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Looking through Shim Hyung-rae’s small oeuvre, it would only make sense for the South Korean comedian-turned-filmmaker to create a movie like Dragon Wars: D-War. As early as 1993, Shim was playing with monsters; his directorial debut, Young-Goo and Dinosaur Zu-Zu, is derivative of Gorgo, Mothra and the like. Shim returned soon after with more monster mayhem in two other obscurities: Tyranno’s Claws and Dragon Tukka. His big break then came in 1999 with the high-budget remake of 1967’s Yongary, Monster from the Deep. As exciting as the opportunity was, Shim ultimately experienced unforeseen hardship after directing what was, at the time, the most expensive Korean-produced movie.

Yonggary, or Reptilian in the West, led to a challenging period for Shim. This ‘99 movie could have easily been the end of his career. Strangely, though, it was not the critical derision that caused Shim’s personal crisis. On the contrary, a shady distribution...

Elissa Federoff, Neon’s head of distribution, on the Us release strategy for Bong Joon ho’s awards contender.

After six weekends at the North American box office, Bong Joon ho’s Palme d’Or winner Parasite has reached $14.5m en route to what its Us distributor hopes could be a final gross of over $20m. If the genre-bender succeeds it will signal another major milestone in a propulsive Us run for a film Neon says it refused to pigeon-hole as simply ‘South Korean’.

“We feel Bong is one of the greatest filmmakers in the world and believed this movie...

Godzilla

Directed by: Gareth Edwards

Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Bryan Cranston, Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, David Strathairn

Running Time: 2 hrs 2 mins

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: May 16, 2014

Plot: A big monster from the sea (Godzilla) comes ashore to settle his dues.

Who’S It For? Godzilla fans, I guess? Those who aren’t expecting Godzilla vs. [Insert Name Here].

Overall

Our karma for not recycling, disaster movie Godzilla pillages through a junkyard of genre elements that it expects acceptance for, given its state as a monster movie in 2014. But there can only be so many, as utilized at such an amount, before this becomes more than just embracing the territory, but feeding off of its radiation. By about the hundredth time a stupidly written scientist played by Ken Watanabe takes off his glasses in slow motion incredulity, or the 39th glance by an extra towards the dark sky after the power goes out,...

Starring Lindsay Lohan, porn star James Deen, and the great Gus Van Sant, Paul Schrader’s The Canyons is promising to be a very interesting film when it lands next year.

Written by Bret Easton Ellis, the first teaser trailer landed online last month, teasing a very indie noir/old school, and now the latest trailer has debuted online, giving us a better look at the film, and a first at some of its dialogue.

“The Canyons is a contemporary L.A. noir from director Paul Schrader, writer Bret Easton Ellis, and producer Braxton Pope about the dangers of sexual obsession and ambition, both personally and professionally, among a group of young people in their 20′s and how one chance meeting connected to the past unravels all of their lives, resulting in deceit, paranoia, cruel mind games and ultimately violence.”

Starring alongside Lohan, Deen, and Van Sant will also be...

Move over, Dragon Wars! Step aside, Skyline! Take a hike, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale! Empires of the Deep is coming to put the "epic" back in epic fail.

Bear witness to the trailer to see the hilarity three years of production and over $130 million have given life to.

I’ve been hearing off and on about this extremely troubled Chinese-American fantasy production Empires of the Deep for years, but it wasn’t until today that I really paid any attention to the hubbub. That’s because the trailer has found its way online, and my immediate thought after viewing it was that it was as if someone actually decided to spend a fortune producing an aquatic version of the fake science fiction epic Ben Affleck uses as a front to save Iranian hostages in Argo. Empires of the Deep exists. This is a real...

Lionsgate will release the action-filled comedy The Last Godfather from Korean comedy superstar Hyung Rae Shim (Dragon Wars: D-War) on DVD on Aug. 9.

Aided by Harvey Keitel (r.), Korean superstar Hyung Rae Shim guns for the U.S. market in The Last Godfather.

