New On DVD.

It was a small week this week. The biggest release of all will be Saturday at midnight when the latest Twilight movie is released. A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas brought in $35,061,031 and is rated as 6.6 on the IMDB.

 
Anonymous is a political thriller about the true author of Shakespeare's plays. It only brought in $4,463,292, but it is rated as 6.9 on the IMDB.

The biggest release came out in 1955, Disney's Lady And the Tramp. It is rated 7.4 on the IMDB. This is only available in combo packs, meaning if you want only the DVD or just the Blu-ray disk, you are out of luck. I haven't checked but if Disney follows form, in four weeks, you will be able to buy just the DVD.

New DVD Releases.

The premise of In Time reminds me of Logan's Run. Whereas in Logan's run life ended at age 30, In Time life ends at age 26. The movie brought in $37,508,853 and is rated 6.6 on the IMDB.

I am not overly fond of movies that are basically car chases, so I will pass on this one. the movie brought in $35,038,051 and is rated 8.0 on the IMDB. With that rating the movie is listed at number 220 on the IMDB's top 250 movies.

Dream House brought in $21,302,340 and is rated 5.7 on the IMDB.

This is the third time that The Thing has been made. This one brought in $16,928,670 and is rated 6.3 on the IMDB.

The Big Year has a great comedy team with Steve Martin, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson as birdwatchers. The movie brought in $7,204,138 at the box office and is rated 5.9 on the IMDB.

The movie that I think will sell best this week is the latest in Disney's dog buddies series, a direct to DVD movie called Treasure Buddies. Disney has had a lot of success with these movies, and I don't expect anything different from this one.

New DVD Releases.

When the first Paranormal Activity came out in 2007 it was a surprising hit. Made on a budget of $15,000 it grossed over $193 million worldwide. The budgets have gotten bigger, but people still flock to see the movies. The third chapter in the series brought in $104,028,807 in the United States and almost that much overseas. It's not my kind of movie, but it does have its audience. It is rated a 6.2 on the IMDB.

 
When I first heard about the movie Real Steel, I joked that it would turn out to be Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots, the movie. The movie did very well at the box office where it brought in $85,255,428. It was a huge hit overseas, bringing in $210 million. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to watch it, but I have enjoyed most of Hugh Jackman's movies. The IMDB rates the movie a 7.3.

50/50 is a comedy about cancer. It was inspired by a true story about a young man diagnosed with cancer and his subsequent battle with the disease. The young man was screenwriter Will Reiser.  After a six-year struggle he was declared cancer free. The movie brought in $35,014,192 and is rated an 8.0 on the IMDB.

New DVD Releases.

The Ides of March is a movie about a political campaign. I get enough of that with regular news and really don't care to watch a movie about it. The movie brought in $40,962,534 and is fairly well thought of by the people on the IMDB where it ranks a 7.4.

Courageous is the fourth movie from Sherwood Pictures, which is owned by the Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia. This is their most successful movie so far. It brought in $34,311,609 and is rated a 5.8 on the IMDB.

A lot of people in Hollywood think that Taylor Lautner will become one of the next big stars. Outside of the Twilight movies he has not been very successful so far. Abduction brought in $28,087,155 and is rated a 4.4 on the IMDB.

Speaking of major disappointments, Bucky Larson: Born To Be A Star will go down as one of the worst movies ever made. It had the dubious honor of getting a zero rating at Rottentomatoes.com. If you not familiar with out Rotten Tomatoes works, they gather all reviews of a movie and rate it according to the number of positive reviews the movie receives. No reviewer liked this movie. It only brought in $2,529,395 and is rated a 2.5 on the IMDB.

New DVD Releases.

There were two new releases this week based on true stories. The first one was a baseball tale, Moneyball, which tells how Billy Beane had success with the Oakland A's, using what he called sabermetrics. I don't fully understand how it works, but is a way of building a winning team in a small town market. The fact that Brad Pitt starred in this movie helped it to gross $75,267,105 and it is rated a 7.8 on the IMDB.

I have not yet looked into the story that Killer Elite was based on. The movie definitely has star power, with Jason Stratham, Robert DeNiro, and Clive Owen. That, however, did not translate into a box office blockbuster. As it only brought in $25,124,966 at is rated a 6.6 on the IMDB.

What's Your Number only brought in $14,011,084 and is rated a 5.6 on the IMDB.

