Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who (20th Century Fox)
Starring (the voices) of Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Carol Burnett, Seth Rogen, Will Arnett, Isla Fisher, Dan Fogler, Amy Poehler, Jaime Pressly, Jonah Hill, Josh Flitter
Directed by Jimmy Hayward (animator on Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc., story consultant on Robots) and Steve Martino (art director on Robots and the "Monty Python's Meaning of Life" video game); Written by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio (The Bubble Boy, The Santa Clause 2, College Road Trip)
Genre: Animated, Family, Comedy
Rated G
Tagline: "One Elephant One World One Story"
Plot Summary: Dr. Seuss' classic children's tale is brought to animated life with Jim Carrey providing the voice of Horton, an elephant who discovers the microscopic world of Whoville in a speck of dust on a flower and decides to be the protector of the Whos that live in the microscopic world even though no one else can see them.
After months of movies that did just okay business--Cloverfield and 10,000 BC being the two exceptions--we finally have a movie that's pretty close to a sure thing, because with Paramount's Spiderwick Chronicles and Disney's College Road Trip underperforming, it leaves a big open gap for a big family film. It comes in the form of the latest animated movie from the makers of Ice Age, who've had two major hits with that franchise and one minor one with Robots in 2005. Unlike their last three movies, which were based on original ideas, they have much stronger material to work with this time, as they adapt one of Dr. Seuss' classic children's books, Horton Hears a Who!.
If that's not enough of a home run, than they also have some impressive starpower in the form of the voice of Jim Carrey, whose biggest movie to date in the United States (with $260 million) is Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, in which the Grinch became one of Carrey's most famous characters among kids. (That is, presuming they recognized him.) Horton is not only Carrey's first voice work for an animated movie, it's only his second family film, having had so much success with the former one. Not only that, but Horton reunites him with Steve Carell, who co-starred (and some say "stole") Carrey's second biggest U.S. hit Bruce Almighty (and his biggest worldwide hit having grossed an amazing $485 million). Since that memorable appearance, Carell has done a few movies with Will Ferrell and gone off on his own with the sleeper hit The 40-Year-Old Virgin and then took over for Carrey in the comedy sequel Evan Almighty, which didn't fare nearly as well. Carell has also provided his voice for a number of other animated films, most notably DreamWorks' Over the Hedge.
Bolstering the already impressive comedy factor of the film's two main voice stars, the directors (both of whom worked in various capacities on Robots) have assembled an impressive voice cast around them, including the one and only Carol Burnett--the first time the living legend has done anything in some time--as well as ever-present comedy stars like Steve Rogen, Will Arnett, Isla Fisher, Amy Poehler, Jonah Hill and Dan Fogler (star of Balls of Fury). All of them are funny on their own or with others, and a few of them are being mentioned in the ads, although none of them will bring people in like Carrey or Carell might.
Even so, star power hasn't proven to be a reason for grown-ups or kids to see an animated films and in the last few years, they haven't been faring as well as they were in the good old days of Finding Nemo and the original Shrek. In general, there have been hit franchises like Shrek and Ice Age and the films of Pixar Animation, and everything else has generally opened under $50 million and grossed less than $200 million. Then again, none of those were based on one of Dr. Seuss' classic stories, which has probably been read by just about every kid, their parent and maybe even their parents' parent since it was first published in 1954. (Consider how well Alvin and the Chipmunks did, and they were created around the same time.) It's kind of odd that its premise of someone from the real world (in this case, an elephant instead of a child) discovering a miniature world was similar to two of the biggest computer animated bombs, The Ant Bully and Arthur and the Invisibles, although in both cases, they were first-time animated productions and neither looked particularly appealing or original.
One of the reasons why past Fox animated films have fared so well in March is that there's so little strong family fare in theaters and while Paramount has done respectably, though not spectacular, with their movie based on The Spiderwick Chronicles, Disney's own G-rated offering College Road Trip didn't fare as well as hoped, leaving a wide open market for the latest Dr. Seuss to be the first choice for most kids and their parents.
Fox has been giving a similar big push for the movie as their other animated hits, but what really might make a difference was that Oprah Winfrey devoted an entire show to the movie with Carrey, Carell and Carol Burnett all appearing, plus Carell has been touting the movie during commercial breaks of "The Office" (still in reruns after the Writers' Strike). That, on top of all the commercials, will help increase awareness among moms with small children, and the G-rating should guarantee a huge audience of kids, parents and whole families, especially on the weekend. Even with a huge theater count of close to 4,000 theaters, it probably won't make more opening weekend than Ice Age: The Meltdown, but one can expect it to do huge business next week (giving Tyler Perry a run for the top spot) and over the Easter holiday weekend with lots more business over the various spring breaks.
Why I Should See It: You can't really go wrong with Dr. Seuss, especially being Jim Carrey's return to Seuss-ville and his reunion with Steve Carell.
Why Not: Jim Carrey's first foray into Seuss-ville was kind of annoying, especially to those who don't like his over-the-top schtick.
Projections: $45 to 48 million opening weekend and $175 to 180 million total.
COMPARISONS
Doomsday (Universal Pictures)
Starring Rhona Mitra, Bob Hoskins, Adrian Lester, Alexander Siddig, Malcolm McDowell
Written and directed by Neil Marshall (The Descent, Dog Soldiers)
Genre: Sci-Fi, Thriller, Action
Rated R
Tagline: "The End is Nigh."
Plot Summary: A deadly plague known as the "Reaper Virus" breaks out in Great Britain in the year 2007, infecting or killing millions of people, so a wall is built to quarantine the infected area of the country. Three decades later, when the virus resurfaces, a group of specialists led by Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra) is dispatched to the area behind the wall to try to find a cure.
Just under two years ago, a low-key British horror movie called The Descent opened at the beginning of August, and despite no known stars and much stronger fare in theaters, it made just under $9 million in roughly 2,000 theaters, introducing most American horror lovers to Mr. Neil Marshall, a talented British genre filmmaker following in the footsteps of Danny Boyle and Guy Ritchie. Around the same time, Marshall's next project was announced, as the director switched gears to make an apocalyptic sci-fi action flick set in an England where a virus has killed millions and left the survivors battling for every scrap of food, a very cool mix of "The Road Warrior" and "Escape From New York." Roughly a year later, Marshall showed up at San Diego Comic-Con with the first footage from the movie, which looked pretty awesome, clearly a bigger budget movie than The Descent with a lot more action.
The film's main star is Rhona Mitra from the television series "The Practice" and "Boston Legal," but she hasn't had much success with past movies, including the horror bomb Skinwalkers, which made only $1 million, as well as small roles in Jim Carrey's The Number 23 and Mark Wahlberg's Shooter, all last year. She's joined by legendary British actors Bob Hoskins and Malcolm McDowell, the Clockwork Orange star continuing his foray into genre that began with his role on the NBC hit "Heroes." Another familiar face might be Alexander Siddig, who appeared in Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven and Stephen Gaghan's Syriana, but who also appeared on one of the "Star Trek" shows (just don't ask me which!), and had his own bomb last year with The Last Legion, which opened just a week after Skinwalkers. Still, none of these actors will make that much of a difference in bringing in audiences. In fact, Marshall's involvement isn't really being advertised, nor the connections to the popular horror movie The Descent, which is strange because Universal made sure that people knew that last year's horror movie Dead Silence was by the creators of Saw.
The movie was produced along with Rogue Pictures, the genre division of Universal subsidiary Focus, and they did a good amount of promotion for the movie, especially at last year's Comic-Con, but late last year, Rogue was dissolved and merged into Universal after a number of disappointing horror bombs with The Return and The Hitcher--Rogue's comedies Hot Fuzz and Balls of Fury did significantly better--putting a lot of pressure on a studio that had little financial or emotional commitment to see the movie do well.
Unfortunately, Universal are pulling a similar stunt with Marshall's third film as they did with James Wan's Dead Silence and James Gunn's Slither, two horror films released in March, by not promoting the movie or screening it for critics, which means that a.) most newspaper movie writers will automatically discount the movie as being bad and deem it so, and b.) fewer people will be aware of the movie than might have with reviews and proper promotion. Not showing movies to critics is usually done by studios when they know their movies have a built-in audience who'll see it regardless of reviews, but in this case, without reviews, not many people will know that the movie exists or whether it's worth shelling out their hard-earned cash. The fact that this is the same audience that might be just as interested in the martial arts drama Never Back Down means this will probably end up doing less business than it might have done if given a proper marketing campaign. Either way, there really hasn't been a movie like this in a long time, a cool sci-fi action flick, with Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later or his less successful Sunshine being the closest, so there should be some interest among sci-fi genre fans who won't be so interested in the other choices.
Why I Should See It: Marshall's last film The Descent was an excellent addition to the horror genre.
Why Not: Looks way too much like Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and who remembers that could possibly want to see this?
Projections: $5 to 7 million opening weekend and roughly $15 to 16 million total.
COMPARISONS
Never Back Down (Summit Entertainment)
Starring Sean Faris, Djimon Hounsou, Cam Gigandet, Amber Heard, Evan Peters, Wyatt Smith
Directed by Jeff Wadlow (Cry_Wolf and various shorts; upcoming Hail to the Thief); Written by Chris Hauty (Homeward Bound: Lost in San Francisco)
Genre: Action, Drama, Sport
Rated PG-13
Plot Summary: Jake Tyler (Sean Faris) is a tough kid with a temper who runs into trouble with the locals when his family moves to Orlando, Florida, getting him badly beaten up in a fight with local bully Ryan (Cam Gigandet), a trained Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter. After getting beaten up, Jake decides to train in MMA for a rematch, but he learns that he'll have to control his temper and learn discipline if he wants to win.
Mini-Review: Working from an awful script that has the audacity to steal lines from "Erin Brockovich" (as if someone might not notice), there's very little difference from this drama set in the world of Mixed Martial Arts than any of the bad dance movies of late, essentially being a showcase for pretty young things including Sean Faris, about the closest we've come to a young Tom Cruise lookalike in some time, only without the acting ability. Mostly, the movie is a product of MTV production and "Beverly Hills 90210" drama following a fairly predictable "angry guy learns to control his temper to fight for what's important", but it's so incompetently directed with shoddy camerawork and editing that you wonder how Jeff Wadlow got a job. As with so many young directors borne out of MTV Film School, Wadlow is madly in love with his own soundtrack and macho montages, which does little to make up for the terrible writing and weak performances. Even more curious is the featured role for two-time Oscar nominee Djimon Hounsou as Jake's trainer, a character given his own issues and subplots that serve very little purpose to the main story. At least Hounsou adds a little class to the film that's brought down by its terrible writing and performances, the worst of the bunch being Cam Gigandet as the film's main antagonist, a ridiculously over-the-top performance that prevents one from taking any of the drama too seriously. Amber Heard isn't nearly bad as Jake's love interest, but it's not exactly a role that requires years of formal acting training, since she essentially has to look pretty and/or scared during the fight scenes, which are well choreographed and filmed better than the rest of the movie, but few and far between compared to the bland dialogue sequences. The movie just gets worse and worse as the story follows such a familiar "Karate Kid" character arc that you really feel as if you've watched this same movie countless times before, so you can guess exactly where it's going. As much as "Never Back Down" tries to be "The Fist and the Furious," it's really just a load of Raging Bullsh*t. Rating: 3/10
Not much to be said about this movie, which as you can tell by the mini-review above, I absolutely hated. It certainly seems like there must be some audience for this, since most of those dumb ass dance movies do well, and this one's about Mixed Martial Arts, which I assume has its fans, since there are so many guys out there who love mindless violence. (Not to discount the sport, as I'm sure there's more of a spirituality and discipline to the sport.) Since there really haven't been many, if any, movies set in the world of Mixed Martial Arts, we have to look at other similar genres like the dance movies or the movies based around streets racing. In the latter case, there's the successful "Fast and the Furious" franchise, the first movie far exceeding expectations in 2001 when people underestimated the popularity of street racing. Last year's Redline, was a racing movie that was released through an independent distributor who used the popularity of MySpace to promote the movie.
Not that it matters much, but this is the second movie from Jeff Wadlow, who directed the 2005 horror bomb Cry_Wolf, which didn't fare much better than Redline, and the only known star he lined up for the movie was two-time Oscar nominee Djimon Hounsou, who first came to notice in Jim Sheridan's In America and surprised many by being nominated for a second Oscar in 2006 for Edward Zwick's Blood Diamond. In between, he did a number of genre films including Constantine and Michael Bay's The Island. The film's main character is played by Sean Faris, a television star who hasn't done much in terms of movies, and his love interest is played by Amber Heard, who stars in the long-delayed horror movie All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, not that anyone will have heard of either.
Not that it will matter because the movie is all about the martial arts action, something that will appeal to the younger male audience that have been getting into the sport, and since I have no idea if we're talking thousands or tens of thousands or millions, this one really could go either way.
This is the third release from Summit Entertainment, who are releasing the movie into over 2,500 theaters after minimalizing the release of the Christina Ricci fantasy Penelope, but that did well and they're going wider with this expecting that young males might pick this over some of the other movies. It certainly has a better chance of bringing in women and the date crowd than Universal's Doomsday, which also has the misfortune of an R-rating. Reviews for this aren't likely to be very good but the film's audience of young males probably won't care since this is the only movie that looks worth seeing, especially with the terrible word-of-mouth faced by Roland Emmerich's 10,000 BC going into its second weekend.
Why I Should See It: If you're a fan of Mixed Martial Arts, there's lot of action in the movie.
Why Not: And that's about all the movie has going for it.
Projections: $6 to 8 million opening weekend but less than $20 million total.
COMPARISONS
THE CHOSEN ONE: This week, we have a tie between two low-key documentary releases…
Sputnik Mania (Balcony Releasing)
Starring (voice) Liev Schreiber, Robert Klein,
Directed by David Hoffman
Genre: Documentary
Plot Summary: This documentary takes a look at the launch of Russia's Sputnik satellite and its repercussions in the world, especially in our country, as it caused the Cold War to escalate.
When you have a documentary about space travel coming out so soon after the excellent In the Shadow of the Moon, you know that you're going to be put under heavy scrutiny and comparisons. While this documentary about the first Russian satellite launch and its effects on the world isn't quite as impressive in terms of scope and visuals, it's still an amazing look back at American history, as it deals as much with the space race as it does with the paranoia in this country during the early days of the Cold War. You see, the Russian's launch of the Sputnik satellite caused a panic in the United States, since not only did it show that we were behind our main competitors, but it also meant that they had the capability to launch powerful rockets containing nuclear warheads at us. So of course, that meant that we had to step up our own program and launch a satellite into space to show the Russians that we're just as good. And that's how a simple post-WW2 misunderstanding turned into one of the biggest d*ck-measuring contests between two countries trying to one-up each other.
Narrated by Liev Shreiber, a natural for this kind of gig as he does his best impression of Peter Jennings, the documentary takes a somewhat dryer approach so it feels more like a National Geographic doc or something we might see on the Discovery Channel, but there's a lot of amazing footage of the media coverage of the events, including an appearance by Major John Glenn on "Name That Tune" talking about the Sputnik launch years before he'd be launched into space himself. Granted, the film is somewhat disjointed and unfocused as it moves away from the Space Race—that's another movie in itself—and focuses on the fears of nuclear war among the United States government and citizens, but it's still an amazing look back at a time in history when many people weren't alive, and it's a commendable and often impressive effort all around.
Sputnik Mania opens at the IFC Center in New York on Friday with an appearance by an actual sputnik!
Wetlands Preserved (First Run Features)
Starring Bob Weir, Dave Matthews, Blues Traveler, ?uestlove (The Roots), Mike Gordon (Phish), Nick Hexum (311), Robert Randolph, Warren Haynes (Allman Brothers Band), Mike Doughty, Hanson, John Medeski, The Spin Doctors, Darius Rucker (Hootie & The Blowfish), moe., Ryan Miller (Guster), Agnostic Front
Directed by Dean Budnick
Genre: Documentary
Plot Summary: A documentary about the late lamented rock club Wetlands that debuted a lot of music groups who went on to much bigger things.
Anyone who has read this column regularly knows it's no secret that I'm a big fan of rock docs, and having been an avid concert-goer for many years, I had been to the legendary New York rock club Wetlands a few times, though I didn't know nearly as much about the club as I learned from watching this comprehensive look at the venerable club, which mixes interviews with owner Larry Bloch, his staff and the bands who played there with recreated performances by Phish, Blues Traveler, Pearl Jam, the Spin Doctors, Sublime, 311 and other bands who got their start or played at the club over the years. Director Dean Budnick does this by using recovered soundboard tapes with animated photographs, and though it's not quite the same thing as being there, you can't help but be impressed by how many great bands played through there before it shut its doors, just days before 9/11. The film is somewhat primitive and very talking heads, but it's very entertaining to see the diversity of the club and how owner Larry Bloch justifies the logic behind his quirky decisions which gave the club such a distinctive look and feel, becoming the home for the city's Dead-heads, local and touring jam bands, rappers and hardcore/ska bands. It's actually pretty amazing when you realize how big some of these bands became since playing at the club in the early ‘90s, many of them selling out huge arenas, and it shows a lot of vision on Bloch's part for creating such a comfortable space for them. For all the talk of CBGB's being the preeminent rock club in New York, Budnick's documentary gives a good argument for Wetland's, especially when you realize that a good amount of the club's profits went to activism, something that Bloch set-up from the very early days of the club, and carried through until the very end.
If you have ever spent any time in the club or a fan of some of the bands, you'll want to check out this doc when it opens at the Cinema Village in New York on Friday and in L.A. on March 26.
