goldman at IGN and an insight into the VFX process courtesy of Rhythm & Hues which you can read over at Comicus (scroll down for the English version). Finally, Vaughn and January Jones have also been answering fan questions over on the Facebook X-Perts Q&A (and no, they didn't answer that one).



Also stepping up the publicity this week ahead of a July release is Marvel Studios' Captain America: The First Avenger, which debuted three new promo images - featuring Chris Evans as Cap, Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter and Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull - along with a few TV spots, one of which featured snippets of new footage. Meanwhile TFA storyboard artist Martin Asbury updated his website with some of his work from the film, which could possibly contain a few spoilers but really is worth checking out. Oh, and while we're on the subject of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, expect The Avengers to have quite a presence at the Licensing International Expo (which runs from June 14th-16th in Las Vegas), with ComingSoon.net delivering a sneak preview of a promo poster for the upcoming superhero ensemble.



Along with The Avengers, another big movie expecting to make a splash at the Licensing Expo is Christopher Nolan's final Batman feature The Dark Knight Rises, with Batman-News.com speculating that it could play host to the reveal of the latest Bat-vehicle in much the same way that the Batpod debuted back in 2007 (oh, and a couple of purported viral videos have sprung up on Youtube, most likely fakes but you can take a look here if you haven’t seen them already).



Wrapping up the best of the rest...



...After confirmation earlier this week that Sony will be taking The Amazing Spider-Man to Comic-Con, there's been talk from directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor that Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance will be the next superhero flick to follow suit...



...New Daredevil director David Slade has been busy on Twitter recently, teasing an announcement on the upcoming reboot while confirming that he was never attached to the proposed Justice League of America movie, nor a potential reboot of The Shadow...



...Green Lantern's arrival in cinemas is now less than two weeks away and Warner Bros. have recently debuted a new website entitled Green Lantern Creator, which features some new shots of the alien characters and gives fans the opportunity to create their own member of the Green Lantern Corps...



...CosmicBookNews have posted an article that gathers together all of the Man of Steel rumours that have been doing the rounds lately, while original Superman director Richard Donner took part in a interesting interview with Hero Complex to promote the release of Superman: The Motion Picture Anthology Blu-ray box set that arrives on June 13th...



...Another DC superhero who looks set to be coming to the big screen is Hawkman, with BleedingCool reporting that the proposed film is "part Indiana Jones / The Da Vinci Code, part Ghost". Head over to the site to read the full logline that's doing the rounds...



...For anyone out there still remotely interested in NBC's Wonder Woman pilot, iFanboy posted an in-depth review which also features some previously unseen images, including what looks to be a shot of Wonder Woman's plane...



......And finally, while it doesn't really have anything to do with movies, DC Comics have announced plans to relaunch all of their titles with new #1s, which one can only assume to be the major announcement that was scheduled for this month's Hero Complex Film Festival.

Gary Collinson

Short Film Showcase - Cashback (2004)

Cashback, 2004.

Written and Directed by Sean Ellis.
Starring Sean Biggerstaff, Emilia Fox, Stuary Goodwin, Michael Dixon and Michael Lambourne.

Cashback centres on an aspiring art student, Ben (Sean Biggerstaff), who spends his nights working the graveyard shift at his local 24 hour supermarket. While his co-workers all have their own methods of wasting time as the clock ticks down on their shift, Ben has his own unique technique for fending off boredom by imagining that time stands still, giving him the freedom to explore his creative side.

Although Cashback received some criticism towards its excessive nudity, the short went on to win 14 awards including Best Narrative Short at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival, while it was also nominated for the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film in March 2006, losing out to Martin McDonagh's Six Shooter. Cashback also went on to inspire the full-length feature of the same name, which premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival before receiving theatrical runs in the UK and North America.


Click here to view more short films and public domain features.

DVD Giveaway - The Halfway House

June 20th sees the release of the Ealing Studios ghost story The Halfway House on DVD, and to celebrate Flickering Myth have three copies to give away to our readers courtesy of Optimum Releasing.

