Universal Pictures’ “” grossed $5.7 million at 3,120 theaters on Thursday. Warner Bros. Animation and DC Entertainment’s family film “,” meanwhile, saw $2.2 million in Thursday previews, while “” also opened to a solid $2.2 million for Lionsgate. Early tracking suggested that “Lego Batman” would win the weekend with more than $60 million, ahead of “Fifty Shades,” which was estimated closer to $40 million. James Foley directed “Fifty Shades Darker” based on a script that Niall Leonard adapted from E. L. James’ novel of the same name. Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan co-star as Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey. The film currently has a 9% on Rotten Tomatoes. “John Wick: Chapter 2” and “Lego Batman” are faring better with critics with a 90% and 91%, respectively, on the review aggregation website. “Lego Batman” features the voices of Will Arnett, Zach Galifianakis, Michael Cera, Rosario Dawson, and Ralph Fiennes. Chris McKay directed the animated adventure written by a five-man team: Seth Grahame-Smith, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Jared Stern, and John Whittington.
“John Wick: Chapter 2” also opens this weekend starring Keanu Reeves, Common and Laurence Fishburne. Chad Stahelski directed the action thriller written by Derek Kolstad. In 2015, “Fifty Shades of Grey” opened at number one with $81 million. It went on to earn more than $166 million domestically and about $571 million worldwide. “The Lego Movie” debuted in 2014 at number one with $69 million on its way to becoming a domestic smash hit with $258 million. It’s global total topped $469 million. “John Wick” opened in October of 2014 and grossed over $80 million worldwide. It opened at number two in the U.S. with $14 million. “The studios look to piece together the strongest weekend of the year thus far with a trio of very different wide release newcomers collectively appealing to virtually all audience segments,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst with comScore. “The Lego and Fifty Shades brands have a lot to live up to, with their predecessors both ranking in the top five February openers of all-time and setting a new standard for the potential drawing power of films for this formerly underestimated month on the calendar,” he said.
Eschewing both the slickness and Hollywood sentiment of The Song of Bernadette and the speculative psychology of Alain Cavalier’s contemporary Thérèse, Delannoy’s unembellished, straightforward account seeks only to tell Bernadette’s story in a clear and compelling way. Coming only two years after Cavalier’s critically acclaimed but sometimes troubling film, Bernadette seems to have been unfairly, unfavorably contrasted with Thérèse by French critics, and was barely seen in the U.S. The comparison, though, seems irrelevant; cinematically speaking, the two films have about as much to do with one another as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Apollo 13. As Bernadette, 15-year-old Sydney Penny (“All My Children”), an American Protestant, brings a refreshing degree of spirit, even tartness to the role of a teenaged peasant saint who, like Joan of Arc, could put doctors and clerics in their place with disconcerting directness. The film’s approach to Bernadette’s visions is simple but effective: Instead of trying to show us what Bernadette sees, Delannoy lets the ambient noise of the brook fade away, and allows Bernadette’s expression to convey the experience as a simple tune by composer Francis Lai fills the soundtrack for the duration of the vision.
Though each scene was filmed both in French and in English, the English version (and probably the French as well) has been redubbed anyway, an approach that has at times been common in European films but may be distracting to American audiences. Ideally, given the story’s historical setting, I’d love to see Bernadette in French with English subtitles, but Delannoy’s decision to shoot in English as well as French makes such an edition unlikely. (Delannoy’s sequel, The Passion of Bernadette, was shot in French only, and the Ignatius Press DVD offers both English dub and French language tracks as well as optional English subtitles.) Praised by the Vatican as “a sensitive portrayal of a very moving story that deserves a wide audience,” the film’s historical fidelity and reverent treatment have earned it perpetual screening at the Lourdes shrine. Bernadette is a must see for Catholics, and more than worth the while of anyone intrigued by modern miracles and extraordinary experiences of the divine.
