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Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior, your weekly look at the new movies hitting theaters this weekend, as well as other cool events and things to check out.

Two Very Different Movies Look to Divide Up the Weekend Box Office Business

With Disney’s Beauty and the Beast continuing to dominate at the box office with $90 million this past weekend, and Saban’s Power Rangers (Lionsgate) also doing exceedingly well with $40 million in second place, you wouldn’t think anyone would try to release a movie that might get overshadowed by those two blockbusters.

That said, what’s interesting about this weekend is the fact there are two very different movies that are competing very heavily for second place with DreamWorks Animation’s latest animated family film, The Boss Baby (20th Century Fox), taking on the live action English remake of Ghost In The Shell (Paramount), starring Scarlett Johansson. In most cases,...

Chicago – Some mothers are born great, others have greatness thrust upon them. The Mom of “The Meddler” – portrayed with precise intuition by Susan Sarandon – is of the greatness-of-the-future variety, by simply evolving to be herself. Rose Byrne as daughter Lori tags along.

Rating: 4.5/5.0

What places this story above and beyond the norm is that it’s the true story of writer/director Lorene Scafaria. Her mother really did move to Los Angeles to be near her, after Lorene’s father and her mother’s husband passed away. In essence, it’s an exploration into the emotions of the isolation of loss, and the coping mechanisms that different people use to mitigate it. What makes the film exceptional is how Sarandon handles the material written by Scafaria, and brings it to life. Her Marnie character is forced to understand why she is suddenly living a life she never planned for, and...

Chicago – The combining of icon Susan Sarandon and a “smother mother” from New Jersey is unbeatable, especially under the sure hand of writer/director Lorene Scafaria. The distinctive voice that brought us “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World,’ now is taking on mother/daughter relationships in “The Meddler.”

Lorene Scafaria is originally from New Jersey, and the film is somewhat autobiographical. Like Sarandon in the film, Scafaria’s mother moved to Los Angeles after her husband passed away, to be “closer” to her daughter. Prior to all that, Scafaria had graduated from Montclair State in New Jersey, and afterward moved to New York City to write plays.

After acting and writing in NYC, she made the West Coast move in the mid-2000s and landed the screen adaptation of “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist.” In 2012, her original screenplay “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World” was released,...

Our resident VOD expert tells you what's new to rent and own this week on the various streaming services such as cable Movies On Demand, Amazon, iTunes, Vudu and, of course, Netflix. Cable Movies On Demand: Same-day-as-disc releases, older titles and pretheatrical exclusives for rent, priced from $3-$10, in 24- or 48-hour periods Divergent (Ya fantasy-adventure-romance; Shailene Woodley, Kate Winslet, Theo James; rated PG-13) God’s Not Dead (drama; Shane Harper, Kevin Sorbo; rated PG) Need for Speed (car-porn action; Aaron Paul, Dominic Cooper; also available in 3D; rated PG-13) Oculus (horror; Karen Gillan, Brenton Thwaites, Katee Sackhoff; rated R) Palo Alto (drama; Emma Roberts, James Franco; rated R) About Alex (drama; Aubrey Plaza, Jason Ritter, Max...

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Los Angeles — A social-conscience espionage film that has actually thought about its "eco-terrorism" themes beyond figuring out how to mine them for suspense, "The East" sends a straight-laced overachiever undercover with a violent eco-vigilante group. Zal Batmanglij and cowriter/star Brit Marling deliver a consistently tense, morally alert story that has plenty of box-office appeal.

Marling plays Sarah, a former FBI agent now seeking her fortune in the private sector. Her first assignment for Hiller/Brood, a secretive company providing undercover risk assessments for multinational corporations, requires her to infiltrate a new anarchist group, The East, which has targeted polluters in a series of let-the-punishment-fit-the-crime "jams."

Telling her patient boyfriend (Jason Ritter) she's off to Dubai for business, Sarah actually hits the streets not far from her Washington, D.C. home – getting grubby with freegans and hobos while watching for someone whose political rants sound likely to produce action. After...

Here is last week's caption pic winner. This week's caption pic is at the bottom of the page.

Thanks to everyone for participating! The winner is ...

"Beyonczilla stomped into New Orleans to destroy the Super Bowl, but only managed to knock out the lights for a few minutes."

Thanks to Miz Liz for this week's winning caption!

Weekend Birthdays! (Note: Birthday shoutouts are for out entertainers, allies, or for any celeb that seems to have a following on Ae). Chord Overstreet (above) is 24, Melissa Manchester is 62, Jason Ritter is 33, and Joseph Gordon Levitt is 32. Towleroad has a compilation of clips from the Meteor strike in Russia. I'll wait for instructions from Morgan Freeman.In ratings news, Glee was down a smidge, while Zero Hour was the lowest series premiere ever on ABC.Here's your first look at the rump-filled poster for Continental, about the bathhouses of the 60's and 70's.

