New on DVD & Blu-ray: 'Ride Along', 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty', 'Philomena'

Ride Along - James Payton is in love and wants to ask his girlfriend to marry him. But her brother Ben can't stand James and doesn't take him seriously to even consider him good enough for his little sister. James has also applied to the police academy, so Ben gets convinced to take James on a ride along during police hours in order for the two to bond, but Ben has other ideas that he hopes will drive James far, far away from him and his sister. The film stars Kevin Hart, Ice Cube, Laurence Fishburne, Tika Sumpter, and John Leguizamo. 

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The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - Walter develops pictures for Life magazine, and now that the magazine is moving online and laying off those who are no longer needed on the paper publishing side, Walter embarks on a journey to track down the cover photo for the final magazine issue before it gets back to his bosses that it's been lost. Along the way, Walter discovers that life can be so much more than sitting behind a desk. The film is directed and stars Ben Stiller, Sean Penn, Kristen Wiig, and Adam Scott. 

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Philomena - Best Picture nominee, the film follows the real story of Philomena Lee, a woman whose son was forcefully taken from her 50 years prior and give up for adoption. She sets out with a former BBC journalist in order to find him and together they uncover secrets of the past while trying to bring together mother and son. The film stars Judi Dench and Steve Coogan. 

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The Nut Job - Finding nuts for the long winter is a team effort. Surly doesn't feel that way at all, so breaks from the team to find his own nuts and is therefore banished. But when the nut tree burns down, Surly is forced to compete with his former friends for food and the overwhelming amount of nuts at the new nut store downtown. Starring the voice talents of Will Arnett, Katherine Heigl, Brendan Fraser, and Liam Neeson. 

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Black Nativity - The adaptation of Langston Hughes's play follows the teenager Langston as he's sent from his hometown of Baltimore to celebrate the holidays with his estrange relatives in New York City. When he realizes that he can't live under his relatives' rules, Langston tries to get back home to his mother and learns the meaning of faith and family along the way in this holiday musical. The film stars Forest Whitaker, Angela Bassett, Jennifer Hudson, Tyrese Gibson, and Jacob Latimore. 

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The Invisible Woman - Charles Dickens was many things to many people. A husband, father, writer, and actor. And while he was generally a quiet man, behind closed doors, Dickens was finding his inspiration and muse in someone he didn't talk much about. The mystery woman is thought to be his inspiration for several of his most famous books. The film is directed and stars Ralph Fiennes, Felicity Jones, and Kristin Scott Thomas. 

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Better Living Through Chemistry - A pharmacist, leading a generally boring and uneventful life, gets caught up in more than he can handle when he begins an affair with one of his customers, which involves sex, drugs, and murder. The film stars Sam Rockwell, Olivia Wilde, Jane Fonda, Michelle Monaghan, Ray Liotta, and Ben Schwartz. 

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Date and Switch - It's time for their senior prom, and two guys make a pact to lose their virginity before their memorable night is over, but find their friendship is put to the test when one of them admits he's gay. The film stars Nicholas Braun, Hunter Cope, and Dakota Johnson. 

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Free Ride - Trying to make life better for your kids when you're caught in the middle of the drug trade in Florida during the '70s is hard, but not impossible because Christina tries to do just that after moving from Ohio and being introduced to drug trafficking. The film stars Anna Paquin, Drea de Matteo, and Liana Liberato. 

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Box Office: Audiences Love 'The LEGO Movie' and 'About Last Night' on Valentine's Day

