That seems to be the trend in Hollywood conventional wisdom this busy March weekend, at least as reflected by my only source for such matters right now, the thoughts of jolly Carl DiOrio and Greg Kilday of The Hollywood Reporter. It certainly seems fairly impossible to argue that “Alice in Wonderland” won’t continue to enjoy its ride at the top of the box office for another week, with the aid of all those extra-pricey 3-D tickets. If it makes less than $30 million or so, I’m thinking it would be a rude shock for Disney.
As for the #2 spot, the appeal of Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler seems to be working, as per the mysteries of “tracking,” for “The Bounty Hunter.” The film aroused some serious vitriol, however, from our own David Medsker, who has lost all patience with Ms. Aniston. It’s not doing much better with critics as a whole. Scott Tobias of the A.V. Club opines that:
Based on the onscreen evidence, not a single person in front of or behind the camera cared a whit about how The Bounty Hunter turned out…Some movies are passion projects; The Bounty Hunter is an inertia project.
That’s actually mild compared to the zinger Tobias ends his review with. As you might guess, it’s Rotten Tomatoes rating as of this writing is pretty bad, a very lowly 8%.
Still, audience members may be lured by the film’s effective advertising. Its effective advertising promises a lively ride as a sort of two-fisted spin on “It Happened One Night,” though the PG-13 “Bounty Hunter” is apparently more of an attempt at a light-hearted actioner than the action-packed rom-com you’d expect from the marketing.
DiOrio and Kilday are guesstimating $20-23 million for Sony. Sounds doable to me, though the second weekend might have a huge drop if the film is as much of a creative misfire as it sounds.
Next up is Fox’s PG-rated “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” based on a popular series of young adult “novels in cartoon.” (My pet peeve: why can’t we just call them comics?) I have to say that I hope the movie is much better than the trailer, which I found completely unfunny — just a collection of pale sub-“Wonder Years” jokes. The reviews seem to promise something at least a little better, with “Kid” dividing critics somewhat, though no one seems all that excited in either direction.
I’m going to be taking a day off from the blogging grind, but there’s plenty going on this late evening in the world’s cinema capital. Starting with…
* Team Coco, the movie! Okay, it’s a documentary about Conan O’Brien’s upcoming live tour and it’s still only in the “early talks” stage according to Mike Fleming’s exclusive. It’s apparently in compliance with his severance deal, even though most people will probably end up watching it on television sets anyhow.
* Speaking of documentaries and comedy, A.J. Schnack rounds up some of the SXSW reaction to James Franco’s SNL documentary.
* At the risk certainty of being repetitious, speaking of comedies connected to SNL, Pete Sciretta rounds up the SXSW reaction to”MacGruber.” We also have reaction direct from Jason Zingale at the big Austin fest just a few posts below.
* In the wake of the sale of Miramax, go-to producer Scott Rudin is negotiating to leave Disney, writes Claudia Eller.
* Okay, even if I might not be a fan of all the movies, I confess to enjoying the idea of having the stars of past Marvel films recreate their roles in the long-discussed “Avengers” film and Edward Nortonappears possibly willing to play along by returning as the Hulk, maybe. Whatever else may be true, Norton is a very interesting guy.
* Does a serious version of the Black Knight sequence from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” sound like your kind of film? If so, Anne Thompson thinks you might like “Centurion.”
* I think all the entertainment reporters should just take the month off and let Mike Fleming do all the reporting of stories like the one that Jeremy Renner may be joining Paul Thomas Anderson’s not-about-Scientology movie which will star Philip Seymour Hoffman as not-L. Ron Hubbard. Though it’s relatively modest $35 million budget may be a bit high for the finance folks at Universal, other backers may have been found.
And one two more from Mr. Fleming…If you think Spike Lee has been working as much as he should after the success of “Inside Man” and his acclaimed Katrina documentary, you’re apparently not alone. He’s switched agencies.
* Jeffrey Welles is nutso for “Hot Tub Time Machine,” for what it’s worth.
* I often say that the best movies these days are long-form television. So why shouldn’t Martin Scorsese be getting involved? However, does everything crime and Scorsese oriented have to have Rolling Stones music in the background? Unless I’m misidentifying that anachronistic music in the “Boardwalk Empire,” trailer, I guess it really does. Still, yeah, it is Steve Buscemi’s time to play a big bad boss.
* If it’s not news that Jason Segal will be costarring with muppets, why are we talking about it? Still, based on his obvious love for puppetry as portrayed in the rather brilliant “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” I think it may turn out okay.
Howdilly ho, Losterinos! Jae-Z is still in Austin for South by Southwest, so I am guest blogging this week. And don’t worry, I’m not going to come up with a bunch of wacky nicknames for everyone, or end the blog with a music video.
