Teen thriller/horror tripe Stay Alive did better than Disney expected this weekend, beating their $7-10 million projection. Good news for their Hollywood Pictures label, bad news for gamers and people with good taste. So, expect Stay Alive II soon. Damn it.

The flick opened in third place, with Denzel and Spike's Inside Man pulling in the big bucks. Funny thing about Inside Man, which I just saw, is that it too features some in-game action sequences. One of the bank hostages in the film (a young boy) is a PSP owner, which Clive Owen takes a moment to play. In typical Spike Lee fashion, he over-sensationalizes video game violence with a full screen display of what the boy is playing, with a gruesome faux GTA-style game. The virtual violence portrayed was much more comically brutal than anything happening onscreen. It seemed very out of place amid what else was going on, but Spike loves pushing buttons. (Pun not intended.)

Denzel Washington's 'Inside Man' tops box office, Game on for "Stay Alive"
Stay Alive Not A Hit With Critics [Kotaku]