1. The LEGO Movie- $48.8M/$129.1M
Nostalgia was always going to win out in a week dominated by '80s remakes, but it was The LEGO Movie that held on to the top spot for the second weekend in a row. Dropping a miniscule 29%, the Warner Bros. animated adventure hasn't slowed down much. even with a devastating winter snow shutting down much of the east coast. The plan all along was for the film to coast through the first weekend, then power through the holiday in week two, and that is how things are shaping out.
2. About Last Night- $27M
In case you missed the memo: Kevin Hart is a star. Not only is he a star, but he's quickly become one of the most bankable actors around. Look at what he was able to do with About Last Night, a remake of a 1986 Brat Pack film that nobody was clamoring to see redone, and yet he helped boost it to a debut that's more than double the $12M budget. As one of two clear romance movies arriving on Valentine's Day it opened strong with $13M on Friday, earning an 'A-' Cinemascore in the process. Hart now sits with two movies in the top 10, with Ride Along still chugging along well over the $100M mark.
3. Robocop- $21.5M/$26.4M
Getting a couple of days jump on the rest didn't help out the Robocop remake too much, booting up in third place and $26.4M total. That's not too far from the $25.4M opening of the Total Recall remake just a couple of years ago.  The $100M effort probably wasn't helped much by The LEGO Movie's staying power, and a glut of more romantic films opening on Valentine's Day. But there is a clear cut silver lining, and it's that foreign grosses have been high, leading to a worldwide total of $96.3M. Sony is going to clear some cash off this one, and it wouldn't be at all surprising if we see a Robocop 2 somewhere down the line.
4. The Monuments Men- $15M/$43.6M
As expected, George Clooney's The Monuments Men held strong to its older-skewing audience. Dropping only 31%, the WWII drama is performing well as an early season prestige film. Not too many of those around, really.
5. Endless Love- $13.3M
It was a smart move dropping the Alex Pettyfer/Gabriella Wilde romance Endless Love on Valentine's Day. The remake of the terrible mushy '80s film debuted to a healthy $7M on Friday as couples sought out a date night flick, only to have it peter out the rest of the weekend. This still doesn't do anything to save Pettyfer's flagging career, and it certainly doesn't do squat for Wilde, although both should remain relatively unscathed.
6. Ride Along- $8.7M/$116.1M
7. Winter's Tale- $7.7M
Quick, tell me what Winter's Tale is about. Impossible, right? Well, that's the same trouble trailers and TV spots had in selling this mythical religious romance flying horse manure thing. And so they settled simply on pushing the cast of Colin Farrell, Russell Crowe, and Jennifer Connelly, while keeping Will Smith's cameo as a surprise for appalled audiences.  Critics razed this thing to the ground (including yours truly), but audiences mostly took to it, enough to earn a 'B' Cinemascore. 
8. Frozen- $5.8M/$376M
9. Lone Survivor- $4M/$118.4M
10. That Awkward Moment- $3.3M/$21.4M

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Box Office: 'The LEGO Movie' Opens to Awesome $69M

1. The LEGO Movie- $69.1M
Everything is awesome for Warner Bros.' toybox spectacle, The LEGO Movie, which crushed the competition with $69M. That's the second largest February bow in history and the largest in the studio's history, surpassing Happy Feet's $47M. The strong word of mouth, led by an 'A' Cinemascore, should carry over into next week's holiday weekend, meaning we may see LEGO build a bigger stack of cash than the Robocop remake. And with a sequel already in the works, it looks like Warner Bros. has the pieces for their next big franchise.
2. The Monuments Men- $22.7M
George Clooney's star power overcame a troubled production and middling reviews for The Monuments Men, which grossed a healthy $22.7M.  That's the biggest open for Clooney behind the camera, beating out the weak $12M debut of Leatherheads in '08, and it's possible the film saw the benefit of moving away from the Oscar race when it would have been lost in the shuffle. It's still got some ways to go to hit the reported budget between $60-$70M, but the subject matter should make it a decent buy overseas.
3. Ride Along- $9.3M/$105.1M
4. Frozen- $6.9M/$368.6M
5. That Awkward Moment- $5.5M/$16.8M
6. Lone Survivor- $5.2M/$112.5M
7. Vampire Academy $4.1M
No matter how you slice it, $4.1M is an awful start for a wide release, and Vampire Academy now has the distinction of having the lowest debut for a major YA adaptation. Bravo! It's kind of surprising how little buzz there's been surrounding it and the general lack of support by The Weinstein Company, who didn't bother to screen it for press. And unlike most other films based on popular YA novels, they didn't offer a Thursday midnight premiere for the die-hard fans. It's not as if this was a tough film to market because a number of angles could have been taken. They might have been wise to play up the Heathers/Mean Girls connection, two cult hits that still get a lot of play with audiences young and old. Whatever, the film died and any chance of seeing the rest of the books brought to the big screen has died with it.
8. The Nut Job- $3.8M/$55M
9. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit- $3.6M/$44.4M
10. Labor Day- $3.2M/$10.1M

