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CAST FROM THE PAST: Ivan the Terrible, Al Capone, and Napoleon size up the situation in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, which plays at the Regal Eagle Ridge 12 and at the Carmike.

PHOTO COURTESY OF 20th CENTURY FOX

SEBRING, May 25, 2009 – With screens in 7,000 theaters across North America, Ben Stiller’s Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian took the No. 1 spot at the box office with a $70 million four-day Memorial Day weekend (May 22-25).

Nipping at its heels was Terminator: Salvation, which hauled in $53.8 million at 600 fewer screens and $67.2 million if one includes the proceeds from its Thursday release.

The numbers were good for both franchises, though they benefitted from attendance by core audiences. The second weekend will tell much about each film’s staying power. Night 2 has no new hook to pin audience expectations on. Terminator offers new material and angles but without a major role by its chief villain/protagonist, Arnold.

Can Christian Bale and Sam Worthington carry the franchise? We rate the movie at Four Reels – good. Audiences have given it solid reviews; the critics less so.

The real winner in all this is Star Trek. Despite the plethora of box office blockbusters and openings, and Night 2 giving it the boot at the IMAX theaters, its audience dropped only 47 percent from its second to thirds weekend. It still made $29.7  million to finish at No. 3, and it is closing in on the $200 million mark.

In fourth place is Angels and Demons, which lost more than half its audience as it pulled in $27.7 million. If not for its play overseas, Angels and Demons would be a bust.

Dance Flick twisted into the No. 5 spot with a $13 million take. This R-rated spoof of dance films is a low for the Wayans brothers and will appeal to a select audience only. If you are in to a lot of silly, profane humor and goofy pratfalls, this may be your movie.

Three of the Top Five and six of the Top Ten national box office films played at the Fairmount Cinema 6, giving it yet another weekend win over its rival, corporate giant Carmike.

CRY HAVOC: If you have not already seen the latest trailer for Terminator: Salvation, check out the one above.

SEBRING, May 21, 2009 – Hold on to your seats!

They all have come back – John Connor, Sarah, Kyle Reese, even a special appearance – and they’re all kickin’ butt – or getting it kicked – in Terminator: Salvation, which opened this afternoon at the Fairmount Cinema 6.

The story is strong and the characters solid – though some might say Christian Bale, as John Connor, tries a little too hard, but we think he’s intuitive and gritty. Both the machines and the humans plan a final assault on each other for world dominance. But there’s a problem.

Enter murderer Marcus Wright. He does not know how he got from 2003 to 2018, the past to the present, but here he is in a war-torn, nuclear-wasted U.S. of A., where robot ships, robot serpents, and building-sized walkers with human-snatching metal claws are always on thunderous patrol.

Is he friend or foe of John Connor? Will Connor’s plan save humanity or sacrifice it to the machines?

The questions are answered in the latest Terminator, but remember: one man’s deliverance is another man’s destruction. Plus, there’s a surprise, tons of action, and excellent special effects courtesy of Industrial Light & Magic!

Terminator: Salvation is rated PG-13 for intense action scenes and plays at the Fairmount Cinema 6. Our Sebring Cinema and Sports rating, based on 0 to 5 reels, 0 being a bomb and 5 a classic:

METAL GOD: Those fire-in-the-eyes robots return to erase mankind from the face of the earth in Terminator: Salvation, which opens today (Thursday, May 21) at the Fairmount Cinema 6.

PHOTO COURTESY OF WARNER BROS.

Sebring, May 21, 2009 – The big Memorial Day weekend begins Thursday with the wide release of Terminator Salvation.

Locally, the fourth installment of the series shows at the Fairmount Cinema 6 in Sebring. It has a full schedule with matinees at 2:00 and 4:30 p.m. and in the evening at 7:00 and 9:30.

When Friday rolls around, Terminator will duke it out with Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. The Ben Stiller sequel will air at 500 more theaters and will boot Star Trek off most of the IMAX screens, but even then some predict Terminator: Salvation will sell more tickets.