Hyung Rae Shim serves as writer, director and star of this 2010 Mafia-spoof film, which kicks off with Mob boss Don Carini (Harvey Keitel, Taxi Driver) getting ready to retire from the business of organized crime. Gathering the family together to announce his heir, the Don surprises everyone by anointing his goofy grownup love child, Younggu (Shim), as the next godfather. Needless to say, this doesn’t go down too well with ‘La Famiglia,’ who’d rather see Younggu sleeping with the fishes. And madcap shenanigans ensue.

Also starring Jason Mewes (Zack and Miri Make a Porno) and Michael Rispoli (Kick-Ass), The Last Godfather looks like it’s...

Barry Sonnenfeld's newly announced project "Dominion: Dinosaurs Versus Aliens" sounds like a Topps trading card mash-up, or the ultimate Steven Spielberg movie. Or, it's just the latest in a title-as-pitch kind of production mentality that's so far given us "Snakes on a Plane," "Dragon Wars," "Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus," and numerous silly SyFy Films and The Asylum knock-off releases. But this time it's not technically a B-movie. And though the trend is already reaching the majors big time this summer with "Cowboys & Aliens" and somewhat "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," people seem stunned by this news.…...

Can't get enough Norse god action this weekend? Marvel's Thor finally hits the big screen, and over on Syfy they'll premiere the new Asylum mockbuster Almighty Thor. One has Anthony Hopkins as the Norse god Odin; the other has pro wrestler Kevin Nash in the role. But which will you enjoy more after getting hammered?

Syfy has posted three clips promoting Almighty Thor. Actually, two clips and a TV spot. The TV spot comes first below.

The first actual scene from the movie showcases Patricia Velasquez's swordfighting skills as she contends with an escapee from Dragon Wars while Thor (Cody Deal) and Loki (Richard Grieco) take turns shooting each other with an uzi just like all Norse gods are known to do.

The second clip is just Thor fighting a knight in a rainstorm. The clip runs 2:30 but would probably have been only :30 if not for the use of slo-mo.

Sometimes hitting the multiplex just isn’t in the cards. That’s when Netflix steps in to provide a movie fix. But how to separate the wheat from the chaff? I’m happy to help; every week I’ll pick a flick from the Netflix Watch Instantly section and see if it’s worth your time. This week? “Dragon Wars”.

There are some times when I can’t start a review because I haven’t figured out how to put my thoughts into words. There are some times when I can’t start a review because I don’t know what my thoughts about a film are just yet. And there are times when I can’t start a review because the movie was so scathingly awful that all I really want to do is curl into the fetal and rock back and forth for an hour or two. With Dragon Wars,...

Thor has an uzi! Kevin Nash is Odin! Richard Grieco unleashes his own private Dragon Wars on Los Angeles! Did I mention Thor shooting an uzi? The gods command you to watch the marvelous trailer for The Asylum’s Almighty Thor right now!

Relative newcomer Cody Deal is the Norse god Thor, having left Valhalla for modern day Los Angeles to save our world from the evil Loki (Richard “Booker” Grieco), who has slain Odin (sports entertainer Kevin Nash), stolen the Hammer of Invincibility, and intends to devastate our world by unleashing giant monsters.

The Mummy’s Patricia Velasquez co-stars as a warrior princess of some sort.

Christopher Ray (Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus) directs.

The script for this one was penned by Eric Forsberg. You may recall him as the writer-director of Mega Piranha, the greatest Asylum movie of all time, in my humble opinion. He may have done it again.

As Age Of The Dragons arrives on DVD and Blu-ray, Duncan takes a look at the history of dragons in the movies…

It's no wonder so many of us have grown up geeky, for dragons have been a strong mainstay of children's movies for decades now. With their inextricable link to the fantasy genre, many of us have been brainwashed into a fixation with them before we even knew what was happening. Well, that's a decent enough excuse, anyway, should you ever find yourself needing one in a dragon-based argument, which I'm sure there aren't nearly enough of.

