Your Weekly Guide to New Movies for March 9, 2007
By Edward Douglas -

Greetings and welcome back to the Weekend Warrior, your weekly guide to the weekend's new movies. Tune in every Tuesday for the latest look at the upcoming weekend, and then check back on Friday for final projections based on actual theatre counts.

(If you have anything to say about anything written in this column, feedback and Email is always welcome, and almost always responded to.)

THE WEEKEND PREDICTIONS: (final update 3.8.07)

You know something's up when a movie opens on its own and no other major studio wants to try to compete against it, even with a bit of counter-programming, in such a crowded movie season. That's a grand place to be for Warner Bros. and director Zack Snyder as they finally release their movie based on Frank Miller's historic battle epic 300, starring Gerard Butler and Lena Headey. The action-driven film is going to be the first choice among guys from 15 to 50 this weekend, particularly those who dig movies like Braveheart, Gladiator and Troy, as well as the comic fans who flocked to Sin City, which Miller co-directed by Robert Rodriguez. With an impressive marketing campaign, 300 has become a bit of an event movie like the kind usually released in the summer, and its R-rating and March release may be the only things keeping it from being as big as other historic war epics. Still, it's shaping up to crack the Top 3 for a March opening much like Wild Hogs did last week, while the Disney road comedy will drop down to second place, holding well among women and audiences not as interested in the violence in 300. (*Update: My source which told me 300 would get 3,400 theatres was wrong, but with many IMAX screenings already sold out and demand building towards the weekend, we'll up the prediction a hair, fully realizing that Friday will probably be the movie's biggest day. One probably shouldn't be too surprised if this breaks $40 million based on the amount of hype.)

The only attempt at counter-programming comes from Fox Faith, who releases the inspirational film The Ultimate Gift nationwide this weekend with very little fanfare, hoping that churchgoing audiences who've made One Night with the King, End of the Spear and the recent Amazing Grace such successes will go out to see this one, despite it not having nearly as much religious relevance. It's probably a lost cause without the advertising to get other people into theatres, though it might sneak into the bottom of the Top 10, its main competition being the aforementioned Amazing Grace which continues to bring in audiences based on word-of-mouth.( Incidentally, New Line's The Last Mimzy will also sneak preview in roughly 800 theatres on Saturday evening.)

Although last year saw three movies opening over $15 million, the Top 10 still ended up under $90 million, so it's likely to be surpassed this weekend despite there only being one new movie in ultra-wide release. The big surprise last year was the romantic comedy Failure to Launch beating Tim Allen's The Shaggy Dog with $24.4 million to the latter's $16.3 million. Third place was taken by the remake of Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes with $15.7 million, which has a sequel coming out later this month.

THE CHOSEN ONE:

While my conscience tells me to pick the Rwandan drama Beyond the Gates or the informative doc Maxed Out, both very important and worthy movies (see below), I gotta go with what I consider one of the best movies of the year so far and that would be…

THE HOST (Magnolia Pictures)
Starring Song Kang-ho, Byun Hie-bong, Park Hae-il, Bae Doo-na, Ah-sung Ko
Directed by Bong Joon-ho (Memories of Murder); Written by Bong Joon-ho, Hah Joon-won, Baek Chul-hyun
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Monster
Rated R
Tagline: "It is lurking behind you."
Story: The Park family of South Korea is nearly devastated when a carnivorous creature comes out of the Han River and takes their youngest girl, presumably to her death. When they find out she's still alive, they try to find her, even as the government puts the entire city under quarantine due to a virus the creature is spreading that kills anyone who comes into contact with it.
INTERVIEW (with Bong Joon-ho)
REVIEW

Man, I love me a good monster movie, having spent most of my life thinking I'd seen every decent monster movie out there (and let's face it, there aren't many), so color me surprised when this movie comes out of Korea that took what originated at Japan's Toho Studios and created something so far beyond what has ever been done with the genre before. Part of why the movie works so well is due to the amazing work to make the creature in Bong Joon-ho's The Host so realistic, though it's just as much about the human characters, a quirky family who face tragedy when the youngest girl in the family is taken by the creature, leading them on a desperate attempt to find out if she's still alive while dealing with incompetent scientists and government workers who hinder them every step of the way.

Now, I understand that Korean films aren't for everyone, 'cause let's face it, they're kind of strange, but The Host may finally be the movie that crosses over to American audiences with its mix of action, scares, laughs and real emotion that makes it stand-up to any American-made blockbuster. Sure, some might find the creature or the family odd, but the storytelling and filmmaking is on a par with the best work from Peter Jackson or Sam Raimi, so hopefully, this will find an audience beyond the normal Korean genre films. (But let's face it, Asian import/bootleg DVDs are a big market, so many of them may have already seen it.) Hopefully those who've seen it will recommend others go see it when it opens in select cities this weekend and it will do well enough to expand into more places later, despite facing the monstrous…

