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Box Office Results

Posted by

José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris

News date

Monday, July 28, 2003

It was a weekend full of surprises and excitement! In a move that no one saw coming, Robert Rodriguez's Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over was the nation's #1 movie, earning in its first weekend more than its two previous outings did over the same span. It proved to be Miramax's first number one hit in its opening weekend for over two years and it also was, amazingly enough, Sylvester Stallone's best opening ever!

Meanwhile, the second, third, fourth and fifth slots could all change once final data is released tomorrow. It was a photo-finish race between four movies, although that meant something different for each movie: Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life underperformed, Seabiscuit proved a success of its own and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl continued its impressive run with very small declines and a sure-shot at the 200-million club.

Meanwhile Finding Nemo is one day away from becoming the highest-grossing animated feature in history, leaving behind the first run of The Lion King back in 1994. Pretty amazing, isn't it?

Also... for the first time in box office history five movies grossed more than 20 million. Wow!

1. Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over - $32.5M, $32.5M total
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl - $22.4M, $176.1M total
3. Bad Boys II - $22M, $88.4M total
4. Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life - $21.7M, $21.7M total
5. Seabiscuit - $21.5M, $21.5M total
6. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines - $5M, $137.4M total
7. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - $4.8M, $52.7M total
8. Johnny English - $4.3M, $18.4M total
9. Finding Nemo - $4M, $312.6M total
10. Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde - $2.6M, $82.1M total

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News

Videogames galore!

Posted by

José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris

News date

Friday, July 25, 2003

Three new movies open today and at least two of them have to do with videogames. Check out what's out there:

Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over - The third and finall installment of the saga arrives with a new twist: 3-D glasses for some of the movie's most exciting sequences. The movie is generating reviews that range from bad to mixed to excellent. They're all over the place. But I say go for it. Director Robert Rodriguez knows what he's doing and he's good.

Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life - Angelina Jolie returns as the videogame heroine in a new adventure directed by Jan De Bont. Apparently the movie is horrible. Fast, loud and noisy with no sense whatsoever. Strictly for fans I guess.

Seabiscuit - Based on a real life story, director Gary Ross and star Tobey Maguire join forces once again in a movie I happen to think is pretty good. Even though some people didn't liked it, the reaction from critics has been mostly positive. Good for everyone involved!

I also have to say, if you live in NY or LA, don't miss Mike Figgis's Hotel with an all-star cast including my beloved Salma Hayek!!!

Have fun!

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News

Box Office Results

Posted by

José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris

News date

Wednesday, July 23, 2003

Will Smith and Martin Lawrence reigned at the box office delivering an amazing cume and leaving those pirates with a very strong second place. Both movies were produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, so the man must be really happy right now.

Meanwhile Finding Nemo passed the 300-million mark and it's on its way to become the highest-grossing animated movie ever. We'll see to that.

1. Bad Boys II - $46.5M, $46.5M total
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl - $34M, $133M total
3. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - $10.1M, $42.5M total
4. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines - $9.3M, $127.8M total
5. Johnny English - $9.1M, $9.1M total
6. Finding Nemo - $7.2M, $303.7M total
7. Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde - $6.1M, $75.4M total
8. How to Deal - $5.8M, $5.8M total
9. Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle - $3.8M, $89.2M total
10. 28 Days Later... - $2.5M, $33.3M total

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News

Threesome!

Posted by

José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris

News date

Friday, July 18, 2003

So you don't know what movie you really want to see this weekend? Keep reading, because they're all quite different but each offers something special for everyone.

Bad Boys II - Will Smith and Martin Lawrence team forces once again a sequel that isn't generatin much excitement. Apparently it is more of the same.

How to Deal - Mandy Moore headlines this movie about a girl who doesn't believe in love anymore. Allison Janney also appears. As for critics, they're not really liking what they see, but the movie isn't precisely for them, is it?

Johnny English - Rowan Atkinson stars as Johnny English in this spy spoof that is getting the best reviews of the weekend, although that isn't saying much really. Apparently the movie is funny and that's what matters.

So have fun and go out there!

