The Weekend Report
by Leonard Klady

Despite a 60% drop in business and anticipated fierce competition, Madea Goes to Jail retained its position as top ticket seller with an estimated $16.4 million gross. The presumed champ - Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience - got off to a fast start but quickly faltered and finished second overall with a $12.6 million tally.
Weekend Estimates (Full List)
Domestic Market Share

3-Day Estimates	Weekend	% Chg	Cume
Medea Goes to Jail	16.4	-60%	64.7
Jonas Brothers 3D Concert	12.6	-	12.6
Slumdog Millionaires	12.0	44%	115
Taken	9.7	-14%	107.6
He's Just Not That Into You	5.8	-32%	78.5
Paul Bart: Mall Cop	5.5	-19%	128
Coraline	5.2	-55%	61
Legend of Chun-Li	4.5	-	4.5
Confessions of a Shopaholic	4.4	-34%	33.6
Fired Up	3.7	-32%	10.1

Voynaristic Review:
Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience
by Kim Voynar

Maybe it's the artsy movie geek in me, but I would have rather seen more of an artistic approach to the filmmaking aspect of making this concert film: show us a bit of the five-year track it's taken to get these young brothers to this point in their career, talk to them about their purity rings and the challenges of remaining true to their faith as mega pop stars, bring us into how they've evolved (or seek to evolve) musically, or reveal to us their honest vulnerability as teenage boys being overwhelmed by their frenetic fanbase and stardom.

Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience	-	-	-		-
Crossing Over	-	-	-	-	-
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li	-	-	-	-	-
Fired Up!	-	-	-	-
Madea Goes to Jail	-	-	-	-	-
Friday the 13th	-	-	-	-
The International				-
Confessions of a Shopaholic		-	-	-
Coraline	-			-
Two Lovers	-	-			-
Slumdog Millionaire
The Reader

Wilmington on Movies
Crossing Over and Two Lovers
by Michael Wilmington

It’s all wildly melodramatic, and those incessant coincidental meetings would be implausible even if they all lived in say, Green Bay. L. A. is a big city. But the movie’s heart is in the right place. And you can understand why Kramer, born in South Africa, is exercised about racism. Kramer is the writer-director of that tangy Las Vegas drama, The Cooler and he knows how to keep a story whipping along.Unfortunately, he’s directed these scenes better than he’s written them.

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Digital Nation
Hurray Independent!
by Gary Dretzka

For those of us who long for the days when Bob Hope and Johnny Carson effortlessly guided audiences from one category to the next, Sunday night represented just another broken promise. It would be impossible for the ceremony to live up to the incessant media hype and overblown expectations of gown, shoe and jewelry designers whose products are worn on the red carpet. People whose idea of a good time is phoning in votes for American Idol and Dancing With the Stars aren’t going to be too picky when it comes to Academy Award hosts.
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Frenzy on the Wall:
Accepting Remakes
by Noah Forrest

In the coming weeks, we’ll see a remake of Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left and I just saw Craven’s version for the first time about a week ago. And if there’s anybody who is offended by the idea of this remake, it should only be because the original was so ridiculous that it’s astounding somebody could see something worthwhile enough to remake. The original is not high art, it’s a fetishistic exploitation film that would be unsavory and unsettling if it wasn’t so silly.

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MCN DVD
What Just Happened?

Robert De Niro does a nice job depicting a hands-on producer attempting to juggle three rather large balls simultaneously. Threatening his position on the A-list are a tempestuous auteur, his ex-wives and an engagingly pompous Bruce Willis. Each of these parallel storylines is intermittently hilarious. When viewed as a self-pitying whole, however, it quickly becomes obvious that the producer’s greatest anxiety would be as traumatizing as a week in Tahiti for 99 percent of other Americans..

Also .. French Connection (Blu-Ray), Extreme Movie: Unrated, Operation Filmmaker, Dead Like Me, Cyclops, Painted Lady, Pirates 2: Stagnetti's Revenge

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Wilmington on DVDs
Dear Zachary, Rachel, Rachel ... plus, this week's box sets
by Michael Wilmington

Filmmaker Kuenne and his main subject, Andrew Bagby, were best friends; Andrew starred in Kurt’s boyhood film efforts, brightening his life and others as well. But there was a dark side to 28-year-old Andrew‘s life, primarily emanating from the twisted character of his 40ish fiancée Shirley Turner, who was fatally obsessed with him. What happens between the two of them, which Kuenne records here, is a stabbing tale of passion and death -- but also of the seeming inability of authorities to act sensibly in some dangerous situations.

