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......

You may have heard that the owners of the Los Feliz haunt The Derby are hoping to sell the place. Instead of an icon of the swing dance world, instead of a cheapish but not unpleasant Louise's Trattoria, instead of a nice one-story restaurant with parking, the lot at the corner of Hillhurst and Los Feliz would house 88 condos piled into a claustrophobic 5-story monstrosity. Built in 1928, The Derby didn't become an......