Monday Morning Quarterback
By BOP Staff
February 28, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Kim Hollis: Hall Pass, the latest Farrelly Brothers film, opened to a modest $13.5 million. Why do you think audiences were mostly indifferent to this one?
Josh Spiegel: If I was married to Jenna Fischer, taking a week off of marriage is the last thing on my mind. Honestly, this just looked dumb. Dumb in ways that were clearly obvious to everyone in the country. I've read a few positive reviews, but in general, I don't know why this movie would be appealing. Ever.
Bruce Hall: I'm going to go with the whole "been there, seen that" factor. Another goofball Owen Wilson comedy? Another goofball Farrelly Brothers comedy? I get the feeling people were underwhelmed by the prospect. Plus, movies that seem to try to make light of infidelity seem to have difficulty finding an audience. I can't imaging anyone finding this movie appealing enough to take time out of their weekend for it when they could go watch something like Just Go With It, instead. That's right. Those were choices this weekend.
It's been a rough ride for New Line lately. Better luck next time, guys.
Max Braden: I've seen plenty of trailers for Hall Pass but until now it completely escaped me that this was from the Farrellys. It looked like something that couldn't afford to get Adam Sandler as a star, and when you have Adam Sandler as competition at the same time, that's no good.
Brett Beach: Coming so soon after a similarly themed predecessor isn't necessarily a recipe for disaster (see: Dante's Peak/Volcano and Deep Impact/Armageddon) but the cool reception accorded to The Dilemma (and that has two stars who currently at least are "hotter" than the stars of Hall Pass) was an accurate predictor of what lay in store here. Infidelity is a tricky thing to play for any kind of laughs, even gross-out ones, even if traditional values are eventually upheld. The Farrellys have become so 2000 and late, as the sage Fergie once sang.
Jim Van Nest: I'm with Max. I didn't even know it was a Farrelly Bros flick. Not to mention that it just doesn't look funny anymore. What happened to the days when the Farrellys could get A-listers in their movies? Hell, I'd settle for B-listers. As it is now, all their movies need now is Eugene Levy and they could be the next direct to DVD American Pie sequel.
Reagen Sulewski: Imagine trying to sell this to your spouse as a date movie. Set aside the awfulness of the jokes of the ads and just look at the premise. It feels like it should come with a coupon for couples counseling. Whatever edge the Farrellys had back in the 90s is clearly gone for good.
David Mumpower: As I had mentioned in Trailer Hitch a while back, I thought the early trailers looked funny. As release approached, I anxiously anticipated more funny jokes in the ads. That never happened. I also think Reagen touches on a key aspect of this. Asking your significant other to go see Hall Pass with you borders on asking them if they want to go to a key party. The only caveat I'll add here -- and only because I try to learn from my mistakes - is that if we had evaluated There's Something about Mary in 1998, we would not have been impressed by its $13.7 million debut, either. Of course, people immediately started spreading the word that it was funny. Hall Pass will not be receiving the same praise.
Doooooooom!
Kim Hollis: Drive Angry wrecked in a fiery explosion of doom. The Summit Entertainment release earned a paltry $5.2 million. What went wrong here?
Josh Spiegel: "Come, see what desperation looks like in 3-D!" I mean, this movie just looked so silly, so ridiculous, that not even the allure of actual 3-D could get people interested. Nicolas Cage can draw audiences to the multiplex, but it's clearly only when he's working in a specific template. This was not that template.
Bruce Hall: Nic Cage is in it, and people are tired of getting fooled by Nic Cage. It looks like a neo-grindhouse picture and people are tired of being burned by that format. It just plain looks stupid. There are so many better choices this weekend like Hall Pass. CNN is more exciting than the multiplex these days. I could go on, but you get the idea.
Daron Aldridge: I am astounded that the studios looked at his non-stellar track record of late and thought that the limited audience that was showing up would actually drop even more money per ticket to see Cage's hair cut with a thrown hatchet in 3-D.
Brett Beach: I'll leave out the Nic Cage box office poison aspect and simply focus on the fact that even with a 3D price boost, Drive Angry barely cracked $5 million. That is beyond indifferent and in the realm where perhaps no one was even aware that this was coming out. If Tarantino and Rodriguez can only get a movie called Grindhouse to $25 million domestic, a grindhouse-esque film shouldn't expect to take in even half of that apparently. I must note, however, that I haven't been so intrigued to see such an apparently disreputable piece of junk cinema since Running Scared, the Paul Walker film that was so gonzo it played childhood abduction and murder for laughs. Drive Angry's crash and burn debut means I can see it for cheap (in 2D!) before March is over.
