The Hot Blog

Let's see, Attack of the Clones in '02, Matrix Reloaded in '03, Revenge of the Sith in '05, Indy in '08. What were the big Thursday May releases in the years I'm missing, or weren't there any? And am I the only one who still finds Thursday releases a bit odd?

ohhh, walking on fresh snow,

I am less than enthused about the Herzog/TBL news and it got me thinking about what I would like to see him remake. I came up with The Ghost and The Darkness which had so many underlying themes about colonolism and the brutal struggle of man attempts to tame nature that were ignored so hopkins could concentrate on the theme of 'lions are scary'. I would love to see what Herzog would do with the material and a decent cast but instead we get another remake of a movie that was fully realized in the original. Any other director remake pairings on failed movies you would like to see?

Blackcloud, movies are always released on Thursday down here. Not sure why that pattern started, but it did and it's still here and it's nice.

I think the distributors just figure that if they can get four days of, for instance, $30 mil, then that's better than only three. I mean, if Transformers had've come out on Friday there's no way it would've made how much it did over it's first week. But once you get another big movie in the marketplace the chance for massive individual days of box office reduces.

Ugh, did any of that make sense?

I just watched Southland Tales and my brain is a little bit fried.

Kam, I think you've pointed that out before about movies being released on Thursday in Oz. Totally slipped my mind. It was quite rare here in the States until Lucas picked a Thursday for the release of Clones. Maybe coordinating with other parts of the world was a factor.

It means we occasionally get movies before you guys. Rarely. Like Indy has already been out for an entire day! (i'm seeing it friday night). Same goes for Iron Man and Australia later in the year.

Again, I'm not exactly sure why it is, but sometimes it means that the crowd gets thinned ever so slightly between the Thursday night diehard crowd and the regular Friday night crowd.

Finally saw Juno last night.

The first 30 minutes were nearly Death by Quirk. It settled down for a bit and had some cute moments, but there were still a few Lucas-level dialogue clunkers. The quirky soundtrack, however, was unrelenting. Cera's character was the only consistently sympathetic character. Clearly, we were supposed to feel differently about Bateman's and Garner's characters at different times, but Juno's "hipness" was off-putting on many occasions. The character of Juno's girl friend was consistently obnoxious.

Overall, Juno does not compare favorably to its peers-- (especially) GhostWorld, and even Napolean Dynamite (which was just OK, imo). A miss.

In america, its wednesday for the gangsters, thursday for the potential mega hits and friday for the rest.

Why not continue the trend and release comedies on monday, art house films on tuesday, kids movies on Saturday and war inc directly to dvd.

The Eagle Eye teaser makes it out to be some semi-serious affair when it's really a Bay-style actioner. Good to see Hillary Seitz finally get a fucking credit after six years.

I'm not absolutely sure but...

I've read elsewhere (perhaps here years prior) that most movies are released in other countries on Thursdays. Thus, the later Lucas Star Wars films, plus The Matrix Reloaded had simultaneous global releases to combat piracy. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Scott Mendelson

The biggest complaint that I hear regarding Juno is always the dialogue, but is it any more mannered or hipster than the dialogue in Valley Girl or Breakfast Club?

Yes, Valley Girl and Breakfast Club were based on their screenwriters listening to the way actual people talk. Have you ever, before Juno, heard anyone say 'honest to blog'?

I enjoyed Juno, but the dialog felt like Diablo had watched a shitload of Buffy episodes, and said to herself: "You know, there just weren't enough sarcastic pop-culture refrences in there."

Well, I don't really care about Valley Girl, but in Breakfast Club, the dialogue didn't seem like it was purposefully made to annoy the viewer.

For Juno, Diablo Cody just threw as many $5 colloquialisms as should could into a plot about teen pregnancy which really wasn't nearly as original as critics made it out to be.

Did anyone else notice how all the critics that loved Juno were older? Maybe it's because they're the ones that didn't realize that Juno was a complete cliche of a hipster. I believe James Berardinelli even refered to her as a "geek" on his blog.

