Critically speaking, 2011 may have been Adam Sandler‘s worst year ever.  His two main vehicles, Just Go With It and Jack & Jill, were panned.  As a producer, his name is also on Zookeeper and (most damningly) Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star.  The Razzies recognized his efforts with a record 11 nominations.  For those keeping track, this shatters the record set by Eddie Murphy and his 5 nominations for Norbit in 2007.  New Year’s Eve, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 join Jack & Jill and Bucky Larson as the 5 contenders for Worst Picture.  Hit the jump for the full list.

With the remake business, you’re already (at least usually) against a brick wall. What’s remade aren’t usually flawed films, but movies that are regarded well enough to be liked, but aren’t classics (those films are ripped off wholesale). And so there’s a remake of the 1981 Dudley Moore film Arthur thirty years later starring Russell Brand.  Why now? Probably because Brand seems like he could be a movie star, and Get Him to the Greek did good enough business. The remake (which also stars Helen Mirren, Greta Gerwig and Jennifer Garner) is about a spoiled rich kid/drunk who finds true love, but is supposed to marry someone else. It works, but almost in spite of its narrative. My review of the Blu-ray of 2011’s Arthur follows after the jump.

Woo-hoo.  Folks, it looks like 2011 has indeed soared to its first big weekend win in months on the wings of Fox’s Rio.  The 3D animated toon rose from the ashes of a lower than expected Friday figure to earn an estimated $40 million for the three day frame.  Unfortunately, there was not a lot of love left over for Wes Craven’s Scream 4 but, no matter!  The weekend should still end up ahead of last year by approximately 12%.

Remember how box office watchers were counting on this weekend to become 2011’s very first big winner?  A frame whose combined grosses would finally top 2010’s?  With two high profile releases – Rio and Scream 4 – that seemed a reasonable conclusion and it still appears doable.  Unfortunately, Friday’s estimates suggest that it will not be the unqualified rout we expected considering that last April’s strongest contender was Kick-Ass.  Fox is reporting a $10.2 million opening for Rio from 3,826 locations (well over half of those in 3D).  That is not much above the $9.6 million debut of the year’s top opener Rango, which had no 3D price boost in its favor.  Projections originally put Rio above Rango’s weekend total but it now appears that the toon will end up well below that $38.1 figure.  Meanwhile Scream 4, which many believed would win Friday, pulled in an estimated $8.3 million from 3,305 locations.  That puts the sequel on track for a $22 million weekend – well below even the most conservative early projections.  Finally, three films are statistically tied for fourth place with Soul Surfer, Hanna and Arthur all estimated in the $2.1 million range for Friday while The Conspirator debuted at number ten with $1.7 million.  Details and analysis tomorrow.

Four new releases hit theatres this weekend, including one that was marketed to within an inch of its life.  Still, year-to-year grosses will be down once again by almost 10% and it was a holdover that took the number one title.  Universal’s Hop earned an estimated $21.7 million to put it on top of the US box office for the second week in a row.

In the comedy Arthur, Russell Brand reinvents the role of loveable billionaire Arthur Bach, originally brought to life by actor Dudley Moore in the 1981 original. Arthur is an irresponsible charmer who uses his fortune to surround himself with people and amusements that leave him feeling rather hollow. It is only the good sense of his lifelong nanny Hobson (Helen Mirren) that keeps him out of even more trouble than he already gets himself into. When Arthur falls for a spontaneous New York City tour guide named Naomi (Greta Gerwig), and he must then choose between her and the predictable corporate exec Susan (Jennifer Garner), it is Hobson that helps him follow his heart.

At the film’s press day, co-stars Russell Brand and Helen Mirren talked about why they enjoy working together so much, how love changes you, their most extravagant Arthur-like purchases, and why people should go see their movie. Check out what they had to say after the jump.

