Category: Movie Dramas (Page 175 of 188)

Multiplex Mayhem: The Starting Line

May 9, 2008 /

While I got really nervous just before election day — you never really know what those crazy voters are thinking, even if we have polls coming out of every orifice — but I have no compunction whatever in predicting, along with the people who (think they) know, that the #1 movie this week will not be a new release, but last week’s expectations beating megachamp, “Iron Man.” But while Marvel stockholders are counting their money and the rest of us are wondering when Hillary’s going to drop out, there is a race for second place this week, though it’s also pretty easy to call….

*How long has it been since I was puzzling over the identity of “Racer X”? Well, let’s just say it was slightly longer ago than 135 minute runtime for the Wachowski Brothers version of “Speed Racer,” a movie that’s been gestating since I had a full head of hair. 135 minutes is a long sit for most members of the pre-13 set (and many in the post-13 set), and with the Wachowski’s erratic storytelling skills apparently confirmed by a lackluster 34% Tomatometer score, this one might drive some to distraction and have weaker than usual legs for a family friendly film with considerable adult nostalgia/geek appeal.

Also, the would be blockbuster’s trailers look less like anime and more like a particularly gaudy video game, and that might not help with the grown-up side of the equation, though J. Hoberman (almost the last critic standing at the Village Voice) has some backhanded compliments. Also, as my esteemed colleague Jason Zingale noted, the casting here is spot on, with Emile Hersh (last seen starving for his art with Sean Penn) as Speed, Christina Ricci (freed from Sam Jackson’s radiator) as galpal Trixie, Matthew Fox (I haven’t watched “Lost” since halfway through it’s first season, so I can’t make a joke) as the mysterious Racer X, and master thesps Susan Sarandon and John Goodman as Mom and Pops Racer. (It’s also got Stephen Colbert’s very special Korean popstar nemesis, Rain, who’s getting okay reviews.) The very strong cast should be good for some tickets, at least until word about the kid-patience-testing length gets out.

*Since we’ve been basing movies on video games and theme park rides, why not movies drawn from tourism board ad campaigns? That’s the question asked by the makers of “What Happens in Vegas,” a rom-com made even less enticing than usual by the presence of the questionably talented Ashton Kutcher, here paired with the far more able Cameron Diaz, who could really use a bit of respect and a hit without the word “Shrek” in the title. In the case, the premise of a drunkenly married couple forced to spend months of “hard matrimony” might be good for $10 million or so. It would help if its word of mouth is better than the reviews, which have a fairly nasty tinge this time. Even benevolent blurbmistress Susan Granger is brandishing her rhetorical butter knives on this one.

And, in other news…. After opening in just a couple of theaters last week, writer-director David Mamet’s Redbelt goes wide in over a thousand theaters this weekend. Personally, I think that might be a case of too-much too-soon for this relatively smallish film, but I wish it well and look forward to seeing it myself. “Son of Rambow” is also expanding with a more modest, and possibly shrewder, additional 31 theaters.

In the “ouch” department, the follow-up to Henry Bean’s outstanding 2002 indie, “The Believer,” “Noise,” a comedy of sorts, is opening in two theaters and no one seems to care much, despite starring a couple of our best, Tim Robbins and William Hurt. Shame.

And considering we are aligned with an online men’s mag, I should make mention of the opening of “The Babysitters” in very limited release. The premise of this black comedy is pretty much the premise of the similarly titled film you’re likely to find in the blocked off section in the back of the vid store. The reviews are about what you’d expect, and then some. Take the semi-literate, quasi-grammatical critique by Prairie Miller:

The Babysitters is a pathetic excuse to trot out a procession of teenage girls in the raw, performing graphic simulated sex acts with your basic suburban family man drooling all over himself. Going home and taking a hot, soapy shower after viewing, is highly recommended.