No midnight numbers on Indy yet? I thought even Ms. Fink would have jumped the gun by now.

Anybody else see the trailer for Benjamin Button before Indy?
Looks fantastic. Easily now my most anticipated pic for this Christmas. I hope Fincher knocks this out of the park.

i still can't believe 'juno' won the 'best org. screenplay' oscar over the other nominees, that movie irritated me (and i like ellen page, i thought she was terrific in 'hard candy'). 'rat' may be an animated film, but i thought even that was better scribed than 'juno'...

kam, what was your take on 'southland tales', is it worth renting? someone compared it to 'the big L', which is high praise indeed for me, i'm a devout fan of 'the duder/el duderino/the dude'.

scott mendelson (btw, i thought you're explanation about your innate formality even in childhood was amusing), we have thursday releases here, too, so your theory sounds plausible.

i saw 'indy' last night with the boy, it was lovely. no benjamin button preview but heath looked thoroughly demented in the dark knight one, he might yet win me over.

i still can't believe 'juno' won the 'best org. screenplay' oscar over the other nominees, that movie irritated me (and i like ellen page, i thought she was terrific in 'hard candy'). 'rat' may be an animated film, but i thought even that was better scribed than 'juno'...

kam, what was your take on 'southland tales', is it worth renting? someone compared it to 'the big L', which is high praise indeed for me, i'm a devout fan of 'the duder/el duderino/the dude'.

scott mendelson (btw, i thought you're explanation about your innate formality even in childhood was amusing), we have thursday releases here, too, so your theory sounds plausible.

i saw 'indy' last night with the boy, it was lovely. no benjamin button preview but heath looked thoroughly demented in 'the dark knight' one, he might yet win me over.

no way! i can't be that retarded... (sorry to break the 'don't comment on your double post' rule)

Southland Tales is worth seeing, but don't go in expecting Big Lebowski. More like a messy too-long version of A Scanner Darkly.

ok, cool, i can live with that. i actually really liked 'a scanner darkly' but more for it's parts than the whole, if you know what i mean. woody h. and robert d. were hilarious (and brilliant), keanu acquitted himself just fine (i've never loathed him like some people seem to) and it was nice to see winona again, even if she was animated over. the animation was interesting, a nice follow up from 'waking life'. i hope linkletter does more in that medium, i'm a big fan of his.

i watched 'the return' with sarah m. g. on cable late last night, has anyone seen that? i'd heard it was really stink and was going to turn off the box and go to bed, but i couldn't stop watching it, it was actually spooky in parts, so today i'm holding my eyelids open with toothpicks

Southland Tales never seemed to shut up. If a movie has to have that much explanatory narration along with all of the explanatory graphics already on the screen, I gotta wonder if the filmmaker himself is failing to understand what he's trying to say. And once the events of the film's story are finally pieced together, the usage of all that time and energy is made even more ridiculous because the story isn't even a tenth as complicated as the effort to present it became.

In it's favor though, the Timberlake/Killers musical scene bursts to life pretty remarkably and dovetails into the film's score beautifully. And for a little while, Jon Lovitz' appearance on the scene is a welcome death rattle of fresh air.

"Cera's character was the only consistently sympathetic character."

Oh come on now, not even the girl in the chromatography lab? Hfff!

Juno's dad and stepmom were pretty damn great.

OLIVIA THIRLBY OWNS YOUR ASS.

That must be the guy typing in caps that DP warned us about.

If we could only get Lex to make a comment about Phantom of the Opera...

In america, its wednesday for the gangsters, thursday for the potential mega hits and friday for the rest.

"There's Something About Mary" opened on a non-holiday Wednesday in July '98. Come Labor Day weekend it was #1.

"Chicken Run" and "Fahrenheit 9/11" opened in NYC on a Wednesday before going national 2 days later.

"If we could only get Lex to make a comment about Phantom of the Opera..."

Like what? - MAGICAL LASSO OWNS YOUR ASS!