Pity the children growing up from the mid-nineties onwards, as they've barely been able to make it through one whole year without a dragon movie being released, a trend which sees no sign of slowing. This year has already seen the release of Age Of The Dragons, starring Danny Glover and Vinnie Jones...

Review in a Hurry: Part sci-fi thriller, part computer game, and part Marine recruiting video. A band of few-and-proud brothers fends off an alien invasion in this ultra-adrenalized Battle, which inspires some shock and awe with CGI effects, but misfires with stock characters and cheesoid dialogue. The Bigger Picture: Poor La La Land. Frequently decimated by acts of God (2012) and monsters (Dragon Wars), Los Angeles is now under siege by hostile extraterrestrials—the second time in a year (Skyline). But if you're expecting to see iconic Hollywood landmarks blasted to bits, you might be disappointed. This Battle rages mostly along the coast and is told pseudo-documentary style from the perspective of a small...

Today we have the trailer for "The Last Godfather" slapstick comedy, which stars Harvey Keitel, Jason Mewes, Blake Clark, Jocelin Donahue, and South Korean comedian Shim Hyung Rae. Check it out below. Plot: In 1950s New York, a Mafia boss (Keitel) foolishly tries to train his lovable but dim-witted Korean lovechild (Shim) to be his successor. The film is described as "the Korean version of Mr. Bean." Shim not only stars in the movie, but he also directed it. His previous helming effort was "Dragon Wars," which performed well in Korea and in the Us. "The Last Godfather" is now set to get a limited release on April 1st. Trailer: If you cannot see the player, click here.

[1] Roadside Attractions has released a new trailer for The Last Godfather, directed by and starring South Korean comedian Shim Hyung Rae. The film features Harvey Keitel as a mob boss who decides to retire and pass on the torch to his illegitimate son Younggu (Shim), a bumbling idiot he fathered while hiding out in Korea. Keitel's character asks his men to prepare Younggu for the new role, and slapsticky hijinks ensue. Blake Clark, Jason Mewes and Jocelin Donahue also star. Watch the trailer after the jump. A little background: Younggu is a lovable simpleton character that Shim became famous for in South Korea during the '80s, when he was in his 20s. Shim describes [2] Younggu as "the Korean version of Mr. Bean," and would like to see Younggu become an international icon like his British counterpart. The Last Godfather is his attempt at making that happen. The film opened...

A couple of weeks ago we gave you an early look [1] at Danny Glover as Captain Ahab in Age of the Dragons (previously titled Dragon Fire), the low-budget reimagining of Herman Melville's Moby Dick which sees the titular white whale replaced with a white dragon. Now there's an international trailer for the film, which also stars Vinnie Jones. Watch it after the break. I'm not gonna lie, the movie looks pretty bad. It may share the same basic narrative with the revered literary classic, but it doesn't carry with it any of the same sophistication, nor does it intend to. To quote the film's own executive producer, "It’s Moby Dick with way more excitement, way more action." That quote is probably best read with several exclamation marks tagged on the end of it. Still, for a budget of $5 million, there are some occasional impressive visual flourishes to be found within this trailer,...

KoreaTimes reported today that the new slapstick comedy The Last Godfather will be opening in 12 cities across the United States and Canada on April 1, care of Roadside Attractions, before hitting European and Asian theaters. The movie was directed, produced and written by former comedian Shim Hyung-rae (also known as Ray Shim), a name you might remember as the writer, director and producer of Dragon Wars, which was released widely in the Us a few years ago. Shim also stars in the film as the idiot son of a mafia boss played by Harvey Keitel, who is being trained as successor to his father. Jason Mewes (as in Jay in Jay & Silent Bob) also stars, as do Michael Rispoli, Blake Clark and Jocelin Donahue (from The House Of The Devil). According to the article, the film is a parody of Francis Ford Coppola's gangster franchise.

The time has come. The stars have aligned. Mega Python vs. Gatoroid premieres on Syfy this weekend. Tiffany and Debbie Gibson are so excited the two one-time teen pop singers have recorded new songs for the soundtrack.

Saturday, January 29th, at 9Pm Est/8Pm Cst on Syfy: Giant python collides with giant alligator as the biggest teen pop princesses of the late 1980s collide in their own long overdue smackdown. Deborah Gibson is an overzealous animal rights activist who releases mutant pythons into the Florida Everglades. Tiffany is a park ranger so angry over her boyfriend's death she feeds steroids to some hungry gators in hopes of creating a bigger, meaner, hungrier gatoroid to eat them pythons. The result will no doubt mark the greatest cinematic clash of giant reptiles since Dragon Wars.

A Martinez ("One Life to Live") and Kathryn Joosten ("Desperate Housewives") co-star. Mary Lambert (Pet Sematary) directs.

Presumably due to the alleged post-Avatar fame factor of Zoe Saldana, this 2006 movie has just hit selected theaters in the United States. Certainly, there can be no other reason for any distributor (in this case, Freestyle Releasing, who also brought us Dragon Wars, The Collector, and I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell) to invest in what plays like a student film out of Tisch by some spoiled undergrad whose parents unquestioningly paid full tuition just to keep their kid out of their basement. As such, The Heart Specialist appears to be inspired by hospital-based television dramedy, but production values are exceedingly low to the point that this crap would never even make it onto daytime television. While a bare-bones approach isn't unusual for a small-budget labor of love, this movie doesn't even bother with opening titles, so the shift from opening previews to the actual movie is rather...

From the guy who gave us CG Korean dragons and other assorted creatures rampaging across Los Angeles in “Dragon Wars” aka “D-War” comes … “The Last Godfather”. Check out the rather amusing trailer for writer/director/star Shim Hyung-rae’s “The Last Godfather”, a mafia comedy that co-stars Harvey Keitel and Jason Mewes. There are two positives that I can already tell about “Godfather” from the trailer: one) no stupid CG dragons slithering about; and two) the Western actors actually look decent in this thing, never a sure bet when it comes to Asian films casting Western actors in their movies, invariably to play some dude name “Smith” or “John”. And I mean, Harvey Keitel! That’s a major get for Shim, to be sure. In 1951, Don Carini, the most powerful godfather in the mafia gathers all his followers to announce the heir to the family. The head of each department...

I'm not sure what's more surprising here: That Dragons Wars director Hyung-Rae Shim has followed up his special effects spectacle with a slice of nostalgic slapstick comedy, that he somehow managed to cast Harvey Keitel in it, that Keitel is playing his own father, or that it looks very, very funny. Because all of these things are true. Here's the story.

Before striking out as a director Shim made his name as a television comedian in Korea, the peak of his fame coming in the 1980s with the creation of a clumsy, socially awkward,, not particularly bright character named Younggu. From what little I've seen I've Younggu he's kind of like Mr Bean crossed with Buster Keaton and the character has appeared in a long string of films and television shows.

Jump forward a bit. Tired of the TV comedy world Shim opted to move into directing which he appeared...

It's easy to dismiss Hot Tub Time Machine as a time-travel comedy fueled by dirty mouths and dirtier jokes. And while it is that, it's also a spit-take-inducingly-funny satire of the '80s and more specifically '80s films.

The casting of '80s king John Cusack is genius, but the nostalgic nods don't end there. Of course, there's a backward-looking soundtrack, but Hot Tub Time Machine also gleefully references some of the decade's best comedies, including Back to the Future and Better Off Dead. On the surface, it seems hopelessly behind the times when it comes to gender, sexuality, and race, but it's all done with a wink at the idiocy of '80s films, playing with the ideas behind the decade and its cinematic offerings.

That's not to say that Hot Tub Time Machine is a quality film that pays equal attention to camera angles, plot development and character arcs.

Howdy Inter-webbers. I’m Matt Cohen, and I dig dragons.

Something about the mythical beasts always did it for me. Call it a combination of aesthetics - Disney “Villains” meet traditional folklore monsters with a twist of Tolkein thrown into the pot. However, besides the awesome Pete’S Dragon, the decent Dragonheart, and the awful Reign Of Fire, there haven’t really been any dragon movies of note (I saw Dragon Wars. I’m not counting it on purpose… because I saw it). One reason for this may be simply due to technological constraints - because there’s certainly no lack of dragon fiction to adapt to the screen. How does one pull off a convincing dragon on screen? There seem to be two routes to this destination - The classic practical/rubber suit dragon and the more modern incarnation: The animated dragon. Like most things that adapt with time,...

Last month Rue Morgue gave rightful honor on their cover to Daybreakers which changed the vampire scene up a bit. This month looks at the legacy of Paul Naschy and the monster movies he left behind. Check out the classic cover art and be sure to nab this one in stores now....

To visit Rue Morgue and subscribe please click here.

The Creature Incarnate

When Paul Naschy died this past November, he left behind a legacy of monster movies. In an exclusive 2007 interview, the actor, writer, director and producer talks about being the “Lon Chaney of Spain.”

Plus: The essential Naschy filmography, and an interview with his biographer.

by Mirek Lipinski, Shade Rupe and The Gore-met

A Fatal Portrait

After more than 30 years and twenty albums, King Diamond reflects upon a legendary career as horror metal’s reigning showman. All hail!

Plus: A new documentary reveals the true face of Norwegian black metal,...

The first decade of the new millennium has come to an end, and that means it is now time for film sites all over the web to begin posting their various retrospectives and lists recalling the decade that was. I generally as a rule dislike such lists because they are always so subjective. Then I said screw it and took it upon myself to do one of my own naming the ten worst horror movies of the past decade. Besides, people love bitching on the Internet about lists like this, and who am I to deny readers yet another excuse to get into pointless flame wars over personal opinions.

Of course, this list is just my personal opinion which is not legally binding ... unless Proposition 304 passes. And we all pray that it will.

I set two rules when putting this list together: Only horror movies that received fairly wide theatrical...

This decade's Secret Shames are, more often than not, the next decade's Hangover Theater films. It's a decade-long process, really. Movies debut on the screen to terrible reviews, eventually get aired on television cable on a loop, and then viewers inexplicably get caught up in them, revel in their atrociousness, and a consensus begins to form until films once thought to be terrifically heinous can be collectively appreciated on the so-bad-it's good scale. The next thing you know, it's in your DVD collection, and you're waking up on a Saturday morning covered in your own drool and begging your roommate to pop in fucking Joe Dirt because you can't bear anything more intelligent.

Over the years, Secret Shames have been a popular topic on Pajiba -- it takes an intelligent audience, I suppose, to own up to their guilty pleasures without fear of reproach. And as someone familiar with thousands...

While Deon Taylor’s Twisted Pictures slasher opus Chain Letter still awaits a confirmed release date, one of the director’s earlier fright flicks is now headed for theaters. Deon Taylor Enterprises/Vista Taylor will bring Dead Tone to select cities beginning September 3, and have made a deal for the home releases as well.

Originally titled 7Eventy 5Ive (and previously set for January 2008 U.S. DVD release by CodeBlack Entertainment under that moniker), Dead Tone is the supposedly fact-based story of college students who engage in a prank-calling contest; the object is to scare the person at the other end for 75 seconds. Unfortunately for them, one of the people they ring up is a psychopath who doesn’t think their game is very funny. Taylor helmed the film with Brian Hooks (who also stars) from a script they wrote with Vashon Nutt; the cast additionally includes Jud Tylor, Cherie Johnson,...