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Box Office: 'Ride Along' Tops 'That Awkward Moment' and 'Labor Day'

1. Ride Along- $12.3M/$92.9M
Super Bowl weekend is usually pretty soft by box office standards, and this one is no different. Ride Along held on to the top spot with only $12.3M, fending off the resurgent Frozen and beating back a pair of weak new releases.
2. Frozen- $9.3M/$360M
Disney's Frozen didn't just leap back up the charts in its 11th week of release, it actually gained audience as the Mouse House unveiled a new "Sing-A-Long" version of the film. With time running out before The Lego Movie asserts its family-friendly dominance it was a case of perfect timing.
3. That Awkward Moment- $9M
The names Zac Efron, Michael B. Jordan, and Miles Teller hold a lot of weight with critics, but as a collective it wasn't enough to lift That Awkward Moment to a decent opening weekend. At a cost of only $8M, the poorly-received romantic comedy has already earned back its money and should scrounge up a little more before vanishing into the early-season scrap heap. Efron is entering into a weird transition area where most of his fans are still too young to check out his R-rated stuff like this, and it could be an issue in a few months when he teams with Seth Rogen for Neighbors.
4. The Nut Job- $7.6M/$50.2M
5. Lone Survivor- $7.1M/$104.8M
6. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit- $5.4M/$38.9M
7. Labor Day- $5.3M
And the continued marginalization of Jason Reitman films continues, but unlike 2011's Young Adult it's richly deserved in the case of Labor Day. Originally meant to be released over Christmas, with a lot of early Oscar buzz backing it, all of that disappeared once people actually starting watching it. And thus it was dumped on this weekend to die a quiet death, which is exactly what is happening. Not even Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin could power Labor Day to a decent debut, and with crushing reviews and no Oscar aspirations there's nowhere for it to go but down.
8. American Hustle- $4.3M/$132.1M
9. The Wolf of Wall Street- $3.5M/$104M
10. I, Frankenstein- $3.5M/$14.4M

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Box Office: 'Ride Along' Runs Over 'I, Frankenstein'

1. Ride Along- $21.1M/$75.4M
In its second week, the Kevin Hart/Ice Cube cop comedy Ride Along slipped 49% but held on to the top spot easily, thanks to only one (and apparently very awful) new release. At this point the film should easily cross $100M and we know a sequel is already coming up. Ride Along Too the Streetz?
2. Lone Survivor- $12.6M/$93.6M
3. The Nut Job- $12.3M/$40.2M
That may seem like a small number for an animated family comedy with talking animals, but Open Road Films is happy enough to crack open a sequel in January 2016.
4. Frozen- $9M/$347.8M
Now ten weeks into release, Frozen has hit $810M worldwide.
5. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit- $8.8M/$30.1M
Paramount's hopeful franchise only dropped 43%, but the damage was done in that mediocre first weekend. With only $76.6M worldwide it doesn't look like the international market is going to save this one. Looks like Chris Pine better keep his Starfleet uniform handy.
6. I, Frankenstein- $8.2M
Was there anybody who thought I, Frankenstein was going to be a hit? Was there anybody who was actually looking forward to it? Even if they were, there were no reviews since the studio hid it from critics; the TV spots and trailers were ridiculous; and there wasn't one star worth building a campaign around. The result is an $8.2M debut and zero chance of recouping the $65M budget.
7. American Hustle- $7.1M/$127M
8. August: Osage County- $5.04M/$26.5M
9. The Wolf of Wall Street- $5M/$98M
10. Devil's Due- $2.7M/$12.8M
Well, it only cost $7M.

