Monday Morning Quarterback Part II
By BOP Staff
January 19, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Josh Spiegel: As time passes, I am more and more baffled by the success of Vince Vaughn. Or Kevin James, to be honest. I get why they're popular, to a degree (James, in particular, is a friendly, likable actor whose appeal to families makes sense). But I don't know why The Dilemma (which certainly does not refer to whether I want to see the film or not) was meant to be an exciting option at the movies. Howard's name is most perplexing, though, as the trailers do not belie a movie that is compatible with Howard's recent output. The result's not that great, but for this time of year, it could have fallen farther.
Bruce Hall: This is January, the Season of Lowered Expectations in the film world. So, banging out half the production budget over the first four days of release should probably be considered a positive. But the stink on this project is just appalling. Ron Howard is a well respected director with a distinguished body of work, so he's certainly earned the right to stretch his legs a bit - but this material seems a bit beneath him. I consider myself a fan of Vince Vaughn but I am a nostalgic person, and am probably more a fan of the overgrown frat boy shtick he cultivated back in the '90s than anything else. But as he ages it wears thin and while films like Wedding Crashers played this frayed persona for ironic laughs, I wonder if it isn't time for Vaughn to expand a bit as well (no pun intended). Perhaps the debacle that was Psycho left him gun shy but sooner or later he's no longer going to be able to pull off 40 going on 14, and some would say that time has already come. Vince has some very credible dramatic roles on his resume, and unlike many other popular character actors I feel comfortable believing that this one is capable of more. The Dilemma is simply a poor film, and that certainly has to be taken into account here. But perhaps the time has come for Vaughan to try spreading his wings once again.
Max Braden: This is the kind of project that feels like you could put together with a roulette wheel: Vince Vaughn... Adam Sandler... Matthew McConaughey... Ben Stiller... Will Ferrell... Todd Phillips... Seth Rogen... Judd Apatow. The only person who seems out of place here is Ron Howard, like he's jumping on the bandwagon two decades after "his" era. So for the generic mashup, $17 million is typical where you might get twice that if you find magic like in The Hangover.
Matthew Huntley: Definitely not a good enough result given the cast and filmmaker. What's more disturbing than the low numbers is the poor critical reception. The movie is not good and it tries to piece together two different movies that just don't go together. Every few scenes, it stalls and becomes awkward, so unfortunately it deserves its box-office, which I assume isn't going to get much better in the coming weeks. For a $70 million movie, I can't see it grossing more than $40 million, which is unacceptable.
Reagen Sulewski: This result is sort of the funhouse mirror of Green Hornet, in that you have a couple of stars who have built up good will but have missed slightly in recent films. Vince Vaughn needs to realize that his shtick is failing him as he hits 40 (and looks older). If this wasn't headlined by a star with some pull, we're looking at a film that opens to $5 million or less.
David Mumpower: Ron Howard is an Academy Award winning director. I want to stress that as we consider the cinematic abomination that is The Dilemma. I'm starting to believe that The Da Vinci Code broke him. That film's blockbuster status made him a bit more willing to try to cash in at the box office with easily marketable crap. And as we all know, audiences are fickle, meaning that what works with a Dan Brown adaptation (well, two) has failed completely for Paul Blart and friends. Everyone has known for a while now that The Dilemma was a bomb yet we are as a group taken aback by the terrible nature of the trailers. I strongly suspect that the primary reason Cee-Lo's *ahem* Forget You was used in the ads was to create conversation about the project that would have been absent otherwise.
Kim Hollis: What are your overall thoughts on last night's Golden Globes?
Max Braden: Once, as I tried to show my mom the glory that is Extras, she threw in the towel at three episodes: "I can't take this anymore. Can we watch something else? This is too mean." Ricky Gervais will probably be foremost among the comments about the show, but I feel like people really familiar with him wouldn't be surprised. And likewise there's an inevitable arms race amongst presenters on how they can top the digs of previous ceremonies, particularly at a more casual event such as the Globes. But it's not just Gervais; there's a noticeable disdain for the HFP year after year that you can hear in the speeches from the actors as well. Would they show up if the show wasn't televised? Other than that I remember a lot of grey dresses... oh, the awards. I think the one that surprised me the most was Katey Sagal for Sons of Anarchy, and the one I thought was really cool was Chris Colfer for Glee. And the more I think about it, the more I like the Original Score win for The Social Network.