Also in Limited Release:
Meat Loaf: In Search of Paradise (Voom HD Networks) - Bruce David Klein takes a look at the life of the rock star and actor known as Meat Loaf as he hits the heights of fame as a multi-platinum star, sinks to the lowest depths and then returns. After playing at the Montreal Film Festival, this rock biodoc opens at the IFC Center on Thursday, March 13 for a two-week run before playing on Rave HD on April 4.
Flash Point (Third Rail/Weinstein Co.) - Donnie Yen stars in Wilson Yip's police action-drama about a policeman who must fight a trio of gangster who have targetted his undercover brother and his girlfriend as revenge for their imprisonment. It will open in a couple theaters in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Interview with Donnie Yen
Funny Games (Warner Independent) - Filmmaker Michael Haneke remakes his own 1997 thriller about a home invasion by two polite young men who torture and humiliate a family of three in one night of hell. The English remake stars Naomi Watts and Tim Roth as the couple and Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet the home invaders, and it opens in 285 theaters in select cities on Friday.
Some Thoughts from the Film's Sundance Premiere
Sleepwalking (Overture Films) - Actress Charlize Theron produced and has a small role in director Bill Maher and writer Zac Stanford's drama about an 11-year-old girl (Anna Sophia-Robb) who goes on the road with her uncle (Nick Stahl) after her mother vanishes, presumably abandoning her daughter. Also starring Dennis Hopper and Woody Harrelson, the second released by Overture Films opens into roughly 25 theaters in select cities on Friday.
Mini-Review:
Rating: 5/10
Heartbeat Detector (New Yorker Films) – French actor Matthieu Amalric (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) stars in Nicholas Klotz's adaptation of François Emmanuel's "La Question Humaine" as a corporate psychologist who must analyze the mental state of the company's CEO, which puts him into a web of blackmail and betrayal. The thriller opens at the Cinema Village and Lincoln Plaza Cinemas in New York.
On Broadway – Former New Kid Joey Mcintyre and Eliza Dushku star in Dave McLaughlin's drama about a Boston man who writes a play to honor his dead uncle and decides to quit his job and put on a production of the play in the backroom of his neighborhood pub. The winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the New Hampshire Film Festival will open in a couple theaters in Boston.
Next up, two movies about kidnapping and human trafficking from opposite sides of the world…
Blind Mountain (Kino International) - This thriller from Chinese filmmaker Li Yang (Blind Shaft) takes a look at the world of human trafficking through the eyes of an attractive woman (Huang Li) who travels to the Shaanxi province in the mountains for a job but is drugged, kidnapped and sold into marriage. It opens at the Film Forum in New York City on Friday.
Towards Darkness (Peace Arch Entertainment) - This Columbia-based Spanish thriller by José Antonio Negret follows 90 minutes in the kidnapping of the son of a Columbian banker and the desperate attempt by his family and a special ops team to try to save his life via ransom negotiations. Co-starring "Ugly Betty" star America Ferrera, this selection from the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival opens at Quad Cinema in New York on Friday and in L.A. on March 21.
War Made Easy (Media Education Foundation) - This documentary by Loretta Alper and Jeremy Earp traces the United States' involvement in the Iraq War to government deception and media spin, using archive footage to draw parallels between the lead-up to the Vietnam War to that of Iraq and how presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and George W. Bush distorted and exaggerated information and were supported by the media. With analysis by media critic Norman Solomon and narrated by actor Sean Penn, the latest war doc opens at the Quad Cinema on Friday.
Mini-Review: Clearly fans of Owen Morris and Alex Gibney, the makers of this film certainly must have had the best intentions in exploring how the government and media uses propaganda to get Americans behind decisions to go to war, but there’s a been-there done-that feel to the movie that makes it hard to appreciate. At first, it seems like just another heavily liberal anti-war rant against the current administration and the media with lots of CNN footage and Presidential speeches with lots of stuff we’ve heard before about "weapons of mass destruction," all dissembled and analyzed by Norman Solomon. It makes for a mostly dry and biased thesis with a lot of talking heads, most of which has been covered before and better by movies like "Why We Fight" and "The Fog of War." Granted, it’s very informative with its interesting angle on the current war and that’s what helps elevate it above biased "Fahrenheit 9/11" rehash, though it’s not nearly as entertaining, thought-provoking or moving as some of the other films on the subject. Rating: 6.5/10
Next week, it's Easter weekend and Tyler Perry returns (not that he's really gone away) with Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns (Lionsgate) as does Owen Wilson with Drillbit Taylor (Paramount), and just when you thought it was safe to take a picture, 20th Century Fox remakes the Thai horror film Shutter. Paparazzo, be scared.]]>
10,000 B.C. (Warner Bros.)
Starring Steven Strait, Camilla Belle, Cliff Curtis, Omar Sharif, Tim Barlow, Marco Khan, Reece Ritchie, Mo Zinal, Mona Hammond, Joel Virgel Vierset, Suri van Sornsen, Joel Fry, Nathanael Baring, Joe Vaz
Directed by Roland Emmerich (The Day After Tomorrow, Independence Day, The Patriot, Godzilla, Stargate); Written by Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser (a German film composer who is also co-writing Emmerich's next film 2012)
Genre: Action, Adventure
Rated PG-13
Tagline: "It takes a hero to change the world."
Plot Summary: In an epic story set during prehistoric times, D'Leh (Steven Strait) is a young hunter in a mountain tribe who falls for the beautiful Evolet (Camilla Belle) but when she's kidnapped by a band of warlords, D'Leh must lead a group to save her, facing the elements, fierce prehistoric beasts and other tribes which they'd never encountered before.
Mini-Review: As if we really need the bad summer movie season to start two months earlier, Roland Emmerich has outdone himself in his attempts to be Mel Gibson with this movie that's a cross between "Braveheart" and "Apocalypto" with a "Titanic"-level love story thrown in for good measure. Despite stealing liberally from movies as diverse as "Pathfinder", "300" and "Troy" (okay, maybe not so diverse), the film offers surprisingly little excitement as Emmerich and his co-writer, executive producer and composer, Harald Klosser, spend more effort on the film's visuals and sweeping score than coming up with a coherent story, let alone bothering to do any historical research into the times. Artistic license doesn't even touch upon the fact that this reality has mammoths living in the same time as ships and modern navigation in a world where snowy mountain peaks, deserts and rivers are all within walking range of each other... and of course, English is the universal language in this fictitious fantasy world that might as well be one of Emmerich's "Stargate" dimensions. Granted, most people won't be watching this movie for any sort of realism, but even the larger-than-life CG-enhanced action set pieces are few and far between with a long gap after the cool mammoth hunt before we see more of this land's creatures--the CG wooly mammoths are even more impressive in comparison to the giant killer turkeys that come later. When we finally get a sabretooth tiger (who we'll call Tony due to his resemblance to the cereal spokesman), it's for a ridiculous plot device in which Steven Strait's D'Leh saves it and has the favor returned later, and that's that. For what's essentially an action-effects flick, the plot is needlessly complicated, made sillier with a lot of talking heads and exposition in "caveman-speak," most of it so MST3K bad that you wonder if Emmerich is just asking to be mocked in the next spoof movie. Strait isn't terrible as the film's lead but otherwise, the acting is dismal and embarrassing across the board, and even the incessant voice-over narrative by the legendary Omar Sharrif quickly gets tedious. In terms of quality, Emmerich's latest is the cinematic equivalent of the television series "Cavemen" but at least the Geico commercials make an effort to get the historical accuracy right, and going swimming at the beach in March would probably be more desirable than enduring this premature summer dud. An atrocious waste of a perfectly good CGI budget. Rating: 3/10
After taking on aliens, giant lizards and global warming, filmmaker Roland Emmerich is going back in time, WAY back in time, to tell an epic story of when man ran with giant wooly mammoths and sabretooth tigers, which looks very similar to movies like The Clan of the Cave Bear and Mel Gibson's Apocalypto, the latter being the most interesting comparison since Gibson starred in Emmerich's The Patriot over seven years ago. Unfortunately, Apocalypto wasn't as big a hit of some of Gibson's previous movies, and that might be the case with Emmerich's film, which deviates from his normal sci-fi fare, and unlike Jurassic Park, there are no dinosaurs in the modern world, instead being set in a period where cavemen started to discover the bigger world. Older moviegoers may remember a 1966 film called One Million Years B.C., which introduced most of the world to one Raquel Welsh over forty years ago much like The Clan of the Cave Bear became a hit for Daryl Hannah after her breakout in Ron Howard's Splash a few years earlier.
Since Emmerich's movies tend to be more about the action and effects than the acting and writing—something that might be obvious by the fact it's co-written by a German film composer—it doesn't have much of a cast in terms of star power, although Steven Strait and Camilla Belle might be seen as young up 'n' comers. As a Seattle grunge rocker look-alike, Strait played the baddie in Disney's Sky High a few years back, followed by a starring role in Renny Harlin's action-thriller The Covenant. (He also starred in the bomb Undiscovered, but we don't talk about that movie around these parts in fear of putting the Weekend Warrior into a tizzy.) Strait will follow the part as a caveman hunter with a role in Kimberly Peirce's Stop-Loss later this month.
Hoping that this will be the movie that takes her to the next level—sorry, boys, this is PG-13 so don't expect any Raquel Welch levels of skin—Camilla Belle started working at a very young age, appearing in Alfonso Cuaron's A Little Princess and in small roles after that, but her big break came in 2005 when she starred opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in Rebecca Miller's The Ballad of Jack and Rose and a year later, she was headlining the horror remake When a Stranger Calls, which was a surprise hit. Even so, the most famous actor of the bunch would probably have to be the film's narrator, living legend Omar Sharif, the Egyptian actor best known for his role in Oscar nominated role in the classic Lawrence of Arabia.
10,000 B.C. is very much a director's movie, and though you might be hard-pressed to find anyone who'll claim any of Roland Emmerich's previous movies among their favorites, he certainly has an eye for the fantastic, huge CG landscapes that are often destroyed as was the case in Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow. The former of these was a huge blockbuster grossing $300 million in the summer of 1996, while the latter was also a huge hit, but it only grossed $186 million total. This is a very different movie for Emmerich, as he shies away from the New York destroying science fiction that's been so prevalent in his movies for a look at the past, and it'll be interesting to see if he fares better with the material than Mel Gibson did with Apocalypto or Marcus Nispel did with his Viking epic Pathfinder last year. Obviously, the CG visuals are going to be the biggest sell, and they certainly look more massive than either of those movies, morre like King Kong or Jurassic Park than a prehistoric version of Dances with Wolves.
In the past, Emmerich has been the king of summer, with his biggest movies being released over 4th of July and Memorial Day weekends, much like his compatriot Michael Bay, and at one point, 10,000 B. C. was originally planned for last July before it was realized that it might need more time for FX, when it was moved to early March. In the past, pushing a summer movie back to the spring or winter from the summer is a bad sign of lowered expectations from the studio, but last year Warner Bros. had an enormous hit with Zack Snyder's 300, a movie that normally would be a summer tentpole movie, and they've decided to claim the March opening this year, as well as next with Snyder's follow-up Watchmen. The success of Cloverfield a few months back proved that movies can be released at any time of the year and find an audience opening weekend, and though it's doubtful there's as much anticipation for 10,000 B.C. as Cloverfield (or 300 or Emmerich's past movies for that matter), Warner Bros. has done a good job with their commercials and an impressive HBO special to make audiences aware that this is going to be another action-packed epic on par with Emmerich's past films.
Based on past reviews of Emmerich's movies, it's doubtful that 10,000 B. C. will be making any critics' Top 10 list this year, but reviews probably won't have much of an effect on those who really want to see this. Even if this probably won't have nearly as big an opening as Emmerich's last few movies, it should do very well on Friday as the young guys who can't wait two months for the big summer blockbusters will rush out to see it, mostly curious about what Emmerich might do when doing a movie set in the past. It might not be so frontloaded with few other strong movies for that audience in coming weeks.
Why I Should See It: Roland Emmerich taking on the prehistoric times with CGI creatures? Yeah, I'm there!
Why Not: The problem with most of Emmerich's previous movies is that they tend to focus more on the effects and action rather than the writing and storytelling.
Projections: $39 to 43 million opening weekend and $120 million total.
COMPARISONS
College Road Trip (Disney)
Starring Martin Lawrence, Raven-Symoné, Donny Osmond, Will Sasso, Arnetia Walker
Directed by Roger Kumble (Just Friends, Cruel Intentions, The Sweetest Thing); Written by Emi Mochizuki and Carrie Evans (debut), Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio (The Bubble Boy, The Santa Clause 2 and next week's Horton Hears a Who)
Genre: Comedy
Rated G
Tagline: "They just can't get there fast enough."
Plot Summary: It's time for Melanie (Raven-Symoné) to go off to college but her overprotective policeman father (Martin Lawrence) insists on coming along for a "girls only" trip to check out the universities she has lined-up, turning what might have been a fun trip into a chaotic nightmare.
For those not into a prehistoric epic, another possible option is this family road comedy, starring Martin Lawrence and 'tween superstar Raven-Symoné, which follows the same formula as hits like Ice Cube's Are We There Yet? and others by putting Martin Lawrence on the road with kids, in this case an older teen girl looking for independence as she goes off to college.
It seems like only a month ago when we were talking about the career of Martin Lawrence, maybe because it was because Lawrence just starred in Universal's comedy Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, which didn't fare as well as some of Lawrence's past movies. College Road Trip is a bit different since its his second movie with Disney after last year's surprise Wild Hogs, which put Lawrence on a motorcycle alongside John Travolta and Disney regular Tim Allen. That movie was a PG-13 film released by Touchstone Pictures and geared more for audiences 15 and up, but this time, Disney has Lawrence doing a G-rated movie, hoping that he can find similar success with more family-friendly fare, much like Allen has with "The Santa Clause" trilogy and the 2006 remake of The Shaggy Dog. Ironically, Lawrence's only PG family movie prior to this was the 2005 comedy Rebound, which tanked when facing Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds. Unlike Roscoe Jenkins, this is the kind of movie that won't just appeal to African-American audiences and parents with small kids will see this as a viable movie choice due to its G-rating, something that can help bring entire families into see this over the weekend.
More importantly, he's joined by Raven-Symoné (Christina Pearman), who at 22 years old is one of Disney's hottest commodities thanks to her hit Disney Channel Show "That's So Raven" and her stint as one of the "Cheetah Girls," a career that has garnered the young actress tons of Kids' and Teen Choice Awards, and no less than seven NAACP Image Awards, making her one of the most influential people among young African-American girls than anyone else. Not only that, but Raven's been acting for a long time, having played Olivia, a second term cute kid on "The Cosby Show," before Miley Cyrus' dad was singing "Achy Breaky Heart." Like many of Disney's young ingénues, Raven is also a singing star, having released her first album—you might want to sit down for this—15 YEARS AGO, which spawned a hit single, and since then, she's released two more albums with a fourth on the way, and appearances on a number of Disney soundtracks. With all of that under her belt, it's surprising that Ms. Symoné hasn't appeared in that many movies since playing Eddie Murphy's daughter in both Doctor Dolittle movies, not that anyone will remember her from those. Essentially, whether or not you think Lawrence's career is shaping up or falling apart he'll have a strong back-up plan by teaming him with Raven, since she'll appeal to the younger crowd.
A number of African-American actors have had success with family-oriented road trip movies including Cedric the Entertainer with Johnson Family Vacation and rapper Ice Cube with Are We There Yet?, plus Robin Williams got into the act with RV in 2006, but it's been a regular thing for popular comics to eventually make kids' movies, as seen by the likes of Eddie Murphy and Steve Martin, who've had their best success doing kids' movies. Though at first glance, this might seem like the usual Disney kiddie fare, its more of a movie for teen and 'tween girls that offers the kind of bonding premise that they can see with their parents and families, rather than just being dumped off at the malls to see on their own, while the rest of the family sees something else. In that sense, it has some of the same strengths of other Disney films that have proven successful in this season including The Pacifier and Bringing Down the House, since they've been able to bring in a couple different demos.
At this point, it looks like Disney is releasing the movie into less than 3,000 theaters, which is odd, considering the success of previous Disney family movies when given very wide releases. Currently, the movie is estimated to open in 2,500 theaters, which is only slightly more than Roscoe Jenkins, but one can expect this number will be increased by a couple hundred by Friday, since there's so few movies playing ultra-wide currently. With that in mind, College Road Trip should have a really solid opening weekend, although it's likely to get murdered next week when the animated Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who opens, since that will be a much stronger draw. Even so, the only other kids' movie The Spiderwick Chronicles is heading out of theaters and girls and women won't have as much interest in Roland Emmerich's 10,000 B.C., so this should be a strong family choice.
Why I Should See It: Teaming Martin Lawrence and Raven-Symoné seems like it could produce comedy for a wide range of audiences.
Why Not: This looks like every other recent family road comedy, all of which pale in comparison to National Lampoon's Vacation.
Projections: $20 to 23 million opening weekend and $75 million total.
COMPARISONS
The Bank Job (Lionsgate)
Starring Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, Stephen Campbell Moore, Daniel Mays, James Faulkner, Alki David, Michael Jibson, Richard Lintern, Don Gallagher, David Suchet
Directed by Roger Donaldson (The Recruit, The World's Fastest Indian, Species, Thirteen Days, Dante's Peak); Written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (Across the Universe, Flushed Away, Goal!)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Rated R
Tagline: "The true story of a heist gone wrong... in all the right ways."
Plot Summary: Car dealer Terry Leather (Jason Statham) is convinced by his former model girlfriend Martine (Saffron Burrows) to rob the safe at a Baker Street bank, but the safety deposit boxes they rob contain dirty secrets that the British government and various local criminals do not want to become public knowledge, putting Terry and his crew on the run from everyone.
