Until time allows my crack at all of that 'best of decade' stuff...

Alas, brutal work schedules and (very minor but time-consuming) family illnesses have kept me from doing the whole 'best this and that of the decade'. At this rate, I'll be lucky to shoot off a best-of-2009 essay before 2011. While I'm intending to at least toss a few essays out there as the new decade begins, I thought I'd share the comprehensive decade-in review pieces that Kyle Leaman wrote in the twelve days leading up to Christmas. Each day, he tackled the 2000s in one category or another, ending up with a pretty thorough list that's worth a gander. Kyle runs a site called 'The Part-Time Critic', and he was pretty much the first honest-to-goodness fan of Mendelson's Memos during my first summer of full-fledged publication. In the end, it's just one man's opinion and I disagree with his choices (he shamefully omits Meet the Robinsons in the animated category) as often as I agree with them (he likes Akeelah and the Bee as much as I), but he did the hard work that I didn't, so I thought I'd share his insights.

The most overrated films of 2000s.
The most underrated films of 2000s.
The best action sequences of 2000s.
The best dramatic sequences of 2000s.
The best guilty pleasures of 2000s.
The best foreign films and documentaries of 2000s.
The best animated/family films of 2000s.
The best action films of 2000s.
The best dramas of 2000s.
The best horror films of 2000s.
The best performances of 2000s.
The best films of the 2000s.

I'll do my best to toss out my thoughts on the decade after it's over and a certain someone is back in preschool during the workday.

Scott Mendelson

2009 in review - The Runner-Ups

Before I get to my obligatory 'best films of the year' list, I'd like to take a moment to run down a list of films that are worthy of mention outside of the very best of the year. Some of these films are great pictures that missed the top-ten. Some are surprisingly good pictures that would otherwise have no business on a 'best of' list. Some are simply movies that I felt like pointing out for one reason or another. Enjoy...

2012
A movie that, against all odds, actually turned out to be entertaining and genuinely good. Sure, the special effects were almost comical in their overwhelming scenes of world-ending carnage. Yes, we once again had to suffer through a 'distant father learns to be a better parent and wins his family back' yarn. But we also had lead roles for such national treasures as Oliver Platt and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Plus we had compelling supporting work from Woody Harrelson, Thandie Newton, and Danny Glover. While I could take or leave the $260 million Earth-crushing disaster scenes, I found myself actually enjoying 2012 as, of all things, an acting treat. It's not a great movie, but it's a surprisingly entertaining, compelling, and engaging b-movie disaster romp that does its genre proud.

12 Rounds
The plot is basically a hybrid of Die Hard With a Vengeance and Speed (the pacing and structure is identical to the latter), but this remains a refreshingly old-school action-adventure picture. The stunts are solid, the plot is compelling, the set-pieces are suspenseful and engaging, and the characters are just interesting enough to merit our attention. John Cena is a decent-enough action hero, but Aidan Gillen (Shanghai Knights) makes a fine villain and Brian J. White (I Can Do Bad All By Myself) makes a surprisingly sympathetic best friend/partner. And, most refreshingly from Renny Harlin (the guy who crashed a packed commercial airplane in Die Hard 2 and shot up an entire room full of innocent bystanders in Long Kiss Goodnight), the violence is just subdued enough so that there is genuine suspense over whether lives will be lost at any given moment. Sure, the film loses momentum at the very end, just like its above-noted predecessors, but 12 Rounds is just the sort of action movie that they just don't make anymore.

The Blind Side
I don't know how much of the story is actually truthful, and I don't care. This refreshingly low-key heart-warmer works as a wonderfully entertaining fictional story. Sandra Bullock and Quinton Aaron make a solidly deadpan comic duo, and the film works because it is just as much Michael Oher's story as it is Leigh Anne Tuohy's. The picture rarely descends into schmaltz and Bullock refuses to let the fictional version of Tuohy come off as either too brash or too saintly (she really doesn't have a big speech or big scene). If the film's astounding success is indeed due to the film's Christian fanbase, then let's welcome this most Veggie Tales-ish Christian fable. At the end of the day, The Blind Side is just a darn good movie that is a pretty much perfect version of what it wants to be.

The Children
This chiller is the best direct-to-DVD horror film ever made, and it's probably the best 'evil children' movie of all time too. What makes it so horrifying is the mundane cause of the carnage, and the unsettling question of whether you would or could slaughter your own child to save your own life. Lean, mean, well-acted, and sharply directed, this is a genuinely terrifying horror film no matter where it first premiered.

Chocolate
Prachya Pinkaew's follow up to The Protector has a relatively stupid plot and unremarkable acting. But it has some of the most elaborate and painful martial arts sequences I've ever seen, including a climactic shop-house showdown that is absolutely the best fight sequence of the year, if not the decade.

GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra
There is such a thing as getting points for 'giving the audience what they came for'. You want 110 minutes of colorful GI Joes and colorful Cobra minions killing the holy hell out of each other, with the kind of over-the-top carnage and wanton violence that you imagined with your own action figures when you were nine-years old? That's exactly what you get with this inexplicably despised Stephen Summers picture. The characters are amusing, the production values are solid, and the action is inventive, absurdly over-the-top, geographically logical and always easy to follow. It's not art, and the climax falls apart, but those first ninety-minutes deliver exactly what a GI Joe movie should be. The critical massacre of this one is akin to stabbing someone in the gut and complaining when they bleed all over your carpet.

Inglourious Basterds
While it's a little too long and its morality is a bit icky, no one can deny the sheer artistry of Quentin Tarantino's critical and commercial comeback. What's most amazing is how Christoph Waltz, as a deviously charming Nazi commander, takes all of Tarantino's worst dialogue vices and turns them into razor-sharp weapons of suspense and tension. The film overall is merely good, but there are many many great moments within.