It looks like a good news/bad news kind of morning for Russell Brand.  The good news is that his voice-only role in last weekend’s number one film Hop will give Brand a second weekend on top of the US box office.  The bad news?  Warner Brothers’ highly-promoted Arthur redux – the film in which he actually gets his face on film – wasn’t particularly aided by the comedian’s recent PR blitz.  The widest of this weekend’s four new releases, Arthur earned an estimated $4.5 million to Hop’s $5.5 million.  Arthur’s mediocre showing was counterbalanced by two Friday overachievers.  Focus features’ Hanna took in an estimated $4.2 million while Sony’s inspirational shark-attack biopic Soul Surfer earned $3.7 million in 2,214 locations.  That just leaves us with Universal’s Your Highness.  How this R-rated comedy from David Gordon Green and Danny McBride wound up nearly tied on a Friday night with a movie about a one-armed surfer is beyond me.  Details and analysis tomorrow.

With director Jason Winer’s (Modern Family) Arthur opening this weekend, I was able to interview the cast as a reporter for our partners at Omelete.  As most of you know, the film is a remake of the 1981 Dudley Moore comedy and stars Russell Brand as a wealthy playboy who risks losing his inheritance when he falls for a woman (Greta Gerwig) that his family does not approve of.  The movie also stars Helen Mirren, Jennifer Garner, Luis Guzman and Nick Nolte.  For more on the film, click here for seven clips and the full synopsis.

During my interview with Gerwig we talked about how she prepared for playing a New York City tour guide, doing improv with Russell Brand, did she ever get to enjoy the Batmobile or other cool cars on set, has she been to Brazil, what’s her karaoke song, and she reveals that she’s writing with the hopes of making a film later this year.  Hit the jump to watch.

Just as surely as rain makes things wet, Arthur will make you laugh. Yet the film never justifies its existence—remake or not. Hollywood is determined to make Russell Brand a comedic lead, but simply placing his acquired comedic sensibilities in the star role doesn’t equal success. Throw in a bloated run time and a cute, but unromantic chemistry between Brand and Greta Gerwig, and we have the makings of a generic romantic comedy that is further burdened by being a remake. The real shame is that on paper, the film has enough comedic ingredients to make something worthwhile instead of simply unoffensive. Hit the jump for my full review.

Last weekend featured the live-action/animated comedy Hop as 2011’s highest grossing debut so far. Will Russell Brand strike gold two weeks in a row when his remake of Arthur hits the screens this weekend? Perhaps a new contender will take the box office crown. It could be the assassin-centric suspense thriller Hanna, or the uplifting tale of a shark attack survivor in Soul Surfer. But my money’s on the raunchy fantasy comedy Your Highness, starring Danny McBride, James Franco and Natalie Portman.

Hit the jump for synopses and trailers for these headliners as well as our coverage on such limited releases as Ceremony, Henry’s Crime and Meek’s Cutoff.

With director Jason Winer’s (Modern Family) Arthur opening this weekend, I was able to interview the cast as a reporter for our partners at Omelete.  As most of you know, the film is a remake of the 1981 Dudley Moore comedy and stars Russell Brand as a wealthy playboy who risks losing his inheritance when he falls for a woman (Greta Gerwig) that his family does not approve of.  The movie also stars Helen Mirren, Jennifer Garner, Luis Guzman and Nick Nolte.  For more on the film, click here for seven clips and the full synopsis.

During my interview with Mirren, we talked about filming on the street of New York City, the different genres she’s worked in over the past year, was she nervous to work with a first time feature director, what it’s like to work with Brand when he’s improvising, and I nervously asked what’s her karaoke song (which no one believed I would ask). Hit the jump to watch.

With director Jason Winer’s (Modern Family) Arthur opening this weekend, I was able to interview the cast as a reporter for our partners at Omelete.  As most of you know, the film is a remake of the 1981 Dudley Moore comedy and stars Russell Brand as a wealthy playboy who risks losing his inheritance when he falls for a woman (Greta Gerwig) that his family doesn’t approve of.  The movie also stars Helen Mirren, Jennifer Garner, Luis Guzman and Nick Nolte.  For more on the film, click here for seven clips and the full synopsis.