Read on for the full synopsis and details of how to enter...

"The Halfway House is an enjoyable mystery tale of a group of strangers driven to take shelter at a remote Welsh Inn during a storm. Each has a personal problem to hide, but they are soon brought together by unsettling events perhaps precipitated by their hosts, the enigmatic innkeepers. Starring Mervyn Johns and real-life daughter Glynis, The Halfway House was written by Anghus McPhail (Whisky Galore!, It Always Rains on Sunday), Diana Morgan (Went the Day Well?, Pink String and Sealing Wax) and T.E.B. Clarke (Passport to Pimlico, The Titfield Thunderbolt) from the stage play by Denis Ogden."

To be in with a chance of winning all you need to do is drop us an email with your contact details, the subject heading "HALFWAY", and an answer to the following question...

The Halfway House director Basil Dearden won a BAFTA Award in 1960 for which of his films?

A) Dead of Night B) Sapphire

The competition closes at 5pm on Sunday June 19th. UK entrants only please.

The Prize Finder - UK Competitions
Loquax Competitions
Competitions Today

DVD Giveaway - Java Head and Tiger Bay

June 20th sees the release of the Anna May Wong double-bill of 1934's Java Head and Tiger Bay on DVD, and to celebrate Flickering Myth have three copies to give away to our readers courtesy of Optimum Releasing.

The first Asian American movie star to become an international star, Anna May Wong's career spanned over four decades, starting in Technicolor’s first two-strip color movie, The Toll of the Sea (1922) and was chosen by Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. to be in The Thief of Bagdad (1924), and co-starred with Marlene Dietrich in Shanghai Express (1932).

Read on for the full synopsis and details of how to enter...

"JAVA HEAD: The port city of Bristol, England, in the 1800s is home to Java Head, a sailing ship line company. The owner has two sons. One, a handsome seafarer, is in love with a local girl, but cannot marry her due to a long-running feud between their fathers. After a lengthy voyage, he returns with a very exotic, noble Chinese wife, which scandalizes the conservative town. His other son, a "landlubber", seeks to convert to steamships, to the disgust of his father. Even worse, he is secretly dealing in contraband."

"TIGER BAY: A young Englishman abroad, Michael, visits the local low-life spot of Tiger Bay to test his assertion that the spirit of human romance survives even in the most unpromising of circumstances. He intervenes when a local criminal protection racketeer targets a Chinese nightclub, and falls in love with the owner's young English foster-sister. But Olaf's gang have only just started their campaign against Lui Chang, the cultured, elegant woman who owns the premises... and she is determined not to be intimidated or driven out of business under any circumstances..."

To be in with a chance of winning all you need to do is drop us an email with your contact details, the subject heading "ANNA", and an answer to the following question...

Anna May Wong made her final feature film appearance alongside Lana Turner in...

A) Portrait in Black B) Imitation of Life

The competition closes at 5pm on Sunday June 19th. UK entrants only please.

The Prize Finder - UK Competitions
Loquax Competitions
Competitions Today

Movie Review - X-Men: First Class (2011)

X-Men: First Class, 2011.



Directed by Matthew Vaughn.

Starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, January Jones, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Lucas Till, Zoë Kravitz, Álex González, Caleb Landry Jones, Jason Flemyng, Oliver Platt and Ray Wise.





SYNOPSIS:



In their efforts to prevent Armageddon, a grave rift emerges between close friends Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik Lensherr (Michael Fassbender) that will ultimately pave the way for war between the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants.





Matthew Vaughn made quite an impression last year with the hugely entertaining Kick-Ass and now he looks to breathe new life into the X-Men franchise with X-Men: First Class, a 1960s-set prequel that arrives in cinemas on the back of a sea of glowing reviews. Now it’s fair to say that the publicity campaign for First Class didn’t get off to the best of starts but Fox seemed to pull things round with some pretty impressive trailers, and with all the hype the film has been generating this past week I was full of anticipation for something extra special. Sadly, that’s not quite what I ended up with and if I'm being brutally honest, I can't see what all the fuss is about.



Now before anyone jumps on my back, I’m not saying that First Class is a bad film. Far from it. It’s a vast improvement over the utterly lacklustre X-Men Origins: Wolverine and any fears I’d had over the casting choices (James McAvoy, I’m talking to you) were completely misplaced. In fact, the whole cast are solid, there’s plenty of exciting action set-pieces, just the right amount of humour and a decent enough story. And, given the insane turnaround time, Matthew Vaughn and company have pulled off a remarkable achievement. But man, there's been so much Kleenex shed over First Class this week that I guess all those masturbatory reviews really had me hoping for that little bit more.



First Class begins in exactly the same fashion as Bryan Singer’s opening installment did, with a young Erik Lensherr discovering his powers of magnetism in the horrific confines of a Nazi concentration camp. After witnessing the brutal murder of his mother at the hands of Klaus Schmidt, a.k.a. Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), the adult Erik (Michael Fassbender) devotes his life to avenging her death. This brings him into contact with Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), a telepathic mutant working with C.I.A. agent Moira MacTaggart to prevent Shaw from conspiring to start a nuclear war between the United States and Russia. The pair soon spark up a friendship as they work together to create a team capable of combating the energy-absorbing Shaw and his villainous crew of super-powered mutants, only for their conflicting ideologies to ultimately put them at odds with one another.



The main problem for me with X-Men: First Class is that, much like Brett Ratner’s X-Men: The Last Stand, the filmmakers have tried to cram as much as possible into the script and not only does this cause the film to skip from one place to the next for much of its running time, but it also leaves quite a few of the characters sorely underdeveloped. Apart from Professor X, Magneto, Shaw, Emma Frost (January Jones) and Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), the remaining mutants don’t get too much of a look in. While it’s Magneto’s story that drives the film (with Fassbender delivering a fine performance), it is a shame that we didn’t get to see more of the eponymous ‘first class’, especially with characters such as Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hoult) having so much potential to explore.



As I said earlier, X-Men: First Class is infinitely better than Gavin Hood’s previous effort and a worthy installment in the X-Men franchise, but it’s not as good as X2: X-Men United (or Kick-Ass, for that matter) and I can’t say I enjoyed it any more than I did Thor. Matthew Vaughn has been peddling the ‘Batman Begins’ line as to his inspiration for the film, and he’s probably right in that the sequel could be so much better. I’ll certainly be back for it, although next time I won’t bother reading any of the early reviews.

Gary Collinson



Movie Review Archive

The Hangover Part II has a weekend to remember at the UK box office

UK box office top ten and analysis for the weekend of Friday 27th - Sunday 29th May 2011...



Todd Phillips' comedy sequel The Hangover Part II enjoyed a record-breaking opening at the global box office this past weekend and it also jumps in straight at the top of the UK chart, toppling previous champion Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides with an impressive opening of £10.4m. As a result, Pirates 4 slips one place to second with £4.7m, while another comedy sequel, Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules, opens in third place with £1.4m and is the only other film in UK cinemas to break the seven-figure mark.



Moving on and Marvel Studios' latest superhero effort Thor finds itself down one place to fourth while Fast & Furious 5: Rio Heist drops out of the top two for the first time, slipping three places to round out the top five. Animated comedy Rio continues to perform well and actually climbs one spot to sixth, leapfrogging horror flick Insidious as it falls to seventh. Also on the decline are Hanna and Water for Elephants, both of which slip two apiece to eighth and tenth respectively, while Attack the Block suffers the steepest drop of the week as it plunges four places to ninth.



Number one this time last year: Sex and the City 2

Pos.	Film	Weekend Gross	Week
1	The Hangover Part II	£10,409,017	1
2	Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides	£4,757,411	2
3	Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules	£1,476,720	1
4	Thor	£335,103	5
5	Fast & Furious 5: Rio Heist	£322,506	6
6	Rio	£300,865	7
7	Insidious	£208,313	5
8	Hanna	£148,339	3
9	Attack the Block	£142,919	4
10	Water for Elephants	£129,143	4

Incoming...