You don’t need a lot of money to make a good movie set in a world after the apocalypse. Sure, having some money helps, but more often than not, it’s all about the characters and story. The film “Remnants” will be working with a $5 million dollar budget, which is more than enough to make a good movie, in my opinion, and the story sure sounds tempting. From the Electric Film Sales site (via the boys over at Quiet Earth): Eclectic Film Sales, Inc. is pleased to announce that pre-production has begun on Remnants, an exciting sci-fi action-thriller starring Jason Behr (Dragon Wars, The Grudge), Jena Malone (Into The Wild, The Ruins), and Shane West (Walk To Remember, Dracula 2000). The nuclear apocalypse of World War 3 has ravaged Earth. Now for the few lucky survivors trapped in a rural Texas bomb shelter, life has become a dangerous game...

Call me crazy but this Mutant Chronicles movie looks like a damn good time! And I don't mean that in an Iron Man sorta way but in a B-movie kinda way. (Then again, I also thought that Dragon Wars looked cool...) There's a new trailer online and clearly this film doesn't have the biggest budget but what they're doing with it is semi-impressive. And I'm pretty much down anytime you've got Thomas Jane in a movie. After that JoBlo.com/Thomas Jane encounter in a hotel lobby at Comic-Con two...

Even in a cast as large and talented as The Office's, comedian-actor Craig Robinson stands out. As the foreman of the Dunder Mifflin warehouse, Robinson plays the foil to Steve Carell's clueless boob of a middle manager, who sees Robinson as his mentor in the mysterious ways of African-American culture. Since making his name with The Office, Robinson has branched out into feature films, establishing himself as a popular member of Judd Apatow's repertory company: He scored roles in Walk Hard, last year's hit action-comedy Pineapple Express, and in Knocked Up, where he played a wry bouncer with a strong anti-old-pregnant-bitches policy. Though he still dabbles in juicy bit parts, he had a sizable supporting turn in Kevin Smith's Zack And Miri Make A Porno, and he co-starred in the Korean monster movie Dragon Wars. The A.V. Club recently spoke with Robinson about The Office,...

Okay, Horror junkies there is a lot to choose from this week. Death Sentence, Joshua, and Boogyman 2, more straight to video, even (Trailer Trash) a grindhouse trailer 2 disc Set hosted by (soft horror-porn scream queen) Misty Mundae. There’s enough this week to have a full sleasefest of B-budget goodness.

Here Goes...

Click On Any Of The Images To Buy From Amazon:

January 8 DVD Releases

Addiction (special edition): Brain Damage

After accidentally killing a mugger in self-defense, a mild mannered businessman has trouble reconciling the flood of emotions he has become engorged withrage, excitement, joy and even lust. These feelings soon blossom into a deadly addiction of desire, desperation and total dependence, which is simply a desperate rush that he cannot live without.

Beastly Boyz (special edition): Ariztical

A young man avenges the death of his twin sister by a group of violent young men at a secluded sports camp.

Okay, Horror junkies there is a lot to choose from this week. Death Sentence, Joshua, and Boogyman 2, more straight to video, even (Trailer Trash) a grindhouse trailer 2 disc Set hosted by (soft horror-porn scream queen) Misty Mundae. There’s enough this week to have a full sleasefest of B-budget goodness.

Here Goes...

Click On Any Of The Images To Buy From Amazon:

January 8 DVD Releases

Addiction (special edition): Brain Damage

After accidentally killing a mugger in self-defense, a mild mannered businessman has trouble reconciling the flood of emotions he has become engorged withrage, excitement, joy and even lust. These feelings soon blossom into a deadly addiction of desire, desperation and total dependence, which is simply a desperate rush that he cannot live without.

Beastly Boyz (special edition): Ariztical

A young man avenges the death of his twin sister by a group of violent young men at a secluded sports camp.

R-rated pics had guns a-blazing last weekend, as Warner Bros. opened Jodie Foster's avenging-woman thriller The Brave One at No. 1 with $13.5 million, followed by Lionsgate's Western 3:10 to Yuma with $8.9 million.

Brave -- directed by Neil Jordan, produced by Joel Silver and co-financed by Warners and Village Roadshow -- did particularly well with older women despite its violent content. Yuma, starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, used a modest 35% drop in its second frame to forge a 10-day domestic cume of $28.3 million.