The Scorpion King 3:Battle For Redemption was a direct to DVD release. This is the second sequel to the Scorpion King to be released straight on DVD. I passed on the first one, and I intend to pass on this one to.

New DVD Releases.

Contagion is the tale of a disease that goes out of control and kills a large part of the worlds population. The movie did $75,658,097 at the box office and is rated 6.9 on the IMDB.

This horror movie was loosely based on an H.P. Lovecraft short story titled "The Rats in the Walls." It took in $24,046,682 at the box office and was rated 5.8 on the IMDB.

Shark Night is one of those movies that tried to latch onto the 3-D boom. It did not work out very well for them as the box office totals were $18,877,153 and the IMDB rated it a 4.0.

I didn't put the new movies out last night because I was not scheduled work. Since New Year's Day is a paid holiday, most of us were given an extra day off to this week. I could've gone in if I had wanted to, but I'm at the point now in my life that I would rather have the time off than the money.

Now On DVD And An Underhanded Marketing Decision.

There were only two "new" releases this week, and only one of them appeared in theaters. The Tom Hanks movie, Larry Crowne, brought in $35,608,245 and was rated 6.0 on the IMDB. I really have nothing to say about the movie because I have not seen it and don't plan on changing that.

The second release was two short cartoons based on the movie How To Train Your Dragon. The titles of them are Gift Of the Night Fury and Book Of Dragons. Again, I don't have much to say about these because I have not seen the movie that they are based on.

Two other DVDs did come out last night, but considering that they were released a few weeks ago in a different form, I don't consider them new releases. Both movies were from Disney, The Lion King and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. When first released. You can only buy them in a Blu-ray/DVD combo set. I had several people asking me for just the DVD by itself, and I disappointed those people by telling them it was not available. Now they are available, but I wonder how many people paid the extra and now have Blu-ray copies that they can't use. To me it was kind of underhanded of Disney to release them this way. I understand the marketing behind it, but I totally disagree with it. It strikes me as being insensitive to the wants of the consumer. Blu-ray is the wave of the future and in my opinion it will be about two more years before the option is taken away from us and DVD goes the way of VHS. Still, I think it was kind of dirty of Disney to do it this way.

New Releases And Midnight Madness.

Last night was a  very light night for new releases. I lead with the box office champion, but this one wasn't very hard for the movie The Change–up. Of course, had the movie that's coming out Friday night been released last night, this would not be the case. The Change–up was a box office disappointment. It had a $52 million budget and only brought in $37,081,475 and it is rated a 6.5 on the IMDB. I have not seen this movie and do not plan on doing so. This basic story has been done too many times and I really haven't cared for any version of it.

The Reunion is the latest movie from WWE productions. I think Vince McMahon wants to become the next Cecil B. DeMille. This movie was supposedly released on a limited scale. If it was Box Office Mojo did not track it. The IMDB rates it a 4.1.

The real big release last night was the game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Last night was the first time that I had seen a big crowd waiting to purchase a game. Of course the fact that we held a tournament before the release time helped that out tremendously. I did not hear exactly how many copies we sold, but with two registers running it took half an hour to take care of everybody that was waiting. It was like a mini Black Friday, with the major difference being we had a very civil crowd. There wasn't anybody trying to cut in line, and nobody complained about having to wait. I have been told that the busiest that the store has been on a midnight release was when Twilight: New Moon came out. That gives me something to look forward to when the next Twilight comes out next spring. As far as the game goes, it is one that I do not play. I am no good at those type of games. I can hit the button fast enough and end up getting killed real quick. Of course, If I was playing somebody else, they would enjoy it because they would be winning all the time.

Now On DVD.

The big movie this week was Pixar's Cars 2, which of course was a sequel to the 2006 movie Cars. I may be alone in this, but I am not a huge fan of Pixar movies. They are not bad movies, but there is just something about them that I do not enjoy. The only one that I really like was The Incredible's. I have seen the first Cars movie, but I have no desire to see this one. It was somewhat of a box office disappointment as it only brought in $191,130,189. The disappointment being the fact that they spent $200 million to make the movie. Of course, overseas sales did help tremendously and it ended up totaling over $551 million. The IMDB rates the movie a 6.5.

 The second new release was the romantic comedy Crazy Stupid Love. I like Steve Carell, but I'll pass on this one. It did fairly well in the box office, bringing in $83,904,895 and is rated a 7.6 by the IMDB.