Review
Although the other two wide releases might seem fairly straight-forward in terms of their audiences, this heist thriller starring Jason Statham might face some of the toughest challenges despite the growing popular star who got his start in acting thanks to Guy Ritchie and has become quite a popular action star thanks to the likes of Luc Besson and Corey Yuen. This bank heist flick based on the true story of the "Walkie Talkie Robbers" is the latest film directed by veteran filmmaker Roger Donaldson allowing Statham to take on a meatier dramatic role, while still doing something that might appeal to his mostly male fans, who have flocked to see movies like Crank and "The Transporter" movies. Statham certainly is a big enough star now that he'll be doing the talk show rounds, some of which might help raise awareness for the movie, although few will feel that he's making much of a departure from his early days in Ritchie's early movies Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch.
Statham's main partner-in-crime is British actress and former model Saffron Burrows, who made her debut in Jim Sheridan's Oscar-worthy In the Name of the Father and has taken scattered roles in films like Wolfgang Peterson's Troy, though she's best known to American audiences for her recurring role on the ABC drama "Boston Legal." Otherwise, it's a fairly large ensemble cast of British actors, the most recognizable ones possibly being Stephen Campbell More, last seen in The History Boys and Daniel Mays, who played James McAvoy's wartime buddy in Atonement.
Donaldson's last movie was the indie feature The World's Fastest Indian, starring Anthony Hopkins, which Donaldson also wrote, but it got a fairly low-key release compared to some of his studio work like The Recruit with Al Pacino and Colin Farrell back in 2003, though his biggest movie to date is the 1988 Tom Cruise vehicle Cocktail. That grossed $78 million and he has had two other movies make in the $60 million range (Dante's Peak and Species) but Donaldson still isn't considered anywhere near an A or even B-List director, being very erratic in terms of box office.
Heist flicks have been fairly popular in this country the past few years with the "Ocean's" trilogy being the highmark for most people, though other movies include The Score starring Edward Norton and Robert De Niro and the recent estrogen-filled alternative Mad Money have done respectable business. The British are world-famous for their heist movies from the '50s, '60s, and '70s, many of which have been remade, most notably The Italian Job from 1969 (the remake starring Statham) and the Coen Brothers' remake of the 1955 crime-drama The Ladykillers. Besides not being a remade, but being based on an actual crime case, The Bank Job is somewhat different in that it's a period piece set in the '70s that retains all the "Britishness" of those films, something that might throw off American audiences.
That said, reviews should generally be good as this is the kind of movie that critics love raving about, though considering how few movies have been doing good or bad business based on reviews, they probably won't do much to help this movie, which has not received quite as big a push from Lionsgate, who is releasing the movie into less than 1,500 theaters, which is comparable to the release of William Friedkin's Bug last year. There's a chance that The Bank Job might cut into the older males that might go see Roland Emmerich's latest movie, but more likely, that movie will limit the number of younger guys who might try to see this, although the R-rating won't help with that either. This might find some curious American moviegoers based on Statham and reviews claiming it to be the "greatest heist film ever made" but considering that the film already opened in the U.K. one has to expect that pirate version of the movie are already out and about, which can also cut into opening weekend. Since it might be too British for anyone outside the big cities, the few who might be interested might feel this is one movie that will play just as well on DVD in three to four months later.
Why I Should See It: Jason Statham returns to British crime-drama with this retro-thriller based on a true crime story.
Why Not: Unfortunately, because Statham is an action star, one has to expect a certain amount of action… maybe it'll be enough to appease those looking for it, maybe not.
Projections: $4 to 6 million opening and $18 million total.
COMPARISONS
Miss Pettigrew Lives for the Day (Focus)
Starring Frances McDormand, Amy Adams, Ciaran Hinds, Shirley Henderson, Lee Pace
Directed by Bharat Nalluri (The Crow: Salvation, Killing Time, and "Tsunami: the Aftermath" and "Hustle" for television; 2nd unit for Alien vs. Predator and Resident Evil); Written by David Magee (Finding Neverland), Simon Beaufoy (Blow Dry, The Full Monty, Japanese Story)
Genre: Comedy
Rated PG-13
Tagline: "Every Woman Will Have Her Day"
Plot Summary: Guinevere Pettigrew (Frances McDormand), a middle-aged starving governess looking for work in pre-WWII England meets Delysia LaFasse (Amy Adams), a frivolous actress and the prototype for the modern-day celebutante, who hires Miss Pettigrew as her personal assistant to help juggle the three men in her life, including pianoman Mike (Lee Pace), the one man who truly loves her for herself.
Interview with Amy Adams
Review (Coming Soon!)
Now usually, when there's a choice of a new Stephen Chow or a David Gordon Green movie, you can almost place money that they'll be some of my favorite movies in any given week, so color me shocked when I ended up loving this period chick flick based on a novel written way back in the late ‘30s. The film itself takes place in England during the era where war was starting to hit the city, but this is not a dark war drama ala Atonement, but a delightful old school romantic comedy carried by two amazing actresses, Frances McDormand and Amy Adams. My big-time crush and absolute adoration of Adams is probably one of the worst kept secrets on the planet, but she's wonderful as always playing Delysia LaFasse, a flighty and pretentious actress who is juggling three men at once, including the dashing Lee Pace from "Pushing Daisies" as the piano man who you really want to see Delysia end up with. Ciaran Hinds, who has been everywhere in the last few months, has a great role as the wealthy man who shows interest in Miss Pettigrew, which is another great role for McDormand, one that shows how great she is at doing subtle humor. (Diane Keaton take note!) Co-written by the Oscar-nominated screenwriters of Finding Neverland and The Full Monty, this is a great movie that'll appeal to anyone who loves old romantic comedies with fast-paced dialogue and fun and lots of double entendres, although it doesn't take it quite as far as Down with Love (another guilty pleasure romantic comedy). So yeah, there's a better chance that this movie will be more your thing if you're a woman or better yet, if you're asking a woman on a date, but any guy who has any kind of crush on Adams will want to see this for the tasteful amount of skin she shows off… and then you can pretend that you're just seeing it to appease your date.
If you enjoyed retro-comedies like Stephen Frears' Mrs. Henderson Presents than Miss Pettigrew should be for you. It will open across the country this weekend in around 450 theatres on Friday.
Honorable Mentions:
CJ7 (Sony Classics)
Starring Stephen Chow, Xu Jiao, Kitty Zhang Yuqi, Chi Chung Lam, Shing-Cheung Lee
Written and directed by Stephen Chow (Shaolin Soccer, Kung Fu Hustle) with Kan-Cheung Tsang (Shaolin Soccer, Kung Fu Hustle, God of Cookery, The King of Comedy), Chi Keung Fong (Hooked on You, The Sparrow), Vincent Kok (Dragon Reloaded), Sandy Shaw (The Heroic Trio, Jet Li's The Enforcer),
Genre: Comedy, Action, Family, Sci-Fi
Rated PG
Plot Summary: Dickie Chow (Xu Jiao) is a young boy whose impoverished father (Stephen Chow) sends him to a private school where he's picked on mercilessly until Dickie's father brings him a present he found in the junkyard, a rubber toy
Of Note: Kung Fu Hustle director Stephen Chow returns with a movie geared towards kids about a boy and his alien.
Feature Interview with Stephen Chow, Xu Jiao
Mini-Review: Even if you're a fan of Chow's previous movies and his eccentric sense of humor, it might be somewhat of a chore getting through this kid-oriented film that's driven by the cuteness of its young lead and "his" pet alien, a primitive manga-inspired CG creature that looks like the illegitimate spawn of a Pokemon and a Telletubbie. Chow takes more of a backseat in this film to the impressive youngster Xu Jiao, an actress who gives a convincing performance as Chow's son, stealing many scenes with his delightful charm that's able to carry the film even when Chow isn't around, and the fact she's able to keep up with him in terms of comedy is nothing short of amazing. Otherwise, there's a lot of Chow's trademark strangeness, things like an enormous schoolgirl (played by a large male actor whose voice is dubbed of that of a little girl) and a school bully who acts like a character from a Johnnie To gangster flick and diehard Stephen Chow fans should appreciate the nods to his past films, even if some might feel that he's treading old ground when he shoe-horns martial arts and soccer into the story. The film gets surprisingly maudlin and almost cruel at times, even resorting to bathroom humor for laughs, but ultimately, it's Ms. Jiao and the odd yet adorable creature that saves the day, leading to a very sweet ending that makes up for some of Chow's more quizzical decisions earlier in the film. Like Chow's previous films, this might not be for everyone—kids will probably appreciate it more than their parents—but those with a twisted sense of humor should get a few laughs out of Chow's oddest film yet. Rating: 7.5/10
Snow Angels (Warner Independent)
Starring Sam Rockwell, Kate Beckinsale, Michael Angarano, Griffin Dunne, Amy Sedaris, Olivia Thirlby
Written and directed by David Gordon Green (George Washington, All the Real Girls, Undertow)
Genre: Drama
Rated R
Tagline: "Some will fall. Some will fly."
Plot Summary: A drama composed of intertwined stories about people in various stages of love in a small suburban town, revolving around local waitress Annie (Kate Beckinsale), who is trying to raise her daughter after separating from her alcoholic husband Glenn (Sam Rockwell). Just as a terrible tragedy befalls them, a high school student named Arthur (Michael Angarano) is discovering love for the first time with a quirky classmate (Olivia Thirlby), just as his parents' marriage is falling apart.
Of Note: David Gordon Green returns with his first movie since "Undertow" adapting Stewart O'Nan's novel of the same name. It opens in New York and L.A. on Friday.
Mini-Review: David Gordon Green leaves the South to infiltrate Todd Fields territory with this suburban slice-of-life drama that's on par with "Little Children" in terms of the writing and performances, including one of Kate Beckinsale's shining moments as a single mother going through the trials of separation with a husband who refuses to let go. Said loser is played by Sam Rockwell, who continues to bring a lot to every role, gaining sympathy from the viewer with the humor he brings to this pathetic Born Again alcoholic who means well but eventually goes off the deep end when he finds his ex-wife has a new lover. Before it gets to that point, it seems like so many other dramas introducing various characters from the community and allowing them to interact as it builds up to life-changing tragedies, but what's interesting is how the film contrasts the different stages of relationship—first love, sexual lust, divorce and everything in between through the various relationships. The intricate web of character dynamics is carried by some of Green's best writing and an eclectic but well-chosen cast that produces some fine dramatic work from the likes of Amy Sedaris as Beckinsale's co-worker and Griffin Dunne as Michael Angarano's father. By the end, the film has gotten overly dark and bleak due to the nature of O'Nan's story—it might be good to know that the novel gives away one of the film's shocking twists in the first few pages. Not everyone will be able to forgive this sudden turn of events, but it makes for an interesting counterpoint to the touching innocence of the romance between Michael Angarano and Olivia Thirlby (from "Juno") proving themselves to be two of the finest young actors working today under Green's guidance. Even though the movie does tread similar ground to other similar indie dramas, it never looks like an indie film due to the gorgeous way Green's long-time cinematographer Tim Orr captures the suburban environment, and besides her terrific performance as Annie, Beckinsale has never looked better than she does in front of Orr's lens. This adaptation makes a fine showcase for Green's talents as a writer and filmmaker that bodes well for his future work. Rating: 8/10
Also in Limited Release:
Blindsight (Robson Entertainment) - This new documentary from Lucy Walker (The Devil's Playground) follows the journey of six blind Tibetan teenagers who seek to climb up the north side of Mount Everest in the Himalayas. Shunned by their parents and villages, the teens find solace in Tibet's first school of the blind and a visit by blind mountain climber Erik Weihenmayer inspires them to climb Everest themselves. It opens in New York at the Village East on Wednesday.
Fighting for Life (Truly Indie) - Terry Sanders' documentary looks at a real-life M*A*S*H* unit with doctors and nurses fighting on the frontlines of the Iraq War, and the students at the Uniformed Services University who are working towards their careers as military physicians. It opens at the Quad Cinema in New York City.
Girls Rock! (Shadow Distribution) - This documentary by Shane King and Arne Johnson takes a look at a group of young female outcasts facing all sorts of issues of self-image who attend a one-week retreat at a camp where they use rock music to overcome their issues. It opens at the Angelika in New York, the NuArt Theatre in L.A. and other select cities.
Married Life (Sony Classics) - Ira Sachs, whose last movie Forty Shades of Blue won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005, returns with this period drama based on John Bingham's "Five Roundabouts to Heaven." Set in 1949, it stars Chris Cooper as a married business man who wants to leave his loving wife (Patricia Clarkson) for his younger mistress Kay (Rachel McAdams), plans that fall apart when his best friend (Pierce Brosnan) sets his own sights on Kay. It will open in New York and L.A. on Friday.
Mini-Review: Who knows where Ira Sachs' third feature went so horribly wrong, because the thought of a period drama in the vein of Todd Haynes' "Far From Heaven" with such an illustrious cast would seem like a sure thing. In fact, the film's retro look, an admirable combination of production design and cinematography, is really the only thing going for it. With far too many influences to count, the film is all over the place in tone, never knowing if it wants to be a relationship comedy, a serious drama or a Hitchcock murder thriller, so it throws in a bit of each, bogging things down with stiffly-delivered dialogue (co-written with Oren Moverman) and grueling talking heads scenes that might have been more interesting if done as a stage play. Most of the interaction between the characters rings false, making the entire plot seem obvious, contrived and unbelievable. Never did I think I'd see the day when Patricia Clarkson would give such a weak, phoned-in performance as she does here, but she's the worst of a cast of normally decent actors, none of whom are doing their best work, not even McAdams, who doesn't quite work as a blonde either. Ultimately, the movie goes nowhere and after a perfectly fine ending, it continues with two epilogues that makes this futile and misguided effort even more aggravating. Ultimately, "Married Life" serves very little purpose in the grander scheme of indie filmmaking or Sachs' filmography. Rating: 5/10
Paranoid Park (IFC) - Filmmaker Gus van Sant (Good Will Hunting, Finding Forrester) returns with his portrait of a teen skateboarder (Gabe Nevins) who faces serious consequences after witnessing the accidental death of a security guard outside a skate park. It opens in two theaters in New York City.
Mini-Review: Continuing Gus van Sant's run of ambient artsy films with this one based on Blake Nelson's novel about a skateboarder who witnesses a gruesome death but does nothing about it. On the one hand, it could be seen as a modern day "River's Edge" except that the tone is so lackadaisical and slow that it doesn't really fit the nature of the story. Instead, we get lots of gorgeous shots of skateboarding teens as van Sant teams with Wong Kar-Wai's cinematographer Christopher Doyle to create something on par with Steven Soderbergh's "Bubble" in terms of pacing, mostly using non-actors in every role, but it creates a strange tone that's hard to adjust to and the entire movie desperately needs an injection of coffee to keep us from getting as bored as the lead actor. Even though parallels can be drawn to "Elephant," this isn't nearly as interesting a story nor is it told as well as van Sant tries too hard to prove that he's in tune with today's youth, while making films that will interest him but not necessarily anyone else. The dialogue seems unnatural, and at times, the film enters the creepy voyeuristic nature of Larry Clark's films, though it's never quite as bad as "Wassup Rockers" in that sense. Either way, if this film really epitomizes the way that teens talk and act, with every girl in the movie acting like Avril Lavigne wannabes, then I seriously fear for the future of this country. Rating: 5/10
Semi-Pro (New Line)
Starring Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson, Andre Benjamin, Maura Tierney, Will Arnett, Andy Richter, Rob Corddry, DeRay Davis, Josh Braaten, Jay Phillips, Jackie Earle Haley
Directed by Kent Alterman (directorial debut of the long-time New Line exec. Involved with production); Written by Scot Armstrong (Road Trip, Old School, Starsky & Hutch, School for Scoundrels, The Heartbreak Kid)
Genre: Sports, Comedy
Rated R
Tagline: "The Greatest Fro on Earth"
Plot Summary: Jackie Moon (Will Ferrell), owner, coach and star player of the minor league basketball team the Flint Michigan Tropics, realizes he has to get his team up to snuff if they’re going to be included in the merger with the NBA when their league is dissolved, so he brings on a former hotshot (Woody Harrelson) to get the team into shape.
Mini-Review: At first, Jackie Moon might seem like just another chance for Will Ferrell to ham it up and do his normal schtick, because the trailer certainly makes it look like more of the same. In fact, it’s actually a hilarious sports comedy reminiscent of the classic hockey film "Slapshot," retaining all of the usual cliches of the genre, but exploiting the genre formula and twisting them around for hearty laughs, while also poking fun at the swingin' ‘70s. Surprisingly, the movie is very tightly plotted with far less of the screwball comedy filler that Ferrell loves so much, only using it in the scenes where Jackie Moon is playing promoter/entertainer trying to get people into seats at the games. His performance of his hit song "Love Me Sexy" is the perfect way to kick things off, setting a mood that has you chuckling from the very beginning. Then again, some of Ferrell's funniest moments are when he's sharing scenes with the likes of Arnett and Richter, showing him to be far more generous as a comic than past movies. As much as the movie is about the jokes, the film includes some fine semi-dramatic scenes from Woody Harrelson and Maura Tierney in a relationship subplot that is kept from getting too heavy thanks to Rob Corddry as her basketball enthusiast husband who seems oblivious to his wife’s romance. Even funnier is seeing Jackie Earl Haley following his Oscar-nominated dramatic performance by playing a hilarious stoner who shows up from time to time. However you slice it, the main reason the film works so well is that the R rating allows Ferrell and friends to cut loose and get raunchy without worrying about sensitive younger ears, and for that alone, "Semi-Pro" joins "Anchorman" and "Elf" as one of Ferrell’s funnier efforts. Rating: 7.5/10
For the second year in a row, Will Ferrell offers a cure for the winter/spring blahs with a sports comedy, this time taking on basketball in a retro-comedy offering ‘70s humor that harks back to his popular hit Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Ferrell’s new comedy Semi-Pro reunites him with writer Scot Armstrong who penned Old School and the Starsky & Hutch remake, as well as reuniting him with the studio that released his biggest comedy Elf, paving the way for so many other big comedies. On top of all that, he’s returning to the R-rated humor of Old School, which many feel is Ferrell’s breakout, that would make it sound like Semi-Pro could be Ferrell’s biggest movie ever, right? Maybe or maybe not.