The Princess and the Frog
That this wasn't the best theatrical cartoon of the year just tells you what a great year this was for animation. This glorious 2D-revival is an absolute blast, with fantastic hand-drawn animation, wonderful voice work from professional voice actors, and a delicious glance at 1930s New Orleans. Those that couldn't see past their race-tinted glasses ('oh no, it's about a black girl... and she's poor!') missed a scrumptiously good fairy tale that also showcases Keith David as one of Disney's very best villains (there is a climactic plot turn that's probably the biggest shocker of the year). It's not a Disney movie about a black princess. It's a Disney movie about a young woman who happens to be black. And it's a terrific bit of family entertainment.

Saw VI
The only thing rarer than a franchise that actually makes it to six movies is a franchise where the sixth film is actually the best of the series (a touchtone only shared by Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country). This astounding comeback film for the struggling series regains its footing by returning to its roots. By putting Tobin Bell back on the center stage, using the health insurance industry as an antithesis for John Kramer's philosophy, and actually creating tension, suspense, and the possibility of survival in each Jigsaw trap, this sixth entry improves on every prior entry. Saw VI is the best Saw film yet, and stands on its own as a bloody-good horror film.

Scooby Doo: The Mystery Begins
This direct-to-cable reboot of the live-action Scooby Doo franchise is every bit the Batman Begins to the previous films' Batman Forever/Batman & Robin sensibilities. This comparably low-budget TV movie strips the franchise to its bare essentials, and a cast of unknowns do a bang-up job of playing the iconic team of young detectives. With sharp writing, likable and plausible characters, and a back-to-basics approach, this is not only a top-notch option for family entertainment, it's also probably the best Scooby Doo movie we will ever see.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
Why, you ask, is this not on my list of the year's worst films? Well, by any normal measure it would be. But I have a suspicion that Chris Klein's over-the-top work as Detective Charlie Nash may be some kind of genius. Is he merely giving a lousy performance in a bad movie, or is he pulling some kind of brilliant post-modern riff on every bad 1980s cop movie? I'm not sure, but every moment that he is onscreen is alive with powerful waves of awesome stupid.

Up in the Air
I don't think Jason Reitman's drama is particularly groundbreaking, and I'm not sure it tries to say anything that hasn't been said many times before. But it's a top-notch motion picture, with razor-sharp dialogue, rich character-development, and terrific performances all-around. In an age where Tyler Perry and Clint Eastwood are the only directors who make mid-budget dramas, movies like this are to be treasured for their existence and for their quality. It's just a darn good movie, and sometimes that's enough.

Where the Wild Things Are
'Everybody hurts' in Spike Jonze's bruising adaptation of the classic children's story. This one just missed my ten-best list, but I imagine it will age very well over the next decade or so. This is a staggeringly emotional journey that is both completely tuned to the minds of children and completely over their heads. I have my issues with the second act, but the set-up and the finale are pitch-perfect. There are moments in the end that are just heartrendingly profound.

Wonder Woman
This direct-to-DVD animated origin story renders the eventual live-action movie null and void. Sorry folks, we've already got our epic, thrilling, and staggeringly cool Wonder Woman movie. With astoundingly violent mass-battle scenes, an angry feminist streak, and more than enough humor to compensate for both, this is easily the best of the DC Animated Universe movies thus far.

World's Greatest Dad
The previews went out of their way to hide the narrative of this Bobcat Goldthwait comedy, so I won't go into any details here. Easily Robin Williams' best movie in ages, this gem is a sharply critical satire of society's need to... sorry no spoilers. Let's just say that when you realize where this movie is going, you'll wonder why no one ever made a movie about it until now.

OK, coming in the next day or two, we'll get to the actual 'favorite movies of 2009'.

Scott Mendelson

The review of Nine that I would have written had time allowed...

I make a point not to pick on the attractiveness of actors or actresses, but otherwise this Nine review by N.P. Thompson at "The House Next Door" is 100% in sync with my own thoughts. An opening excerpt:

"What makes Rob Marshall’s Nine so peculiarly bad is its sheer self-congratulation. We’re incessantly told how important, how fascinating the director Guido Contini must be, and we as viewers are expected to take this on faith, but never once does Guido (Daniel Day-Lewis) do or say anything even remotely intriguing. The movie has no real subject; it’s proudly about nothing. Not the arid nothingness of a Van Sant movie, but a boring sort of Condé Nast nothingness."

Yeah, what he said. Sometimes a fellow critic expresses your own feelings so perfectly, the only thing to do is link and credit accordingly. The only thing I would add is that the razzle-dazzle sexiness feels so forced and artificial that all of the actors involved actually exhibited more sex appeal during the rehearsal montage that played over the closing credits. For the record, I have not seen Broken Embraces (the other film he reviews), so I did not read that particular critique.

Scott Mendelson

Chris Nolan's Inception gets a second trailer.

Still next to no plot, but plenty of interesting imagery, star-billing for Leonardo DiCaprio, plus cameos from Ellen Page, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lucas Haas, Tardy, and Cillian Murphy. I didn't notice any glimpses of Michael Caine, Marion Cotillard, or 'he's the killer!' Tom Berenger (if this were a TV crime procedural, I would have just solved the mystery). This one comes out July 16th, 2010. Nice pick, since that's been Warner Bros' 'kill everything in sight' box office weekend since 2007. Worked for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, The Dark Knight, and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. And yes, that's the same weekend that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows part 2 comes out in 2011. So history will likely repeat itself and we should see a boffo opening, possibly one of the top openings ever for a 'completely original' property. I'm just trying to stay relatively spoiler-free for the next seven months.