If you own Ignatius Press’s original DVD edition of Bernadette, you owe it to yourself to give it away at once — and buy the DVD Special Edition. The new offering is the must-have edition of a must-see film, even if you already own the first DVD. it’s that much better. If you don’t already own Bernadette on DVD, now is certainly the time, with this new release of the film marking the 150th anniversary year of the Marian apparitions at Lourdes in 1858. Featuring a new widescreen transfer and both the English and French versions of the film along with a number of bonus features, the new edition offers the full scope of Delannoy’s lovely cinematography, as well as the opportunity to hear Bernadette’s story in her own language. Delannoy shot Bernadette in simultaneous French and English editions. The original DVD included only the English version, but now Ignatius has obtained the French version, and the new DVD includes both. (The DVD defaults to English, so you need to choose the French version under Language Options and then choose the English subtitles, then return to the main menu and press Play.)
Also, where the earlier full-screen DVD cropped nearly 20% of the picture to fit TV screens, the widescreen aspect ratio of the new DVD restores the whole image. (One caveat: The widescreen is not anamorphic but letterboxed, with hard-coded black bars above and below the image. That’s fine if you have a standard television — but if you have widescreen TV, instead of a bigger image, you get black bars all the way around the picture. It’s still the whole widescreen image — just smaller than it should be.) The special edition comes with a 16-page full-color pamphlet featuring information about the film and about St. Bernadette as well as interviews with Penny and Delannoy. There’s also a 23-minute video interview with Penny on the DVD, and a CD with three additional radio interviews. Bottom line: Don’t even think of sticking with your old Bernadette DVD. 2853590 << 2854298 >> 2855028 The Adventures of Clutch Powers Kristy Scanlan, David Cragnotti, Lawrence Kasanoff
LEGO The Adventures of Clutch Powers Official Trailer (High Quality!) 2854298 LEGO: The Adventures of Clutch Powers is a CGI direct-to-DVD movie released in Early Spring of 2010. This was the first ever movie made by the LEGO Company that incorporated building. It is also the first non-BIONICLE movie made of a LEGO product. The movie incorporates a diverse range of existing LEGO themes into a single plotline, including Mars Mission, Space Police III, City, Power Miners, Castle (2007), and Agents. It was developed by Tinseltown Toons and was published by Universal Studios. The trailer for the movie was first shown on the 2853367 BIONICLE: The Legend Reborn DVD. The movie begins with Clutch Powers, the most famous LEGO explorer, trying to retrieve an energy crystal from an underground cave. He finds the crystal, but spots a larger energy crystal in the cave as well. Clutch pulls out the crystal, which awakens an orange Crystal King, and he is chased through the cave. Just as he is about to escape, the Crystal King blocks the exit with a boulder.
Clutch then wrestles the King using the Mine Mech but is thrown out of the Mech, and after that, he spots a pile of LEGO bricks. He visualises what he could build: either a racecar, a jet, or a slingshot. He decides to make a slingshot and gets working. Meanwhile, the Crystal King realizes that Clutch is not in the Mine Mech anymore, so he continues to chase him but knocks over a tower and gets pinned. Clutch finishes the slingshot and launches himself at the boulder. Just as he is about to escape, the crystal reveals itself to be a Rock Monster baby, which Clutch is astonished and thinks that it was a coincidence that the rock monster baby was hard to get out of place. He puts a stud pacifier in the baby's mouth then builds a stroller for it. Clutch returns the baby and apologizes, and is rewarded with an orange energy crystal. After this, he drives his Agents car back to the LEGO building in LEGO City. On the way there we learn just how popular Clutch is and they dont seem to mind when he nearly destroys a construction site on the way there.
When he arrvives he is introduced to a team of three (Brick Masterson, Peg Mooring, and Bernie Von Beam) by his boss Kjeld Playwell that will help him in his next assignment: investigate a recent prison break on the Space Police prison planet X4. They are introduced to Arthur Fol who swears to be Clutch Power's "number one fan" shows them the spaceship he has built for them. He shows them the miniature model (it has a spinner) then when Brick asks how are they going to fit in, Artie shows them the real life version. The group travels to the prison planet in Mars Mission outfits. Bernie suggests that he should guard the spaceship, but Clutch refuses. They can't open the door, so Clutch builds a giant key to open it (Brick says that this is the first time anyone has to BREAK INTO a prison). Then, while analyzing the base, Brick burps, and Clutch tells him to keep an eye out behind them. One of the prisoners, the evil wizard Mallock the Malign , attacks them and then leaves in their ship.
