It’s a board-game movie, so I don’t think anyone has their expectations especially high, though the only other board-game movie I can think of off the top of my head is Clue, and it was fantastic. And Connect Four, but I think that’s a porno. Seriously, we all kind of knew this wasn’t going to be that good.

Anywho, the plot can be deduced from the trailer: Aliens come down and get nasty with the Navy, leading to an all-out aquatic assault. Wedged in between there is a love story involving a plucky, up-and-coming Lieutenant Alex (Taylor Kitsch) and the daughter (Brooklyn Decker) of the fleet Admiral (Liam Neeson).

There’s more: Alex’s brother Stone (Alexander Skarsgard) is a Commander aboard the destroyer USS Sampson, while Alex is aboard the USS John Paul Jones. Alex wants to marry his girlfriend but is worried about asking her father. The girlfriend is a physical therapist helping out an amputee.

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One of the surprise films of 2010 was Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass. Based on the Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. graphic novel, the movie told the tale of a high school nerd who decides to be a super hero, despite his lack of any super powers.

The movie was a loud, vulgar, and gory explosion of awesome and it left many wanting more. Unfortunately the movie landed director Vaughn a chance at the “big leagues” and he went on to make the best X-Men movie to-date. With the head honcho otherwise occupied, it looked as if Kick-Ass 2 might not see the light of day.

Well that turns out not to be the case. Deadline is reporting that Universal is in talks to make the sequel as early as this year”

Universal Pictures is in talks to make Kick-Ass 2, with Jeff Wadlow directing his script. I’m told the intention is to get the film in production by August. Discussions are just getting underway with such original cast members as Aaron Johnson, Chloe Moretz and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and they will have to be signed to new deals to reprise their roles.

The Wadlow script was actually written at the request of Vaughn who wanted work on the sequel to happen while he was occupied in the X-Universe. At first the concept of losing Vaughn might seem harsh to the fans of the first film, but knowing that he was involved at some point early on, and gives his blessing now is an encouraging sign.

Remaking old TV shows as movies is a tricky proposition. There are a few angles you can take with it, you could make the movie as direct an adaptation as possible. Or you could embrace the camp nature of the source material and make a farce of it.

Both tactics have failed miserably, but so to have they both worked. This spring’s 21 Jump Street is a prime example of a film that works by embracing the absurdity of the original’s sincere premise. Most indications of Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows might have succeeded in a similar fashion, so word of more classic TV adaptations can be met with some optimism these days.

According to Deadline, Universal has gotten behind their next TV to Big Screen adaptation:

Universal Pictures has set David Levien and Brian Koppelman to write The Rockford Files, a feature adaptation of the memorable series that ran on NBC from 1974-80 and featured James Garner as the down-and-out private eye. The studio will develop the film as a star vehicle for Vince Vaughn to play Rockford, and Vaughn and Victoria Vaughn will produce through their Universal-based Wild West Picture Show Productions banner.

Vaughn is a rather obvious choice, but hopefully it means they are going for a more comic approach. I know that will get fans of the original twisted up, but I think a strait forward adaptation of the show wouldn’t really work today. What could work is a Vince Vaughn staring vehicle using the show’s premise and the core of the main character. So long as it is more 21 Jump Street and less Starsky and Hutch we should be fine.

High above the East River in a cable tram, an international terrorist has taken several U.N. delegates hostage and has declared war on New York City. Only one cop stands in the way of this madman’s insidious plot. This is the premise behind the action thriller Nighthawks (1981), which stars Sylvester Stallone, Billy Dee Williams, and in his American film debut Rutger Hauer as Wulfgar.

Sylvester Stallone stars as Detective Sergeant Deke DaSilva, a tough NY street cop who is about to be pitted against one of the world’s most deadly terrorists. The film opens up in NYC on New Years Eve as both DaSilva and his partner Sgt. Matt Fox (Williams), members of a street crime unit that targets scumbags and pickpockets, ring in the New Year after they arrest three men in a sting operation. DaSilva chases one of the muggers onto the platform of the 174^th street station in the Bronx, where he apprehends the man after he resists arrest.

On the very same day across the Atlantic Ocean in London, England, Heymar Wulfgar (Hauer) targets a department store in another terrorist bombing which is a statement against British Imperialism. He warns the press that he will strike again and that there is nothing anyone can do to stop him. Being so well known in Europe, and after the killing of a terrorist contact, Wulgar undergoes plastic surgery in order to clandestinely sneak across international borders and to continue his terrorist plots.

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This week’s pick is The Andromeda Strain (1971) that was adapted from Michael Crichton’s best selling novel. Director Robert Wise (The Day the Earth Stood Still) brings this sci-fi thriller to the big screen.

A small group of scientists are brought together at the request of the U.S. government to investigate a crashed satellite that has killed the inhabitants of a small New Mexico town. It’s unclear as to the cause of death, but it is quickly discovered that the satellite, which returned to earth, managed to pick up an organism from space, which has proven fatal for the small town’s inhabitants.

The team of scientists is headed by doctor Jeremy Stone (Arthur Hill) who is the first to be called in by members of the U.S. Air Force and The White House. Stone understands the severity of the situation and wastes no time gathering the other three members of the team who will help to identify, isolate, and cure this new disease from space.

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Yep, The Hunger Games wins again. The mega-hit has fended off the advances of two strong opponents to retain it’s Box Office crown for at least one more week. Bringing in over $33 Million dollars over the Easter weekend The Hunger Games now stands at over $300 Million in just three weeks.