It certainly is being released in an open and clear time at the movies, where it can do well even if it doesn’t look like his funniest comedy from the commercials, because they can’t show some of the movie’s raunchier jokes. Ferrell has come a long way from his days on "Saturday Night Live" and appearing in SNL-related movies and those of his castmates with Old School and Elf kicking off a series of comedy hits that included Anchorman in 2004 and Talladega Nights becoming his biggest opening movie two years later. Last year’s Blades of Glory proved that Ferrell could take on any topic and bring in an audience, and though it didn’t do as well as Talladega, some of that could be blamed on the fact that NASCAR racing is a far stronger sports vehicle (sorry for the pun) than iceskating. Then again, Ferrell has had a few missteps in his career like his turn as Darrin Stephens in the Bewitched movie, the family soccer comedy Kicking and Screaming and his turn in the failed Producers musical movie, all in 2005.
Although this is clearly Ferrell’s movie and he will be the main draw, he’s continuing the tradition of filling the cast with really funny supporting actors including Will Arnett from the FOX sitcom "Arrested Development," appearing in his second Ferrell movie in a row after Blades of Glory. David Koechner is also returning after his memorable appearance in Anchorman and they’re joined by a couple late-night sidekicks, Andy Richter from the "Late Show with Conan O’Brien" and Rob Corddry from "The Daily Show." The serious actors in the cast include a small appearance by Jackie Earl Haley in his first movie since being nominated for an Oscar for his role in Todd Field’s Little Children (also from New Line). Two of the main secondary roles are played by beloved TV actors Woody Harrelson from "Cheers," who has appeared in hundreds of movies since that show ended decades ago with a presence in four to five movies a year, and Maura Tierney from "E.R." and "News Radio" who’s appeared in a couple of big comedies like Jim Carrey’s Liar Liar and flops like Ray Romano’s Welcome to Mooseport. The star player on Jackie Moon’s team is played by Andre Benjamin AKA "Andre 3000" from the Grammy-winning rap group OutKast, who has starred in movies like Be Cool, John Singleton’s Four Brothers and Guy Ritchie’s Revolver, and another recognizable face belongs to stand-up comic DeRay Davis, who’s appeared in movies like Scary Movie 4 and assorted others.
This is a good time for a strong comedy since there’s so few in theaters right now, something that helped Blades of Glory last year, though the R rating might be somewhat worrying considering that Ferrell’s audience is primarily younger with plenty of teens and younger due to his frequent family films. In the last year, Judd Apatow has proven that one can bring in a large audience of 17 – 30 year olds with the right humor and there’s enough guys in that age range who haven’t had much of interest in theaters, although Semi-Pro is facing the fact that the biggest opening R-rated comedy, Wedding Crashers, only made $33.9 million its opening weekend, and Superbad made slightly less than that, both in the summer. On the other hand, if any comic actor can break that record, it would be Ferrell, since Adam Sandler seems unlikely to venture into that territory with his mainstream comedies.
This is an important movie for New Line, who’ve had a few crushing defeats in recent years, but there are hopes that a sports comedy like this could have a wide enough appeal to do as well as something like Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story. Granted, this will probably appeal more to guys than women, and not opening in the summer means its unlikely to match the opening of Talladega Nights, though last year’s opening for Blades of Glory is well in reach even with the R-rating.
With that in mind, New Line ran a series of high-profile Super Bowl commercials to cater to that audience, including a classic one with Ferrell in character doing a Bud Light commercial, which greatly raised awareness of the movie both among fans of Ferrell’s humor and sports fans in general. In general, New Line has done a good job marketing this one, and there’s little reason why it shouldn’t at least match the opening of Blades of Glory, since Ferrell’s a stronger draw than most of the cast of other big R-rated comedies.
Why I Should See It: Will Ferrell creates another funny character and takes on another popular sport, following his movies about soccer, NASCAR and figure skating.
Why Not: Yeah, it’s pretty much Will Ferrell doing what he always does, so if you hate that, prepare to cringe.
Projections: $31 to 34 million opening weekend and $110 to 115 million total.
COMPARISONS
The Other Boleyn Girl (Sony)
Starring Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Eric Bana, Kristin Scott Thomas, Mark Rylance, David Morrissey, Eddie Redmayne, Jim Sturgess, Benedict Cumberbatch
Directed by Justin Chadwick (Sleeping with the Fishes); Written by Peter Morgan (The Queen, The Last King of Scotland)
Genre: Period Drama
Rated PG-13
Tagline: "The only thing that could come between these sisters... is a kingdom."
Plot Summary: The two Boleyn sisters, Anne and Mary (Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson) are driven by their ambitious parents to win the heart of the current King of England, Henry the VIII (Eric Bana), but their attempts to get him to fall for them and leave his wife Katherine of Aragorn leads to a bitter rivalry that could potentially destroy their entire family.
Dual Review w/"Penelope"
Just a few months after Cate Blanchett returned as Queen Elizabeth I in Shekhar Kapur’s sequel Elizabeth: The Golden Age, here’s another prestigious period costume drama, this one based on the popular series of novels by Philippa Gregory, with a strong cast of box office stars, which effectively acts as a prequel to Kapur’s movies. It’s kind of strange because this movie isn’t produced by Working Title Films, who made those two Oscar-nominated pictures, though it’s written by Peter Morgan, who was nominated for his own Oscar last year for writing The Queen.
All of that is mostly irrelevent compared to the movie’s cast with Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson doing their first period costume drama after doing a variety of other films, both big and small, though both of them are coming off fairly substantial bombs, Portman with Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium and Johansson for The Nanny Diaries. Still, both actresses are well-respected having given awards-worthy performances in the past, Portman having won a Golden Globe for the drama Closer while Johansson having been nominated for four without ever having won. Portman’s background includes genre films like Luc Besson’s The Professional and George Lucas’ "Star Wars" films, and she made a return to that with V For Vendetta in 2006, but Johansson’s attempt at a genre film, joining Michael Day’s sci-fi flick The Island was a huge failure. Fortunately, she’s become Woody Allen’s muse, appearing in two of his movies, including one of his more successful recent ones, Match Point. The two actresses are also considered to be two of the most desirable women working in Hollywood in every respect with many male fans, although it’s likely that their latest venture will appeal more to women who like period romances than guys.
The supporting cast includes some of Britain’s finest including David Morrissey and newer-comers like Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe) and Eddie Redmayne from The Good Shepherd, but the only other significant part is that of Henry the VIII, played by Australian actor Eric Bana, who has headlined a number of big movies like Universal’s Hulk and Wolfgang Peterson’s Troy along with Brad Pitt, though he also starred in Curtis Hanson’s Lucky You, which bombed after years of delays. (Bana also stars in the limited release indie Romulus, My Father, which opens in the Boston area this Friday—see below.)
This is a fairly well known book, much like Marie Antoinette and Memoirs of a Geisha, which were both produced and given a fairly moderate release by Sony, and that continues to be the case with The Other Boleyn Girl, which is only opening in just over a thousand theaters. Back in October, Universal might have gone too big right off the bat by releasing Elizabeth: The Golden Age in 2,000 theaters, but with a narrower release, Sony can target the big cities where an artsy period drama like this might do better business, although it might still cap off at the $6 million made by The Golden Age during the fall, generally a better season for something like this.
The big difference is that most of the movies above were released later in the year under the assumption they would be up for awards and Sony isn’t even bothering to deem this film to be awards-worthy, dumping it into late a February release with a suitable amount of promotion but none of the awards hopes that is generally needed to get people to see these movies. There’s a good chance that this will get caught in the backlash faced by Kapur’s The Golden Age with critics being sick of the genre, so reviews probably won’t be particularly favorable. Possibly, there will be female moviegoers who like this sort of thing who’ll see it anyway, but it’s not likely to be a huge box office smash or anything, star power or not.
Why I Should See It: Two hot actresses do their first period costume drama.
Why Not: Though they do fight a lot in the movie, there’s no costume-ripping catfights ala "Dynasty" alas.
Projections: $4 to 6 million opening weekend on its way to $15 million total.
COMPARISONS
Penelope (Summit Entertainment)
Starring Christina Ricci, James McAvoy, Catherine O'Hara, Reese Witherspoon, Peter Dinklage, Richard E. Grant, Simon Woods, Ronni Ancona, Nick Frost, Richard James
Directed by Mark Palansky (directorial debut of the 2nd Unit Director, who has done mainly shorts and a series of videos of interviews with screenwriters); Written by Leslie Caveny (TV writer most notably on "Everybody Loves Raymond")
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
Rated PG
Tagline: "A fairytale like no other."
Plot Summary: Penelope Wilhelm (Christina Ricci) is a girl from a wealthy family whose family secret forces her to hide most of her face, so she must find a suitor who can help break the curse. An eager tabloid reporter (Peter Dinklage) hoping to get pictures of Penelope’s face hires a good-looking gambler named Max (James McAvoy) to pose as a suitor, although the young man finds himself falling for Penelope for real.
Dual Review with "The Other Boleyn Girl"
Since February has been the month of delayed projects finally getting released—last weekend had three—here’s another one that’s been finished for almost two years and is finally getting released before being shuffled around by another distributor and finally winding up at the fledgling Summit Entertainment as their second U.S. theatrical release after last year’s horror flick P2.
This one is a strange romantic fantasy set in England starring Christina Ricci, who only has two kinds of luck when it comes to her movies, bad and none, with so many movies outright bombing or going straight to cable or DVD without a theatrical release, so it’s actually positive that Penelope is getting any kind of release, let alone a wide one. Ricci first came to attention playing Wednesday Adams in The Addams Family and its sequel followed by a prominent role in Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow with Johnny Depp, followed by the thriller Bless the Child and that’s when things went to pot. A number of her other movies were delayed like Wes Craven’s Cursed or never got a theatrical release like Prozac Nation and The Gathering. Otherwise, she’s mainly appeared in edgy and controversial indie movies like Charlize Theron’s Monster and Pumpkin with a high-profile return in Craig Brewer’s Black Snake Moan, which opened exactly a year ago (after being delayed, of course.) Ricci also guest-starred on the episode of "Grey’s Anatomy" that screened after the Super Bowl a couple years ago, which helped that show find a much larger audience. While Penelope probably won’t change Ricci’s luck, at least she’s returning to big budget mainstream movies, playing Trixie in
the Wachowski’s Speed Racer, which opens in a couple months.
Her romantic lead in the film is played by dreamy (to women, not me) Scottish actor James McAvoy, who is currently appearing in Joe Wright’s Oscar-nominated British drama Atonement, which has greatly raised his status after being mostly ignored for starring roles in The Last King of Scotland and the university comedy Starter for 10, as well as being Anne Hathaway’s love interest in Becoming Jane. Younger moviegoers might remember McAvoy as Mr. Tumnis in The Chronicles of Narnia, a good PG precursor for the audience who might see this, and it’s interesting to see his name being used in the advertising, presumably preparing for his next career move starring opposite Angelina Jolie in the action film Wanted this summer.
Fortunately, they have Reese Witherspoon in the movie, playing a secondary role as Penelope’s friend that might help the movie bring in some younger women and girls, who enjoyed her in her lighter comedy fare like the "Legally Blonde" movies or Sweet Home Alabama, though she’s not doing much promotion for the movie. Despite Reese having starred in some of the biggest romantic comedies, her recent starring role in the political thriller Rendition didn’t keep that movie from bombing, though granted, Penelope is more in line with the movies her fans seem to enjoy. Reese is being prominently featured in the advertising, but she barely appears in the movie, and not at all in the first hour, so her fans might get angry if they go see the movie for her.
The movie seems like a light fantasy film with a whimsical nature like Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amelie or like Anne Hathaway’s Ella Enchanted, rather than a big high fantasy movie like the recent Spiderwick Chronicles. Then again, it has similar benefits of being a PG-rated film in a market fairly devoid of family friendly fare--something that will change in March with Martin Lawrence’s College Road Trip followed by the animated Horton Hears a Who--but it’s still a movie that will likely appeal more to young and teen girls rather than anyone older. Older women will also have The Other Boleyn Girl if they really want to go to the movies this weekend.
Unfortunately, the movie has already been released in a number of European regions and it’s been playing in England since the start of the month, which means the pirates have already got their hands on it, though reviews from the movie’s festival appearances have generally been good if somewhat mixed. The film played at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival and it was picked up by IFC with plans to release it around this time last year, but then it was delayed until the fall and then delayed again until it finally showed up on the roster of the fledgling distributor Summit Entertainment
Despite this only being Summit’s second theatrical release, they’ve been going into overdrive with the marketing with tons of commercials, though it seems they did the same thing for P2, which only made $6.4 million in over 2,000 theaters. That movie might have suffered from being a stalker thriller at a point where America was getting sick of those kinds of movies thanks to Captivity and Hostel: Part II. Summit’s being a bit more moderate with Penelope, though it’s important that they show theater owners that they can fill the seats, since they have other movies coming out this year, including the mixed martial arts drama Never Back Down and the animated Fly Me to the Moon.
Why I Should See It: Surely, some might find Christina Ricci cute with a pig nose, right?
Why Not: Unfortunately, the film won’t be playing in many areas where farmers’ wives might go see it.
Projections: $2 to 4 million opening weekend on its way to roughly $8 million.
COMPARISONS
City of Men (Miramax)
Starring Douglas Silva, Darlan Cunha, Rodrigo dos Santos
Directed by Paulo Morelli ("City of Men" television series); Written by Elena Soarez (House of Sand, A Proper Name, "City of Men" television series)
Genre: Drama, Crime, Coming-of-Age
Rated R
Tagline: An Unforgettable Tale of Friendship and Survival in a City where the Greatest Challenge is Growing Up.
Plot Summary: In the Brazilian favela Dead End Hill, Ace and Wallace (Douglas Silva, Darlan Cunha) have been friends since childhood, but as they both turn 18, they look towards their futures, Ace as a father and Wallace, as he looks for the father he never has known.
Interview with Paulo Morelli
Review
Our second Chosen One of the month from Brazil is the follow-up to one of the most well known Brazilian films of the last decade, Fernando Meirelles’ City of God, and it wraps up the story of the characters from the television series that ran for four seasons in Brazil and was collected into an edited form shown on the Sundance Channel. It’s important to bear in mind that with director Paulo Morelli at the helm, this is a very different film in terms of look and feel but it’s just as beautifully shot and crafted with the young cast of City of God having grown into a talented group that shows another side of favela life. Granted, not everyone who loved City of God will enjoy this movie, but those fascinated by this beautiful city and the lives of those who live in its slums will want to give this one a look when it opens in select cities on Friday.
Honorable Mention:
Chicago 10 (Roadside Attractions)
Starring (the voices of) Hank Azaria, Dylan Baker, David Boat, David Dellinger, Debra Eisenstadt, Abbie Hoffman, William Kunstler, Nick Nolte, Jerry Rubin, Mark Ruffalo, Roy Scheider, Liev Schreiber, Bobby Seale, James Urbaniak, Leonard Weinglass, Jeffrey Wright
Written and directed by Brett Morgen (The Kid Stays in the Picture, On the Ropes)
Genre: Documentary, Animation
Rated R
Plot Summary: Combining archive footage and animated recreations of the court case, this documentary looks at the protests surrounding the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago and how 7 men including Abbie Hoffman (voiced by Hank Azaria) were arrested and put on trial for their involvement in arranging the protests which turned ugly when the police got violent.
Of Note: Documentary filmmaker Brett Morgen tackles the case of the seven war protesters who were imprisoned and put on trial for their involvement in he 1968 Vietnam War protest that bears comparison to the 2004 march in New York in conjunction with the Republican National Convention to protest the war in Iraq. After opening the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, it opens in select cities on Friday.
My Thoughts from Sundance ‘07
Also in Limited Release:
Chop Shop (Koch Lorber Films) - Ramin Bahrani (Man Push Cart) returns with another tale of New York’s minority population, this one about a 12-year-old Latino orphan living in Willet’s Point, Queens, with his older sister in a small room above a auto body repair shop, sharing dreams of one day owning their own food van. After playing at the Toronto Film Festival (and winning an Independent Spirit Award as "One to Watch"), it opens at New York’s Film Forum on Wednesday.
Bonneville (Sen-Art Films) - Jessica Lange plays Arvilla Holden, a grieving woman drives across the country with her close friends (Joan Allen and Kathy Bates) to deliver her husband's cremated remains to his family in Christopher N. Rowley's directorial debut, which opens in select cities on Friday.