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The Ultimate DVD Geek
A Matter of Life and Death and The Age of Consent
by Doug Pratt

After what has seemed like an eternity, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's outstanding 1946 wartime fantasy, A Matter of Life and Death, which played theatrically in Death-allergic America as Stairway to Heaven, has been made available on home video, released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment as a two-platter The Collector's Choice DVD set, The Films of Michael Powell, accompanied by Powell's Age of Consent.

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Voynaristic
Mr. Hollywood and the Women
by Kim Voynar

Sex sells, as evidenced week after week by the box office charts, in which movies that feature scantily clad or nude women, or women as objects of sexual pursuit, consistently bring in the bank.

Is it the fault of the male-dominated studio system for continually churning out films in which women are relegated to subordinate roles within a patriarchal framework? Or is it the fault of the men and women in the viewing audience, who shell out the cash to support such movies at the box office to the tune of millions of dollars in gross, that such films continue to be made? Put more broadly, do movies help determine and perpetuate gender roles, or are they merely reflecting the reality of the world in which they exist?

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The Oscar Winners The Speeches The Gurus Ballot The Critics Scoreboard 20 Weeks to Oscar Oscar Outsider Print Your Ballot The List of Nominees The Oscar Crossword Nominees by the Numbers Nominations Fact Sheet Nominations Trivia Sidebar .

DP/30 Spend Oscar Day With The Nominees
Scott Hamilton Kennedy The Garden	Melissa Leo, Courtney Hunt Frozen River	Darren Aronofsky MIckey Rourke The Wrestler
Mickey Rourke The Wrestler	Richard Jenkins The Visitor	Frank Langella Frost/Nixon
Amy Adams Doubt	John Patrick Shanley Doubt	Viola Davis Doubt
Boyle & Beaufoy Slumdog Millionaire	Josh Brolin Milk	Man On Wire The Producers
Ari Folman Waltz With Bashir	Peter Morgan Frost/Nixon	Marisa Tomei The Wrestler
Mike Leigh Sally Hawkins Happy-Go-Lucky	Ellen Kuras Netakhoon (The Betrayal)	Boyle & Stars Slumdog Millionaire

Who's Covering The WATCHMEN? MCN Exclusively Presents 3 of the 6 EW Watchmen Covers

Profiling Watchmen's Executive Producer, A Former Coin-Laundry Operator, In The Hours Before Its Release

"People sit through a short commercial and then we give them every episode in very high quality that makes stealing it seem dumb. Anywhere there is an iPhone, an Xbox, or a computer, people can watch the show now, which is good for us and for Comedy Central."
David Carr On The Financial Acumen Of South Parkers; Compares Matt And Trey To TV Visionaries Desi And Lucy

Alan Mutter Explores "Why Media Must Charge For Web Content"

Union Square Virgin Megastore Shutters In May, Following Times Square In April: Denver, Orlando And Los Angeles Remain

Cincinnati's Uncle Al, 84, Host Of Longest-Lived Local Kid's Show (1950-1985)
And - Was A Key Influence On Depp's Concept Of Willy Wonka

"They were very funny in here. They said, 'Your dad will be able to graze sheep on his lawn now!'"
Danny Boyle, Buys Another Round Back In Radcliffe Hometown
And - "He's done something no one else around here has ever done."
So Sez Prez Of St Mary's Catholic Social Club
Earlier - "Azhar, cuddling his new pet guinea pig, said: 'I am very sad. I feel sleepy, hot and sick all the time. I can't get to sleep here, there are too many mosquitoes and it is so hot. I just wish I was in America still.'"
London Telegraph Reports 10-Year-Old Slumdog Charmer Azharuddin Ismail Has Taken Ill
And - A Slideshow Of Return To The Slums

How Does The Reader Scan In Germany?

The Fate Of Past Indian Child Film Stars

Unfinished David Foster Wallace Novel Excerpted In This Week's New Yorker To Be Published In 2010
And - The Mag's D. T. Max On The Unfinished Life Of Mr. Wallace

Will Obama's Be The Arts Administration?

