Eugene Novikov
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Exposed Wounds: Oscar Season's Two Best Performances
Filed under: Drama, Awards, New Releases, War
One mark of a world-class actor is the ability to convince us that a character exists outside the confines of the screenplay. It is one thing to skillfully deliver a dramatic monologue, to tap depths of volcanic rage or crippling grief for a big Oscar moment played to the cheap seats. Far rarer and more valuable are performances that quietly suggest what isn't spelled out: key character details expressed through gait or inflection; off-screen experiences hinted at with a look, a gesture, or a wayward smile. This is really a difference between an actor and a performer. Tom Cruise is a great performer. Philip Seymour Hoffman is a great actor. So is, for example, Patricia Clarkson.
In The Messenger, Ben Foster plays Staff Sergeant Will Montgomery, who is shipped home after an injury, and assigned to serve out the last three months of his enlistment on "notification duty" with the apparently unbalanced Captain Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson). The two of them are tasked with telling the next of kin that a soldier won't be coming home, a job that consists of knocking on a door, reading from a script ("the Secretary of the Army extends his deepest condolences..."), and bracing oneself for a likely onslaught of abuse.
Weekend Box Office: 'The Blind Side' Takes Over a Low-Key Weekend
Filed under: New Releases, Box Office
We are currently in the calm before the storm, waiting to see what manner of box office havoc Avatar and Sherlock Holmes will wreak starting December 18th. This weekend was conceded to the leggy The Blind Side, which took over the top spot from New Moon to bring its total gross to around $130 million. New Moon took another big hit, but it hardly matters; the movie will struggle to get to $300 million, but has a fighting chance at it. The movie that's petered out a little domestically is 2012 -- it's at $148 million and won't get much farther, though its worldwide numbers ($600 million and counting) more than make up for it.The weekend's new arrivals did not make much of a splash. Nearly $10 million for Brothers sounds okay to me -- the movie is a painful, dead-serious drama that would have been buried deep in the arthouses were it not for its star power. $6.6 million for Screen Gems' Armored is neither here nor there; the marketing was awfully generic (though I'm curious about the movie since Nimrod Antal's Vacancy was terrific). $4 million for Everybody's Fine on 2000 screens is a disappointment; I think Family Stone-type numbers ($12 million) were achievable. It seems like Miramax has been totally neutered.
Oscar front-runner Up in the Air got a promising start on 15 screens, landing at #13. And the dreadful-looking Transylmania scored the third worst wide release of all time with a $272 average on 1000 screens.
The full chart after the jump.
Wait, Wait, Wait: 'Steven Seagal: Lawman'?
Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy
I realize (belatedly) that this is not breaking news, but I heard about it for the first time the other day and nearly choked on my Sunkist. Did you know that: a) Steven Seagal, the pony-tailed B-movie bad-ass who needs no introduction, has spent the better part of two decades working as a deputy sheriff in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, a downscale suburb of New Orleans, and b) A&E will shortly be airing a COPS-like reality TV show depicting his adventures called Steven Seagal: Lawman? It's true. The first episode airs December 2nd. For more details on the show, you might take a look at this post from over the weekend on our sister blog TV Squad, which among other things includes this wonderful quote, delivered to a group of police trainees: "Some of you may know who I am, and some of you don't. I've been doing martial arts for 40 years, so you can look at me as Steven Seagal, he's a movie star, or you can look at me and say Steven Seagal, he can save my life." Indeed.
But you might also look at these clips from the A&E website for the show, which made me choke back some of my laughter. 'Cause as much as it sounds like a joke, it doesn't really look like one. I mean, by all accounts, the guy has been working as a real live policeman on the side for twenty years. It's a dangerous and unglamorous job. He doesn't do it for the money or the attention, as evidenced by the fact that almost no one knew about his moonlighting for twenty years. He does it, apparently, because it's a job where he can help people and put his skills to some use. Isn't that... kind of awesome? How many movie stars have done something similar?
Anyone else now have a new respect for Steven Seagal?
Weekend Box Office: 'New Moon' Edges 'Blind Side' Over Thanksgiving
Filed under: New Releases, Box Office
It's a bit disconcerting when a movie takes a 70% tumble in its second weekend, and still ends up with a $66 million holiday take, but that's Twilight fans for you. New Moon took all of eight days to get to $200 million, a number bested only by The Dark Knight and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. It doesn't look like New Moon's staying power will be particularly impressive, but when your movie opens to $142 million, you don't really need it.A movie that might be sticking around the top of the charts for a few weeks yet is The Blind Side, which surged to get an 18% boost over its strong opening weekend (3-day numbers). The relentlessly positive movie no doubt was helped by families looking for something generically acceptable to watch together over the holiday weekend. Even those who don't care for The Blind Side should be happy that most families chose it over the universally despised Old Dogs, which landed in fourth place with $24 million over the five-day weekend, about $15 million less than its predecessor-in-everything-but-name (but really in name too), Wild Hogs, made in its three-day opening.