Mini-Review: If you watch the trailer, you'll immediately know what to expect from this aggravatingly monotonous and predictable estrogen-driven Mormon (!) road movie that tries its hardest to be "Thelma and Louise… and Another Louise." It isn't necessarily a badly made film but first-time director Christopher N. Rowley is so obviously in love with the American heartland scenery and the music he seems oblivious to the flat and trite script he's working with. The three legendary talents, four if you include Christine Baranski, try to make the most of the droll and obvious humor by laughing and screaming to make it look as if they're having fun, but it's like a porn flick with faked orgasms, and watching these talented Oscar-worthy actresses following the once-great Diane Keaton into the desperate world of physical comedy to try to get laughs is tragic and depressing, not exactly what the filmmakers were hoping for. (Does anyone REALLY need to hear Kathy Bates playing a character who is always talking about their desperation for sex? Then this movie is for you!) All three women quickly get annoying and wear out their welcome as they get into one silly situation after another, making it seem as if everyone is making it up as they go along, leading to a ridiculous ending that never recovers. Surely, there'll be women out there who like this sort of thing, but anyone under 60 will be cringing at gratingly ridiculous material that's well beneath all the actors involved. This movie is truly a tragic waste of time and talent in every sense of the word. Rating: 4/10
Jar City (IFC Films) – Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur (101 Reykjavic) returns with a crime drama based on the Icelandic bestseller MYRIN or "Tainted Blood" (no, I haven't read it) about the discovery of a body, which leads to an even greater unsolved mystery from 30 years prior. It opens for a one-week run at New York's IFC Center
Mini-Review: While this isn't particularly ground-breaking in terms of police procedural films, never straying too far from "Law & Order" territory, the stark Icelandic setting creates a mood that adds to the tone of the film in the same was as Christopher Nolan's "Insomnia" and the Coens' "Fargo." Kormákur uses the beautiful landscapes of his country along with ambient sounds brilliantly to create a moody piece that rarely goes where you expect, though the film moves at a slow and deliberate pace that requires some concentration even though it keeps things light and entertaining despite the gravity of the case. Clearly the best thing going for the movie is the performance by Ingvar Eggert Sigurdsson from "Beowulf and Grendel" as Inspector Erlendur, a well-developed character trying to deal with a troubled daughter while getting deeper and deeper into a case that seems to offer little resolution as an apparent open-and-shut case of rape from thirty years leads him into something far more involved than anyone might expect. Amazingly, all of the disparate pieces do fit together by the end, and regardless of however many movies in the genre you've seen, you're not likely to have seen anything quite like this. You'll probably never look at a sheep's head again after one particularly disgusting scene. Rating: 7.5/10
Romulus, My Father (Magnolia) - Eric Bana, one of the stars of this week’s The Other Boleyn Girl, also stars in this film directed by actor Richard Roxburgh based on the memoir of philosopher Raimond Gaita, about the struggles his father Romulus and mother Christina had trying to raise him. It will open in Cambridge, Mass. on Friday.
The Unforeseen (The Cinema Guild) - Laura Dunn’s documentary, exec. produced by Terrence Malick and Robert Redford, takes a very localized look at environmental issues in the form of Austin’s Barton Springs and real estate developer Gary Bradley’s attempts to subdivide the area into commercial plots that would continue the area’s ecological decline. An intriguing look at the development of the earth’s natural wonders into commercial regions like last year’s Manufacturing Landscapes, the documentary (which also just won an Independent Spirit Awrd) will open at the Cinema Village in New York City.
Vivere (Regent) - For those who find Bonneville too American for their tastes, this new romantic drama about three women on the run to Rotterdam comes from German director Angelina Maccarone. It follows the journey of Francesca, whose little sister has run-off with a musician, and as she goes to find her, she picks up a suicidal woman, who becomes her travelmate. It opens in New York at the Cinema Village and L.A. on Friday.
Vantage Point (Sony)
Starring Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker, Sigourney Weaver, William Hurt, Edgar Ramirez, Ayelet Zurer, Eduardo Noriega, Saïd Taghmaoui, Zoe Saldana
Directed by Peter Travis (TV movies "Omagh" and "Henry VIII"); Written by Barry Levy (upcoming Kung Fu)
Genre: Thriller, Drama
Rated PG-13
Tagline: "8 Strangers. 8 Points of View. 1 Truth."
Plot Summary: When the President of the United States (William Hurt) is shot at an anti-terrorism rally in Spain, the assassination attempt is seen by various people, all of whom offer another side to the story, whether it's his two Secret Service agents (Matthew Fox, Dennis Quaid), a cable news producer (Sigourney Weaver) or a tourist filming from the crowd (Forrest Whitaker).
Review (Coming Soon!)
Last year, we were inundated with political thrillers mostly taking place in the Middle East and few of them did particularly well. Vantage Point, the genre's first offering for 2008, takes a different route by being more in the vein of old school thrillers like Three Days of the Condor and The Day of the Jackal but with more modern influences like Clint Eastwood's In the Line of Fire, and an intriguing premise that tells the same story of a presidential assassination from a number of different perspectives.
The film has been in the works for some time, having had its release delayed from the fall—possibly to put some distance with all those other movies—but it has the benefits of amazing ensemble cast with the promise of a quality that will appeal to older moviegoers. It's headlined by two actors playing secret service agents, Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox, and while Quaid has a much vaster filmography, Fox is a lot hotter right now thanks to the recent return of his hit ABC show "Lost." Even though Fox first had success with the '90s drama "Party of Five," he never really spent much time on his film career until recent years when he starred in the football drama We Are Marshall with Matthew McConaughey, which only did fair, and later this year, Fox plays Racer X in the highly-anticipated live action Speed Racer movie from the Wachowskis, which should continue to build his fanbase beyond the show.
It might come as a surprise that Vantage Point is Dennis Quaid's first movie in nearly two years, and in his last movie, Paul Weitz's mega-bomb American Dreamz, he actually played the President himself. He's had sporadic success in recent years, most notably in 2004 when he starred in four movies, The Day After Tomorrow and Weitz's In Good Company were both hits, while The Alamo and The Flight of the Phoenix bombed badly. Vantage Point is more in line with Quaid's appearance in Steven Soderbergh's award-winning ensemble piece Traffic and Oliver Stone's football drama Any Given Sunday although in this case, he's the strongest star of the cast in terms of having any sort of box office track record with a number of $50 million movies under his belt.
This also marks the first high-profile movie for Forrest Whitaker since winning the Oscar last year for The Last King of Scotland, though he recently appeared in the indie The Air I Breathe, which came and went last month. The president himself is played by the well-respected William Hurt, a multiple Oscar nominee, who has continually surprised people with his choices. The rest of the cast includes the ubiquitous Sigourney Weaver, up 'n' coming Venezuela-born actor Edgar Ramirez (The Bourne Ultimatum), Spanish actor Eduardo Noriega, Saïd Taghmaoui from The Kite Runner and next year's G. I. Joe movie, and Zoe Saldano, who'll be seen next year as Uhuru in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek. Even with Fox, Quaid and Whitaker, the movie doesn't really have a big box office draw name, but collectively, it promises a higher quality film, not that it will matter because the premise of the President being shot will be a big selling point as will the unique storytelling style promised by the ads.
There are elements of this movie that are eerily similar to movies like The Kingdom, which only grossed $47.5 million based on a $72 million production budget, and Rendition, which did even worse despite a star-studded cast including Reese Witherspoon and Meryl Streep, and while American moviegoers haven't been too accepting of movies about the Middle East and the war last fall, the movie's suitably disguised to be more of an assassination thriller along the lines of Mark Wahlberg's Shooter, although that didn't do that much better than the other movies either.
Fortunately, Sony has been marketing the heck out of the movie based on its intriguing premise of telling the same story from different view points and some might be surprised how much action there is in the movie because that's being downplayed, maybe since they know that an older audience might not be as interested in that kind of movie. That said, the movie certainly falls closer to "Bourne" territory with the amount of action, something which should help the movie find a younger audience from word-of-mouth.
Originally supposed to come out in the fall, presumably for awards consideration, Sony decided to move it to the winter, which might end up being a smart move, because it's not often where a movie opening in the busy winter/spring season is guaranteed a #1 slot, but that seems to be the luck of Sony this week by having virtually no competition for the top spot either from the other new movies or from the returning ones. They should go into the weekend with strong reviews since this is a far more intelligent action movie than one normally gets. Also working in favor of the film is its short running time of roughly 90 minutes, which means that theaters will be able to show the movie more times per screen than they normally would and being a movie for older adults, it should do a fair amount of business all day on Friday and Saturday. It's also the most likely movie of the weekend to be affected by the Oscars on Sunday night.
Why I Should See It: A great cast, an intriguing premise and lots of cool action adds up to a strong political action-thriller that should find a varied audience by being different from everything else in theatres.
Why Not: This should have been the case with movies like The Kingdom and Rendition, but apparently, American moviegoers believe that politics should remain on CNN, not at the movies.
Projections: $20 to 22 million opening weekend and $68 to 70 million total.
COMPARISONS
Be Kind Rewind (New Line)
Starring Jack Black, Mos Def, Danny Glover, Mia Farrow, Melonie Diaz, Arjay Smith, Paul Dinello, Sigourney Weaver
Written and directed by Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep, Human Nature)
Genre: Comedy
Rated PG-13
Tagline: "You name it, we shoot it."
Plot Summary: Mike, a New Jersey video store clerk (Mos Def), and his troublemaking friend Jerry (Jack Black) find themselves having to create their own home-made versions of movies like "Ghostbusters" and "Rush Hour 2" when Jerry gets magnetized and accidentally erases all the videos in the store. Their "sweded" tapes prove popular and soon the entire neighborhood is getting into the act.
Review
The weekend's only real anomaly in terms of being a movie that could go either way is the latest movie from eccentric video director Michel Gondry, a movie that's highly anticipated by avid movie lovers but could possibly leave others scratching their heads. Gondry has had a surprising amount of mainstream success despite his uniquely bizarre filmmaking esthetics, and Be Kind Rewind might be his most mainstream offering to date, driven by the premise of bumbling video store clerks played by Jack Black and Mos Def, who have to make their own home-made versions of popular movies.
Michel Gondry is still somewhat of a curiosity among filmmakers, having teamed with eccentric screenwriter Charlie Kaufman for his first two feature films, Human Nature and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the latter being a pyrrhic success in terms of finding critical success and fans on DVD even though it wasn't a big theatrical hit despite starring Jim Carrey. Gondry then directed the concert movie Dave Chappelle's Block Party where he met rapper Mos Def, and that too did disappointing business. The nearly $5 million that Gondry's Science of Sleep made in limited release later that year must have seemed like a miracle in comparison.
The good thing going for Gondry's latest comedy is that he has a lot of known actors in the movie, most notably comedian Jack Black, returning to more mainstream humor after starring in Noah Baumbach's disappointing Margot at the Wedding last year, but this is more along the lines of High Fidelity, in which Black played a record store clerk, in terms of scale than some of his bigger comedies like 2006's Nacho Libre ($28 million opening), but it's also getting back to him bringing his schtick to the work of an indie filmmaker, much like he did with Richard Linklater in their early hit School of Rock. Black has proven himself to be a draw for comedies and his presence certainly will help this movie find an audience.
It's interesting to see him paired with Mos Def, who has made a fairly seamless transition to movies, having acted for many years even before he got into rap music. His big break came with his role as Left Ear in the summer hit The Italian Job, followed soon after by Garth Jennings' movie based on Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Richard Donner's action-thriller 16 Blocks, which teamed Def with Bruce Willis, neither which did particularly stellar business, the latter opening the same week as Dave Chappelle's Block Party, a concert film by Gondry in which Def performed. Otherwise, the rapper has mainly been appearing in indie fare.
Danny Glover will forever be known for his role in the action franchise Lethal Weapon, which surprisingly is not "sweded" in this movie, but it's been nearly ten years since the last movie, and in the time since he's been working with more cutting-edge indie filmmakers like Lars von Trier and John Sayles, not to mention starring in the first "Saw" movie and taking small roles in bigger movies like last year's Shooter. He's certainly become more of an ensemble player in recent years rather than a star in his own right, and this movie's ensemble is completed by veteran actress Mia Farrow, last seen in Luc Besson's Arthur and the Invisibles, and Melonie Diaz, a hot young Latina actress who will be appearing in a number of movies this year.
Much of the humor in the movie comes from Black and Def's make-shift versions of famous movies, many of which can be seen online at the official website, and it's very much along the lines of Gondry's do-it-yourself ethos with props made out of paper and cardboard in his previous movies and music videos. It's combined with more high-brow madcap comedy in the vein of Kevin Smith's movies like Clerks and Clerks II, which also have found a niche audience.
Clearly, the primary audience for the movie will be college-age kids from 18 – 25 year-olds, especially in college towns, and this probably will be more of interest than something like Vantage Point, although this will generally be a harder sell for others who aren't familiar with Gondry's work. Discerning moviegovers will know his work but others will either be going for Black or the humor inherent in the premise.
Unlike Gondry's artier previous film, Be Kind Rewind is getting a wider release right out of the gate, though not quite as wide as the 2004 Jim Carrey comedy Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. After original plans of giving this a platform release right after the film's premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January, New Line decided to delay it a month and do more promotion to hopefully raise awareness enough to go wide, and it's hard to tell if that plan succeeded. Not that it will matter too much to New Line since they'll be more concerned with getting that same audience to know about the new Will Ferrell sports comedy Semi-Pro next week, since that's the most important movie this season for the studio. While Gondry's latest movie should find an audience this weekend, it might be somewhat ironic if it finds most of its audience later on video… or rather, DVD.
Why I Should See It: Michel Gondry enters the world of mainstream comedy with the help of Jack Black and Mos Def in an odd but funny film.
Why Not: It probably will be too odd for Jack Black's younger fans and completely silly for anyone over 30.
Projections: $3 to 5 million opening weekend and $11 to 12 million total.
COMPARISONS
Witless Protection (Lionsgate)
Starring Larry The Cable Guy, Ivana Milicevic, Yaphet Kotto, Peter Stormare, Eric Roberts, Joe Mantegna, Jenny McCarthy
Written and directed by Charles Robert Carner (lots of TV stuff)
Genre: Comedy
Rated PG-13
Tagline: "Protecting America's assets"
Plot Summary: A small town sheriff (Larry) gets involved with a high-profile FBI case when he sees a pretty woman (Jenny McCarthy) being held against her will by four men in black suits, so he saves her, only to learn that she's the main witness in a Chicago crime case and he's just taken her from the FBI men protecting her. Convinced she's safer with him, the two of them go back to Chicago to try to solve the case themselves.
ComingSoon.net's Exclusive Clip
There isn't really much to say about the latest film venture from Larry the Cable Guy, except that this one comes from out of nowhere and isn't getting nearly as much of a marketing push from Lionsgate as his previous two movies, Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector and Delta Farce, maybe because the last one bombed so badly. Chances are that this movie cost so little money that it won't really matter, and it'll make more money in DVD rentals later, because that's the kind of movie it is, but we may as well examine if it has any chance of sparing Larry's film career from the downwards trajectory it's been taking.
Larry the Cable Guy's transition from stand-up comic to film star was a slow but smooth transition, first with his voicing of the popular character Mater in Pixar's Cars followed by his first feature film Health Inspector, which did well enough for Lionsgate to add Larry to their roster along with Tyler Perry and the "Saw" movies. Up until that point, Larry had been a mainstay on Comedy Central and one must suspect he's somewhat popular or else why would they continuously show his stand-up comedy shows and the various "Blue Collar Comedy Tour" movies? Then again, his last movie Delta Farce bombed in theaters and it has an amazingly bad 2.7/10 rating from IMDb Users, which ironically is the exact same thing given to Larry's LAST movie, so his fans must already be getting sick of his bad movies. It's bad news for the stand-up comic if people are already tiring of his schtick, something that eventually hit the likes of Pauly Shore, while other comics like Carrot Top were never able to find the success Larry had with his first movie.
Oddly, Larry is joined by one of the most star-studded casts of his career starting with former Playboy playmate and MTV regular Jenny McCarthy, who has not had a strong film career, as well as veteran character actor Peter Stormare and the likes of Ivana Milicevic (Casino Royale), Eric Roberts and Joe Mantegna, and the surprising inclusion of a respected actor like Yaphet Kotto (Alien, "Homicide").
Larry's primary audience is older guys in the South and Midwest, some of whom may be just as interested in something like Vantage Point, even if that might be too intelligent for Larry's normal fans. The good thing is that no one who might go see this movie will give a crap about quality filmmaking, so it won't be affected in the slightest by the Oscars on Sunday night. (Okay, I'm just kidding about most of this, so please don't write in if you happen to be one of the Larry the Cable Guy fans that I've insulted!) Still, this looks like it will be a huge bomb in every sense of the word, and most people won't even know it's opening nor will any theater owner miss it when it's on DVD in less than three months.
Why I Should See It: If you're a fan of Larry the Cable Guy, you'll be there opening weekend…
Why Not: …but even Larry's fans who paid to see his last two movies will be smart enough to wait for DVD on this one, too.
Projections: $2 to 3 million opening weekend and $5 million total, if that.
COMPARISONS
Charlie Bartlett (MGM)
Starring Anton Yelchin, Robert Downey Jr., Hope Davis, Kat Dennings, Tyler Hilton, Jake Epstein, Lauren Collins, Dylan Taylor, Mark Rendall, Derek McGrath
Directed by Jon Poll (debut of the editor of movies like Meet the Fockers) ; Written by Gustin Nash (upcoming Missed Connections, Youth in Revolt)
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Teen
Rated R
Tagline: "Popularity is a state of mind."
Plot Summary: After being kicked out of every prestigious private school, Charlie Bartlett (Anton Yelchin) sets up shop at a private school, offering therapy and prescription meds to his fellow students, making him very popular very quickly, except with the school principal (Robert Downey Jr.) whose daughter Charlie starts dating.