By God, Prairie is right. One needs no excuses, pathetic or otherwise, to show graphic simulated sex acts — they are there own justification. As for “hot, soapy showers” following a viewing, well it’s kind of a waste of water compared to baby oil, but sure.

Action Movies, Actors, Actresses, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Reviews

Multiplex Mayhem: Bob Downey…B-Lister, No More!

May 4, 2008 /

Forget what I said last time, there’ll be no schadenfreude for Nikki Finke, or anyone else in H-wood, on this day, for “Iron Man” has netted some $104,250,000 at the domestic box-office since it’s Thursday night pre-release, exceeding expectations by as much as $30 million smackers. Finke and Variety also inform us that the film also netted another $96+ million outside North America, making this a cool $200 million dollar weekend and overall bringing us into something not so terribly far from “Spiderman” territory.

I’m actually not one bit surprised that the film has apparently very wide appeal despite not being as action-packed as some others. You see, my personal gauge of today’s mass audience – my Adam Sandler worshipping, “Saw” adoring, thoughtful-movie-disdaining nephew — was wowed by it, even noting the smaller amount of action but finding it, mysteriously enough, really entertaining in any case. Stories? Characters? Could they sometimes mean money? I think that the real secret weapon of “Spiderman” was its heart, but then I’m a dreamy idealist with absolutely no connection to reality. Can you guess which candidate I’m supporting?

“Iron Man” also enjoyed the best per-screen average of any film I’ve looked at since starting this series, at $24,543 on over four-thousand screens. (So far, the best per-screens in Multiplex Mayhem land have been major art-house films showing in only a few theaters nationwide.) Overall, the calm, sober analysis offered by the Finkean legions, via a “Paramount insider,” is that Robert Downey, Jr. and the movie beat Jesus (Mel Gibson version, I assume) and, yes, Will Smith. No word on which one would win in an Ulitimate Fighting match with Zarathustra and the Mighty Thor. And I can’t think of a better opportunity to plug this masterfully written Bullz-Eye salute to the the lesser known great acting works of Mr. Downey, which is absolutely coincidentally written by, er, me.

In other news, despite probably sucking, “Made of Honor” managed to grab $15,500,000, with “Baby Mama“, starring the adorably (im)mature Tina Fey, holding on decently in its second week with $10,332,000. Meanwhile “Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay” just barely edged out the impressive box-office “legs” of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” with both films netting just over $6 million, making it an imperfect but acceptable week for not-immensely stupid comedies.

By the way, it also wasn’t a bad 48 hours or so for two debuting indie-sized films with more mainstream appeal than usual. In six and five theater’s respectively, David Mamet’s “Redbelt” managed a healthy per screen average of $11,433 and the Sundance-fave kid-comedy of cinematic recklessness, “Son of Rambow” did nearly as well with $10,500 per theater.

That’s it for this week. I’m off to go make pre-Indiana/North Carolina calls for someone David Mamet probably won’t be voting for. (Yeah, I know, I found a way to link to my old blog post twice in two posts. I live for web-hits, baby.)

Action Movies, Actors, Actresses, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies

Multiplex Mayhem: The Origin Story

May 2, 2008 /

Even with my lousy record, I feel no compunction in calling the winner of this week. For once, we’ve got a sure thing.

*If “Iron Man” is not the #1 movie at the U.S. boxoffice this weekend, then there’s also an excellent chance that Mike Gravel and Ron Paul will be duking it out for the Presidency this fall as the Republican and Democratic nominees. With solid buzz, astonishingly good reviews, and little or no real competition for the young to middle-aged male movie dollar there is no bigger sure thing. The only question now is how much of a blockbuster we’re talking about. Both Carl DiOrio and Nikki Finke are talking about figures of $75, $80, $85 million or more, apparently based on “Iron Man” “tracking” better than the “The Hulk” back in ’03, which made $62 million its own opening weekend, and, well, lots of people actually seem to like this movie.

