The Playlist

Weekend Box Office: 'The Croods' Notches Best Animated Opening Since November

By Gabe Toro
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March 24, 2013 11:33 AM
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Box Office

Normally, we’re besieged by animated fare during all months, but not so far in 2013. The only animated film of the year thus far was “Escape From Planet Earth,” a production from The Weinstein Company that was treated like a last minute dump, posting numbers that only counted as a hit compared to the film’s small budget and meager ad campaign. Before that, DreamWorks kept “Rise of the Guardians” active in over 3,000 sparsely-attended engagements, though over the holidays it seemed kids would rather toss snowballs around than watch a weirdly oppressive, vaguely non-denominational holiday movie. Which meant that all Fox had to do was not embarrass themselves with “The Croods,” supplying the kids market with a 3D diversion that stands as the second biggest opening of the year, far ahead of the middling 'Guardians' debut.

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What Are You Seeing This Weekend? Gain 'Admission' To 'The Croods' & 'Olympus Has Fallen'

By Emma Bernstein
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March 22, 2013 5:35 PM
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1 Comment

News

This weekend's release docket may inspire even the most cynical of cinephiles to wax a little nostalgic about their younger days. The reminiscence upon past events, eras and moments which we paint with the strokes of simplicity and unadulterated joy is one we all deign to indulge in once in a while. And with so many vehicles to quench that thirst so close at hand, we recommend dropping all pretense and just letting the nostalgia wave crash over you in the darkness of the theaters. Stories are here to spark memories of your first love, your transition to adulthood, your successes and failures as a young adult, your first hostage crisis in the White House.

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Review: 'Olympus Has Fallen' A Thin, High-Concept Actioner Without Much Bite

By Drew Taylor
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March 21, 2013 9:56 AM
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2 Comments

Reviews

The new big budget, bullet-riddled actioner "Olympus Has Fallen" has a premise so painfully obvious that it's amazing nobody thought of it before, especially in the creatively bankrupt atmosphere of Hollywood. The plot is essentially "Die Hard" in the White House, with a similarly smart-ass loner (Gerard Butler) trapped in a massive building full of heavily armed terrorists, holding one very important man hostage (Aaron Eckhart, trading up from his district attorney position in "The Dark Knight" to President of the United States here). Unfortunately, "Olympus Has Fallen" fails to capture even a glimmer of the greatness of "Die Hard," instead coming across as a loud, crass, unpleasantly violent movie whose politics are muddier than its gauzy cinematography. (It should be noted, however, that it is markedly superior to the last actual "Die Hard" movie, the borderline unwatchable "A Good Day to Die Hard." Still.)

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Antoine Fuqua And The Cast Of 'Olympus Has Fallen' Discuss The Bumps & Bruises Of Action Filmmaking

By Gabe Toro
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March 20, 2013 10:58 AM
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Interviews

This weekend, Washington D.C. gets pulverized in “Olympus Has Fallen,” and director Antoine Fuqua wouldn’t have it any other way. The man in charge of this star-studded production boasted during press day of the glee he took in demolishing a national landmark, designed as a set in Shreveport, Louisiana. He looked forward every day to, “Tearing it up, shooting it up, making it real.”

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Watch: Gerard Butler Fights Suicide Bombers & Rocket Launching Terrorists In Red Band Clip For ‘Olympus Has Fallen’

By Diana Drumm
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March 18, 2013 6:29 PM
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4 Comments

News

“Olympus Has Fallen” fails to impress yet again with an intense-looking Gerard Butler as all that stands between terrorists and the president (Aaron Eckhart). In the red band clip below, Mike Banning (Butler), a disgraced Secret Service agent, takes on the role of John McClane without much of the “Yippee-ki-yay” pizzazz other than letting out an obligatory “Fuck!” As the terrorists take the White House (Secret Service Code: “Olympus”), Butler, police and White House security fail to stop them from entering and kidnapping the president, apparently. While stuck in the White House, Banning becomes a one-man effort to recover the president from the kidnappers, eliciting groans from an audience who has seen these elements before and/or are waiting for a better version.

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Watch: Storm The White House With 10 Clips From 'Olympus Has Fallen'

By India Ross
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March 13, 2013 11:23 AM
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1 Comment

News

FilmDistrict, the distributor behind upcoming shoot-‘em-up, “Olympus Has Fallen”, has generously released a ten-for-the price-of-one selection of teaser clips to tempt the patriotic moviegoer (stars and stripes feature heavily).

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Antoine Fuqua Says '24' Movie Is Dead, Still Waiting On The Script For Tupac Shakur Biopic

By Gabe Toro
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March 11, 2013 2:56 PM
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News

Antoine Fuqua has been a busy man: the “Training Day” helmer has “Olympus Has Fallen” about to hit theaters, just as his hands are in several pies, developing many upcoming projects. We caught up with him during press for the White House siege film, and while he could only reveal that there were several balls in the air, he did confirm the death of a project he was linked to, the big-screen adaptation of his series “24.”

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Watch: Gerard Butler Tries To Save The White House (And His Career) In Trailer For 'Olympus Has Fallen'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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January 22, 2013 12:47 PM
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13 Comments

News

After "Machine Gun Preacher," "Playing For Keeps" and "Chasing Mavericks" (and we'll just go ahead an presume the omnibus comedy "Movie 43" is going to tank hard this weekend) Gerard Butler is in desperate need of a hit. Why on Earth he signed on to the cheaper, ripoff version of Roland Emmerich and Channing Tatum's "White House Down" is a question best left to his agent we guess, but FilmDistrict and Millenium are making sure theirs gets into theaters first. But judging by the new trailer for "Olympus Has Fallen," we'll be just fine waiting a few more months.

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Will These Films Suck? The Question Mark Films Of 2013

By The Playlist Staff
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January 4, 2013 12:00 PM
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39 Comments

Features

Over the last few days, we've been pin-pointing 100 of the films we're most looking forward to over the next twelve months. Of course, they won't all be great -- and some will be terrible -- but they all give some reason for hope, to one degree or another.

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FilmDistrict Pick Up Gerard Butler White House Actioner 'Olympus Has Fallen,' Set For April 5th, 2013

By Oliver Lyttelton
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October 29, 2012 12:20 PM
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3 Comments

News

Every year has its own equivalent to the duelling volcano/asteroid/Truman Capote movies -- two films greenlit independently focusing on the same subject matter, and whose fates end up inextricably tied together. 2012 has seen two such square-offs; the Battle of the Snow Whites, with "Snow White and the Huntsman" vanquishing "Mirror Mirror" at the box office, and the Duel Of The Prosthetic Jowls, with HBO biopic "The Girl" taking on the same central character as the upcoming "Hitchcock." And for our 2013 face off, it looks like we're getting... "Die Hard" in the White House movies.

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