Damon Houx
December is often a surprising month at the box office as many films that never top the box office end up making a lot of money. The Tom Cruise vehicle 'Jack Reacher' opened right before Christmas and had a $15 million opening weekend. Sounds weak right? And yet the picture has grossed nearly $80 million domestically, and over $200 million worldwide. Which is why Paramount is talking about a sequel.
When Megan Fox left 'Transformers: Dark of the Moon,' it seemed that her relationship with director Michael Bay (who she jokingly refered to as Hitler) was over and the two would never work together again. But now Bay has announced that Fox is joining his 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' reboot.
We're not going to say he's biased, but in all evidence John McClane (Bruce Willis) does not play well with helicopters. And in the latest clip for 'A Good Day to Die Hard,' it seems the helicopters are about to get their revenge.
A while back it was revealed that 'A Good Day to Day Hard,' the fourth sequel in the quarter-century old franchise, would be rated R. Huzzah, right? Well, going by this new clip, it's hard to tell exactly when that decision was made.
There may have been some wiggle-room yesterday about the news that J.J. Abrams was set to direct 'Star Wars Episode 7,' but Disney and Lucasfilm have confirmed that your new 'Star Wars' director was your old 'Star Trek' director.
Though the film was not the runaway hit hoped for when released in 2010, 'Hot Tub Time Machine' has proved popular enough on home video that MGM is exploring making a sequel to the time-travel comedy. And right now they're talking to everyone but star John Cusack.
Though the film isn't hitting screens during the four-quadrant friendly summer season, there was concern that 'A Good Day to Die Hard' might stay with the PG-13 rating of its predecessor. But there's no "Yipee-kay-yay, Mister Falcon" for this John McClane, as it turns out the film is R-rated.
With George Lucas out of Lucasfilm, a number of big changes have already happened. They're developing 'Star Wars Episode 7,' and it looks like a long promised spin-off may be coming out of the mothballs. No, not another Ewok adventure, but the long rumored live-action 'Star Wars' television show.
Though 'Brave' was a welcome respite, Pixar has gone sequel crazy, as their previous two films were sequels and this summer we're getting a prequel in 'Monsters University.' But the studio is also working on three non-sequels for the future, and have released images from each of them.
With the new year right around the corner, it's time to get excited about the films of 2013, and though the February release date suggests lowering expectations, we're at least interested in seeing 'A Good Day to Die Hard,' perhaps because there's no way it will be as generic as the last one. Now there's a TV spot and it looks like the movie could be fun.