But, as always, there’s a possible fly or two in the ointment, because a lot of those people are critics and some folks are actually worried that in the wake of megasuccess of 100% character-and-plot free “Transformers” this could actually be a bad sign for the the first feature film solely produced by Marvel Entertainment. Among others, TV’s own Richard Roeper and Michael Phillips, after administering hearty thumbs-ups, worried that the film might be a bit, you know, un-stupid to make the monster dollars it needs. With a Pixar like score of 95% on the Tomatometer, the bar is definitely set high — if it only makes, say, $74,999,999.99, you can expect the schadenfreude to flow from Nikki Finke’s next column and elsewhere. Whoever wrote the line “This place is full of vultures, vultures everywhere!” wasn’t really talking about Casablanca.

Also, there is some concern about women given that it’s a superhero/action flick and that there’s lots of estrogen-fare on tap at the nation’s theaters, like last week’s winner, “Baby Mama.” On the other hand, as with the “Spider-Man” franchise, this film has more female appeal than usual with a stronger than usual character orientation and a bit of romance courtesy of well cast stars Robert Downey, Jr., playing a more troubled than usual superguy, and the lovely Gwyneth Paltrow as his woman Friday. Also, the light touch of director Jon Favreau (“Elf“) reminds us that the once young writer-star of “Swingers” has shown some real chops when it comes to fashioning solid, mainstream entertainment. Frankly, if this movie doesn’t pack ’em in, I’m not sure there’s hope for any of us.

* Oh, there actually is one other major studio with the temerity to open this week — though few heterosexual males (and not many discerning folks of any gender or sexual preference) will be likely to willingly attend the horribly reviewed Patrick Dempsey-Michelle Monaghan standard issue high-concept rom-com “Made of Honor.” This film is continuing a recent trend of major films with single digit RT scores. Though “Made” might benefit from the obvious counter-programming and the legitimate goodwill generated by its two stars, it will be lucky to come in an exceedingly poor second and could be defeated by the less patronizingly fem-friendly “Baby Mama.” We’ll see.

Meanwhile, in Indiewood.…They’re just starting to be rolled out in a very small number of theaters, but this week has two fairly major, nominally indie, films with some actual potential for mass appeal. Specifically, we’re talking about the latest from supermacho playwright-turned writer-director David Mamet, “Redbelt.” Though I’ve blogged about my issues with Mr. Mamet’s announced political conversion, I’m still looking forward to this one.

It could prove to be a low-key hit in the long run with the inherent male-centric interest of its subject matter, Mamet’s undoubted story-telling chops, and the appeal of mixed martial arts subject matter of its charismatic star, the outstanding, extremely busy, yet still underrated Chewitel Ejiorfor (Talk to Me, American Gangster, Dirty Pretty Things, Serenity, Inside Man, etc., etc., etc.) On the other hand the reviews this one is getting, including from our own David Medsker, are just slightly below par for Mamet. I wonder how long before someone claims it’s a case of anti-conservative bias.

On the other hand, the reviews are consistently kind, if muted, for the festival hit, “Son of Rambow,” reportedly inspired by the now legendary case of three middle-school boys making a homemade shot-by-shot remake of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” but switching locales to England and the source flick to a much darker action movie. This PG-13 entry one also has my favorite MPAA rating explanation in a while. “For some violence and reckless behavior.” Could be fun.

Action Movies, Actors, Actresses, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, News

Multiplex Mayhem: Slapstick Battle of the Sexes Postgame

April 27, 2008 /

It was a good weekend for the power of the PG-13 rating and the eternal drawing power of the promise of belly laughs.

* As predicted correctly by me (and everyone else who dared) two days back, the Tina Fey/Amy Poehler opus “Baby Mama” won a relatively healthy box-office weekend with $18,271,000. In a weekend with three fairly strong comedies cramming the U.S.A.’s multiplexes, the obvious advantage here is the PG-13 rating — at the risk of stereotyping grossly, one imagines cool unmarried aunts (preferably with glasses) taking their young teen nieces in droves to this one, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to follow. There was a time many decades ago when TV stars were considered questionable box-office material but, with the distinction between home and theatrical entertainment breaking down in just about every way possible, I think we can agree that that is well and truly dead now.

