Let’s start June ‘At the Movies’
A sports picture (“Gracie”), a broad comedy (“Knocked Up”), a dark thriller (“Mr. Brooks”), a musical import (“Once”), a gory chiller (“Severance”) and a romantic comedy (“The Treatment”) are the top titles arriving on this first weekend of June. For complete descriptions, critical evaluations of previewed films and explanations of the Motion Picture Association of America ratings in terms of violence, language and sexual content, please refer to the Movie Capsules.
The new films (with all dates subject to change) opening at a theater near you include:
“Even Money,” with Kim Basinger (“L.A. Confidential”), Danny DeVito (“War of the Roses”), Nick Cannon (“Drumline”), Kelsey Grammer (“X-Men: The Last Stand”) and Forest Whitaker (“The Last King of Scotland”) in an R-rated ensemble drama about gambling addicts hitting bottom. Mark Rydell (“On Golden Pond”) directed.
“Gracie,” with Elisabeth Shue (“Leaving Las Vegas”) and Dermot Mulroney (“My Best Friend’s Wedding”) in a fact-based, 1978-set tale. The PG-13 picture follows a 15-year-old girl (Carly Schroeder of “Firewall”) from South Orange, N.J., as she battles the odds to play competitive high-school soccer with boys at a time when girls’ soccer didn’t exist.
“Knocked Up,” with Katherine Heigl (TV’s “Grey’s Anatomy”) and Seth Rogen (“You, Me and Dupree”) in a relentlessly raunchy R-rated comedy. The story follows a success-driven woman who has a one-night stand with an aimless slacker and ends up pregnant. Judd Apatow (“The 40 Year-Old Virgin”) directed the male-fantasy comedy.
“Mr. Brooks,” with Kevin Costner (“Field of Dreams”), Demi Moore (“Bobby”), William Hurt (“A History of Violence”), Marg Helgenberger (TV’s “C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation”) and comic Dane Cook (“Employee of the Month”) in a creepy R-rated thriller. In a drastic change-of-pace role, Costner plays a wealthy businessman who’s addicted to murder. The highly intelligent serial killer finds himself being stalked by a sadistic young man who wants to accompany him on a kill and is pursued by a tough woman detective with whom he develops an unusual relationship.
“Once,” with Glen Hansard (a guitarist in the Frames, an Irish band) and Marketa Irglova (an immigrant pianist from the Czech Republic) in a brilliantly innovative musical. Writer-director John Carney (“On the Edge”) stretches the boundaries of the musical genre with this strikingly original R-rated tale about an unnamed Dublin street performer who lacks the confidence to play his compositions and a young immigrant mother trying to find her voice in a new world and dreaming of one day owning a piano. Carney creatively uses the original songs to sometimes replace dialogue, advance the narrative and comment on the emotions of the appealing characters.
“Severance,” with Toby Stevens (“Die Another Day”) in an R-rated tale about employees who travel to a lodge in the mountains of Eastern Europe for a training seminar designed to build teamwork. Once in that faraway location, the workers – all employed by a company that manufactures state-of-the-art weapons – are stalked and slaughtered by bloodthirsty escapees from a prison designed to incarcerate mercenaries who have become too fond of killing.
“The Treatment,” with Chris Eigeman (“Maid in Manhattan”), Famke Janssen (“X-Men”) and Ian Holm (“Alien”) in a romantic comedy about a single guy who goes against the wishes of his controlling psychiatrist and tries to win the heart of a beautiful widow. The unrated picture is based on the novel by Daniel Menaker.
At the buck$ office
Captain Jack Sparrow and his crew set a Memorial Day record with “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” which opened with $126.5 million. (The previous Memorial Day champ, “X-Men: The Last Stand,” opened with $122.9 million last year.)
That’s an impressive box-office haul for the PG-13 follow-up, starring Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom, but less than the $135.6 opening of “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” last July. It also fell short of the May 4 debut of “Spider-Man 3,” which opened with a record-setting $151.2 million
According to the boxofficemojo.com, the top-10 movies last weekend were:
1. “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” ($126.5 million)
2. “Shrek the Third” ($51 million)
3. “Spider-Man 3” ($13.7 million)
4. “Bug” ($3.2 million)
5. “Waitress” ($3 million)
6. “28 Weeks Later” ($2.4 million)
7. “Georgia Rule” ($1.8 million)
8. “Disturbia” ($1.7 million)
9. “Wild Hogs” ($1.09 million)
10. “Fracture” ($1.07 million)