Toy Story 3 had another stellar weekend at the box office and held off new releases Knight and Day, and Grown Ups.  It made over $59 Million over the weekend.  That is a drop of around 46%, but that is not unusual when a movie has a huge opening weekend.  The film still enjoyed a healthy $14,600 per/screen average.

Toy Story has now made $226.5 Million in its first 10 days in release.  It is on the fast track to becoming the number one animated movie at the box office this year (Shrek Forever After currently stands at $229 Million after five weeks.)  It’s also doing a bang up job abroad, earning another $100 Million overseas in the same time frame.  So far, it looks like Toy Story 3 will become one of the biggest films of the year.

Grown Ups may have taken a critical drubbing, but audiences didn’t seem to mind.  They snatched up a cool $40 Million in ticket sales, to make the movie the number two offering of the weekend. Love him or hate him, Adam Sandler is reliable at the box office.  This will be his tenth movie to open at above $34 Million.  There are not  many stars working today who can match those numbers.

The same cannot be said for Knight and Day, the Cameron Diaz/Tom Cruise spy caper/romantic comedy. The movie opened on Wednesday, but benefited very little from that early opening. Wednesday night the film earned a little over $3 Milion, a paltry sum for two former box office draws.

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I enjoyed Knight and Day quite a bit more than I expected to. Mind you, the bar was scraping the ground when I entered the theater. I thought the movie would be a complete disaster. Tom Cruise wore out his welcome with me long before the infamous couch jumping antics,  and while I generally enjoy Diaz, I just wasn’t sure about her playing opposite Cruise.

Cruise stars as CIA agent Roy Miller, who is on the run from his handlers.  He is feverishly  casing an airport when he spies June (played by Cameron Diaz.) Shortly thereafter, he  deliberately bumps into her, staging a “chance” encounter.

A few moments later, the two run into one another again, and you can practically see the gears going in June’s head.  Cute guy+fate = romantic opportunity. Her daydreaming is derailed when she is denied entrance onto the plane that her new friend is boarding.  He assures her, “Everything happens for a reason.”

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If like me, you have survived the onslaught of witty repartee between Iron Man and War Machine, time standing still in Robin Hood, and the hot mess of CGI and Jake Gyllenhaal in Prince of Persia then you are ready for what awaits you in June. Make no mistake, you may not have the monster in Manolo’s, otherwise known as Carrie Bradshaw, to suffer through but you do have a mêlée of 80’s rehashes that studios happily throw money at.

So, suit up, grab your popcorn, and prepare yourself for the next adventure that await you.

JUNE

June 4th

Ondine

Were you expecting a description of The A Team perhaps? At this point, anyone who is seeing The A Team on Friday already has their tickets, and even my words of wisdom will be unable to stop them. Instead I’ll spotlight a film that deserves attention.

Ondine is an independent film starring Colin Farrell as a fisherman who pulls up a beautiful woman in his nets. His sick, precocious daughter believes she is a Selkie, a Scottish seal who becomes a human wife on land. Time will tell if she is really as she seems.

Geekiness Factor: As a fairytale set in the modern era, it combines Splash and Heroes with a dose of romanticism and second chances. This movie works because it doesn’t use CGI, in fact the only special effects it uses comes from your very own imagination in overdrive. Its sense of wonder on faith, entrances you back to a time when you still believed in Santa Claus.

Screen Steamer: Colin Farrell has served me a heap of B movie bad boy charm in past films like The Recruit, S.W.A.T., not to mention a harmonious turn in Crazy Heart. Here he takes off his shirt only once, but seems well cast as a fisherman down on his luck and striving to be sober. Alicja Bachleda keeps you guessing as Ondine, which means “from the water.” She is alluring with a subtle sensuality in ocean soaked dresses, only coming up for air to coyly flirt with a scruffy Colin.

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Tom Cruise has gotten a pretty bad rap in the past few years. Ever since his epic “couch jumping” episode on Oprah, he’s been labeled by some as, well, crazy. Most people in the public eye can take that information two different ways. They could choose to be sticks in the mud and hate the media, or they could embrace it in a film, making light of their eccentricities.

Luckily, as fans of comedy and action, we are treated to the latter with Tom Cruise’s newest upcoming flick, Knight and Day. The film is basically Tom Cruise playing his typical Mission: Impossible super spy when he’s blacklisted and forced to take to a civilian (Cameron Diaz) for assistance in staying alive.

In the newest international trailer for the film, they focus more on the “cover story” that the government forges, in which Cruise’s character has gone crazy. After his epic cameo in Tropic Thunder, there’s no doubt that Cruise is willing to take a few shots at himself, or the characters he’s played.

Check out the trailer after the jump, and catch Knight and Day in theaters on June 25th.

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Hard to believe it’s been 13 years since Matt Stone and Trey Parker first put their cardboard-animated show about a group of boys from Colorado on the air, but tonight marks a true milestone, as the 200th episode of South Park airs on Comedy Central.

The franchise has been through quite a lot, between video games, films, direct-to-DVD specials, and more merchandise that you could shake a stick at. They may have become more socially conscious in the past few years, but the writing staff has never failed to push the envelope every week, which is one of the reasons 200 is a big number.

In tonight’s episode, the boys are in store for a Seinfeld-esque plot, as every celebrity they have ever mocked decides to file a class action lawsuit against the town of South Park.

Check out a brief preview of tonight’s episode after the jump, check in on some cool tribute videos over at their 200th Episode website, and be sure to catch South Park on Comedy Central, tonight at 10/9C.

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This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt are back and celebrate a little milestone: the 50th episode. This week sees a slew of new topics including Clash of the Titans, the iPad, The Walking Dead casting, Smallville and Superman rumors, what it means to be a movie star and the inexplicable success of Sam Worthington.

Chris and Matt also made some picks this week, as they usually do, including Matt’s pick of  The Lord of the Rings Trilogy on Blu-ray and Chris’ pick of the ABC show Castle starring Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic.

Finally, in this episode Chris and Matt introduced a new feature, The Flickcast Mailbag. If you have questions for our team about pretty much anything, shoot an email to mailbag [at] the flickcast dot com and if we answer your question on the air, you can win a great prize. This week it’s a code to download the COD Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Pack for free. Cool right?

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.

This week sees the release of several new movies and TV shows, some for the first time ever on Blu-ray. Of the ones coming out this week, we’re excited for not as many as last week. But still, the release of An Education, Collateral and Sherlock Holmes (pictured above with Robert Downey, Jr and Jude Law) is reason enough to be excited. Plus, there’s always next week. . . and the week after that.

Check them out:

Film

Alice in Wonderland (2-Disc Special Un-Anniversary Edition) ~ Kathryn Beaumont, Ed Wynn, Richard Haydn (DVD)

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel ~ Anna Faris, Christina Applegate, Justin Long (Blu-ray and DVD)

An Education ~ Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard (Blu-ray and DVD)

Collateral ~ Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx (Blu-ray)

I Sell the Dead ~ Dominic Monaghan, Ron Perlman (Blu-ray and DVD)

Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: Set 2 ~ Derek Jacobi, Judy Geeson, Jean Marsh (DVD)

Sherlock Holmes ~ Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams (Blu-ray and DVD)

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While Tom Cruise has been working like a fiend to pick a director for the upcoming sequel to his popular Mission Impossible franchise, he’s also got a new film coming out where he plays an international action spy. That’s called range.

While the characters may seem a bit played out, the premise is somewhat fresh. From 20th Century Fox:

An action-comedy centered on a fugitive couple (Cruise and Diaz) on a glamorous and sometimes deadly adventure where nothing and no one – even themselves – are what they seem. Amid shifting alliances and unexpected betrayals, they race across the globe, with their survival ultimately hinging on the battle of truth vs. trust.

The film also stars Cameron Diaz, Peter Sarsgaard, Lost’s Maggie Grace, and Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s Marc Blucas. Check out the newest trailer after the jump. Knight and Day hits theaters on June 25th.

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Tom Cruise and company were all pretty quick to jump onto and set a release date for the upcoming fourth installment of the Mission Impossible franchise. The only problem was that the film had yet to sign a director. Who could possibly take the helm after sci-fi meganerd J.J. Abrams shared his vision in the last film. Well, according to THR, the studio’s number one choice is Incredibles director Brad Bird.

On the surface, Bird may seem a peculiar choice. The writer-director wrote and directed 1999′s “The Iron Giant” and 2004′s “The Incredibles” as well as 2007′s “Ratatouille” (the latter two earned Oscars for best animated picture), but he has never helmed a live-action feature.

On the other hand, nabbing Bird would be inspired. He is praised for his storytelling skills and is known for his strengths in staging thrilling and intricate action set-pieces as well as fusing the action with large dollops of heart and emotion.

Bird is just one name thrown into the hat along with others such as Edgar Wright and Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer. Brad seems the be at least Cruise’s top pick in the list.

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The first Paul Thomas Anderson’s film I saw was his take on addiction and gambling called Hard Eight. It featured John C. rilley, Gwyneth Paltrow and the awesome Philip Baker Hall. It was filled with despicable characters who were selfish and hurt others to get what they wanted. I liked it very much and thought Anderson was definitely a filmmaker to watch.

His next piece of work was Boogie Nights, which further solidified his status as one of the best directors working today. Then, he released another seminal work of great distinction in Magnolia. This film, yet another pian to selfishness and the darker aspects of humanity, takes place in a single day in Los Angeles, focusing on a number of interconnected people whose lives are forever changed as they search for love and meaning in a chaotic world.

The film chronicles such diverse occurrences as a suicide turned homicide by a quirk of timing; a motivational speaker motivated by rage; and a quiz kid rendered stupid by a lightning strike and features Tom Cruise in what could arguably be called his best performance to date. Besides Cruise, look for more great acting from Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, Jason Robards, Philip Baker Hall and Julianne Moore.

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While he may look to be beating a dead horse with the upcoming spy comedy Day & Knight, Tom Cruise has announced that he’s returning to the Mission Impossible franchise for a fourth film. From Variety:

Cruise and J.J. Abrams — who co-wrote the “Mission: Impossible III” screenplay — will produce from a screenplay by Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec, a writing duo hired last summer to pen the script from an idea hatched by Cruise and Abrams. Appelbaum and Nemec spent four seasons with Abrams as co-exec producers of “Alias.”

Paramount made the announcement yesterday, along with news that the film’s planed release date will be next Memorial Day. This will put the film out on the same weekend as the planned Hangover sequel, and on the second weekend of the fourth Pirates Of The Caribbean film.

The previous Mission Impossible films pulled in just over $1.3 billion, but Cruise’s cost was far too high for Paramount to continue any further films at the time. It seems, with this news, that the studio has decided Cruise is well worth the money spent.

With the film set to hit theaters in just 15 months, you can expect to see casting and script details to leak online by the droves in the coming weeks. We’ll be sure to keep you updated with any information as it comes our way.

2010 is in full swing and some really great movies are hitting store shelves this week for the first time and for the first time on Blu-ray. This week’s releases include Gamer, Magnolia, Boogie Nights, Che, Damages, the complete run of ABC’s canceled too soon Defying Gravity and the Blu-ray release of Whiteout with Kate Beckinsale (pictured above).

Check out this week’s releases:

Movies

According to Greta ~ Hilary Duff, Ellen Burstyn (DVD)

Boogie Nights ~ Mark Wahlberg, Heather Graham, Burt Reynolds, Julianne Moore (Blu-ray)

Bourne Supremacy (Single-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) ~ Matt Damon, Brian Cox, Karl Urban (Blu-ray)

Bourne Ultimatum (Single-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) ~ Matt Damon, David Strathairn, Scott Glenn (Blu-ray)

Che (Criterion Collection) ~ Benicio del Toro (Blu-ray)

Gamer ~ Gerard Butler, Amber Valetta, Michael C. Hall, Kyra Sedgwick (DVD and Blu-ray)

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