The Playlist

Box Office: 'Iron Man 3' Continues To Speed Towards $1 Billion Worldwide, 'Gatsby' Does 'Great'

By Gabe Toro
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May 12, 2013 12:00 PM
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4 Comments

Box Office

Big business, big business: the actors behind "The Avengers" were smart to pick a week where "Iron Man 3" was making cash hand over fist to air out their salary grievances. The stats are pure gonzo for the third installment in the robot-man series, with the picture smashing expectations worldwide as it cruises towards a cool billion. By the end of this weekend, it will have eclipsed the domestic results of any non-"Iron Man" Marvel film aside from "The Avengers," though globally it's already the biggest of all Marvel superhero films behind last summer's billion dollar superhero team-up.

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Review: Race And Class Issues Clash With Lowbrow Comedy In 'Peeples'

By Gabe Toro
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May 8, 2013 6:01 PM
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2 Comments

Reviews

You’d be forgiven if you expected Tyler Perry to influence a large chunk of “Peeples,” the latest film to carry his name like a neon sign promising broad comedy and aggressive but dubious morality. Even the beginning seems to hum with the predictable rhythms of Perry’s multi-movie empire, with a dark screen soundtracked to the purr of a man’s voice introducing a particularly holy gospel tune. It’s a clever strategy for writer-director Tina Gordon Chism, who soon reveals that this is comic actor Craig Robinson, crooning to a classroom filled with children about the need to avoid urinating on others. At once, you’re assured that this film is going to explore places Perry normally wouldn’t dare… and surely places maybe you wouldn’t seek either.

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Box Office: 'G.I. Joe: Retaliation' Takes The Easter Weekend Top Slot

By Gabe Toro
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March 31, 2013 11:56 AM
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2 Comments

Box Office

“G.I. Joe: Retaliation" had every reason to fail and flop much like its bumped 2012 tentpole predecessor "Jack The Giant Slayer" which audiences turned their noses up to earlier this year. Like 'Jack' the film was pushed off its initial release date and drew bad publicity for its delays and talk of reconstituting characters that were once killed off. In fact, it was almost worse; 'Retaliation's last-minute delay was just five weeks before its debut last summer. Taken out of its initial date (promoted with a pricey Super Bowl spot more than a year ago) the film landed in March of this year.

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Tyler Perry's Alex Cross Will Get Cross Again In 'Double Cross'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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October 17, 2012 11:03 PM
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2 Comments

News

Somebody's feeling confident. With "Alex Cross" currently sitting at a Rotten Tomatoes score of 30% and 35 over at Metacritic, you might think that the attempt to relaunch the character of Alex Cross -- played previously by Morgan Freeman in "Kiss The Girls" and "Along Came A Spider" -- would be a failure (read our review here). But if Tyler Perry fans have proven anything, it's that they show up regardless of critics, and frankly, so do audiences who have managed to make the ludicriously awful "Taken 2" number one at the box office for two straight weeks. So get ready for more Perry.

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Review: 'Alex Cross' Is Cliché, Action Movie Finger Paint

By Drew Taylor
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October 17, 2012 8:45 AM
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6 Comments

Reviews

Apparently the Alex Cross character, originated by best-selling author James Patterson in an unending series of pulp novels, and brought to the screen twice before (in a pair of forgettable, moodily-lit Morgan Freeman thrillers), is a bankable enough property to re-launch a large-ish franchise around, because that's what the good folks at Summit have just done. The hook, this time, is that it's something of a prequel, just titled "Alex Cross," and that its star is Tyler Perry, who has made a fortune for himself starring in, writing and directing his very own movies. The problem is that Tyler Perry the actor is just as hammy and unfocused as Tyler Perry the filmmaker, and that "Alex Cross" is more boring than your average weeknight procedural, except much longer, dumber and more violent.

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Watch: Over-Dramatic Threats Abound From Tyler Perry & Matthew Fox In 7 Clips From 'Alex Cross'

By Charlie Schmidlin
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October 15, 2012 3:39 PM
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6 Comments

News

While the prospect of multi-hyphenate Tyler Perry gearing up for a lead detective role in “Alex Cross” initially perked the interest of some, it was the first look at Matthew Fox playing the film's bulked-up burst of insanity that really showed some promise, and now a rush of seven clips from the crime franchise reboot have arrived to drum up anticipation further.

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Weekend Box Office: 'Ted' & 'Magic Mike' Smash Expectations, Dominate Box Office

By Gabe Toro
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July 1, 2012 12:11 PM
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3 Comments

Box Office

Rareified air. This weekend's box office took cinematic money-making to a new high, with four movies registering eight-figure Fridays for the first time in history, leading to a bonanza that almost every studio enjoyed. Leading the way and outdoing all expectations was "Ted," the teddy bear-Marky Mark bromantic comedy that brought in a spectacular $54.1 million. It marks the third highest R-rated opening of all time behind "The Hangover Part II" and "Sex And The City."

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Tyler Perry Didn't Like 'Prometheus' & Is Writing His Own Sci-Fi Movie; Viral Campaign For The Film Continues

By Kevin Jagernauth
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June 27, 2012 5:05 PM
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16 Comments

News

Well, if you've longed for the words Tyler Perry and "Prometheus" to appear in the same news story, today is your lucky day. It seems that Ridley Scott's sort of "Alien" world movie still has people talking, and opinions, as always, are fiercely divided. So leave it to Perry -- the man who has made cross-dressing into a money-making machine -- to weigh in with his own erudite thoughts on the film.

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Watch: It's Madea Vs. A Freaky Looking Matthew Fox In First Trailer For 'Alex Cross'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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June 26, 2012 8:02 AM
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8 Comments

News

He's put away the wigs and oversized floral dresses, and now Tyler Perry wants you to consider him as a Serious Actor. And we'd love to, but unfortunately "Alex Cross" unintentionally looks like a parody of the cat-and-mouse crime thriller.

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First Look At Tyler Perry And An Insanely Ripped Matthew Fox In 'Alex Cross,' Plus Images Of Fox In 'Emperor'

By Oliver Lyttelton
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May 18, 2012 12:16 PM
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10 Comments

News

On "30 Rock"'s season finale last night, Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) announced his intention to open his own movie studio that makes films where he dresses up as an elderly woman, that appeal entirely to black audiences. It's an obvious dig at the ludicrously successful Tyler Perry, who's made millions by writing, directing and starring in a string of pictures that have consistently been hugely profitable. He's a brand name now, but at the same time, outside the African-American community, Perry's yet to truly cross over, a tiny cameo in "Star Trek" having provided his widest exposure to date.

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