Scott Mendelson

Avatar's best moment (hint - it has nothing to do with 3D special effects)

As expected, as James Cameron's Avatar continues to hammer the box office, blockbuster backlash has settled in almost before the ink on those rave reviews has dried. While blockbuster backlash is a common thing (quick... find anyone who still admits to loving Independence Day or even Return of the King), the speed in which the 'oh, it's just about effects' talk has become mainstreamed is a little surprising. The standard line is now 'oh, the story is bland and the character development is non-existent'. But, as we all know, the mega hits, the ones like Jurassic Park, Lord of the Rings, The Dark Knight, or Spider-Man, made their money on the strength of everything but the effects. With the arguable exception of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (a $400 million-grossing anomaly that no one particularly liked), you can't generally make it to mega-hit status without connecting to audiences on some kind of emotional level. Jurassic Park wowed audiences with the dinosaur effects, but it kept people around because it was a viscerally thrilling little horror film. Lord of the Rings promised awe-inspiring mass-battle scenes, but also delivered rich performances and an emotionally powerful narrative. Spider-Man got audiences in the door with gee-wiz webslinging adventure, but they stuck around because the film took the time to develop all of its characters, from the multifaceted Norman Osborne to the genuinely guilt-ridden Peter Parker. Did anyone even talk about the technical aspects of The Dark Knight? The movies that do more than flame out after their opening weekends are the ones that do more than show us the biggest and best in special effects technology.

Which brings us to Avatar (spoilers obviously follow). While I'll be the first to admit that the story is not terribly complex, I do take issue with the criticisms of the characters. Zoe Saldana brings a fierce empathy and raw emotional connection as the would-be princess of the Na'vi tribe, and she's surely be up for Oscar talk if the majority didn't think that her performance was computer-generated. In fact, my favorite moment in the picture has nothing to do with 3D imagery, fantastical landscapes, or epic battle scenes. It's a genuinely surprising character beat for a character that could have easily become a stock cliche. About two-thirds of the way into the picture, Stephen Lang's gung-ho general has decided to finally wage unprovoked war on the Na'vi people. As the mercenary army prepares to commit genocide, Sam Worthington' Jake Sulley and Sigourney Weaver desperately plead with the seemingly heartless corporate head, Parker Selfridge, played by Giovanni Ribisi. Up until this point, Ribisi has been basically playing the Paul Reiser character from Aliens, ruthlessly plotting the destruction or relocation of the Na'vi for the sake of mining a precious material that they have below their homes. But as Weaver and Worthington explain that his orders will bring about the slaughter of countless men, women, and children (with the unspoken implication that Jake Sully has partaken in such massacres in his army days), Selfridge realizes what his cold-hearted, quarterly profit-driven cynicism has truly brought about. It's the classic case of 'being evil' vs. 'doing evil'. In a shocking story-turn, he changes his mind, allowing Sully to return to his avatar form and warn the Na'vi of the coming carnage. But his temporary change of heart is for naught, as their home is devastated anyway and scores of indigenous natives are slaughtered. Rather than permanently change sides, Selfridge overcompensates in the other direction, imprisoning the 'traitorous' humans and continuing on the path to utter annihilation. Maybe he does that because he's angry that his temporary change of heart was useless. Maybe he realizes that he's crossed the point of no return, knowing full well what he's brought about but also knowing that he's powerless to stop it. But his are surely not the actions of a stock two-dimensional character. And its just one of the reasons that Avatar is more than just an empty special-effects exercise.

Scott Mendelson

Avatar leads the charge in biggest-grossing total weekend in box office history. (12/27/09)

So many notable records were notched this weekend that I'm not sure where to begin. So, for the sake of expediency, let's just do a list for now.

The biggest three-day weekend of all-time, at $263.9 million.
Avatar ($75.5 million) - Biggest second weekend of all time. Smallest dip (-1.8%) for any movie opening over $42 million. Tenth-smallest drop for any super-wide release. Biggest Christmas weekend ever. Tenth-fastest to $200 million.
Sherlock Holmes ($62.3 million) - Biggest Christmas opening-weekend ever. Fifth-biggest December opening weekend ever. Second-largest opening weekend not to be number 01 (behind The Day After Tomorrow's $68 million Memorial Day launch).
Alvin and the Chipmunks 2: The Squeakuel ($48.8 million) - Eighth-biggest December opening weekend. Fourth-biggest opening weekend not to be number 01.

OK, now that we have that out of the way, let's discuss the nitty-gritty. Coming off shockingly consistent weekday numbers ($16 million each day on Mon-Wed, then $11 million for Christmas Eve), James Cameron's Avatar easily took the box office crown for the second weekend in a row. Dropping an almost insignificant 1.8%, the sci-fi epic has now amassed $212 million in ten days. Oh, and its already pulled in $623 million in global ticket sales. So, in just ten days, Avatar is pretty much in the black in regards to costs ($240 million) and marketing ($150 million). Say what you will about the higher prices of 3D and IMAX tickets, but the consistent performance of Avatar is downright astonishing. The Lord of the Rings films didn't have holds anywhere near this good. Spider-Man dropped 38% in its second weekend. Twister dropped 9.7% in its second weekend with absolutely no competition. Heck, even The Sixth Sense dropped a whole 3.6% in its second three-day run. In my lifetime, for numbers of this relative scale, I've only seen this once before. Yes, James Cameron's Titanic actually increased its opening weekend by 23% from $28 million to $35 million over Christmas weekend 1997. I hesitate to even think that James Cameron may have done the impossible twice in a row, but the ground-level sentiment feels the same as it did twelve years ago. Everyone in every demographic is telling everyone to see it, and everyone seems to be relatively satisfied. And, since we're dealing with twelve years of inflated numbers, Avatar only has to be an unstoppable force for about six weeks, as opposed to Titanic's four-month reign of terror. George Lucas famously said that he knew Star Wars's reign at the top of the domestic box office was toast at the end of Titanic's third weekend. If Avatar pulls in anything resembling the $135 million that it grossed over the last seven days in the last week of the year, we'll know that the domestic record may be in serious peril (Titanic's third weekend drop just 6%). Of course, adjusted for inflation, Titanic's $600 million domestic total would equal $921 million today. But we'll cross that bridge if we need to.

