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This weekend At the Movies, Rolling Stone’s film critic Peter Travers celebrates the 40th anniversary of a certain legendary music festival by tripping back to 1969 with Taking Woodstock. The film has all the ingredients needed for a great film: an Oscar-winning director in Ang Lee, top-notch actors like Emile Hirsch and Liev Schreiber and a world-famous, generation-spanning event at its epicenter. Unfortunately, the film never actually makes it to Woodstock, opting to tell the story of how the festival made its way to Yasgur’s Farm in upstate New York instead the story of the fest itself.

In the latest episode of Peter Travers’ chat show Off the Cuff, Halloween 2 director Rob Zombie swings by the office to discuss chick flicks (Zombie calls He’s Not That Into You “excruciating”), how blogs have diminished the role of the movie critic and the possibility of Zombie making a feature-length version of his Grind House trailer, Were-Women of the SS.

“Quentin is saying that Inglourious Basterds is the end-all, be-all of Nazi films, so he either beat me to the punch, or it’s the return of the Nazi film,” Zombie says of the project. “So if that’s a big smash, Nazis are
the new black. They’re back. And ours is one step more because they’re werewolf Nazis.”

Photo: Universal Pictures
So Quentin Tarantino scores his biggest opening weekend ($37.6 million) with *Inglourious Basterds* and the media gives Brad Pitt all the credit for bringing the babes into Quentin’s violent world. How come Pitt couldn’t even bring a mouse into theaters showing *The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford*? Damn you, Hollywood! Don’t even give us a minute to think that maybe, just maybe, audiences lined up for *IG* because they thought QT was onto something with his World War II fantasia. Anyway, let Tarantino enjoy his day as “The Man With the Big Sombrero” (a song used in the film). If the box-office dips precipitously next week, the media basterds will surely blame QT not golden boy Brad. What’s really irritating is that Pitt’s role is far from front and center. *IG* belongs evil heart and soul to Austrian actor Christoph Waltz as the alluring Nazi monster Hans Landa. Right now, the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor is in Waltz’s pocket. The character is one of QT’s most inspired creations. Maybe *the* most inspired. Which brings me to today’s topic. If not Hans Landa, who do you think is the most memorable character Tarantino has ever created? Here are my nominees:

For those who love the cinema, this weekend presents possibly the most anticipated film of 2009: Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, or as Peter Travers calls it, QT’s How I Won the War. A
revenge film with dozens of subplots, the plot boils down to this: Brad Pitt stars as Lt. Aldo Raine, a backwoods hick from Tennessee that demands that each of his Jewish-American soldiers give him 100 Nazi scalps while under serving under “Aldo the Apache.” It’s all revisionist history, from a fiery film premiere that brings the upper crust of the Nazi regime—including Adolf Hitler—to the recruitment of a British film critic/soldier named Archie Hicox, sensationally played by actor Michael Fassbiner. This is Tarantino’s vision of World War II, and it’s a breath of fresh air.

Peter Travers has had a bad week. Not only did he pay his own hard-earned money to see the deplorable G.I. Joe last week, millions around the world also spent a fraction of their paychecks seeing G.I. Joe, thereby ensuring that Travers will eventually have to stomach watching G.I. Joe 2.

But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves, since there’s a new film in theaters this weekend that rewards us all for enduring the Transformers 2s of the Hollywood world, and this new film is called District 9. Produced by Lord of the Rings‘ Peter Jackson and written and directed by South African first-timer Neill Blomkamp, the pair only needed $30 million to make the must-see sci-fi film of the summer. And yes, that includes Star Trek.

Read Peter Travers’ full review of District 9.

Photo: Paramount Pictures

The craptacular *G.I. Joe* hit paydirt on opening weekend — $56 million here at home, another $44 million from the rest of the world. With *Transformers 2* inching toward $400 million, we have proof positive that the creative locus of Hollywood now resides within the Hasbro toy company. Funeral services for plot and characterization will be announced shortly. *G.I. Joe* also marks the end of summer for action blockbusters that cost north of $100 and feature special effects in starring roles. As an experiment, let’s look at the budget-busting toy movies that opened this summer and see if there’s even one that actually achieves excellence and bears repeat viewings. I know what I’d pick for Best (hint: pointy ears) and Worst (hint: Michael Bay). But you go first. Here’s the list:

This morning, while most of you were still sleeping, Peter Travers did something very adventurous for this week’s At The Movies: He went to his local movie theater, plunked down $10 and change and went to see a matinee screening of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra because Paramount Pictures wouldn’t let film critics get a sneak peek. After 120 action-packed minutes, Travers emerged from with some good news: G.I. Joe is not worse than the decade’s most abominable film, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. However, that doesn’t mean by any stretch that G.I. Joe is a good film, it’s “big, loud and galactically stupid,” according to Travers. It’s just better than Transformers 2, but still worse than everything else in theaters now.

Read Travers’ review of *G.I. Joe* here.

John Hughes hadn’t written and directed a movie in years. But his death of a heart attack today on a visit to Manhattan pulled me up short. Hughes was 59, but his unique talent was for writing about the teenager in all of us, the one we don’t leave behind no matter how old we get. Hughes never talked down his characters.

“The extraordinary doesn’t interest me,” he said. “I’m interested in the person you don’t expect to have a story.” Judd Apatow and Wes Anderson are just two of the filmmakers who credit the Hughes influence on their work. And so, referencing the first movie he directed, I’d like to light 16 candles in honor of indelible John Hughes movie moments. You are welcome to share yours:

When Hollywood does something that pisses us off, we will react! Our new segment Damn You Hollywood! kicks off with Peter Travers taking aim at Paramount, the studio that gave us the abysmal *Transformers 2*. Now they’ve decided no critics can see *GI Joe* in advance. Does Peter care? Nope. He’ll be checking out the first regular performance of the film Friday morning and will have a complete report. Stay tuned.