It’s a tough call. Normally, I would say Night would win; however, this second film seems to lack story and compensate with too many characters and eye-popping effects. That could spell disappointment.

Night will open at the Regal Eagle Ridge and the Carmike.

Mitigating the appeal of Terminator: Salvation is its director, McG. He’s heavy on action, almost to the absurd, and weak on story and characters, so he has something to prove, especially with such a gem of a series.

The Wayans family will also audition for viewers’ time this long weekend with Dance Flick, which also opens at the Fairmount. This comedy will be a nice counterpoint to the superfluity of sci-fi fantasy flicks that are out there.

Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend with time at the movies!

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (PG-13) – If visual stimuli are your thing (as they are for most people), then you have Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner to gawk at. If you need more than a spoonful of story and acting, this chick flick may not do it for you. It’s highly deriviative and not very imaginative with what it does use. It’s time for McConaughey to move on to different roles, but women I have spoken to love the film.

Monsters vs. Aliens (PG) – Imaginative, creative, and uproariously funny, this cartoon is especially touted for its 3D version. It’s been around for awhile, though, so now is the time to catch it before it goes.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (PG-13) – It is not getting the acclaim that Star Trek is, but we say Wolverine is a better film. The performances are stronger, in particular by Hugh Jackman, Liev Schrieber, and Lynn Collins as the love of Wolverine’s life, not to mention Danny Huston’s juicy villain, Col. Stryker.

Star Trek (PG-13) – The summer stunner that is raking in the bucks at the box office. Chris Pine is a young Cadet Kirk who ascends to starship captaincy all too sSoon. Add Zachary Quinto’s (Spock) feathery voice and plot holes you could fly a starship through, and you would think you have a bomb. No! Surprising performances, action, and fun elevate Star Trek to a good film, and that spells “Red alert” for those movies that compete against it.

We pronounce verdict on some of the recent offerings! We rate by reels, 0 being the worst and 5 being a classic. Most films rate somewhere in between. And here we go:

Angels and Demons (R) – More of Dan Brown’s anti-Catholic polemic. This time secret scientists are out for a vendetta against a brutal 500-year-old ecclesiastical act of repression. Like science never killed anyone. Ever hear of Dr. Mengele? Anthrax? Of course, it helps to have the moralistic face of Tom Hanks obscuring all the historical inaccuracies.

SEBRING, May 18, 2009 – In a vitual photo finish, Angels and DemonsStar Trek edged out to claim the No. 1 spot at the North American box office for the weekend of May 15-17.

Angels and Demons finished with an estimated $48 million take – about $30 million less than its predecessor, The Da Vinci Code. It foists the conspiracy theory on viewers that the Catholic Church opposed and brutally repressed scientific inquiry.

In fact, history has shown just the opposite. Take away the Catholic Church and science likely dies a slow death. But that facts gets in the way of Dan Brown’s anti-Catholic and anti-Christian imagination!

Meanwhile, Star Trek pushed the engine of its popularity to the limits, warping to a $43 million take and second place at the box office. Its popularity has exceeded expectations, and its 10-day cume is $151 million, second among all movies released this year. Only Monsters vs. Aliens sits in front of it, and that is likely to end in a few weeks.

The rest of the Top Five for the weekend are far behind: X-Men Origins: Wolverine at No. 3 with $14.8 million, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past with $6.9 million at No. 4, and Obsessed with $4.5 million at No. 5.

Four of the Top Five movies play at the Fairmount Cinema 6, with only Angels and Demons giving the Carmike a foothold. The Fairmount will likely keep its grip on the Top Five next weekend, despite the debut of Night at the Museum 2. Terminator: Salvation opens as well, and the Fairmount is hosting it. We had high hopes for Night at the Museum 2, but it appears to be overwritten, overacted, and overpopulated with characters and name stars, and that usually spells disappointment.

The battle between Terminator and Night will fascinate.Our expectation: Night at the Museum 2 will win the opening weekend battle but Terminator: Salvation will perform better over the long haul.

Wherever you go, whatever you see, have a great time at the movies!