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Photo: New Line Cinema

Is it possible to see *Four Christmases* and actually like it? Next weeks box-office grosses will tell. Maybe word of mouth will be so bad that audiences will wise up and stay away. No knock on moviegoers for being curious. If you build a comedy—even a lousy one— with sass man Vince Vaughn and Oscar winning cutiepie Reese Witherspoon, they will come. And did they ever! The heavy-handed, holiday...

Photo: Getty

Its official. Fangirls with a thing for vampires ruled the weekend. Twilight opened even better than expected, taking a staggering $70.6 million bite out of the box office. As I predicted last week, James Bond and his Quantum of Solace suffered a huge decline, nearly 60 percent (thatll happen when you dont deliver the goods). So Twilight is being celebrated as the biggest estrogen epic of the new century (Sex and the...

Dont get me started about the experts who say the critics are wrong for feeling wronged by *Quantum of Solace*. The reasoning goes that since *Quantum* delivered the biggest opening of a James Bond movie ever—thats $70.4 million compared to $47.7 million for the previous record holder, 2002s *Die Another Day* (the one where Halle Berry joined Pierce Brosnan)—it must be the best. That kind of thinking suggests *Beverly...

Its unofficial poll time. I want to know whether your blood is up for *Twilight*, the Stephenie Meyer bestseller of near Harry Potter proportions that hits the multiplex as a movie on Nov. 21st. I wont see it until three days before the opening, which is usually a sign that something sucks. I mean, if its good why does a studio have to hide it? Most guys I know say they havent read the book because the girly story about a teen virgin,...

Forget the DVD crap out today. Like you really need the unwatchable *Star Wars: The Clone Wars*. What you really need is *Casino Royale* from 2006, the first James Bond movie starring Daniel Craig. And you need it on Blu-ray with all the extras. Heres why. *Casino Royale* is a great Bond movie, up there with the best of them. *Quantum of Solace*, the followup which opens this weekend, is not great. In fact, its a major letdown....

Paul Rudd, whose artful way with a comic line makes bad movies bearable and good ones way better, just moved closer to the stardom he so richly deserves. *Role Models*, the raunchy, R-rated comedy in which Rudd steals every scene hes in, nearly doubled box-office projections and grossed $19 million in what Variety termed, the biggest surprise of the weekend. OK, *Role Models* didnt beat the animated kiddie sequel *Madagascar: Escape 2...

In this weeks video review, Peter Travers takes a look at three new movies taking up real estate at your local cineplex. Click above for the Rolling Stone film critics take on the Paul Rudd comedy Role Models, the late Bernie Macs final performance in Soul Men and the organ transplant-based sci-fi horror musical Repo! The Genetic Opera. Guess which one ends up in the scum bucket?

• Review: Role Models

Give me some Seth Rogen. That was the weekend message from the box office as Rogens R-rated comedy *Zack and Miri Make a Porno* opened to an estimated $10.7 million. Good for the No. 2 spot. Im not talking about what was No. 1 since it involves a candy-colored musical that had me puking pastels. Im assuming eight-year-olds put the muscle into that one. My kind of twisted youth came out in support of Rogens comedy, even though some TV...

Today should be the day when the five films in the *Saw* series, starring the hood-eyed Tobin Bell as the evil Jigsaw, blow past eleven *Friday the 13th* flicks, starring whatever actor or stuntman they can shove behind the hockey mask as vengeful Jason Voorhees, to become the most successful horror franchise in box-office history. That means a take of more than $320 million. Talk about gross. Come on scare freaks, are you going to take...

Help! Im having fantasies of Jigsaw, the villain in the *Saw* franchise, hacking up the cast of *High School Musical 3: Senior Year*, preferably before each caffeinated teenager begins a new musical number. I have nothing against G-rated movies—*WALL-E* was terrific. But *HSM3* appears to be populated by pod people denuded of all the flaws that make us human. Sure, Id advocate kids to be like the teens in *HSM3*, but only until...

In this weeks video review, Peter Travers cant believe that there are two movies worth seeing this week: the latest Clint Eastwood-directed film Changeling and the pulpy cop drama Pride and Glory. Meanwhile, the Rolling Stone film critic reserves some room in a horrible place for High School Musical 3: Senior Year. Click above for thoughts on all three flicks.

• Film Review: Changeling

• Film...

Photo: Peterson/Getty
I had hoped he would stay alive if only to spite the doomsayers. For nearly a year the press has been writing premature obits for Paul Newman. His cancer treatments tipped them off. Asked about his health, Newmans reply was always a terse, “I’m doing nicely.” Now he isn’t. Now, at 83, he’s gone. I’m not going to say acting has lost one of its last legit icons. That’s...

Another weekend is here, which means its time to check in with Peter Travers to see which of the big releases is the most worthy of your time and money. Click above for the Rolling Stone film critics take on Nights in Rodanthe (which inspired the start of a new feature), Eagle Eye and the Spike Lee World War II epic Miracle at St. Anna.

On Sunday night, September 7th, I was one of the lucky ones who scored a ticket to the final performance of the groundbreaking musical *Rent* at the Nederlander Theater on Broadway. The experience was emotional to say the least. The shows composer, Jonathan Larson, had died at the age of 35 just before *Rent* opened in 1996. His score, a rich amalgam of rock, Broadway and opera, served a story of 1990s youth trapped in the vises of...

If youve been on the fence about what Blu-ray can do, the just-released *The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration* will make you a convert. Its not that the restoration looks shabby on regular DVD—it most assuredly does not—but the *The Godfather Trilogy* on four Blu-ray discs screams the word definitive. Suddenly, scenes from the first two *Godfather* films that looked bathed in mud instead of light take on the burnished...

The movie is a compromised mess, but that didnt stop *Lakeview Terrace* from rising to the top of the box-office heap this weekend. Id like to think it did modestly well ($15.6 million) because audiences were interested in what director Neil La Bute, author of *In the Company of Men, Your Friends and Neighbors, The Shape of Things* and other blistering intrusions into the male psyche, might do with a conventional crime thriller....

Amid the crap attack this week, led by the supremo trio of flops, *Speed Racer, The Love Guru*, and *88 Minutes*, two movie comedies get classy, anniversary DVD treatments that raise the bar. They would be 1983s *Risky Business* and 1988s *Beetlejuice*. Ill let you decide which is the better movie and why, but heres whats offered on the discs.

Photo: Focus Features
What the hell? The Coen brothers score No. 1 and their biggest box-office opening ever ($19.4 million) with *Burn After Reading*, a movie that most critics rated meh. I still hold that a middling outing from the Coens is worth more a hit from a hack (hello, Tyler Perry). What really burns me is that a hunk of cinematic excrement like John Avnets *Righteous Kill* can actually amass $16.5 million despite crushing...

In this weeks video review, Peter Travers dives into four films competing for your undivided attention this weekend. Click above for the Rolling Stone film critics take on the Keira Knightley historical vehicle The Duchess, Ricky Gervais in Ghost Town, the Ed Harris-helmed Western Appaloosa and the suburban nightmare film Lakeview Terrace.

• Review: Lakeview Terrace

• Review: Ghost Town

Photo: Lionsgate Films
Vacation’s over. With the Coen brothers’ *Burn After Reading* opening tomorrow, the fall movie season swings into high gear. I’m ready. But first I need to vent about a few things. Don’t get me started about the following topics:

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