I can’t believe that it’s now the end of August! Soon the winter blockbusters will be knocking at our door and the next thing you know it’ll be Oscar time again. Where does time go? Is it playing like a re-run somewhere, can you just flick to another dimension to a time where you are still awaiting a fourth Indiana Jones movie? Who knows, but I do know that it’s another Weekend Movie News Wrap up featuring a new aspect: a weekend box office update.

This week:

After our box office round-up we see what George Clooney and Jason Reitman are doing Up in the Air, we find out what former superhero is joining the Toy Story franchise, we look at who might be helming the Poltergeist movie and the Voltron film and what is new on the Inglorious Bastards casting front.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter. Thank you for visiting and we look forward to reading your comments!

Want to ask us a question? Contact us directly.

Seriously, I’m asking: will Tropic Thunder, the much-hyped comedy starring Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr. (in black face, no less,) really have enough, well, thunder, to knock The Dark Knight out of its top spot at the box office on its one-month anniversary?

Man, I didn’t see this one coming.

Back in March when the photo of Robert Downey Jr as a black man appeared online, I figured the big outcry against Tropic Thunder would revolve around racism. While there has been some talk of “blackface” and how offensive it is in the trailers, by far the most attention has been focused on the use of the word “retard” in the film and the character “Simple Jack” from the fictional film of the same name.

Short version: Tropic Thunder is crass, gross and rude - but it’s also funny as hell.

Screen Rant reviews Tropic Thunder

Can i make this any more clear?

Leave. The kids. At Home.

Ok, got it? Let’s move on.

For adults, and for further clarification: Adults that don’t mind rude, crass humor - Tropic Thunder is a VERY funny movie.

We get busy, we miss stuff. Here are some of the items of note that didn’t get individual posts today…

- Seth Rogen won’t be a fat Green Hornet. (Super Hero Hype)

- Maybe Goonies 2 isn’t on track after all. (Cinematical)

- Kevin Smith’s Porno gets an R rating. (AP)

Doug Nagy from TheMovieBlog.com, Alex Billington from Firstshowing.net and me with the three stars of Bitch Slap at the Wrath of Con party

Another day at Comic-Con, another sore rear end from the uncomfortable seats in Hall H…

Today’s events included watching the Season 3 premiere episode of Heroes, which was a huge unexpected bonus. It looks like the show is getting its mojo back and if you’re a fan you’re really going to like it when it returns this Fall.

Gotta tell you guys, we’re having a blast. Somehow this year I’m relaxing more yet getting more posts out about the goings-on here at Comic-Con. Here’s a bit of a wrap up of yesterday (since it’s 3AM and no longer Friday).

I’ve enjoyed seeing some of my online movie buds in person again. Nice to actually hang out instead of just exchanging emails, Twitters and IMs.

The campaign is ramping up big time for the big summer comedy (that might actually turn out to be funny) Tropic Thunder. A week ago we told you about the Rain of Madness website which promotes a fake documentary about the film (it’s very funny and well worth checking out, BTW), and now we have a slew of additional ones for you.

It looks like The Dark Knight isn’t the only movie production that knows how to go viral: Tropic Thunder is trying it’s hand as well with a website touting a documentary about the making of Tropic Thunder. The kicker is that the “documentary” Rain of Madness treats what happens in Tropic Thunder as actual, real events.

From the MTV Movie Awards (which I never bother watching… way too “hip” for me, thanks) comes this “viral” promotional clip for Tropic Thunder. It starts out great with Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr and Jack Black. They manage to pull both Iron Man and Kung Fu Panda into a promo piece for Stiller’s film pretty creatively.

However, to me this is an example of one of the problems with comedy these days: Not knowing when to quit. I thought it was really quite funny for about the first minute and a half, but then it goes on for about another 2-3 full minutes and it literally beats the point of the skit into the ground. Overkill IMHO.

Plus watching Stiller kowtow to a stereotypical bored, disconnected teenager annoyed the heck out of me. On the other hand I really enjoyed Downey Jr in the skit.
Source: MTV