Worth Watching: Don Cheadle as Captain Planet...

Don Cheadle is Captain Planet from Don Cheadle      

This is a 'Funny or Die' sketch basically showing us an excerpt from what could be the best thing Don Cheadle has done since Hotel Rwanda, if not Devil With a Blue Dress.  Anyway, enjoy...

Scott Mendelson

How 2001 was a film game-changer IV: Joe Lieberman and the FTC use Columbine to kill the R-rating and (by proxy) mainstream films for adults.

This is one of a handful of essays that will be dealing with the various trends that were kicked off during the 2001 calendar year, and how they still resonate today.

I don't have all that much to say about Colombiana, which I saw this weekend.  It's well-acted (save for one overwrought emotional exposition moment in the third act), and the action sequences are suitably tight and intense.  But the most noteworthy thing about this film is that its PG-13.  Not only do we have yet another adult-themed and relatively violent action picture that has been awarded a PG-13 rating, but you can clearly see and hear the alterations that went into the original product to make it so.  You can see the haphazard editing around the onscreen violence.  You can hear the muffling of gun shots and other sounds of violence (screams, punching, kicking, etc).  Colombiana is an adult film with adult sensibilities.  Yet in this current market, it was considered unwise to release this violent action picture with an R-rating.  It's been over ten years since the Joseph Lieberman-speared committee into the marketing of R-rated pictures effectively put a clamp on the 'for audiences 17 and over or with a parental guardian' rating when it came to mainstream entertainment.  And it's been ten years since we saw the effective end of adult-oriented R-rated fare in mainstream cinemas.

The Columbine school shootings in April, 1999 were the cause for these commissions.  Lieberman, having 'lost' his Vice Presidential bid in 2000, had gone back to doing what he did best: attacking youth-centric pop culture in a manner that would make Dr. Fredric Wertham proud. The core results of the study was that R-rated films were being test-screened and marketed to audiences well-under seventeen years of age.  Ironically, one of the prime examples, Judge Dredd, was a film that star Sylvester Stallone claimed back in 1995 was intended as a PG-13 in the first place.  We may laugh at that notion (as well as the protests of Harrison Ford and Tim Burton, over the respective well-deserved R-ratings for Air Force One and Sleepy Hollow), but as I wrote in 2001, it was a moot point.  The MPAA rating system was intended to be voluntary, and suggestive in nature.  It was not intended to be ironclad law.  So if New Line Cinema wanted to test and/or market Set It Off to thirteen year old kids, that was their right and privilege.  With an adult in tow, children of any age could see a film, so it was plausible that studios would market to such audiences.The studies were done in late 1999 to late 2000, with the results basically being put into action the following year (with the unfortunate help of Senators Hillary Clinton and Robert Byrd).  The intent was to prevent underage audiences from being exposed to R-rated material.  But the result was the removal of truly adult material from nearly all mainstream pictures, while in turn forcing more and more R-rated content into PG-13 films.

Anyway, long story short, the FTC put out a number of restrictions and regulations in regards to marketing R-rated films.  To wit, you generally could not put a trailer for an R-rated film before anything other than another R-rated film.  You generally could not run TV ads for R-rated films before 9pm, or during kid-friendly television shows.  This by itself made it challenging to reach the teen or older teen audience that would otherwise be interested in the latest bawdy comedy or violent action thriller.  Basically the industry was in a bind, not knowing when a governmental watchdog agency (or just a random politician running on a 'social values' campaign) would basically attempt to make a big deal over showing an ad for an R-rated movie before a PG-13 film and/or during a show like Dawson's Creek or Felicity that targeted older teens.  Slowly but surely, R-rated films of all genres dried up, with studios not wanting to spend money on big-budget genre fare that they were unable to market as they please.  Why make a teen-centric R-rated picture when regulations all-but prevented you from marketing that picture to your teen audiences?  But the casualties were not just in the realm of rip-offs of The Matrix or American Pie.  Adult genre films and adult-themed dramas became endangered species as well, to the point where we generally only saw R-rated adult fare during the year-end awards season.

The FTC report and the resulting legislation are not solely responsible for this.  The sea change that saw big-budget fantasy films become the core tentpole of choice was also a prime factor.  The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and the successful big-budget, all-ages PG-13 spectacles that followed (Spider-Man, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, etc) went hand-in-hand with the new difficulties in marketing adult entertainment.  But the result was the same.  Up until just the last year or so, R-rated mainstream films more or less disappeared, while studios became desperate to fit their seemingly R-rated content into the PG-13 box.  We saw a decade of severed heads flying over castle walls (Lord of the Rings: Return of the King), men having their eyes pecked-out by birds (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest), innocent civilians being executed at point-black range and blown to pieces by terrorists (Vantage Point), and Catholic Cardinals being brutally and graphically tortured to death (Angels and Demons)... all under the 'appropriate for kids 13-and-up guise of that magical PG-13 rating.  We now have a mainstream rating system that allows obviously R-rated content and sensibilities into theoretically kid-friendly films as long as there is not too much blood or 'hard' profanity.

Sure, Live Free or Die Hard was every bit as violent as the previous Die Hard films, but as long as the blood was digitally erased, it was considered a more kid-friendly film.  And yes Colombiana was absolutely intended as an adult action thriller, but so difficult would it have been to market the film with its intended R-rating that Sony made the choice to basically gut the film in order to get that lower rating.  Thus we have an entire industry of PG-13 entertainments that are actually R-rated adult films in disguise (they made the same call earlier this year with Priest, a variation of The Searchers as a horror film that absolutely should have been R-rated).  Other casualties of this problem include The Transporter, Sucker Punch, Salt (a 90s throwback that absolutely would have gone out as R in 1996), and, I would argue, the Bourne franchise.   The R-rated action film is all-but nonexistent in this day and age.  With the exception of occasional Jason Statham vehicles, pretty much every big-studio action picture is now whittled down to a more 'all-audiences friendly' PG-13.  Yes, we've seen a resurgence of R-rated comedies over the past few years, but I'd wager that's purely because they are relatively cheap and their R-rated content (usually limited to raunchy dialogue) can be easily looped during the foreign translations, depending on the cultural mores of a given nation. But the genre films aimed at older audiences, the dark thrillers and dramas, the kind of star vehicles that Paramount excelled at in the 1990s (Who would have thought Double Jeopardy would be an artifact of a by-gone time?), are all-but nonexistent.

This was surely not the intent of Lieberman, his various co-sponsors, and the FTC back in 2001.  But the disappearance of truly adult films with adult content and adult sensibilities is indeed what occurred.  It is part of why the relative successes of The Town and The Lincoln Lawyer were so important.  It is why, despite my misgivings over the project, the David Fincher remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is so important.  It is literally the first big-budget would-be franchise to go out R-rated and aimed at adults since The Matrix trilogy back in 1999.  Ironically, it was The Matrix, released just a month before Columbine and held up as everything wrong with mainstream entertainment (pundits, politicians, and moral arbitrators mistakenly believed that Klebold and Harris dressed like Neo and basically tried to emulate the film's third-act lobby shooting spree), that paved the way for the downfall of big-budget R-rated cinema.  If the Daniel Craig/Rooney Mara thriller is a big enough hit to justify sequels and/or its $90 million budget, we may see a return to a time when adult films actually come with adult ratings.  Because ten years is a long time to go without such a basic concept.

Scott Mendelson              

2011 Summer Movie Review part II: The summer of 3D proves, in America at least, 'It's the movie (stupid)'. Overseas is a more complicated situation...

