These movie were newly released on DVD, May 1st. Just click on the links to purchase the movie posters:

• Dreamgirls (Drama) – Starring: Cast: Jamie Foxx, Beyoncé Knowles, Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Hudson, Keith Robinson; Directed by: Bill Condon
• The Hitcher (Horror) – Starring: Cast: Sean Bean, Sophia Bush, Zachary Knighton, Neal McDonough, Danny Bolero; Directed by: Dave Meyers
• Little Children (Drama) – Starring: Cast: Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly, Jackie Earle Haley, Trini Alvarado, Noah Emmerich, Patrick Wilson, Sadie Goldstein, Ty Simpkins; Directed by: Todd Field

The comedy spoof Epic Movie debuted atop the box office weekend bringing in $19.2 million, and bumping the Oscar contenders from the top stop.

Smokin’ Aces the hip, cool albeit dark and violent comedy came in second with $14.3 million. Night at the Museum is still hanging in there as it takes third place bringing in $9.5 million boosting its six week total to $217 million.

Four oscar nominated movies followed: Dreamgirls, The Pursuit of Happyness, Pan’s Labyrinth and The Queen.

The Hitcher rounds out the top ten taking in $3.6 million.

You can purchase the posters to the above-mentioned movies by clicking on the links below:

• Epic Movie – $19.2 million
• Smokin’ Aces – $14.3 million
• Night at the Museum – $9.5 million
• Catch and Release – $8 million
• Stomp the Yard – $7.8 million
• Dreamgirls – $6.6 million
• The Pursuit of Happyness – $5 million
• Pan’s Labyrinth – $4.5 million
• The Queen – $4 million
• The Hitcher – $3.6 million

The top ten movies at the box office for the weekend of January 19-21

• Stomp the Yard
• Night at the Museum
• Dreamgirls
• The Hitcher
• The Pursuit of Happyness
• Freedom Writers
• Pan’s Labyrinth
• Children of Men
• The Queen
• Arthur and the Invisibles

Ben Stiller’s Night at the Museum brings in $24 million to stay on top at the box office for a third consecutive week (3 week domestic total: $164.1 million). Pursuit of Happyness starring Will Smith finished in second place again bringing in $13 millon dollars (2 weeks domestic total: $124.2 million). Children of Men expands its debut and leads the new wide releases by coming in third with $10. 3 million.

Debuting in fourth place is Freedom Writers starring Hilary Swank. It brings in $9.7 million while in limited release.

Happily N’Ever After by the makers of Shrek was big disappointment debuting in sixth place bringing in $6.8 million.

• Night at the Museum - $24 million
• The Pursuit of Happyness - $13
• Children of Men – $10.3
• Freedom Writers – $9.7
• Dreamgirls - $8.8
• Happily N’Ever After - $6.8
• Charlotte’s Web – $6.6
• The Good Shepherd – $6.5
• Rocky Balboa – $6.3
• We Are Marshall – $5.1

Dreamgirls has heart. Read on:

Bill Condon’s adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Dreamgirls — the story of the rise of a singing group not unlike The Supremes — is slick and glitzy, and while it sometimes feels stagebound, it comes with a good measure of heart. The heart also feels slick and glitzy, but that may be the nature of the hit Broadway musical these days.

Moreover, Dreamgirls is actually about things: the perfidy of the music business, the theft of black American culture by the great white-bread factory of homogenized art, the real-seeming story of one woman whose talent is overlooked because she’s deemed not attractive enough for television.

That’s quite a bit for a movie, let alone a musical, but Dreamgirls, for all its virtues, feels mostly just slick and glitzy, rather than soulful and tragic. This may be because it is, after all, the story of a singing group not unlike The Supremes, a 1960s concoction of much nightclub pizzazz and a lot of hummable hits. Its soul-searching lasts for two-thirds of the movie and then, like some group that has found Top 40 success, it gives in to the easy temptation of the upbeat finish.

Not that it’s the story of Diana Ross or anything. In Dreamgirls she’s called Deena (Beyonce Knowles) one of the three Dreamettes, a trio in 1960s Detroit that also includes Lorell (Anika Noni Rose) and Effie (Jennifer Hudson). The Dreamettes are pretty indistinguishable from other groups in 1960s Detroit — the movie opens at a talent contest of various black groups in electric-blue costumes and synchronized choreography — except for the remarkable voice of Effie. It’s an instrument that can take an R&B song and make it a kind of spiritual of heartbreak, and there’s one scene in which Hudson turns her signature song “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going,” about a love that won’t let her live, into a bluesy recitative. It’s a scene that propels Hudson’s performance into something special, and it helps make Dreamgirls a kind of Motown opera.

There are several famous names in Dreamgirls: Jamie Foxx is Curtis Taylor, an entrepreneur not unlike Berry Gordy, a car salesman who becomes the manager of the Dreamettes and later their Svengali, stealing music and removing its soul to make it palatable to the masses. Eddie Murphy is James Thunder Early, a soul singer not unlike James Brown, whose thrusting pelvis, slicked-back hair and a certain desperation behind that huge Murphy grin make him into a character both tragic and audacious. It’s Murphy’s best work in years; he even showcases a passable singing voice.

Click on the link below to read the entire article

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Dreamgirls Movie Posters

View the trailer

In theaters now

Synopsis:
Set in the turbulent late 1960s and early ’70s, a trio of women — Effie (Jennifer Hudson), Deena (Beyoncé Knowles) and Lorrell (Anika Noni Rose) — form a promising girl group called The Dreamettes. At a talent competition, they are discovered by an ambitious manager named Curtis Taylor, Jr. (Jamie Foxx), who offers them the opportunity of a lifetime: to become the back-up singers for headliner James “Thunder” Early (Eddie Murphy). Curtis gradually takes control of the girls’ look and sound, eventually giving them their own shot in the spotlight as The Dreams. That spotlight, however, begins to narrow in on Deena, finally pushing the less attractive Effie out altogether. Though the Dreams become a crossover phenomenon, they soon realize that the cost of fame and fortune may be higher than they ever imagined.

Cast: Jamie Foxx, Beyoncé Knowles, Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Hudson, Keith Robinson; Directed by: Bill Condon

Dreamgirls Movie Posters