'Waitress' is bittersweet triumph

When you're a film critic and a cynical box-office watcher, you take small victories wherever and whenever you can.

For example, "Waitress," the sweet-as-pie comedy about an expectant mother (Keri Russell), has become a minor hit on the art-house circuit, earning $17.5 million so far.

It's a bittersweet triumph, though, as the film's writer, director and co-star, Adrienne Shelly, was murdered last year.

It's interesting to note that such a sweet-natured film has made nearly as much as the gory horror-thriller "Hostel: Part II," which was expected to be a huge hit.

The runaway success of the R-rated sex/romantic comedy "Knocked Up," which has made $133 million so far without any big-name stars in its cast, is also worth noting.

With continuing word-of-mouth business, "Knocked Up" still has an outside chance of taking over the No. 1 comedy spot for the year from the noxious "Wild Hogs," which had a surprising $167 million take.

Still, all those films pale in comparison to the summer's biggest hits (so far) — "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," "Shrek the Third" and "Spider-Man 3," which have all broken the $300 million mark domestically.

Still, after huge openings, all three films petered out rather quickly.

Then there's Michael Bay's lumbering, low-brow "Transformers," which has already racked up $165 million in ticket sales and could topple one of those top-three biggies.

And a pair of considerably better action movies are languishing: "Live Free or Die Hard," the fourth John McClane (Bruce Willis) thriller, will break $100 million, but it deserves more, as it's the one summer movie that's lived up to expectations. And the British buddy-cop comedy/thriller "Hot Fuzz" barely made $23 million in the United States.

• THINGS TO DO YOUR HEART GOOD. The first trailer for next summer's spy comedy "Get Smart," starring Steve Carell as the bungling Maxwell Smart (played by Don Adams in the classic TV spy-spoof sitcom), is pretty funny. After the awful "Evan Almighty," Carell needs a quality comedy.

And "Ratatouille" has become the latest $100 million hit for Pixar, the most consistent of all creative movie-production houses — not just in the realm of animation.