Another week, another Avatar win, more records broken, blah, blah, blah. No seriously, Avatar dropped a measly 16% from last week and added another $36 Million for a domestic cumulative of $552 Million in just six weeks.  It now stands as the number two motion picture of all time having beaten The Dark Knight over the weekend and at this rate will end up beating the number one record holder Titanic very soon.

New release Legion was not screened for critics in most areas, but it still managed to make over $18 Million.  Word of mouth was bad, though. According to Entertainment Weekly, the film only got an exit score of C- from theater goers. Denzel Washington’s Book of Eli held on to the third spot, dropping almost 50% for $17 Million.  Its two week total is $62 Million.

New release Tooth Fairy made $14.5 Million for fourth place. It actually got a rather high cinemascore of A- from audiences polled. The Lovely Bones rounded out the top five, dropping about 50%, and making about $8 Million.  It has now earned  $31.6 Million total.

Outside the top five, the first film from CBS films, Extraordinary Measures, had a pretty bleak debut, making about $7 Million.  The combined star power of Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser wasn’t enough to get people in the seats. On an up-note, It’s Complicated is about ready to cross $100 Million, as its cumulative total now stands at $98 Million.

Saturday morning I thought that The Book Of Eli might actually pull off the feat of toppling the unstoppable Avatar, because it did lead the box office on Friday. Well, close, but no cigar. Avatar reigned supreme once again, and made an astonishing $41.3 Million in its 6th week of release, and it is still playing on over 3,000 screens.

Avatar has now surpassed Star Wars as the number three highest grossing movie of all time with a cumulative total of $491 Million. The Dark Knight stands at number two, with $533 Million.

The Book of Eli had a pretty decent showing, with $31.6 Million on just over 3,000 screens. If the movie gets good word of mouth, it should do well in upcoming weeks. In third place was The Lovely Bones, which fared better than I thought it would. It was postponed from last year, and has received somewhat of a critical drubbing, but it still managed $17.1 Million.

In my opinion, this is a testament to how much readers loved the book. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, hung around and made $11.5 Million for fourth place. The movie is closing in on $200 Million, as it now stands at $192 Million.

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Peter Jackson has made films that many have considered “instant classics”, such as The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, a bloated and unnecessary remake in the form of King Kong, and some little-seen but great cult classics such as Bad Taste, Heavenly Creatures and The Frighteners. His newest film, The Lovely Bones, adapted from Alice Sebold’s novel of the same name, is kind of a combination of all of the above.

The story focuses on Susie Salmon, a fourteen year-old girl who lives in rural Pennsylvania with her parents and two siblings. She describes to us, via narration, what she wants to be when she grows up, her disliking of a snowglobe with a penguin in it, and even how she normally gets the “skeevies” when she sees someone looking at her weirdly. She didn’t get that last feeling soon enough, which inevitably leads to her murder and time spent in the “in-between” Heaven and Earth.

We see that the Salmons are an idyllic family as they get Susie a camera for her birthday. She is in the throes of her first unrequited love, and even has to suffer through a film club that makes her watch Othello with that guy “who has two first names. Laurence. Oliver.” It’s after this class, and a bold move from the boy that she likes, which leads her into the hands of Mr. Harvey.

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Shortly after I read The Lovely Bones in 2002, I started hearing rumblings that it was being optioned for a movie. My immediate reaction was “Why?” The emotionally devastating novel about the rape and murder of a fourteen year old seemed like dubious source material. The murdered girl resides in a self imposed ethereal limbo-land between heaven and earth for most of the book, making it logistical nightmare to film. I just didn’t understand how a filmmaker could pull it off.

In the case of director Peter Jackson, he couldn’t, and he didn’t. Jackson worked his magic with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but he is woefully out of his element here. The most shocking thing about seeing the film is that it is completely devoid of any emotion or warmth, the very characteristics that made the book so beloved. So much consideration is given to unnecessary special effects (that don’t even look good) that the crucial human interactions are lost, and that is a true pity. If you take those away, there is no reason to see this movie.

Oscar-nominee Saoirse Ronan (Atonement) plays Susie Salmon, who disappears on her way home from school one day. A nerdy and harmless looking neighbor, Mr. Harvey, lures Susie to a root-cellar like building in the middle of a field with the sheepish confession he has built a playhouse for the neighborhood kids. Susie feels honored to be the first child to see the playhouse, but she is ultimately raped, murdered, and dismembered in the claustrophobic dwelling.

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Once Peter Jackson announced to the world that he would be writing and producing an adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and that it would be two movies, there has been speculation as to just how the book will be split. Will it be cut in two and be a two-part adaptation like others are doing for the last Harry Potter and Twilight films or will the first movie be based on the book and the second serve as a bridge to Jackson’s Lord of the Rings?

Well, wonder no more because Jackson himself has cleared up the mystery, according to an interview he gave recently. The two movies will be based completely on the book.

“The second Hobbit script is still based on the Hobbit novel,” Jackson said in a group interview after a press conference for The Lovely Bones. “The Hobbit novel is in two parts.” Well, that sounds pretty definitive, doesn’t it?

In case you’re not familiar, The Hobbit tells the story of young Bilbo Baggins’ quest for a treasure guarded by the dragon Smaug. Written prior to The Lord of the Rings, it establishes some of the characters for that trilogy, including the wizard Gandalf and the evil Gollum, and the world of Middle Earth in which they live.

The first Hobbit movie is due in theaters in 2011, with part two following in 2012.

The big screen adaptation of Alice Sebold’s best selling novel The Lovely Bones, which we reviewed right here, finally has a trailer and we’ve to it right here for you. In case you’re not familiar, the story follows the tragically short life and afterlife of Susie Salmon, a young girl who is murdered one day on her way home from school.

After that event, the story followers her family as they attempt to understand and come to terms with Susie’s death and also find her killer. It also follows Susie who, now in her own personal version of heaven, looks down and narrates the story as she watches her family attempt to get on with their lives. While doing this, she’s also consumed with a mission to help track down her killer.

The Lovely Bones, which features Mark Wahlberg, Susan Sarandon, Rachel Weisz and Saoirse Ronan as Susie, hits theaters on December 11. Until then, check out the trailer after the jump.

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Initially, I never intended to read The Lovely Bones because I assumed it was a touchy-feely tearjerker about the brutal death of a child and how a family copes with their loss.  And well, who needs that if you read the newspapers or even watch the evening news?   Let’s face it, the media never seems to have a shortage of stories covering the depravity of humankind towards children.  Quite frankly, it’s depressing.  That was initially, when the book was first published, several years ago.

However, when the book came out in paperback a couple of years later, I was lured by the hype and hyperbole of glowing book reviews and Costco’s low prices. Yes, indeed, I succumbed to the pressure of mass marketing and found myself the owner of a brand new paperback edition of The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.

I have to admit that the first reading of the book a few years ago left me vaguely dissatisfied.  Now don’t get me wrong.  The writing was excellent.  The details and authenticity of the characters were creative and compelling.  The story line was engaging and well paced.  And the first person voice of the fourteen years old, alliteratively named, Susie Salmon, the victim, who narrates the story was pure genius.

After all, it is practically the ultimate voyeuristic experience, going inside the mind of the victim, seeing through her eyes, before, during and after her brutal rape and murder by a neighbor, and then following her to heaven and then back to earth again.  Talk about your creative license!  Isn’t that what good literature is all about?  It takes us above and beyond the ordinary, engages us in a world we would not otherwise know, and allows us to feel, think and see, through the eyes of another, from a different perspective.  It nourishes our minds and emotions and broadens our horizons.  The Lovely Bones satisfies all these criteria, and does so with a sense of quiet composure and restraint.

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