The Hot Blog

Sorry.... but I has to say...

I'm surprised that the PTA of "The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day" doesn't change much (from last weekend) as it expands with 125 more theaters this weekend . Maybe "The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day" will even outgross "Bright Star".

What the hell is "Weee"?

Apparently, it is The Box.

It actually seems to be sometime I did when opening the file in Excel and not Len's fault.

Apologies.

Oscilloscope is doing really jobs on the PR of "The Messenger"; the film is getting more press coverages than I expected.

No problem, Dave. And here I thought it was a sly commentary on how fast that film was dropping off...

Just to see what others think- does Emmerich really have a monopoly on these big-budget disaster movies? I mean, does he really do it better than anyone else can or is he just lucky in that most of his disaster movies have been successful?

Just to see what others think- does Emmerich really have a monopoly on these big-budget disaster movies? I mean, does he really do it better than anyone else can or is he just lucky in that most of his disaster movies have been successful?

Counthaku,
I don't think Emmerich is lucky that his disaster movies have been successful. On the contrary, I think it is evident that he is very, very good at that genre. There are other directors who have tried the disaster movie; Petersen did Poseiden and Jon Amiel did The Core which was equally as bad. But both are evidently capable, if not talented directors (outside of the genre). Emmerich has been so consistently successful that it would be churlish of anyone to deny that when it comes to disaster, he ruins like no one else.

Let me defend The Core for a second. It has its issues (especially at the very end), but how can you not love a disaster film that has Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, Delroy Lindo, Stanley Tucci, Richard Jenkins, and Alfre Woodard? All those wonderful actors plus DJ Qualls in his only truly fun performance thus far. For me, the film has always been the arthouse version of Armageddon. While the Bay film had macho actors who play out a 'brawn over brains' narrative in the pursuit to save the world, the latter has egghead actors playing egghead characters in a 'smartest people on earth team up to save mankind' plot. It's not art, but it's a lot of fun.

Titanic is a better disaster movie than Emmerich could ever hope to do.

That said, I like Emmerich better now that he indulges every whim, as opposed to the ID4/Stargate days when he and Dean Devlin were boasting about how cheap they could make everything for...usually by having endless scenes of terrible dialogue between a handful of money shots.

And Emmerich's Ten Commandments is a GREAT idea. Just keep him away from stuff that has a more elaborate mythology than "bad stuff happens, people flee." 10,000 BC was nigh-unwatchable.

Yeah, Poseidon was pretty awful, and considering that Petersen had already done The Perfect Storm you'd think he could have done better.

I don't know about giving Emmerich a Ten Commandments, but I would love to see a big-budget spectacular version of some other Old Testament stories, David vs. Goliath or Samson & Delilah. And in the aftermath of The Passion of the Christ, I'm disappointed that nobody seems to have bothered.

And now that I've seen The Box, a final gross of about $20 million seems actually pretty good for it.

Passion of the Christ did well because the death of Jesus is the focal point of Christianity. Christians don't have a strong emotional or psychological connection to anything in the Old Testament, and even the birth of Jesus isn't a visceral enough thing to get The Nativity Story to open.

There was a "Jonah and the Whale" movie, laden with CG effects...only problem is that it starred talking vegetables.

However, it actually wasn't as bad it looked.

I don't like it, but I have to say another amazing thing about "2012" making bank is that it did it at that length. Shouldn't that portend a better-than-usual hold next week?

Rothchild, if Samson and Delilah could be a huge blockbuster in 1949, I don't see why it couldn't do some business today - even if the filmmakers decided to make it all Clashy and Titany.

And The Nativity Story kind of reeked of a cash-in.

Secret to blockbuster success: Kill Jesus or kill Earth.

seriously, did anyone expect 10,000 BC to do DAT numbers?

You know what movie you got with 10,000 BC. You got a movie with no name talent that looked suspect. 2012 has recognizable names with an artistic pallete ticket buyers seem to enjoy once every couple of years.

The fact that 10,000 BC made that much surprises me.

Emmerich's disaster films do well because no one else really does them. They've tried. Does anyone remember the collosal failure of Poseiden?

Say what you want about Emmerich, he has mainstream sensibilities and mainstream film fans don't hate his work. Look at the sell through on DVD and the TV ratings. These are not despised films, though from what you read online you'd think Emmerich was the devil.

personally, i've never loved an Emmerich film, but i've never hated them either. But give the man credit for bringing in huge pictures in terms of scope and being able to bring in a consistent audience.