"No older person goes anymore. Your hearing starts to go in your 30s and it’s hard to pick out voices from ambient sound. The problem is that when they mix movies now, they forget that audiences have not heard the dialogue. They've heard the dialogue hundreds of times and take it for granted."
John Cleese Sounds Off

Hot Docs Honcho Sean Farnel Blogs On The 2,000 Nonfiction Pics They're Drawing From

California Moves To Hold Onto H'wd

"Seriously, don’t waste your hard earned money on Hell Boy there are better movies to see. If you do go to see it, take your cell phone and lots of crisps and sweets, you'll need them!"
Film Critic Of Zimbabwe's Leading Paper Takes To The Web

The Ulsterman Who Put The Millionaire Into Slumdog

Pinter Mistress Who Inspired Betrayal Opens Yap

Mullah Mouthpiece Miffed At Wrestler Lectures H'wd Contingent In Iran; 300 Still Sore Point
Plus - U. S. Films That Peeved The Censorious Politicos

Welsh Town Of Aberystwyth Lifts 30-Year Blasphemy Ban On Monty Python's Life Of Brian; Mayor Played Brian's Girlfriend

Sydney Cinemas Pull Gang Pic After Fights In The Aisles
And - "Director Devastated Over Dumping"

"We're killing the comic-book movie, we're ending it. This movie is the last comic-book movie, for good or bad."
Modest "Visionary" Zack Snyder Talks Some More

"This is Paul Harvey," Was 90

Ebert In Praise Of Ever-Young Agnes Varda

Artforum Considers Legacy Of Music Videos

Jan Troell Pictures Everlasting Moments

The Sunday NY Times
Movie Ticket Sales Up 17.5%
And - Armond White Smooches Gone With The Wind
Plus - Wrasslin' With Real-Life Randy-The-Rams
Plus - Preserving Avant-Garde Film
And - The Wealth Of Acting Talent On "Damages"
Plus - An Advocate Of Killing Killers Learns From One
With - Down-To-Earth Emily Blunt
And - Three Directors, One Tokyo

The Cesars Give 7 To Seraphine
Also Winning - Elsa Zylberstein For I've Loved You So Long & Ari Folman's Waltz With Bashir

NY Gov Will Propose Renewed Film Production Credits

"They came prowling out of the shadows, wreathed in smoke, wisecracks and stolen mink; women no better than they should be, with only trouble in mind."
What Became Of The Femme Fatale?

Johanna Schneller Praises Oscar Show For How It Reflected Community

Jonny Rosenbaum Considers His Reaction To Sharon Stone's Crossed, Uncrossed Legs In Basic Instinct, Zero-Star Review Then And Now

"Pets plus movies can only equal trauma."
Lassie Go Home, Barks John Patterson
But - Celebrates The B-Buzz Of Great Noir Romance Gun Crazy

Hearst Shoving Chunk Of 16 Newspapers' Content Back Behind Paywall

Fun With 3-D Trailers

Sony Sets Shake-Up

"Nothing Will Come Of Nothing"
Hopkins-Knightley-Paltrow "King Lear" Film Passes

Munchkin Clarence Swensen Was 91

Dean & Britta On Scoring Warhol's Screen Tests
And - A Taste Of The Project

Final Edition: The Rocky Mountain News' 20-Minute Video Of The Last Day Of The 150-Year-Old Newspaper

Cutting $800 Million In Marketing Owing To Taxpayer Buyout Bucks, GM Unlikely To Promo Transformers Sequel

Los Angeles May Get Film Czar

H'wd Loves Foreigners, So Long As They're Not Stars

Nina Paley's Captivating Copywronged Sita Sings The Blues Streams Free On Reel13 Site Owing To Music Rights Exclusions For Public TV

On Eve Of L.A. Retro, Olsen On The Flickering Poverty Poetry Of Filmmaker Bruce Conner

Sumner Redstone, Lenders Restructure $1.6 Billion Debt

Film Industry Contract Negotiator Nick Counter Out

Nikki Finke's Farrah/Joaquin Interview Moment

Other Shoe Drops
IW: Peter Scarlet Resigns Tribeca
LouLu: Peter Scarlet "Resigns" Tribeca

Canada Banks Are Okay, But Media...?
Debt-Ridden CanWest, Canada's Leading Newspaper Publisher, Owner Of New Republic, National Post, Leading Anglophone Dailies in Vancouver, Ottawa, Montreal, Major TV Broadcaster, Near Bankruptcy

Akbar & Jeff Shown No Love
LA Weekly Boots Groening's "Life In Hell" After 22 Years

The Vanishing Of VHS And The Many Movies Not On Video

Polish Film Poster Great Franciszek Starowieyski Was 78

Ella Taylor On Dennis Potter

The Woz Revisits Tara

FT Analyzes Icahn's Lionsgate Moves

Art Directors Guild Redecorates With Two Smaller Unions

Channeling Ted Turner, 86-Year-Old Gossip Liz Smith Sez Post Firing Was "Emasculating"

$321 Million Writedown On Newsday Nets Cablevision Loss
While - Newsday Will Charge To View Stories Online

The Super Problems Of Today's Superheroes

Foundas On Film Collagist Bruce Conner Retro In L.A.