This summer was supposed to be the first real test for the mainstream viability of the 3D format in cinema.  While the format had been a fringe indulgence for horror films and animated movies, it obviously became a full-on sensation following the release of Avatar in December, 2009.  2010 saw a handful of high-profile 3D conversions, as studios hastily converted some of their big-budget tentpoles (Clash of the Titans, The Last Airbender, Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader) and/or low-budget cult pictures (Piranha 3D, My Soul to Take)  into the format under the delusion that Avatar made $2.7 billion worldwide only because it was in 3D.  But this was the supposed to be the sink-or-swim year for the 3D film.  Was it merely a passing fad, or was it here to stay?  The answer is, alas, more complicated.  First and foremost, as long as studios can spend $5-$10 million to convert a film to 3D and then charge an extra 33% or so per ticket, 3D isn't going away.  So while 3D was not the answer to studios' prayers domestically, it took the industry by storm in overseas markets, which mattered all the more this year, the first summer on record where domestic box office was all-but beside the point.  And of course, the embrace of 3D was always about more than just that $3-$5 up-charge.  It was about countering overseas piracy, and on that front, it was a HUGE success.  But when you look at the films that scored in 3D and the films that flopped in 3D, you notice something that should have been obvious.  The films that hit were always going to be big hits, while the 3D flops never stood a chance in any dimension.

If you were to take a guess at the top films of summer 2011, they would probably include some combination of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II ($370 million), Transformers: Dark of the Moon ($350 million), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides ($240 million), Cars 2 ($187 million), Thor ($181 million), Captain America ($169 million), and Kung Fu Panda 2 ($164 million). In the realm of 2D, The Hangover part II ($254 million), Fast Five ($209 million) and X-Men: First Class ($146 million) were also destined to join the club, while Bridesmaids ($168 million), Rise of the Planet of the Apes ($149 million and climbing), and The Help ($96 million and climbing even faster) were relative surprises (all were expected to be hits, but not mega-smashes).  And if you were to take a stab at which summer films just wouldn't click with audiences, among the films on your list would likely be Priest, Conan the Barbarian, Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, and Fright Night.  You'll notice three of those titles were released just two weekends ago.  That's because the studios, up until the end of the summer, generally reserved the 3D format for their biggest films, rather than use it to allegedly 'add value' to their smaller releases.  Green Lantern and Cowboys and Aliens were always 50/50 propositions.  But Green Lantern ($116 million) didn't tank because of its 3D conversion (one of the better ones, ironically) anymore than Cowboys and Aliens ($94 million) flopped due to its 2D existence.  Super 8 ($126 million) did about as well as could be expected, as its primary fault was betting to be the one good movie in a summer full of bad genre entries (most of the would-be tentpoles were actually pretty good, while Super 8 was not).

But what it also shows that the films that hit it big in 3D would have been big hits in 2D.  The Smurfs would have caught on in 2D or 3D.  Harry Potter 7.2 and Transformers 3 were always going to duke it out for the summer box office crown.  Yes, there were some kinks in regards to bigger numbers and fewer tickets for this film or that.  Yes, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II broke the Fri-Sun opening weekend record with $169 million primarily due to 3D price-inflation (had 100% of the tickets been in 2D, the film would have opened with about $150 million, or good for third place).  And we can do the math for what Tree of Life would have grossed if it had been converted to 3D or if Thor had merely been in 2D (for now, data is only generally available for opening weekend percentage of 3D tickets), but the films grossed what the films grossed.  As long as they were profitable according to their respective budgets and marketing costs, then how they got to those figures is of debatable relevance.  Point being, the 3D films that were generally expected to succeed had a token increase in grosses domestically due to their 3D conversions.  And the 3D films that were likely always going to flop gained nothing by their 3D formats.

The only major domestic statistic worth discussing is the percentage drop that took place over the summer.  Quite simply, 45% became the new normal.  With the exception of certain alleged high-value 3D attractions (Transformers: Dark of the Moon grossed over 60% of its opening weekend in 3D) and smaller releases that didn't have a wealth of 2D options (Fright Night, Conan the Barbarian, Glee: the 3D Concert MovieSpy Kids 4, Conan the Barbarian, and Fright Night), 3D can have a long and healthy life as an optional supplement.  When it's worth it (Transformers 3, Final Destination 5, Green Lantern), audiences can splurge.  When it's not (Captain America, Fright Night, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II), audiences can choose 2D.

Overseas is a different story, however.  2011 was the year that overseas box office absolutely exploded.  Three films, all in 3D, grossed $1 billion in the span of about two months.  Yes, Harry Potter 7.2, Transformers 3, and Pirates of the Caribbean 4 were always going to be worldwide monsters, but the massive overseas response to 3D, as well as the large number of films that did 2/3 of their business, if not more, in foreign markets, tells a different tale.  Not only is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II the third-biggest global blockbuster of all-time (behind Avatar and Titanic with $1.2 billion), it achieved that feat in just over three weeks.  For now, outside of America, 3D is a major player and perhaps the 'game-changer' or 'industry savior' that Jeffrey Katzenberg and others hoped it would be.  In foreign markets, 2D theaters are not quite as plentiful for these 3D attractions.  It would seem that 3D has served at least one of its primary purposes: discouraging piracy.  Piracy is a much bigger problem overseas than it is on domestic shores.  But you can't accurately pirate a 3D film.  Thus, audiences have no choice but to see these films in the theaters.  One could argue that studios shouldn't be forcing overseas audiences to choose '3D or nothing' in order to discourage piracy, but that's a moral argument for another day.  Anyway, for whatever reason, overseas business turned middling hits here (Kung Fu Panda 2, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Cars 2), into massive smashes on a worldwide scale.  All of the above examples grossed less than their predecessors domestically, but both surpassed the previous films in their respective franchises worldwide by a decent margin.  Whether 3D is to blame or not, 2011 is certainly the summer when America became just another market.

So in the end, 3D is pretty much where it was last time year.  The big movies that everyone was excited about seemingly benefited while the films that were going to tank anyway did so regardless of their 3D enhancements.  If anything, I would argue that the would-be flops (again, I come back to the massacre that was two weekends ago) may have been hurt by their 3D conversions, as the higher ticket prices made audiences less likely to just casually buy a ticket to a random weekend showtime, especially as the crowded late-summer schedule gave theaters less room to give audiences 2D showings of films like Fright Night (which is arguably the worst live-action 3D work of the modern era, rendering the mediocre film nearly unwatchable).  Studios should arguably be careful about what films they choose to 'go 3D', as it may only be a benefit to films that audiences were already enticed by.  We should no longer expect the 65-80% 3D opening weekends that greeted Avatar and Alice in Wonderland.  The 40-45% 3D debuts of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II and The Smurfs (another film that did over 2/3 of its  business, $381 million so-far, overseas) are pretty much the new status quo.

I do think we may be seeing an end to the '3D for the sake of 3D' fad in the near future, especially when it comes to smaller pictures that obviously do not benefit from the added ticket-price bump.  This fall will be interesting to watch, as there are several pictures (Shark Night, The Three Musketeers, The Darkest Hour) that are just the kind of 'why bother?' 3D films that have been tanking.  If those films flop, 3D may once again return to being a somewhat rarer thing, perhaps an optional supplement for the very biggest pictures on a studio's annual slate.  There is no harm in that, as long as, I must repeat again, audiences have the option to go 2D at their convenience.  So 3D has not killed the movie going experience, mainly because studios were smart enough to offer 2D theaters for the bigger films.  And, overseas, 3D has given a massive boost to the very biggest blockbusters while making an apparent dent in piracy.  The story of 3D is an ongoing one, and it will be ever-fascinating to see where it goes from here (especially with Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg jumping into the game this holiday season).  But for now, as always, it's about the movies themselves, not whether or not you have to wear the glasses.

Scott Mendelson      

All praise technology! I can now watch Die Hard 2: Die Harder on an airplane!

In the 'never thought I'd see the day...' category, I was on an airplane just a few days ago, flying back from Ohio after a week with the family.  Anyway, I have not been on an airplane since the last time I visited, which was about 2.5 years ago.  Continental (which judged merged with United) has an in-flight entertainment service that allows you to basically watch DirectTV on your individual viewing screen for $7.99 per flight.  There are a few specialized channels with specific film choices (nothing that isn't already on DVD) and TV shows, but the majority of the content is whatever happens to be playing on regular television at that moment.  Anyway, long story short, about halfway through my flight, my wife finished watching the Spike TV presentation of Die Hard.  And guess what started right afterwards?  Yup, you guessed it.  So, had I so chosen, I could have indeed watched the above clip in-flight, right before I landed at LAX.  No profound sentiments here, I just thought I'd share the weird side-effects of technology, which allows flyers everywhere to watch arguably the least appropriate in-flight movie ever made during any flight where said film happens to be on the TV schedule.  Yippee-Ki-Ya, Mr. Falcon, indeed...