Photo: Tracy Bennett

I have to ask. Is it possible for *Funny People* to hit the box office sweet spot of No. 1 with a $23.4 million weekend take and still be a fizzle? *The New York Times*’ headline this morning declares: “*Funny People* Disappoints at Box Office.” Huh? What? The tone of the article suggests that filmmaker Judd Apatow spent too much dough ($75 miilion) to make a serious comedy that might disappoint fans of Apatow’s *The 40 Year-Old Virgin* and *Knocked Up* (both costing about $30 million). And what was Apatow thinking by casting his megastar friend Adam Sandler in a movie about a comedian battling a potentially terminal disease. If I’m reading right, Apatow and Sandler have let down audiences by trying to grow as filmmakers. WTF? That kind of message precisely pinpoints what’s wrong with how movies are perceived in our current culture. By box-office standards, *Transformers 2* is a triumph and *Hurt Locker* is an arty gnat that deserves squashing.

(Check out photos of the Stars in Judd Apatow’s Universe.)

After a weak week of new movies, At the Movies with Peter Travers is just giddy about Judd Apatow’s third film Funny People, starring Adam Sandler (Apatow’s former roommate when the pair were struggling stand-ups),Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann and the rest of the Apatow Universe of actors. Apatow continues his penchant for blending comedy with emotion that he established with The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, telling the story of a successful comedic actor who looks to change his life after a health scare.

(Freaks, Geeks and Paul Rudd: The Stars in Judd Apatow’s Universe.)

Sandler’s George Simmons—who, like Sandler, stars in some terrible comedies—recruits Rogen to write jokes for him and ultimately forms a bond with his funny apprentice, all while trying to win back the girl who got away (played by Mann, Apatow’s real wife.) Jason Schwartzmann, Eric Bana and even Eminem (in a cameo) also appear in the so-called “cancer comedy.” Travers says Sandler delivers his best performance yet, which is quite a feat when you factor in the underrated Punch-Drunk Love. Apatow, meanwhile, stills shows “a maturity that still allows for dick jokes,” Travers adds, and thankfully the dick jokes are great.

Courtesy of TriStar Pictures

It chills my blood to report the box-office results for the weekend. American moviegoers have chosen to throw love and money at a bunch of talking guinea pigs and hamsters (*G-Force*) and a Katherine Heigl romcom gone piggishly wrong (*The Ugly Truth*). Instead of dwelling on the invasion of the summer brain snatchers, I’d like to point to good news that happened on the weekend. At San Diego’s Comic-Con geek fest, producer Peter Jackson offered fanboys a sneak peek at *District 9*, an alien movie that delivers all kinds of awesome. Jackson and South African writer-director Neill Blomkamp have made *District 9* a monster mash that trades in—get this— ideas! Of course, *District 9* also goes seriously whupass on your nervous system, as a spaceship stalls over Johannesberg for three decades and its alien inhabitants are segregated, exploited and denied inalienable rights.

I’ll do a full review as *District 9* nears its nationwide opening on August 14th. But know this: *D-9* will sneak up on you. And I’m not just referring to the subtext of racism and xenophobia that comes from Blomkamp’s roots in South Africa. The movie is as rich in character as it is in thrills. You’ll be wowed by Sharlto Copley as a government agent infected with an alien virus. Copley’s heart-rending tour de force deserves comparison to the miracles Jeff Goldblum performed for director David Cronenberg in *The Fly*. And to me, that’s high praise. *District 9*, with a chump-change budget of $30 million, soars on the imagination of its creators. This baby has the stuff to end the movie summer on a note of dazzle and distinction. Wait for it.

For *Rolling Stone*’s District 9 report from Comic-Con, click here plus check out photos of the hottest movies from the San Diego megafest.

With the big studios churning out Scumbucket-bound clunkers like The Ugly Truth and Orphan this weekend, Peter Travers gets his cinema fix in the form of two indies, In The Loop and The Answer Man in this week’s At the Movies. First up, there’s the satirical In The Loop, starring James Gandolfini, or Tony Soprano as he’ll always be remembered, as a General in this Dr. Strangelove-esque film about the story behind the Iraqi War. Another comedy that deserves your attention is The Answer Man, featuring a fantastic performance by Jeff Daniels as a reclusive J.D. Salinger-like author who wrote one acclaimed book called Me and God. Both Loop and Answer Man are what we call “smart comedies,” a distinction only made more apparent when considering the idiocy that fills Travers’ Scumbucket this week.

Photo: Warner Brothers Ent.

The Dark Lord himself couldn’t have conjured better box-office news for *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince*. But he sure took it out on *Bruno*, which dropped 73 percent from its No. 1 debut last week. Those wizards are a bitch. The global debut of the sixth film in the *Potter* series took in nearly $400 million in its first five days, including $159.7 million in the U.S. alone. That’s a record, Muggles. So to say audiences are still wild about Harry is an understatement. Last week I asked you to pick the MVP in the series, Harry excepted. Ron, Hermione and even Draco had to suck it (check out the latest episode of “Off the Cuff with Peter Travers” featuring Harry Potter’s Draco Malfoy, Tom Felton). You chose Alan Rickman as Professor Severus Snape. I can’t argue that one. Rickman nails a role he was born to play. Now I’ve got another question for you: