The #1 movie over the past weekend (8/29-8/31) was Tropic Thunder for a third weekend. It came in with $14,602,121 for a total gross so far of $86,935,945. The movie that came in #2 ($11,541,571) was the futuristic Vin Diesel Children of Men-rip off flick Babylon A.D. Despite the brief return to real acting in Sidney Lumet’s Find Me Guilty two years ago, Diesel continues his downward slope into crappy action flicks. This one wasn’t screened for critics (shocker!), so I had to see it over the weekend. It wasn’t the worst movie I’ve ever seen (or even the worst Diesel movie I’ve ever seen…which would be 2005’s The Pacifier), but it was just so bland for an action flick. There were a couple of cool toys, like a paper map that you could scroll down in the way you can do if you use Google Maps, but overall, it didn’t do anything for me. If you want to see a good movie from last weekend, check out the #5 movie ($11,507,654 from the previous Wednesday)…the political thriller Traitor, starring Don Cheadle and co-written by comedian Steve Martin. Think 2005’s Syriana…only not so long and boring. (more…)