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Paramount’s remake tops Friday with $5.6 million; horror prequel “The Thing” off to so-so start with $3.2 mil, while the Steve Martin-Jack Black-Owen Wilson comedy “The Big Year” only grosses $1.2 mil.

This week at the movies, we've got Sunday shoes removal (Footloose, starring Kenny Wormald and Julianne Hough), an Antarctic abomination (The Thing, starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Joel Edgerton), and a bird watching competition (The Big Year, starring Jack Black and Owen Wilson). What do the critics have to say? Did the world really need a new Footloose? Apparently yes, say critics, who find this update of the 1984 musical smash an energetic, toe-tapping good time.

Jack Black, Conan O'Brien and Larry King will honor Will Ferrell with the nation's top humor prize, along with Maya Rudolph and Molly Shannon from his "Saturday Night Live" days. On Wednesday, the Kennedy Center in Washington announced a lineup of star comedians who will perform in Ferrell's honor for the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. They'll salute him Oct. 23 in a performance taped for broadcast Oct. 31 on PBS stations nationwide.

TAI CHI will star Chow, Jack Black and Anne Hathaway - it's a film whose development has been painstakingly tweaked by Chow, who'll also direct.

The romantic comedy "The Proposal" proved seductive at the North American boxoffice Friday. Disney's PG-13 "Proposal," starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds and directed by Anne Fletcher, opened in 3,056 theaters to a rosy estimate of $12.6 million, which should see it flirt with the $30 million mark for its first weekend.

This week at the movies, we've got Biblical bloopers (Year One, starring Jack Black and Michael Cera) and an engagement of convenience (The Proposal, starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds). What do the critics have to say? On paper, Year One sounds so promising; it's an Old Testament goof starring Jack Black and Michael Cera (as well as an embarrassment of other top comedic talent) directed by Harold Ramis. Unfortunately, critics say the film's jokes are nearly as ancient and musty as its protagonists.

When a couple of lazy hunter-gatherers (Jack Black and Michael Cera) are banished from their primitive village, they set off on an epic journey through the ancient world. In the trailer, they meet up with a disfunctional Caine and Abel.