Indiana Jones V is a possibility.

Recently George Lucas was caught talking about the potential of Indy V, and he even addressed concerns about Shia LeBeouf’s Mutt Williams being the focus of Indy V.

Luckily, he said “Indiana Jones is Indiana Jones.” Which, essentially means: it’s not gonna happen.

But, he did say making Indy V is difficult with the amount of research that goes into formulating the story.

Well, hopefully they stop watching The X-Files and pick something that makes sense for Indy to go after: Atlantis.

I can see the posters now: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Genius. It’s all set up, George. Now, get the crew together and have one more run with Indy and set the franchise off into the sunset. Indy IV wasn’t bad, and it wasn’t great… but the thing that was missing was Indy’s charm… and not enough wip.

To make Indy V great, they need to:

Use a plot centered around Atlantis

and

Use more whip

They’ll rake in more money and send off Indiana Jones in a very special way.

Box Office Outlook

I always wonder what prompts moviegoers to see one movie over another every weekend. Is it the trailers? Advertising? Franchises? Stars? Word of mouth?

Well, it always seems to be a simple answer in hindsight that’s complex in foresight.

Let’s take The Dark Knight. Take Heath Ledger’s tragic death, add in some superhero hype along with a dash of franchise and lots of advertising and you get one of the biggest hits of the decade.

What about The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, AKA the movie that almost knocked TDK off it’s mantle? Take some franchise recognition and add in trailers and some advertising and you get some success…

…though maybe it didn’t translate to success. Maybe, just maybe everyone who saw TDK already just wanted something else to watch. And considering Swing Vote made a measly 6 million this weekend it’s easy to see The Mummy was the only viable alternative.

The Seth Rogen and James Franco starrer, Pineapple Express, comes out this week and looks to top TDK’s crown at the box office this week. Will it happen? Probably. Do we no for sure? Not until next monday.

What will you watch this weekend? Aug 1st, 2008 Edition

Ahh, Friday… that day of the week where tinseltown unleashes new movies for us to watch. This week’s biggies are Swing Vote and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Now, honestly… The Mummy looks… old and Swing Vote looks… preachy and un-funny… if that’s even a word.

So, which will you watch? The Mummy opens up in 3,759 theatres while Swing Vote opens in 2,213. So, how will you know if they’re actually good? Is it possible the trailers lied and they really aren’t as bad as they look? Well, no… they are. Per Rottentomatoes, The Mummy is at 11% and Swing Vote is at 32%.

Who knows, if you’re feeling nostalgic you may enjoy The Mummy… or enjoy Swing Vote if you’re really into the Presidential Election… or hell, take a chance on Midnight Meat Train (opening in 102 theatres this weekend)!

Forget it, just go watch The Dark Knight again. You know you want to.

Iron now worth $100 million.

Iron Man completely obliterated the competition this weekend and blew past everyone with a weekend gross of $100.7 million. To give some perspective, the number two movie was Made of Honor with a quaint $15.5 million.

Certainly, the mass amounts of advertising and the quality of the movie contributed to it’s absolutely astounding weekend.

There’s been a box office slump recently with most movies not pulling in over $20 million in their opening weekend, but it looks like Iron Man has completely blasted the doors off of the summer blockbuster season with it’s opening numbers.

The next couple weeks bring some more heavy hitters to the table, some being heavier than the others obviously.

Speed Racer: May 09th

Chronicles of Narnia: The Prince Caspian: May 16th

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: May 22nd

Sex and the City: The Movie: May 30th (though don’t be surprised if this movie absolutely fails).

You Don’t Mess with the Zohan/The Love Guru: June 06th (Adam Sandler vs Mike Myers)

The Incredible Hulk: June 13th

Get Smart: June 20th

Wall – E/Wanted: June 27th (Pixar vs Jolie. Pixar will win… easily)

Hancock: July 02 (Will Smith always brings a crowd)

Hellboy II: The Golden Army: July 11th

The Dark Knight: July 18th

Step Brothers: July 25th (Will Ferrell’s next)

Mummy: Tomb of the Emperor: Aug 01st (another one that will probably fail)

Tropic Thunder: Aug 15th

A New Standard.

From the pits of mediocrity rises a new era for super hero films. An era than promises excellence in both story and character development as well as acting and special effects. An era that seems to clear any cheesy lines or out-of-world occurences.

This era is spearheaded by two films: the recently released Iron Man and Batman Begins.

