Late April has usually been a dumping ground, as its rare that the studio would want to throw out a movie they expected to do well only a week or two before the arrival of the first summer blockbusters. Before the beginning of the summer movie season moved definitively to the first Friday in May (and occasionally to the last Friday of April), early May was also a dumping ground. But gird your loins. The summer movie season is about to begin (and in some cases, is beginning).
Sorry for the week delay. We're continuing to move on to finally catching up!
One Year Ago--April 26, 2019:
New Wide Releases:
Avengers: Endgame--1/$357.1 million/$858.4 million/1/93%/78--Even before the current pandemic made the idea of crowding into a packed movie theater anathema to most people, it was hard to see any movie on the upcoming schedule that could possibly do this amount of business in just one weekend. Blasting out the then one-year old record for an opening weekend held by immediate predecessor Avengers: Infinity War by nearly $100 million, and becoming the biggest movie ever internationally and second-biggest domestically (with only Star Wars: The Force Awakens, from the other most popular franchise of all time, ahead of it) this benefited both for being the swan song of the original team of Avengers, some of whom have been part of the MCU since it was founded in 2008, and for resolving what was arguably the biggest cinematic cliffhanger since Han Solo got dunked in carbonite. While there will be more movies with Thor, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and Spider-Man, this marked the end of an era, and it's hard to see how any future movie--MCU or otherwise--can possibly come close to what Endgame made. Despite all the cash and some sentiment for a Best Picture nod and/or a Best Actor nomination for Robert Downey, Jr., it only ended up Oscar-nominated for its effects.
Director: Anthony Russo and Joe Russo
May 3, 2019:
#1 Movie:
Avengers: Endgame--$147.4 million
New Wide Releases:
The Intruder--2/$10.9 million/$35.4 million/72/33%/39--In this rather disposable thriller, a married couple (Michael Ealy and Megan Good) buy a large house and the surrounding property from Dennis Quaid, who has trouble letting his old place go. Does Quaid turn out to be a psychopath? Do you even have to ask? This proved to be mildly decent counter-programming against the relentless tide of Avengers.
Director: Deon Taylor
Long Shot--3/$9.7 million/$30.3 million/81/82%/67--Twenty years earlier, Notting Hill opened a week after Star Wars: Episode I--The Phantom Menace, and ended up grossing $116.1 million in its run. Alas for Charlize Theron and Seth Rogan, they aren't Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant, and their romantic comedy about a schlub (Rogan) and a celebrity (Theron) falling for each other didn't do anywhere near the business, despite strong reviews. In this case, Rogan was a reporter who gets hired as a speechwriter by Theron, his former babysitter who is now Secretary of State and preparing to run for President. Like The Intruder, this one might have done better outside the all-encompassing dusting by Endgame of every other movie in theaters.
Director: Jonathan Levine
UglyDolls--4/$8.6 million/$20.2 million/101/27%/39--Stop me if you've heard this plotline before: a group of misfits try to change to fit in with the popular crowd, only to discover how shallow the cool kids truly are and that their strength came from being themselves. If that sounds totally original for you, you may be the ideal audience for this relatively low-budget animated film, the latest attempt (and weirdly, not even 2019's least successful attempt) to spin off a toy line into a major feature film. Probably the most interesting this about this one is that the filmmakers cast musicians (including Kelly Clarkson, Blake Shelton, Pitbull, Janelle Monae, and Nick Jonas as the bad guy) in many of the leading roles. That didn't do much to help soundtrack sales, nor did any of the film's songs even make the Oscar Original Song shortlist.
Director: Kelly Asbury
Five Years Ago--April 24, 2015:
#1 Movie:
Furious 7--$17.8 million
New Wide Releases:
The Age of Adaline--3/$13.2 million/$42.6 million/69/55%/51--In this romantic fantasy, Blake Lively played Adaline, who stopped aging in 1937, and in 2015 finds herself falling for the son of her former boyfriend, who has now aged into Harrison Ford. Ellen Burstyn played Lively's daughter, who has now aged far past her mother. Even with Ford's presence, the opening wasn't great, but it had better-than-expected legs, especially given the massive film that arrived just one week later.