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Article

John Singleton's 'Higher Learning': Defining the Message, Offering a Solution

Posted by

a.k.a. Janet

Article date

Sunday, July 13, 2003

John’s Singleton’s 1995 film Higher Learning uses the campus of the fictional Columbus University in California as a metaphor to address larger issues of political, sexual, and racial conflicts and prejudice that permeate American society. Colin Jacobson comments that Singleton “tried too hard to pack a huge variety of events into a short period of time” (para 12) . He also claims that because the film attempts to make such a big statement, it “can come across as heavy-handed and melodramatic” (Jacobson para 5) . Indeed, Singleton took on quite a task when he set out to make this movie—to deliver a meaningful and cohesive message about prejudice and conflict in just two short hours. Singleton’s message, as Christopher Atkinson defines it, is this: “[…] racism is a system that has been institutionalized within the very fabric of American social, economical, educational, and governmental institutions, and has always sought to dehumanize, devalue, and even destroy the black man and woman” (para 2) . So—Atkinson has defined the problem. Does Singleton offer any solutions?

A careful viewer can see that, instead of being a heavy-handed melodrama, Singleton’s film uses subtle, colorful, visual clues to piece together an imaginative puzzle that connects the stories within the larger story to construct something whole. Opening credits, with their simple design and color scheme, hint at conflicts within by presenting the title in bright red over a stark black background. The red of the title then turns to white as credits roll, moving across the screen at various angles. Then gray titles appear, with following credits still in white, always against stark black—signaling that the issues about to be addressed are often perceived as “black or white,” right or wrong, good or bad.

The film’s opening scene sets the stage for what could be called the artistic motif or design that Singleton envisioned for his film. An enormous red, white, and blue American flag fills the screen as viewers first hear martial music and then see a marching band dressed in blue jackets and white pants, the sun glinting gold off tubas and French horns, pom-pom girls dressed in blue skirts and gold tops. A podium stands under the American flag, with the white California flag flanking it on one side, the Columbus University flag in gold with blue lettering on the other. At the center of the scene stands the campus centerpiece, a gunmetal gray statue of Christopher Columbus, surrounded by beds of gold flowers, with green grass and green, leafy trees in the background. The camera pans over the crowd—all dressed in some combination of red, white, and blue—chanting and saluting in militaristic fashion. Occasional dashes of gold, drawn from the C.U. flag, pop up on T-shirts here and there.

Malik (Omar Epps), wearing a dark blue hooded sweatshirt, works his way through the chanting crowd. Next the camera focuses on Remy (Michael Rappaport), “[…] the whitest white-bread boy one could imagine” (Jacobson para 3) , dressed in a red plaid shirt, observing the speakers and the crowd with just a trace of a smile on his face. He opens his plaid shirt, exposing under it a gray T-shirt that features an unpleasant picture of a skull, complete with staring eyeballs, hinting darkly at Remy’s troubled character. Finally, the viewer is introduced to blond (white) Kristen (Kristy Swanson) as she walks across campus near the statue dressed in a blue sweater, red and blue plaid skirt, and navy knee socks. Singleton’s use throughout the film of vivid reds, whites, and blues, the colors of Americana drawn from the flag, creates for the viewer a visual bridge between the events taking place on the fictional college campus and the larger struggles in American society.

The color red, first glimpsed in the title and later in Remy’s shirt, carries with it implications of competition, sexuality, conflict, and finally violence. As Malik heads to the track and field for his first practice, we see the brick-red track—scene of competitions to come—and the red stadium seats. Partying in the street the evening before classes start, a rowdy crowd works together to tip over a bright red Volkswagen. At a frat house, the couch is covered in red leather, party-goers hold drinks in red plastic glasses, and Kristen is raped as a red neon sign blinks on and off on the wall above her. In other scenes, a bright red coke machine, empty coke cans, and beer bottles with red labels serve as props. The pool table felt is red. Professor Phipps’ office is furnished with a desk and bookcase made of rich red mahogany, and a red leather briefcase lies off to one side on the desktop. Kristen hands out fliers telling about the diversity festival she’s planned, the bright red of the printed papers foretelling the festival’s violent conclusion.

The most striking uses of the color red are seen in the angry posters tacked to the walls in Remy’s room, on the cover of the book he reads about Hitler, and as Remy visits the neo-Nazi skinheads at their apartment. In the apartment, the viewer’s eye is led directly upward from a blue swastika painted in a white circle on the floor to a huge red Nazi flag, complete with a black swastika, dominating the wall above with its message of hate and intolerance. Remy and Scott have a confrontation in that apartment opposite a smaller red Nazi flag hanging on another wall. Remy runs up flights of red stairs on his way to the roof of a building, carrying the rifle he’ll use to terrorize the campus. And finally, the viewer sees Deja’s bright red blood—the symbol of ultimate violence—as she lies dying at the foot of the Columbus statue.

