'G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra' keeping its mission secret

By Sarah Sluis

Paramount undoubtedly felt burned by the terrible reviews Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen received, though it had the last laugh when the movie turned out to be a tremendous box-office success. For G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra, the studio simply decided to forgo screening the movie for critics--though a few select members of the online media have seen it. Saturating the market with 4,007 screens, it's expected to pull in at least $50 million. Its plot, which involves a super-secret elite force of soldiers who battle with a similarly elite group of terrorists, should please those looking for fight scenes and weapons launches, and not those looking for the plot motivating the battle.

The delightful Julie & Julia, opening in 2,975 theatres, should earn somewhere in the high teens to early twenties. Because its main quadrant is older females, this film's run is less defined by its opening weekend, and more by its longevity. As a food-lover myself, I found the film went down quite easily. Nora Ephron's "gift for endearing female characters," whom she portrays as "uniquely creative individuals" overcoming obstacles, makes this movie great for an uplifting afternoon. As our critic Maria Garcia notes, "Julie Powell was in her late 20s when she began the blog that sparked her writing career, and Julia Child was nearly 40 when she finally graduated from Le Cordon Bleu. We're reminded in this film of the ways in which older women inspire young women, and the vitality which young women like Julie Powell offer women Ephron's age." This is exactly the kind of movie grandmothers, mothers, and daughters would go to and enjoy together.

Horror fans will have yet another option to get their scares this weekend when A Perfect Getaway opens in 2,129 theatres. "A genuinely unexpected twist," along with a self-referential set of main characters who are wannabe screenwriters should set this horror movie apart from the rest.

Comedy-romance Paper Heart opens in 38 theatres. The mockumentary has a definite hipster feel to it, with its self-consciousness and subtle mockery of rural and suburban values. Charlyne Yi carries the film with her endearing awkwardness, and the interviews with people about their experiences in love are a modern update on the interview sections in When Harry Met Sally.

Finally, Paul Giamatti stars in Cold Souls, a tale of people whose souls can be swapped to suit their whims. Our critic Rex Roberts found that "the movie's busy combination of science fiction, satire and absurdity, cloned onto a fairly conventional comedy-drama, favors style over substance. Viewers are encouraged to ponder life's existential dilemma, but [director Sophie] Barthes and [cinematographer-producer Andrij] Parekh offer only irony and sentiment as cynosures." Barthes' work has drawn comparisons to Charlie Kaufman, so fans looking for a little more Being John Malkovich may delight in the echo.

Next Monday, we'll see how G.I. Joe's critic-free strategy worked, whether Julie & Julia pulled in audiences its opening weekend, and if Judd Apatow's Funny People has stayed strong through its second week at the box office.

'Wolverine' packs theatres

By Sarah Sluis

I was a little worried about X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which releases today in 4,099 theatres, when most of the reviews involved plot descriptions that spanned multiple paragraphs, and involved references to the Civil War, mercenaries, globe-trotting to Africa and Canada, and that dreaded third act device, amnesia. The biggest impediment to Wolverine's success may not be the fact that untold numbers of people watched an illegally downloaded copy of the movie, but whether people can buy the convoluted plot. For our reviewer Frank Lovece, Wolverine has "that indefinable something that keeps what's magical from looking silly or self-conscious," but apparently that feeling has not extended to all those who have seen the film--on RottenTomatoes, it's currently tracking at a middling 37%. Over at the New York Times, A.O. Scott called Wolverine "shorter and less pretentious than Watchmen, but almost

programmatically unmemorable, a hodge-podge of loose ends, wild

inconsistencies and stale genre conventions." Ouch. Some expect Wolverine to match Iron Man's $98 million open from last year, but Fox is countering that with a lowball $70 million estimate that they will likely exceed.

For those not interested in a mutant's trek across time and continents, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (3,175 theatres) will take you back through the history of a cad with a winning smile, Matthew McConaughey. What sounds great on paper--"A Christmas Carol, but with love!" fails in execution, as critic Kirk Honeycutt called it "the lamest and easily the worst revisionist take on this classic story. Last year, another re-tread romantic comedy, Made of Honor, made $15 million in this spot against Iron Man, so Ghosts of Girlfriends Past should be able to count on as much.

On the animated 3D front, Battle for Terra opens in 1,159 theatres, and will likely experience slightly boosted grosses due to the higher ticket prices of the format. However, the animation isn't pretty, and its overly rounded CGI faces brings to mind low budgets and another animated flop that released earlier this year, Delgo. However, if you can get past the animation, the environmentally aware message earns the film major points, as does its willingness to break with tradition and make humans look bad. In the film, humans who have ravaged their planet try to take over Terra, which is inhabited by a peaceful, faultless species. As Honeycutt put it, "the story...generates a shock of chagrined recognition along with divided loyalties. Do we root against the warlike humans and for the peace-loving Terrians?"

From Seattle, documentary and festival favorite A Wink and a Smile releases. While our reviewer Daniel Eagan called it "skin-deep," its regular-women-do-burlesque premise has one thing going for it: sex sells. Moving from hot to cold, The Limits of Control, directed by Jim Jarmusch and starring Tilda Swinton, is an "anti-thriller" that's so cold "the soul shivers." Finally, mild haunted house thriller The Skeptic releases at IFC, which might be a good choice if you prefer your scares in small doses.

Monday I'll circle back with the box-office grosses, and answer that looming question: how much money will X-Men Origins: Wolverine take in?