Director: Lee Toland Kreiger
Little Boy--13/$2.8 million/$6.5 million/144/24%/30--In this Christian film with a pretty decent cast, a young boy, nicknamed Little Boy, pines for the safe return of his father (Michael Rappaport) who is off fighting in WWII. Emily Watson played his mother, Kevin James a local doctor, and Tom Wilkinson the local priest. For those who know their World War II history, the name of the movie might provide a clue to the climax, which was considered shameless by most critics.
Director: Alejandro Monteverde
New Limited Releases:
The Water Diviner--$4.2 million/154/61%/50--Russell Crowe returned to Australia for his first film made Down Under in nearly 20 years, making his directorial debut with this drama about a farmer (Crowe) who decides to find his sons, who he believed were all killed in the Battle of Gallipoli. Despite Crowe's presence and decent reviews, the film only got a limited release in the US.
Director: Russell Crowe
Expanding:
Ex Machina--6/$5.4 million
May 1, 2015:
New Wide Releases:
Avengers: Age of Ultron--1/$191.3 million/$459 million/3/75%/66--To be clear, Avengers: Age of Ultron was not a flop. It had the second-biggest opening to date at the time, and it finished its run as the 8th-highest grossing film of all time. Still, given the massive success of the first Avengers and the massive hype surrounding Ultron's release, one could look at these numbers and wonder why they weren't even bigger (especially as Jurassic World, a month and a half later, would put up the numbers that Ultron was widely expected to put up). At any rate, the MCU would hit a bit of a rough patch, with subsequent films Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, and Doctor Strange underperforming as well, before Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 revived the franchise (which, again to be clear, was still making massive amounts of money--just not as much as the films before and after this minor lull made).
Director: Joss Whedon
New Limited Releases:
Far From the Madding Crowd--$12.2 million/122/85%/71--It's hard to know if this adaption of Thomas Hardy's novel would have been a major Oscar contender had it been released at the end of the year instead of early May, but despite solid reviews, the costume drama, about the owner of a farm (Carey Mulligan) and a shepherd (Matthais Schoenaerts) who are interested in each other but have several complications get in the way of them being together, was largely forgotten by the time awards season started.
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Ten Years Ago--April 23, 2010:
#1 Movie:
How to Train Your Dragon--$15.4 million
New Wide Releases:
The Back-Up Plan--2/$12.2 million/$37.5 million/82/18%/34--After a 2 1/2 year absence from the big screen, Jennifer Lopez discovered she wasn't all that missed with the wan performance of this romantic comedy, with Lopez playing a woman who gets artificially inseminated just as she meets her dream man (Alex O'Loughlin). This one has a pretty good supporting cast (including Anthony Anderson and Melissa McCarthy), but if this was J.Lo.'s plan for getting her superstardom back, it didn't work.
Director: Alan Poul
The Losers--4/$9.4 million/$23.6 million/109/48%/44--The second "adult" comic book adaption in as many weeks, and star Jeffrey Dean Morgan's second adult comic book adaption in as many years (after his supporting turn in Watchmen), this rather generic actioner has Morgan and his special forces team (including Chris Evans and Idris Elba) left for dead by their superior (Jason Patric), and vow revenge, assisted by a mysterious woman (Zoe Saldana) who has her own reasons for wanting Patric dead. The title proved sadly prophetic.
Director: Sylvain White
Oceans--8/$6.1 million/$19.4 million/117/81%/75--As the title suggests, Disney's second release in their revived nature documentary series explores the world's seas and the life within them. If not as successful as 2009's Earth, it was still a huge moneymaker for a documentary. To make sure the film was completely family-friendly, Disney lopped off twenty minutes of nature being nature for the American release.
Director: Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzuad
April 30, 2010:
New Wide Releases:
A Nightmare on Elm Street--1/$32.9 million/$63.1 million/51/15%/35--There was some optimism when Oscar nominee Jackie Earle Haley was cast as Freddy Kruger, but those hopes proved to be misguided as the new Nightmare proved to be far more generic and forgettable than Wes Craven's original from 1984. Rooney Mara got her first lead role as one of Freddy's potential victims. Despite a decent return on investment, this one followed 2009's ill-fated Friday the 13th redo in not launching a new series.
Director: Samuel Bayer
Furry Vengeance--5/$6.6 million/$17.6 million/121/7%/23--A hapless real estate developer discovers that the forest that his employers have pegged to become a new housing development is filled with animals who are not the least bit shy about showing their anger about the potential destruction of their habitat. While the film's message is good, the movie proved to be a career killer for Brendan Fraser, who has yet to headline another major release. Also along for the ride was Brooke Shields, as Fraser's wife, and Ken Jeong, as Fraser's boss.
Director: Roger Kumble
Fifteen Years Ago--April 29, 2005:
New Wide Releases:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy--1/$21.1 million/$51.1 million/55/60%/63--Douglas Adams's beloved comic sci-fi novel (the first in a six book trilogy), which was itself adapted from a BBC radio comedy that Adams had written, had already had one filmed adaption, a 1981 BBC miniseries. This movie adaption, which Disney clearly hoped would be the start of a series, has better known actors and better special effects, but was otherwise mostly harmless, and mostly bland. A post-Office Martin Freeman got his first lead movie role as a hapless Earthling who becomes one of the few survivors when the planet gets destroyed, thanks to his friend Mos Def, who was secretly an alien. They end up cruising the galaxy with two-headed Sam Rockwell, fellow Earthling Zooey Deschanel, and a terminally depressed robot (voiced by Alan Rickman). Bill Nighy, John Malkovich, and the voice of Helen Mirren are also along for the ride. Despite a decent opening weekend (that ended up making half of $42 million), Disney decided to do panic and cancelled sequel plans.
Director: Garth Jennings
xXx: State of the Union--3/$12.7 million/$26.9 million/97/17%/37--Vin Diesel ditched his second franchise of the early 90s when he declined to appear in the sequel to his 2002 "X-treme James Bond" thriller. While The Fast and the Furious was able to soldier on until Diesel returned to the fold, xXx needed Diesel much more than Diesel needed xXx. Ice Cube, clearly wanting to get away from the various comedies he'd been making for a while, took the lead role as an imprisoned Navy SEAL who is recruited by Samuel L. Jackson (returning from the first movie) to bring down the Secretary of Defense (Willem Dafoe) who has gone rogue and is plotting a coup against the president. Like the first one, it was noisy and loud. Unlike the first one, it didn't have the then-popular Diesel, meaning the series went dormant for 12 years, until the no-longer-popular-except-in-Fast and Furious-movies Diesel needed a familiar title to try to stage a comeback.
Director: Lee Tamahori
May 6, 2005:
New Wide Releases:
Kingdom of Heaven--1/$19.6 million/$47.4 million/63/39%/63--The exact beginning of the summer movie season in 2005 is a bit fuzzy, both because April had big (if underperforming) movies that in other years might have felt more at home opening a month or two later, and because Ridley Scott's vastly expensive Crusade drama Kingdom of Heaven, supposedly the first big movie of the summer, made less on both its opening weekend and overall than The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Interpreter, and The Amityville Horror, and while it would open (barely) better than Sahara did a month earlier, Heaven would finish over $20 million behind the Matthew McConaughey actioner's final gross. Orlando Bloom, in his first non-Pirates of the Caribbean lead, played a blacksmith who travels to Jerusalem during the Crusades and becomes involved in the disputes between the Muslims and the Christians. A strong supporting cast (including Eva Green, Liam Neeson, and Jeremy Irons) didn't do much to inspire moviegoers. A three-hour director's cut, released on DVD toward the end of the year, got much stronger reviews than the theatrical version did.