Josh Spiegel: When he shows up for a few minutes on other awards shows, Ricky Gervais is arguably the best thing about it. (His face-off with Steve Carell the year after Carell "accepted" Gervais' Emmy for Extras is a great and hilarious bit.) Last year, I thought Gervais was OK but not as memorable as the Golden Globes host. This year, I wonder if he took notes from Stephen Colbert, who a few years ago hosted the White House Correspondents Dinner and proceeded to eviscerate everyone, with no thought of who he offended. Gervais was scathing, biting, and cruelly funny tonight, and I loved every minute of it. I was baffled at the reaction from some celebrities who did not enjoy being made fun of; I suppose they don't think they're deserving of snarky humor, but they are. The rest of the show was mostly rote and unsurprising, except for Robert De Niro's stand-up stylings during his acceptance speech. De Niro should...well, let's say I'm excited to see what else he can do in the world of drama. And only drama.
Reagen Sulewski: Count me as one person who doesn't really care if a bunch of puffed-up celebrities felt offended (it's a freaking awards show) but some of the criticisms of Gervais for hackery are well-taken, I think. Just saying "Robert Downey Jr. did drugs" isn't that funny in retrospect, and all it had going for it was the shock value. So, right idea, off a little in tone.
Edwin Davies: Whilst I don't think that a lot of the material that Gervais came out with was that shockingly original - it wasn't a million miles away from the sort of jokes you would find on the average internet message board - his willingness to say it to the faces of the people being ridiculed was what made it bracing and fresh. The whole thing reminded me of when Chris Rock hosted the Oscars, right down to Downey Jr.'s attempt at a fight back, which echoed Sean Penn's similarly humorless defense of Jude Law, in that the acerbic nature of the presenter brought an edginess to a ceremony that was otherwise safe and painfully predictable. (The fact that we are discussing Gervais more than the awards that were handed out is testament to that.)
In terms of the awards, the night panned out pretty much as I thought it would with regards to the major categories, but seeing the excellent Carlos win Best Miniseries and Katey Sagal winning for Sons of Anarchy were pleasant surprises.
David Mumpower: I'm not saying I would burn Ricky Gervais in effigy for one simple reason. Why punish a harmless composite stick figure of him when I could burn the man himself. Seriously, I hate that guy and wish suffering upon him as a general rule. The Globes were even worse in that he's apparently a mean drunk to boot. The only time he made me laugh the entire night was the Sandra Bullock description; conversely, Tom Hanks casually walked up to the microphone and destroyed Gervais in about a dozen words. That's what truly funny people can do that Gervais cannot. But it's my problem and I will continue to deal with it as long as people keep selecting Gervais to host anything, the odds of which thankfully have been reduced a bit in the past 48 hours.
In terms of speeches, I have seen ample criticism thrown at Natalie Portman yet I found her speech to be a delight. She is having one of those dream years where everything in her life has gone right. She has attained unprecedented professional success due to Black Swan and she fell in love with the world's only straight choreographer while on the set. She is in the honeymoon phase of her relationship and she is beaming with the happiness and excitement that stems from being a newlywed. There was a purity and a sincerity to her exuberance that is rare during awards season. She isn't going up on stage and acting like she's happy when in reality she's thinking, "Ooh, bigger movie salary asking price!" That's refreshing. It almost makes up for the abomination that was whatshisname from Glee beating Eric Stonestreet in the Best Supporting Actor category. Almost but not quite.
With regards to the show itself, we knew from the nominations that this year's awards were going to be terrible. As Anthony Daquano pointed out to me on Facebook, the Best Animated category was deeper and stronger than the Best Comedy or Musical list. I'm unclear as to why funny movies are summarily dismissed from the latter category if they happen to be animated, but that's not even what amuses me. We will never know which one, but the reality is that one of Red or Alice in Wonderland just came as close to winning a Golden Globe for Best Picture as The King's Speech, maybe even came closer. And simply by being nominated, The Tourist came closer than True Grit.
Factoring in the woefully misplaced Glee devotion and their ignorance of True Grit, the Globes didn't get much of anything right. If they are still aptly described as a precursor for the Oscars' Best Picture race (debatable), what we have learned is that this won't be an exciting Oscars season. The Social Network stands largely unchallenged at the moment. The King's Speech and True Grit need to attain momentum even to offer up a challenge.