In Contention

Tag: Observe and Report

  • SUNDAY CENTS: Zac attack

    17 AgainFor the second weekend in a row, a product of the Disney Channel has headlined the top film at the box office. This week it’s Zac Efron in the Warner Bros. comedy “17 Again.” Sure, this plot has been done before multiple times (three in 1988 alone), but not with that distinct new millennium flavor. What’s that? “13 Going on 30?” Okay, so no movie this millennium has done it with a boy as the lead.

    And that’s why this film needed to be made. Conceptual gripes aside, I actually like Zac Efron and if the trailers are any indication, his timing and charm are the only things this film have going for it. A $24.1 million opening weekend is virtually identical to the aforementioned Jennifer Garner vehicle, which helped her establish an identity outside of “Alias.” Her next film was “Electra” so hopefully Efron is paying attention.

    “State of Play” investigates second place with $14.1 million and a handful of decent reviews. In previous years this kind of film would have done better (Affleck’s 2002 April thriller “Changing Lanes” debuted with $21.2 million), but in 2009, Universal will take that result. Direct competition comes from “The Soloist” next week but the word of mouth among adults should be strong enough that this sticks around until Memorial Day.

    After the demanding “Master and Commander” shoot, Russell Crowe said he wasn’t interested in doing movies where he was in every shot any more and that explains his last four films pitting him against an equally famous co-star. With the exception of “American Gangster,” all of them have debuted with $13-$14 million.

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  • SUNDAY CENTS: Whoa, Montana!

    Hannah Montana: The MovieMiley Cyrus proved to be just as popular in two dimensions as she was in three as “Hannah Montana: The Movie” opened at the top of the Easter box office chart with $34 million.  Given that $17 million of that came from Friday alone, one could assume that this will be a one-week wonder.  However, most kids were out of school for Good Friday so you have to cut it a little bit of slack.

    The debut couldn’t quite match the $40 million of “High School Musical 3” but it far outpaces the $20.6 million debut of the last Disney Channel princess to get her own movie (anybody remember Lizzie McGuire?)

    Seth Rogen tested his appeal by appearing in a pitch black comedy from the creators of HBO’s “Eastbound & Down” and the result was a relatively soft $11.1 million for “Observe and Report.”  The women who make up more than 50% of the audience for films like “I Love You, Man” and “Knocked Up” just weren’t interested in a film that includes possible date rape in its trailers.  Go figure.  Warm reviews and a long life on DVD will have to be the rewards for making something unique and interesting.

    Way back in seventh place is Fox’s third disaster of the year, “Dragonball Evolution,” with a limp $4.7 million.  Missing the boat by a good 10 years in terms of this property’s appeal, the existence of the film in 2009 is completely baffling.  I’m gonna go out on a limb and declare its Oscar prospects to be minimal.  Maybe if Fox Searchlight had released it instead.

    Even with no school on Friday, “Fast & Furious” dropped a hefty 59% from last weekend.  Apparently the title refers to how the film will exit the theaters.  “Adventureland” had a better decline of 40%, but still too high for a film relying on word of mouth to get somewhere.  It’s partly my fault since I thought about seeing it this week but ultimately saw “Duplicity” instead.  Probably a mistake, since that film was mildly amusing at best.

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  • SUNDAY CENTS: ‘Fast’ cash

    Fast & FuriousI have recently unearthed an internal industry memo.  It reads:

    Dear Studios,

    If you’d like us to pay to see your franchises, you must bring back all the cast members that starred in the original.  Do not worry about changing the plot too much, we liked what we saw that first time.  You don’t even need to change the title, just get rid of those definite articles that waste marquee space.  If you follow our demands, we will show up in droves.

    Signed, America

    That explains how “Fast & Furious” was able to make $72.5 million over the weekend.  That’s stronger than both the $50.9 million of the original and the $60.1 million debut of its first sequel.  It’s better than any other film from 2009 so far and any other film that’s ever debuted in the month of April.  By a mile.  For Paul Walker and Vin Diesel, what seemed like desperation now looks like smart business sense.  Legs will be atrocious but it doesn’t matter.  $300 million worldwide seems like a certainty at this point and Hollywood may start looking at April a little differently.  Anybody that shelled out $10 to see this has no right to complain about anything Hollywood puts out ever again.

    A film with good reviews opened as well but since there were no car chases in it, sixth place and $6.0 million is all it could muster.  The film is “Adventureland” and despite Miramax’s attempts to market it like a raunchy, broad teen comedy, audiences saw through all that and the film performed like a coming-of-age drama.  Legs could be decent but they’ll have to be tremendous for the film to even reach $20 million.

    Another new face appeared in the top 10, bringing up the rear.  Overture expanded “Sunshine Cleaning” to 479 theaters and earned a solid $1.9 million.  The Sundance pick-up has set itself up to finish slightly better than Overture’s indie-that-could from last year, “The Visitor,” but don’t count on any Oscar attention.  The grosses aren’t near enough to wipe away the mediocre reviews.

    In its second week, “Monsters vs. Aliens” dropped an understandable 44% and crossed the $100 million mark today.  Despite a slower start, it should have no trouble fending off “Fast & Furious” and lay claim to the title of highest grossing film of the first quarter by the time May rolls around.  As for the film most had pegged for that honor, the news gets grimmer and grimmer.  Already out of the top 10 and struggling to double its debut, “Watchmen” is being met with shrugs throughout the world and has amassed only $67 million overseas.  “Bride Wars” has made $54 million so you do the  math.