The big release this week is of course X-Men: First Class (cert. 12A), which opened here in the UK today, while alternatives arriving this coming Friday include the Disney teen flick Prom (cert. U), racing documentary Senna (cert. 12A) and the British concert film JLS 3D: Eyes Wide Open (cert. TBC).

U.K. Box Office Archive

Movies... For Free! Dick Tracy's Dilemma (1947)

Showcasing classic movies that have fallen out of copyright and are available freely from the public domain...


Dick Tracy's Dilemma a.k.a Mark of the Claw, 1947.

Directed by John Rawlins.
Starring Ralph Byrd, Kay Christopher, Lyle Latell, Jack Lambert, Ian Keith, Bernadene Hayes, Jimmy Conlin, William B. Davidson, Tony Barrett and Tom Keene.

After releasing two features with Morgan Conway as Chester Gould's celebrated police detective Dick Tracy, RKO bowed to exhibitor pressure and recast Conway with Ralph Byrd, the actor who had made his name as Tracy in four Republic serials between 1937 and 1941.

Dick Tracy's Dilemma sees the detective investigating a number of crimes - the theft of a fortune in furs, an insurance swindle and the obligatory murders - all of which he links to a hook-handed criminal known as The Claw. Returning to the cast for this third outing are Lyle Latell as Pat Patton and Ian Keith as Vitamin Flintheart, while Kay Christopher takes over from Anne Jeffreys as Tracy's girlfriend Tess Trueheart.


Embed courtesy of Internet Archive.

Click here to view all entries in our Movies... For Free! collection.

The Week in Spandex - X-Men: First Class, The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-Man and more

Our weekly round-up of all the big talking points from the world of movie superheroes...



As you’d expect with just days to go until the UK release of X-Men: First Class, the mutant marketing machine has gone into overdrive this past week and, judging by the critical reception so far, it seems as if Matthew Vaughn has overseen a return to form for the X-Men series, if not a franchise best. Vaughn took part in an in depth roundtable earlier this week (the transcript of which can be seen over at HeyUGuys) and he’s also been talking potential sequels with HitFlix and MovieWeb (along with the on / off status of Kick-Ass 2), while ScreenRant posted highlights of a press conference with the First Class cast.



There is of course a special guest cameo in X-Men: First Class, which we won’t ruin here (despite the fact it’s really not all that surprising anyway) but if you’re desperate to get your hands on anything X-Men then over twenty minutes of b-roll footage has made its way online that you can check out at ComicBookMovie. There’s also been a million or so more TV spots, posters, banners and what have you, but frankly it’s just too damn exhausting to keep track of them all. One thing that did prove pretty interesting though was Patrick Stewart’s comments about himself and Ian McKellen being up for another X-Men film, and with Bryan Singer linked to X4 and X5 it looks as if Fox is really going to get its money worth out of the franchise over the coming years.



And, on that very subject, the studio are also keen to push on with their latest Wolverine spin-off, with Variety reporting that eight directors are under consideration to replace Darren Aronofsky on the Hugh Jackman mutant actioner. Those said to be in the frame to helm The Wolverine are Jose Padilha (Bus 174, Elite Squad), Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Mr. & Mrs. Smith), Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, Brooklyn's Finest), Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo, Never Let Me Go), Justin Lin (Fast & Furious, Fast Five), Gavin O'Connor (Pride and Glory, Warrior), James Mangold (Walk the Line, Knight and Day) and notable commercials director Gary Shore. What, no Gavin Hood?



Along with the first reveal of Tom Hardy as Bane, last week brought word of three new arrivals to the cast of The Dark Knight Rises and now you can add another two to the ever-growing list. The latest additions to Christopher Nolan’s Batman swansong are Brett Cullen (Ghost Rider, Lost) and Chris Ellis (Catch Me If You Can, Transformers), with Cullen portraying a judge and Ellis featuring as a priest in what you’d imagine to be minor roles.



