Okay, so this is the start of a new, ongoing feature we’re going to be trying here at Premium Hollywood in which I’ll be taking a look at the slate of new movies releases for the coming weekend each Friday, making highly opinionated remarks about them, and perhaps engaging in some box-office prognostication — though I’ll mostly avoid specific numbers as I am certain to be wrong. Then, on Sunday night/Monday morning, I’ll be reporting back with information on just how very wrong I was, with further apt comments on same.
Let the madness begin….
* “21” seeks to draw on the the commercialized glamor of Las Vegas and the age old impossible dream of beating the house. As per the Hollywood Reporter, Sony is expecting the film to win the weekend and perhaps earn as much as a cool $20 million for the relatively low-budget film. It’s likely they’re not wrong, I’m afraid, though, even in its third weekend, the family appeal of “Horton Hears a Who” may be somewhat hard to beat with a film that really doesn’t seem to be exciting anyone all that much. It certainly didn’t wow Bullz-Eye’s own Jason Zingale, nor the Rotten Tomatoes gang, where the consensus seems to be that “Legally Blonde” director Robert Luketic and screenwriters Peter Steinfeld and Allan Loeb have done the usual Hollywood thing with a fact based film, and left out all the interesting parts of the story described in Ben Mezrich’s bestseller, Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions. Also, with a cast led by Jim Sturgess (“Across the Universe“), and Kate “Lois Lane” Bosworth, it’s depending an awful lot on the star power of Kevin “Lex Luthor” Spacey as well as another give-away-the-whole-story trailer that so irritated The New Republic‘s Christopher Orr, he dispensed with seeing the film and reviewed the trailer instead.
(Bret Michel of The Phoenix has a semi-spoilerific rundown on the changes from book/mostly-true story to film, which includes de-Asian Americanizing the real-life main character of the book, Jeff Ma. Ma, presumably well paid, doesn’t seem to have a problem with this, and there is a token Asian in the filmic group of unusually attractive overachieving nerds turned card counters, but I count this is as a cop-out and a missed opportunity. Hollywood really seems to have an issue with Asian-American men not practiced in the martial arts, and, in world where John Cho exists, there really isn’t that much an excuse other than rank cowardice. Besides, there’s more to life than playing Harold and Sulu.)*
* If “21” is the main commercial hope of this weekend, then the Iraq war drama, “Stop-Loss” is the leader of this week’s quality derby. Not only is it a look at the effect of extended warfare on young soldiers fighting the war in Iraq, it’s the first film since 1999 from writer-director Kimberly Peirce, whose stunning gender-bending debut, “Boys Don’t Cry” seemed to announce her as a major directing talent — though her only directing credit since has been a single episode of “The L Word.”
“Stop-Loss” predictably fared better on the Tomatometer than “21” — but not all that much better. That’s bad news, because “serious issue” films generally need at least borderline ecstatic reviews to succeed, not half-hearted appreciations of good intentions. Though it has a moderately big name in the stolid Ryan Phillippe and the always outstanding Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a supporting role, I would be flabbergasted if this one did anything but mediocre-to-abysmal business. In any case, if ever a war seemed to be box-office poison, it’s this one. W didn’t only screw several nations with his war, he had to include filmmakers as well
* Not screened for critics, I think it’s safe to say that “Superhero Movie” isn’t going for quality. Especially lately, Hollywood has rarely lost money underestimating the intelligence of America’s teenagers, but I can’t help but wish a massive box-office defeat on the latest entry in a string of inexplicably successful films that seem to think that merely recreating one scene after another from recent popular films on a lower budget amounts to hilarity.
In this case, there’s an odd wrinkle, because the Weinstein Company is the target of a boycott by outraged Star Wars fans, angry over the treatment of the upcoming film, “Fanboys.” If I may engage in an act of outrageous self-linkage, I can’t help but sympathize with fanboys and fangirls in the fight for justice. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this come down in the second or third slot on Sunday.
* “Run Fat Boy Run,” benefits from the hotness of leading lady Thandie Newton and some geek appeal of it’s own with star and co-writer Simon Pegg, hot-off the mega-cult successes of both the zombie comedy “Shaun of the Dead” and last year’s terrific buddy-cop homage “Hot Fuzz.” But this debut feature from “Friends” actor-turned-director David Schwimmer has generated unenthusiastic reviews despite Pegg being a critical favorite. Even worse, perhaps, it is hampered by a severely unfunny trailer. I wouldn’t expect this one to burn up the multiplexes, though it obviously has some date movie (or at least fantasy date movie) appeal for romantic fanboys avoiding “Superhero Movie”
Meanwhile in Indiewood…. The highly lauded political drama, “My Brother is an Only Child“ hits arthouses this week. It’s a tale of politicized brothers in sixties and seventies Italy who become radicals at opposite ends of the political spectrum. I know, you won’t see it…I might see it. On the other hand, the well-intentioned and semi-lauded sentimental illegal immigration drama “Under the Same Moon” with America Ferrera did substantial business last week, and looks to be around for some time, whether Lou Dobbs likes it or not.
Also David Gordon Green’s “Snow Angels” is expanding some this week. I personally failed to fully grok the arty wunderkind’s ultra-lauded debut miniature, “George Washington,” and have lost track of him since, but at least this drama “of love and loss converging” is a chance to see Kate Beckinsale play a human.
*H/t to Greencine for the Bret Michel and Chris Orr pieces on “21”
