The Whole Delivery

I have to firmly admit, I was very shocked to see the numbers coming in for the box office this week. It was a banner weekend for Syl Stallone and his group of old action heroes, as they are #1 in the weekend numbers this week . Even when The Expendables came on tracking, it looked big. And the timing couldn't have been better what with Lionsgate getting beaten up by Carl Icahn on a daily basis, and Sylvester Stallone needing a fresh hit in his dotage. Kudos to Sly for coming up with such an irresistible concept directing and starring with today's and yesteryear's action heroes like Jason Statham, Jet Li, Randy Couture, Mickey Rourke, Dolph Lundgren, Steve Austin, Terry Crews, and even Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger (for nanoseconds in cameos). "Are The Expendables wearing Dependables?" one rival studio exec snarked in an email to me. The star power was just too hard to resist. But clearly the biggest shock of the week is how bad the numbers were for ...

It's one new hero and a bunch of old ones as the focal of "The Cinema" this week. It's been hyped all week by its demographic masses, almost to the level of obsessive. Nevertheless for most, with a near split from legit good critics, it passes the test decently for a good time . And the film's star isn't Michael Cera, but the rising force director that is Edgar Wright. From the Berardinelli man , who sums it up better than everyone one else: It does not follow that a parody has to be funny but, in the case of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, the humor is there. A clever send-up of comic book and video games (circa 1990), this movie illustrates that writer/director Edgar Wright can rise to the next level. His two "straightforward" satires, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, which were co-created with Simon Pegg, were uneven but enjoyable. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, however, is more ambitious and outlandish. It's bizarre and surprising and revels ...