I just notice that the really successful trolls are careful to not anger the guy who owns the bridge, to coin a horrible metaphor.

SOUTHLAND TALES proved unwatchable for me...and believe me, I tried.

Leah, if anything, Cody's screenplay was more "original" than any of the other nominees. Whether it was "best" or even a "screenplay" is up to each individual person. I guess though that after 15 minutes or so it felt like it was the natural dialogue of the movie so I got used to it. But I can clearly see where others would fault it. The soundtrack, on the other hand, I agree was far from endearing. And, yeah, it doesn't even touch the air that Ghost World enhabits.

Leah, I thought Southland Tales was... alright. It's not a good movie, but there are some things in there that make me glad I watched it. After the first 40 minutes or so, once all the - as Hallick said - visual and aural exposition out of the way (i seriously got a headache from it all, I needed a Herron) and it settles into it's weird surreal groove I found it much more palatable. Sarah Michelle Gellar is obviously the standout and she really is fantastic. There's many hearty laughs - for whatever reason I found the bit where SMG's vertical car door won't open fast enough absolutely hysterical - but... it's just so... discombobulating. Even when I thought it was making sense it's really not.

And there's something really bizarre about watching a movie that is acting like it's trying to prophetic of the future... yet setting it in 2008. Granted, it was meant to be released in 2006, but there's no way 2008 was ever going to be like the 2008 Kelly proposed in the movie so it all just felt a bit shrug-worthy.

I dunno. I said I was confused about it! I'd probably give it a B for effort, but a C for execution.

The Juno line that bothered me most was when she said that the other kids were touching her giant belly and calling her "a cautionary whale." I have taught kids of that age. Even the Honors English kids who think they are so hip could (or would) never have come up with that one. It's too Fran Liebowitz...too Erica Jong.

Oh, and can casting directors stop hiring Justin Timberlake. His presence obviously does ZERO in getting young people to see the movies he's in, and to top it off he's a bad actor. The worst part in Southland Tales (well, no, his facial hair was), the worst part in Black Snake Moan and - one presumes - just one of many worst parts in The Love Guru (not that I'll watch it to find out, mind you). Just stop trying to make JT happen. It's not going to happen.

(i heart quoting Mean Girls)

thanks for that, kam. one of the girls got the 'southland tales' dvd for girls movie night, so i'll go in prepared for discombobulation (you just don't hear 'discombobulate' enough these days, i say bring it back!), hoping for the best, prepared for the worst...i picked 'kalifornia' for my 'girls movie night' choice, nothing like a sick in the head, red-neck, mucus-sucking brad for the chicks...

Oh, and can casting directors stop hiring Justin Timberlake. His presence obviously does ZERO in getting young people to see the movies he's in, and to top it off he's a bad actor.

For what it's worth, he's always great on Saturday Night Live.

I'd say he's far from the worst thing about Southland Tales, but there's a lot of competition there, starting with the D.P. Better cinematography could have improved that movie by 100%.

Gotta disagree there, that movie's problems are totally with its screenplay and a director who was allowed to do whatever he wanted because of being a 'genius'.

Re release dates... in Belgium movies come out on Wednesdays!

which makes me wish I was back there again instead of in Spain... could have seen Indy a day earlier and in English instead of Spanish!

the nightmares of dubbing... when will people stop being scared of subtitles and learn to appreciate the nuances of the actual actor's voice?! Indy just didn't sound like Indy to me!!!

I actually thought the cinematography was nice. Some really interesting stuff going on there. I liked Moby's score too.

Another memorandum for moviemakers. Stop putting extraneous scenes in your big blockbuster movies involving bugs! Not only are they gross and icky, but they also do NOTHING and just make your movie feel.that.much.longer.

By the way: Amazing story of the year - A friend of mine went to see Indiana Jones tonight and sat next to a lady who had the exact same hair as Cate Blanchett. As the credits roled she apparently goes "I'm getting a haircut tomorrow!"

Srsly, where are the Thursday numbers?