The weekend's other major debut was Ninja Assassin, which put up a lukewarm $21 million. That's weaker than the non-holiday opening of the last McTeigue/Wachowski Bros. collaboration, V for Vendetta, despite Ninja Assassin seemingly having broader potential appeal (I mean, come on -- ninjas). Opening in limited release was Dimension's The Road, which did okay on just over 100 screens. It seems safe to say that the dark, grimy post-apocalyptic thriller won't be a breakout hit.
The holiday top 11 after the jump.
In Defense Of: 'The X-Files: I Want to Believe'
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Fan Rant
*There are spoilers here.*
I've been meaning to write this for a while, but wanted to wait until I could give The X-Files: I Want to Believe a second viewing, which I finally did yesterday, on beautiful Blu-Ray. I am a long-time X-Phile; the show, which I started watching around age 13, is one of my formative viewing experiences; I trace my current love for things ambiguous, fantastic and otherworldly squarely back to Chris Carter's brilliant creation. And I dissent in a big way from both the layman and fan consensus on I Want to Believe. I still think, as I did in the summer of 2008, that the movie is a fantastic X-Files episode. But more importantly, I still think it is a genuinely moving farewell to two beloved characters, and one of the most satisfying pieces of closure that any long-running series or franchise has ever given us.
One thing that I suspect threw people off was the movie's snowbound melancholy, replacing the apocalyptic terror of The X-Files' last big-screen outing, 1998's Fight the Future. There's some excitement here, and a few laughs, but the overall tone is more akin to "Beyond the Sea," the beloved, somber first-season episode that was more concerned with personal demons than actual ones. It's hard to fault moviegoers for expecting something bigger and louder out of what was, after all, pitched as the popular series' triumphant return. But it's also hard -- or at any rate it should be -- to fault Chris Carter and his team for wanting to take the movie in a different direction. Rather than have Mulder and Scully go out with a bang, they chose to put them to bed, give them a hug, and tuck in the covers.
Weekend Box Office: 'New Moon' Lives Up to the Hype
Filed under: New Releases, Box Office
Sometimes a movie will consume the internet for weeks before its release, and then turn out to be Snakes on a Plane. This is not one of those times. New Moon didn't set the all time opening weekend box office record, but it came uncomfortably close, and -- holy crap -- it now owns the record for the highest single-day gross ever, a $72 million Friday. Twilight opened to almost precisely half of New Moon's $140 million number, and went on to gross $192 million. The sequel should pass that mark by next weekend. New Moon's staying power is a bit difficult to forecast. On one hand, its grosses may be frontloaded, as is typical when rabid fans of the source material rush out to pack midnight and opening-day showings. On the other, this might just be the kind of film that, even more so than its predecessor, generates repeat business. (Along these lines, I wonder if the egregious objectification of men in New Moon's marketing campaign is a victory for feminism. I vote yes.)
Getting somewhat lost in all the New Moon hoopla is the slightly less dramatic victory scored by the earnest, good-natured tearjerker The Blind Side, which took second place with nearly $35 million, which I suspect is another testament to the enduring box office draw of Sandra Bullock. (As a side note, the enduring box office draw of Sandra Bullock must be a testament to the awfulness of All About Steve, which topped out at $33 million despite her prominent presence.) It was also smart of Warner Bros. to deemphasize the sports angle -- a "football movie" would not have done this well.
More, and the top 10, after the jump.
Cinematical Seven: Movies That Start Fights
Filed under: Horror, Independent, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, New Releases, Cinematical Seven
I've been meaning to purchase and wear this t-shirt since I learned of its existence a couple of months ago, but I figured I'd better let the Twilight: New Moon hysteria die down first. It would appear, after all, that openly declaring one's hostility toward the Twilight franchise on one's person, even with a statement as unquestionably correct as "Vampires Don't Sparkle," is just asking for trouble. You do not want to mess with a gaggle of rabid Robert Pattinson fans.
I do not hate the Twilight franchise, actually, though I would like to suggest that the Twilighteers may live to regret sinking so much time and emotion into something so utterly banal. But I seem to be one of the few who occupy the middle ground. Twilight might be the most divisive love-it-or-hate-it phenomenon of the last few years. Not everyone adores Harry Potter, but most people have at least a grudging respect for it; Twilight has as many haters as fawning admirers.
You gotta admit that if you can use a movie to start an argument, it's at least good for something. Here are seven other movies that seem to disproportionately divide the moviegoing population into adoring fans and angry detractors.
