‘Anchorman 2’ to have a classy weekend

The man who managed to make the trinity of obnoxiousness – misogyny, dimwittedness and frustratingly perfect hair – hilariously lovable in 2004 is back for another crassly classy good time. Will Ferrell has reprised his role as ‘70’s newsman Ron Burgundy for Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, which opened wide in 3,450 locations on Wednesday.

Ferrell and director Adam McKay’s first Anchorman was by no means a box-office success, earning roughly $85 million domestically and failing to generate any international business to speak of. The film only found a dedicated audience once it was released on DVD, quickly becoming the kind of cult favorite many a high-schooler spent his, and her, lunch period quoting.

Hollywood, however, was a little slow to catch up. Anchorman may have found new life post-theatrical release, but given its tepid b.o. performance, studio execs at Paramount were initially hesitant to green-light a sequel. The fact that several of the film’s stars have become more popular over the last decade – most notably Steve Carell, who helmed his own cult hit, TV series “The Office – probably played a large role in overcoming the kind of bottom-line hesitancy that kept Anchorman 2 in limbo for years. Not that Paramount, once committed, minded waging an expensive marketing campaign on the movie’s behalf. Have all those Dodge Durango commercials piqued viewers’ interest? The weekend before Christmas is notoriously tough for new releases, but Anchorman 2 is still expected to earn between $40 and $50 million for the five-day spread.

Actually, so is The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Few pundits have been able to discuss Smaug without mentioning its inability to generate the same kind of boffo revenue as its predecessor, last year’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (even though Smaug has earned superior reviews). Yet Peter Jackson’s second Lord of the Rings prequel is still drawing sizable crowds. It wouldn’t be a Christmas miracle if Smaug managed to out-gross Anchorman 2 this weekend.

CG-animated kids’ film Walking with Dinosaurs will likely land at the bottom of the weekend’s list of top earners. Frozen continues to pose fierce competition, and will probably keep Dinosaurs from grossing more than $10 or $12 million.

Specialty enthusiasts who do not live in either New York or LA (a tough position for a specialty enthusiast) will be treated to Christmas-come-early today. Both American Hustle and Saving Mr. Banks are expanding, to 2,500 and 2,200 locations, respectively. David O. Russell’s Oscar favorite had the fourth-best per-theatre average when it opened in limited release last weekend. Given the loud buzz surrounding the flick, it should earn upwards of $15 million.

Last but by no means the least interesting, Spike Jonze’s Her, about a man who falls in love with a computer operating system (not as crazy as it sounds, considering the computer’s voice belongs to Scarlett Johansson), also bows in six locations today. The film is on track to expand wide on January 10^th.   

'Hope Springs' will be a hit with older moviegoers, but it works with all ages

Older moviegoers are a force to be reckoned with at the box office. They are the demographic that has driven the success of indies like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. As theatre owners tell it, seniors are some of the most dependable moviegoers of all, able to enjoy a growing amount of free time unhindered by obligations of children.

Hope Springs heads straight into their wheelhouse, offering a gentle, funny tale of a long-married couple who are trying to bring the love (and sex!) back into their marriage. The script and actors (Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, and Steve Carell) manage to dance around most explicitness in a way that will appease more conservative viewers. They also get a lot of laughs out of Jones' discomfort with anything related to matters of the heart or body. He gets uncomfortable enough for the rest of us.

Streep and Jones are closer to the age of my parents than my peers, but Hope Springs shows that demographics don't matter. It's hard not to get drawn into rooting for the characters' marriage, and doesn't everyone want to believe in a happy-ever-after? As our critic Shirley Sealy puts, it, "The pitch-perfect chemistry of Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones makes Hope Springs a must-see for anyone who’s been in a relationship, or hopes to be."

The role is yet another home run for Streep's career. Movies like  The Devil Wears Prada, Julie & Julia, and Mamma Mia! appealed to both the young and old. She's not exactly Betty White, who has amassed a following of younger viewers enamored with the former "Golden Girls" star specifically because she combines old age with a incongruously sharp humor; rather, Streep has an ageless appeal. If the old adage for a successful star was "men want her, women want to be her," perhaps the update is "older people want to be her, younger people want her to be their friend/boss/mother." Younger viewers shouldn't discount Hope Springs because its stars are greying around the temples, because everyone can be touched by the sweet, hopeful story within.