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Box Office: Record-Breaking Debut for 'Ride Along' as 'Jack Ryan' Washes Out

1. Ride Along- $41.2M
Kevin Hart has solidified himself as box office superstar as the cop comedy Ride Along got off to a record-breaking $41.2M start, ahead of Cloverfield's $40M during the 2008 Martin Luther King holiday weekend. Hart had been on the rise after the surprising success of Think Like a Man, plus his recent concert film Let Me Explain, but this puts him in rare comedy company. Of course having Ice Cube around didn't hurt, and we can probably expect the duo to return in an inevitable sequel.
2. Lone Survivor- $23.2M/$74M
3. The Nut Job- $20.5M
With Frozen finally losing steam, the family crowd had no choice but to seek out The Nut Job, which critics have mostly panned. Budgeted at around $40M, it should have no problem earning that back and then some over the next couple of weeks with little competition in the animation field.
4. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit- $17.2M
Paramount's attempt to revitalize Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan franchise has washed out of the program, failing to even crack $20M which any halfway-decent franchise should do easily. After an 11-year hiatus after the mediocre The Sum of All Fears, it's clear audiences still don't care about Jack Ryan. This is especially sore for star Chris Pine, who has yet to prove himself a bankable lead outside of Star Trek. How long before we get a reboot of the reboot?
5. Frozen- $11.9M/$332.6M
6. American Hustle- $10.6M/$116.4M
Hello, Oscar bump!
7. Devil's Due- $8.5M
Hey, it's another cheapie early year horror flick, and like the others it's already turned a profit on a measly investment.
8. August: Osage County- $7.59M/$18.1M
9. The Wolf of Wall Street- $7.5/$90.2M
10. Saving Mr. Banks- $4.1M/$75.3M

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Review: 'Ride Along', Starring Ice Cube and Kevin Hart

It's really hard to dislike buddy cop movies regardless of how many there are out there. Yes, they cover the same territory, one's always more sour than the other, and though they hate each other in the beginning, they become comrades by the end of the film. It's all been there, done that, and Ride Along is much of the same. Director Tim Story doesn't try very hard to make it into anything original, and maybe that's his whole point. 

Ben Barber, AKA "Blackhammer" to the gaming world (Kevin Hart), is a high school security officer and hopeful police cadet. He's just gotten accepted to the police academy and loves playing video games to the point of obsession. He's also in love with Angela Payton (Tika Sumpter) and in taking the next steps in their relationship, asks her tough-ass cop brother James (Ice Cube) for his blessing to ask Angela to marry him. 

Ben is scared of James, and James doesn't think very highly of Ben (setting your future fiance's brother on fire at a BBQ doesn't help either). Nor does the experienced cop feel that Ben is good enough to be with his sister. So in order to "prove himself" to James, Ben agrees to go with him on a ride along for a day and see if he's worth his salt as a future brother-in-law and as a cop. 

At work, James has been investigating a faceless crime boss named Omar (Laurence Fishburne) with his two buddy cops Santiago (John Leguizamo) and Miggs (Bryan Callen). As the ride along goes through the day, it's Ben who discovers a few clues that may lead them to who James has been searching for for three years... and what could also gain James's blessing. 

There's no doubt that Kevin Hart's a funny guy. And while his ranting is occasionally funny, it sometimes goes on for too long and causes the scene to lose its humor. The second act of the film also involves too much of the same thing: Ice Cube taking Hart to different venues that involve what the police apparently call a "126" call, which is an annoying situation that no cop wants to deal with. One of these 126 calls involve a crazy man at a farmer's market who douses himself in honey and ends up fighting Hart. 

The funniest parts of the movie come in the very last ten minutes or so of the film when all the action's going down and James and Ben find themselves in a situation they don't seem equipped enough to handle. This is when the dragged out events of the first three-quarters of the film come into play and finally pay off without being shoved in our faces for humor's sake. 

Ice Cube and Kevin Hart generally make a decent pair onscreen, annoying each other to no end and Hart acting like Ice Cube's much younger, and scared little brother who hides behind him when the going gets a little tough. And to Hart's defense, his inexperience as a cop plays heavily into his character and the scenes where he tries to act like Ice Cube's tough-guy persona. 

As a comedy, Ride Along is just okay. It brings a few genuinely amusing moments that entertain, but lacks the ammunition needed to keep the laughs going throughout. Some of the comedy is overdone and too much time is spent on Ice Cube embarrassing Hart in different situations that it becomes a little tiresome after awhile. The finale, however, really amps the entertainment value this movie has to offer, so at least it ends on a good note and goes out in style. 