Since I interviewed Brand for Hop less than a week before this interview, I wanted to have some fun with my questions.  Thankfully, Brand is the type of person that whatever you ask, he’ll have a clever response.  We talked about how he sees me more than his mom, what’s his karaoke song (he has a great answer), what’s the future of Infant Sorrow (his band in Get Him to the Greek), since he was an executive producer was the main star difficult to work with, and did he really make Arthur just to be tucked into bed by Helen Mirren.  Hit the jump to watch.

With director Jason Winer’s (Modern Family) Arthur opening this weekend, we’ve been given some Arthur related movie swag to giveaway to some of our readers.  As most of you know, the film is a remake of the 1981 Dudley Moore comedy and stars Russell Brand as a wealthy playboy who risks losing his inheritance when he falls for a woman that his family does not approve of.  The movie also stars Helen Mirren, Jennifer Garner, Luis Guzman, Greta Gerwig, and Nick Nolte.

So if you’d like a chance to win some t-shirts, a martini set, a gold bar USB flash drive, a dollar sign paper clip and more, hit the jump for how to enter.

If you’re a film nerd, you know and love Luis Guzman.  That’s because since the 80′s, Guzman has been in countless roles, often going from small budget indies, to huge Hollywood blockbusters.  He’s also done a lot of TV.  Guzman is one of those actors that you might not know his name, but you definitely know his face.  I first noticed Guzman in Paul Thomas Anderson’s masterpiece, Boogie Nights.  He played the nightclub owner where Mark Wahlberg worked.  While I’m sure I must have seen him on a TV show or in a movie, it was after seeing Boogie Nights that I learned his name.  Since then, I’ve always enjoyed his work, but I’ve never seen him talk about how he got into acting, or how he got connected with Anderson.

So when I found out he was going to be at the Arthur junket (he plays Arthur’s driver/assistant), I put in a last minute request for an interview and Guzman was kind enough to give me some time.  We discussed how he got into acting, working on Arthur, the Robin costume, how he got connected with Anderson, what’s his criteria for choosing material, who does he play in Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, and he tells me that he’s developing a comedy and drama with the goal of producing them himself.  Hit the jump to watch.

In the new modern version of Arthur, Russell Brand reinvents the role of loveable billionaire Arthur Bach, a perpetual child who relies on his charm and limitless fortune to get by in life. His lifelong nanny and only true friend, Hobson (Helen Mirren), keeps him out of trouble while his icy cold mother (Geraldine James) wishes he would grow up and be more responsible, as sole heir to the family business, Bach Worldwide. When it becomes clear that Arthur has no plans to ever change, he is given an ultimatum to marry the beautiful but unlovable Susan Johnson (Jennifer Garner), an ambitious corporate exec who wants the family name, in order to run the company, which must be headed by a Bach. If he doesn’t stay in line, he will have to say goodbye to the billion-dollar inheritance that feeds his way of life. But then, he meets and falls for New York City tour guide Naomi (Greta Gerwig), who not only makes him want to take charge of his own life, but become the man that even he didn’t think he could ever be.

At the film’s press day, director Jason Winer (Modern Family) did this exclusive interview with Collider where he talked about making the transition from TV director to feature director, finding the women to fill Arthur’s world, getting over the initial nervousness of working with someone as accomplished as Helen Mirren, how he prefers to let scene takes play out from beginning to end instead of doing line pick-ups, and developing his comedic sensibilities on the ABC TV comedy Modern Family. He also talked about currently directing the ABC pilot Don’t Trust the Bitch in Apartment 23 (which will assuredly will have a title change prior to airing), starring Krysten Ritter, Dreama Walker and James Van Der Beek, as a version of himself. Check out what he had to say after the jump: