Okay, I’m ready to start downloading movies.

No, I’m not talking about those illegal download places where you can get all of the latest flicks once they hit theatres or DVD. I’m talking about actually shelling out bucks for movies that I can download into my iPod and watch while I’m sitting on the latest airplane to God-knows-where. Not that I’ll miss the lovely chatting and seat-kicking people who I get to meet the few times I actually get to go see a movie in a theatre with real people, but it seems that as hard as the MPAA works to crack down on movie pirating, they’re not really offering too many options for those who actually want to see their movies in other formats.

Sure, studios are doing everything in their power to make sure that movies are out on DVD within months, weeks and even days of their theatrical releases, but progress on finding a downloadable format for those who want to watch movies in their video iPods is going very slow. For months, we’ve been able to download television shows and even whole seasons of shows for watching while on the road or in transit, but movies still seem to be caught up in the red tape that makes it take forever for new technology to become the norm. It’s surprising that Apple hasn’t gotten into bed with one or two studios like they have with the television networks.

Maybe Movielink will eventually get its act together and have better cross-platform compatibility, and maybe even offer movies for download at the same time as they’re in theatres. Right now, it’s not really offering much beyond what someone can do simply by renting a DVD from Netflix, except maybe offer a long rental period or a cheaper purchase price (without any extras).

Heck, even if there are still issues with the movies themselves, surely some of the other things we wait for on DVD could be made instantly downloadable. For instance, I just paid $12 to go see V For Vendetta, and I’d love to come home, go to iTunes and download a few interviews or “Making of” featurettes to see how they did some of it. Surely, some of that stuff can be worked on at the same time as the film to get that up earlier, rather than forcing people to wait for the DVDs. For a long time, this stuff was added as a bonus incentive for people to buy DVDs, but if people can just download them for a few bucks (or free!), maybe it’ll convince more people that it’s worth paying to see the movie while it’s still in theatres.

Until then, the MPAA is just going to have to hope that enterprising people don’t figure out other ways to get DVDs onto their iPods, because it really sucks having these things and not having a legal way to watch movies on them. (Sure, I know that it's a luxury for anyone to have a video IPOD, but if I had my say in it, everyone would!)

Next week, we’ll have a special Battle Cry to discuss the release of Paul Greengrass’ 9/11 drama United 93.

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THE CHOSEN ONE:

Well, this is kind of embarrassing, but I’ve only seen two of the movies out this week, and I didn’t feel comfortable making either one my pick of the week, so for the first time in four months… no Chosen One. Sorry!

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NEW THIS WEEK:

This week we get two political movies based on a warped reality and one video game movie that has nothing to do with reality.

SILENT HILL (Sony/TriStar Pictures)
Starring Radha Mitchell, Sean Bean, Laurie Holden, Deborah Kara Unger, Kim Coates, Tanya Allen, Jodelle Ferland
Directed by Christophe Gans (The Brotherhood of the Wolf); Written by Roger Avary (Killing Zoe, True Romance, The Rules of Attraction)
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Rated R (for strong horror violence and gore, disturbing images, and some language)
Tagline: “We’ve been expecting you.”
Story: In the deserted town of Silent Hill, a mother (Radha Mitchell) looks for a cure for her daughter’s autistic behavior, only to lose her in the fog that shrouds the town. She soon learns that the entire town has been taken over by an entity converting everything it touches into nightmarish creatures.
REVIEW

In 1999, the video game industry was booming with one of the biggest games being the horror-action game Resident Evil and its sequels. Konami tried to capitalize on its success with an even scarier horror game, Silent Hill, which would focus on story and characters, as well as some real solid scares, something which proved popular enough to produce three more games, as well as a number of comic books and graphic novels based on the premise. Now, it’s being turned into a movie that also marks the American debut from French director Christophe Gans, whose last film The Brotherhood of the Wolf, found a solid audience of cult genre fans in America, earning almost $11 million back in 2002. Although Gans’ name isn’t that well known outside of horror circles, his inventive filmmaking should certainly be a good choice for this very different video game movie.

Silent Hill’s star is not an actress you might think as one to do horror films, because Aussie-born Radha Mitchell has mainly appeared in more dramatic fare, playing both title characters in Woody Allen’s Melinda and Melinda, as well as having parts in 2004’s Finding Neverland and Man on Fire. For this, she’s joined by Sean Bean, who had the prominent role as Boromir in the first Lord of the Rings movie. Last year, he played a bunch of baddies in movies like The Island and Flightplan, as well as playing Frances McDormand’s husband in Niki Caro’s North Country. His role in Silent Hill probably veers more towards the latter. Although her name won’t be that known yet, Jodelle Ferland was the breakout star of Terry Gilliam’s next movie Tideland, which played at the Toronto Film Festival, but has yet to find distribution.

The cast won’t really matter though, as most of the appeal for the movies will come from the bizarre creatures from the video games, as realized by creature effects designer Patrick Tatopoulos, who designed the creatures in the recent horror sequel Underworld: Evolution and some of Roland Emmerich’s films.

Although horror is more popular than ever, Silent Hill will be fighting against the general apathy towards video game movies by video game fanatics. The success of movies like Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil and the first Tomb Raider movie have become a thing of the past, as seen last year, when the big budget movie based on the hugely popular game Doom only earned $15 million its opening and $28 million total despite having a stronger cast including the Rock. One has to assume that most teen males would probably just prefer to stay home and play the games rather than watching a movie based on them.

Still, there’s a strong crossover audience between horror and video game fans, and though Silent Hill’s business might be softened by its R rating, it should do decently among fans of both. Reviews shouldn’t matter, because surprise, surprise, the movie isn’t being screened for critics in advance! (Actually, the movie was still in the works as late as last week, which might have been one reason.) The only thing that might hold it back is the moderate release of just over 2,400 theatres, compared to the over 3,000 that Doom got, but you can expect that number to crawl up higher by the weekend. (UPDATE! The computer pixels had barely dried before we received a notice from Sony saying that the actual theatre count for the weekend is 2,927, which gives it a clear advantage to win this weekend without a problem.)

Why I Should See It: The original game is extremely creepy and scary, which should translate into a decent horror movie, that is, if Christophe Gans is able to break the curse that hits so many French directors when they make their Hollywood debuts.
Why Not: Sony is once again being very cagy about screening this for anyone before it opens, which is always a bit worrisome, as is the moderate theatre count by their standards.
Projection: $22 to 24 million opening weekend on its way to $55 million.

THE SENTINEL (20^th Century Fox)
Starring Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland, Eva Longoria, Kim Basinger
Directed by Clark Johnson (S.W.A.T.); Written by George Nolfi (Timeline, Ocean’s 12)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller, Politics
Rated PG-13 (for some intense action violence and a scene of sensuality)
Tagline: “In 141 years, there's never been a traitor in the Secret Service.... Until Now.”
Story: Veteran Secret Service agent Pete Garrison (Michael Douglas) learns of a plot to kill the president, but as he begins working with an FBI agent (Kiefer Sutherland) on the case, he finds himself being blackmailed because of an affair he had with the first lady, making him the prime suspect of the assassination. On the run, Garrison must try to prove his innocence.

Despite the title, which would make this seem like a remake of the 1977 horror film or the ‘90s television show, this new political thriller is actually based on the novel by Gerald Petievich (“Boiling Point”, “To Live and Die in L.A.”), and it will try to take advantage of how successful political thrillers have been in the last year. The premise mixes bits of The Manchurian Candidate with parts of the The Fugitive to come up with something that sounds like a cross between two Clint Eastwood movies, In the Line of Fire and Absolute Power.

