Not a ton of new discs in stores this week, but for Canadians doing their Boxing Day shopping there were a few hot releases to enjoy. Among them is one of the best horror movies of the year, The Descent (available in a new Unrated cut), plus the uproarious Jackass: Number Two (also available in an Unrated version), and the Zach Braff romantic comedy The Last Kiss.

The Descent
Haven
The Black Dahlia
Jackass: Number Two
The Last Kiss
Factotum
Airwolf: Season 2
The Simple Life 4: ’til Death Do Us Part
The Breakfast Club (HD-DVD)
The Deer Hunter (HD-DVD)
The Descent (Blu-ray)
The Transporter 2 (Blu-ray)

The results are in and it looks like the winner of this holiday weekend box office race was the Ben Stiller comedy Night at the Museum, taking in a sizeable $30.8 million. Will Smith and his son continued to win over audiences with another $15 million weekend, and Rocky Balboa had an impressive showing with $12.7 million for the weekend ($22.4 million including Wednesday and Thursday). Interesting to note: Casino Royale placed 11th and has now become the highest grossing Bond movie of all-time.

1. Night at the Museum — $30.8M
2. The Pursuit of Happyness — $15M
3. Rocky Balboa — $12.7M ($22.4M)
4. The Good Shepherd — $9.98M
5. Charlotte’s Web — $8M
6. Eragon — $7.15M
7. We Are Marshall — $6.64M
8. Happy Feet — $5.14M
9. The Holiday — $5M
10. The Nativity Story — $4.75M

We’d like to thank to all our readers and listeners for another great year of movie-related discussion and fanboy ribbing! As our special gift to you, we have uploaded some back archives of the Film Junk podcast for anyone who missed them. These go back to March of this year, which is when we officially changed the name from Space Junk to Film Junk. They are grouped by month and compressed using WinRAR. Enjoy, and have a great holiday!

Film Junk Podcast - March 06 Archives
Film Junk Podcast - April 06 Archives
Film Junk Podcast - May 06 Archives
Film Junk Podcast - June 06 Archives
Film Junk Podcast - July 06 Archives

On this special Christmas Eve edition of Film Junk, curl up by the fireplace with some egg nog and enjoy our full review of Rocky Balboa and our top 5 movies that could ruin a family Christmas. Also prepare for a clash between two titans as we pit Stallone against Schwarzenegger in our new Versus segment. Also hear our thoughts about the new Transformers trailer, Kevin Smith’s acting career, Brian K. Vaughn as a writer on Lost, and the TMNT voice cast. Have a happy holiday, and stay tuned for our year end video podcast coming sometime next week!

» Download the MP3 (26 MB)
» View the show notes
» Vote for us on Podcast Alley!
» Vote for us on Digg!

Subscribe to the podcast feed:

Rocky Balboa
Written and Directed by: Sylvester Stallone
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Burt Young, Antonio Tarver, Geraldine Hughes, Milo Ventimiglia

Sylvester Stallone is not the man he once was. As a hold over from an era when action movies were built around muscular dudes who preferred brute force to fancy martial arts, Sly just hasn’t had that much success transitioning his career to match the changing trends. Cop Land is probably the last role that he received any sort of acclaim for, and that was almost 10 years ago. Since then it’s been stuff like Get Carter, Driven and Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over that have left people feeling sorry for him rather than respecting his work as an actor.

But Stallone is a smart and resourceful guy, who basically built his own career from the ground up, based on a simple script that he wrote himself. You may have heard of it… it was a little movie called Rocky, which went on to become one of the most successful franchises of all time. Unfortunately, all franchises start to go downhill over time, and with Rocky it was Part 5 that ultimately brought the saga to a close. Until now.