Meanwhile it’s also been revealed that Matthew Modine’s character is called Nixon and is described by Showbiz411 as “a politician and a key villain”. Batman’s certainly going to have his hands full in The Dark Knight Rises and it really seems like Nolan’s throwing everything he has into this final outing, which is rumoured to be getting a teaser trailer in time for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.



Rounding up the best of the rest...



…Another film that could be increasing its roster of villains is Marvel’s The Avengers, with LatinoReview reporting that the cosmic tyrant Thanos could be in line for an appearance in Joss Whedon’s superhero ensemble, while Industrial Light & Magic have updated their site to announce that they’ll be handling VFX duties…



...Having finished up principal photography on The Amazing Spider-Man, Sony have released a rather bland teaser poster and logo for the upcoming reboot, while Marvel legend Stan Lee has spilled the beans on his cameo appearance and revealed a little info about a showdown between Andrew Garfield's webslinger and Rhys Ifans' Lizard...



...According to Hero Complex, DC executives Geoff Johns and Jim Lee are planning a major announcement for the Hero Complex Film Festival on June 11th, which is said to concern "the future of Superman and the entire DC Universe". ComicBookMovie are speculating that this could be official confirmation of a Justice League movie, but I'd be surprised if that didn't come direct from WB. Could it have something to do with the messy dispute over the Superman rights? We’ll find out soon enough…



...Green Lantern is set to arrive in cinemas next month and this past week a new clip emerged featuring Michael Clarke Duncan’s Kilowog and Ryan Reynolds’ Hal Jordon, while io9 posted an article about the make-up used to turn Mark Strong into Sinestro. And there’s me thinking they’d just used cheap-looking CGI for all the aliens…



...And finally, for those of you out there distraught over missing out on the opportunity for a glimpse of Wonder Woman's Adrianne Palicki in a pair of skimpy, star-spangled knickers, you may be able to satisfy some of those cravings here.



X-Men: First Class Press Conference Report...

Gary Collinson

Four images from indie slasher Down the Road

You may remember back at the start of February that we posted a teaser trailer for Down the Road, an independent horror from writer-director Jason Christopher and producer Deven Lobascio, and now we've got our hands on four images from the upcoming film that you can check out right here.

Down the Road is a throwback slasher that sees a group of college students fighting for their lives against a revenge-seeking mad man. The film stars David J. Bonner (The Next Three Days), Shaun Paul Costello (You'll Know My Name), Chelsey Garner (Killer Shorts 2), Nikki Bell (Ugly Betty), Brian Gallagher (Calendar Girl), Matthew Nadu (The Last Airbender) and newcomer Jen Dance, along with veteran charactor actor Clint Howard (the Austin Powers trilogy, House of the Dead, Halloween).





The film, which features script mentoring from Friday the 13th scribe Victor Miller, is set for release later this year, and a full length trailer is expected soon.

Robot Chicken Star Wars Episode III trailer and UK release info

The trilogy will be complete this July with the DVD release of Robot Chicken Star Wars - Episode III, the latest spoof from Adult Swim's stop-motion animated comedy series from Seth Green and Matthew Senreich.

Voice talent returning for this third Star Wars-themed special include Billy Dee Williams, Ahmed Best, Breckin Meyer, Seth MacFarlane, Dan Milano, Abe Benrubi, Donald Faison, Rachael Leigh Cook, Adrianne Palicki, Eden Espinosa, Hugh Davidson, Bob Bergen, Keith Ferguson, Tom Kane and Zeb Wells, along with newcomers Zac Efron, Anthony Daniels, Mike Henry and Donald Glover.

Along with the 45-minute special, Robot Chicken Star Wars - Episode III also comes with over 3 hours of extra features including trailers, featurettes, commentaries and more.

Take a look at the trailer...


Star Wars Robot Chicken - Episode III is released on DVD on July 4th. Pre-order it here.