More importantly, it marks the return of Michael Douglas to the world of serious thrillers, The Sentinel being Douglas’ first major movie since the dismal 2003 remake of The In-Laws. It brings him back into the territory of his 2001 hit Don’t Say A Word and Falling Down. For the most part, Douglas has been staying out of the public eye while his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones was bringing home the bacon, but apparently, the thought of playing a Secret Service agent who has an affair with the First Lady, played by Kim Basinger, was enough to bring him back. The question is whether his older male and female fans will come back to see him in something like this, or if he’ll learn the same lesson learned by Harrison Ford with Firewall, in that out of sight means out of interest.

At least, he has some back-up in Kiefer Sutherland, who has been spending his time winning Emmies for the television drama “24,” in which he plays a similar character trying to defend the President from an assassin. (How’s that for kismet?) Besides his TV work, Sutherland provided his voice for last week’s Disney animated film The Wild, although his voice was probably best served when it terrorized Colin Farrell in the 2003 hit thriller Phone Booth. Likewise, Eva Longoria is easily the hottest housewife on the ABC hit “Desperate Housewives,” although there’s no proof that she can actually act…as a Secret Service agent, that is, and her box office pull in this type of movie is questionable.

The Sentinel is director Clark Johnson’s first movie since directing the 2003 remake of S.W.A.T. starring Colin Farrell and Samuel L. Jackson, which did okay but wasn’t received well. With a script by the writer behind Timeline and Ocean’s 12, neither very well received, one has to assume that this movie will not be of the caliber of quality that older males expect, and who knows if Fox will bother to screen it for critics with that in mind?

Despite the star power and the interesting premise, does anyone even know this movie is coming out this weekend? 21^st Century Fox has been taking a surprisingly low-key approach to marketing it with very few commercials, presumably during the FOX show “24” for the optimum crossover appeal. Few others are likely to know that Michael Douglas has a new movie, and this is likely to get overlooked in favor of the much better promoted Silent Hill and American Dreamz.

Why I Should See It: Michael Douglas as a Secret Service agent sounds promising.
Why Not: It’s not R-rated, which means we won’t be seeing any skin from Eva Longoria or Kim Basinger. Bah.
Projection: $11 to 13 million opening weekend on its way to around $36 million.

AMERICAN DREAMZ (Universal Pictures)
Starring Hugh Grant, Dennis Quaid, Mandy Moore, Marcia Gay Harden, Chris Klein, Jennifer Coolidge, Seth Meyers, John Cho, Judy Greer, Sam Golzari, Willem Dafoe
Written and directed by Paul Weitz (About a Boy, In Good Company, American Pie)
Genre: Comedy, Politics
Rated PG-13 (for brief strong language and some sexual references)
Tagline: “Everyone’s gotta have…”
Story: With the popularity of the newly elected President (Dennis Quaid) going down, his trusty advisor (Willem Dafoe) decides to get him to act as a judge on the popular reality show “American Dreamz,” not knowing that the show’s Arab contestant (Sam Golzari) is actually a terrorist planning on blowing him up.
REVIEW

If there weren’t enough politics this week, Paul Weitz, the guy behind American Pie, is back with a tongue-in-cheek look at the state of the country, where more people vote for a pop singer each week than vote for the President. Yes, this is Paul Weitz doing politics, and it’s his second solo flight without his brother and long-time collaborator Chris, after the 2004 comedy In Good Company, which also starred Dennis Quaid. Obviously, Weitz has as much credibility amongst actors as he does among 20-to-30 somethings, because he was able to pull in a very impressive cast including a number of actors working with him for the second time.