The next color in Singleton’s Americana triad, white, symbolizes something quite different from angry red. It represents, among other things, the naiveté of a freshman from moneyed suburbia, as blond Kristen bleaches her hair to white and her two equally blond “friends” label her a tramp. Bright white lights glow over the party scene in the frat house. A huge white board, representing the fresh slate of a brand-new school year, organized learning, and critical thought, serves as the background for Professor Phipps as he lectures his political science class. Kristen’s white face is shown center-screen surrounded by darker faces—black, Hispanic, and Oriental—as she sits in Professor Phipps’ class listening to Malik read the list of names, a subtle suggestion that the struggles all minorities face tend to center around interactions with whites. White papers cover the professor’s desk, ready for his thoughtful notes. The starter and timers at the track meet all wear jaunty white straw hats banded with red, blue, and gold ribbons that flutter in the breeze.

The whiteness of Remy’s bare chest reflects the sad emptiness of his life as he runs down a white-painted stairwell into the evening to flag down a security van—painted a bland, institutional white, with a gold stripe and red and blue flashing lights—to ask the security officers to break up a party so he can get some sleep. The clean, white innocence of Professor Phipps’ shirtsleeves contrasts starkly with the violent red of Malik’s bloody hands and shirt as the professor holds and comforts him on the sidewalk after Deja’s death and Malik’s final confrontation with Remy.

The blue of Singleton’s Americana triad flows from scene to scene—in Kristen’s preppy knee socks, warm-up suits and uniforms at the track meet, student ID cards, and the safety lights lining campus sidewalks. Billy’s rumpled sheets are blue, as are the sheets on Kristen’s and Remy’s beds also. At the track meet, a vivid blue sky contrasts with fluffy white clouds. Campus security officers wear blue uniforms. A blue leather couch anchors the room where Taryn’s nonsexist society group meets. The blue glow of CRT screens is seen at the financial aid office and again in the library. A television reporter, who stands near the Columbus statue to report news of the campus tragedy, wears a blue blazer. In one striking shot, the viewer looks through a windowpane framed in blue to see Fudge sitting at a table playing cards. Singleton’s effective use of a luminous blue light, which seems to stream downward from a source above and to the left of the screen, illuminates night scenes such as when Taryn catches up to Kristen as she walks alone on campus. Singleton consistently uses blue to symbolize everyday sameness, commonalities, the ordinary places and things that weave the tapestry of our lives, a constant neutral ground positioned somewhere between the angry violence of red and the quiet innocence of white.

Accent colors on Singleton’s palette include flashes of gold on the patches on campus security uniforms and a C.U. pennant hanging on the frat house wall. A gold note pad rests on Professor Phipps’ desk calendar. Malik seems spotlighted in his bright gold T-shirt as he sits center-screen in Professor Phipps’ office to talk about his plans for the future. Light is filtered through gold window shades on either side of the Nazi flag in the skinheads’ apartment. In the final scene, where Malik and Kristen meet near the statue, the camera picks up patches of autumn gold among the green of distant trees. In the stadium, green grass in the infield contrasts sharply with the red track and the silver viewing stands with their red seats—a soothing color from nature to contrast with the alarm red of competition. Malik wears a soft, muted green shirt in two scenes, a variation on the usual bright green, perhaps indicating that he is growing and changing. A lovely green plant glows in the white light streaming through a window into Professor Phipps’ office, a positive image of life and renewal in the midst of tension and disorder.

The gunmetal gray of the Columbus statue is mirrored in the starter pistol at the track meet. A close-up of the gun fills the screen and then focuses down to the starter’s finger pulling the trigger, a warning of things to come. Shadowy gray figures of neo-Nazi skinheads as Remy first approaches them with Scott and later when they stand guard while Remy heads up the stairs to the roof with his rifle, the dark gray gun case that Scott opens to show Remy its contents—both symbolize evil.

Todd Ritter argues that “The film's message, if there is one at all, is muddled” (8) . It is more likely that Singleton’s message isn’t at all muddled. True, he doesn’t neatly resolve the conflicts presented in his film; almost certainly he didn’t intend to. What he does do quite effectively is to use his vivid and carefully chosen color palette as an imaginative and artistic tool to unite not only the visual aspects of his film but also his message about institutionalized racism—using the colors of Americana to telescope the problems of the larger arena of American society down to those of a smaller and more manageable college campus.