Review
There's not much that I can say about this movie that I haven't said in the review above or when I saw it at the Tribeca Film Festival last year, as it's a solid teen dramedy set in high school like some of the most memorable movies of the '80s… The Breakfast Club, Heathers, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Pump Up the Volume and my personal favorite Three O'Clock High. Obviously, there's an attempt to revive the genre following the success of Tina Fey's Mean Girls in 2004 and other hits that have followed like Napoleon Dynamite. This one is very funny and not quite as obvious as the normal studio-produced high school movies, but because it's being given a wide release by distributor MGM, after being delayed for over seven months, we need to look at its box office prospects.
The film's title character is played by Anton Yelchin, whose early movies were opposite Morgan Freeman (Along Came a Spider) and Anthony Hopkins (Hearts in Atlantis) before starring in David Duchovny's directorial debut House of D a few years back and in the recent indie Fierce People, both which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. He also played the kidnapped teen in Nick Cassevete's crime-drama Alpha Dog and played a recurring role on the cable show "Huff," but he still hasn't really broken out as a popular or known star.
Fortunately, he's paired with Robert Downey Jr., a highly respected teen actor who went onto a prolific career, which included an Oscar nomination for his 1993 portrayal of Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin. He was out of commission for a few years due to drug problems, but he returned with a vengeance a few years ago for the horror film Gothika and he's been doing two to three movies a year since then, basically bouncing between indies and bigger studio movies like The Shaggy Dog in 2006. Last year, he starred in David Fincher's Zodiac, a critically well-received role that didn't fare that well at the box office, and he's yet to prove himself at the box office. Oddly, both Downey and Yelchin will be much bigger stars once their respective summer blockbusters come out, Downey Jr.'s turn as Tony Stark in this May's Iron Man and next year, when Yelchin stars in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek. While Downey Jr. appeared in a couple '80s school movies, most notably Back to School opposite Rodney Dangerfield, this is the first time he's playing the principal, which is a starting departure.
They're joined by another respected actress, Hope Davis, who tends to appear in quirkier indie movies like Alexander Payne's About Schmidt, the Harvey Pekar biopic American Splendor, the crime comedy The Matador and last year in The Hoax opposite Richard Gere. (This is her second time playing Yelchin's mother having had that honor nearly seven years ago in Hearts in Atlantis.) Yelchin's love interest is played by Kat Dennings from The 40-Year-Old Virgin and his main foil is played by singer/songwriter Tyler Hilton in his second major film role after playing Elvis Presley in Walk the Line and after his recurring role on the popular show "One Tree Hill."
Unfortunately, no amount of star power will help this movie find an audience, because most people won't be able to get any sort of idea what it's about from the title, and MGM's decision to release it into over 1,000 theatres might be too ambitious. This is the kind of movie that would do best by opening in a few regions, specifically college towns, and then expanding based on word-of-mouth, something that studios like Fox Searchlight have done so well with movies like Napoleon Dynamite and Juno. The movie's R-rating also won't help bring in the teen audience that might get the most out of the movie.
Either way, if you like any of the '80s high school movies mentioned above, you'll definitely want to give this a shot, both for the performance by Robert Downey Jr. and to see the continuing growth of Anton Yelchin before he joins his Alpha Dog co-star Emile Hirsch among the ranks of the next level of stardom. This is very different from other high school movies in that it deals with real issues in a funny and a poignant way, a testament to the writing of Gustin Nash and Jon Poll's casting, and regardless of how well or poorly this does over the weekend, one can expect word-of-mouth to be good and for it to find fans on cable much like some of the classic teen movies of the '80s.
Projections: $2 to 3 million opening weekend and $6 to 7 million total.
Jumper (20th Century Fox)
Starring Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson, Rachel Bilson, Jamie Bell, Max Thieriot, Shawn Roberts, AnnaSophia Robb, Diane Lane
Directed by Doug LIman (The Bourne Identity, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Go); Written by David S. Goyer (Blade, Dark City, Batman Begins, upcoming The Flash, Magneto), Simon Kinberg (Mr. & Mrs. Smith, X-Men: The Last Stand, XXX: State of the Union), Jim Uhls (Fight Club)
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Rated PG-13
Tagline: "Anywhere is possible."
Plot Summary: As a teen, David Rice (Hayden Christensen/Max Theiriot) discovers that he has the power to teleport, and he uses it to gain massive riches by robbing banks until he's discovered by the bounty hunter Roland (Samuel L. Jackson), the leader of a group of "paladins" whose mission it is to put a stop to all "jumpers", including another renegade (Jamie Bell).
Mini-Review: In terms of creating a superhero movie not based on an existing comic book character, "Jumper" is an impressive feat, especially as a vehicle for Doug Liman to pull out the stops with some of the most jaw-dropping stunts shot in some of the most amazing locations on earth. It all starts with a very cool ripped-from-the-comics premise of teleportation designed for fans of the Nightcrawler bits in the second "X-Men" movie, placing it in an intricate sci-fi storyline that moves at a brisk pace, giving you little time to dwell on anything for too long. Some might be bothered by the lack of any true good guys or bad guys, since all the characters offer a little of both--Hayden Kristensen's David Rice is an arrogant bank robber and Samuel Jackson's Roland is a fundamentalist who kills "jumpers" in the name of God--but there's something to be said about a movie that isn't completely cut-and-dry, adding to the film's ability at breaking new ground to create a unique sci-fi experience. At times, the movie gets a bit too WB with the relationship stuff between Kristensen and Bilson as his childhood sweetheart, but it gets better once Jamie Bell enters the picture as the gregarious rogue Griffin, a highly entertaining character who ups the ante with his own agenda adding to the mix. It's hard to hold any of the weak acting or character stuff against the movie because when it kicks into overdrive for one of its many fight sequences, you quickly forget all of that to get blown away by Liman's unique combination of stunts and effects that offer things you're not likely to have seen before and probably will never see again. Comic book fans should be excited by the prospect of seeing someone get the comic book fight sequence right without having the source material to base it on. Even more impressive are the amazing panoramic shots of Cairo and Rome that's sure to get anyone hungry for travel, because let's face it, how many times have we actually seen the interior of the Coliseum besides historic epics like "Gladiator" or "Ben-Hur"? Certainly, this will be a must-buy on DVD to pause and rewind and watch some of those scenes over and over again, but more than anything, this film introduces enough cool characters, unique concepts and a strong enough premise that it should be able to sustain at least one or two sequels, even if there's something cool about this as a stand-alone action flick. Rating: 7/10
It's been standard for Presidents' Day to see the release of a comic book based action movie with Daredevil, Constantine and last year's Ghost Rider holding three of the five top openings for the holiday weekend, since the weekend has become a viable alternate to releasing a movie during the busy summer months. This non-comic-based superhero movie based on the sci-fi novels by Steven Gould reteams the creative team behind the 2005 action hit Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which brought Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie together to the tune of $186 million. Director Doug Liman, who started out doing indies like Swingers and Go, made waves in '02 with his update of Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Identity and his success with the '05 follow-up Mr. & Mrs. Smith put him among the most bankable action directors, something which will be tested when he doesn't have the stars or namebrand of his previous films.
While Jumper may not have star power on par with a Brangelina, it does reunite the stars of two of the most successful sci-fi movies of all time, Star Wars Episodes II and III with Hayden Christensen (Analkin Skywalker) and Samuel L. Jackson (Mace Windu) playing the film's key roles, this time on opposite sides of an epic battle. Despite starring in two of the biggest movies of all time, Christensen hasn't had very much luck in his non-"Star Wars" career, only appearing in a handful of movies including the dramas Life as a House with Kevin Kline in 2001 and the critically lauded Shattered Glass. Last year, he starred with Sienna Miller in Factory Girl and ended the year with the thriller Awake opposite Jessica Alba, neither which made waves after being moved around the release schedule. At least Jumper is more the kind of movie that doesn't necessarily rely on Christensen's acting since more people will see it for its premise and the potential for cool stunts and effects.
One might think that Samuel Jackson's track record might help get people to see it, since he's starred in a lot of big movies, his entire filmography having cumulatively grossed $7.7 billion worldwide, yet he still has to prove himself as a box office draw on his own, as recent high-profile attempts like Snakes on a Plane and Black Snake Moan have failed to bring in the audiences expected. As a matter of fact, the only Jackson-starring vehicle that has grossed over $50 million without relying on other stars is 2005's Coach Carter. Even so, Jackson is a fan favorite who does bring something to the mix with every movie he stars in, which certainly can be said about both XXX movies even if the movies generally sucked.
Not as likely to be nearly as big a draw is ultra-cutie Rachel Bilson from the FOX series "The O.C.," who was last seen opposite Zach Braff in the romantic bomb The Last Kiss, and Jamie Bell, still best known as "Billy Elliot" even after nearly eight years, who has gotten scattered roles in bigger movies like Peter Jackson's King Kong. While Bell doesn't get to do any dancing in Jumper--he missed an opportunity by not being cast in Step Up 2 the Streets--he does do a lot of leaping from place to place. Either way, Jumper isn't the type of action and effects movie that relies on stars—which may be why none of them are mentioned in the commercials—and it becomes more evident when you realize that a major star like Diane Lane, who usually headlines any movie, is taking a smaller secondary role.
While Jumper has not been able to set itself up like a must-see event movie, going by past action and effects movies like Constantine, making $33 million over the four-day holiday weekend shouldn't be a problem, especially for a movie opening in over 3,300 theatres, though there are other factors to consider that might hold Jumper back. For instance, the film's not as likely to bring in the comic book fanbase that would rush out to see movies based on namebrand characters. Even though Jumper features the level of action and effects one might find in other superhero movies like the "X-Men" and "Fantastic Four" movies, it will have to find its own audience without the support of other media.
It might not seem like 20th Century Fox has done a ton of advertising for the movie despite it being in the works for a long time, but they've been able to advertise it on their television network, with big shows like "American Idol" and the Super Bowl being the perfect outlets to get lots of eyes and interest.
Jumper has a lot more competition than Daredevil did its opening weekend. Last year's Ghost Rider, the current record holder for the weekend, went up against four other movies, but still was able to set a record, although the movies it opened against probably went after different audiences. Like the books, this movie is more likely to appeal to a teen audience than those over 25, which is fine since that's a big moviegoing group, but this weekend, they have other choices Step Up 2 and Spiderwick Chronicles, although those are more likely to appeal to young women than guys. It's not likely that critics will be too kind with Jumper as they were with Cloverfield, but the young audience interested in this one probably won't care.
The big question is how opening on Thursday might affect the weekend number, since this kind of movie would usually be frontloaded since anyone intrigued by the premise might want to see it early. Since it's not exactly a date movie, it probably won't get a Valentine's Day bump on Thursday like Fool's Gold or Definitely, Maybe, so its biggest days will probably be on Friday and Saturday. At best, the movie could do as well as other solid action flicks over the holiday, making close to $40 million or more in its first five days. At worst, it could end up like Fox's last attempt at a "superhero movie" based on a novel, which was Fox Walden's similarly titled The Seeker, which bombed despite an ultra-wide release.
Why I Should See It: Director Doug Liman's return with a cool premise like this one should allow him to pull out all the stops on this effects-driven action flick.
Why Not: Not being based on a known property like a long-running comic book, might make it hard to convince casual moviegoers that it's worth seeing.
Projections: $6 to $7 million on its opening day Thursday, followed by $34 to 37 million over the four-day holiday weekend and $95 to 100 million total.
COMPARISONS
The Spiderwick Chronicles (Paramount/Nickelodeon Films)
Starring Freddie Highmore, Mary-Louise Parker, Joan Plowright, David Strathairn, and the voices of Nick Nolte, Seth Rogen, Martin Short
Directed by Mark Waters (Freaky Friday, Mean Girls, Just Like Heaven); Written by John Sayles, Karey Kirkpatrick (Charlotte's Web, Over the Hedge), David Berenbaum (Zoom, Elf, The Haunted Mansion)
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Family
Rated PG
Tagline: "Their World is Closer Than You Think"
Plot Summary: When the Grace family moves into a old mansion in upstate New York, their son Jared (Freddie Highmore) finds an ancient book that contains information about all sorts of magical and mythical creatures including fairies and goblins and trolls, all of which come to life to try to get the book away from him, putting his whole family into danger.
Mini-Review: Once you get past the fact that you’ll be seeing two times as much Freddie Highmore because of his role as twins, not to mention any general cynicism surrounding the overabundance of fantasy movies these days, it’s not hard to get swept up in the way the film transplants traditional creatures from myth and fantasy into the real world in a fluid and transparent manner. That combination of creature effects, action and believable situations is what ultimately puts the movie on par with the first couple "Harry Potter" movies, setting the groundwork with its simple plot of: boy finds book, creatures want book, all hell breaks loose. There’s something to be said about fitting so much story within such a short span of time and keeping things moving without confusing matters with overly confusing exposition, and Mark Waters does a superb job entering this new territory. With a strong cast including David Strathairn, the acting is reasonably decent, though at times, it gets too caught up in the family melodrama stuff, taking away from any sense of fun, which is generally found in the forms of the creatures voiced by Martin Short and Seth Rogen, both of whom offer the film’s best and only laughs. While it doesn’t break much new ground in the fantasy department as far as looking or feeling unique or different, the magical sense of realism brought to traditional fantasy creatures makes it an enjoyable addition to the fantasy genre that the whole family can enjoy, with the exception of some the creatures and action, which might be too intense for the youngest of viewers. Rating: 7.5/10
The success of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy (grossing $3 billion worldwide) and the five "Harry Potter" movies (almost $4.5 billion worldwide) since 2001 has gotten everyone in Hollywood excited about buying the rights to every single childreb's book or fantasy novel hoping for similar success. Walden Media certainly has found similar success adapting teen and children's fantasy novels like C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia and last year's The Bridge to Terabithia, but other attempts to bring books like Eragon and Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials to the screen have proven fruitless money-losing ventures.
Still, that didn't dissuade long-time Spielberg collaborators Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall from teaming with Nickelodeon Films to give the fantasy game a go with a movie based on the serialized novels by Holly Black and illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi, five books collectively known as "The Spiderwick Chronicles," which were released starting in 2003, finding themselves a diehard fanbase of young readers over the years. Certainly, the team of Kennedy/Marshall must know what they're doing, having been involved with some of Spielberg's biggest hits of the '80s and '90s, and the involvement of Nickelodeon means that they have a clear path to the young audience that might appreciate a fantasy film like this.
Helming the movie is Mark Waters, who's found success with comedies like Freaky Friday and Mean Girls, both with Lindsay Lohan, as well as Reese Witherspoon's Just Like Heaven. The Spiderwick Chronicles seems as much a departure for him as The Golden Compass was for Chris Weitz (or the first two "Harry Potter" movies were for Chris Columbus for that matter).
Spiderwick Chronicles stars the omni-present Freddie Highmore, who turns 16 on Thursday, but who's been appearing in family movies like Finding Neverland and Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory since he was very young. 2007 was a very busy year for Highmore as he began it as the star of Luc Besson's Arthur and the Invisibles, a huge flop, in the musical drama August Rush, which was moderately successful over Thanksgiving weekend, and then he provided a key voice in the aforementioned The Golden Compass to wrap up his year. Clearly, Highmore is becoming a well-known and popular young actor among kids who've watched him grow up on film, although he's still not up there with Daniel Radcliffe in terms of being a draw for young girls or parents. Maybe by playing twins in this movie, that will change.
His mother is played by popular theatre and television actress Mary-Louise Parker, who's been winning Emmys left and right in recent years for her cable show "Weeds" and the mini-series "Angels in America," while his sister is played by Irish actress Sarah Bolger, best known for her turn in Jim Sheridan's In America. Oscar nominated David Strathairn also appears in his first movie since 2006's We Are Marshall and the voices of the various creatures include Nick Nolte as the primary baddie, the goblin king Mulgrath, Judd Apatow's pal Seth Rogen and the one and only Martin Short.
Paramount's previous foray into the world of big budget fantasy was 2004's Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Incidents starring Jim Carrey, that made $30 million its opening weekend but only $118 million overall, making it unprofitable and nowhere near the level of box office brought in by "Harry Potter" or "Lord of the Rings" that someone must have expected. Unfortunately, this one's being released after the disappointing showing for New Line's The Golden Compass, which has turned a lot of casual moviegoers off on the fantasy genre, so it has a bit of an uphill battle winning them back.
This time, Paramount is following two proven strategies of successful fantasy films, first by releasing it over Presidents' Day like Disney/Walden's surprise hit The Bridge to Terabithia, which is based on a book not nearly as well known as the "Spiderwick" books. More importantly, they're following Warner Bros.' strategy for the last few "Harry Potter" movies, opening Spiderwick in IMAX theaters across the country, which to many will be the optimum way of seeing the movie. Since these are bigger theaters with higher ticket prices, it's likely to boost the per-theatre average.
The biggest advantage this movie has is that it's the only thing remotely resembling a family film, and it will have to rely on that since there's plenty of competition for younger teen women who generally enjoy fantasy, including Step Up 2 the Streets, and guys of all ages might veer towards Jumper while older women might go for some of the romantic fare, but there's still a fairly rampant audience for fantasy, and a movie like this, which mixes traditional fantasy with real world stuff, should be able to find a decent younger audience even if the competition keeps it from doing much better than Eragon or The Golden Compass opening weekend. Of all the movies this weekend, this is the one that's most likely to build on strong reviews and word-of-mouth from opening weekend business, and it should have significant legs with no other family fare being released until March.
Why I Should See It: Goblins and fairies and other magical creatures… oh my!
Why Not: Haven't we already seen this before, when it was called "Harry Potter"?
Projections: $4 to 6 million on Thursday, another $25 to 28 million over the four-day weekend and roughly $90 million total.
