The Adjustment Bureau

In addition to the following movies, The Eagle, starring Channing Tatum, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2: Rodrick Rules are also now available on DVD.

The Adjustment Bureau

Matt Damon and Emily Blunt star in this sci-fi love story about a Congressman named David (Damon) whose life changes when he falls for dancer Elise (Blunt). As he tries to pursue her, he learns of The Adjustment Bureau, a league of angel-like men dressed in business suits whose job it is to ensure that destiny is fulfilled. When David learns that his relationship with Elise is not in The Adjustment Bureau's plan, he and Elise begin a game of cat and mouse in the name of love. The film has a few plot holes and a flimsy ending, but Damon and Blunt have chemistry in spades. Bonus features include an interactive map of New York and deleted scenes.

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Unknown

Liam Neeson stars in this action flick about a guy who wakes up from a car accident to find that his identity has been tampered with. His wife (January Jones) doesn't seem to know who he is, and the only person who seems to have information about what happened is a cab driver (Diane Kruger). The film is a bit cliched, but it's a ride that's entertaining from start to finish. DVD extras include featurettes.

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One more release when you read more

Audiences invaded theaters for the action flick Battle: Los Angeles this weekend, pushing the Aaron Eckhart alien movie to the top of the box office with a winning total of $36 million, despite poor reviews. Following right behind it was last weekend's big winner, animated film Rango, which earned $23 million.

Also opening this week was Red Riding Hood, which only managed to come in third with a modest $14.1 million. Matt Damon's The Adjustment Bureau nabbed the No. 4 spot with $11.5 million, and rounding out the top five was another new release: Mars Needs Moms. The animated kids' movie also disappointed, with just $6.8 million to show for its first weekend out.

Animated films have been landing on the top of the box office heap for the past couple of weekends now. While Gnomeo and Juliet won last week, this weekend's new release Rango claimed the number one spot. The Johnny Depp-voiced flick earned $38 million, while Matt Damon and Emily Blunt's romantic thriller The Adjustment Bureau trailed it with $20.9 million.

Beastly managed to get third place with $10.1 million, followed by the Farrelly brother's crass comedy Hall Pass, which brought in $9 million. Completing the top five was last week's champ Gnomeo and Juliet with $6.9 million. Newbie Take Me Home Tonight had a rough go, making just $3.5 million and landing it in the 11th spot.

Matt Damon and Emily Blunt stuck together at a press conference for their film The Adjustment Bureau recently in NYC — check out Buzz's review of the film hitting theaters today. The duo, who are an on-screen couple in the movie, spoke about their own real live loves before the assembled press, and Matt even touched on his friendship with longtime BFF Ben Affleck. Matt and Emily, who had the reporters cracking up, also shared about how embarrassing it was to shoot in front of fans at iconic landmarks all over NYC. Here's more:

In the film, Matt, your character goes to the end of the world for love. What's the craziest things you've done for love?
Matt Damon: I've been asked that question before, but I don't think I've ever done anything too out there.
Really?
MD: You build your life around someone, that's pretty crazy. But it's more incrementally. There's no moment where I'm like Tom Cruise in Born in the Fourth of July running down the street in the rain . . . any minute I'm not working I go home. But we have a two-week rule so there's no job I can take — like when I did True Grit I asked Joel and Ethan to board the movie so that I was never away from home for more than a week . . . I just took this big movie in LA, so we're all there together. It's a pretty mundane life but we don't allow ourselves to be apart so we don't really need those dramatic moments.
You guys had the task of making a love story seem natural in a sort of sci-fi film. How did you manage that?
EB: That was the tricky part for me, that was one of the questions I had tonally about what the movie was. You know, like what were we doing and I think George encouraged us and we just decided to submarine everything and be very naturalistic . . . and not that Matrix-esque flying around on wires doing crazy stuff. They are pretty accessible sci-fi characters, I guess. They wear hats and they go through doors, there is a simplicity of it that shouldn't require any sort of declamatory performance. I always feel safer doing something natural. I think that it works for the movie, I think it lends itself to the relationship. You have to really invest in the relationship and make that relationship authentic. We had a lot of fun with our scenes because we wanted to find the right kind of chemistry for the characters in order for you guys to root for them and want them to be together.
MD: The tone stuff we weren't in charge of. That was the director's job. For us we were like, "OK, this is a love story with this other whole element in it. What we can control is the relationship between us." So we just worked on the scenes, and re-writing the scenes to kind of feel right . . . I think we just had a similar sense of humor, so that kind of helped.

To read what Matt says about his relationship with Ben Affleck, just read more

Fate versus freewill. Religious theorists and philosophers have contemplated the idea for centuries, and this weekend The Adjustment Bureau tries to tackle the debate. What would you do if you found out your entire life were planned for you? And what if the plan wasn't what you wanted? The weighty subject matter should give you plenty to chew on, but The Adjustment Bureau isn't adept enough to handle the issue. Instead, we get a generic story.

Based on a short story by Philip K. Dick (the sci-fi writer also behind Blade Runner and Minority Report), The Adjustment Bureau stars Matt Damon as David Norris, a politician who crosses paths with a ballerina named Elise (Emily Blunt) in a men's bathroom. Instant sparks ignite, so when they bump into each other again on a bus, David is convinced that fate is intervening. But really, it's a mistake of chance — and it must be corrected. In come suited agents led by Richardson (John Slattery). They're men in charge of monitoring the world (the film suggests they're angels) to make sure everyone proceeds on the path predetermined for them. Since David has fallen off course, they must make sure he forgets about Elise for the sake of his political career. But unfortunately for them, David is quite the smitten schoolboy and isn't willing to let her go.

For my thoughts on the film's problems and Damon's performance, read more

Matt Damon and his The Adjustment Bureau costar Emily Blunt were together in NYC recently to chat about their movie at the press junket. The film, which opens this Friday, features a shady government organization that intervenes in a fate-like way to affect the lives of ordinary citizens. Both Matt and Emily shared about the presence of fate in their own lives, with him telling a story about the romantic way he met his wife. Emily, meanwhile, revealed her original career plans and made a few jokes about Matt's skills as a dancer. They said:

Has fate ever intervened in your life in a similar way to how the Adjustment Bureau works with your characters?
Matt Damon: I think it would be Emily's chance to work with me. It must have been one of those moments.
Emily Blunt: I have one story that is pretty cool. I remember I didn't get into this very amazing school that my sister went to, and I wanted to be just like my sister. It's a school called Westminster in London, and it's fiercely competitive — she gets in because she's a brainiac and I don't because I'm obviously not. And so I basically remember being at 16 devastated and my life was over, and I was so sad and felt so inferior that I hadn't gotten in. So I went to my second choice school, which had a good drama department. I previously hadn't considered acting, and I did a play through my school that went to the Edinburgh festival. I got an agent, and he's still my agent! And now I'm here with you nice people. If I'd gone to Westminster I wouldn't be doing this job — guaranteed!
Emily, what would you be doing if you didn't act?
EB: I had this really impressive idea that I was going to be a translator for the UN and be fluent in Spanish. I was going to do modern languages in university.
And Matt, what was that sort of moment for you?
MD: Clearly, for me, passing up the chance to be in Avatar in order to do Green Zone was one of those moments. Because Avatar didn't do very well and the DVD of Green Zone is just going to . . . [laughs] No — I do end up thinking about jobs. There are so many roads not taken. There is this Garth Brooks song called "Thank God For Unanswered Prayers," and I think of all those movies that I auditioned for or movies that I was desperate to get that I didn't get — that really turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Looking back on my life and everything, I tried to control as much as I could and worked as hard as I did, but a lot of it really is down to luck.
Any in particular?
MD: One of the biggest ones was, there was a Werner Herzog movie called Rescue Dawn that Christian Bale did, and Werner and I were talking about eight years ago about me possibly playing that role. I was really strongly considering it, and instead I met with the Farrelly brothers. I remember talking to my mother, and my mother said you don't always have to go into the jungle and lose a lot of weight. I did the Farrelly brothers movie and that's where I met my wife. And four kids later, that was a pretty fateful decision.

To read what Matt says about his lost dancing scenes, just read more