New Line's Billy Bob Thornton-toplined comedy Mr. Woodcock debuted with $8.8 million in third place, while Sony's Superbad finished fourth with $5.1 million in its fifth weekend for a $111.2 million cume. Freestyle/Younggu-Art's action fantasy Dragon Wars saw $5 million to open in fifth.

Industrywide, the weekend's top 10 films rung up $59.7 million in domestic boxoffice, according to Nielsen EDI. That represents a 6% uptick from top performers compared with the same weekend a year ago.

Among limited openings, David Cronenberg's well-reviewed Eastern Promises rung up a promising $547,092 from just 15 screens. Focus Features will use the film's buzz-building performance of $36,473 per screen to expand the thriller about the Russian mob in London to at least 1,350 runs Friday.

Jodie Foster braved a distracted marketplace to throttle all domestic boxoffice competition this weekend, as Warner Bros. opened her avenging-woman thriller The Brave One at No. 1 with an estimated $14 million.

Directed by Neil Jordan, the R-rated pic produced by Silver Pictures and co-financed by Warners and Village Roadshow Pictures fended off a pair of rival wide openers and a couple leggy holdovers.

Lionsgate's Russell Crowe-starring Western 3:10 to Yuma finished second in its sophomore outing, sliding only 35% from opening grosses to notch another $9.2 million. That yielded a 10-day cume of $28.6 million for Relativity-funded Yuma.

New Line's Bill Bob Thornton-toplined comedy Mr. Woodcock debuted with $9.1 million in third place, while the Freestyle/Younggu-Art action fantasy Dragon Wars whipped up $5.4 million to bow in fourth place. And Sony's Superbad laugher finished No. 5 in its fifth frame, with $5.2 million and a $111.3 million cume.

Industrywide, distribs rung up an estimated $79 million in collective boxoffice, according to data tracker Nielsen EDI. That represents a 2% uptick from the same weekend a year ago.

Though some will note the frame's underwhelming aggregate, many will see the industry's glass half full, as the marketplace notches a 10th consecutive weekend uptick in boxoffice if the estimates hold up. The latest three-day performance comes despite non-theatrical competition including recently resumed football telecasts, back-to-school activities for kids and parents, and even Sunday's Emmys programming.

Reviews for Brave One noted the film's violent content, but its opening audience still skewed heavily female. Some 70% of patrons were over 30, with 55% of those female.

"That's where we were, tracking-wise, going in," Warners distribution president Dan Felman noted. "So what we have is a film that is extremely well done (but) which works a little bit against the core audience."

Still, exit ratings in moviegoer surveys showed strong positive reactions especially among older females which bodes well for word of mouth down the road, Fellman said.

Indeed, the strong soph frame for Yuma demonstrates once again the solid playability of many older-skewing pics.

Since producing the critically praised "Spring in My Hometown" and helping to found the Pusan International Film Festival's marketplace, the Pusan Promotion Plan, in the 1990s, Jeong Tae-sung has served as chief operating officer at Showbox, one of South Korea's biggest movie companies. At Showbox, a Mediaplex affiliate, Jeong has been involved in many of the biggest blockbusters in Korean history, including "The Host" and "Taegukgi". Just ahead of the Aug. 1 Showbox release of "D-War", the most expensive Korean movie ever made, Jeong chatted with The Hollywood Reporter's Korea correspondent, Mark Russell.

THR: Is everything on track for "D-War"?

Jeong: Yes, we just had the first screening of the finished film anywhere in Los Angeles last week. It opens in Korea on Aug. 1, on over 500 screens. Then, it opens in the United States in mid-September on around 1,500 screens.

We are targeting both young people and families in Korea, along with people in their 30s who might fondly remember director Shim Hyung-rae's children's movies of the 1980s and '90s. In fact, this time we are focusing our marketing on Shim, because everyone in Korea knows him and his films.

Even though his last film (the 1999 monster movie "Yonggari") did not do well, he did not give up.