There is no neat, tidy solution, but, in the end, Singleton subtlety proposes a broad, universal solution as an unseen typewriter clatters out the word “unlearn” across the screen. “Conscious-raising education is the solution to the system. […] So, African Americans must unlearn what the system has programmed them to learn, and once they become conscious, they then can decide, intelligently, the needed solutions for the liberation, education and salvation of the black nation” (Atkinson 9).

Author: Janet Peters
May 7, 2003

Works Cited

• Atkinson, Christopher A. “Critics in need of “higher learning.” Digital Collegian 17 Jan. 1995:
  9 pars. 14 Apr. 2003 <http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/1995/01/01-17-95tdc/01-17-95dops-column2.asp>.
  
• Jacobson, Colin. “Higher Learning.” DVD Movie Guide 21 Sept. 2001:
  12 pars. 21 Apr. 2002 < http://dvdmg.com/higherlearning.shtml>
  
• Ritter, Todd. “Clichés, hazy message ruin Singleton's latest film effort.” Digital Collegian 13 Jan. 1995:
  6 pars. 14 Apr. 2003 <http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/1995/01/01-13-95tdc/01-13-95darts-2.asp>.
  
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News

Box Office Results

Posted by

José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris

News date

Sunday, July 06, 2003

Arnold is back!!! His new movie opened to record-breaking numbers during the 4th of July weekend. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines now stands as the second highest opener for an R-rated movie only behind this year's The Matrix Reloaded. That's certainly good news for the Terminator himself.

Meanwhile Reese Witherspoon had a great opening but Brad Pitt kind of flopped. Mmmh, that's good and bad, but hey, you just can't have it all!

1. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines - $44M, $72.5M total
2. Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde - $22.9M, $31.9M total
3. Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle - $14.2M, $67.2M total
4. Finding Nemo - $11M, $274.9M total
5. The Hulk - $8.2M, $117M total
6. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas - $6.8M, $10M total
7. 28 Days Later... - $6M, $20.6M total
8. The Italian Job - $4.2M, $84M total
9. Bruce Almighty - $4M, $228.7M total
10. 2 Fast 2 Furious - $2.4M, $119.3M total

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News

Blonde Terminator of the Seven Seas

Posted by

Gon Curiel a.k.a. Groucho

News date

Friday, July 04, 2003

Hey guys!! Long weekend, huh? All this Independence Day stuff is so amazing… You just gotta love this weekend! And why not go to the movies between celebration and celebration? In case you're planning to, here's what's new for you:

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines - Some didn't expect much, some thought it'd be good as long as Schwarzenegger was in it… The result? A not-bad movie, if one that could've been better, or so say most critics. But all are happy with the action and visual effects, and I guess it should be given a look.

Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde - This one's getting really bad reviews. Too bad, 'cause Reese is so cool and the first movie was so funny. But this is obviously an attempt to make money, isn't it? So it's a good option for a good, mindless time.

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas - Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta-Jones lend their voices to the animated characters of this Dreamworks picture… which is said to be so-so, if undeniably entertaining.

So there you have it. Options, options… but the choice is all yours. See ya!

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News

Box Office Results

Posted by

José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris

News date

Tuesday, July 01, 2003

After a string of spectacular weekends, the box office finally came to a halt as Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle opened to strong numbers but wasn't able to top the original's first weekend cume.

There were also really bad news for Universal, as The Hulk flopped in its second weekend decreasing an alarming 70%. That's definitely not good.

Meanwhile a much smaller movie, 28 Days Later..., opened with surprisingly strong numbers. Could it be a sleeper hit?

1. Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle - $38M, $38M total
2. The Hulk - $18.4M, $100.2M total
3. Finding Nemo - $13.8M, $253.9M total
4. 28 Days Later... - $9.7M, $9.7M total
5. Bruce Almighty - $6.2M, $221.3M total
6. 2 Fast 2 Furious - $5.7M, $113.4M total
7. The Italian Job - $5.4M, $76.6M total
8. Rugrats Go Wild - $3.5M, $30.8M total
9. Hollywood Homicide - $3M, $27.3M total
10. Alex and Emma - $2.6M, $11.5M total

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