Hannah Montana Sings at Box Office Top

(NEWSER) - Zac Effron out-manned Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck at the box office this weekend as 17 Again banked $24.1 million, Entertainment Weekly reports. State of Play scored a so-so $14.1 million, followed by Monsters vs. Aliens ($12.9 million), Hannah Montana: The Movie ($12.7 million), and Fast & Furious ($12.3 million). Jason Statham’s Crank High Voltage stumbled with $6.5 million. More»

Mall-cop flick soaked with sadism, critics say

(NEWSER) - Critics have observed, and they’re reporting that the latest mall-cop movie is brutal and sadistic with little cause: Seth Rogen's character is no Paul Blart.

• "If you thought Abu Ghraib was a laugh riot then you might love Observe and Report," writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times. “Sadism is this movie’s currency,” she says of the “dumber-and-dumbest yukfest.”

Step Up 2 the Streets and Spiderwick Chronicles take 2nd and 3rd

(NEWSER) - Jumper has vaulted to top spot at the box office and may bank the fourth-highest President's Day weekend score ever, Variety reports. Step Up 2 the Streets surprised in second thanks to young females, earning $26.3 million to Jumper's $33.8 million. The Spiderwick Chronicles took third with $21.4 million. All three were holiday weekend debuts. More»

Roscoe Jenkins takes second and Hannah Montana drops to third

(NEWSER) - Movie fans valued Fool’s Gold at $22 million this weekend and made the Matthew McConaughey-Kate Hudson pic tops at the box office, Variety reports. The Martin Lawrence vehicle Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins debuted in second with $17.1 million, and last week’s surprise flick, Hannah Montana, dropped from $31.1 million to $10.5 million and third spot. More»

Seth Rogen movie manages to be both funny and poignant

(NEWSER) - With a current 92% rating at Rotten Tomatoes , 50/50 gets praise for its blend of comedy and drama about a young man diagnosed with cancer.

• In Salon , Mary Elizabeth Williams calls the movie “poignant, funny and profane”: It “understands the woozy terror of a life or death crisis,” she notes—though “unsurprisingly,” Seth Rogen et al., “like true students of the Judd Apatow school of filmmaking, never quite get a grip on their female characters.”