In Contention

Tag: The Da Vinci Code

  • ‘Robin Hood’ to open Cannes

    More of a handy PR opportunity than an actual festival honor, Ridley Scott’s “Robin Hood” has secured the opening night slot at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival on May 12, two days ahead of its US and UK release date.

    Like last year’s Cannes opener, “Up,” the film will premiere out of competition, affording it the lustre, but not the critical pressure, of a festival berth. That said, the slot is no guarantee of prestige — in 2006, Cannes programmers were taken to task when Ron Howard’s widely derided “The Da Vinci Code” was selected to open the fest. Here’s hoping Scott fares a little better.

    “Up,” of course, broke something of a curse attached to Cannes’s opening night, which in recent years has showcased disappointments more often than not — in the years when festival directors haven’t courted blockbusters, the slot has housed in-competition flops like “Blindness” and “My Blueberry Nights.”

    I can’t see “Robin Hood” lending the fest the same hip cache that last year’s Pixar pic did, making it something of a conservative choice. But who cares — let’s get to the competition titles already.

  • SUNDAY CENTS: Holy hit

    Angels & DemonsGod is so 2006. “Angels & Demons” was the number one movie at the box office this weekend but the $48 million it raked in is barely more than half of the $84.5 million registered by “The Da Vinci Code” in its opening frame. What happened? Three things.

    First, the free publicity generated by the media and the “controversy” surrounding the first film’s opening was nowhere to be found this time. Second, the source material was much less popular. And third, the first film was generally considered pretty dull by critics and audiences. Add all that up and you have a lackluster debut when compared to the original, but on its own terms, you gotta be pretty happy with close to $50 million for an adult-leaning summer thriller. Especially when the film racked up $100 million in overseas territories this weekend as well.

    “Star Trek” showed “Wolverine” and Mr. Hanks what happens when audiences love your product by dropping a solid 43% for a $43 million weekend. It even out-grossed “Angels & Demons” on Saturday and Sunday, so expect the weekday grosses to be neck and neck.  It will pass “Wolverine”’s gross on Monday or Tuesday. J.J. Abrams clearly got it right with moviegoers and this one could see as much as $250 million before it’s done. Don’t think that doesn’t affect the Oscars because it does, and nominations in the sound and visual effects categories, and perhaps other technical fields, are a safer bet than they were a few weeks ago.

    Since “Wolverine” is pretty much already a box office non-factor, there’s not much else to report in the top 10, except that “Monsters vs. Aliens” dropped only 8% due to the fact that families have no other options out there. Expect that to bode well for “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian,” as parents clearly want something to take their kids to and Ben Stiller is ready to deliver.

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  • Realization: Dan Brown is tailor made for TV

    Angels & DemonsI’m not going to review “Angels & Demons.”  Sometimes the idea of tearing a film apart just doesn’t quite appeal to me, believe it or not.  But watching the expected unfold on the Sony lot last night, it suddenly occurred to me that Dan Brown’s bloated if intriguingly researched fiction has no place on the big screen.  It might, in fact, be better suited to television.

    Think about it.  A show like “24” (which is compelling this season for the first time in three years) milks every close call for what it’s worth.  Each tick of the final episode clock mixes with the soaring brass of the score, all but announcing: “Tune in next week, same Bauer time, same Bauer channel.”  And that’s what a Brown adaptation feels like.  Except the effect is exhausting in a two-hour span of time.  The conduit of cinema simply doesn’t support it.

    One could go back and forth on the issue of quality all day long.  Those championing the thrill ride experience would be equally justified in their assessment as those who find their foreheads red from constant smacking at the amount of regurgitated exposition (which seems to be an unfortunate necessity in these films).  But the breadth of the episodic could make a story like “The Da Vinci Code” or “Angels & Demons” sing.  Brown, a masterful storyteller in that can’t-put-it-down kind of way, could make every carefully plotted (some would say contrived) set piece or dramatic beat count within the consistent ups and downs of a television series or mini-series.  And theatrical audiences worldwide would be spared the headache of trying to keep up for too brief a time in a darkened room.

    I’m certainly no studio or network head, so what do I know?  “The Da Vinci Code” pulled in bucketloads of money across the globe and made Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and the lot much richer people.  Though I don’t expect “Angels & Demons” to have the same success (not as immediately recognizable from a pop culture standpoint, regardless of the sequel factor), I also don’t expect “Digital Fortress” and “Deception Point” to go unfilmed forever.  Ditto the upcoming “The Lost Symbol” (which will probably finds its way to screens first, completing the Robert Langdon trilogy).  But I think there’s an alternative to cinema worth exploring with Brown’s work.

    It might rescue the material from being panned outright, if nothing else.

  • More thrilling than…

    Happily for Universal, the majority of US critics seem to like “Frost/Nixon” significantly more than I did. It’s currently sitting on a healthy Metacritic score of 80, with ringing endorsements from such estimable names as David Denby, J. Hoberman and Kenneth Turan. As a side note, however, on reading Turan’s review, his parting shot struck me as unusually ill-judged from a critic for whom I have great respect:

    The result is involving, engrossing cinema — more thrilling, in fact, than Howard’s “The Da Vinci Code” — filmmaking of a type rarely seen anymore and sorely missed.

    More thrilling than “The Da Vinci Code?” Considering that Turan clearly loves the film, is that line — possibly the faintest praise imaginable — really the best he could do? Moreover, the addition of the words “in fact” suggests that this should be in any way surprising. Of course “Frost/Nixon” is more thrilling than “The Da Vinci Code.” But then, so are corporate training videos. Dig deeper, Mr. Turan.

    Moving on. I was previously uncertain that the film would generate enough passion to be a Best Picture contender, but as the pool grows ever shallower, it looks increasingly as though this safe, solidly crafted and apparently well-liked effort could be among those left standing come February.