How do you gross $62 million over your opening weekend and still end up with no respect? When you end up in the shadow of a cultural phenomenon, that's how. Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes (which was either a reinvention or a return to the literary roots, depending on which Doyle stories you have on your bookcase) knocked out the biggest Christmas opening of all time, but it still was only good enough for second place. The Robert Downey Jr/Jude Law vehicle was hurt both by the Avatar media firestorm, and by the misfortune of being the third major movie of note by the time Christmas day came around. Since Avatar had guaranteed access to the bigger screens and Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 had the benefit of a Wednesday opening (and $18.8 million opening day), Sherlock Holmes had to settle for smaller auditoriums in many of its theaters. Anecdotal evidence has abounded of this would-be franchise starter playing in shockingly small auditoriums. My parents actually found their first showtime of choice being sold out, and they too reported a smaller-than-expected theater (for the record, neither of them liked the movie). Still, $62 million is nothing to complain about (it's the ninth-biggest opening of the year), and a $175 million-$200 million total is likely barring a complete collapse due to mediocre word of mouth (its 2.5x weekend multiplier was actually pretty low for this time of year). We can expect to see a sequel to this one in the next two or three years, depending on Downey Jr's Iron Man/Avengers schedule.

Third place embarrassingly went to Alvin and the Chipmunks 2. Unlike other kid-centric adaptations whose sequels could only hold onto a portion (Scooby Doo: Monster's Unleashed) or a fraction (The Flintstones In Viva Rock Vegas) of their originals' box office take, the Fox 'secret weapon' (a cheap profit machine in case Avatar flopped) grossed $48.8 million over the Fri-Sun portion, with a Wed-Sun total of $75.5 million. The prior film opened with $46 million the weekend before Christmas in 2007 (against I Am Legend's record $77.25 million December opening) and inexplicably made it to $217 million. Fox's other sequel that no one demanded, Night at the Museum: Battle For the Smithsonian ended up with 70% of the original's domestic take. A similar path would give Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 about $153 million. But with $75 million already in the bank, $200 million is a strong possibility unless America wises up and takes their kids to The Princess and the Frog instead.

Fourth place went to It's Complicated, which pulled in $22.1 million. This is Meryl Streep's third-consecutive wide-release opening of over $20 million, and her seventh such opening of her career. In a rare double-whammy, our most respected actress is now officially the most bankable female star in Hollywood, all at the tender age of... oh who cares how old she is. George Clooney's Up in the Air debuted in wide release with $11.7 million, which is right in the $11-14 million safe zone for George Clooney star vehicles not involving Vegas capers, giant storms, caped crusaders, or an assist from Brad Pitt and the Coen brothers. The Oscar front-runner has now grossed just under its $25 million budget. The Blind Side increased by 17% over the weekend, grossing an amazing $11.7 million in its sixth weekend. The film has now amassed $184 million, and is now the biggest-grossing 'based on a true story' movie of all time, give or take the alleged non-fiction nature of The Passion of the Christ. Barring a backlash over the 'gosh it's a big-studio drama that people just like' nature of the film (to say nothing over the absurd comparisons with Sandra Bullock's character and Sarah Palin), I fully expect a Best Picture Oscar nomination to go along with Bullock's Best Actress nod.

Well, if you want to discuss movies that are likely Best Picture nominees despite terrible reviews and box office failure, let's talk Rob Marshall's Nine. Coming in at number... uh, eight (drat!), the musical sensation that's earning 40% on Rotten Tomatoes pulled in $5.5 million over its three-day wide debut. Disney must be absolutely kicking themselves over hiring this guy to direct the next Pirates of the Caribbean film (will all the swashbuckling be in Jack Sparrow's head?), as opposed to giving it to someone competent like Kathryn Bigelow or Neill Blomkamp. I have no idea which songs were from the original show and which were made up for the movie, but the film version has worse, more on-the-nose musical lyrics than Repo: A Genetic Opera. It will be interesting to see if Oscar can resist the allure of the many attractive stars, or whether Harvey Weinstein can use what's left of his capital to pull nominations for a movie that no one likes.

The Princess and the Frog dropped a sad 26%, and it now sits at just $63.6 million. Come on, people... there's no excuse for not checking this one out. I don't know whether the blame lies with the platform release (interest peaked during Disney's 2-theater Thanksgiving engagement), the overtly female nature of the story (combined with the heavy female drawing power of Avatar and Sherlock Holmes) or, dare I say it, its African-American characters and locale, but something went a little wrong for this sure-fire smash. Below that are a slew of limited releases (A Serious Man, An Education, The Young Victoria, The Road, etc) that are stuck in neutral, hoping and praying for Oscar glory to help them dig out of their ruts. The only limited opening was Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which pulled in $124,743 on four screens.

That's all for this weekend. Join us next weekend for the thrilling opening weekend of... nothing. Expect the rankings to stay relatively similar, and the big question is whether Avatar can race to the $300 million mark by year's end. For more, including the year's worst films, a quick look back at the decade in film, and what happened at Christmas last year, go to Mendelson's Memos.

Scott Mendelson

Movie decade in review poll (courtesy of Hot Blog's Crow T. Robot)

Hot Blog commenter 'Crow T Robot' posted a great little poll regarding the decade in film. Since I'm filling it out in Poland's blog, I thought I'd share my answers with you as well.