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Kevin Hart and Ice Cube Hit the Streets in New 'Ride Along' Trailer

As awards are being given out and end-of-the-year lists are being released, a new trailer for Ride Along pulls up to remind you the serious stuff is nearly over and soon it'll be okay to laugh again. It's a verbal showdown between Ice Cube and Kevin Hart at the center of the cop comedy, about a wannabe cop (Hart) who wants to propose to his girlfriend. Cube plays her brother, who Hart must impress by going on a ride along  through the dangerous city streets, and of course it all goes hilariously wrong.

Hart has quickly become one of the funniest actors around, and of course we all know Cube can play a hardcase cop with ease. Lucky us we'll get to see him do it twice next year in this and 22 Jump Street.  Co-starring Tika Sumpter, John Leguizamo, and Jay Pharoah, Ride Along is directed by Tim Story and opens January 17th.


Ride Along - Trailer VO by Daily Movies Switzerland

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New Posters for 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire', 'Thor: The Dark World', 'Filth', and 'Ride Along'

We haven't done a poster update lately, so let's make up for lost time. Lionsgate has released a new poster for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire which comes with the tagline "Remember who the enemy is". In this case the enemy is the backlash heaped upon YA adaptations of late, and it's unclear if the success of the first film will be enough to keep it from a similarly poor box office fate. Eh, probably not with Jennifer Lawrence back as Katniss Everdeen, thrust back into the life-or-death struggle by President Snow (Donald Sutherland) as payback for her victory last time around. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire opens November 22nd in IMAX.

Judging by the trailers we can expect to see Idris Elba have a bit more to do as Heimdall in Thor: The Dark World than just guarding the Rainbow Bridge. He's too good of an actor to be relegated too far into the background. But guard that bridge is exactly what he's up to in this latest one-sheet, joined by another that gives us a solid look at Christopher Eccleston as the dark elf Malekith the Accursed. To me, Malekith seems like a stop-gap villain and one that doesn't push Thor's story forward, so I'm guessing somebody bigger is actually pulling the strings. Is it Thanos? Or does Loki's inevitable treachery run deeper than we know at this point? I'm betting on the latter. We'll find out when Thor: The Dark World arrives November 8th.

"Sordid" and "sleazy". It takes a very special sort of film to see that as high praise, and Filth is definitely one of those. Perhaps that's why distributors haven't climbed aboard to bring it to the U.S. yet? Hopefully it has nothing to do with James McAvoy hardly being a bankable star over here (Trance did okay business), even though the film is based on a book by Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh. Isn't that enough? Apparently not. Anyway, McAvoy plays an offensive, drug-addled, sex-obsessed cop investigating a murder. Or at least he's supposed to be if it weren't for all of his vices getting in the way.

Ice Cube and Kevin Hart side-by-side in a cop comedy? Sign me up. The trailer for Ride Along was as hilarious as a pairing of these two should be, but the first poster could use a little bit of work. Hart plays a security guard who wants to marry Ice Cube's sister, and agrees to go on a ride along with the hard-ass cop to prove his worth. Formulaic? Absolutely, but as a buddy comedy like The Heat proved earlier this year; sometimes the old tricks work best.

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Ice Cube and Kevin Hart Hit the Street In First 'Ride Along' Trailer

It looks like the buddy cop genre may be coming back into fashion. As The Heat's $40M debut showed, there's still a lot of room for a fresh take on the formula, and in a few months we'll be seeing what laughs Kevin Hart and Ice Cube have to offer when Ride Along hits theaters.

The first trailer has been released, and we're starting to see why Universal is so excited that they've already begun developing a sequel. There's some fantastic chemistry between Hart and Cube in what is a pretty simple plot. Hart is a wannabe cop who goes on a ride along with his girlfriend's hard-edged cop brother (Ice Cube) in hopes of proving he's worthy of marrying her. We've seen Cube play this sort of role before to hilarious effect, most recently in 21 Jump Street, and Hart's obnoxious pest role has yet to wear thin. We'll know more once a fuller trailer hits, but for now this looks like it could be a fun time during a tough time of year.

Directed by Tim Story and co-starring Tika Sumpter, John Leguizamo, and Laurence Fishburne, Ride Along opens on January 17th 2014.

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