Movies

“Shrek” is better than “Sex”?

In a surprising repeat victory, the growling green ogre Shrek scared off two debuting blockbusters, capping off one of the worst Memorial Day weekends in nearly a decade.

Shrek Forever After dropped a respectable 39 percent in its second weekend across three days for $43.3 million and a scant 19 percent for $57.1 across the long weekend for a per screen average of $13,066. This brings its magical total to $146.8 million and will likely settle north of $250 million domestically.

June Movie Preview

Now that we’ve broken the Memorial Day barrier, its time to charge head-on into summer. That means lot of films for you to sort through and with ticket prices at a record high, you deserve to know straight up what’s going into theaters and whether it might be something worthy of your cash. Keep checking in with PAM each month to get the scoop on the June films you’re going to be most interested in. There are some you’re well aware of (Toy Story 3) but others maybe not so much. So here we go:

“Green Lantern” shines out plot details

The official plot synopsis for Green Lantern can be seen below, courtesy of Comic Book Movie. The film will be helmed by Martin Campbell. Campbell directed Casino Royale, which was the first film to feature Daniel Craig as the famed secret agent James Bond. He most recently directed the thriller Edge of Darkness starring Mel Gibson. Green Lantern will star Ryan Reynolds in the title role.

Alice in Wonderland Review

Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland is considered one of the finest examples of children’s literature to come out of the Victorian period. It has been a staple of popular culture and been adapted many times, including the popular Disney animated version from 1951. Because of the novel’s enduring popularity, Disney saw fit to commission a remake with the great Tim Burton directing.

Guillermo Del Toro leaves the “The Hobbit”

After two years of pre-production and no set start date, Guillermo Del Toro has stepped down as director of The Hobbit. The fantasy director/producer extraordinaire broke the news to Lord of the Rings fan site theonering.net, stating that he simply did not have the extra time due to conflicting schedules, that the film needed. Del Toro will remain a co-writer until the script is finished, but executive producer Peter Jackson said, “Guillermo just didn’t feel he could commit six years to living in New Zealand, exclusively making these films, when his original commitment was for three years.”

Survival of the Dead Review

There once was a zombie from Nantucket…ok not quite, and it’s not that famed island but rather Plum Island off the coast of Delaware that provides the setting for George A. Romero’s sixth outing in his famed zombie series. This is certainly a step up from his previous blunder Diary of the Dead, but just like there are only so many places you can be “of dead” (next up, “Airport of the Dead”) there is only so much Romero can siphon from his creative well before he scrapes rock bottom.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Review

If you’re Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer, how do you go about finding your next “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise? Well, you start by keeping the whole cast in long hair and eyeliner only you relocate them to the desert. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a familiar swashbuckling adventure only transplanted to the Middle East and outfitted with turbans, swords with even bigger curves, snakes and lots and lots of sand.