 

May-December casting in 'Seeking a Friend at the End of the World'

By Sarah Sluis

I remember the furor that surrounded the romantic comedy Six Days, Seven Nights, which paired up Harrison Ford with a star 27 years younger, Anne Heche. Now it appears another May-December romance is in the process of being cast. Steve Carell and Keira Knightley, 22 years his junior, appear to be starring opposite each other in Seeking a Friend at the End of the World, a dark romantic comedy that unfolds four weeks before an asteroid is set to destroy Earth. Writer Lorene Scafaria (Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist), a member of the Hollywood "fempire" that includes Diablo Cody, will make her directorial debut with the movie.

There's a chance, however, that the romance could have some kind of quirk that will make it work, or that it won't really be a romance in the sense we expect. The title IS Seeking a Friend at the End of the World, after all. Then there's the plot description. To paraphrase IMDB, the plot centers on Carell's mission to track down his high school sweetheart after his wife abandons him in the wake of the asteroid frenzy. Knightley plays a neighbor who just comes along for the ride, throwing a wrench in the proceedings. But that "wrench" could be l-o-v-e. I don't really see a romance between the two as believable. Carell is the everyman, and his love interests have overwhelmingly been age-appropriate, attractive choices (Catherine Keener in 40-Year-Old Virgin, Tina Fey in Date Night, Julianne Moore and Marisa Tomei in the upcoming Crazy, Stupid, Love). Knightley, too, was attached to Orlando Bloom in Pirates of the Caribbean and even after that odd scene involving a beach fire and Johnny Depp consuming copious amounts of rum, a romance between her and Depp was ruled out.

But I will give the movie this. After reading this rather apocalyptic excerpt from the script, I certainly don't see how even a genius screenwriter could turn this into a romantic comedy...unless you count gallows humor. The May-December romance may end up being the easier thing to pull off.

Despite these oddities, the script has a green light and the Mandate Pictures production (the people that believed in a teen pregnancy comedy called Juno) will begin filming in May.

Trailer review: 'Crazy, Stupid, Love'

By Sarah Sluis

Steve Carell nailed the sexually innocent, romantically awkward character in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and it appears that he's returning to the same territory in Crazy, Stupid, Love. The romantic comedy has a well-known cast: Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, Marisa Tomei, Emma Stone, and Kevin Bacon play supporting roles. The trailer for Crazy, Stupid, Love just came out, and it exceeded my expectations.

First, Crazy, Stupid, Love appears to put story first, comedy second, which for me is more likely to result in appreciative laughter. Unfortunately, I know the movie puts story first because the trailer all but gives away the ending. Oh well. Carell plays a husband who just found out his high school sweetheart wife (Moore) cheated on him. He ends up meeting a player (Gosling), who helps him up his game enough to snag a cute woman (Tomei). But Carell still loves his wife! And Gosling just fell in love, not lust, with another woman (Stone)! It seems like the story will end with Carell back in the arms of his wife and Gosling learning from Carell how to commit. It's really too bad that the trailer had to give that story arc away--I think the idea of the player learning from the longtime husband is really sweet, and unexpected. In a lot of these movies, only the main character undergoes a transformation.

Of all the performances, I was most surprised by Gosling's take on a ladies' man. I know him mainly for his dramatic role in Blue Valentine, so seeing him as a slick, fast-talking guy was something of a surprise. The rest of the cast plays versions of their already established star personas. For the second year in a row, Moore is playing a likeable cheater (The Kids Are All Right). Stone again plays a smart girl skeptical of male intentions (Easy A), and Tomei is doing her sexually assertive thing.

The trailer cuts out some of the more suggestive punchlines, so I'm going to bet this movie is going for a PG-13 vibe, especially because the movie also includes teen romance, Carell and Moore's son's lusting after his babysitter. Back in December, Warner Bros. moved the comedy from April 22 to July 29, the surest sign that this romantic comedy can stand up to the heat of summer.