Not-Yet-Relaunched Movieline Reframes Defamer Exiles

The Newspaper Industry's Next Headache: Ads Introduced To Google News

"Newspapers are nearing the end of their Cretaceous era. The asteroids–recession and the internet–have landed and the extinction horizon is imminent. A recent study observed the future for local papers had moved from 'difficult to impossible.' Half the jobs in UK local papers, 20,000 people, could go in the next 5 years."

Coen Bros. Take On Coal Industry

The Plans To Take Seattle Post-Intelligencer To Online-Only

Gwyneth Not Trying To Be The Next Martha With Her Goop

The Rocky Mountain News, 150, Will Be Buried Friday

Masters Parses Fox Developments

Von Trier-Partnered Zentropa Didn't Do So Well With Porn, Now Trying Animation

Governator Of California Has Only L.A. Scene In Stallone Film To Be Shot Otherwise In Louisiana And Brazil

The Daily Deadwood
Financial Times Offers Staff 3-Day Workweek Over Summer
And - Bankrupt Minneapolis Star-Trib Wants To Void Pressmen's Contract
Plus - Gannett's Tucson Citizen To Close After 138 Years
And - One Rundown Bunny For Sale

L.A. Times Merges Arts And Entertainment In Hope Of Harvesting More H'wd News

Netflix Set To Offer Streaming-Only Subs

Oscilliscope Harvests The Garden

How Much, If Any, Of 2001: A Space Odyssey's Future Do We Live In?

"What P.C. Critics Of Slumdog Millionaire Still Don't Understand"

Hey, 14.3% Equals A Seat For My 29-Year-Old Son, Right?
Investor Icahn Pulls Lionsgate's Tail Some More

Asian Networks Sour Milk's Oscar Speeches

American Medical Association Fumes At American Spirits Packs In He's Just Not That Into You, A Film In Which Cancer Does Not Go Unmentioned; Santa Fe Tobacco Agrees; Unnamed Warner Sources Point At New Line Standards

Will Murdoch Bounce MySpace Founders Now?

Marvel Signs Samuel L. To Nine-Picture Deal To Play Nick Fury

Roger Ebert, Snark-Charmer

The Daily Deadwood
Hartford Courant Cuts 100 Jobs; News Staff Halved Since Start Of 2008
And - San Antonio Express-News Tosses 135 Into The Bushes

Reviewing Coppola's Tetro Intro

"The first movie Obama viewed in the White House theater was Slumdog Millionaire. He loved it, and parts of the movie reminded him of his childhood days in Jakarta, Indonesia."

Voynar Salutes MOMA's Salute To American Neorealist Ramin Bahrani

French Cinemas Go Gray All Of A Sudden

Previewing Hugh Jackman's 2010 Oscar Opening Number

Four NY Observer Writers Go 6,000 Words On Future Of Newspapers

"It's not the film that I shot, and I certainly want to to wash my hands of anything to do with this transfer, which I feel is atrocious."
Back By Midnight Podcast Finds French Connection Cinematographer Owen Roizman Displeased With Mr. Friedkin

Science Fiction Writer Philip José Farmer Was 91

Cannes Gives Eastwood Special Palme D'Or

Breaking A Kindle 2 Into Its Little Pieces

SF Chronicle Cost-Cut Target Equals 47% Of Staff

Ted Hope On The Stall-Out Of The NYC Film Production Credit

"For a guy being grilled about cartoon squids and superhero genitalia, Zack Snyder is looking pretty comfortable."

"I desperately miss Sally. I genuinely can't see how any of their performances are as original, creative, profound, witty or versatile as hers."
Mike Leigh Diaries His L.A.-Oscar High Hopes
And - Leigh On "Playing Cowboys And Indians"

"Never mind that a half-hour episode of 'The Simpsons' has more reference, emotional complexity and political texture than probably the last decade of Eastwood's career."
Brit Scribe Wuvs Her Telly; Bins American Cinema

Doc About Farmer And Cow Runaway South Korean Hit

"Filmmakers are practical psychologists, artists who have mastered the skill of playing with our senses. We can open up their secrets a little by using tools borrowed from the sciences of mind."
Good Dr. Bordwell Schools Coraline

Salman Rushdie Turns Best Pic Nominee Cricket; Not Fond Of Slumdog
While - Mumbai Housing Authority To Find Homes For Families Of Film's Youngest Stars
And - How Will The Slumdog Millions Be Shared?

Director McTiernan's Guilty Plea Dies Readily