Emile Hirsch now regretting agent's 'can't miss' advice. | Photo courtesy of xiaming via flickr On Friday I surmised that Speed Racer would bomb and now the events of the weekend have borne that prediction out. The live-action cartoon sputtered to a weak $20.2M weekend, just ahead of What Happens in Vegas ($20M) and well behind the summer's first true blockbuster, Iron Man ($50.5M/$177.1M). Once the actual numbers come in on Monday, many expect Speed......

Heartless personality Jonathan Nail interrogates helpless patrons during opening weekend of Iron Man. | Video courtesy of Just Us Films No one doubted that Iron Man would easily top the box office this weekend, but the scale of its success is virtually unprecedented. The latest entry from Marvel's deep stable of superheroes blasted early estimates of $60-70M by raking in a mammoth $104.3M since Thursday night's late showings. It was the second-largest, non-sequel debut......

Repulsors fire! | Photo courtesy of Paramount What else can I say about Iron Man that I didn't say in my rave yesterday? According to the great Nikki Finke, it looks like it's going to be a monster hit so I guess I don't need to encourage you to go see it. I'll actually be seeing it again this weekend because I failed to stay through the entire end credit roll and see the......

Is there anyone on the planet who doesn't love Robert Downey Jr. as an actor? | Photo courtesy of Paramount I won't keep you in suspense a moment longer: Iron Man is a rousing start to the summer movie season. It succeeds not only as a visually dazzling popcorn movie, but as a human drama about a man forced to finally consider his former and future place in the world. Great credit must be......

How did they convince Downey to actually fly this high? What a brave actor. | Photo courtesy of Paramount If you absolutely can't wait until 12:01 am on May 2nd to see what's looking to be the summer's first big blockbuster, the Aero Theater in Santa Monica is holding a charity screening of Iron Man on May 1st at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $20 and proceeds go the Aero Building Fund Donation. If seeing......

Sweeney ponders blood-letting | Photo courtesy of DreamWorks Though it did decent business at the box office, I'm thinking that Sweeney Todd will kill on DVD. It's Burton's best film since Edward Scissorhands. I enjoyed Depp in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, but it's nice to see him in something less hammy. I understand that David Cross did Alvin and the Chipmunks because he needed the dough, but what's Jason Lee's excuse? He......

Meg Wallace as Catherine in Standing on my Knees Back when I was taking acting classes in the Valley, I had a classmate who wasn’t that talented, but was nevertheless very taken with his own ability. One day, I looked into his car and saw that it was a complete disaster area in the backseat. When I commented on the mess, he shot back, “It’s not messy – it’s artistic.” While the line between......

Lindsay Lohan was busted by her medical director for using drugs while in rehab - Female First Speaking of Lindsay, she should be getting a visit from her estranged father, Michael Lohan, any day now as part of her "healing process" - NY Post As Owen Wilson recovers from his suicide attempt, pal Courteny Love is openly blaming Wilson's hard partying pal and her former lover Steve Coogan for being a bad influence on Owen's......

Free to Be… You and Me is a cult classic for many kids of the 1970's. Gwyneth Paltrow even credits this film as one of her inspirations to become an actor. Hey man, whatever floats your boat. First released in November 1972, and later in 1974 as a television special, "Free to Be...You and Me" featured songs and stories to illustrate and define core values such as individuality, tolerance, and happiness with one's identity.......

Recommended After Innocence - Jessica Sanders directs this documentary detailing the stories of seven men who were wrongfully imprisoned for decades (some of them on death row) before finally being exonerated by DNA evidence. The Amazing Screw-On Head - This animated 30-minute pilot (I can only hope there will be more episodes) based on the comic book by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola is full of awesome animation (it closely mimics Mignola's style), witty dialogue,......

TUESDAY • The Decemberists and Sons and Daughters perform tonight at the Henry Fonda Theater. Doors open at 8 PM; tickets are $18. • The Echo is having a toga party and show to benefit the MusiCares Hurricane Relief Fund, featuring The Atomic Missiles, Kill Radio, Porterville, BANG sugar BANG and Letter Openers. $3 gets you in, $5 gets you in plus a bumper sticker and pin, $10 gets you in plus a free......

LAist could feel the buzz building a few months ago for Kerry Conran's Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow — a retro Metropolis meets classic dog-fighting genre story with stars Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie — when the trailers started to hit movie theaters and TV screens everywhere. Since then, the advertising has taken a turn for the worse, dubbing it as the film that "everybody is talking about" and then......