Pirates of the Caribbean enjoys the biggest UK box office opening of 2011

UK box office top ten and analysis for the weekend of Friday 20th - Sunday 22nd May 2011...



With a phenomenal global opening weekend of $346.5m, the latest instalment in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean series jumps straight in at number one on these shores with a mighty five-day haul of £11.6m, more than doubling the sci-fi comedy Paul's £5.5m debut to claim the biggest UK opening of the year so far. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides also broke records at the international box-office with $256.3m in receipts, overtaking the previous champ Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.



With On Stranger Tides sucking the life out of the competition, no other film managed to cross the seven-figure mark, with nearest rival Fast & Furious 5: Rio Heist pulling in just £587k to retain second. Marvel's Thor slips two places to third, a fate shared by Attack the Block in fifth and Water for Elephants down in eighth. Meanwhile Hanna falls one place to sixth as both Insidious and Rio hold firm in fourth and seventh respectively and finally, at the bottom of the chart we have a couple of new entries - Jason Statham cop thriller Blitz (in ninth with £266k) and Thomas McCarthy comedy Win Win (propping up the top ten with an opening of £155k).



Number one this time last year: StreetDance 3D

Pos.	Film	Weekend Gross	Week	Total UK Gross
1	Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides	£11,634,860	1	£11,634,860
2	Fast & Furious 5: Rio Heist	£587,617	5	£17,399,224
3	Thor	£528,701	4	£12,869,718
4	Insidious	£451,139	4	£6,386,799
5	Attack the Block	£355,232	3	£1,925,419
6	Hanna	£286,997	2	£3,182,700
7	Rio	£284,085	6	£12,064,570
8	Water for Elephants	£266,345	3	£3,202,936
9	Blitz	£266,148	1	£266,148
10	Win Win	£155,463	1	£155,463

Incoming...



A pair of comedy sequels arrive this coming Friday with Todd Phillips' The Hangover Part II (cert. 15) likely to put up a strong challenge for top spot, while Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Roderick Rules (cert. U) will look to cater to the family market. Also hitting screens on Friday is a re-release of Francis Ford Coppola's classic Apocalypse Now (cert. 15), while X-Men: First Class (cert. TBC) will enjoy a number of preview screenings on Bank Holiday Monday.

U.K. Box Office Archive

The Tree of Life takes the Palme D'Or at Cannes

The 64th annual Cannes Film Festival drew to a close yesterday as the jury announced their prizes for 2011, with Terrence Malick's divisive drama The Tree of Life taking the top award, the Palme D'Or. The film, which stars Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, was met with a mixed reaction of cheers and boos when it premiered earlier in the festival but the jury, which was headed up by legendary actor Robert De Niro, deemed it worthy of their most prestigious honour.

Take a look at the full list of honours below...

Palme D'Or - The Tree of Life (dir. Terrence Malick)

Grand Prix - Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan) and The Kid with a Bike (dir. Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)

Prix de la mise en scène - Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive)

Prix du scénario - Footnote (dir. Joseph Cedar)

Jury Prize - Polisse (dir. Maïwenn Le Besco)

Prix d'interprétation féminine - Kirsten Dunst (Melancholia)

Prix d'interprétation masculine - Jean Dujardin (The Artist)

Camera d'Or - Las Acacias (dir. Pablo Giorgelli)

Be sure to check back later this week when we will be posting an in-depth article on the making of The Tree of Life.

The Week in Spandex – The Dark Knight Rises’ Bane, Green Lantern 3D trailer, X-Men: First Class and more

Our weekly round-up of all the talking points from the world of movie superheroes...

Well, just when it was shaping up to be a quiet week in the land of cinematic superherodom what goes and happens? Warner Bros. deliver the first image of Tom Hardy as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, that’s what! Things all kicked off with the launch of the official website accompanied by some creeping chanting, which then went through audio software to reveal #thefirerises, a Twitter account that promised to reveal a fraction of the image with every new follower. Fortunately some clever cyber-sleuth managed to get their hands on the full picture, which presents a tantalising glimpse of Batman’s latest foe.