The other new movie released was a love story Water For Elephants. This one stars Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson. This movie has somewhat of a local connection as part of it was filmed in Chattanooga. That still is not enough for me to want to see this movie. It brought in $58,709,717 and is rated 7.0 on the IMDB.

Now on DVD And A Retail Story.

Green Lantern was released today on DVD. It is one of the movies that I saw and my review of it is here. As I mentioned then, I was rather disappointed with it. It was not a bad movie, I just wanted to see more than what they showed us. It was a box office disappointment, bringing in $116,601,172. It brought in almost that much overseas, but considering they spent $200 million making it, it was not very successful. It is rated a 6.1 on the IMDB. I will be buying a copy of it when it gets down to around $10.

I made a customer mad the other night but I really don't feel bad about it. A man tried to return a cell phone, claiming his phone didn't work and he wanted to exchange it for another one. Normally that is not a problem, however, he did not have the original packaging that it came in. I don't want to go into great detail about everything that I check out during a return, just in case somebody stumbles across this post and tries to figure out a way around what we do. Let's just say what I saw from this phone gave me reason to believe the man was being as truthful as a politician. He claimed he had talked to somebody "up front", and they had told him that exchanging the phone was no problem. Not having the original box was a major problem, and he also was missing the charger that went with the phone. He did have a receipt, but I refused to make an exchange for him. When I told him I was in a do anything for him the man went storming towards the front of the store and said, "Something will be done about this phone tonight." There is no doubt in my mind that the phone was either stolen or just an old phone that he was trying to exchange for a new one. After he left, I called one of the managers and told her what had happened. She told me not to worry about it, and that she would back me all the way. If there's something legitimately wrong I will do everything that I possibly can to make it right for a customer, however, I'm not going to let anybody rip me off. I've been doing this long enough to know the tricks that people can come up with. Incidentally, the man has not come back yet. Some other store may have had to deal with things, but we haven't.

Now on DVD.

We have another week where there will be two movie release days. Green Lantern will be coming out Friday and I will talk about that on that day. For this week the movie that did the best in the box office was Horrible Bosses, the tale of three men who decide to help each other eliminate their bosses. The IMDB rates the movie a 7.2 and it brought in $117,338,069.

Zookeeper was somewhat of a disappointment at the box office but made up for it overseas. It actually did a little better there than it did here in the United States. People on the IMDB were not overly impressed with the movie as it is rated a 4.6. They spent $80 million making it and in the United States it brought in $80,112,560. Since it brought in $84 million overseas it was a profitable movie. I would say there is a possibility we might see a sequel to it. That is only based on my opinion not anything that I have read.

The final new release was a major disappointment for the studio. Based on a series of books by Megan McDonald I think they were hoping for a new franchise. Unfortunately this was not the way to get started. The IMDB rates it a 3.0, and it only brought in $15,013,650, which is not good for a movie that cost $20 million to make. They titled the movie the Not Bummer Summer, but unfortunately it turned into the bummer summer.

Now on DVD.

 There were three big new releases this week. Actually, calling the one that leads off a new release is misleading, since technically it is a re-release. There is a 3-D version, which is brand-new. That is the version that has been in theaters the last couple of weeks. The Lion King has brought in more money than Disney was anticipating and it probably will be in the theaters for another couple of weeks. The IMDB rates it an 8.3, which places it number 112 out of the top 250 movies rated. On its initial run the Lion King brought in $312,855,561. It has been re-released several times and now its total box office draw is $407,751,570. I have no plans of buying this since I already own it.

 Fast 5 is the fifth entry in the Fast and the Furious franchise. Personally I have never seen any of them, even though I am a fan of Vin Diesel. This movie also has the added attraction of another one of my favorite actors, Dwayne Johnson, but I just don't care for movies that are basically one long car chase. I know more than that happens in these, but I'll still pass. It is fairly popular, as shown by the 7.4 rating on the IMDB and it brought in $209,837,675 at the box office. I would say the odds are good of a sixth movie being made.

The other new release was Scream 4, another movie that I have no intention of seeing. I consider all the movies like the Scream saga nothing more then gruesome death movies. I don't mind scary movies. I just don't care for gory ones. The IMDB rates this a 6.5 and at the box office it brought in a somewhat disappointing $38,180,928. That was disappointing, considering they spent $40 million making it. Don't cry for them because it brought in more than that overseas so they did show a profit on it.