COMPARISONS
Step Up 2 the Streets (Touchstone)
Starring Briana Evigan, Robert Hoffman, Will Kemp, Cassie Ventura, Adam G. Sevani, Telisha Shaw
Directed by Jon M. Chu (Silent Beats, When the Kids are Away) Written by Toni Ann Johnson (Save the Last Dance--the TV show), Karen Barna
Genre: Dance, Musical, Drama, Romance
Rated PG-13
Tagline: "It's Not Where You're From. It's Where You're At."
Plot Summary: Street dancer Andie (Briana Evigan) arrives at the Maryland School of the Arts where she tries to fit in, teaming with the school's best dancer Chase (Robert Hoffman) to create a team to compete in the underground dance battle called The Streets. (So basically, this is exactly the same as the first Step Up only with the genders reversed.)
This weekend's anomalous underdog is the only dance movie sequel to make it to theaters rather than being released straight to DVD, but it's no surprise since very little was made of the original Step Up when it opened in August of '06, after being snuck into the weekend earlier that summer, and yet it was able to capitalize on a powerful MySpace marketing campaign to bring in $20 million of business its opening weekend. While this isn't a direct sequel in the sense that it has nothing to do with the characters from the original movie, nor have any of the cast or creative team returned, except that it's a similar romantic drama set within the world of street dancing. Like the first Step Up, this is a hip hop dance movie for young white suburban girls who want to learn some new moves in a safe Disney-friendly environment.
Of course, this movie would never exist if not for the surprise success of Save the Last Dance back in 2001, the movie that originated the premise of the hip hop dance movie craze that spawned similar success in movies like You Got Served and last year's Stomp the Yard. The most recent dance movie How She Move bombed in theaters, showing that the crazy may have peaked or reached its limit, maybe because Paramount Vantage, teamed with MTV Films, didn't build any buzz for the movie, despite it being choreographed by "Hi-Hat" who also helped with the dancing scenes in Step Up 2.
Some might feel that the original movie had some success due to its hunky teen heartthrob star Channing Tatum, who is nowhere to be found in this debut vehicle for Briana Evigan, the 21-year-old daughter of actor Greg Evigan (who presumably is only one of her "Two Dads"… ha ha), and it's also the biggest acting role for dancer and choreographer Robert Hoffman, though neither of them will be any sort of draw. Neither will former Gap spokesperson Will Kemp's return to the big screen for the first time since Van Helsing and Mindhunters, getting back to his dancing roots.
Buzz for the film has been built up via the movie's MySpace page, a grass roots internet campaign that allowed the first movie to build awareness while slipping under the radar of mainstream media, and like that movie, the music and soundtrack will play a large part in generating interest with new tracks from Missy Elliot, Lil Wayne, Akon and other popular hip hop and dance artists. Currently, it's the only February movie placing on the Yahoo! Buzz Charts, showing that there is a lot of interest in the movie on the web, much like the first movie. How that might translate to those who might pay to see the movie in theaters is another question.
As with the first movie, one probably shouldn't expect any sort of groundswell among critics or movie-related sites or shows, because other than the fans of the first movie (and dance movies in general), few will care. Because of that, this may be a real test for the dance movie craze, being a sequel to one of the more successful entries, opening in a different season, but it's also opening against much stronger fare that could be a bigger pull for the young adults who might normally make this their first choice, even if dance movies have been more consistent than action and fantasy films in recent years. Expect this one to do well on Valentine's Day as a viable alternative to the normal romantic comedy fare, possibly even surpassing Jumper in 1,000 fewer theatres, and it should also do well on Friday, but by Saturday or Sunday, the other movies should catch up and overtake it, since the early opening might take away from the movie's potential opening weekend business.
Why I Should See It: Who needs to know how to dance when they can watch highly-skilled dancers bust a move on screen?
Why Not: If I have to write about another dance movie this year, I might have to take some of those background dancers out!
Projections: $5 to 6 million on opening Valentine's Day, and another $16 to 19 million over the four-day holiday weekend on its way to roughly $52 million total.
COMPARISONS
Definitely, Maybe (Universal)
Starring Ryan Reynolds, Isla Fisher, Derek Luke, Abigail Breslin, Elizabeth Banks, Rachel Weisz
Written and directed by Adam Brooks (writer of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and Wimbledon)
Genre: Romance, Comedy
Rated PG-13
Tagline:
Plot Summary: Shortly before his divorce is to be finalized, Will Hayes (Ryan Reynolds) is asked by his 10-year-old daughter Maya (Abigail Breslin) to tell the story of how he met her mother. Will tells the story of his first days in New York during the early '90s where he juggled three very different women in hopes that one of them would end up being his perfect soul mate, letting the girl try to deduce which one worked out.
My Review
Even though we've had a bunch of romantic comedies already this month with the dud Over Her Dead Body followed by the semi-hit Fool's Gold, here's one more to add to the mix on Valentine's Day, this one from Working Title and Universal, two companies who've teamed for some of the most memorable rom-com offering of the last few years, most of them being set in England.
This one's set in New York, the location for many a romantic comedy both good and bad, but it's also more in line with the 2002 Hugh Grant vehicle About a Boy or John Cusack's High Fidelity in that it's told from the male point-of-view. Playing that guy is Ryan Reynolds, the Canadian actor who got his big break when he starred in National Lampoon's Van Wilder but who has been in a variety of different movies since then, starring in The Amityville Horror remake and the superhero flick Blade: Trinity before finding his niche doing comedy in Just Friends, which is somewhat of a precursor for this role.
This time, Reynolds is paired with a number of leading ladies but the most prominent one is the youngest, Oscar-nominated actress Abigail Breslin, who has followed her break-through title role in Little Miss Sunshine with cutesy roles in romantic comedies like this one, after starring opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart in last year's rom-com remake No Reservations. Aussie actress Isla Fischer first got attention in the blockbuster comedy Wedding Crashers and this movie might appeal to the same audience, while Elizabeth Banks, whose biggest role has been playing Betty Brant in the "Spider-Man" movies, hasn't really broken out despite great roles in James Gunn's Slither and more famously, the freaky-deaky Beth in The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Despite having recently appeared with Banks in Vince Vaughn's Fred Claus, Rachel Weisz isn't known for doing light romantic fare like this, but after winning an Oscar for Fernando Meirelles' The Constant Gardener and starring in hubby Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain, she's been taking more roles in comedies. Then again, some might already be forgetting that Weisz had a small key role in About a Boy back in the day, so appearing in Working Title's latest rom-com is not that big of a stretch.
Either way, none of these actors are much of a draw at the box office, which makes Definitely, Maybe somewhat of a risky move even on the holiday when romantic fare tends to do well, since most of the successful romantic comedies have a known television or film star capable of bringing women into theatres. On top of that, the movie's title and premise of a father and his young daughter trying to help him find love is fairly vague compared to the high concept romantic comedies that have done well among fans of the genre. Facing movies like Fool's Gold and Step Up 2 the Streets might make it a harder sell for couples on Valentine's Day, and though it should still do decent business on Thursday and possibly on date night Friday and Saturday, it's not likely to set the world on fire facing so much stronger fare in theaters. Then again, if the movie does well, it would be good for Reynolds' career, since it will finally disprove theories that he's unable to bring people, particularly women, into theatres. (He's a nice guy so he deserves to see some success, especially after Just Friends was so sadly overlooked.)
Why I Should See It: Ryan Reynolds continues his move to become a romantic lead in this new rom-com from Working Title, who tend to make stronger romantic comedies than Hollywood studios.
Why Not: Is it just me or is Abigail Breslin becoming the most annoying child actor since Dakota Fanning?
Projections: $3 to 5 million on opening Valentine's Day, another $9 to 11 million over the four-day Presidents' Day weekend and roughly $30 million total.
COMPARISONS
The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (City Lights)
Starring Michel Joelsas, Daniela Piepszyk, Liliana Castro
Written and directed by Cao Hamburger
Genre: Drama, Coming-of-Age
Unrated
Plot Summary: 12-year-old Mauro (Michel Joelsas) is left by his militant parents with his Jewish grandfather, only to discover that he had passed away, forcing him to take refuge with the members of his synagogue and the diverse community from his neighborhood. As the country roots for Brazil in the 1970 World Cup, Mauro just wants his parents to return.
I'm a huge fan of Brazilian cinema and it's a shame that more of it doesn't make its way to the United States. In a few weeks, City of Men, the long-awaited follow-up to Fernando Meirelles' City of God will be released—and maybe it'll be that week's Chosen One, too--but in the meantime, here is Brazil's annual offering for Oscar consideration, a wonderful coming-of-age film by Cao Hamburger, who actually directed one of the episodes of the "City of Men" TV show. (Meirelles is one of the film's co-producers.)
What made this film special for me is that the story takes pace in 1970 in Sao Paulo, and it just so happens that I was living in Sao Paulo at that time, so I fondly remember the fanaticism surrounding the World Cup during my childhood, something that's carried over until today, because I'm still a diehard fan of the Brazilian team when they play in the World Cup. This is the type of under-the-radar foreign film that gets discovered long after its release, much like last year's "Blame It On Fidel" which had similar elements of a young child trying to understand how the world is changing around them and how their parents are involved in the communist revolution. While the movie tends to follow familiar beats and rhythms found in other coming-of-age films, the setting and times is what makes it different, and for the most part, Hamburger gets the feel of the times right. The Jewish element of this movie is unique to it, and it was interesting to me, because I don't remember much of that from when I was younger—though I do remember seeing our rabbi being shot in front of me, an image that's stuck with me for most of my life. Michel Joelsas, the young actor who carries the film, is quite a find, smart and well-spoken rather than being one of those cute kids who quickly gets annoying. No, this isn't a perfect movie by any means—the pace tends to be very slow and the elderly Jewish man who takes care of him says "Oy Vey" a bit much—but the nostalgia factor certainly played a large part of my enjoyment, and I'd recommend the movie to anyone who only knows about the Brazil through City of God, because there's another side to the country, one that I remember fondly from my youth, that makes this a fun and charming film. Thanks to Cao Hamburger for bringing back so many fond memories from my childhood.
The Year My Parents Went on Vacation opens in New York and L.A. on Friday.
Also in Limited Release:
Ezra (California Newsreel) – Newton Aduaka's African drama looks at the growing problems of child soldiers in Africa through the eyes of Ezra, who was abducted and brainwashed at the age of 6, but who ten years later has to face the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on the horrors he committed while a child. It opens on Wednesday at the Film Forum in New York.
The 2007 Academy Award Nominated Short Films (Magnolia) – Once again, Magnolia Pictures releases a collection of the Oscar-nominated short films, both animated and live action, so that people can see them before Oscar night. This year's program includes all five live action and all five animated shorts, shown in two separate programs in 50 theaters in select cities.
Dolphins and Whales 3D: Tribes of the Ocean (3D Entertainment Division) - Dr. Elisabeth and Jean-Jacques Mantello, the makers of Sharks 3D and Ocean Wonderland 3D, return with another IMAX 3D experience that explores the coral reefs of the Bahamas and other places to see dolphins and oceans in their natural habitat. It opens on Friday in select IMAX theatres.
George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead (Third Rail/Weinstein Co.) - George Romero, the creator of the zombie genre, returns with a new take which tells the story of a zombie invasion through a group of young filmmakers whose footage is found after the fact. Romero's cross between "Night of the Living Dead" meets "The Blair Witch Project" will open in select cities on Friday with an expansion next week.
My Thoughts from the Toronto Film Festival
Jodhaa Akbar (UTV) - Indian superstar/goddess Aishwarya Rai stars in Ashutosh Gowariker's 16th Century romantic drama about a marriage of alliance that gave birth to the true love between Mughal emperor and a Rajput princess. It opens in the normal outlets for Bollywood films.
Me, You and Us Forever (Five & Two Pictures) – Dave Christiano wrote and directed this Christian-themed film about a middle-aged Christian man who reflects back on his first love in high school thirty years before after going through a bitter divorce. It opens in roughly 50 to 60 locations on Friday.
Fool's Gold (Warner Bros.)
Starring Matthew McConaughey, Kate Hudson, Donald Sutherland, Ewen Bremner, Alexis Dziena, Kevin Hart, Ray Winstone
Directed by Andy Tennant (Hitch, Sweet Home Alabama); Written by John Claflin and Daniel Zelman (Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, They Nest), Andy Tennant
Genre: Comedy, Romance, Action, Adventure
Rated PG-13
Tagline: "This February True Love Takes a Dive"
Plot Summary: Treasure hunter Ben "Finn" Finnegan (Matthew McConaughey) is close to finding the legendary 18th Century treasure thought to be lost in the Bahamas, but he needs to call upon his recent ex-wife Tess (Kate Hudson) for help, since she has access to the unlimited resources of billionaire Nigel Honeycutt (Donald Sutherland) who agrees to help in order to bond with his spoiled daughter Gemma (Alexis Dziena). Meanwhile, others trying to find the treasure including Finn's main competitor (Ray Winstone) and the ruthless gangster who runs the island (Kevin Hart).
Mini-Review: Reviewing "Fool's Gold" is one of those times when being a critic serves little purpose, because however stupid this whole thing is, and it's very stupid, there will be an audience who will flock to see it merely to catch a glimpse of Matthew McConaughey sans shirt, which seems to be a good portion of the movie. From the obvious friction between the two main characters to the unbelievably bad accents taken on by the likes of Don Sutherland (British), Ewan Bremmer (Ukrainian) and Ray Winstone (Creole!?), it's all fairly predictable, even though it tries to mix it up by combining different movie formulas to try to create something, but not in a particularly clever way. McConaughey's character is likable and charming enough, not requiring too much effort, though Hudson just can't seem to get out of the sub-Meg Ryan trench she's dug for herself by playing a similar character who has to resort to pratfalls and slapstick to try to get any laughs. (And there really are very few if any to be found here.) The funniest thing in the movie tends to be a couple of gay chefs who work on Sutherland's boat, but even that joke is overused until it's worn thin. Overall, there are far too many characters and subplots, so even the nice sentiment of the wealthy industrialist (Sutherland) trying to connect with his Paris Hilton inspired daughter (Alexis Dziena, the naked Lolita from "Broken Flowers") gets lost, since it has little to offer the main story. When it does come time to explain the origins of the gold everyone is looking for, it's so long-winded, convoluted and dull that it'll probably lose everyone until the last half hour, when things kick into overdrive as the various characters and subplots converge into an action-filled conclusion. Although it does start getting entertaining then, it's so substandard before that even though Andy ("Hitch") Tennant has made a really good-looking movie that takes full advantage of its Bahama setting, which almost makes up for the lack of strong laughs or a solid plot, but not quite. Either way, it's obvious from the offset that this has nothing to offer that we haven't seen before, making it one of those winter offerings that will be long forgotten by the summer. Rating: 5.5/10
While it's not uncommon for early February to offer a romantic offering or two, it's not often where that romance is put into the context of an action-adventure-comedy that includes elements of quest movies like National Treasure and The Da Vinci Code. That's the case with this Warner Bros. comedy which wisely reteams box office superstars Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson for their second movie following the breakout rom-com hit How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, which opened this same weekend five years ago and went onto make over $100 million, greatly helped by Valentine and President's Day. For the most part, this romantic adventure is being sold based more on the chemistry between McConaughey and Hudson, which has already worked once before, so why not put them together again? Similar thoughts were used with movies like You've Got Mail, The Lake House and War of the Roses, all of which tried to find audiences by reteaming romantic pairings from previous hit movies.
McConaughey has proven to be very popular with the ladies, maybe due to the amount of time he spends shirtless in his movies, but he also does well among guys, as seen by Sahara, almost as if he does one movie for the ladies and then another for the guys. Fool's Gold is a little different in that it's a movie that could be for either group or for both due to the mix of romance and action, although it probably will still be weighed more towards women, since Kate Hudson has many female fans due to movies like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and her 2006 comedy You, Me and Dupree with Owen Wilson and Matt Dillon, which took over $75 million that summer. Although both actors have had a couple flops along the way or movies that didn't find an audience, they've both gotten to the point where they're being more selective so when they have a movie, they can do the talk show rounds and get their fans excited to see their latest.
Director Andy Tennant has done well in the romantic comedy genre with movies like Reese Witherspoon's Sweet Home Alabama, a huge September hit, and Will Smith's Hitch, which was one of his bigger non-action hits as well. He's pulled together an impressive supporting cast for McConaughey and Hudson in the form of Donald Sutherland, Ray Winstone and others, who'll just add to the mix in terms of an overall experience rather than any of them being a draw.
Fool's Gold is a different beast from the typical female-targeting February romantic comedy, because it's more of an action-comedy that follows a similar formula as McConaughey's 2005 film Sahara or the Nicolas Cage blockbuster National Treasure with a plot involving the search for lost gold that will appeal to a wide range of audiences, but it will also be an option for guys due to the amount of action, which one usually can't say about romantic comedies around this time of year. The squabbling chemistry between the two leads, combined with the setting, might remind some of the Harrison Ford vehicle Six Days and Seven Nights or the classic romantic adventure Romancing the Stone, but other recent movies that took advantage of Caribbean locations, including Bret Ratner's comedy bomb After the Sunset and the Jessica Alba thriller Into the Blue, failed to garner much interest from moviegoers.
Warner Bros. has done their usual amount of marketing with a commercial onslaught, some which deal with the romance by advertising it as a Valentine's Day option, and others focusing on the action and comedy. The movie looks pretty dumb (and it is) and reviews will most likely be primarily negative, although it's also fairly review-proof because moviegoers looking for something fun, mindless entertainment will flock to this one, and it should offer enough laughs to generate word-of-mouth.
Either way, this is going to be the best date movie for the weekend, and the film's simple and easy to remember title might play a factor in getting casual moviegoers to see it. Though it probably won't get many African-American moviegoers, not with the competition from Martin Lawrence, it should bring in a large enough audience of white men over 30 and women of all ages, that it will be #1 this weekend, and despite next weekend's competition for all audiences with next week's offerings, this is still one of the few movies that couples will be able to see together.