This year Stallone has given Rocky one last chance to prove himself in the ring; and at the same time, given himself one last chance to prove himself in Hollywood. The parallels between Rocky and Stallone himself are quite striking here; in fact, the two are almost indistinguishable from one another. Part of that is also because Stallone has poured his heart and soul into the character and this film, which is precisely what makes it work so well. This brings me to perhaps the most important point I want to make in this review: whatever you do, do not dismiss this film just because Stallone is 60 years old. Rocky Balboa is a complex and moving drama, made interesting by his yearning for the past and sense of lost opportunity. This is not something you see very often nowadays, and it’s certainly not an example of a washed-up actor going after an easy paycheck. Quite the opposite actually — according to Stallone, this movie was the hardest of the series to get greenlit.

Where the last movie left off, Rocky was not fighting anymore because he was starting to develop brain damage, and instead he had taken up coaching. He had also lost most of his fortune and was living back in Philadelphia with Adrian and his son Rocky Jr. Now, 15 years later, Adrian has passed away and Rocky has opened a restaurant named after her. He lives in loneliness and depression, dwelling on the past, and mostly estranged from his son who doesn’t want to be associated with his father’s legacy. When ESPN runs a special episode pitting old boxers against modern day fighters, a computer simulation picks Rocky as a possibly victor over current champion Mason “The Line” Dixon. It inspires Rocky to start fighting again, just in local clubs, to continue doing the one thing he loved and prove to himself that he still can compete on some level. After that, however, Dixon’s management approaches Rocky with a proposition: fight in an exhibition in Las Vegas against the current champ as one last hurrah. Rocky accepts, against his better judgment and against the wishes of his family and friends.

I think Rocky Balboa most closely resembles the first Rocky movie in the sense that it’s a quiet and introspective piece, and feels like an independent film. Anyone going in looking for high energy boxing action will mostly be disappointed — with the exception of the actual final showdown, there is none. But for me, the movie delivered all the right combinations and hit all the right notes. It’s a real tearjerker at times, and Rocky is definitely down in the dumps. I actually thought Stallone was laying it on a little thick at first with how bleak Rocky’s life was, but in the end it was believable and necessary for the rest of the film to feel as powerful as it does. Rocky is possibly the most uplifting and inspiring movie series ever, and Rocky Balboa definitely carries on the tradition in that sense.

The acting absolutely carries the movie. Rocky develops a touching non-romantic relationship with “Little Marie” (Geraldine Hughes), a girl from his neighbourhood who appeared in the first film. This kind of relationship (popularized as of late by Lost In Translation, in my opinion) was the perfect way to give him a love interest without being cheesy or disrespectful to Adrian. Rocky’s son in this one is played by Milo Ventimiglia (best known now for his role on Heroes) and he does a good job being suspicious of his dad without turning it into a cliche. Burt Young as Paulie is also a force on screen, and makes for some of the best comic relief as well.

They updated the franchise and modernized it without making it seem forced; it works because Rocky is the guy still stuck in the past. He’s not all hip and 2006, he’s still the guy who takes pleasure in the simple things in life. Rocky Balboa doesn’t rely much on repeating moments from past Rocky movies either; although there is a training montage using the Rocky theme (which, of course, generated cheers from the audience) things like “Eye of the Tiger” are nowhere to be found.

As for the final fight, this was maybe the only part of the movie I found slightly disappointing. They worked to make it seem realistic and faithfully recreated the look of an HBO presentation. It also helped that Antonio Tarver, who plays Mason Dixon, is the actual current light heavyweight champion. But then they tried to make the fight seem disorienting, and also tried to get all artsy with it, which just felt clumsy. Still, the strength of this movie is not in the fight, I had already been more than won over by that time.

Overall, I thought Rocky Balboa was total class. It’s a great return to form for Stallone, and puts the series and its characters to rest with some dignity. It also proves without a doubt that Stallone has plenty of years left in his career, and I’m looking forward to see what he does with Rambo next. If you go see one movie this holiday season, make it Rocky Balboa! — Sean

I’m sure this is a question that gets asked all the time in art circles, but the upcoming Tarantino/Rodriguez collaboration, Grindhouse, seems to have a lot of people wondering when Tarantino will stop making movies that “pay tribute” and start doing something original. On the flipside, however, there are a lot of people would call Quentin Tarantino one of the most original and inventive filmmakers of our generation. Which side is right?