I actually recorded SNL for the first time in years last nite just to see January Jones.
Yeah, the show was lousy (although not nearly as poke-my-eyes-out-NOW! wretched as Wanda Sykes' Fox chatshow), but January definitely had her moments, Dave.
The b&w instructional video about how to throw a successful 1950s-era suburban cocktail party was wickedly satirical, and Jones also delivered in the final throwaway skit about a mismatched couple on a (blind?) date in, I'm guessing, Central Park.
For my $, JJ's work in "Mad Men" season two was the best performance I saw anywhere in 2008; including Kate Winslet's towering, majestic perf in "Revolutionary Road."
And she didn't even get an Emmy nomination. For shame.

I disagree MM, in almost every skit she played basically the same character. You could say that SNL recognized her limited range, or stereotyped her into certain roles. But it was a pretty bland hosting job, and the writing across the board was as flat as SNL has had in a long time. That farting skit was something that even MadTV would have passed on.

I disagree...and agree...Martin.
Yes, the show was fairly lame overall.
I fast-forwarded through most of the "Rear Window"/farting skit, as well as a few of the other bits (and definitely skipped--ugh--the loathsome Fergie's numbers), but JJ was delightful in the two things I referred to earlier.
And anyone who's watched her on "Mad Men" (particularly throughout the 2008 season) knows she's more than just a pretty face and one-note actress. Sadly, she'll probably never get a film role as rich, or multi-dimensional, as Betty Draper.

Saw 2012 last night. It was packed, but the audience seemed pretty indifferent to what was happening. The movie went from boring to laughable to offensive to finally overstaying its welcome.

Emmerich is the Lars Von Trier of big, dumb Hollywood disaster epics. He wallows in human suffering. Unlike Spielberg in War of the Worlds, he displays zero empathy ofrwhat is happening. Like Bay's Pearl Harbor, he gets off on mass death. 2012 is like a high-concept adaptation of An Inconvenient Truth from a script by Glenn Beck.

Emmerich doesn't embrace the pop-trash possibilities of the story. The score is like a funeral dirge. Couldn't he have had some fun by having some disaster montages scored to songs like "White Riot" or "Melt With You"? (The closing-credit song by Filter almost killed me.)

Also, the film is behind the times by having Danny Glover as President. They should've cast the role with a female President.

The only saving grace was Oliver Platt as the most intellgent person life on Earth. I kept wondering what it said about my personality that I kept agreeing with the aPlatt character. As much as they try to make him into a bad guy, I kept thinking he was the most sane person in the film. Even his farewell phone call scene is the best one out of all the others. It works because it is treated as almost a throwaway. It doesn't try to wring tears from the audience.

"2012 is like a high-concept adaptation of An Inconvenient Truth from a script by Glenn Beck."

What?

"Also, the film is behind the times by having Danny Glover as President. They should've cast the role with a female President. "

Huh?

Because we have a black President now.

The Core was so awful and boring. It was like a stage play versions of a disaster movie. Lots of thrilling scenes in a space train, whee.

Poseidon made the misatke of not going for melodrama, which I think the director said was intentional. When I heard that, I knew the movie would be fucked. What makes movies like that any good IS the melodrama. They had Kurt Russell, great...but they needed and Ernest Borgnine too. I can't remember a thing about that dull movie. The original was on tv the other day and it's still pretty good due to the overwrought drama.

Speaking of disaster movies, I watched Knowing today. That movie took a ton of crap in internet land, but I loved it.

Dear Hollywood, please keep making weird shit like that. Thanks!

"Dear Perm, you are welcome. Look forward to more random ass movies from us next year. We look forward to wigging you out, and employing Rose Bryne. She's awesome. Sincerely, Hollywood.

PS: David Poland, we don't like you, but damn it your body hair is amazing!"

Ugh, Knowing.

Speaking of TV (someone was speaking of TV, right?) I saw The Simpsons tonight for the first time in a year or two, and while I still laughed at it, it was suffused with the unmistakable contamination of The Family Guy. Ugh.

A agree Knowing is horrible movie

The international numbers for 10,000 BC are great considering how even Emmerich's fans piled onto him for that one.

Knowing was nigh on depressing, since I had actually just seen Dark City on the big screen weeks earlier to watching it. The Core is dreadful, too. Hilary Swank should never be allowed to fly anything ever again.

David! Stop encouraging the last-minute December glut of Oscar releases. History has showed that plenty of movies fail at Oscar nominations even when they're released in December. Spread them out!

BTW, I'm not sure why exactly, but the whole "Weee" thing made me laugh for about five minutes straight. Just the idea of if is making me chuckle again.

2012 is a sequel to Independence Day and Day After T'row...

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

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

URL:
Remember me? YesNo

Comments: