The Dumb Are Mostly Intrigued By The Drum

The Nic Cage action-thriller remake 'Bangkok Dangerous' led the box office this weekend with a measly $7.8 million, making this the slowest weekend for movies in five years. The top five was rounded out by 'Tropic Thunder' $7.5, 'The House Bunny', 'The Dark Knight', and 'Traitor'.

September is generally a slow month for movies. It's that weird transitional period when the summer box office is dying down and studios are gearing up to release their big Oscar contenders. Meanwhile, the television networks are all preparing to debut their big new shows for the fall season. But this does mark the seventh week this year that earnings have fallen behind compared to last year. Studio analysts are blaming this on the state of the economy, high gas prices, and the recent storms on the gulf coast. However I blame this on such craptastical releases as 'Bangkok Dangerous', 'Disaster Movie', 'Babylon A.D.', 'Death Race', 'The Longshots', 'The House Bunny', etc.

We'll find out next weekend when Focus Features rolls out the Coen brother's comedy 'Burn After Reading' and Overture Films releases the De Niro/Pacino team-up 'Righteous Kill'.

I loves me some clam chowder! And with that, lets continue on with the show:

• This little comic comes from The Rut and it helped me get my week off on the right foot. Thanks to battledrill for this lil' nugget of laughter.

• Oh, that little film that opened this weekened about some dude's dressed up as a bat and a clown? Yeah, it made a whole bunch of money. Like, the most ever in a weekend. The previous record holder was a film about some dude who dressed up as a spider. What's this world coming too?

• Ebert & Roeper are done. I guess ABC wanted to take the show in a different direction so the show, as we know it, is done. I knew the end was near when they stopped using the infamous "Thumbs Up/ Thumb Down" technique of reviewing films. That was weak...

• I know that The Boondock Saints has a cult following. When I originally saw the movie years ago, I was entertained, but never thought that it was that great. Then came Overnight. That made me hate the film even more (seriously, watch the trailer. It's truly captivating how someone can self destruct). Well Troy Duffy is a changed man now and has been de-blacklisted and is making a sequel to his first film. If your interested, check out the plot details here at Slash Film.

• Aintitcool has posted some dope Bill Sienkiewicz production artwork from The Dark Knight. Love this guy. Some of you might remember he did the cover for RZA's Bobby Digital ...In Stereo album a couple years back. Of course, I'll always remember him from his awesome comic book work on Elektra: Assassin.