Reel Hub: Commercials Top the Box Office

Audiences went for the light and frothy this weekend. Fool's Gold, with Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey, triumphed at the box office, followed up by the Martin Lawrence vehicle Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins.

Neither of the top two movies made local critics very happy. James Verniere dismissed Fool's Gold as "a 110-minute advertisement for celebrity lifestyles you cannot afford. You can’t afford the boats, the bodies, the hair, the clothes. You can’t afford one of [character] Gemma’s shoes." It seems to be a trend. Wasn't last week's number-one an advertisement for anything and everything Hannah Montana? Chris Braiotta at the Phoenix got mad at Roscoe Jenkins and slammed it as "half-assed family sweetness."

The Hottie & the Nottie, the movie that Paris Hilton was hawking in Boston this weekend, opened in limited release and made only $25,000. In contrast, Fool's Gold made $22 million. Ty Burr got stuck with The Hottie & the Nottie over at the Globe, and he sharpened his tongue for Hilton: "Her head seems too small for her body and stuck on at an odd angle. She resembles nothing so much as a tiny blond velociraptor. That's cruel, I know, but one's mind wanders when a movie's evaporating up there on the screen."

Image of the buff Hudson and McConaughey from IMDB.