Scott Mendelson

The Hunger Games gets a very minimal teaser.

Get More: 2011 VMA, Music

These are called teasers for a reason, so it can be forgiven that this first look at the upcoming Hunger Games is a bit sparse.  Anyway, this won't tell newbies all that much about the narrative, but it does introduce the setting and Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen.  Not much to judge with, so I'll refrain from offering too much commentary.  Lionsgate puts this one out on March 23rd, 2012.  As always, we'll see.

Scott Mendelson

Weekend Box Office (08/28/11): Summer 2011 ends with a Hurricane, kneecapping three new releases (Colombiana. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, Our Idiot Brother) and all holdovers.

It's a tough thing to accurately gauge how well a movie would have done if not for an unforeseen variable, such as in this case a massive hurricane that threatened much of the East Coast of the country and shut down hundreds of movie theaters over the weekend.  As such, it feels a little unfair to pick on movies that didn't open all-that well, since who is to say how they would have performed under normal conditions.  So, for the sake of not kicking people while they are down, this summary will be focused on the positive developments over the weekend.

While it was not number one this weekend, Sony's EuroCorp pick-up Colombiana opened with $10.3 million for a solid second place.  The Luc Besson-produced vehicle would likely have opened between $12-$15 million without the storm issues.  But even that smaller number is worth noting.  Point being, the film confirms the genuine bank-ability of Zoe Saldana, who co-starred in Avatar and Star Trek in 2009 and had supporting roles in The Losers, Takers, and Death at a Funeral in 2010.  Saldana's face was pretty much the entire poster, and the marketing campaign centered entirely around her.  This is among the larger opening weekends that I can recall for a female-led pure action picture (as opposed to sci-fi/horror) that isn't based on a comic book or a video game. Even with the diminished numbers, this is still a larger opening weekend than the far-more high profile Conan the Barbarian, Fright Night, and One Day from last weekend.  Point being, there is indeed a market for action pictures starring minorities and/or women. Maybe the market isn't big enough to support $100 million+ productions, but as long as the budget is reasonable (in this case, $40 million), we damn-sure should be seeing more of this kind of thing.  The film earned an A- from Cinemascore and played 65% over-25 and 57% female.  And yes, it's pretty darn fun and well-crafted, even if the narrative is contrived and the film guts itself for that PG-13.

The actual first place finisher was once again The Help, which dropped just 30% even in the face of weather issues and some... negative publicity (Why said criticisms are not about the movie itself - HERE).  The picture is tracking ahead of even Bridesmaids, which had $85 million after its third weekend compared to the current $96 million cume for The Help.  It is already poised to be one of the biggest-grossing pure-dramas released in any summer season ever, and $150 million is currently all-but guaranteed, with $170-$190 million possible depending on how long it can hold onto theaters.  Of note, this weekend marks the first time that I can recall that the top two films of the weekend box office both centered around minority actors, let alone women of color (feel free to point out if I'm forgetting something...).  Anyway, the other two openers were small performers that were probably never going to break out.  Don't Be Afraid of the Dark was a small-budget remake of a 1970s TV movie that had no real stars (Guy Pierce and Katie Holmes are not exactly box office dynamos).  The film's main selling point, the fact that Guillermo del Toro was producing, didn't count for much, and it's just another reason why Universal was right to cancel the $150 million R-rated In the Mountain Of Madness earlier this year.  The film had the double-edged sword of being a film intended for a PG-13 that nonetheless got stuck with an R purely for intensity.  So you lose the younger audiences who flock to PG-13 horror, and you lose the gorehounds who knew there would be little onscreen violence and/or graphic bloodshed.  As such, $8.6 million for the $25 million production was not a rousing figure, but it could have been a lot worse.

The last major opener was Our Idiot Brother, the Weinstein Company comedy starring Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Emily Mortimer, and Rashida Jones.  Kudos for the Weintsteins for giving this apparently somewhat arty comedy a mainstream release, as this is just the kind of star vehicle that has inexplicably been relegated to the arthouse over the last few years (I'm probably seeing it tomorrow).  And even though the film opened with just $6.8 million, it has already nearly-outgrossed Ceder Rapids and Cyrus (two such victims of the above trend) in just three days, meaning that you really can make a profit for a semi-wide release in cases such as this.  In holdover news, all of last weekend's releases dropped like stones, as did Final Destination 5 (-68%, $37 million cume) which would have happened without the storm.  Rise of the Planet of the Apes now has $148 million, which means it will soon be Fox's first $150 million domestic performer since Avatar and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel during the last weeks of 2009. Bad Teacher may fail to hit $100 million stateside, but it has crossed $200 million worldwide, which is uber-impressive.  With all the talk about the death of star power, Cameron Diaz powered this one all-by herself.  In the realm of 'bad news here, good news overseas', the two big animated films of summer are firing on all cylinders overseas.  Kung Fu Panda 2 sits with $637 million worldwide, meaning it has surpassed the first film's $630 million worldwide gross.  Cars 2 may be the first Pixar film to not cross $200 million domestic since A Bug's Life in 1998, but the film has $521 million thus far worldwide.

That's it for this weekend and for summer 2011.  The Fall season starts on Wednesday with the release of The Debt, and continues this Friday with the absolutely moronic head-to-head scheduling that is Shark Night 3D vs. Apollo 18.  Anyway, check out the first of a few summer recap articles (part I: The Moments That Mattered)  HERE and look out for more in the coming week.

Scott Mendelson

2011 Summer Movie Review part I: The Moments That Mattered

We'll see if my schedule allows me to do a comprehensive 'end of summer' box office wrap-up, but since summer 2011 doesn't officially end until next weekend, I figure I've got time. For now, here is my annual rundown of the various scenes, performances, moments, and miscues that defined the summer just past. Because sometimes, discussing the 'parts' is more fun than discussing the 'whole'. I'll try to avoid divulging plot twists and the like, but consider this a SPOILER WARNING.

Best Fake-Out: Vin Deisel sacrifices himself for the team at the finale of Fast Five.
Even if you feel silly admitting that you cared about the characters in this fifth and inexplicably terrific entry in the eleven-year long racing action franchise, you cannot deny that the characters cared about each other.  What made the movie pop was the genuine sense of camaraderie and bonding that existed between our main characters, which is one of the benefits of being the fifth film in a long running franchise.  So when Deisel's Dominic Toretto separates himself from the pack during the final chase scene, apparently intent on sacrificing himself to give the rest of his friends (including his pregnant sister Mia and her boyfriend Brian) a chance at freedom and riches, I bought it.  The film had built up a genuine 'series finale' vibe, and it seemed completely appropriate that the franchise would end with Dom, the series's most prominent character, giving his life so that his sister's unborn child wouldn't have to grow up without a father.  When Toretto miraculously survived his one-man cannon-ball run, I rolled my eyes a bit.  It wasn't until a week later that I remembered that this fifth film actually took place BEFORE the third film in the series (Tokyo Drift), at the end of which Vin Deisel made a cameo appearance.  Point being, Dominic Toretto was never in danger.  But the film was so unexpectedly compelling and exciting that I completely forgot what I already knew going in.

Best Scene in a Bad Movie: Emma Stone seduces Ryan Gosling in Crazy, Stupid Love.
It's no secret that I hate the sub-par sitcom-ish antics of this obscenely overrated peon to stalking.  I hate the film is completely about the male pursuit of easily-won female flesh, and that the only genuinely engaging female character is regulated to a plot point to be fought over by the men during the third act.  But the second-act climax does contain one wonderful extended moment.  To set-up, Emma Stone's young attorney has just broken up with her longtime boyfriend as she heads to a bar where she had earlier been accosted by Gosling's pick-up artist lothario.  She basically walks into the bar and throws herself at him and DEMANDS to be his latest one-night stand.  What follows is a funny, well-scripted, and charming bit of anti-seduction, as Gosling lays out his usual scoring technique to a completely above-it-all Stone.  The scene ends in a somewhat unexpected fashion, and its one of the few moments of authentic human behavior in an otherwise painfully trite and borderline offensive 'romantic comedy'.

Most Poignant Expository Monologue: Will Ferrell confesses his sins in Everything Must Go.
The premise of Everything Must Go, an alcoholic who has just been kicked out of his house simply squats on the front lawn with all of his material belongings, could have easily been played for farce.  But writer/director Dan Rush and star Will Ferrell plays the premise (from a Raymond Carver short story) as genuinely real as they can, creating a genuinely thoughtful and small-scale human drama.  The most potent moment comes around the end of the second act, when Ferrell explains to his new neighbor (Rebecca Hall) just what broke up his marriage.  Basically, without going into details, he fell off the wagon during a business trip and did something very bad, or at least he thinks he did.  The sad and point-blank way he states 'I don't know...' when quizzed about the anecdote's accuracy, and Hall's very real reaction to it, brings an uncommonly raw bit of realism that is frankly uncommon in films starring stars as big as Mr. Ferrell.

Best False Hope: "Downeaster Alexa" plays as the gang flies to Thailand in The Hangover part II.
The Hangover part II is guilty of not only being a rehash of the first film, but being a relatively cowardly and lazy rehash of the first picture.  That it follows the same general story outline as the first film is not its biggest crime, as any number of sequels do that (especially back in the days when not every film was being constructed as a mythology-filled trilogy).  But the tragedy is that Todd Phillips sets up a much darker and nastier variation on the template during the off-kilter and almost somber first act.  The kicker is the actual plane-flight montage, set to Billy Joel's classic song about economically-struggling fishermen (my favorite of his songs, natch).  The montage and accompanied music sets the scene as what feels like a flight into doom, the opening steps on a journey into hell from which our would-be heroes would not or could not return whole.  The film eventually chickens out sometime before the halfway mark, with neither the courage to go uncompromisingly dark and scary or go inexplicably optimistic and sunny.  The second half of the film has signs of post-production tinkering, and the final product is unnecessary by virtue of its bland repetition.  But that genuinely foreboding montage, which turns a great Billy Joel song into the harbinger of doom, is a sign of things that were, alas, not to come.

Best Death Scene: Ellen Wroe does not Make It, only Breaks It in Final Destination 5.
This also qualifies as arguably the most suspenseful moment of the summer, as doomed gymnast Candace Hooper goes through her routine during a practice session, unaware that a loose screw has fallen from the ceiling and now rests on her balance beam.  Director Steven Quale shoots and edits this nerve-wracking sequence with 'bomb under the table' precision that, yes, invites comparisons to Alfred Hitchcock.  I wouldn't dream of telling you how it ends, but just know that it ends very badly for Ms. Hooper and hits just the right balance of horrifying hilarity that this messy series often strives for.  It's the best death scene in the whole series, and easily one of the ten best death scenes in recent horror history.

Most Delicious Bit of Lechery - Natalie Portman mentally-screws Chris Hemsworth pre-flight in Thor.
Natalie Portman is a very attractive woman, and Kat Dennings with long hair and nerd glasses is a very pruriently appealing visual.  But one of the most pleasant things about Thor, aside from the fact that it was actually pretty fun and engaging, was that it let the girls do the majority of the ogling, subjecting Chris Hemsworth to the kind of objectification that usually gets forced on the females in male-driven genre fare.  There are plenty of 'suggestive eye-movements' (to quote an age-old CAP Alert review for Antz), but the best little bit of such business comes right before the action climax.  The mighty Thor has basically reclaimed his powers, along with his royal costume and magic hammer.  As he prepares to fly to the spot where he can theoretically teleport back to Asgard, he offers Portman's Jane Foster a lift via a pleasure flight.  As he puts his arm around her, she gives him a snarky smile of not awe, romantic wonder, or inspired admiration, but of pure unadulterated lust.  It's a small moment, but its a great character gesture that makes Kenneth Branagh's Thor feel more at home with the goofier and more self-aware comic book adaptations of the 1990s (The Phantom, The Shadow, etc) than the current crop of often self-serious epics.

Best Cliffhanger - Kung Fu Panda 2 lays out its entire arc.
There are a dozen reasons that Kung Fu Panda 2 was my favorite film of the summer, if not the year thus far.  It was a pitch-perfect sequel that built upon the original relationships, upped the personal stakes, and expanded on the world while remaining a self-contained action drama.  Without going into any details, the final image of this second picture is a gut-punch of a surprise, a genuinely shocking revelation that instantly spelled heartbreak for several major characters and a conflict that likely will play out over the entirety of the series.  Jeffrey Katzenberg claims that he wants six Kung Fu Panda films.  By the end of this dynamite sequel, you know exactly where the story is going next, and you have the full confidence that the folks at Dreamworks have an entire mythology already planned, just waiting to be told.      

Worst Cliffhanger/Worst Scene in a Good Movie - Captain America kills its own narrative potential.
Captain America was among the happiest surprises of the summer, working as an old-school action adventure that put as much emphasis on character and relationships as it did on action.  Stanley Tucci helped make the first act of the film among the best opening acts of any superhero film, and Chris Evans successfully pulled off the most relentlessly 'good' superhero since Billy Zane wore purple tights and 'slammed evil'.  But all of the hard work to establish character and relationships went to hell in the final moments of the picture.  If you're one of three people who don't know what happened or why it happened, I won't spoil it here.  But the needless 'shocker' epilogue basically kills an entire franchise worth of period-set Captain America adventures for the sake of overtly establishing a certain status quo.

Best Ed Wood Imitation - Sean Penn randomly stands around in Tree of Life.
Generally speaking, one would not compare a Terrence Malick film to Plan Nine From Outer Space.  The latest existential spectacle, which is such a magnificent 'Terrence Malick movie!' that it borders on self-parody, works as a remarkably emotional tone poem about life itself, contrasting dawn of the dinosaurs to the single progress of a prototypical 1950s American family.  The first half is more potent than the second half, but there are moments of unmistakable power and pure cinematic grandeur.  However, there are also several moments, mostly in the opening and closing of the film, that involve Sean Penn.  Technically playing the grown-up older son of Brad Pitt's domineering-but-loving father, Penn basically stands around being mute,  somewhat brooding, and allegedly meditative.  Malick is a notoriously painstaking re-editor of his own work, so we can all guess what Sean Penn's original purpose in the epic-yet-intimate narrative was supposed to be at some point.  But now, even Penn has admitted (with no malicious intent) that he has no idea what he's doing in the finished film.  As it stands, Penn basically makes like Bela Legosi, silently standing around looking depressed for just a few minutes of screentime that is completely disconnected from the rest of the film.  At least Penn was not replaced by Malick's wife's chiropractor after the opening scenes.

Best 'For Your Consideration' Moment - Alan Rickman spills his secrets in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II.
I'm personally convinced that the Academy's new 'indeterminate number of Best Picture Nominees' rule was specifically crafted to avoid 'accidentally' nominating critically-acclaimed 'popular entertainment' such as this generally impressive series finale to one of the most ambitious undertakings in cinematic history.  Better to keep the Oscars only for 'appropriate' movies seen only by critics and kept out of wide-release as long as possible.  But if the Harry Potter series is to earn some Oscar love outside of the technical categories, there is no easier way to acknowledge the overall achievement that to give series MVP and beloved thespian Alan Rickman his first Oscar nomination.  And the series finale was kind enough to give him a tour-de-force moment that is both the highlight of the picture and one of the very best moments in the whole series.  Without going into details, it's an extended montage that both spells out just what was going on with Severus Snape pretty much from birth until his last moments in the film as well as perfectly encapsulates the moral of the whole Harry Potter myth: good people doing what is right in the face of unimaginable costs and sacrifices.  It is the tragedy of Severus Snape that gives the final Harry Potter film its beating heart.  And it is the final acknowledgment of that lifelong sacrifice (Harry's gesture to a man who was unthinkably brave in the most unexpected way) that gives the epilogue its punch.