Director: Ridley Scott
House of Wax--2/$12.1 million/$32.1 million/87/26%/41--In this extremely loose remake of the Vincent Price 1953 horror classic, the car of a group of idiot college students (including Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray, and a pre-Supernatural Jared Padalecki) breaks down in a small town with no cell reception. The town also seems to contain no living people, but instead elaborate and lifelike wax figures. The hapless kids get to discover just why they're so lifelike when they start getting picked off. Paris Hilton, who had passed her peak as a tabloid fixture, co-starred, and the producers didn't try to hide the fact that her character didn't survive.
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Crash--4/$9.1 million/$54.6 million/74%/66--This entry in the "everyone is connected" school of filmmaking looked at the effects of racism on a diverse group of Los Angelenos, including a wealthy DA (Brendan Fraser) and his brittle wife (Sandra Bullock), a Hollywood power couple (Terrance Howard and Thandie Newton), and several cops with various levels of racism, including Don Cheadle, Ryan Phillipie, and Matt Dillon, who got the film's only acting nomination. In addition to Dillon, the film got 5 other nominations, including for Directing and the Original Song "In the Deep", and won three, for Editing, Original Screenplay, and in a massive upset, Best Picture, beating out the heavily favored Brokeback Mountain. While the film is a perfectly decent, very well-acted drama that does suffer from being rather overwrought and obvious, its general reputation is just north of garbage thanks primarily to that undeserved Oscar win, as it was widely seen as the worst Best Picture winner of the 21st century, at least until another much derided drama about racism pulled an even bigger upset last year.
Director: Paul Haggis
Twenty Years Ago--April 28, 2000:
#1 Movie:
U-571--$12.2 million
New Wide Releases:
The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas--2/$10.5 million/$35.3 million/70/25%/27--The live-action The Flintstones was a big hit in the summer of 1994, which is probably why Universal decided to throw over $80 million at this prequel. Alas, one live-action Flintstones movie turned out to be plenty, as Vegas, which recast the four leads, was basically dumped ahead of the summer movie season. Set when Fred (Mark Addy) and Barney (Stephen Baldwin, in what appears to be his last theatrically released film) were single, the duo take girlfriends Wilma (Kristen Johnston) and Betty (Jane Krakowski) to Vegas, while Wilma's ex (Thomas Gibson) schemes to get her back. Alan Cumming and Flintstones vet Harvey Korman also show up.
Director: Brian Levant
Frequency--3/$9 million/$45 million/56/70%/67--Proof that even the most outlandish ideas, in the right hands, can be turned into compelling stories. Jim Caviezel sets up his late father's old ham radio setup, only to find that he is actually chatting with his dad (Dennis Quaid), from 30 years in the past, where they discover that changing the course of time has consequences they didn't consider. A very young Michael Cera has a small role.
Director: Gregory Hoblit
Where the Heart Is--4/$8.3 million/$33.8 million/75/35%/30--The second generically-titled Natalie Portman dramady in six months with the word "where" in the title, this one casts the actress as a pregnant teen abandoned by her boyfriend in a rural Oklahoma Wal-Mart, where she builds a new life for herself and her child with the help of new friends Ashley Judd and Stockard Channing.
Director: Matt Williams
May 5, 2000:
New Wide Releases:
Gladiator--1/$34.8 million/$187.7 million/4/77%/67--Ridley Scott kicked off the summer movie season in 2000 much more spectacularly than he would 5 years later with Kingdom of Heaven with this massive smash about a Roman general (Russell Crowe) who is betrayed by the son of the emperor (Joaquin Phoenix) and eventually returns to Rome as a gladiator, where he becomes far more popular than the petulant Phoenix. Connie Nielsen played Phoenix's sister who is interested in Crowe, with Richard Harris as the late emperor and Oliver Reed (in his final role) as a gladiator trainer. Gladiator would be nominated for 12 Oscars, including Director for Scott, Original Screenplay, and Supporting Actor for Phoenix, and would win 5, including Crowe for Best Actor and, in a mild upset, Best Picture, becoming the second early-summer period action movie in five years to win the top honor.