First off, Weitz reunites with Hugh Grant for the first time since 2002, when they worked together on the movie based on Nick Hornby’s About a Boy. (You can read more about Grant’s work with other directors in the Star Spotlight below) Grant plays the Simon Cowell-like host of the reality show “American Dreamz,” while Dennis Quaid returns, this time doing a not-so-subtle impression of President Bush. Quaid is definitely on a roll after starring in The Day After Tomorrow and the family film Yours, Mine and Ours, so it’s likely he’ll be the biggest drawn here. Chris Klein and Jennifer Coolidge, who both appeared in Weitz’s American Pie, return as the boyfriend and mother of “American Dreamz” contestant Sally Kendoo, played by Mandy Moore. Moore is back in the bad girl mode that she did so well in Saved!, although it’s doubtful that any of her teen female fans will be too interested in a political movie. (John Cho from Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle also returns after having small roles in both Pie and Company.) Since breaking out as The Green Goblin in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, Willem Dafoe has been everywhere, including the recent Inside Man. In this, he plays the President’s aide, complete with a bald wig that makes him look like a cross between Dick Cheney and Karl Rove, while Marcia Gay Harden is once again sorely underused as the First Lady.

Weitz certainly has a great cast, and the thought of mixing American politics and pop culture by spoofing “American Idol” and the President seems intriguing, although one has to assume that a movie like this has a limited audience. Sure, the 20-to-30 something fans of Weitz’s previous movies might be into it, but the movie probably won’t play very well to the gajillion people who actually like “American Idol” and in the Red States, they probably won’t care to see the President they elected mocked. Certainly anyone who might declare themselves a Mandy Moore fan can’t have much of an interest in politics, right?

Maybe that’s why Paul Weitz’s new comedy is only opening in roughly 1,400 theatres, a rather moderate release similar to some of the Working Titles films like Love Actually, but without the audience interest to support it. Critics tend to be rather liberal, but there’s a good chance that they won’t warm up to Weitz’s latest effort because it’s fairly watered down political humor compared to things like Thank You for Smoking. Early reviews aren’t good and critics are likely to turn against Weitz much like they did with Cameron Crowe’s Elizabethtown last year, so expect this to get a fair-sized audience of Weitz fans opening weekend, but not do so well when Universal tries to expand it into more theatres.

Why I Should See It: Weitz has assembled another great ensemble cast for his follow-up to In Good Company.
Why Not: For truly biting political satire, you’re better off seeing Thank You for Smoking.
Projection: $8 to 10 million opening weekend on its way to roughly $30 million total.

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STAR SPOTLIGHT: Hugh Grant

45-year-old Brit Hugh Grant has been appearing on TV and movies since the early ‘80s, but it wasn’t until the 1995 Richard Curtis comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral, for which he won a BAFTA award, that he became known here in the States. It wasn’t long before he was a mainstay of British romantic comedies, mostly from the prolific production company Working Titles Films. But before he’d be considered a successful box office star, his fans had to get over him being arrested with a prostitute on Sunset Boulevard, which was followed by a few Hollywood flops like the comedy Nine Months and the thriller Extreme Measures.

It certainly helped his standing among women to star in Ang Lee’s Oscar nominated version of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility around the same time, and when Grant was teamed with Julia Roberts in 1999 for the romantic comedy Notting Hill, again penned by Curtis, Grant achieved a new level of fame in America, having his biggest hit, as it made over $100 million that summer.

After a few more failed projects, he played the lecherous boss in Renee Zellweger’s comedy vehicle Bridget Jones’ Diary, his third Richard Curtis penned film, in 2001, which certainly helped that film to bring in women, and that led his first teaming with the Brothers Weitz in the 2002 adaptation of Nick Hornby’s best-selling About a Boy. Since then, he’s done only romantic comedies, being teamed with Sandra Bullock later that year for Two Weeks Notice, his second most successful movie, being a part of the ensemble in Richard Curtis’ Love Actually and returning for the sequel Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, which wasn’t received nearly as well.

So far, only Notting Hill has exceeded $100 million, but Grant has a decent track record for opening movies even when they’re only given moderate releases, as was the case with Love Actually and the sequel Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, and is the case with this week’s American Dreamz.