1. Titanic - To get the obvious out of the way. It's amazing to me how often people make offhand derisive mentions of Titanic, as if its awfulness were well-established and self-evident. As with Twilight, of course, the surprisingly widespread disdain of this movie is a backlash against its army of obsessive partisans (and from a similar demographic to boot) -- the folks who showed up on local news shows in 1997 bragging about having seen it 16 times in the theater, etc. The fact that Titanic is a fantastic film -- and not really (or at least not only) for the reasons many of its fans think -- tends to get lost in the shuffle, sadly.
Weekend Box Office: '2012' Feeds Appetite for Destruction
Filed under: New Releases, Box Office
Occasionally you'll hear a movie branded as "criticproof," which I take to be a derisive term implying that the masses will flock even though the movie in question is garbage If there's an entire genre that may now get described as "criticproof" it's the disaster movie. No amount of bad reviews could keep people away from watching Roland Emmerich destroy the world anew in 2012, which made $65 million domestically and $225 million worldwide. The domestic numbers are comparable to The Day After Tomorrow which, among other things, ran 40 minutes shorter. The foreign numbers are even stronger. Those who've seen the movie shouldn't be surprised. Think of it what you will (it's probably my favorite Emmerich film, which is not saying a lot), but it's pretty incomparable as special effects spectacle.2012 had the box office pretty well to itself this weekend. Its only new competition in even semi-wide release was Pirate Radio, which largely flopped despite the enthusiastic pimping of the Love Actually connection -- under $3 million on 880 screens. Faring better was Precious, which expanded to just under 200 screens and earned $6 million. With Precious and Paranormal Activity, this is proving to be a good season for slow roll-out platform releases; Precious seems to be doing a nice job of building awards buzz, too.
As expected, A Christmas Carol turned out to be durable, still running way ahead of The Polar Express, and looking to get a bump from the Thanksgiving holiday in a couple weeks. Look for this one to stick around the top 5 for a little while. On the other hand, the reign of 2012 meant big hits for the holdover genre films, including The Fourth Kind, The Box, and Paranormal Activity.
The box office chart after the jump.
Weekend Box Office: 'Christmas Carol' and 'Precious' Bow Big
Filed under: New Releases, Box Office
I was considering a title pun on Richard Kelly getting Box-ed out -- which works on multiple levels!! -- but I couldn't pull the trigger. That, though, is my main concern this weekend, to be honest: I am heartbroken (though not surprised) that Kelly's wonderful, hugely ambitious sci-fi flick couldn't get a foothold at the box office. People at my Thursday night screening thought they had seen one of the worst movies ever, which I guess is what happens when you're led to expect harmless PG-13 horror and get something so radically different. I also suspect that Donnie Darko would have been similarly received had it opened on 2,600 screens instead of building its cult cred in mini-release and on DVD. Anyway, The Boxearned $7.9 million -- not a total disaster for a $25 million movie, but not exactly a resume-builder for Kelly to the extent he has commercial ambitions. It was roundly defeated by the rest of the weekend's newcomers, most notably A Christmas Carol, which took first place with $31 million. That may not seem like a lot, but note that Zemeckis's The Polar Express opened to even less on its way to $180 million. I predict that A Christmas Carol, which looks wonderful on IMAX 3-D, will hold up well.
The weekend's other big winner was Precious, which Lionsgate pushed to an impressive $100,000 per-screen average on 18 screens. Even accounting for the very limited release, that's pretty strong; Brokeback Mountain-like numbers ($80-90 million) are probably within reach.
More, and the weekend top 10, after the jump.
Jake Gyllenhaal Joins Duncan Jones for 'Source Code'
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting
I'm not sure what happened to Escape from the Deep, the World War II submarine thriller which was supposed to be the next project for Moon's Duncan Jones, or Mute (his other original sci-fi film). The news today, though, is even more exciting: it seems that instead of tackling historical fiction, Jones will go back to the well for some more heady science-fiction with Source Code. If the title sounds familiar, it's because the project has been floating around for over two years; last year, Shane Abbess (of the Australian pseudo-religious horror film Gabriel) was set to direct. Source Code was written by Ben Ripley (Species III!), with a once-over by Billy Ray -- a master of the thoughtful genre film. In it, a character is forced relive a train bombing from the point of view of a stranger until he can figure out who's responsible. Jake Gyllenhaal is in negotiations to play the soldier protagonist, or perhaps the third party he inhabits. It's not clear if this is a "conventional" time-travel story or something more akin to Groundhog Day.
Jones is also attached to another sci-fi project called Mute, which he is writing and which he discusses briefly here. Source Code is supposed to start filming early next year, which will probably put the other film (not to mention Escape from the Deep) on the back burner. Meanwhile, awards speculation is starting to simmer around Moon, and especially the richly deserving Sam Rockwell. I'll believe that when I see it -- but Jones' debut showed such remarkable promise that I'm awaiting his next film with bated breath.
Exposed Wounds: Oscar Season's Two Best Performances
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