* Also, youngish male audiences, at least, for the most part don’t seem to mind a little very broad political satire mixed in with their sophomoric giggles, “Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay” scored a solid, if not quite boffo, $14,570.00. Considering that the film’s $12 million budget was less than half of the $30 million that “Baby Mama” cost, this film could well turn out to be the more profitable, at least for the time being. Anyone up for remake of the Marx Brothers’ anti-authoritarian classic, “Duck Soup“?

* A true photo-finish in third place between last week’s two top grosser, with the martial arts fantasy, “The Forbidden Kingdom” netting $11,230,00 and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” netting $11,014,000. What makes it so close is that “Sarah Marshall” actually beat the wirefu/chop socky summit meeting in terms of per screen numbers, with an average of $3,934.00. Once again, a Judd Apatow comedy is showing some real staying power. Amazing what non-braindead laughs, and an attention to story and characterization, can do.

* The weekend’s other major opener, “Deception” did a predictably rotten $2,225,000. (According to entertainment news gadfly Nikki Finke, the film was only released in theatres as a favor to Hugh Jackman. She also has “Sarah Marshall” coming in at #3.) And the barely released 0% RT rater, “Deal” got a $31,000 in 50 theaters, with a per screen average of $620.00 in its first week.

Meanwhile in Indiewood….Errol Morris’s “war on terror” documentary, “Standard Operating Procedure,” which I discussed on Friday a bit, opened strongly in its two theaters with a per screen of $7,450 — beating out the per-screen of “Baby Mama” by $266. However, the real per-screen winner this week was a film I failed to mention. “Roman de Gare” is the latest from 71-year-old French hitmaker Claude Lelouch. For an internationally renowned French auteur, Lelouch’s slick style is not quite the catnip the film critics that some of his contemporaries can claim, but this one got mostly good-to-okay reviews and such is the appetite out there among older and more educated filmgoers for a decent, diverting thriller with actual characters and a story, that it’s spectacular $12,750 per screen should be no surprise at all.

Action Movies, Actors, Actresses, Documentaries, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas

Multiplex Mayhem: Boys vs. Girls Comedy Tagteam Weekend (Updated)

April 25, 2008 /

As if the gender battles of the current Democratic primaries weren’t enough, this weekend seems to be promising a bit of defacto sexual segregation in our nation’s theaters, with two separate films featuring strong not-quite-superstar comedy duos, one male and R-rated and one female and PG-13, and both getting mixed reviews.

Now, the old me might think this weekend would be a close call. Indeed, Variety failed to even hazard a guess this week. However, Carl DiOrio of the Hollywood Reporter did, and I have learned to respect the might of PG-13 girl power, and so this weekend’s probable winner (though probably not by very much) is…..

* “Baby Mama.” This high-concept comedy features Tina Fey, carrying over some of her romantically frustrated, tightly wound career woman shtick from “30 Rock” and SNL’s Amy Poehler as a trailer park refugee surrogate who is bearing her child, with Oscar and Felix style hijinks ensuing. There’s really no doubt about this one, as it appears to be “tracking” well with teenage girls. Also, with Tina Fey’s well deserved television fame, expect some crossover business from adult women and from the large secret society of men who find Tina Fey ridiculously attractive, which includes me. (It’s the glasses!) Moreover, though it gets a fairly ho-hum 58% on ye old Tomatometer, even at our very male-oriented site, this estrogen-heavy farce got a significantly better review than this week’s more manly-skewing comedy team entry….