We are now hitting the time when the big summer blockbusters will be coming out on DVD. It was a little crazy last night at midnight, and I look for that to get worse as the weeks go by. I did buy one DVD this morning.

"Weird Al" Yankovic had a special on Comedy Central Saturday night which was titled Weird Al Yankovic Live: the Alpocalypse Tour. It is a concert film of one of his shows, and I really enjoyed it. If you are a "Weird Al" fan, I strongly recommend this.

Now On DVD.

This was a very quiet week for new releases. The only movies that came out were direct to DVD. That will change Friday, and I'll cover that movie, then. The first movie came from WWE Studios. Vince McMahon is trying to become a movie mogul and his latest effort is called Inside Out, which stars his son-in-law, Triple H. You can watch the trailer for it here.

The second movie was a twin pack of Halloween stories from 2 movie franchises, Scared Shrekless, and Monsters Versus Aliens:Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space. I don't have much say about them because I've never seen them.

 

I did have one surprise from last night. I had a young lady that wanted to purchase a videogame that had just been released.the game was FIFA soccer 12. I find it amazing that somebody wanted to get a soccer game at midnight.

Now on DVD.

It was very light week for movies. Only two came out today been in theaters before, one being the movie Bridesmaids and the other was Dumbo, which is being re-released by Disney. Bridesmaids was one of those surprise hits which brought in $168,944,100. It is rated a 7.2 on the IMDB.

Spooky Buddies is a direct to DVD movie and not enough people have voted on it for the movie to have a rating.

Actually, the big release last night was the Xbox game Gears of War 3. I had a crowd waiting to purchase it at midnight.

Now On DVD.

This was a very light week for new releases. There is one movie that came out this week that I'm not including here because I didn't see any copies of it. That one is the movie The Beaver, which starred Mel Gibson. I'm not sure why we didn't get any copies of it, but I'm only putting in here what I saw. Of the three movies that I'm going to mention here. Only one of them was released in theaters here in the United States. So, by default, the money winner this week is Win Win. I don't have an opinion about this movie because I have never seen it, nor had I ever heard of it. It is rated a 7.5 on the IMDB and did $10,179,275 at the box office.

The second movie released was Blitz, which was seen in theaters in the United Kingdom but not in the United States. The movie stars Jason Statham who plays a cop chasing after a serial killer. It is rated a 6.3 on the IMDB.

The final movie was a re-release of Walt Disney's Bambi II. This was originally released in 2006. It is rated 6.2 on the IMDB.

Now On DVD.

The top drawing DVD that came out this week was Something Borrowed, a romantic comedy. It is rated a 5.5 on the IMDB, and brought in $39,046,489 at the box office. Personally I have no desire to see this movie.

Priest is one of those movies set in a post-apocalyptic world that is inhabited by vampires. Priest's niece is kidnapped by the vampires and he goes to free her. It is rated 5.7 on the IMDB, and had box office receipts totaling $29,136,626.

The Conspirator is a historical drama directed by Robert Redford. It is based on the story of Mary Surratt, who was hung in 1865 because she had a lousy choice of tenants in her rooming house. One of her borders was a gentleman named John Wilkes Booth. I trust I don't have to tell you who he was. This one looks like it would be right up my alley, but I will wait a while and by it after the price goes down. It is rated a 7.0 on the IMDB, but only brought in $11,533,409 at the box office.

Jane Eyre is the latest film version of the classic novel. It is well-liked on the IMDB and has a 7.6 rating. at the box office. It brought in $11,242,660.

Hoodwinked Too:Hood Versus Evil is one of the movies that I saw in theaters. I liked it a lot more than a lot of the others. The IMDB rates it a 4.4, and it brought in $10,143,779, which is not good for movie that cost $30 million.

Marley And Me: The Puppy Years is a direct to DVD sequel to the Marley And Me movie from a few years ago. It currently is rated a 6.4 on the IMDB, but that rating is only based on 12 users. It will definitely change as more people vote.  On a side note, last night there were actually two people waiting until midnight to buy this movie. That amazed me. I can understand it for a Harry Potter movie or a Twilight movie, but not a direct to DVD movie.

The final movie is another direct to DVD release. This one was John Carpenter's The Ward. It is the story of a woman in an insane asylum where the patients are disappearing. This movie was released in Europe, but not here in the United States. It has a rating of 5.7 on the IMDB.