25 mil:

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/daily/chart/?sortdate=2008-05-22&p=.htm

25m on a Thursday has to be considered a good result for what has been a dormant franchise for two decades (Superman Returns was $16 million and Transformers $19 million, both opened weekdays before a long holiday weekend) . Par should be looking to take around $120 million for the 5-day weekend.

LexG: I'm looking at those numbers... and I see that Speed Racer has so far grossed $31.8 million. In other words, never mind What Happens in Vegas ($44.2 million) or Forgetting Sarah Marshall ($56.3 million) or even freakin' Harold & Kumar ($34.8 million)... Speed Racer can't even catch Nim's Island ($45.3 million)? Damn. Does this mean Jodie Foster OWNS Christina Ricci's ass?

Yes, I'm pretty sure Jodie Foster owns most actresses' asses in most regards. I am highly amused, however, that Nim's Island has vastly out-grossed the far more high-profile The Brave One, which only made $36 million.

My favorite part of The Brave One? The scene about 40 minutes in where Jodie Foster's character gets upset about not being able to buy a handgun right away due to a variation of The Brady Bill. Think about that for a second...

Holy wow, Indy was bad.

Scott: it shouldn't be, but that's really fucking hilarious. Almost makes me want to watch the entire movie now, if not for Foster's cryptic stare on the DVD cover (and her Photoshopped/out-of-place gun hand).

I'm surprised so many critics are giving Indy a pass. It's not a complete disaster, but it's nowhere near a good movie either.

It's plenty near a good movie - I don't know what criteria would be used to disqualify it as one other than not living up to the other three.

Forget about the other three, it doesn't live up to National Treasure.

Them's fightin' words, because National Treasure was garbage. The most boring Bruckheimer movie I've ever seen, with zero visual interest and a sleepwalking cast.

any 'terminator' fans out there?

how are we feeling about the prospect of a new t trilogy with christian bale as the young john connor, presumably taking us full circle into the future beyond 'judgement day'? (or not, i don't know a huge amount about it, just what i've heard, but how long could they possibly drag it all out...)

i have a lingering ache in my heart that cameron is no longer the driving force behind the terminator films; seeing 'the terminator' for the first time in the cinema the year i graduated high school had a huge impact on me; to me, it's first and foremost a tragic love story (to this day if asked about my fave movie sex scenes, i'll always include the touching scene between sarah and kyle on their only night together, to which i usually get v. incredulous looks). imho, 'terminator', along with 'aliens', is still amongst the gold standard of action films, to which others can only aspire or be compared.

i think bale is wildly talented AND dreamy to boot, so no complaints there, but i have a bitter-sweet feeling about seeing it wrapped up, esp. without cameron (and with mcg and the t-3 writers at the helm of the next one, i feel quite nervous).

just wondering how other fans are feeling about it all...perhaps i'm just feeling nostalgic, i get that way sometimes and there's no talking to me in a bout of excessive wistfullness

um, you CAN actually talk to me, otherwise posting the above would be a bit moronic, just saying that i'm currently nauseatingly sentimental

Seems to me I recall a lot of loose talk last fall -- here and elsewhere -- about Jodie Foster's being an Oscar contender for The Brave One. Wish I had some of what those folks were smoking.

The Brave One was ridiculous! Worst of all was that ending. Wow. Just... wow.

Leah, I was an unashamed fan of Terminator 3, but... yeah. I dunno. I find it odd that they're committing to three sequels considering the first one might not even be a success (3 only made $150mil, right?) and those movies are expensive.

BTW, has anyone seen the poster for Space Chimps? I am speechless. Of all the movie posters to completely and utterly rip off why would they completely and utterly rip off the poster for Speed Racer?!?