Director: Ridley Scott
I Dreamed of Africa--9/$2.4 million/$6.7 million/143/10%/33--On the other end of the scale, both critically and commercially, was this failed piece of counterprogramming, which cast Kim Basinger as an Italian woman who marries and moves to a Kenyan ranch with her new husband (Vincent Perez), where she faces both hardships and triumphs. A pre-Bond Daniel Craig played the ranch manager, and Eva Marie Saint played Basinger's mother.
Director: Hugh Hudson
Twenty-Five Years Ago--April 28, 1995:
#1 Movie:
While You Were Sleeping--$10.5 million
New Wide Releases:
Friday--2/$6.6 million/$27.5 million/62/78%/54--This agreeable stoner comedy became an unexpected sleeper hit and launched an even more unexpected franchise (not to mention an enduring meme spun off from a throwaway line). Ice Cube (who would be back for the sequels) and Chris Tucker (who wouldn't) play a couple of guys in South Central LA who spend the titular day sitting on a porch and watching the various comings and goings in the neighborhood, while trying to figure out how to raise the $200 they owe to a local dealer. The packed supporting cast included Nia Long, John Witherspoon, Bernie Mac, and future Oscar winner Regina King. This marked the first produced screenplay of Ice Cube, as well as the directorial debut of F. Gary Gray
Director: F. Gary Gray
Village of the Damned--5/$3.2 million/$9.4 million/121/29%/41--Director John Carpenter's second horror film in three months, this American remake of the 1960 British chiller concerns nine mysterious children born on the same day in a small town, only one of whom seems to have any human emotions. As it becomes clear that the children possess psychic powers that they are using to cause mayhem, the adults in town have to figure out how to destroy them. Mark Hamill played the local reverend, Kristie Alley a scientist, and in his last theatrical film, Christopher Reeve played the local doctor and father of one of the evil kids (he would have his accident a month after this was released). Of the kids, Thomas Dekker (as the one kid with humanity) and Lindsey Haun (as the kids' leader and daughter of Reeve) would have the most sustained careers.
Director: John Carpenter
Top Dog--8/$2.2 million/$5.1 million/148/NA/NA--In this poorly timed buddy cop comedy (filled with explosions and shoot-outs, just a week and a half after the Oklahoma City attack), Chuck Norris played a tough officer whose new partner is a dog. If you've seen Turner and Hooch, you've pretty much seen this one. This would be Norris's last theatrically released film until his Dodgeball cameo nine years later, as he would concentrate on TV and straight-to-video films.
Director: Aaron Norris
May 5, 1995:
New Wide Releases:
French Kiss--1/$9 million/$38.9 million/43/48%/50--Meg Ryan played an American in Paris, who goes there to get back his finance (Timothy Hutton) after he dumps her. There, she gets entangled with a petty thief (Kevin Kline) who wants to start his own vineyard. Since it is Kline and not Hutton on the poster with Ryan, it shouldn't be too surprising who she ends up with at the end of the movie.
Director: Lawrence Kasdan
Panther--5/$2.4 million/$6.8 million/137/27%/NA--This fictionalized drama tells about the rise and fall of the Black Panther movement in the 1960s, as the organization sprang up as a militant alternative to Dr. King's non-violence message. Kadeem Hardison, in a very different role than his long-running part on the sitcom A Different World, played a member and the film's narrator, with Courtney B. Vance as group founder Bobby Seale, Angela Bassett as the widow of Malcolm X (reprising her role from Spike Lee's biopic), and supporting turns for Joe Don Baker (as a cop), Chris Rock, Bobby Brown (yes, that Bobby Brown), and Melvin Van Peebles, who wrote the novel that the film is based on and whose son Mario directed the film. Alas, despite all the talent, critics found the film dull and too fictionalized.
Director: Mario Van Peebles
My Family--6/$2.2 million/$11.1 million/112/85%/NA--This well-regarded drama covered 60 years in the life of a LA family, though triumphs and tragedies. Family members are played at various times by Jimmy Smits, Edward James Olmos, and Jennifer Lopez (in only her second movie), and Scott Bakula and Mary Steenburgen also appear. The film would receive an Oscar nomination for its makeup.