300 (Warner Bros.)
Starring Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, David Wenham, Dominic West, Vincent Regan, Rodrigo Santoro
Directed by Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead); Written by Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad, Michael Gordon
Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller, History, War
Rated R
Tagline: "Prepare for Glory!"
Plot Summary: King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) leads 299 of his greatest warriors to the Hot Gates of Thermopylae to fend off the immense approaching army of Persian King Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), while his wife Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey) remains at home to deal with the corrupt Spartan council.
Of Note: Zack Snyder, the director of Dawn of the Dead, takes on Frank Miller's comic series based on the Battle of Thermopylae.
REVIEW

Analysis: Just a few weeks after Ghost Rider broke box office records over Presidents' Day weekend, here's a very different comic-derived beast, one not based on a popular superhero character but on a highly stylized graphic epic by one of the masters of the craft, Frank Miller. It's the brainchild of Dawn of the Director Zack Snyder, who has spent the last two years trying to get Miller's vision onto screen as faithfully as possible using green screen and computer processing to create the unique look of Frank Miller and colorist Lynn Varley's artwork. In doing so, Snyder is following in the mighty footsteps of Robert Rodriguez who co-directed Miller's adaptation of his crime comic Sin City, which made nearly $74 million in theatres two years ago, but was also based on one of Miller's more popular works. Then again, it's based on a historic battle that many war fans are familiar with either from books or movies like The 300 Spartans, which creates another level of interest in the movie beyond comic readers.

Whether it's a smart idea to make a movie based on a Greek battle is one that'll be determined next Monday, but 300 has lofty footsteps to fill by treading the same genre as movies like Gladiator and Braveheart, both commercial hits that went on to win many awards. Then you have movies like Wolfgang Peterson's Troy, which wasn't as critically well-received but a big summer blockbuster nonetheless and lesser fare like Jerry Bruckheimer's King Arthur and Oliver Stone's Alexander neither which did as well as expected, potentially hurting studio interest in the genre. (300's success will be eyed very closely by Paramount Pictures, who'll be releasing Robert Zemeckis' animated Beowulf later this year.) Fortunately, Snyder is making a very different film, not going for realism as much as going for a live action graphic novel, very stylish and different, like Miller's art.

Instead of going for big name stars like Bruce Willis or Jessica Alba, who both added some weight to Sin City, Snyder went for a solid cast of dramatic actors that could make the characters convincing, the King of Sparta being played by Scotland's own Gerard Butler. After his debut in Mrs. Brown and playing Dracula in Dracula 2000, Butler has taken on a variety of roles with his biggest movies to date being Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (wow, that's pretty sad when you think about it) and playing the title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, the latter making over $50 million, but not quite matching the success of the Broadway musical on which it was based. The odd thing is that Butler seems to have built up a fanbase of teen girls due to the latter and the older ones might actually agree to be dragged to the movie by their guys in order to ogle Butler wearing next to nothing. (In an ironic twist, Butler also appeared in a lower-budget Icelandic production of Beowulf and Grendel.)

His queen is played by Lena Headey, who hasn't had much more success, her biggest movie Stateside being Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm opposite Matt Damon and Heath Ledger, released the same day as the dog The Cave, followed by the lesbian rom-com Imagine Me and You. The role of Queen Gorgo certainly should help elevate her status before she moves onto playing Sarah Connor in an upcoming Terminator television show. A key advisor to Leonidas is played by David Wenham, better known as Faramir in the last two Lord of the Rings, followed by roles in Van Helsing and the Aussie thriller The Proposition. 300's two main antagonists are played by Brazilian superstar Rodrigo Santoro, who has a role on the ABC drama "Lost," and versatile actor Dominic West (The Forgotten). Still, none of these actors have much of a draw at the box office to bring people into theatres, which probably won't matter, since interest in 300 will be more due to its premise, its action and the stylish visuals.

The R-rating might be slightly worrisome to those who realize that the film's main appeal will be to teen males, but that didn't hurt movies like The Terminator, Die Hard, The Matrix or other similarly cool action movies in their day and without too many strong movies in theatres--(Ghost Rider? Puh-lease)--this weekend is wide open for Snyder's battle epic to bring in a large audience, even if it's going to appeal mainly to guys. One can except that testosterone seekers will be going out to see this in droves--expect every single high school football team in the country to go see the movie to build teamwork through a bit of Spartan camaraderie and battle strategy. So you have them, plus war fans and of course, Frank Miller's many fans will go to see if Snyder delivered on the promise of the original comics. Of course, the movie's stylish look and minimal color scheme might throw some moviegoers off even if it's something that fans of Miller's artwork will probably appreciate more than others. In that sense, early footage of 300 was shown at the San Diego Comic-Con last year to an overwhelmingly positive response, but The film was made in a similar way as Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, which ended up looking too weird for most audiences despite its similar reception at Comic-Con. Apparently, the film has been tracking very well among a wide range of audiences, not just guys or comic fans.

Like many of Warner Bros.' bigger movies, this is getting an IMAX release which to many will be the chosen way of seeing a movie this big, and that certainly will help with the opening weekend, even if something about the movie makes one think it would have fared even better if released during the summer. With Mark Wahlberg's Shooter being moved back a week, there also isn't very much competition next weekend to keep 300 from being on top for two weeks in a row either.

Comparisons:

Copyright 2007 Edward Douglas


Take on The Weekend Warrior in the box-office related movie games at:

Or enter the contests at the Warrior's other favorite haunt: