'WALL-E' Outshines 'Wanted' For Box-Office #1 Debut

The Box-Office Top Five

#1 "WALL-E" ($62.5 million)

#2 "Wanted" ($51.1 million)

#3 "Get Smart" ($20 million)

#4 "Kung Fu Panda" ($11.7 million)

#5 "The Incredible Hulk" ($9.23 million)

Little boys like Pixar; big boys like Angelina Jolie. This weekend, both segments of the male population made their voices heard, and their mothers, wives and girlfriends seemed to have no qualms about going along for the ride.

"WALL-E," the latest film from the computer-animation superstars behind "Finding Nemo," "The Incredibles" and so many other instant classics, grossed $62.5 million to debut in first place. The tale of a Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class robot in the year 2700 that may just hold the key to Earth's future, the film features the vocal talents of Ben Burtt, Jeff Garlin, Sigourney Weaver, Fred Willard and Pixar veteran John Ratzenberger.

According to $51.1 million worth of theatergoers, however, it was Angelina and James McAvoy who were the most "Wanted." The movie about professional assassins jumped off the comic book page to average $500 more per screen than the sparsely worded robot flick, and it achieved the feat on some 800 fewer screens, causing speculation that "Wanted" would have won the weekend if it had only opened bigger. Marking the American debut of Russian visionary Timur Bekmambetov, the film represents a rare box-office smash for tabloid target Jolie, opening larger than either of her "Lara Croft" clunkers ever did. Appropriately enough, a sequel is already in the planning stages.

In third place, Steve Carell's hit spy spoof "Get Smart" proved itself as well-built as Hymie the robot, taking in $20 million more in its march towards the $100 million plateau. The film also managed the rare task of falling less than 50 percent in its second weekend.

"Kung Fu Panda" continues to kick butt this summer, as the animated film hung tough against its robotic competition for the family dollar. The Jack Black comedy is now approaching $200 million. Meanwhile, Mike Myers' "The Love Guru" limped toward the far-less-holy $30 million mark, dropping to sixth place in its second weekend behind Edward Norton and "The Incredible Hulk."

Rounding out the top 10 this week were "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening," the lovely ladies of "Sex and the City" and Adam Sandler's "You Don't Mess With the Zohan." In its second week of limited release, "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl" continued Abigail Breslin's success story; the film once again did strong business, ensuring that the makers of the period film won't be suffering from any great depressions of their own.

Check out everything we've got on "WALL-E," "Wanted" and"Get Smart."

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.






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Baby Dee

   
Artist: Baby Dee

   Genre(s): 
Rock
   

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Discography:


   
 Little Window

   Year: 2002   
Tracks: 8

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Performance creative person, ballad maker, classically trained harper, circus sideshow vet, and transgender street legend Baby Dee was born in 1953 in Cleveland, OH. She spent ten-spot days as medicine director and organist for a Catholic christian church in the Bronx before connexion the circus as the two-sided androgyne at Coney Island. This landed her a spear as the bandleader for operation nontextual matter group the Bindlestiff Family Circus and a circuit with the Kamikaze Freak Show in Europe. After moving back to New York City, she became a fixture in lower Manhattan with a street do on a high-rise tricycle with a concert harp. She recorded her number 1 record, Little Window, on the Durtro pronounce in 2000, a four-track EP in 2001, and her second full-length, the double-disc Love's Small Song, in 2002. Dee returned to Ohio during the latter record's recording, pickings vows as a novice of the Little Sisters of Crabby Doom (a Cleveland-based order dedicated to the fear of fetid older men), vows that she has since forsaken. For her one-third full-length recording, Dee recruited a typically eclectic uS Army of fellow musicians, including Will Oldham, Andrew W.K., Robbie Lee, Max Moston (Mark Anthony and the Johnsons), Bill Breeze (Psychical TV), John Contreras (Electric current 93), James Lo (Carlos Chavez), and Lia Kessel. The resulting Safe Inside the Day arrived in January 2008 on Drag City Records.





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Shine a Light - movie review

Gimme Shelter this is not. The disillusions and stabbings of the 1969 concert have been
replaced by the Clinton Foundation's benefit for the Natural Resource Defense Council
and snapping camera phones. But Shine a Light is helmed by Martin Scorsese -- the man
behind Goodfellas and Raging Bull -- shouldn't it push the boundaries set by Charlotte
Zwerin and the Maysles brothers nearly 40 years ago? It should, but Scorsese has
always had a cinematic hard-on for the Rolling Stones, and the result is a personal,
biased love letter to the Stones signed with love by Marty.



When the Stones take the stage at New York City's Beacon Theater, it's frightening
-- their age truly shows on film. As giants on the silver screen, we have a front
row seat for an exhibition of frail bodies moving in ways that only young men should
move. As Mick Jagger belts out songs of youthful rebellion and sexual frustration, he
still does the same androgynous dances of yesteryear. Yet, this off-putting display
of aged youth is clearly a place of sentiment for Scorsese, whose camera lingers
with love.



That's not to say that the film is entirely a concert video, it is broken up by archival
footage of the band -- comprised mostly old interviews. When Jagger, Richards and
the crew aren't on stage shaking the skin hanging off their bones, their younger
selves are making fools of themselves off stage -- displaying their na�vet� at the end
of a journalist's camera. While this might have been a point to show some sort of
retrospective contrast to the geriatric Stones still rocking today, it merely perpetuates th
e idea that nothing has changed other than the Stones' bodies -- they are the oldest
bunch of lovable 16-year-olds rock and roll has ever seen.



But there is one clear area where both the Stones and Scorsese have changed. Not
only do the Stones alter their lyrics, taking out the more risqu� lines of "Some
Girls" and "Sympathy for the Devil," but, for whatever reason, Scorsese takes it
upon himself to censor Jagger by removing several of his dropped F-bombs. The fact that
several swears still slip through is even more maddening, as if Scorsese is putting
his PG-13 rating on stage with the Stones. Rock and roll isn't rated PG-13. But
Shine a Light provides a truncated, Wal-Mart version of the Rolling Stones that's as acceptable
as the Pirates of the Caribbean pin on Keith Richard's jacket.



Sentimentality and nostalgia might fill the gaps for aging Stones fans, but for the
rest of us, it's a missed opportunity for a reflection on the times and the unstoppable
Stones. Gimme Shelter defined a change in a generation, but Shine a Light inadvertently defines
our time of political correctness and accessibility through censorship. Perhaps the
only insight we have into the post-2000 Rolling Stones is when Scorsese's camera
swings into the drum set -- focused on drummer Charlie Watts -- and he unleashes a tiring
sigh not more than three songs into the set. It's the only moment of weakness, of
age, of reality. The rest is rock and roll that's sanitized for the whole family.












Keith Richards shows off his striking new look.

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