Director: Gregory Nava
Thirty Years Ago--April 27, 1990:
#1 Movie:
Pretty Woman--$7.2 million
New Wide Releases:
The Guardian--3/$5.6 million/$17 million/69/22%/35--Director William Friedkin's first horror film since The Exorcist 17 years earlier was not quite as successful. A young couple gradually realize their new nanny is an ancient tree spirit who wants to sacrifice their newborn to her tree. A scary movie could be made out of that material, but the consensus that this film wasn't it.
Director: William Friedkin
Spaced Invaders--4/$4.5 million/$15.4 million/81/8%/NA--In this family-friendly alien invasion comedy, a group of Martians mistake a Halloween rebroadcast of Orson Welles's War of the Worlds as real and decide to join the attack, landing in a small town where they're mistaken for kids in costumes. Of course, there is no invasion, and the Martians, who are all pretty bumbling, aren't able to create any real havoc. Even though the only other family film out was the month old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, this created much less impact than Welles's fake news report did.
Director: Patrick Read Johnson
Q&A--6/$2.8 million/$11.2 million/94/87%/NA--This gritty crime drama starred Nick Nolte as a decorated but dirty cop whose shooting of a small-time dealer is being investigated by rookie assistant DA Timothy Hutton. He uncovers a fairly substantial web involving Nolte and a successful criminal (Armand Assante) who is married to Hutton's ex-girlfriend. Critics liked the film, but it was probably too dark for audiences to really embrace.
Director: Sidney Lumet
Wild Orchid--7/$2.6 million/$11.1 million/95/7%/19--In this soft-core drama, a young lawyer (model Carre Otis, making her film debut) goes to Rio with an older partner (Jacqueline Bisset) to close a real estate deal, where Otis meets a mysterious older man (Mickey Rourke) who encourages her to give in to her desires. Even though the film's cast and production values were better than your typical soft core film found on late night premium cable channels, the script wasn't, and Rourke, whose career had been steadily going downhill, saw it truly begin to spin out of control. At least he got a wife out of it--Otis.
Director: Zalman King
May 4, 1990:
#1 Movie:
Pretty Woman--$6.8 million
New Wide Releases:
Tales From the Darkside--3/$5 million/$16.3 million/72/39%/54--Yet another anthology movie containing tales of comic horror, this collection (spun off from the 80s syndicated series) featured vignettes based on stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Stephen King (of course), as well as an original story. The first story, concerning a vengeful mummy, was the most star-studded, with Christian Slater, Steve Buscemi, and Julianne Moore. Other segments co-starred William Hickey and Rae Dawn Chong. The wraparound story featured Debbie Harry. The thunder for these types of films had been largely stolen by HBO's similar Tales From the Crypt, whose second season had just started when this came out, and which brought these type of films to an end for the time being.
Director: John Harrison
Short Time--10/$1.2 million/$4 million/134/20%/NA--In this black comedy, a police detective (Dabney Coleman) discovers that he has only two weeks to live, and that his life insurance policy will pay out far more if he dies in the line of duty. So, he sets out to get himself killed, only to discover that its not nearly as easy as it looks on TV. Matt Frewer played his partner, and Teri Garr played his wife.
Director: Gregg Champion
Thirty-Five Years Ago--April 26, 1985:
New Wide Releases:
Stick--1/$3.4 million/$8.5 million/96/29%/31--Burt Reynolds both directed and starred in this crime drama, adapted by Elmore Leonard from his own novel. Reynolds played a recently released convict who immediately has to go on the run after witnessing a murder. Charles Durning played a drug dealer, George Segal played Reynolds's boss, and Candice Bergan played his love interest. The film's poor reception helped accelerate Reynold's slide from top box-office draw to has-been.
