Iron Man 2 made mincemeat of the competition this weekend, decisively beating rival Robin Hood.  Dropping off 59% from its opening weekend, Iron Man made about $53 Million, easily beating  the Ridley Scott helmed movie, which made around $37 Million over the weekend.

Robin Hood has been rumored to have a budget around $200 Million, so that sub-par opening might be disappointing to Universal, but the good news for Universal is that the film is performing well overseas, which will most likely cushion the blow of the somewhat soft American opening. Robin Hood made over $74 Million in foreign markets, and seems to be getting a warmer reception.

Letters to Juliet didn’t benefit from  counter-programming as much as I would have thought. With all the testosterone at the multiplex, I thought women would eat up the romantic offering. It had a decent take ($13.7 Million), but apparently women didn’t have a strong need to see it.  Incidentally, most critics I spoke with were pleasantly surprised by the movie, and found Vanessa Redgrave delightful in it.

Queen Latifah’s latest offering, Just Wright, was not able to muster much interest, and brought in $8.5 Million for fourth place.  How to Train Your Dragon continues to hang out in the top five, and made another $5 Million over the weekend.

I liked this movie quite a bit  when I first saw it in 2003, and it was called Love, Actually.  This is nothing but a watered down and americanized version of the British movie, and it is mired in mediocrity.  Just think of this as the ugly stepsister of Love, Actually.

Despite a massive ensemble cast (Jessica Alba, Kathy Bates, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Eric Dane, Patrick Dempsey, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Topher Grace, Anne Hathaway, Taylor Swift, Taylor Lautner, Julia Roberts, Shirley MacClaine, Ashton Kutcher, Queen Latifah, Emma Roberts, and George Lopez) the film lacks any real zip, and for a film about Valentine’s Day, it lacks heart. Don’t let all that star power fool you.

There are a myriad of storylines woven throughout the movie, which takes place on Valentine’s Day, in Los Angeles.  Most of the principals are connected to one another in one way or another, and their connections are slowly revealed throughout the movie.  Some of the stories work quite well, and others just don’t work at all.

Ashton Kutcher plays Reed, a florist who proposes to his less than thrilled girlfriend Morley (Jessica Alba.)  His best friend Julia (Jennifer Garner) is giddy over her new boyfriend (Patrick Dempsey), who is actually a two timing married man. Her best friend Kara (Jessica Biel) is the desperate and lonely career girl with no one to spend Valentine’s Day with.

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The People’s Choice Awards, which were broadcast last night from Los Angeles’s Nokia Theater, are an awards show where, you guessed it the people pick the winners. This year, which was no real surprise, the people picked vampires.

The Twilight Saga, True Blood and The Vampire Diaries all got trophies Wednesday at the 36th annual event. Twilight won four trophies, including favorite movie, franchise and onscreen team for the trio of Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner, who also picked up the breakout male actor award.

Winners in the movie categories included Sandra Bullock as favorite movie actress, Hugh Jackman as favorite action star, The Proposal as favorite comedy movie and Up for favorite family movie. Sacha Baron Cohen, appearing as himself and not as his alter egos Borat or Bruno, presented Johnny Depp with a special award as favorite movie actor of the decade.

HBO’s True Blood and the CW’s supernatural series The Vampire Diaries were selected as favorite TV obsession and favorite new TV drama, respectively. Other winners in categories such as movies, TV and music included Inglourious Basterds as favorite independent movie and Lady Gaga as favorite pop and breakout music artist.

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