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  • “Listen you f***ers you screwheads…”

    I was watching some special on “Eastbound & Down” recently where one of the producers (might have been Will Ferrell, or maybe it was David Green) was talking about how the show is a commentary on the state of the hero in pop culture.  Then I heard the talk out of SXSW about “Observe and Report,” Joe Leydon’s review, for instance, indicating transgression and the idea of capturing the film’s essence in four words: “Travis Bickle: Mall Cop.”

    More and more I dig what this crew (Jody Hill, Green, Seth Rogen, etc.) is doing with comedy on the screen and forgive me, but I think Jeff Wells is missing the purposeful irony of a tag line like “Right now, the world needs a hero.”  Given the perspective Hill and company have on protagonists on the small screen, I think this is more than just an arbitrary Warner Bros. marketing decision.

    I haven’t seen “Observe and Report,” but I’m catching a whiff of something truly special.

    Observe and Report advertisement in Times Square

  • The dawn of the journo Twitter apocalypse

    TwitterI was having lunch with a publicist recently who seemed to be totally confused at how Twitter was going to affect her job.  You know, someone sees a film, Twitters something about it off the cuff and suddenly there’s a conversation to be contained.

    My point of view is that there is nothing I can Tweet that I can’t go into my WordPress iPhone application and embellish a bit further and just as fast.  So the sudden boom of the Twitter culture seems like a big ole’ non-starter to me.  After all, speaking just for myself, I forget I have an account half the time.  And when it comes to work, like I said, I’d rather log in and post something here rather than offer up some quick line of “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” on another platform entirely.

    A friend recently wrote a piece for The Huffington Post on all this mess.  She stands by Twitter as a journalistic tool, but I can’t take that dive yet.  I think what we’re seeing is an industry struggling to stay hip, fresh and, above all, mobile.  So Twitter is just the flavor of the month (even though it’s been around forever).

    Then I saw Peter Sciretta over at /Film had put up a post called “Early Twitter Buzz: Observe and Report,” collecting the SXSW reactions to the film from folks like Film School Rejects’ Neil Miller, indieWIRE’s Matt Dentler and Cinematical’s James Rocchi, with some varied public reactions (I think) tossed in here and there.  Suddenly it seems my publicist friend’s nightmare might be a reality.

    Anyway, speaking of SXSW and “Observe and Report,” here’s part one of Anne Thompson’s interview with director Jody Hill (woo-hoo “Eastbound & Down!”) and actor Seth Rogen.  Head on over to Thompson on Hollywood for part two:

  • David Gordon Green catches his stride in comedy

    (from left) Danny McBride and David Gordon Green on the set of Eastbound & DownIt has to be doubly sweet for my southern brethren to take in HBO’s “Eastbound & Down” every Sunday night, but even if this country detail or that passes below your radar, or heck, even if you don’t know a blatant Ric Flair gag when you see one, I can’t imagine anyone not laughing their ass off at this thing week after week.

    Then again, maybe I’m wrong.  The Danny McBride brand of humor might be seen as an extension of the Apatow/Rogen trajectory we’ve been on, toilet humor a bit too low on the brow for some.  Not me.  I’m eating it up.

    Strikingly, I think the last three episodes (plus last year’s “Pineapple Express”) prove that David Gordon Green should stick to comedy and prepare to make his mark there, because this seems to be his calling.  I’m all for the era of artistic stretching he’s been interested in since “George Washington” leaped off the neighborhoods of North Carolina and onto Roger Ebert’s top 10 list, though 95% of all of that never worked for me.  And I’m sure he’ll go there once again.  But as long as he wants to stick in this vein, I’m game.

    Not only is the timing something special (and just take a look at the editorial choices made in “Pineapple” by flipping between the extended and theatrical cuts on the Blu-ray or DVD for evidence there), but the mundane is represented like never before.  Last July I wrote of “Pineapple” the following:

    Yes, the man who staked a claim on the mundane mumblings of children and the love-struck in films like “George Washington” and “All the Real Girls” has applied those sensibilities to a niche genre that roots itself in same.

    And it works! It works so well it’s a shame Terrence Malick never tried his hand at “Up in Smoke.” The pieces slide into place and find a cohesive fit that couldn’t have been more unexpected.

    And that’s the case with “Eastbound & Down.”  100%.

    Of course, plenty of credit is due to co-creators McBride and Jody Hill (directing this summer’s “Observe and Report”), but the guidance behind the camera is exceptional.  I only hope I’m not the only guy taking this stuff for more than surface level, however, because it deserves more — whether it knows it or not.

    (And hel-lo Katy Mixon.)

  • I am human

    I was amazed at the number of trailers I caught over the weekend for films I actually wanted to see.  I’m usually rolling my eyes or, better yet, taking a refreshment and/or bathroom break, but I lit up a little bit.

    The new “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” materials could really do no wrong for a guy like me at this point, though I’m dreading that release more and more.  The whispers are ugly.  Still, even if all the good stuff is in the trailer — it’s a hell of a trailer.  Even fluff like “The Proposal” looks appealing at this point.  And I’m totally on board for “Observe and Report” (which reminds me I need to address “Eastbound and Down” at some point).

    All of this is a long way of coming to that new “Terminator Salvation” trailer I’m sure you’ve all seen by now.  Maybe I’m alone, but this is one of the most exciting trailers I’ve seen in a long, long time.  Of course NIN’s “The Day the Whole World Went Away” is put to great use throughout, but I was a little surprised at the idea of spilling a major plot point maybe a minute into the thing (which might not be that big of a spoiler in this age of AICN obssessive pre-release plot excavation — I can’t keep up).

    Anyway, I’ve been amped up for the film for a long time, despite the expected lingering atmosphere of anxiety.  I think we dodged a bullet with “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,” a film I actually respect quite a bit, but the potential for outright disaster is right there in front of our faces on this thing.  Here’s hoping…