The rest of the top three this week were dominated by 90′s nostalgia fare. Both came out with respectable numbers, especially considering the context of their release. Even still, neither could muster enough bank to truly challenge for the top spot.

Coming in at second was the fourth theatrical American Pie film, American Reunion. While it is true that its $ 21.5 Million dollar take is not very impressive compared to the previous films, the release of any R-Rated, raunchy comedy on Easter weekend is going to suffer. Considering that, and the bad will the franchise suffered from a long stretch of poor direct-to-DVD spin off films, you have to look at American Reunion as a win.

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Oliver Stone is a very capable director. His visual style makes almost anything he crafts watchable. Unfortunately, lately his choices in films have not really allowed him to embrace his more frenetic skill sets.

That is about to change when the gloriously chaotic Savages hits theaters. For those unfamiliar with Stone’s new film here is the synopsis:

Laguna Beach entrepreneurs Ben (Aaron Johnson), a peaceful and charitable Buddhist, and his closest friend Chon (Taylor Kitsch), a former Navy SEAL and ex-mercenary, run a lucrative, homegrown industry—raising some of the best marijuana ever developed. They also share a one-of-a-kind love with the extraordinary beauty Ophelia (Blake Lively).  Life is idyllic in their Southern California town…until the Mexican Baja Cartel decides to move in and demands that the trio partners with them.

Sounds like a ton of fun, and now thanks to MTV we get a chance to see the trailer deliver on that promise. The film looks like a cross between Domino and Traffic with all the best parts of each preserved. Of course we wont know if that for sure until the movie is actually released, but this trailer has put Savages high on our to-see list.

Check out the full trailer after the jump.

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Universal has announced that it is looking to bring The Mummy franchise back from the dead once again. The studio is planning on a reboot of the already rebooted series, which like a lot of Hollywood is a safe move.

And no, Brendan Fraser probably won’t be attached.

Universal has already rebooted the series once with Stephen Sommers’ loose 1999 remake of 1932’s original Mummy movie. That film spawned a myriad of sequels, including spinoffs of like the Scorpion King,which had spinoffs of its own.  Now the film is getting a reboot by Prometheus co-writer Jon Spaihts.

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Repo Man (1984), not to be confused with the movie about two guys who go around repossessing people’s internal organs when they miss a payment, is a Punk Rock classic starring Emilio Estevez as a clean cut kid in the dirty business of repossessing cars in the seedy underworld of Los Angeles.

Otto Maddox (Estevez) has just been fired from his job as a supermarket stock boy due to his lack of respect for authority. Later that night at a Punk Rock house party, he also finds out that his girlfriend Debbie is cheating on him with his best friend Duke. To make matters worse, Otto also finds out that his hippie parents gave away money that was promised to Otto for finishing college to a sleazy televangelist. What’s a broke, depressed punker supposed to do now?

After a long night of drinking and wandering the streets, Otto runs into Bud (Harry Dean Stanton) who pleads with Otto to help get his pregnant wife’s car out of a bad area and deliver it to the hospital where she’s going into labor. Otto initially refuses to take the job for less than $20 and finds out that he has been suckered into stealing a car.

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Last week I made mention that this weekend would be dominated by The Hunger Games. I never like to revel in such an easy victory, but for this week I will grant myself a little pardon.

The weekend was dominated by the new film that captured everyone’s hearts. The Hunger Games brought in a staggering $155 Million at the box office.  In just three days the film has already become the highest grossing film from Lionsgate productions ever.

The monstrous opening number is the third highest all time, coming in third behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 2 and The Dark Knight. The number was also the highest among all non-sequels and non-franchises of all time.

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The current big trend in H-Town is revisiting fairy tales and giving them new spins. People should know better than to complain about this trend, because retooling fairy tales is the basis for most of modern storytelling, so this always seemed like a natural place for Hollywood to go.

Early on, one such project seemed like the worst, pandering tripe imaginable. Snow White and the Huntsman seemed like a hallow, Twilight meets Lord of the Rings mash-up with a recognizable name. Taking all the worst parts if Alice in Wonderland and Red Riding Hood to forge one super stinker of a picture.

Somewhere along the line, the stars converged and this movie actually turned the corner on it’s perception. With each passing trailer the movie looks more and more like an epic adventure worthy of a mass audience.

Now a brand new trailer has hit and it continues the trend of making the movie look better and better. It has scope, it has visual flare, it has Bob Flippin’ Hoskins as one of the seven dwarves! Snow White and the Huntsman might not just be good, it might actually pretty fantastic.

Check out the new trailer after the jump.

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There is some good, some awesome, some sad and some well excepted news in this weeks box office results.

Coming in at number one for the weekend, 21 Jump Street makes a splash with $35 million, and it’s very good news. To see a successful TV adaptation that proves you can be R-rated, have a completely unexpected tone and still work is a wonderful trend starter for the industry.

Hollywood is a copy cat industry and if remakes and reboots have to happen, the only way you can maintain some artistic credibly is to bring something fresh to the table. Hopefully this success can grease the wheels with other creative folks and deliver something unexpected with these name brands. It will be interesting to see how the zany Dark Shadows is received in the wake of this win.

The well expected news comes in the form of our second place finisher, The Lorax. This Suess adaptation is performing well above initial expectations and is proving to have strong legs as it fell another soft 40ish percent to nearly $23 million. The Lorax will take a hit next week, but is well on it’s way to crossing the $200 million bar.

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