And that's it for this summer's edition of 'The Moments That Mattered'.  The rest of the summer analysis (general box office, a bit on 3D, and a bit on international grosses) should follow this week, depending on time.  Until then, keep reading.

Scott Mendelson

Underworld: Awakening gets a trailer. Won't be seeing this one either...

After a detour into 'new director' and 'new star' prequel land, it appears that the Underworld series is returning to its.. uh... roots?  Anyway, Kate Beckensale and director Len Wiseman are back, for those of you who care about such things.  I will say that I saw this trailer before Fright Night and the 3D work was pretty solid, and the images were suitably brightened up so you could actually see what was going on (unlike Fright Night, which was like watching a VHS copy-of-a-copy taped off of an antenna-feed UHF airing).  The film also looks like it has been shot with the brightest blue filter ever created for cinema.  I had not seen any of the Underworld films until just a couple months ago.  How bad is the first Underworld?  Well, not only is it an insanely long 134 minutes, it was so dull and uninspired that I have thus far resisted my OCD-completest urge to rent the rest of the franchise.  It's hard, strolling through Blockbuster with my mail-order DVD/Blu Ray rental... with the other two films in the franchise just sitting there on the shelf.  I have thus far resisted, and hopefully I can stay strong.  If you've seen any of the sequels, are they worse than the original?  Anyway, this one comes out January 20th, 2012.  As always, we'll see.  Well, you're see.  I certainly will not see.

Scott Mendelson

One to represent all? How The Help is being punished for a lack of minority-driven films, rather than its own merits as a movie.

I'm not going to get into a point-by-point rundown of why I think many of the criticisms being hurled at The Help are just-plain wrong.  First of all, Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman already did just that, so I'll merely link to his piece.  Second of all, much of the outcry over The Help comes not from what is in the movie itself, but rather what isn't in the film, and (more importantly) what isn't in the marketplace.  It is a clear case of film critics (and social commentators) reviewing not the movie itself, but everything outside the film.  As a stand-alone film, it works as a solid, if not awe-inspiring character piece involving a number of women (black and white) who exist in an employer/employee relationship during the middle of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.  If the picture were one of a dozen films being released by a major studio that centered around African-America actors, its flaws would be less of an issue, merely reasons for calling the film good rather than great.  There may be a dearth of African-American-centered major studio releases.  But it is silly to condemn the one 'shining' example and punish it for the non-existence of other pictures like it.

Much of the problem comes from critics who want to pretend they are political pundits and judge a film as if said film is supposed to represent an all-encompassing picture in regards to its subject matter.  Precious was just about one single young woman and the struggles in her life (her problems would be little different if she were a poor white teenager born with equally awful parents). Closer was a character study about four messed-up people in some form of romantic/sexual relationships, it was not an all-inclusive and generic ‘this is how men and women operate always!’ fable. I rather enjoy Crash as a series of individual character studies that delves into race relations as opposed to a sweeping generalization on race relations. Twilight is about a single young woman and her choices in regards to the men in her life, she does not represent every young teenage girl ever.  And, as such, The Help is NOT an all-encompassing story about the Civil Rights Movement.  It does not pretend to represent every single black woman who suffered under Jim Crow.  It does not pretend to claim that African-Americans were only able to take their institutionalized freedoms because of plucky white women of the era.  There is of course a trend of African-American stories that are told from the point of view of the White Outsider Who Must Learn A Lesson, but I'd argue that this is not one of them. 

The Help is a true ensemble piece, with meaty arcs for Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, and Jessica Chastain, among others.  It is narrated by Viola Davis, and it is the very-real plight of the film's 'help' (represented mostly by Davis and Spencer) that makes the film work as an emotional heavyweight.  Sure, you've got Emma Stone as a young woman who chooses to write about the mistreatment of African-American maids, but she is merely a narrative device.  Aside from a climactic scene where she learns just why the maid who raised her was arbitrarily fired (a devastating cameo from Cicily Tyson), the movie isn't really about her in any emotional sense.  She may be the storyteller, but it is not her story.  In fact, once she sets up the primary narrative in the first act, she pretty much disappears for much of the middle of the story, leaving the film in the hands of Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, with assists by Bryce Dallas-Howard and Jessica Chaistain.  Stone does have an eye-rolling romantic subplot, but even that is only present so she can have something taken away by the end of the film (the implication that she is an outsider in her own community, which is why she is willing to buck the status quo).  From the end of the first act onward, it is absolutely a film about Davis and Spencer's respective characters. 

More importantly, it is not the responsibility of The Help to be the be-all, end-all big-studio movie involving the Civil Rights Movement.  It does not concern itself with those who actively fought for freedom because that is not the story being told.  It is a story about those who merely endured during a time of social injustice, and that story is every bit as relevant as the struggles of The Freedom Riders or the indiviudual portraits of iconic characters such as Medgar Evers or Rosa Parks.  The film, for example, does not contain details of the sexual abuse that certain maids suffered at the hands of their white employers because that apparently did not occur in the households that are presented in this specific story.  It does not detail the activist responses to the assassination of Medgar Evers because the characters in question did not get active after said murder.  The most thoughtful and audience-challenging aspect of The Help is indeed its presentation of the white characters.  Bryce Dallas-Howard's villain may be a cruel and willfully hurtful human being (to everyone she encounters, it should be noted), but she does not consider herself a racist.  She does not burn crosses, she does not physically harm those under her employ, and she considers herself a progressive who merely accepts one portion of her life (the subverviant relationship she has over her maids) as the status quo if not moral necessity.  Rather than present a bunch of mustache-twirling villains, The Help points out that even those who thought themselves politically and socially progressive were accepting of the casual and institutional racism of their society.   

To paraphrase The Naked City, there are millions of stories about the Jim Crow era, and The Help is merely one of them.  Its focus on those who merely existed in such times is indeed relevant as most of those who live during 'bad times' do just that.  How many of my readers actually attended an Iraq War protest?  How many among us would risk arrest by actively protesting a political convention?  How many of us actively engage in the political process in any way other than reading or writing like-minded commentary, signing petitions, occasionally cutting checks, and voting?  The Help is not a story about those on the frontlines, and it is not a story about a great social victory that was won.  It is a character study, full of small victories and larger defeats (note that the Howard's character goes generally unpunished, while Davis suffers a final, arbitrary defeat).  It is a sad, depressing story about people who did not rise about their times or their lot in life, but merely lived with as much dignity and humanity as their situation would allow.  Anyone who calls it 'happy' or 'life-affirming' or any of that silliness just wasn't paying attention. It may not show every horrible thing that occured during the 1960s, but the film absolutely captures the heavy weight of living under such conditions.

But in the end, all of this would be irrelevant if there were more films centered around minority characters.  If The Help were one of several big-studio films that starred African Americans.  But, alas, it is one of a few thus far (along with Jumping the Broom and Madea's Big Happy Family), and it is the only one given a high-profile release by a major studio.  Thus, like all-too many high-profile films involving minority and/or female characters at its center, it is being scrutinized in a fashion that implies that it must represent the respective minority or gender film experience all by-itself.  It is also being held to task on moral grounds on which we would never hold most other (white male-centered) films on.  The characters are not representing every African American woman who lived in the 1960s.  If the film fails in a certain way to represent the African American experience in the time period in question, then the solution is to demand more movies about that period that deal with what this film does not, not to trash the one film that does attempt to tell such a story on grounds unrelated to whether it works as a movie.

The Help is merely a single movie that tells a story about a specific group of people who lived during the 1960s Jim Crow era.  Its narrative is not all-encompassing and its characters are not placeholding representations of everyone who lived during that time.  It is a standalone movie, a character study that cannot and should not be held up as the defining movie about its time.  It is both unfair to the movie and frankly unfair to those who actually suffered (or prospered) under Jim Crow.  The solution is not to accuse The Help of being something it is not and then tearing it down on the grounds that it does not exhaustively meet the standards of what you wish it to be.  The solution is to point out its success as a win for big-studio dramas and big-studio pictures starring African American women and use that success as a reason for Hollywood to make more dramas with African Americans at the center (Tyler Perry can't do it alone).  The solution is to vigorously counterattack when a pundit denigrates the real artstic and commercial achievements of Tyler Perry by merely referring to him as Madea or 'the guy in the dress'.  The solution is also to point out when movies like Jumping the Broom (which, to be fair, wasn't very good), nearly matches the domestic gross of the far-more high-profile and expensive romantic comedy Something Borrowed ($37 million versus $39 million) and ask why Paula Patton doesn't get the same scripts or offers as Kate Hudson.

The Help is just a decent, well-acted period drama that is playing well with audiences because (among other reasons) big-studio dramas are an endangered species during the summer season. It offers no great insights and offers no solutions to the racial problems of yesterday or today. It is merely a character piece that exists to entertain and educate those otherwise uninformed about the era. It is not the end of anyone's education about the Civil Rights Era, but it certainly works as a starting point. As pundits, critics, or social commentators, it is our job to point out its flaws, both as a movie and as history. But its flaws as history do not count as an automatic disqualification for the movie as a whole. Those flaws merely serve as jumping off points for further education and discussion about how far we have and haven't come as a racial melting pot.

Scott Mendelson

Weekend Box Office (08/21/11): The Help tops in second weekend, crushes four new releases. Summer of 3D ends with three 3D flops.

As expected, the summer reached its climax this weekend with an ugly pileup, as four new releases failed to achieve anything resembling success, with three of those releases being in 3D and two of them chasing the exact same demographics.  Why oh why did Lionsgate and Disney open Conan the Barbarian and Fright Night on the same weekend?.  With the new releases eating each other alive, The Help snuck into the number one slot during its second weekend.  Dropping just 21% compared to the Fri-Sun portion of its opening weekend, The Help earned $20.4 million and now sits with a twelve-day total of $71.8 million.  This is the very definition of an old-fashioned leggy hit, but in today's front-loaded marketplace, it almost qualifies as a sensation.  $100 million is guaranteed at this point, the question now merely remains how far over/under $150 million it ends up and/or how much the film will factor in the year-end awards races.  Viola Davis is a lock for an Oscar nomination (but will her lead performance get placed in the leading or supporting category) and the film is in a pretty good place for a Best Picture nomination.  It would be a lock under the old 10-nominees system, and said two-year experiment was dismantled partially out of the desire to keep such 'popular entertainments' (IE - well-reviewed films that mainstream audiences actually enjoyed... horrors!) out of the field.

Coming in at second place was not any of the new releases, but Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  The (again) well-reviewed and well-liked franchise reboot pulled in another $16.3 million in its third weekend.  It sits with $133 million after seventeen days.  Again, back in the old days, this would have been just a regular old-fashioned hit film.  But in today's insanely front-loaded marketplace, the film qualifies as a leggy winner.  It's respective seventeen-day total puts it just under Thor ($145 million) and Captain America ($143 million), both of which were in 3D and both of which cost about 50% more than the Fox franchise reboot.  Its $134 million total after three weekends exceeds X-Men: First Class ($120 million), I, Robot ($115 million), and GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra ($120 million).  And it's quickly catching up to Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes, which had earned $148 million by this point in time.  So yes, we'll probably be seeing another one of these in 2-3 years (Passion of the Planet of the Apes, perhaps?).

Now we get into the new releases, and it is ugly. The top opener was Spy Kids 4D: All the Time in the World.  It pulled in just $12 million, which was far below the previous openings of the first three films in the series ($26 million, $16 million, and $33 million respectively).  Ironically, the last one, Spy Kids 3D: Game-Over was the first mainstream 3D feature in ages back in 2003, and the last to use the traditional red-blue technique.  The third Rodriguez Spy Kids entry used its 3D as a major selling point to open with a series-high $33 million to cap off summer 2003 (I don't recall any ticket up-charges either, natch).  Eight years later, it was just another 3D movie, with only token appearances from the star-filled original cast.  Jessica Alba may be a gorgeous woman and a seemingly good person, but she is not a box office opener.  The gee-whiz appeal of the first film from 2001 (a family-friendly adventure picture that looks more expensive than it was) is long past the expiration date, and the lousy reviews didn't help.  Like the previous adventures, Robert Rodriguez brought this one in cheap, at just $30 million this time around.  So this is more of a 'won't make money' versus 'will lose a bunch of money.  Should the franchise continue, it will likely be straight-to-DVD from here on out.

The next 'biggest' opener was Lionsgate's $90 million Conan the Barbarian revamp.  This was clearly a case of trying to reboot a franchise for which there was little audience appetite, as the 3D-converted and critically slammed (obviously) R-rated gorefest earned just $10 million.  To put that in sad perspective, the original Conan the Barbarian opened with $9.6 million back in 1982 (that's about $26 million adjusted for inflation).  The marketing this time around lacked the cachet of casting a well-known champion bodybuilder with a strange accent and un-spellable last name.  While the new film may in fact be as much a 'Conan the Barbarian' movie as can be expected (I have not yet seen the new movie nor have I read the original stories), most of the audience for this kind of thing are just the sort of young boys who were turned away by the film's R-rating.  Those currently prepping reboots of The Crow and other such properties should take heed this weekend.  Even if you argue that there was room to try again with Conan the Barbarian, this should not have been a $90 million investment, especially from a studio that has only ever had one $40 million opening weekend (Madea Goes to Jail) and one other $30 million opening for a non-sequel (The Expendables).

And the next contender in the needless and unwanted remake/revamp category goes to Disney/Dreamworks halfhearted Fright Night remake, which grossed just $8.3 million this weekend.  Featuring the absolute worst 3D work in recent history (much of the very dark and muddy-blue/gray film is genuinely painful to watch), this may be a case where 3D actually hurt the film's box office.  While the bigger releases made sure to schedule enough 2D showings to allow for consumer choice, the influx of 3D product this weekend and the smaller nature of said release made 2D Fright Night screenings harder to come by.  Despite (inaccurate) positive reviews, the film was of little appeal to moviegoers who had little knowledge of the original 1985 horror comedy and found the film's marketing remarkably similar to Disturbia (a much better film, by the way). The good news is that Disney/Dreamworks only spent $30 million on this one, so the bleeding will be minimal.  The bad news is that this is the second high-profile genre whiff (after I Am Number Four) from Dreamworks' new deal with Disney.  If I were Marvel Studios, I'd be very nervous right now.  Yes, The Help is an unqualified winner, but that's not exactly the same kind of marketing campaign that propels The Avengers to a massive opening weekend next year. If Real Steel tanks in October, expect Marvel to try to find someway (somehow...) to get Paramount re-involved in the marketing campaigns for future Marvel films.

Last but not quite least is the $5 million debut of the Anne Hathaway/Jim Sturges romantic drama One Day.  I'm sure we'll see headlines everywhere screaming "Anne Hathaway FLOPS!", but don't be that idiot.  The film opened on just 1,600 screens and likely lost out on the bigger auditoriums to the franchise pictures.  It also received brutally bad reviews (most of which picked on Hathaway's accent), while targeting audience demographics (older audiences and women) who actually read and care about reviews.  Still, pure romantic dramas without some kind of genre trappings are notoriously hard sells, as there has been just one (Dear John) that opened above $30 million and only one other (Indecent Proposal) to open even above $18 million.  the film cost $15 million so it will eventually break even.  Hathaway has yet to prove herself a 'by myself opener', but her next film (some superhero movie shooting in Pittsburgh) should probably do quite a bit better.

I'm not going to go on about holdover news, as there isn't much of it.  Final Destination 5 sits at $32 million, having dropped 57% (the biggest second-weekend drop of the franchise) but still remaining above the ten-day totals of the first two Final Destination films ($20 million and $27 million respectively) but below part 3 ($35 million) and part 4 ($47 million).  The Smurfs has absolutely exploded overseas, as its domestic total sits at $117 million while its worldwide cum is at $329 million.  Captain America has crossed $300 million worldwide, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II sits at $365 million domestic and over $1.2 billion worldwide.  Crazy, Stupid Love sits at $64 million domestic and Midnight In Paris crossed the $50 million mark.  Oh, and Glee: the 3D Concert Movie dropped 69% but crossed the $10 million mark, meaning the film has surpassed its meager budget and will likely rake it in on DVD/Blu Ray.

Join us next weekend, for the actual season finale of summer 2011 (this weekend was the climax), as three low-key release will try to prevent The Help from repeating at number one.  Zoe Saldana finally gets her own action vehicle with Colombiana, while Film District tries to repeat their Insidious success with Don't Be Afraid of the Dark.  And The Weinstein Company will try to... um... have a film that doesn't flop with the Paul Rudd vehicle Our Idiot Brother.  And thus will end summer 2011, with three low-key debuts all in glorious 2D.

Scott Mendelson                              

Trailer: Daniel Radcliffe's The Woman In Black teases old-school gothic horror and period-piece ghostly menace. Yes, please.

This frankly looks fantastic.  First of all, Daniel Radcliffe genuinely looks like a young adult, which is of paramount necessity to selling this one.  But, most importantly, this looks like a slice of genre heaven.  The atmosphere feels real, the production looks stark and foreboding, and the use of a young girl to narrate the sinister poem sounds just right.  Kudos to CBS Films for apparently leaving much to the imagination, as the film offers plenty of creepy imagery while leaving the general narrative and presumably most of the big shocks unspoiled.  This one comes out on February 3rd of 2012.  As always, we'll see, but I'm pretty sure this one will be worth the babysitter (be it for a press screening or opening night).

Scott Mendelson 

Who says original filmmaking is dead? A glance at the Fall Movie Season to come...

When we pundits and critics wring our hands about the death of original cinema, we are frankly talking mostly about the big-budget tent-poles and/or genre films that are released by major studios.  In truth, there are plenty of films that qualify as original that are released year-round.  We obsess on the remakes and reboots because they generally fall in the film-nerd-friendly genres that we obsess over.  But there are plenty of original films out there for those who want to obsess on more than just the comic book adaptations, the animated films, and the sci-fi and horror genres.  Of the 98 films coming out between September and December (according to this week's Entertainment Weekly 'Fall Movie Preview'), only eighteen would theoretically qualify as a sequel, a remake, franchise revamp, or spin-off of a known property.  They are -

In September, we have just the re-release of The Lion King in 3D, plus the Rod Lurie remake of Straw Dogs.  In October, we have a Footloose remake, a prequel to The Thing, Paranormal Activity 3, a 3D-revamp of The Three Musketeers, and Johnny English Reborn.  As we get into the holiday season, November brings us the Shrek spin-off Puss in Boots, A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas, Happy Feet Two, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn part I, The Muppets, and Piranha 3DD.  Finally, December brings us New Year's Eve (technically a spin-off to last year's Valentine's Day), Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, David Fincher's remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and Brad Bird's Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol.  Assuming I didn't miss anything, that's one re-release, one prequel, two spin-offs, two franchise revamps, three remakes, and nine sequels.  That gives us just 18% of the film releases during the last third of the year that don't qualify as at least somewhat original (by which we mean either completely original or adapted from a book, a play, or some other medium).

So, in the eighteen weeks from September to December, there are an eye-popping 5.4 films being released each week.  So if you only go by averages, there are four 'original films' you could seek out in theaters for every one not-so original property that is released on any given week.  Yes, some of these original films are potentially junky fare (Shark Night 3D, Real Steal, Immortals, etc), but there are plenty of what pundits and/or snobs would call 'nourishing' films being released.  You've got Moneyball, The Ides of March, The Skin I Live In, J. Edgar, Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy, We Need to Talk About Kevin, We Bought A Zoo, and War Horse among 73 others.  Point being, if you can't find an original, intelligent, adult-themed drama/comedy/etc this holiday season, then the fault (my dear Brutus) lies not in the stars, but within yourself.

Scott Mendelson

DVD Review: The Ward (2011)

The Ward
2011
88 minutes
rated R

by Scott Mendelson

There is nothing particularly wrong with The Ward, there is just little about it to stand out amongst the sea of similar genre entries, to say nothing of the whole slew of direct-to-DVD films that fill the shelves of Blockbuster and the queue of Netflix any given day.  That this film was given a token theatrical release just last month is only because it happens to be helmed by one of the more respected horror filmmakers of the 1970s and 1980s.  But the era of John Carpenter is long over.  While I can tell you that the film looks more polished and more overtly cinematic that it likely would have if directed by someone less esteemed, the picture remains a relative non-entity.  It's not bad so much as it's not very good in any notable way.

A token amount of plot:  Its 1966 and Kristen (Amber Heard) has just been taking to a mental institution for torching a house.  While she is relatively level-headed compared to the more overtly 'eccentric' girls housed there, she is still deemed a threat to herself and others and is locked up for therapy.  While the seemingly aloof Dr. Stringer (Jared Harris) attempts to get this young woman to open up, something sinister and possibly supernatural is stalking the halls of this facility.  One by one the other girls meet tragic fates, while a seemingly uncaring staff looks the other way.  Can Kristen and the dwindling survivors solve the mystery or will the ghostly killer claim all who reside there?

There are some small touches that I appreciated, I will confess.  This is a rare film set in a mental institution where the staff are not overtly abusive and sexually exploitative (there is an almost shocking moment where an orderly, played by D.R. Anderson explicitly turns down a sexual advance from one of the patients).  And while Dr. Stringer doesn't seem all that capable of digging into young Kristen's mind, he does seem to be a caring and genuinely concerned therapist.  I also appreciated the lack of gore, as the film's violence has more in common with Carpenter's earlier works (Halloween, The Fog) than his later bloodbaths (Vampires, Ghosts of Mars).  And while all of the other young women (Lyndsy Fonseca, Laura-Leigh, Mamie Gummer, Danielle Panabaker, and Sali Sayler) are all quite attractive (Fonseca rocks the nerd/bookworm-glasses thing), the film doesn't linger on their sexuality or make it a factor in the plot.  Arguably most importantly, the sure hand of Carpenter does give way to several moments of genuine suspense and tension.  This project may be 'beneath him' in terms of size and scope, but he brings a genuine cinematic feel to what could have been a bargain-basement horror project.

Still, at the end of the day, the movie doesn't have all that much to offer.  Like In the Mouth of Madness, the film's revelations eventually cancel-out any real re-watch factor.  Whether or not that should be held against the film is open to debate (Alejandro Amenábar's The Others is a near-masterpiece on the first viewing, but painfully dull any time after that).  The performances are all pretty solid and the young women are indeed sympathetic enough for you to NOT root for their deaths.  The Ward is a perfectly successful in what it sets out to do, but what it sets out to do isn't much.  You could say that this is a blow to the legacy of John Carpenter, but I'd slightly disagree.  I'd rather see Carpenter end his career making small-but-effective movies like this one.  It's a better way to go out than Wes Craven, who can't even succeed when given all the relatively big-budget tools at his disposal.  The Ward may be slight, but it's a hell of a lot better than any film Wes Craven, Tobe Hopper, or even Brian DePalma has directed in at least five years or so.

Grade: B-

The DVD - The picture and sound are fine for a low-budget film.  More importantly, this release inexplicably doesn't contain a single subtitle track.  Yes, there are allegedly English closed-captions, but no actual subtitles.  This is doubly odd considering that Arc Entertainment's other recent release Ironclad (pretty good hack-and-slash medieval battle film, by the way) contains an English subtitle track.  On the plus side, those watching it at a lower volume due to a sleeping infant in the next room can take heart that this is very little dialogue in the film, so perhaps it was a case-by-case call.  Still, the omission is frustrating.  On the extras front, there is only a theatrical trailer and a commentary, which features John Carpenter and Jared Harris.  So in closing, the film is merely okay, and the DVD (or Blu Ray if so inclined) is at-best a rental, as there are few special features and the film has a severely limited replay value.