Why I Should See It: If you want to see Hudson and McConaughey reunited after How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, this is your chance!
Why Not: Because unfortunately, we only get to see McConaughey shirtless, and even though Hudson wears a tiny bikini, it's just not the same.
Projections: $21 to 24 million opening weekend and $75 to 80 million total.
COMPARISONS
Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins (Universal)
Starring Martin Lawrence, Margaret Avery, Joy Bryant, Michael Clarke Duncan, Louis C.K., Mike Epps, Mo'Nique, Nicole Ari Parker, Cedric the Entertainer, James Earl Jones
Written and directed by Malcolm D. Lee (Roll Bounce, Undercover Brother, The Best Man)
Genre: Comedy
Rated PG-13
Tagline: "Going home is no vacation."
Plot Summary: Wealthy self-help guru R. J. Stevens (Lawrence) has left his Southern upbringing and family behind him to find huge success, but when he's asked to come home for his parents' 50th Anniversary, he heads back to Georgia with his son and reality TV star fiancé to try to prove that he's not the awkward kid they remember.
Martin Lawrence is back with his first of two movies coming out in the next few months, this one using a similar high concept premise as the 1991 Michael J. Fox vehicle Doc Hollywood, which was also recycled into the New Line comedy Just Friends starring Ryan Reynolds, which bombed over the holidays a couple years back.
Fortunately, Martin Lawrence has a bit more box office clout than either of them, especially after the Big Momma's House and Bad Boys movies, and he has a certain built-in audience who'll go to see any movie he appears in within reason. (Even Lawrence's fans were smart enough to avoid Rebound.) Last year, Lawrence starred as part of the group of actors who helped make Wild Hogs a big hit for Disney's Touchstone Pictures, grossing $168 million and being Lawrence's biggest movie since Bad Boys II with Will Smith, plus it also helped to expand his audience beyond the African-American audience he's had since his days on the FOX sitcom "Martin" during the '90s. Over the years, he's appeared in enough strong comedies and created enough of an identity for himself that he's definitely up there with African-American actors like Smith, Denzel and Eddie Murphy in terms of being a draw.
Even though this is Martin Lawrence's latest joint, it's being marketed more like an ensemble comedy with a great cast of comic stars, many of whom have headlined their own movies, including Cedric the Entertainer and Mike Epps, who've developed their own African-American audiences from the "Friday" and "Barbershop" movies. Epps also has built a solid amount of male fans from his appearances in the last two "Resident Evil" movies, though Cedric hasn't much luck crossing over, as appearances in movies like Johnson Family Vacation have found an audience while his previous teaming with Epps, a remake of The Honeymooners, and last year's Codename: The Cleaner, bombed. The duo are joined by Mo'Nique, the former host of "Showtime at the Apollo", who has had even less luck in movies, headlining bombs like Phat Girlz and Hair Show and making appearances in lesser comedy fare like Soul Plane. It also features Louis C.K., who has worked closely with Chris Rock, most recently on his comedy I Think I Love My Wife, and had his own raunchy sitcom on HBO—he's kind of the token white guy in the group—while Joy Bryant, Michael Clarke Duncan and James Earl Jones offer the movie some "real actor" credibility.
This impressive ensemble was brought together by Malcolm Lee, who had an early hit with The Best Man, followed by the likes of Undercover Brother and Roll Bounce, neither which has shown him to be able to draw African-American audiences in the same was Tyler Perry, which is why the movie relies on the known stars like Lawrence and Epps more than anything else.
Lawrence hasn't done a movie with Universal since Life back in 1999, but the studio, while they're good at a lot of things, have not had much luck with urban movies with the exception of Ridley Scott's American Gangster last year, a movie that transcended racial boundaries by being such a strong guys' movie across the board. Comedies targeting African-American or "urban" audiences have done well in the past few years, particularly the work of Tyler Perry and as recently as last month with Ice Cube's First Sunday, and while Roscoe Jenkins certainly fits into that mold, it's being marketed more as a screwball high concept comedy—also not Universal's strong point. With a long and unwieldy title that will mean very little to anyone seeing it on a marquee or ticket sign ("Roscoe Jenkins? Who is that?"), it might be hard for the movie to find a casual audience that doesn't realize this is the new Martin Lawrence movie, but Lawrence's audience should be out in force, which should help the movie do well, possibly even giving Warner Bros.' Fool's Gold a run for the top spot, even if it's not one of Lawrence's biggest opening movies.
Why I Should See It: If you're wondering what "Doc Hollywood" might look like with Martin Lawrence in the lead, here ya go.
Why Not: This looks like it offers nothing new to the "urban comedy" genre as everyone involved is doing their usual routine. Yawn.
Projections: $17 to 20 million opening weekend and $45 to 50 million total.
COMPARISONS
Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show (Picturehouse)
Starring Vince Vaughn, Ahmed Ahmed, John Caparulo, Bret Ernst, Sebastian Maniscalco, Justin Long, Jon Favreau, Peter Billingsley, Keir O'Donnell, Dwight Yoakam
Directed by Ari Sandel (debut)
Genre: Comedy, Documentary
Rated R
Tagline: "He's taking this show on the road and you're riding shotgun."
Plot Summary: Actor Vince Vaughn took four actors on the road across the country to play 30 shows in 30 nights, with a number of well-known special guests joining them along the way
Interview with Executive Producer Peter Billingsley
Review
With all the concert films being released in the last few weeks—yes, folks, it's official that newcomer Miley Cyrus is bigger than U2 going by the respective box office of the movies—the comedy concert movie has been a regular staple, going back to the days of Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy. For most part, it's been a phenomenon among African-American audiences with movies like Original Kings of Comedy and Martin Lawrence's Run Tel Dat doing far better theatrically than anyone expects, while comedy docs or concert movies featuring popular comics including Jerry Seinfeld (Comedian) and Sarah Silverman (Jesus is Magic), have mainly been given small limited releases with neither them finding the success of their other work. In the same vein, the successful Blue Collar Comedy Tour, which paired the likes of Jeff Foxworthy, Ron White, Bill Engvall and Larry the Cable Guy, barely made a dent when the first movie played theatrically but it and its sequels have done well when they've aired on Comedy Central.
So here comes this new movie spearheaded by actor Vince Vaughn, whose Q-rating certainly has risen greatly in the last five years with back-to-back hits like Dodgeball, Wedding Crashers and The Break-Up, which has him taking four comics on the road for a month, playing 30 shows, and filming it for posterity. The comics include the scrappy John Caparulo, Jersey Boy Bret Ernst, the Arab-American Ahmed Ahmed and ladies' man Sebastian Maniscalco, and while it is a comedy concert film, it's more about what happens to the group when they go on the road, trying to do 30 shows in 30 nights throughout the South and Midwest, plans that are waylaid by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina.
Certainly, there's a sizeable audience who enjoy going to comedy clubs, though that group isn't likely to be the same who might go see a movie about stand-up comedy, because it's just not the same experience. Maybe that's why this kind of movie usually would open in a couple bigger cities and create some sort of grassroots campaign based on word-of-mouth to help it bring in more business as it expanded and New Line affiliate Picturehouse has released a lot of their movies in this way, but with this one, they're going wide right out of the gate, opening it in 800 theatres nationwide with hopes that the presence of Vaughn in the movie and its title will bring in curious moviegoers and his fans, even if the majority of the movie is about the four stand-up comics who are almost completely unknown outside L.A. comedy circles. Even with other known actors like Justin Long, who starred in last week's comedy bomb Strange Wilderness, it might not be enough to make much of an impact, especially with two stronger comedies being a draw for audiences. The best chances for Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show is the fact that young white males and college age women aren't being targeted by the other two movies, which could make this a fun movie for young people to see as a group. Sad fact is that Picturehouse hasn't done much to promote it beyond the ubiquitous HBO previews, so the movie is looking like a bigger underdog than Vaughn's Dodgeball movie, and it'll be pretty amazing if gets into the Top 10 despite a wide release.
Why I Should See It: Vaughn is very funny in his own right but surrounded by four very talented comics and his friends, he's created a very funny concert film.
Why Not: Moviegoers might expect more Vince Vaughn in the movie and be disappointed when it's more about the others.
Projections: $1.5 to 3 million opening weekend and $5 to 6 million total.
COMPARISONS
In Bruges (Focus Features)
Starring Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes, Cléménce Posey
Written and directed by Martin McDonagh (The Oscar-winning short film "Six Shooter" and the Tony-nominated play "The Pillowman")
Genre: Crime, Comedy, Drama, Thriller
Rated R
Tagline: "Shoot first. Sightsee later."
Plot Summary: Two hired assassins Ken and Ray (Brendan Gleeson, Colin Farrell) hole up in the historic Belgian city of Bruges to recover after a botched hit by order of their boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes), but Ray gets into all sorts of trouble when he meets the beautiful Chloë (Clémence Poésy from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), and tries to make the most out of the miserable place.
My Review from Sundance
Interview with Martin McDonagh
One of the highlights of this year's Sundance Film Festival and also the festival's Opening Night Gala, was the feature debut by noted Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, who won an Oscar for his short film "Six Shooters" last year, and continues to prove himself to be a force to be reckoned with, regardless of the format or media for his work. This one is pretty amazing, similar to the British gangster movies we've seen so much, but given more than a few twists, the first one being its transplant into the gorgeously scenic location of Bruges, Belgium, which is the catalyst for much of the film's humor. More than anything, it's a showcase for McDonagh's writing and the performances by three reputable actors, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes and mostly Colin Farrell, who gives one of his best performances in a long time, playing a character that offers more resonance to his troubled life in the limelight. Unfortunately, some people might avoid the movie if they'd been burnt by some of Farrell's movies in recent years. After all, it's been a good four or five years before we saw him in mainstream Hollywood films like Phone Booth, Steven Spielberg's Minority Report and The Recruit and money-making dogs like Daredevil and S.W.A.T, his choices in recent years having been more eclectic including Oliver Stone's mega-bomb Alexander and Terrence Malick's eclectic The New World. Sadly, his teaming with Woody Allen for the recent Cassandra's Dream wasn't much better, but with the role of Ray, Farrell has finally found something special. Hopefully, whether moviegoers love or loathe Farrell, they'll give McDonagh's movie a chance, because it's a really funny well-made film that's sure to be a much-talked about sleeper as more people discover it and tell their friends. Personally, it was one of my favorite movies at Sundance and I'm dying to see it again, since it was so surprising what McDonagh has done with the somewhat overused premise of two very different hitmen trying to get along. It will open in select cities on Friday, and hopefully enough people will find it to warrant an expansion into more cities.
Honorable Mention:
The Band's Visit (Sony Classics)
Starring Ronit Elkabetz, Sasson Gabai, Uri Gavriel, Imad Jabarin, Ahuva Keren, Rubi Moskovitz, Khalifa Natour, Hilla Sarjon, Eyad Sheety
Written and directed by Eran Kolirin (debut)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Rated PG-13
Tagline: "Once-not long ago-a small Egyptian police band arrived in Israel. Not many remember this...It wasn't that important."
Plot Summary: The Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra, a group of Egyptians coming to Israel to play a concert, get lost and stranded in a small Israeli town where the group and their leader Tewfiq (Sasson Gabai) must try to get along with the locals as they spend a night there, the guests of Dina (Ronit Elkabetz), the beautiful and friendly proprietor of a local café.
Of Note: This fun and charming Israeli film was snubbed by the Oscars because much of the film was in English, something that's angered the many fans the film has found at various film festivals including Cannes and Toronto. (The movie is currently 100% at Rotten Tomatoes, which also says a lot about how many people love this film.) It will open in New York and L.A. after a one-week awards run last December.
Interview with Eran Kolirin
Mini-Review: You sometimes have to remember that you're watching a film set in Israel because Eran Kolirin's debut is so reminiscent of the work of Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki, particularly Leningrad Cowboys Go America, maybe because it's a similarly charming fish out of water tale of a group of well-dressed musicians who find themselves in a strange situation when stranded in the middle of nowhere. The film quickly sets itself apart from the grim politically minded films that often come from the region to how this dysfunctional band of misfits and their stiff, stodgy bandleader deal with their surroundings in the small Israeli town as spend one night making new friends and exchanging ideas with the locals, despite an obvious language gap. (Much of the film ends up being in sub-titled English as the two camps try to find common ground in which to communicate.) Most of the film's best scenes involve the interaction between noted character actor Sasson Gabai as General Tewfiq and the town's sexy hot-to-trot restaurant owner played by Ronit Elkabetz ("Late Marriage"), as the duo go on an awkward date on the town, but it's equally amusing to watch the band's resident Casanova (Saleh Bakri) teach a local misanthrope how to talk to and make advances on his date. Kolirin really has a knack for creating humor in a subtle way within very believable situations, and with just one film, he has created a niche within the oeuvre of world cinema, because "The Band's Visit" is a genuinely touching crowd-pleaser and a real treat. Rating: 8.5/10
Also in Limited Release:
The Hottie & the Nottie (Regent Releasing) - Tom Putnam's comedy stars former jailbird Paris Hilton as Cristabel Abbot, the object of affection since youth for a poor guy named Nate (Joel David Moore, whose directorial debut Spiral is also released this week--see below), but when Nate chases Cristabel to L.A., he finds that she's still friends with the ugly girl June (Christine Lakin), and in order for Nate to get with Cristabel, he needs to find June a date. The high concept comedy opens in 100 theatres in select cities on Friday.
Mini-Review: Maybe it's just that the premise for this raunchy gross out comedy sounds so deplorable on paper that when the movie isn't quite as awful as you might expect, you're left surprised, bemused and even somewhat charmed. With a plot that's halfway between "There's Something about Mary" and Ryan Reynolds' "Just Friends," there's actually a sweet and romantic message once it gets all the disgusting gross-out jokes out of its system, and follows a similar path as some of the better Farrelly Brothers' movies. To get there, you'll have to force yourself to believe firstly that Paris Hilton might be the hottest woman in L.A., and secondly, that said "hottie" would not be getting any action. Once that's out of the way, you can continue to suspend your disbelief while a Swedish dentist named Johann falls for the "nottie" June Phigg and prepares to make her over into a swan. It's fairly easy to figure out where things will go from there, but for the most part, the writing is solid, and Joel David Moore ("Art School Confidential") isn't bad as Nate Cooper, the loser trying to win over his 1st grade crush. Even more impressive is Christine Lakin as June, wearing tons of make-up and prosthetics to appear hideous, but who still puts off an air of confidence that makes her immediately likable despite her horrific features. As some might expect, Paris Hilton doesn't have to do a lot of heavy lifting in this , but she certainly isn't the worst part of the movie, even as she spends a lot of time showing skin and other body parts. The worst part would have to be Nate's best friend Arno, played by The Greg Wilson (that's how he's credited!), which is pretty much the Jack Black, Dan Fogler disgusting friend character that always seems to be present in these comedies. While there aren't too many solid laughs, there are enough charming and amusing moments that it's hard to fault the filmmakers, because given the premise, it could have been much MUCH worse. Rating: 6.5/10
How to Rob a Bank (IFC First Take) - Nick Stahl and Erika Christensen star in Andrew Jenkins' debut, a heist thriller in which the two of them are trapped in a bank vault during a botched bank robbery, and have to find ways to evade the real bank robber (Gavin Rossdale) and the police who have them surrounded. It's playing at midnight on Friday and Saturday at the IFC Center in New York.
Mini-Review: While I'm hesitant to trash on first-time indie filmmakers, Andrew Jenkins' low budget "Inside Man" is so in love with its "clever camera shots" and non-stop twists that it fails to create characters that the viewer might care about let alone watch for 80 minutes, as the film is plagued by awful writing, even worse acting and sloppy production values. Nick Stahl just doesn't have enough charisma to pull off this kind of anti-hero role, and though Christensen is sexy enough to be convincing as the femme fatale in dark wig and glasses, she acts so loopy in the movie, flitting around with Stahl in their stark bank vault set trying to act cute that she gets annoying very quickly. Even worse is former Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale, who rants and screams as if he's auditioning for Guy Ritchie's next movie and Terry Crews ("Balls of Fury") is wasted as the police detective trying to make sense of it all, a role that doesn't allow him to use his best assets and knack for comedy. Essentially, these four characters and a disembodied voice on a cell phone provided by David Carradine spend the movie playing mind games with each other as the plot gets overly complicated and ludicrous. To say the movie gets better as it goes along would not be saying very much, since it takes forever to get anywhere and Jenkins' overly clever and stylish but ultimately shoddy and boring debut is mostly an awful waste of time. Rating: 2.5/10
London to Brighton (Outsider Pictures) - Paul Andrew Williams' heavily-praised dramatic thriller about a street hooker and a 12-year-old runaway trying to stay alive for 24 hours while being chased by the former's pimp opens in New York and L.A. on Friday.
Mini-Review (Coming Soon!)
A Walk to Beautiful (Engel Entertainment) - Five Ethiopian women suffering from devastating childbirth injuries who've been ostracized by their husbands and communities try to find solace in this documentary that follows their journey as their lives begin to change. It opens in New York on Friday and in L.A. on February 29.
Spiral (Anchor Bay Entertainment) - Actor Joel David Moore (also the star of The Hottie & the Nottie) co-wrote and co-directed this thriller in which he plays a neurotic artist living in isolation and working at a dead-end bank job until he meets an outgoing co-worker (Amber Tamblyn) who agrees to pose for him, but there's more to both of them than meets the eye, making any chances of romance difficult. Also starring Zachary Levi aka "Chuck" as their boss, this will open in select cities on Friday.