1) Ten favorite (NOT best) movies --
Akeelah and the Bee
Almost Famous
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle
The Incredibles
Lord of the Rings (1, 2, 3)
Meet the Robinsons
Memento
Shanghai Knights
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Up

2) Ten overrated movies --
A Beautiful Mind
The Bourne Ultimatum
Chicago
Iron Man
Gladiator
Moulin Rouge
Spider-Man 2
Star Trek
Traffic
United 93

3) Actor who defined the decade -- Christian Bale
4) Actress who defined the decade -- Cate Blanchett
5) Director who defined the decade -- Christopher Nolan
6) Favorite new actress -- Dakota Fanning (Is she Jodie Foster or Charlie Korsmo?)
7) Favorite new actor -- Jesse Eisenberg
8) Favorite new director -- Christopher Nolan
9) Performance of the decade (female) -- Ellen Burstyn Requiem For A Dream
10) Performance of the decade (male) -- Gary Oldman The Dark Knight
11) Movie you almost or actually did walk out of -- Grizzly Man (I loathed Treadwell)
12) Best use of CGI -- Avatar
13) Best action scene -- first-reel blow out of Star Wars Episode III
14) Unsung masterpiece -- Kindgom of Heaven
15) Oversung masterpiece -- Slumdog Millionaire
16) Best one sheet poster -- The Hangover
17) Most promising trailer -- The first teaser for The Dark Knight
18) Best audience experience -- 12:01 Wednesday Return of the King
19) Funniest movie -- Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle
20) Scariest movie -- Frailty
21) Biggest career fall from grace --M. Night Shyamalan
22) Biggest career redemption -- Chris Columbus (for perfect casting of Harry Potter)
23) Biggest surprise -- Alan Rickman found a role more iconic than Hans Gruber.
24) Biggest cry -- "Say goodbye to Frankie, dad."
25) Trend that needs to stop -- cramming every Oscar bait movie into December
26) Thing you miss most about the 1990s -- mid-budget, star-driven thrillers.
27) Favorite film critic -- still Roger Ebert.
28) Favorite Pixar --The Incredibles
29) Last minute casting change -- Antonio Bandaras in Phantom of the Opera
30) Piece of dialogue that best sums up the decade -- "You see, their morals, their code, it's a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you. When the chips are down, these... these civilized people, they'll eat each other." - The Dark Knight

Scott Mendelson

Is the impossible happening again? Avatar crosses $100 million in five days, pulls in second $16 million+ weekday.

This can't possibly be happening again, can it? No, it's just the pre-holiday rush, plus those who missed out due to the weekend snowstorm... right? You don't suppose...

OK, here are the numbers. Avatar grossed $77 million over its debut weekend, then grossed another $16.4 million on Monday. That was a drop of just 33% from its $24 million Sunday gross. It was also the third-biggest non-holiday Monday gross in history. It was third only to Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ($18 million) and The Dark Knight ($24 million). Those two movies opened with $135 million and $158 million respectively. Counting all Mondays, it was eleventh. Yesterday, it pulled in another $16 million. That's the second-biggest non-opening Tuesday in history (behind The Dark Knight's $20 million), and the third-biggest Tuesday gross ever (behind The Dark Knight and Transformers's $27 million opening day). So James Cameron's Avatar has crossed the $100 million mark in five days, ending its fifth day with $109 million. It's also just crossed the $300 million mark in global sales.

That 1.8% drop from Monday to Tuesday is far better than the performances of anything relevant. It's a better hold than The Dark Knight, Pirates 2, The Two Towers, Return of the King (the Monday and Tuesday of Fellowship of the Ring fell on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day), Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace, Spider-Man, and King Kong. The first real test will come on Friday, when the film plows into direct demo competition in the form of Sherlock Holmes. That's certainly stronger competition than the openings of As Good As It Gets, Jackie Brown, and The Postman. It's certainly far too early to even think about the unthinkable, but I'm getting a major sense of deja vu, both in the numbers and the sheer excitement from those who generally don't care about this kind of stuff. To quote that classic antiwar protest anthem, something's happening here (and what it is ain't exactly clear).

Scott Mendelson

Sex and the City 2 gets a teaser trailer.

Oddly enough, if this sequel runs about the same length as the first film (150 minutes), then the two films combined would equal the running time of an entire 13-episode seventh season. I do wonder if Warner Bros and HBO will have the stones to eventually repackage these two films into 22-minute chunks, spread out said chunks over three or four discs, and then charge $50 for the 'seventh season of Sex and the City'? As for the movie, the teaser gives away not a drop of plot which is just as well. Like the first film, this one is opening the weekend after Memorial Day. This time, however, it will have direct demo competition, with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time opening on the same date. If their respective trailers are any indication, there's a strong likelihood that Sex and the City 2 will be the superior choice for that weekend.

Scott Mendelson

Kick-Ass gets a 'Hit Girl'-centric red-band trailer.

This thing has been playing to raves to the nerd set, but that's a sign of danger as often as it's a good omen. I hope the entire appeal of the movie isn't purely based on breaking various social taboos ('oooh... it's a ten-year old girl swearing and killing people!'). On the other hand, the action does look solid, plus it's shot in fluid takes and easy to follow. This one comes out in April so I imagine we'll see lots more character-centric ads and posters from Lionsgate before then.

Scott Mendelson

Knight and Day gets a trailer.

This somewhat below-the-radar Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz thriller seems to be attempting a True Lies vibe. The action looks focused and easy to follow, and both of the leads seem to be in their comfort zone and having fun. Oddly enough, this is actually somewhat of a change of pace for Cruise, as the Mission: Impossible series has been his only real foray into present-day action heroism. James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma, Walk the Line) is helming this one, so there's little reason to doubt that it won't at least be rock-solid genre entertainment. And let's be honest, whatever you may think of Cruise's personal life, he hasn't made a truly bad film since Days of Thunder back in 1990. Knight and Day opens on July 2nd, 2010.

Scott Mendelson

Chris Nolan's Inception gets a second poster.

First of all, congratulations to Tom Berenger for scoring a real role in a real movie once again. I believe this will be his first appearance in a major theatrical picture since Training Day back in 2001. This guy was one of the biggest stars of the 1980s, but the slow death of the mid-budget character drama completely crushed him as the big-event spectacles of the 1990s became paramount. From what I heard, the problem is that he refused to cut his per-picture salary even as his star dimmed. He allegedly held out for the kind of leading roles that were no longer being offered, rather than taking a pay cut to appear in independent films or appear as a supporting player in commercial ventures. Oh well, come what may, good to see him back. Of course, he's also become the kinda guy who is without a doubt 'the killer' when he guests on a crime procedural, so I hope I didn't just solve whatever mystery this film is attempting to spin. Oh, and Cillian Murphy is in this? Now I can easily drag my wife along, as that's how I tricked her to coming to my press screening of The Dark Knight (she's still pissed about Murphy's one-second cameo). If it seems that I'm babbling, it's because I have nothing new to add about this one. I'm making a point to avoid reading what this film is about, and the posters and trailers (second trailer will be attached to Sherlock Holmes) are more than happy to keep me in the dark. Come what may, I'll be there with bells on for this one in July, 2010.

Scott Mendelson

2009 in review - Worst movies of the year.

I don't generally do worst-of lists, simply because I try to make a point to avoid movies that I probably won't enjoy. However, 2009 contained a number of surprise stinkers, as well as any number of bad films that I saw through work or in order to cover them for this site and my other outlets. So this year I saw enough genuinely unfortunate misses to make a plausible list. There are certainly allegedly terrible films that I haven't seen (The Ugly Truth, Alvin and the Chipmunks 2) and would-be losers that I probably won't see (All About Steve), so I can't promise that your least-favorite flick made the list. I chart the year's-worst not to gloat but to mourn. Here are ten misses in alphabetical order, plus the year's worst movie-going experience.



Bride Wars

This is the kind of thing that makes chick flicks look bad, an unfunny and borderline offensive farce about two professional adults and lifelong friends who basically destroy each others' lives in order to maintain their own respective wedding dates. If it were a satire of wedding-mania, it might work, but it eventually ends up endorsing and celebrating the industry. Furthermore, it cheats its way into a happy ending by turning one of the male counterparts into a villain for daring to question his fiancee's destructive behavior. Kate Hudson took most of the blame for this one in the press, while Anne Hathaway emerged unscathed. They both should have to answer for this shameful piece of propaganda.



The Final Destination 3D

An absolutely lifeless and artless nothing of a film. It contains no character development, no real plot, and no pretense of being a real movie. But even the 3D death scenes pale in comparison to the previous three films in this franchise, as the heavy reliance on cheap CGI mutes the impact of a series known for over-the-top death scenes that at least looked real. This is the rare movie that is almost less entertaining than staring at a blank screen for 80 minutes.



Friday the 13th

A film so boring and bland, so utterly uninvolved and inexplicably laugh-out-loud stupid, that it makes every prior Friday the 13th sequel look like a masterpiece in comparison. The reluctance of director Marcus Nipsel (helmer of the far-superior Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake) to even try to play around with the formula or reinvent the mythology is mind-boggling. Come what may, at least Rob Zombie's Halloween franchise is trying to be good and different. This remake/reboot offers no reason for its existence and nothing except bootleg-quality cinematography to distinguish itself from its predecessors.



The Girlfriend Experience

This Steven Soderbergh experiment is shocking, edgy, and fascinating... unless you've seen even half an episode of Showtime's vastly-superior and genuinely entertaining Secret Diary of a Call Girl. This relatively incident-free 'expose' into the life of a high-priced escort offers no real insights and no real titillation. The film made headlines due to the casting of a real-life porn star in the lead role, and that's frankly the most exciting thing about the picture. Soderbergh scored later this year with The Informant, and I enjoy his experiments (like Bubble), but this was one of his very worst, most pointless films.



Madea Goes to Jail

Tyler Perry follows up his best film (The Family That Preys) with his very worst. Returning to all of his worst impulses (overdone farce, shout to the balconies acting, racial and economic stereotypes, illogical plot turns), Perry weaves a narrative that plays on the worst stereotypes in black culture (success and ambition = evil) while stocking the film full of celebrity cameos who exist merely to embarrass themselves on film. Not even Viola Davis as a no-nonsense social worker/pastor can save this misfire. Fortunately, I Can Do Bad All By Myself was a step back in the right direction.



Men Who Stare At Goats

This is as bad as Up in the Air is good and one of the worst movies in George Clooney's generally sparkling filmography. This dreadfully moronic expose on true-life military experiments with ESP and mind-altering drugs may just be a government conspiracy, as it renders the story completely uninteresting to the American public. No need to hide the truth when you can bore and annoy the audience silly with it. I actually like the story structure, which basically plays out the entire six-film Star Wars series in 90 minutes and uses it as a metaphor for the false Utopian hopes of the 1970s. And I will admit that this is not a brainless exercise. But whatever thematic pay-offs occur in the third-act don't make up for the completely dull and nearly unwatchable first hour.



Public Enemies

I'm not among those who think that Michael Mann walks on water, and he basically drowns this time around. By taking the infamous outlaw John Dillinger and completely neutering his lifestory to fit the template of Universal's slate of bullshit biopics ('he's not bad, just a product of society, and he sure loved his girlfriend'), Mann forces Johnny Depp to give life to a poorly-written block of wood. Christian Bale's pursuing federal agent is far more interesting, yet the film barely touches on his manhunt and the politics behind it. Not helping matters is digital cinematography that was probably intended to be viewed on an IPhone, and shoot-outs so poorly staged that I couldn't tell which gray-suited character was being shot at any given point (at least three people besides myself swear that Depp gets shotgunned during a forest shoot-out). All in all, you have a film that makes you yearn for the comparatively rich character work and 'you are there' intimacy of Miami Vice.



Surveillance

What do you get when you base a 95-minute film around a climactic plot twist, but then painfully telegraph that twist so that everyone catches on by the first 20 minutes? You get lots of tedium, over-acting, a lack of momentum, and no real reason not to fast-forward to the climax to confirm your educated guess. This is a tragic waste of a number of fine actors (Bill Pullman, Julia Ormond, Michael Ironside) and a moody opening act, but there is no story beyond setting up the climax.



Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

This film fails for refusing to give the audience what they want. Sure you occasionally get what you paid for; giant robots smacking the hell out of each other. You even get a first-act climax that's one of the best action scenes of the decade. But rather than offering up a lean and mean robot-smashing action picture, Michael Bay piles on crude and unfunny sexual humor, astonishing racial stereotypes, neoconservative political sentiments, and an unending plot that takes until the very end of the movie to do nothing more than reverse a narrative mistake from the first hour (absolutely nothing of interest occurs for the entire middle hour). Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is the ultimate Michael Bay film in the worst sense of the term. The problem with Bay isn't that he gives the audience what they want; it's that he feels the need to pile on excess crap to such an extent that he forgets what they desired in the first place.



X-Men Origins: Wolverine

The only thing worse than an ambitious comic book movie that falls on its butt (Superman Returns, The Spirit) is an absolutely lazy adaptation that doesn't seem to be trying. With pointless and arbitrary action scenes, plus a narrative that is as paint-by-numbers as humanly possible, this X-Men spin-off/prequel makes X-Men: the Last Stand look like, well, X2: X-Men United. This is a shocking botch from a number of very talented people (director Gavin Hood, Hugh Jackman, Danny Huston, Liev Schreiber, etc). What's stunning is the apparent lack of effort to even try to make this film into something unique or special.



And the worst movie I saw all last year is one I won't name. It was an exceptionally early screening of a movie that will (theoretically) be released this coming year. I went in excited, as it was from a director I absolutely adore, but I walked out devastated and confused. It was easily the most shocking and heartbreaking failure of 2009. Massive reshoots have been conducted, but I can't imagine anything less than a totally reshoot can save a project that was fatally flawed on every level. I'll name the movie if/when it is released, and I'll happily eat crow if the new cut is watchable. But for now, (insert director here)'s (insert title here) is easily my pick for the worst movie I saw in all of 2009.



Scott Mendelson

James Cameron's Avatar defies skeptics and snowstorms, earns $77 million in debut weekend. Box office weekend in review (12/20/09)

If Avatar were the most expensive movie of all-time, there might be some responsibility to score the biggest opening-weekend of all time. But, at $240 million, Avatar was not the most expensive movie ever. 2012 ($260 million), Spider-Man 3 ($275 million) and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End ($300 million) all cost more. Heck, thanks to 2012 (remember when Roland Emmerich was known for cheap effects that looked expensive?), it was not even the most expensive non-sequel. But expectations are a dangerous thing, so how much Avatar pulled in this weekend will not matter as much as perception of said numbers. If the press jumps on the 'mere' $73 million opening sprint the way they crucified King Kong's $50 million 3-day and $66 million five-day opening, then the film may forever be considered a disappointment no matter how much it grosses in the end. On the other hand, if the number is looked at in a realistic fashion, then we can all acknowledge that this was a pretty darn-impressive opening weekend for a film with major long-term potential. Let's begin...

The much anticipated and debated (amongst film nerds at least) Avatar debuted this weekend with $77 million. That's the second-biggest December opening in history, behind the $77.25 million debut of Will Smith's I Am Legend. In Avatar's defense, I Am Legend was an hour shorter, had a great tag-line that doubled as an easy-to-understand plot synopsis ("The last man on earth is not alone."), and had the added buzz of the debuting trailers for The Dark Knight. While Warner Bros. held its non-IMAX Dark Knight trailer off the internet until Sunday night, Paramount did Fox no similar favors, releasing its Iron Man 2 teaser online two days before Avatar's opening day. It's also worth noting that Avatar actually opened on fewer screens than many of the top December openings. On the other hand, Avatar debuted in countless 3D and mini-IMAX screens, which increased the general ticket prices to more than overcome the running-time and screen-count disadvantage. For what it's worth, it beat Up's $68 million opening, taking the record for 3D opening weekends. But Avatar did break one very notable record. It is the biggest debut in history for a completely unaffiliated original movie. By that, I mean it was not a sequel, not a franchise adaptation, not a literary adaptation, and not a star-vehicle. It's also racked up $164 million overseas, for a global total of $241 million.

So far, general word of mouth is strong, with those who didn't go in with months of anticipation and expectations pretty much being blown away by the 3D visuals, photo-real special effects work, and large-scale action spectacle (my parents saw it on opening day and loved it). But long-term predictions would be pure guesswork at this point. If we argue that the Saturday and Sunday snowstorms prevented otherwise interested moviegoers from checking out the picture, then we can either expect stronger than normal weekday sales or inflated second-weekend grosses. We'll know more after its second weekend, when it will attempt to use positive buzz to overcome the sure-fire smash weekend debut of Sherlock Holmes. So I'll just toss out the following math: If Avatar performs like the alleged flop King Kong (4.36x its opening weekend), it can expect to gross $335 million. If it performs like Titanic (it won't but let's do the math anyway), it'll do 20.9x times its opening weekend figure for $1.61 billion in the US. Obviously that isn't going to happen, but I will say that January 2010 seems on paper a lot quieter than January 2009. So it won't likely run into the problem that last year's holiday releases did (Marley and Me, Bedtime Stories, Yes Man, and Seven Pounds), where the usual leggy holiday and post-holiday season got kneecapped by uncommonly popular January releases (Gran Torino, Taken, Paul Blart Mall Cop).

If it needs to be said, Avatar was never, ever going to reach the upper-realms of the opening weekend chart. There has never been a December opening that even topped $80 million, let alone $100 million and beyond. Before this weekend, no completely original and star-less movie had opened north of $68 million (The Day After Tomorrow). Furthermore Avatar had to deal with a brutally negative entertainment press that basically made stuff up to make the movie look doomed ('it cost $500 million!' 'the 3D made our previous audiences sick!'). It was a 2.75 hour movie with no stars and a difficult to explain premise, plus 3D visuals that frankly looked so much better in theaters that the teaser, trailer, and photos were a little underwhelming to the uninformed. Topping off its sea of troubles that would have felt more at home in A Serious Man, we had those brutal snowstorms over the weekend. On the other hand, the 'wow, it's great' surprise factor worked wonders for Jurassic Park, as people like myself had absolutely no idea how good it was going to be until those Thursday advance-night showings on June 10th, 1993. Surprise artistic success is always better for long-term box office than expected brilliance. One thing we learned this weekend, never ever bet against James Cameron.

Before I dash, a bit of non-Avatar news (not much of it out there). Did You Hear About the Morgans? opened with just $6.6 million, so it'll get hammered by It's Complicated next weekend. The Blind Side, at $164 million, is now Sandra Bullock's highest-grossing movie and the biggest sports movie of all time. Plus, by next week at the latest, it will be the second-highest-grossing 'based on a true story' movie in history, behind the relative non-fiction of The Passion of the Christ. The Princess and the Frog dropped 49%, bringing its ten-day total to a somewhat disappointing $44 million. It will need all the holiday cheer that it can muster to cross the $100 million mark. A Christmas Carol dropped 49%, as a result of losing its IMAX and 3D screens to you-know-what. Its total stands at $130.8 million, and Disney is hoping to use the Christmas season to get this one past $150 million. Invictus dropped 51% and now stands at $15 million. Any hopes of grossing more than $35 million will depend on Oscar traction in the next month.

In limited release-land, Jeff Bridge's Crazy Heart opened on four screens, with a $82,664 gross for an okay $20,666 per-screen average. Emily Blunt's The Young Victoria more or less flopped in limited-release terms, earning just $8,300 per each of its 20 screens for a $160,069 opening weekend. Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones dropped 60% on its three screens. Better news came to Rob Marshall's critically-savaged musical, Nine. Despite poor reviews, it still pulled in $64,308 per screen on four screens for a $257,232 opening. It goes wide on Christmas day. And since Christmas day falls on a Friday this year, the films in play next weekend (Sherlock Holmes, Its Complicated, etc) won't have to contend with that box-office pit of death known as Christmas Eve. I'm really not sure why Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 and Up in the Air ($3.2 million this weekend on 175 screens, $8.2 million total) are opening this Wednesday, aside from fear of Sherlock Holmes. Speaking of Sherlock Holmes, the much-anticipated Robert Downey Jr. vehicle is likely to be a monster over its opening weekend, since it was frankly more anticipated than the harder-to-explain Avatar.

Sorry for the shorter than normal wrap-up, but life gets in the way sometimes. In the meantime, for my pick for favorite film of the decade, everything I've written about Avatar up to now, my picks for worst of 2009 (best will come later in the week), read and follow Mendelson's Memos.

Scott Mendelson

Iron Man 2 gets a teaser.

Rourke's Russian accent is a little goofy and that his presence is a little lacking for the core villain in the second film of a major franchise. But that gives hope that this sequel will be focused more on Stark than the antagonist(s). One of the things I did like about Spider-Man 2 was that the villain was basically there as an occasional punching bag in the midst of a very Peter Parker-centric story (however, telling that story with Doc Ock, the Spider-Man equivalent of The Joker, was a terrible mistake). But, I do like that the film seems to be addressing my biggest issues with the first film: A) Stark ended the film as the same selfish jerk that he was in the beginning, just with different motives. B) If Stark magically decided that his weapons were a bane to the world, he's got some karma to correct. The idea of a villain targeting Stark for the sins of his father seems like an ideal way to deal with both of these issues. Heck, the sequel that deals with said stuff may make the second film play better, since we know what's coming later on. We'll see.

Scott Mendelson

And the best action scene of the decade is...

For a full twenty-three minutes, George Lucas throws at us everything we could ever want in a Star Wars film. A claustrophobic and suspenseful massive spaceship dog fight. Jedi masters running, jumping, and slashing at everything in their path. A terrific and plot-driven light-saber fight smack-dab in the middle. A fiery crash-landing to freedom. All that, plus successful comic-relief from R2D2 (his fire trick brought the house down at our midnight showing), dialogue that actually sounds authentic and snappy, and a chemistry between Obi-Wan and Anakin that actually feels genuine. It's as if, knowing full-well what darkness and despair the audience was about to go through, Lucas made sure that the prologue was as much sheer Star Wars fun as he could possibly manage... one last time. I know it's heresy, but Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is actually my favorite Star Wars film of them all (relax nerds, The Empire Strikes Back is second). And that gloriously gonzo go-for-broke first reel and a half is a big part of why.

Scott Mendelson

Uh oh...

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland gets a second trailer.

This may be the first Tim Burton movie that I'm not all that interested in. While the film looks colorful and visually delicious, the plot seems to be some kind of mix of Alice in Wonderland, Return to Oz, and The Lord of the Rings. Gosh, how I wish he would try an original story before he retires. And once again, is there a reason why Disney is marketing this thing as exclusively a Johnny Depp vehicle? Considering the cast contains Anne Hathaway, Alan Rickman, Christopher Lee, Crispen Glover, and Helen Bonham Carter, you'd think Disney would make that more known? Back in my day (Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow), Burton had to all but beg the studios to let him cast Johnny Depp in his pictures, and the marketing departments didn't exactly delight in building a star-driven campaign around this alleged box-office poison. Oh well, I'm sure the picture will look lovely in IMAX 3D, but I suppose hoping for a good movie might be too much at this point.

Scott Mendelson

Chris Nolan's Inception gets a poster. Look familiar?

At this point, simply saying 'a Chris Nolan film' is enough to sell me. After directing four of the best films in this decade (Memento, Batman Begins, The Prestige, and The Dark Knight), he's pretty much my favorite working director. Still, color me amused at how Warner's initial ad campaign seem more than a little similar to Nolan's last picture. Not that I blame them, said last picture grossed a billion dollars worldwide, but it's good for a solid laugh none the less.

Scott Mendelson