It’s tough to decide which version of Earth was more interesting tonight…oh, who am I kidding, the Earth-1 story was definitely better. Crazy Claire tried to kill Kate, while Sayid looked on impotently. He’s clearly reeling from the guilt of knowing that he allowed Evil Locke/Smokey to enter the temple and lay waste to the righteous who refused to go with him. I’m sure he’s also depressed over the “knowledge” that he’s infected, whatever that means. Me, I’m not so convinced that anyone is infected. Yes, Rashomon (damn it, I swore I wouldn’t hand out nicknames) said he was infected, but while we watched the similarly infected Claire put an axe in a guy’s stomach, Evil Locke explained tonight just what it was that fed that insanity, and it wasn’t sickness or disease – it was the need for an enemy, much like Guy Pearce’s character in “Memento.” It drove her, but once she had no need for it and discovered that Kate was not her enemy, Claire turned out to be a reasonable and normal, if mournful, person. Does this mean that there is indeed nothing wrong with Sayid? Or does this mean that we haven’t yet seen exactly what is wrong with either of them?
Stupid “Lost.” Eight episodes left, and they’re still providing more questions than answers.
Sawyer’s flash-sideways is Hugo-ian in that he’s the opposite of his Earth-1 counterpart. Jack’s still a doctor and Kate’s still a fugitive, but here, Sawyer’s a cop, and he uses his fake Dharma last name as a safe word when his mark pulls back the hammer to shoot him. I just love that he’s able to nail the wife of his intended target before dropping the bomb on her when she won’t play ball. Who wouldn’t sign up for undercover work if they knew it would get them so much sex?
And that wasn’t the only sex Detective James Ford would have this week, as he later bedded a Kidman-esque redhead archaeologist named Charlotte, but completely blew it (her words, later) when he flipped his lid after walking in on her looking at the folder dedicated to the man who led Ford’s father to kill his mother, then himself. The scene was actually one of the clumsiest in the entire history of “Lost,” as Charlotte went plowing through his stuff like she was a con herself…and who knows, maybe she is. (The truth: probably not, since they’re running out of time, but she sure as hell acted like one.) The bigger question, though, is: who leaves a folder that important, that potentially incriminating, in their top drawer? The whole thing was just, to quote my wife, ridiculous.
The big takeaway from the flash-sideways was that the individual stories finally appear to be coming together, as John/Sawyer confesses to his partner Miles about his extracurricular attempts to hunt down the man who destroyed his family, only to be slammed into by a runaway Kate, whom he later runs down in an alley. Up to this point, the Earth-2 story lines have been largely independent of the others, but now it looks as though everyone is going to start getting tied together. Whether they become aware of their other selves, though, is still up in the air. Truth be told, I’m not sure how I feel about that. God knows, I wouldn’t want to talk to another version of me. One’s enough.
Which brings us to the main story line, where Evil Locke asks Sawyer to travel to Hydra Island (where he finds the dress Kate wore when they first hooked up) to confirm Evil Locke’s suspicions that there are people there who mean him harm. Of course, there are, and they’re well armed (Charles Widmore doesn’t do cheap), and Sawyer does what he does best: he lies, which is precisely why Locke sent him there in the first place. Of course, Evil Locke doesn’t know that Sawyer intends to doublecross both Widmore and Locke…or maybe he does. It could be yet another test. Either way, Widmore’s posse is building a Smokey-proof fence, so this could make for a fun battle royale.
God love Jin. The love he has for his wife is so sweet. Which of course makes me think that they won’t meet until the series finale…and will die before they get to embrace one last time. Come on, this is “Lost” we’re talking about. They’re not going to give us some ribbon-bowed, flowery happy ending. People are gonna die. Jin and Sun have spent almost two years in TV time apart. You better believe that their reunion will come with a catch.
Well, that’s it for me this week. Wow, that was so much fun! Thanks for playing with me today. Heeeeere we go: Yooooooooo gabba gabbaaaaaaaa! (*packs up boom box, exits stage left*)
“24” pulls out an oldie but a goodie this week, as the IRK bad guys – who are remarkably well funded and well connected, even on foreign soil – set up Princess Jasmine to “escape” to CTU…and bring a massive EMP with her. Boom boom pow. Dark is the night for all. Can’t find my way home, etc.
Now, let’s put aside the probability, and even the predictability, of it all for just a second. The cutting back and forth between Jack trying to reach Chloe and the utter chaos at CTU was the most action-packed moment of the season. I mean, they are seriously fucked right now. The radiation sensors are down, and they have no way of getting in touch with, well, anyone. It’s a hell of an ending to the first half of the season.
But is anyone else just a little tired of seeing how easily compromised our nation’s counter-terrorist unit is? First bombs, then nerve gas, and now an EMP. (The previous EMP was set off at McLennan and Forster’s office, thus causing Go-Betweens fans around the world to giggle to themselves.) Honestly, CTU deserves to fail if they can’t come up with fail-safe measures to prevent this sort of thing from happening. Is there really unsecured access to directly below the building? You may as well leave a trail of gasoline, and supply the bad guys with a match.
Likewise, you have to just smile to yourself at the precision timing of Jasmine’s arrival in relation to the gigantic ticking clock in the back seat, that she wasn’t delayed by traffic (hey, even at four in the morning, it can happen in New York), or one of those mad squeegee guys, or simply got lost. That whole watch-your-daughter-die thing couldn’t have been cheap or easy to set up, especially when it is nothing but a smoke screen. Deep breath, Med, deep breath. It’s a TV show. It’s a TV show that asks us to believe that everything happens at the top of the hour. Let it go.