Sometimes I just can't get my head around these marketing people.

bless ya, kam, for talking terminator with me. i'm a t-fool.

i liked both t-2 and t-3 fine, i thought nick stahl (sp?) and claire danes were really good in t-3 and the story was sound, the action was great, but it doesn't appear that danes' character moves into the new storyline of the t-4 film, which wouldn't make any sense considering we find out she's supposed to be john connor's second in command during the human uprising, so i'm confused but time travel shit can do that. i just hope at least it all ties together and they don't abandon the fundamental of a strong female lead from the preceding storyline (bale and sam worthington apparently play the main characters, which makes me wonder), that's what has always set the terminator universe apart, really, and to lose that would be a bummer

RE: Release dates
Movies are also released in Thailand on Thurs.

My fav. Terminator is the second one. The CGI won me. The third had nothing new to offer, although I did enjoyed seeing it. I'm fine with Christian Bale of John Connor, but not McG as the director. And I don't think we need another 3 Terminators.

yeah, ployp, the liquid metal terminator was so state-of-the-art at that time, a terrific follow-up from the water tentacle in 'the abyss' on which cameron first broke the technological ground, so to speak. no one had seen anything like it before, i remember being utterly gobsmacked.

and ditto on mcg...groan.

maybe they think 3 more movies will be necessary to wrap it all up... or drag it out and beat it to death!

Loved TERMINATOR. A great movie experience. With such a low budget, Cameron pulled off wonders. And a great script.

Hated TERMINATOR 2. Worst audience ever. Despite the amazing efx, it's a loud and stupid film, with Arnold beating up nurses and doctors (a real prophecy, and fuck you guvn'r) and a silly end with the robot sacrificing himself. The Japanese did it much better with GUNHED.

After that, I had no more interest. Is there reallly anything left to do or say in these things? I won't be back.

T2 is my #3 of all time so, naturally, I kinda liked it :)

The first Terminator frustrates me though because of the big gaping plot hole that emerges out of it's mere existence (almost a common denominator with every time travel movie, true). Still, it's a ripsnorting good movie.

BTW, Danes' character is returning, but played by a different actress (!!!) Or, that's what I read at least. I can't remember who it was though.

kam -- could this be the inspiration for your next series, 'the 100 WORST movie posters'?....
(actually, given your eye, not a bad idea)......

oh, that's comforting to hear about 'kate' returning, but i wish it was still claire's baby, she's great - and it would have afforded some continuity to the proceedings.

kam, you said t2 is your #3 all time fave movie (high praise indeed! i really like the t2 director's cut with all the character stuff between john and the 'good' terminator, it's actually quite touching the relationship they forge and it really elevates the film for me), do you mind me asking what your #2 & #1 are? it always fascinates me, people's favourite movies, being that it's so personal and subjective.

scoot, i didn't get that '100 worst movie posters' comment, i'm i being a thickie or is it an inside joke? (i've seen the posters on kam's site, he has an artist's eye for posters for sure)

leah -- he ref'd the 'space chimps' poster (rightly) as atrocious and i thought he might be well to do a '100 worst' list to compliment his '100 best' list (which i believe to be brilliant)......just a silly suggestion because i'm going to miss his list when it's gone....

ah, you mean i actually had to read back a few comments to catch on? ;-) i'm so tired, i'm getting stupider with each passing moment

I love both of the first two, but Terminator 3 didn't add anything to the storylines - I mean, we already know everything that has/will happened, so where exactly is the drama?
Leah, I agree that the extended version really is the one to see.

Christian, I'm imagining a dialogue sequence like "How many nurses and doctors did you beat up?" "Lots. But they were all bad." And in that movie, it's true!

Leahnz, I wish I had been able to see The Terminator the way you did! I'm afraid I've only seen it once or twice on video... they never seem to show it on TV, I actually saw T2 several times before ever laying eyes on T1! And since I was of an age that Eddie Furlong made my heart flutter, T2's the film for me!

T3 was just... a waste? There wasn't really anything new to bring to it... the "Terminatrix" was just the 2nd one redux, but à la femme fatale. Still, I'll be giving it another chance when it's on TV later this week ;o)

I'm just glad they decided to ignore that movie when planning the Sarah Connor Chronicles. Now THAT I am looking forward to see starting up again come September! Much as I admire and adore Christian Bale in just about anything he's in (since Empire of the Sun)... he's no Sarah Connor who imho was the driving force behind Terminator. It's all a story about a mother trying to protect her son from a terrifying destiny. Such strong female characters are way too rare on the big screen!