They meet the Space Police watch commander that has sent Kjeld a garbled distress call earlier who explains to them that Mallock plans to harness all the forces of evil together and steal the deceased King Revet's powerful golden sword, now in the hands of Prince Varen. They make a new ship, with a failed first attempt. After a tip from Kjeld Playwell, the group travels to another planet, Ashlar, that is in the setting of the Castle (2007) story line. Brick tries to parallel park the ship, but knocks over Legohenge, a play on Stonehenge, in the process, which upsets Bernie. Clutch looks for the prince and the rest try to build a battle cart at an old abandoned mine (They meet Lofar the Dwarf which has assumed they're villains but calms down once Peg tells him they are here to defeat Mallock). Peg finds a dragon and gets burned by its sneeze while Brick and Bernie work on the cart. Clutch encounters Hogar the Troll, who challenges him to three tests that will allow him to cross a bridge, while Mallock tells Skelly and Bones to find Clutch, who will lead them to the prince.
After finishing the three tests, Skelly and Bones find Clutch but Hogar eats him, smacks the two skeletons and runs away (He spits Clutch out after entering the wall hiding the castle.). He finds the prince, who refuses to help. So Clutch returns to his team, who have finished the cart and are about to attack Mallock's castle when the prince comes back and elects to help them, along with his army. Clutch and the prince sneak into the castle while Peg wears the prince's crown and leads the knights against an army of undead skeletons with a large battle that ensues. Clutch and the prince finish off an enchanted suit of armor, but are captured and hung in a cage by Mallock. The knights retreat, and Peg, Bernie, and Brick crash the cart, in which they start to argue. Mallock forces Hogar to give him the golden sword of King Revet, which Prince Varen brought to the Skeleton Tower. If he doesn't, Prince Varen and Clutch won't be seen again. Mallock thinks Hogar is tricking him when he discovers the chest is empty and throws him toward the wall.
But Clutch and the prince, whose images are reflected into the night sky, send the team a message using bones: LEGO, which is translated by them as "Build on each other." So Bernie, kissed by Peg, rebuilds the cart into an Off-Road Jeep. Peg flies her dragon in and frees Clutch and the prince, while Brick flies in with a jet pack to finish off Mallock's skeleton guards, Skelly and Bones. Bernie helps Brick by throwing the leftover part (an orange gear) at the two skeletons. Varen tells Clutch that he doesn't need to find his father, because his dad is with him in his heart. Then they face off against Mallock. The prince arrests Mallock and is crowned king, the skeleton army is destroyed, and the team returns to LEGO City, where they are assigned their next mission, to find another prisoner on the other side of the galaxy. The movie was released on February 23, 2010 on DVD, Video on Demand, and Digital Download. The DVD version contains complete English, French and Spanish language versions (Audio + Subtitles) as well as the following bonus features:
An unofficial sequel, titled "LEGO City: A Clutch Powers 4D Adventure," has been shown in LEGOLAND California, although it does not carry any major plot-points, such as Squidman and Omega's capture. It only shows an adventure that takes place after the original film.Do not modify it. Meet Clutch Powers the best builder in the LEGO® universe! For the first time ever see the creative world of LEGO® come to life in this all-new feature-length DVD movie. Meet Clutch Powers, the best builder and explorer in the LEGO universe as he heads off on his most dangerous mission yet. Join Clutch and his team of LEGO experts as their adventure leads them from LEGO City to the LEGO Space Police prison planet to the medieval world of Ashlar, where they must help the rightful heir to the King's throne to find courage to regain the kingdom from the evil wizard Mallock the Malign. Their brick-building skills will be put to the ultimate test as they face off against Mallok's skeleton army.