Principal photography on Christopher Nolan’s sequel was officially announced earlier this week, but of course filming has already taken place in India and the UK and it’s probably a wise decision to release the image given all the set photos that have been emerging from the London shoot. Much like the reveal of Heath Ledger’s Joker, it’s done a mighty fine job in getting fans talking; not only does it confirm that Bane will be sporting a mask (borrowed from Mortal Kombat’s Scorpion, by the looks of things), but it’s also probably a safe assumption that he’s sporting some kind of burns, what with the whole ‘the fire rises’ thing going on. Meanwhile Variety also broke the news that Nolan has added a further three actors to the ever-growing cast – Matthew Modine (Full Metal Jacket) will play a character called Nixon, while Tom Conti (Derailed) and 11-year-old Joey King (Ramona and Beezus) will feature in as-yet-unrevealed roles.

Sticking with Warner Bros. for the moment and yesterday also brought the debut of the third trailer for Green Lantern, Martin Campbell's big-budget, VFX-heavy DC adaptation. Aimed at the 3D market, the trailer (which you can see at the bottom of this article) is pretty epic in scope and should do a good job of further selling the film to fans, although I'm personally not so sure how this one will go down with the general movie-going public. In other Lantern-related bits and pieces, both Ryan Reynolds and Mark Strong have been taking part in interviews to discuss the film, while Total Film announced that director Martin Campbell has no plans to return for any potential sequel.

While we're on the subject of Ryan Reynolds, the actor also had a few words to say about the the upcoming X-Men spin-off Deadpool during an interview with Comic Book Resources about Green Lantern. Describing it as "a deconstruction of superhero movies," Reynolds stated that he had no problem starring as two superheroes but effectively ruled himself out of contention for The Flash: "I always thought if I did a Deadpool film, I wouldn't do a Flash movie". Meanwhile Robert Rodriguez, who was long rumoured to be in the running for Deadpool, has told MTV that his involvement only ever went as far as reading the script but he has high hopes for the final product: "It's going to be a cool movie. I don't want people to think it's going to stink! Not at all. It's a great script and action-packed and it's a great character. But it's like, 'He turned it down! He dropped out!' Well, I was never in the project!"

Mutant prequel X-Men: First Class is set to arrive here in the UK a week on Monday and ComicBookMovie have collected a whole host of stills that includes pretty much the entire roster, along with a few more TV spots that you can see here and here. Elsewhere James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender were the latest cast members to undergo the X-Perts Q&A on the official X-Men Facebook page, while Nicholas Hoult spoke to IGN about portraying Beast and Zoe Kravitz (Angel Salvadore) also had a few words about her role in the film. One person who won't be popping up in First Class however is Stan Lee (maybe that's something to do with his insistence that Bryan Singer is directing?), although the Marvel legend has confirmed that he will appear for his customary cameo in The Avengers, which leads us quite nicely into this week's round-up of the latest happenings from the Marvel Cinematic Universe...

Firstly, Joe Cornish (Attack the Block) took part in a fan Q&A with Empire and revealed that he has no idea whether Ant-Man will make an appearance in the upcoming ensemble, while Thor star Stellan Skarsgård revealed that Joss Whedon was responsible for directing the post-credits sequence in Marvel's most recent offering. Newsrama also put out a report earlier this week suggesting that Thor is underperforming compared to other Marvel efforts (I guess they must have forgot to take into account the film's world-wide haul, which at $376m and counting is already more than $100m ahead of The Incredible Hulk), but that hasn't had any impact on Marvel's plans for a sequel, with CinemaBlend reporting that The Enchantress and The Executioner are under consideration for Thor's next adversaries.

Wrapping up the best of the rest...