Title	Release Date	Theater Count	Previous Box Office (in millions)	Weekend Box Office (in millions)	Average	Total Box Office
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason	11/12/04	530		$8.68	$16,385	$40.20
Love Actually	11/7/03	576		$6.89	$11,955	$59.08
Two Weeks Notice	12/20/02	2,755		$14.40	$5,227	$88.82
About a Boy	5/17/02	1,207		$8.56	$7,090	$40.57
Bridget Jones's Diary	4/13/01	1,611		$10.73	$6,662	$71.50
Mickey Blue Eyes	8/20/99	2,573		$10.18	$3,956	$33.79
Notting Hill	5/28/99	2,745		$22.13	$8,062	$116.09
Extreme Measures	9/27/96	2,298		$6.90	$3,003	$17.38
Nine Months	7/14/95	1,458	$3.77	$12.52	$8,587	$69.66
Four Weddings and a Funeral	4/15/94	721	$9.88	$4.16	$5,770	$52.72

Mohammad Rasoulof’s drama IRON ISLAND (Kino International) takes place on a large tanker off the Iranian coast where dozens of homeless families have formed a community ruled over by the tyrannical Captain Nemat, whose power is questioned by a pair of young lovers. Opens in New York and L.A.

Opening at New York’s ImaginAsian is Ning Hao’s coming-of-age comedy MONGOLIAN PING PONG (First Run Features), about three young boys in Mongolia who find a ping pong ball in the river sending them on a journey to find out where it came from.

At the Cinema Village is Rebecca Dreyfus’ documentary STOLEN (International Film Circuit) is about a Boston art heist in 1990 of over $300 million in valuable art work, none of which has been recovered, and the conspiracy surrounding it.

Opening in select cities, STANDING STILL (Freestyle Releasing) is an ensemble comedy with an impressive cast including Amy Adams, Mena Suvari, Aaron Stanford, Colin Hanks, Ethan Embray, and James Van Der Beek (“Dawson’s Creek”) as a group of college friends who reunite several years after graduation for a wedding.

Eric Fleming wrote, directed and stars in THE ALMOST GUYS (Karma Films) as an unlucky repo man and his older partner who find a baseball pitcher bound and gagged in the drunk of a repossessed car, putting them all on the run from his kidnappers. It opens in Santa Monica.

Adapted from James Redfield’s bestselling novel THE CELESTINE PROPHECY (Celestine Films), this drama opening in San Francisco follows John Woodson on his search through Peru for the ancient scrolls that prophesize a new spiritual awakening, finding it himself along the way.

LET’S LOOK AT THE NUMBERS - final update 4/21

While last week’s Easter record setter Scary Movie 4 stands a good chance at retaining its top spot, it’s going to face its fiercest competition from the video game-turned-horror flick, Silent Hill, which will likely grab away a lot of the male crowd. It may be a close race that comes down to how many screens Sony TriStar can get the horror movie into this weekend, although the R rating might force teens to buy tickets for other movies to get into it. Still, Silent Hill should do enough legitimate business to take the box office this weekend, even if Scary Movie is able to pick up the slack over the weekend. A couple more politically-minded movies, both featuring big stars, will try to steal away some of that business as Michael Douglas and Kiefer Sutherland star in the political thriller The Sentinel and Paul (In Good Company) Weitz spoofs American politics and pop culture in American Dreamz, starring Hugh Grant and Dennis Quaid. The former should beat the latter based on the fact that it’s opening in 1,000 more theatres, although neither will have much staying power into the summer. The Wild and Ice Age: The Meltdown will continue to split the family business, while Benchwarmers will try to hold onto some of its comedy business in an increasingly busy market. Nicole Holofcener’s dark comedy Friends with Money, starring Jennifer Aniston and Catherine Keener, already the director’s most successful film having earned $1.6 million in limited release, expands into over 800 theatres this weekend, which should allow it to get into bottom half of the Top 10. Also, Lionsgate's Akeelah and the Bee gets sneak previews in over 900 theatres across the country on Saturday.

Copyright 2006 Edward Douglas

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