Apocalypse Oz, the so-called mash-up movie I posted about yesterday, is another movie blurring the line between creativity and plagiarism. Culture does not exist in a vacuum, and virtually every artist gets influenced by what came before them. However, I can also see the point some people have when they question the talent required to emulate someone else’s work. I would argue that there is still a lot of talent involved in choosing what to emulate and how to emulate it. Even Gus Van Sant’s shot for shot remake of Psycho could not possibly end up being the same as Alfred Hitchcock’s version of the film. Every artist puts their own touches on their work, whether they mean to or not. How do you feel about this issue? In this age of samples, mash-ups and remixes, is there a difference between homage and theft? Give us your thoughts here on Open Forum Friday.

I’ve been resisting watching most of the second season of The Venture Bros on the internet, despite the multitude of opportunities to watch it, mainly because I want to wait for the DVD. It’s probably my current favourite Adult Swim show and I prefer to enjoy the wonderful animation and silly storylines the way they were meant to be seen, rather than on my computer monitor with low quality compression. I did, however, catch the first few episodes simply because the cliffhanger ending of Season 1 was too damn intense!

Anyway, Adult Swim and Warner Bros have finally announced The Venture Bros Season 2 DVD release details for next year. It will be a 2-disc set containing all 13 episodes, with commentary on every episode from Jackson Publick, Doc Hammer and in some cases other voice actors, deleted scenes, and a tour of the Venture Family Astro-base hideout. There’s also been talk of more “live action” wackiness in the special features… perhaps that’s what the Astro-base tour will be. In typical Adult Swim fashion, the packaging for the set is also pretty kick ass. The Venture Bros. Season 2 hits stores on April 17th, 2007.

As an independent filmmaker, Gus Van Sant is known for breaking all the rules, but it seems that in real life he doesn’t always respect the rules either. Last night at 1:48 am he was reportedly arrested for drunk driving in Portland where he currently lives. After an officer noticed him driving without his headlights on, he pulled Van Sant over and found he had bloodshot eyes and slurred speech. His breath test showed 0.19 percent, more than twice the Oregon state limit. To his credit, Van Sant doesn’t seem to have responded with anti-semitic slurs. Perhaps he was attempting some sort of research for his next movie, Paranoid Park, about a teenage skateboarder who accidentally kills a security guard.

This week’s poll was really only a race between a few major choices… the top 5 of James Bond, Terminator, Die Hard, The Matrix and Aliens cover most of the best action franchises ever made. Granted, there are plenty of good standalone action movies out there too, but these are an elite group that manage to be popular enough and have characters that are memorable enough to make them worth revisiting. Did we miss any? And how come Police Story didn’t get any votes? Where are the Jackie Chan supporters at? Next week’s poll: Best Christmas Movies.

1. James Bond - 23.8%
2. Terminator - 21.5%
3. Die Hard - 18.5%
4. The Matrix - 13.8%
5. Aliens - 10.0%
6. Rambo - 3.8%
6. Lethal Weapon - 3.8%
8. Blade - 3.1%
9. Dirty Harry - 1.5%
10. Police Story - 0%

As I mentioned earlier this month when USA Today revealed the Fantasticar from the upcoming Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer movie, all anyone should really care about is sneaking a peek at the Silver Surfer. After all, he is being rendered completely with CGI. Could they be biting off more than they can chew here? Well USA Today got to debut the first pic of the Silver Surfer today and it looks a little shaky if you ask me. I mean, the real test will be seeing him in action, but as it looks right now it just seems a bit off. It will be hard to suspend disbelief with a character so obviously artificial on screen. Maybe they should have just painted a guy silver? Silver Surfer is being voiced by Doug Jones (Abe in the Hellboy movies). Check out a larger version of pic via the link below.