Weekend Box Office (08-14-11): Rise of the Planet of the Apes tops again, The Help sizzles, Final Destination 5, 30 Minutes or Less, and Glee Live! underwhelm.

 It's a little sad when a drop of just under 50% is considered leggy, but here we are.  Rise of the Planet of the Apes dropped 'just' 49% in its second weekend, which was strong enough to once again claim the top spot at the box office.  The well-received franchise reboot earned $27.8 million in weekend two, for a ten-day total of $105 million.  The number puts it well-ahead of movies that opened with similar numbers in summers past, such as I, Robot ($95 million after ten days), X-Men ($99 million), X-Men: First Class ($98 million), GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra ($98 million), and The Incredible Hulk ($97 million).  It is comparatively down from Tim Burton's still-lousy (just watched it again this weekend) Planet of the Apes, which opened with $69 million back in 2001 and ended its tenth day with $123 million.  However, this much-better received and much cheaper variation is falling at a smaller rate, so it has a chance of catching up to the $180 million earned by the Burton re-imagining ten years ago.  The film is doing the usual Fox magic overseas as well, as it has $179.6 million worldwide, which makes this a HUGE win for the $93 million production.

Coming in at second place, but hobbled over the weekend by a Wednesday opening, was The Help.  The much-anticipated and much-debated Civil Rights-era drama earned a terrific $26 million over the Friday-Sunday portion of the weekend and $35.9 million since opening on Wednesday.  Three things of note - The film would clearly have won the weekend had Disney opened it on a Friday, and it would have easily won the weekend had Disney decided to convert the Emma Stone/Viola Davis drama into 3D (such a move would have netted the film around $31 million for the weekend and $42 million over five days).  The film played 74% female and 60% 35 years and older, which makes the opening all the more impressive (as all know, older audiences don't generally rush out on opening weekend).The picture had stunning legs over the whole weekend, pulling in a terrific 6.5x multiplier over the long weekend and a stunningly good (for this day and age) Fri-Sun multiplier of 3.4x.  Finally, along with a Cinemascore of A+, the film pulled off the rare feat of earning more on Sunday than it did on Friday.  Point being, pundits may carp about the film's very existence (yes, there are too few minority-driven films that are not told from the minority point of view, but how is the movie itself?), but it's going to be around for awhile and likely figure into the Oscar season.  As always, I'm amazed at how many people outside a given minority group are so quick to gang up on a film that deals with a given minority group and call it 'racist' or 'not healthy' for said group (I think they can make up their own minds, thank you).  It's a perfectly fine movie with strong performances across the board, and it's easily as much Davis's movie as it is Stone's.  If you're one of those who protested that an esteemed actress of color like Viola Davis had to play a maid, well then I'm sure you're always first in line for the newest Tyler Perry movie and/or fare like Jumping the Broom... right?  And I'm sure you were first in line to see her supporting turns as an authoritative and thoughtful therapist in It's a Funny Kind of Story and/or Trust, right?  Right?

Coming in at third place was Final Destination 5 (review), which opened well-below the last installment ($28 million two years ago) and just under the third installment back in 2006.  The film still opened with a solid $18 million, although once you factor in the 3D bump and inflation, it's the least-attended opening weekend since the original opened with $10 million back in 2000.  Some of this is mere series fatigue, as horror film franchises just can't keep going up forever.  More likely, it was a situation similar to the Saw franchise.  Both long-running horror franchises saw two lousy sequels hurt the brand to such an extent that the newest installment, despite being a VAST improvement, suffered at the box office from many viewers just giving up.  And of course, the 3D was a big selling point back in summer 2009 (four months before Avatar), but now Final Destination 5 is just another 3D attraction (albeit one that more than earns your 3D dollar if you so choose).  Still, these films remain pretty cheap, so we may yet see another Final Destination 6 in two or three years time.  The picture played 54% male and 50% over/under 25 years old.

Also somewhat disappointing this weekend was the $13.3 million debut of 30 Minutes or Less.  Still, it's a cheap ($28 million) film that got lousy reviews, starring those box office dynamos Jesse Eisenberg, Aziz Ansari, and Danny McBride.  The premise may also have been a hindrance, since it's based on a true story about a guy who was (according to whom you believe) willingly or unwillingly forced to rob a bank with a bomb strapped to his chest and then blown up for his troubles.  Anyway, the film didn't have the star power of Bad Teacher ($97 million), the crowd-pleasing hook or Horrible Bosses ($110 million), or the 'important social monument' of Bridesmaids ($167 million), so it was probably never going to open all that big.  It certainly wasn't as overtly commercial as director Ruben Fleisher's last film, Zombieland.  As the summer of the R-rated comedy comes to an end, the important thing was not that they were all big hits, but that there were enough of them that not all of them had to be huge successes to prove to the studios that there was a marketplace for adult comedies starring adult movie stars and/or with adult premises.  Anyway, 30 Minutes or Less will likely tap out at under $30 million, but it's not the end of the world for anyone involved.        

The last major opener was Glee: the 3D Concert Movie, which was basically a last-minute addition to the summer schedule, which makes its lousy box office performance more-or-less irrelevant.  Yes, the film grossed $5.9 million over the weekend, which is very sad and all.  But the concert film cost just $7 million and had minimal advertising.  The theatrical release itself was arguably just a glorified ad for the DVD/Blu Ray release.  The fans of the show (myself included) had little desire to see something that was just a concert variation of something they could see on TV for free in less than a month.  This wasn't a cheap alternative to a sold-out concert tour whose tickets were going for $1,500 a pop online ala Hanna Montana/Miley Cyrus: The Best of Both Worlds nor was it the last filmed performances of a defining and recently deceased artist of our generation like Michael Jackson: This Is It.  This was basically just a documentary about a relatively popular summer concert tour that Fox decided to convert to 3D and toss into theaters.  It didn't stick, but no harm no foul this time around.  The audience was 79% female and 66% under 25 years old. So if I had been a younger single-er guy trying to pick up girls, there would be worse places to be this weekend.

In holdover news, The Smurfs crossed the $100 million mark this weekend, and it's doing gangbusters business overseas, with a $242 million total in just seventeen days.  Cowboys and Aliens now sits with $81 million after seventeen days, but much of its overseas markets remain untapped.  For now, it is indeed the biggest whiff of the summer, although I'd argue that Green Lantern (which made more but cost more) is the far more damaging flop ($114 million domestic, $176 million worldwide thus far) as it hurts the DC Comics brand name over the long haul.  In better news, Captain America crossed $150 million this weekend, as it looks to finish just a bit behind the $180 million haul of Thor (it's nearing $300 million worldwide).  The $50 million-costing Crazy, Stupid Love crossed $55 million this weekend, despite being well, crazy and stupid.  The Change-Up sits with just $25 million after two weekends, as the $50 million comedy both wasn't nearly as bad as you've heard and still cost way too much for what it had to sell.  Oh, and Senna, about Brazilian Formula One racer Ayrton Senna earned $73,497 on two screens.  Call me impressed when it expands beyond two carefully-selected screens and still does decent business.

It's another stupidly crowded weekend next week too, as four major releases (Conan The Barbarian, Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, Fright Night, and One Day) square off.  Of note - the first three of those (a franchise revamp, a sequel, and a remake... joy) are all in 3D, while the other Anne Hathway/Jim Sturgess vehicle is opening on just 1,600 screens.  Point being, don't be that idiot that screams "Anne Hathaway FLOPS!" if One Day opens to well-under $15 million next weekend.  Until then, keep reading and commenting, and enjoy this clever Spy Kids 3/Tron: Legacy mashup which proves yet again how uninspired Tron: Legacy really was.

Scott Mendelson