The King of Pop’s final rehearsals for the tour that never became a reality is the subject of a documentary in theaters right now called “This Is It!”. The film is said to have a limited release of only two weeks, but box office numbers aren’t even close to what Sony and concert promoter, AEG predicted. They were optimistically expecting that the film would rake in “$250 million in its first 5 days.” based on a worldwide release. Through Friday it had just $19.1 million in revenues since its opening last Wednesday worldwide. A very far cry from expectations.

the King of lasik surgery Mexico may still be a big draw, but not nearly good enough for Sony and promoter AEG I am guessing. Not sure why they would release this Halloween week, with all the other horror movies piling up. Do they consider this a horror movie maybe?

Paranormal Activity still sits in the top 5 at #2 with a cumulitive total of about $74 million so far. While it passed the ROI for the Blair Witch Project by percentages, it isn’t likely to catch the total revenue before its run concludes.

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With a budget of just $15,000, and it piling up box office cash, this isn’t a huge surprise I guess. Back when The Blair Witch Project came out on a similar budget, using the “real person” strategy as their actors, as well as cheap video equipment to film it, a new age was born. Of course no one else was able to replicate it quite like Blair Witch had, until Paranormal Activity.

As a movie, Paranormal Activity isn’t the greatest thing I ever saw. If you watched any of the “alternate” endings out there that were replaced you should be quite happy they replaced them. They were crap. Not saying I particularly enjoyed the theatrical one either, but it was miles better. Let’s just say that I don’t deem this movie as a classic, and I thought Blair Witch was way better at the time I saw it even if people think it is cool to say it sucked. It was just a better atmosphere and had more fear factors going for it. Paranormal activity did have an annoying, and idiot character like Blair Witch all the same.

So…at this point Paranormal Activity has grossed roughly $65 million on its $15K investment for a guy that probably couldn’t even get affordable health insurance when the movie was released. A return of 434,000 percent. The next closest you can probably figure it out from the way this post started. The next closest competitor is 1999′s “The Blair Witch Project,” another indie horror flick. With a production budget of $60,000, that movie posted a 414,000 percent return.

Both films did a similar marketing strategy of promoting the movies in sort of an underground way. While PA had the benefit of a much more established internet audience, Blair Witch actually had many believing that it was a true story, with actual film footage before its release.

So kids…if you want to take $10K investment and get rich, making a movie might be the way to do it. Of course it probably needs to be a horror movie, and you probably need to have some talent .

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If you have kids that are going to vote in polls like this from AOL’s JYSK.com the results may surprise you. Of all the celebrities out there, our beloved Hannah Montana was voted the worst celebrity influence of 2009.

Hannah Montana, the Disney goody-two shoes by day, Miley Cyrus, the pretend goody-goody by night apparently. After she “accidentally” took a few provocative photos (in kid eyes), she has gotten a bit of a reputation it seems for being a bit of a bad influence. Hey at least she keeps her home insurance up to date.

Funnily enough, the person who won best female artist category in this little poll was none other than Kate Perry. You know the woman that does everything possible to show us how nice of a rack she has, dates a former drug addict, and sings about kissing another girl (not that I don’t totally enjoy that).

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How silly is it that this kid is now known as Balloon Boy? He wasn’t even in the balloon for god sakes. The kid is 6 years old and the media call him BALLOON BOY.

Anyways, these his parents are probably in a bit of trouble. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the supposed “hoax” of flying a balloon that they said had their 6 year old son, Falcon in it. I didn’t pay much attention to it, but I had the image of people running around under it with outdoor cushions trying to catch him when he fell.

The two-hour flight of the balloon on Oct. 15 – feared then to be carrying 6-year-old Falcon Heene of Fort Collins – it crossed through air space above both Fort Collins-Loveland Municipal Airport and Denver International Airport (DIA). In the case of DIA, northbound plane departures were delayed for less than half-an-hour.

Local authorities also opened a criminal investigation, and Falcon’s parents Richard and Mayumi Heene are expected to surrender to face possible felony charges of trying to influence a public official and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

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Zombieland was a movie I was highly anticipating. All the reviews out there made me want to watch it even more. People were saying it was absolutely hilarious, and some even made the bold claim that it was even funnier than Shaun of the Dead. While I like to hear this I was skeptical it could surpass one of my favorite movies of all time, and I think that it definitely failed to live up to the overwhelming hype that surrounded it for me, but it wasn’t a bad movie.

Let me first say that I liked Zombieland. I found it to be a fun experience, and it is definitely a movie you want to see in the theater with a big crowd. The film really benefits from a good movie crowd to up the fun and laughs. It just won’t be AS good if you wait and watch it on DVD unless you are doing so with a bunch of friends, and some substances. Oh yeah…substances are definitely recommended for such a movie if you are into that sort of thing.

Zombieland is pretty descriptive in the title. It is more or less just another zombie movie, but not a HORROR movie. It is and should only be expected to be, a comedy. It is set in a post-apocalyptic U.S.A. that got infested somehow, and has little if any real plot. It follows Woody Harrelson as a badass zombie killer driving a #3 (This is an homage to Dale Earnhardt, obviously.) SUV with body plows on the front truck grilles. Jesse Einsberg as his new found weakling friend (He is actually the main character and the everyman), and a sister combo they meet along the way played by Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin.

The effects are top notch so seeing it in the theater is a good idea for that aspect. Slow motion flying through the front windshield clips in the opening credits to their fun little way of coping with their “Zombie Kill of the Week” flashbacks. The way they incorporate their “Rules of Survival” into the scenes is also funny, and well done.

As a comedy, and as a zombie movie in general it isn’t as good as Shaun of the Dead. Let’s just say that outright to see what I was trying to compare it with going in based on reviews and overall hype. I found out immediately that it is more in line with a movie like Grindhouse: Planet Terror in the way it is presented. A lot of gore at times, and over the top action that tried to be unbelievable. I actually found Grindhouse to be more entertaining as well although it isn’t tehcnically a zombie/comedy movie .

Comedically it had some good one liners, and a few funny scenes, but to me it felt like they were just trying too hard the entire time to be funny. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t extremely funny at times, but it wasn’t side-splitting as most reviews would have you believe. I did laugh out loud probably 3-4 times, however.

The story was poor. Obviously a zombie movie isn’t going to have a great story, especially a comedy zombie movie, but the two sisters roles made absolutely no sense at all through the majority of the movie. The things they did were illogical (as people, not for a zombie movie), and the movie tried too hard to try and make them seem like some sort of awesome scam artists and outlaws, and it was silly. They were needed to move the story along in parts just to have a reason to tell the story, and throw a little emotion into it for the two main men in the movie, but it was just stupid at times.

Too long didn’t read version (for the general population):

Overall the movie is fun, has some good special effects, and a very good cameo that was even over-hyped to some degree. Once all the luster of “new movie” (IMDb.com ratings for new movies are always ridiculous. I wouldn’t go by this right away. I would expect it to land around a 7/10 eventually.) wears off I am not going to call this movie one of MY classics. Not something that I will want to watch over and over again like I was expecting with the concept and the people in it. Some people may find it in this, but it just didn’t cross into the realm for ME.

It is definitely worth a watch though and most people will like it. Considering the other crap out now this is one of the better movies for entertainment purposes, and is fantastic to watch with a good movie crowd (ie. don’t watch this at some douchebag arthouse and expect uptight tools to enjoy it.) Just don’t go in expecting an epic comedy classic. Just enjoy the fun of the crowd, gore, and laughs, and you will be fine.

Too long didn’t read version (for stuck up film nerds):

If you have high standards for movies in general it will disgust you in its obvious cliches in every scene trying to appeal to the general stupid masses, and nerds. This movie is supposed to be fun, but it was clearly made for the general idiot out there, the ex-teenage nerd, or the stoner that will be high enough to laugh at anything. If you can’t get over yourself and find comedy in these things this movie isn’t for you. If you want something that has a bit of depth, why the hell are you watching a movie called “Zombieland” anyways? That is your own fault.

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If you haven’t heard about the situation where some loser spied on Erin Andrews (a very hot ESPN Sportscaster) you probably don’t have the internet. This guy spied on her through her hotel room KEYHOLE and videotaped her nude on his camera phone. HE then tried to sell the video to TMZ.com, and he himself posted it on the internet.

Now he is having his day in court and of course he is as big of a loser as everyone thought he was. Let the faucets of shame pour down upon him.

Michael David Barrett, 48, an insurance salesman who in his spare time tracked the TV sports babe across the country and repeatedly tried to get close to her and allegedly doctored the peepholes on hotel-room doors and made eight videotapes on a cellphone camera of a nude Andrews.

“The stalker targeted her and was obsessive in his attempt to victimize her,” Marshall Grossman said yesterday. “Clearly, Erin was the victim of a major crime.”

Grossman said Barrett, who never had direct contact with Andrews, first tried to videotape her in Columbia, SC, in February 2008.

He allegedly got her in his sights in September 2008, when, according to a criminal complaint, he found her at a Marriott Hotel in Nashville.

“His method of operation was to learn her travel schedule . . . and then call all hotels in the area of the event,” Grossman said. “During those calls, he would ask if Erin Andrews is a guest or expected. To our shock, some hotels gave him an answer.

“The [Nashville] hotel assigned rooms to the predator and the victim in an isolated alcove which facilitated his ability to film through the altered peephole in virtual privacy,” he said.

“The hotel was a reckless accomplice.”

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David Letterman recently tackled a bit of extortion on the air this week by making light of it. TV producer Joe Halderman threatened to ruin David Letterman in a $2 million blackmail plot as his life unraveled, prosecutors and sources said Friday. The man was in debt, but Letterman got the best of him on the air it appears.

The extortion case looks as if Letterman is not going to really feel a lot of backlash from his audience after going on air and admitting to having sex with co-workers. In fact, according to NY Daily News, most experts agree that the scandal won’t hurt Letterman at all. Kind of like how people tend to just ignore phentermine side effects and take it anyways, they will let him go with no ill feelings (I don’t condone having ill feelings against him for this anyways. I’m a heathen)

This begs a question I saw asked earlier by another blogger : Is Making it a Joke Better Than Apology in America?.

Clearly America is obsessed with forgiveness. Even if celebs aren’t really sorry for their supposed offenses. I think Letterman making it into a joke is actually much more entertaining, and clearly the better route than the apology for situations such as this. A “sex scandal”, if you can call it that.

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