Black Sheep @ The Box Office

Really? A $50 million opening weekend for a third JACKASS installment. I will admit to watching and laughing whole heartedly at the first JACKASS but that was after a drink or five and I was in the privacy of my own living room. It was also eight years ago. How are we not over this by now? Not only are we not over this but $50 million is more than double what the first installment pulled in on opening weekend and $20 million more than JACKASS: NUMBER TWO pulled in its opening weekend in 2006. Thank God for 3D, right? This revolution in cinema has allowed for great film franchises like JACKASS to flourish! Is this what you had in mind, Mr. Cameron?

I wasn't able to catch RED this weekend but I hear great things and $22 million is a strong second place showing for this adult action-comedy. Together, RED and JACKASS 3D took THE SOCIAL NETWORK down to the third spot. Still, with less than a 30% drop for the second week in a row, this David Fincher film is clearly striking a chord that will help its chances come awards season. I mean, it isn't JACKASS 3D big but we can't expect intelligent film to do the same kind of business as films where people tie remote control helicopters to the ends of their penises with strings, now can we?

IT'S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY is apparently not so funny to anyone else either. The Zach Galifianakis dramedy has stalled in 12th place in its second week with a 37% drop. Documentary, WAITING FOR SUPERMAN and Edward Norton/Robert Deniro thriller, STONE, continue to expand strongly. Hilary Swank vehicle, CONVICTION, opens to a less than convincing $10K per screen average on 11 screens. Meanwhile, John Lennon film, NOWHERE BOY, sees its grosses blow up by 570% after adding 200+ screens. Still, the biggest art house success of the week is not surprisingly, Clint Eastwood's latest, HEREAFTER. The Black Sheep review will be coming next week but this weekend, on just 6 screens, the Matt Damon led film pulled in over $230K for an average of $38,500 per screen. Word is still out on the film's afterlife.

NEXT WEEK: HEREAFTER goes ultra wide on 2200 screens and takes on another spookfest, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 opening on 2900 screens. Two films dealing with what happens to us after we're dead, two very different films I'm sure. Who knows though? Eastwood could easily be the ghost in PA2 for all we know.

Source: Box Office Mojo

IT'S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY

Written and Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck

Starring Keir Gilchrist, Emma Roberts, Lauren Graham and Zach Galifianakis

Craig: I want to kill myself.

Nurse: Fill this out.

I have to begin by saying that IT’S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY is not really a funny story at all. In fact, it isn’t even that funny. It tries to be, and on occasion it can be, but the reason it isn’t is pretty simple. It shouldn’t be. This is the story of a supposedly suicidal teenager who checks himself into a mental hospital for fear he won’t be able to hold on much longer. Last I checked clinical depression bordering on suicide wasn’t a laughing matter and mental wards were not warm and fuzzy places where teens could come of age.

When writing/directing team, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, first tackled depression and isolation, they gave us the harrowing indie drama, HALF NELSON, which earned Ryan Gosling an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a crack-addicted, high school teacher. It was bleak, honest and raw. Just a few short years later though, they have seemingly lost all integrity as artists and their ability to be truthful to their own story and directorial instincts. From the moment Craig (Keir Gilchrist) enters the adult mental ward (the adolescent ward was conveniently undergoing renovations to allow for more implausibility and hopeful hilarity), everything feels false. Despite the fact that Craig’s problems amounts to girl troubles and pressure from his Dad (Jim Gaffigan) to get into the right college, he is admitted for a week. It takes him about a day to realize that his problems are really nothing compared to his new neighbours, allowing for six more days of learning valuable life lessons from adorable and endearing mental patients. They’re crazy, but who isn’t really?

If Craig doesn’t really need to be there, I’m not sure why Boden and Fleck think that their audience will feel any need to be there either. The ensemble do their best to comply, including a surprisingly restrained performance from Zach Galifianakis and a refreshingly vibrant one from Lauren Graham, but ultimately, they look lost, unable to figure out why they’re there too. There is humour in pain and we can be found when we are amongst the most lost but by making light of the dark places these patients go, Boden and Fleck only come off as lost themselves.