“I used to own this town. I was Jimmy James, Macho Business Donkey Wrestler, damn it.”
Same with tracking cell phone signals. They use it only when it suits them. Of course, while I was wondering why they didn’t try tracking Jasmine using her cell as tonight’s stuff was going on, the truth is that Slumdog President doesn’t have that ability, and CTU didn’t know she was missing, so I guess they’re covered on that one.
And then there’s Starbuck, who’s doing a Katherine Heigl happy dance (see “The Ugly Truth” if you want to get that reference, or better yet, don’t) now that an EMP just granted her a stay of execution. My prediction for her is that she performs a couple selfless, game-changing acts…and dies protecting the ones she loves. I think we all know she’s not coming back for another season – assuming there is another season, and there is rampant speculation that this may indeed be “24’s” final hour, at least on the small screen – so why not let her go with grace? She gets the sendoff her past-life BSG character deserves, and Cole receives the comfort of knowing that while Dana had secrets, he wasn’t wrong about what kind of person she was.
Which brings us to Jimmy James, Capitalist Liontamer. Last week I was terrified that he was using the parole officer thing as a ruse to continue the con in the event that Kevin failed, but on the surface, it looks as though that he’s a legit good guy…or possibly the ballsiest con man in the history of the world. He said he had a friend on the force, but all of the evidence that he hit Starbuck with – the phone calls, the storage locker break-in, the mangled cop – could very easily have been provided by Kevin and his wacko friend before they were killed, and Jimmy is just bluffing that Starbuck won’t question the authenticity of whatever that paper he presented her with that demanded access to the security feeds. If he’s a con, then he’s the craziest con ever, because even the good ones stay the hell away from the authorities if they can help it. Doesn’t he know that they have facial recognition software…or at least that they did until Princess Jasmine blew the electronics sky-high? This character might turn out to be my litmus test for “24” going forward. If he turns out to be a con, then I will officially never believe a single thing I see on this show, unless it’s Jack doing it.
Twelve hours down, which means, to use another musical reference, twelve stops and home. (The Feeling. Twelve Stops and Home. All Anglophiles should head to iTunes at once.) New York has not been good to CTU so far, and that’s been while the city was sleeping. It will be very curious to see if the surly commuters are any more accomodating. Considering my brief experience with said people. the answer is a defiant ‘no,’ but who knows, maybe they’ve mellowed out since then. (*Stifles chuckle*)
Tonight’s blog title comes from Naked Eyes’ third Top 40 single – yes, they had more than two hits, and in fact had one more before all was said and done – and even more curiously, this song does not appear on any of the band’s hits compilations. This has always baffled me, as it’s easily one of their best songs, hence the decision to release it as a single. Maybe it was the midgets in the video that embarrass them to this day, who knows. All I know is that I like the song.
The first attempt to transpose the appeal of the legendary European-based anthology comic magazine is pretty much unwatchable these days — I know because I tried and failed to watch it at Comicon a couple of years back — but that’s all the more reason to give it another try I suppose. Considering that the late seventies and early eighties were pretty much the lowpoint of animation and the high end nature of this project, it pretty much has to be an improvement on most levels.
And that’s not all. Having taken on Facebook with Aaron Sorkin, another upcoming project may possibly involve an equally cinematic undertaking: chess.
* With John Krasinski apparently out of the running for “The First Avenger: Captain America” (a title I’m not fond of, by the way), the Marvel gang has apparently adopted a “nobody excessively interesting” rule in its prospective casting. The latest name being floated: Ryan Phillipe. Still, he played effectively off of Chris Cooper in the highly underrated “Breach,” one of my favorite films of 2007, so perhaps he can do the same with Hugo Weaving here.
* Ben Kingsley and Sacha Baron Cohen are “in talks” to appear in Martin Scorsese’s ambitious, 3-D, meta-film, “The Invention of Hugo Cabret.” As a Deadline commenter notes, this one appears to be DiCaprio-free, at last. Kingsley and Coehn could make an interesting buddy film.
* Tim Adler of Deadline|London thinks that the success of 3-D screenings of “Avatar” in Europe is funding the growth of digital movie theaters in Europe.
* I’ve said it before, but the career of director David Gordon Green fascinates me. He starts out like an American Vittorio De Sica by way of Terrence Malick with the neo-neo realist “George Washington,” and then transitions to stoner-frat comedies apparently spoofing eighties sword and sorcery flicks. Attention must be paid.
That seems to be the trend in Hollywood conventional wisdom this busy March weekend, at least as reflected by my only source for such matters right now, the thoughts of jolly Carl DiOrio and Greg Kilday of The Hollywood Reporter. It certainly seems fairly impossible to argue that “Alice in Wonderland” won’t continue to enjoy its ride at the top of the box office for another week, with the aid of all those extra-pricey 3-D tickets. If it makes less than $30 million or so, I’m thinking it would be a rude shock for Disney.