Director: Burt Reynolds
Just One of the Guys--2/$3.3 million/$11.5 million/72/45%/57--This fondly remembered comedy starred Joyce Hyser (who, for some reason, never starred in a major movie again) as a high school journalist who, convinced she's being discriminated against because she's female, enrolls at another high school, this time as a male student. Of course, she falls for her male friend who has no idea that he's a she. This did OK in theaters, but became a cult hit thanks to frequent showings on HBO a few years later.
Director: Lisa Gottlieb
May 3, 1985:
New Wide Releases:
Code of Silence--1/$5.5 million/$20.4 million/44/63%/64--Chuck Norris at least temporarily left behind the assembly line action flicks made by Cannon Films and immediately saw an uptick in quality thanks to this well-received crime drama. Norris played an honest cop trying to defuse a potential gang war and protect the daughter of a crime lord from vengeance from her father's rivals. This marked one of the first films of real-life cop-turned-actor Dennis Farina.
Director: Andrew Davis
Gotcha!--3/$2.4 million/$10.8 million/76/36%/38--A young Anthony Edwards starred in this action comedy as an American college student on vacation in Europe who falls for an older woman (Linda Fiorentino) who may or may not be a spy but definitely slipped something into his backpack that Soviet agents are eager to retrieve. If that sounds familiar, that's because that's the plot of seemingly half the American comedies filmed in Europe during the 80s.
Director: Jeff Kanew
Gymkata--10/$1.3 million/$5.7 million/111/17%/51--Remember the scene in The Lost World: Jurassic Park where the teenage girls gymnastics a raptor out the window thanks to a convenient set of uneven bars in a shed? This is That Scene: The Movie, as real life gymnast Kurt Thomas played a gymnast who is recruited by the government to participate in a mysterious, ancient competition in a shadowy Middle Eastern country, because his skills at the titular combination of gymnastics and karate will make him a strong contender to win. If those uneven bars were convenient, that's nothing compared to scene where a pommel horse is, for some reason, set up in the middle of a square so Thomas can use it to take out an entire crowd of thugs.
Director: Robert Clouse
Forty Years Ago--April 25, 1980:
New Wide Releases:
Where the Buffalo Roam--$6.7 million/76/17%/NA--Bill Murray's first lead role had been in the Canadian summer camp comedy Meatballs, which became an out-of-nowhere smash the previous summer. Now, with his stint on Saturday Night Live about to come to an end, he made a play for movie stardom with a completely different project, namely a fictionalized biopic of famed gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. The film focused on Thompson's friendship with the equally gonzo lawyer Oscar Acosta (Peter Boyle), who was thinly disguised as Dr. Gonzo in Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, until Acosta disappeared in Mexico in 1974. Critics were underwhelmed, mostly panning it as a series of vignettes in search of a plot. If this film didn't make him a movie star, his next two projects, Caddyshack and Stripes, sure did.
Director: Art Linson
New Limited Releases:
The Tin Drum--NA/NA/82%/63--In the wake of its Oscar win for Foreign Language Film, this surreal German drama, based on Gunter Grass's novel, began to roll out around the country. 11-year-old David Bennent played a young boy, who, in response to his chaotic family life, decides to stop growing at the age of three, which also happens to correspond with the rise of the Nazis. The film was quite controversial, as it was banned in Ontario upon the film's initial release as child pornography for a brief scene in which Bennent briefly and non-graphically simulates having sex with an adult actress. That same scene would ignite another controversy in 1997, when the film, which was widely available in video stores at that time, was temporarily banned in Oklahoma City.
Director: Volker Schlondorff
May 2, 1980:
New Limited Releases:
Humanoids From the Deep--NA/NA/50%/49--Schlocky horror film from the Roger Corman factory about mutated aquatic creatures that start appearing on land in a small California town, where they kill the men and rape the women. Doug McClure played the local who figures out what's going on. This one was moderately controversial because Corman fired director Barbara Peeters because she refused to film additional scenes involving nudity.
Director: Barbara Peeters (reshoots shot by uncredited Jimmy T. Murakami)
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