In any case, I'll be there to see the new film on the big screen... ;o)

Leah, #1 is All That Jazz, #2 is Psycho.

Scoot, I would perhaps entertain the idea if it were easier to define what makes a poster bad. I'd just be repeating the same thing over and over again "TOO MUCH EMPTY WHITE SPACE!!!!!" or "REALLY BAD PHOTOSHOPPING!!!!" That and there are so much atrocious-looking posters out there and the first series took me long enough to research. I'm going to continue with a "Vintage Poster of the Day" type series though, because I love sharing all these wonderful and oft forgotten pieces of art.

Glad to know people do enjoy the series though.

So, what else is awesome about ME?! :P

'all that jazz' and 'psycho'...cool. your top flick are awesome so there you go, more awesomeness to revel in

crazy, there must be an entire legion of us who've followed christian bale since 'empire of the sun'! (such an under-rated film, one of my fave spielbergs...) i totally agree, sarah connor is the life blood and spine of the terminator universe, it's just not the same without her, period.

sarah connor, lt. ripley, even marion ravenwood... where have all the cool movie chicks gone? (i know, marion is back, but the world has moved on) we need some new cool chicks! i'm tired of lame chicks.

jeff, 'lots, but they were all bad...' that made me laugh.

James Cameron is waiting to turn Zoe Saldana into one.

I find T2 difficult to watch solely because of Edward Furlong. One of the most annoying performances ever, but then, he's one of the most annoying "actors" I've ever seen. He killed American History X for me, too (although it had other problems).

T3 was fine for me. Nothing fantastic, but it didn't aspire to be much more than a tentpole, which is was. Fun action, funny dialogue in a lot of places. I'm sure Cameron was rolling in his grave when he saw it (especially since it reversed the "future is what we make it" paradigm), but that's amusing to me.

finally shook off my lazy finger syndrome and perused imdb...charlotte gainsburg will play 'kate', but she's not listed amongst the main characters so i'm still sceptical t4 will turn into a typical bloke's actionfest, hopefully i'm just being paranoid.

interestingly, anton yelchin is listed as the young kyle reese, but the thought of anyone besides the delicious young michael b. playing kyle sends off alarm bells in my head, i'm not sure i can deal with that.

as for zoe, i hope cameron can pull it off. here's hoping they finish on time (and before gaskets are blown).

I only remember Charlotte Gainsburg from Jane Eyre and, while I have nothing against her, what is wrong with Claire Danes? She was marvelous in the unappreciated Stardust and I finally saw her in Shopgirl. Though I didn't like that movie, Ms. Danes was good in it.
Did James Cameron sell the rights to The Terminator off? He's not one of the producers.
I still can't get over McG as the director...

couldn't agree more, ployp, about claire and mcg. whose dumb-ass idea was mcg, i wonder? scary. i don't think cameron has any rights or involvement anymore, but i don't know that much about that side of the business; maybe somebody actually has some proper insight into what actually happened with cameron and his terminator (sadly) parting company, i'd love to know

maybe i could actually squeeze one more actually into a sentence, actually...maybe i'm actually the one who hired mcg! d'oh!

Cameron never had the rights to the Terminator - they originally existed half with Gale Anne Hurd and half with Hemdale, who sold them to Carolco, who went bankrupt and turned into Cinergi, who went bankrupt and sold the rights to something called Halcyon.

wow, thanks for that weird and complicated summary, jeff (i'm a huge admirer of gale anne hurd, she rocks).

pretty cold, the way a person's creative vision is bought and sold like a commodity, but i guess the film industry has always been a strange marriage of artistic/technical endeavour and calculated business...we seem to have reached something of a tipping point in recent years, where the voracious need for financial success has corrupted the process of artistic achievement, but that's a whole nother kettle of fish, as they say

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)