*”Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanomo Bay” got me all excited (platonically, I mean) at my other blog home a few months back, but this sequel to the rib-tickling, ethnic-barrier breaking 2004 DVD hit, “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle” mainly gets some backhanded, vaguely disappointed, critical respect, with a slightly worse than ho-hum 49% rating at Rotten Tomatoes. (The first film did considerably better, breaking 70%.) In any case, the R-rating and the strong, but slightly niche-y, appeal here pretty much makes this a shoe-in for a healthy second place.

*Considering that last weekend’s second-place comedy “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” is not only hanging in at the box office but was actually yesterday’s #1 film, proving that good reviews and word of mouth actually count for something, and that last week’s winner, “The Forbidden Kingdom” is nevertheless going to stay strong for awhile, it’ll be interesting to see how low on the list the apparently dead-in-the-water not so sexy mega-turkey “Deception” actually comes in. With a cast led by Ewan McGregor, Hugh Jackman, and Michelle Williams, the fact that this film has received next to no promotion should be one clue. Another clue, as more than one critic, including good ol’ Dave Medsker, have pointed out, is the cookie-cutter “erotic thriller” title. Might as well call it “Kind of Lame Movie.” And, with a pathetic 8% RT rating, this makes it the second critically stomped star-driven thriller in two weeks, after “88 Minutes” spurred talk from several critics, including TV’s Richard Roeper and Michael Phillips, of it being both the worst ever Al Pacino film and his worst movie performance. No, Al, this time you really are out of order, it seems.

*Still, no new studio film will do worse this weekend than the poker drama “Deal.” It has done the near impossible for a professional film production with a reasonably strong cast (Burt Reynolds, “Reaper” boy Bret Harrison, Shannon Elizabeth, Jennifer Tilly, and character actor par excellance Charles Durning) and a veteran director in Gil Cates and gotten a 0% percent RT rating, which I can’t remember even seeing before. One presumes its token 50-theater release is being done only to avoid the “direct to DVD” stigma that, together with the trailer, makes it feel like a retread of a retread of a retread. Sad. [Update/correction: Obviously, “Deal” is not directed by 74-year old producer-director Gil Cates, best known these days for executive producing the Academy Awards telecast each year, but his son, Gil Cates, Jr. Compare their careers at IMDb. Also, Jason Z. pointed out in comments that “One Missed Call” also managed a 0% rating. Interestingly for film geeks, that film was not only a J-horror remake, but as far as I know the only English-language remake of a flick by hyper-busy Japanese bad-boy Takashi Miike — a director usually, though not always, noted for extreme violence, gore, and overall weirdness. Personally, I’d like to see a remake of the only one of his films I’ve had the guts to sit through so far, the relatively tame but hilarious and touching horror/musical/dramedy, “The Happiness of the Katakuris.” Now that would be a bold move.]

Meanwhile in Indiewood…. Fans of ultra-extreme horror might be dissapointed to find that “Rogue,” the new horror opus from the Australian creators of “Wolf Creek” (which deeply appalled and depressed the usually horror-friendly Roger Ebert) is, from the few reviews available, apparently an enjoyable, old fashioned creature flick without excess gore or sadism, and with a solid lead performer in Radha Mitchell. This one really looks like just my horror speed and a good time at the movies…so, of course, it’s only going to ten theaters. Can non-PTSD-inducing thrills-and-chills really be dead? Of course not, but some would disagree.

And, though it’s only showing up on two screens, by far the most important film to open this week has to be “Standard Operating Procedure,” a documentary exploring the court martials resulting from the Abu Ghraib torture/murder/photography scandals. It’s from Errol Morris (“The Fog of War,” “The Thin Blue Line,” etc.), who many (myself included) believe is by far the best living American documentarian, and one of the most thoughtful people to ever pick up a motion picture camera. All of his films are notable, but this one might be even more so, as the predictably strong reviews indicate (though 78% percent seems almost low, considering). We’ll be keeping tabs.

Actors, Actresses, External Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas

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