The latter has it’s much awaited sequel coming in a couple months while Iron Man has recently opened to rave reviews, calling it the best Marvel super hero movie and second overall to the aforementioned Batman Begins.

One can only hope that this recent trend continues with The Dark Knight and The Incredible Hulk, and then continues flowing with The Watchmen, which is based on what many consider to be one of the greatest graphic novels of all time.

We have always been marred by horrible super hero movies such as Pootie Tang, if that counts, Daredevil, Steel, and Spawn. Recently, the Fantastic Four movies, The Hulk, Superman Returns, and X-Men 3 have proved to be the creme of the crop in the land of average movies.

But with Iron Man, Dark Knight, and Incredible Hulk coming out within a couple months of each other… one can only hope a new standard for super hero movies will be set.

Simpler is better. Fast and Furious it is.

That new Fast and the Furious movie seems to be going with the ’simpler is better’ idea with the new title for the movie.

Fast and Furious. FAF. Three words.

It sounds a bit odd coming off the tongue, especially since most have known it as the ‘Fast and THE Furious’ franchise.

Anyway, IGN Movies reports that it’s all about Diesel and Walker’s characters not liking each other and united against a common enemy! WOAH! How innovative!

What a stretch of the imagination there, huh!? Well, let’s hope there’s a bit more depth to the plot.

Okay, okay, I know the, uhh… FAF/FATF franchise is all about speed and cars, but please… I’d like a bit of a plot this time. The first one is a classic, it started this thing off and launched tuner culture into the mainstream. The second was okay, highlight was Eva Mendes personally, but that Eclipse Spyder was as sexy as her. Almost.

Third… well… I don’t know how you get a muscle car to drift. Let’s just leave it at that.

They’re looking to rake it in with the cast of the first movie though, so let’s see if Fast and Furious can live up to the original.

Prom Night? Really?

So, the super teen horror movie Prom Night made 22.7 million this box office… and I’m both not surprised and utterly disappointed.

Disappointed because I’d think we’d eventually get tired of these movies… and not surprised because… well, we didn’t get tired of these kinds of movies.

I mean come on… how many times does a killer have to escape a prison!? Okay, to be fair I haven’t seen the film yet, but it looks bad… and it sounds bad… and… well… I suppose if you need an hour and a half of entertainment it’s perfectly fine.

Okay, on Rottentomatoes.com users rated the movie at 50% while critics gave it 13%

That would make it at least average… if not that then very, very bad. I just don’t think we should reward film makers with an opening weekend gross of 22.7 million if it gets that kind of score… isn’t that fair?

Although who knows, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe there is no way to prevent it. Maybe marketing creates too much hype for movies. Maybe thousands or millions of guys wanted to see Britney Snow run around and scream in a prom dress (perhaps enacting a fantasy they’ve had?).

Whatever.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall comes out next week and it looks like fans of Knocked Up, Super Bad, and 40 Year Old Virgin will enjoy it.

Will Ferrell misses an open shot.

Will Ferrell’s ‘Semi-Pro’ only pulled in 15.2 million this past weekend. It was a weekend full of duds too. Could this be the beginning of a trend?

I say that because I’ve heard increased negative criticism of Ferrell. That he plays the same roles(which he does), and that his characters are too absurd and loud. Blades of Glory, Ferrell’s last movie, raked in 33 million at the box office. Semi-Pro did less than half. I don’t seem to remember anything special about this weekend either.

Maybe it’s the economy? Well… that might be true, but Vantage Point pulled in 22.8 million in it’s opening weekend last weekend.

There’s two possibilities here… and it’s very, very simple. Either people already saw Jumper and Vantage Point and just weren’t interested in Semi-Pro, or people all of a sudden ran out of money cause they all went to see Jumper and Vantage Point.

Now, Ferrell’s movies are hilarious, at least in my view. But, they are getting less appealing.

Anchorman speaks for itself.

I wasn’t excited for Talladega Nights, but enjoyed it in theatres.

I didn’t even see Blades of Glory until December.

I have no plans to see Semi-Pro.. at all.

Are my sentiments shared by the American people, and on a bigger scale, the world? Maybe.

Fact is, Semi-Pro was set up and had an open look to knock down an easy 3. And it failed. There was nothing else to watch, unless you wanted to see The Other Boleyn Girl(drew in 8.2 million).

Are we getting tired of Ferrell? Probably.