Chicago – The opening moments of Anne Renton’s feature debut, “The Perfect Family,” paint a typically cheery portrait of suburbia, complete with a sign displaying the generic tagline, “An Enjoyable Town.” It’s the sort of neighborhood audiences have seen countless times before in indies aiming to depict the “dark side” of small town America, a la “Blue Velvet.”

When uptight Catholic server, Eileen (Kathleen Turner), accidentally spills a handful of communion wafers and secretly shoves them in her mouth with the exquisite clumsiness of Lucille Ball at the chocolate factory, I was fully prepared for this film to devolve into a caustic slice of familial dysfunction along the lines of “Another Happy Day,” populated with shrill stereotypes and Puritanical basket cases. “The Perfect Family” could’ve easily been that movie, but it isn’t. In fact, it’s a much more tender and thoughtful picture than one would expect.

Here is last week's caption pic winner. This week's caption pic is at the bottom of the page.

Thanks to everyone for participating! The winner is ...

""Tickle-me Elmo" taken to its logical conclusion."

Thanks to Keven for this week's winning caption!

Weekend Birthdays! (Note: Birthday shoutouts are for out entertainers, allies, or for any celeb that seems to have a following on Ae). Nipple Gordon-Levitt (above) is 31, Chord Overstreet is 23, Dominic Purcell is 42, Jason Ritter is 32, the Faboo Cybill Shepard is 62, Matt Dillon is 48, Molly Ringwald is 44, Beth Ditto is 31, and Juice Newton, 60. What are your top five Juice songs? Here are my picks: 5."Queen Of Hearts." 4. "Love's Been A Little Bit Hard On Me", 3. "Tell Her No" 2. " A Little Love," 1. "Heart Of The Night"

Matthew Perry will begin a recurring role on The Good Wife starting March 25th.Miss Piggy, Kermit, and Tina Fey have just been scheduled to present at the Oscars.

Rank the week of October 18th’s Blu-ray and DVD new releases against the best films of all-time: New Releases Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

(Blu-ray & DVD | PG13 | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #1487

Win Percentage: 47%

Times Ranked: 8433

Top-20 Rankings: 50

Directed By: Rob Marshall

Starring: Johnny Depp • Penélope Cruz • Ian McShane • Kevin McNally • Geoffrey Rush

Genres: Action • Adventure • Costume Adventure • Fantasy • Sea Adventure • Swashbuckler

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Bad Teacher

(Blu-ray & DVD | R | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #3281

Win Percentage: 42%

Times Ranked: 3361

Top-20 Rankings: 19

Directed By: Jake Kasdan

Starring: Cameron Diaz • Justin Timberlake • Jason Segel • Lucy Punch • Phyllis Smith

Genres: Comedy • Farce • Sex Comedy

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Red State

(Blu-ray & DVD | Nr | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #2738

Win Percentage: 53%

Times Ranked: 1781

Top-20 Rankings: 12

Directed By: Kevin Smith

Starring: Michael Parks • John Goodman • Melissa Leo • Kevin Pollak • Michael Angarano

Genres: Drama • Horror • Religious Drama • Thriller

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Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels Of A Tribe Called Quest

(Blu-ray & DVD...

Chicago – The Round-Up is back to provide our loyal readers with synopsis and feature details on a few titles that may have slipped on to DVD or Blu-Ray under your radar but might make the right purchase choice this holiday weekend.

It’s not that these title are any “lesser” than some of the biggies out there (one nearly made $100 million domestically and another is a Mel Brooks classic), but we can’t get around to a full-length review of everything that comes into the HollywoodChicago.com office and we want to keep you as informed as possible.

“Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail” and “Spaceballs” were released on June 16th, 2009.

“The Education of Charlie Banks,” “Secret Diary of a Call Girl: Season Two,” and “White Sox Memories” were released on June 30th, 2009.

“The Education of Charlie Banks”

Photo credit: Anchor Bay Synopsis: “Charlie Banks’ (Jesse Eisenberg) sheltered...

Well, it’s been seven years since Jason Voorhees chopped up foolish teens exclusively. Sure he shared screen time with Freddy Krueger in 2003’s crossover Freddy Vs Jason, yes he accumulated quite the body count in the film, yes it was a lot of fun, and yes the film was pretty damn successful, but diehard fans such as myself certainly missed that special “alone time” with Mr. Voorhees. Now Jason is back, solely stealing the spotlight and the lives of reckless youngins, and despite a mostly negative critical response and dismal box office staying power, he's still one massive murdering machine.

Over the last 29 years Jason has claimed more victims than even imaginable. From random teens, to strange drifters, to diner employees, Jason has eliminated just about everyone to (unluckily) grace the big screen with the masked menace. As a result of Voorhees’ obnoxious kill rate, fans have pondered the...