...If you cast your mind back to last year when Sony announced their then-untitled Spider-Man reboot, you may remember a few eyebrows being raised over suggestions that the film's budget would be a mere $80m. Well, it seems that figure was a gross underestimate, as actor and stuntman Richard Norton let slip that the actual budget for The Amazing Spider-Man stands at a whopping $220m...

...NBC chairman Robert Greenblatt has gone on record to explain the reasoning behind the network's decision to ditch Wonder Woman. Greenblatt told EW that "we did what was best for the schedule" but felt that "they made a really fine pilot and Adrianne Palicki did a fantastic job". Hmm... doesn't quite add up, that one. Nevertheless there may still be hope for Wonder Woman fans, with Greenblatt suggesting that the pilot could be shopped around to alternative networks...

...And finally, yesterday brought the sad news that wrestling legend Randy 'Macho Man' Savage has died in a car accident in Florida, aged 58. In addition to his hugely successful ring career, Macho Man enjoyed a number of film and TV roles, including his appearance in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man as Bonesaw McGraw.


Gary Collinson

Short Film Showcase - Knick Knack (1989)

Knick Knack, 1989.

Written and Directed by John Lasseter.
Original Music by Bobby McFerrin.

The final computer animated short produced by Pixar before the release of their debut feature Toy Story in 1995, Knick Knack revolves around a snowman, Knick, who finds himself trapped inside a snowglobe while the rest of the souvenirs on his shelf are enjoying a party in the sun. Desperate to join in the fun, Knick employs a number of methods to break free of his glass prison and eventually finds a means of escape, only for his plan to backfire on him.

Knick Knack was Pixar's first foray into 3D and premiered in this format at the 1988 SIGGRAPH Animation Show. It was later completely rebuilt for a 2D theatrical release alongside Finding Nemo, with this new version incorporating reduced breast sizes on two of its characters, the Miami bikini girl and the Atlantis mermaid. This updated version also enjoyed a theatrical 3D run in 2006 when it was attached to the 3D version of The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Knick Knack (2003 version):


Knick Knack (original version):


Related:

Animated Storytellers: A Pixar Animation Studios Profile
Short Film Showcase - The Adventures of Andre and Wally B.
Short Film Showcase - Luxo Jr.

Click here to view more short films and public domain features.

Conan the Barbarian reboot gets a new trailer

Reboot 'specialist' Marcus Nispel (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th) turns his hand to the sword and sorcery genre with Conan the Barbarian, a new take on Robert E. Howard's Cimmerian warrior that promises to deliver an interpretation more faithful to its original source material.

Set to arrive later this summer, the film sees Jason Momoa (Stargate: Atlantis, Game of Thrones) picking up the reigns from Arnold Schwarzenegger, who of course portrayed the character in 1982's cult classic and its subsequent sequel Conan the Destroyer (1984), and sees Conan journeying across the continent of Hyboria on a quest to avenge the murder of his father and the slaughter of his village.

Take a look at the new trailer...


Conan the Barbarian is set for a 3D release on August 19th and also stars Rachel Nichols, Stephen Lang, Rose McGowan, Saïd Taghmaoui and Ron Perlman.

The second official trailer for Green Lantern starring Ryan Reynolds

For a time it seemed as though Warner Bros. had forgotten that they have a superhero film coming out this summer, but that's all changed lately as the marketing machine kicks into overdrive on Green Lantern with a flood of new posters and now, the second official full-length trailer.

Directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale), the $150m blockbuster sees Ryan Reynolds star as Hal Jordan, the first human to be inducted into the Green Lantern Corps., an intergalactic peace force and brotherhood of warriors who are sworn to keep order in the galaxy. Joining Reynolds in the cast are Blake Lively, Mark Strong, Angela Bassett, Tim Robbins, Temuera Morrison, Taiki Waititi, Jon Tenney, Jay O. Sanders, Geoffrey Rush, Michael Clarke Duncan and Peter Sarsgaard.

Take a gander at the new theatrical trailer courtesy of Yahoo Movies...


Green Lantern is scheduled for a 3D release on June 17th. Be sure to check out the first trailer and an extended preview.