Reagen Sulewski: Don't worry, Nic can make up the lackluster performance of his two films so far this year on volume.
I think what gets overestimated a lot is audience's appeal for schlock. Yes, films like Transformers and 2012 are bad, lazy B-movies, but they are glitzy B-movies, and based on something people recognize. Drive Angry belongs to the class of films like Shoot 'Em Up and Smokin' Aces which are just unremitting noise and color and based on nothing they recognize. That Marvel brand for Ghost Rider is worth a ton, apparently.
David Mumpower: I'm particularly disappointed that the failure of Drive Angry means we'll never see a crossover movie a la Freddy vs. Jason and Alien vs. Predator entitled The Fast and the Angriest. Can you imagine a climactic showdown between Cage and Paul Walker? An entire theater of movie goers would willingly swallow their own tongues.
Hey, at least it didn't run terribly late
Kim Hollis: What were your favorite and least favorite moments from The Academy Awards?
Josh Spiegel: Inception, Natalie Portman, The Social Network, and Toy Story 3 winning were great moments, as was Kirk Douglas' bit at the beginning. Pretty much everything else was forgettable or painful. James Franco and Anne Hathaway hosting was an interesting experiment, but they should never do it again. Just stick with comedians, Academy.
Brett Beach: Trent Reznor in a tux (and winning) was awesome. I will take licks for being a bastard, but Kirk Douglas was painful, Dick Clark painful. Also, reinvigorated Weinsteins is cause for despair and doldrums on this end.
Max Braden: I thought Kirk Douglas could have been painful but turned into something funny. I really liked David Seidler's acceptance speech. My least favorite moment was a turnaround from a favorite. I thought Melissa was so good and natural in The Fighter that she was my favorite performer of the year. But her acceptance at the Oscars - after plenty of adoration leadup both at the Globes and SAG awards - felt totally staged. Combined with her taking out an ad for herself, her apparent desire to win the award somehow managed to exceed how much she deserved it.
Daron Aldridge: As Josh pointed out during the Oscar live blog, I loved that Inception won four awards and each winner took it upon themselves to thanks/recognize Nolan, since the Academy seems to think his brilliant films direct themselves. Still on a Nolan-related note, I was thrilled that Christian Bale won. Also, points to Bale and Downey for poking fun at themselves and Franco, who might as well been channeling his Freaks & Geeks' Daniel, for his "Congratulations, nerds." My least favorite part of the evening was easily Melissa Leo's acceptance script...er, I mean, speech. It seemed way too forced, rehearsed and...dare I say...poorly acted/executed. I didn't even buy the spontaneity of the F-bomb.
Jim Van Nest: I thought the Kirk Douglas bit was the highlight of the night. I also liked Hathaway's song to Hugh Jackman. Too bad it came 90 minutes into the program. The fact that Chris Nolan couldn't even land the Screenplay award just pisses me off. Is there anyone making films today that is as consistent as Nolan? Maybe Fincher...oh wait, he was empty handed as well.
Also, is it too early for me to start a campaign to get Justin Timberlake the hosting gig for next year?
David Mumpower: I'm conflicted on the Kirk Douglas incident. He has certainly earned the right to take an extra moment in the spotlight, but Helena Bonham Carter in particular looked like she was ready to charge the stage then kick his cane out from under him. I would not want Bellatrix Lestrange as an enemy. I didn't mind the hosts, which places me squarely against the entirety of the internet. I didn't feel like they were given enough to do, however, and that means neither Hathaway nor Franco took control the way a more confident host would. The whole night had a passive feel to it as if everyone realized that the primary categories have been settled for a while now. Josh has been commenting on this with his In Contention pieces and the night's event proved him correct. Best Director was the only surprise of the evening, which makes for frustrating television. At least the show was short.
Kim Hollis: I loved Colin Firth's win, expected though it was, because I think it's well-established that I've been a fan for a very, very long time. David Seidler's speech was charming. I, too, found James Franco highly entertaining, though I realize I am very much in the minority on that opinion. I just don't think many people have been "with" him long enough to quite get it. I will say that I think that's a fault of the producers, who should have known better.
Avatar was...oh wait.
Kim Hollis: With the Calvins and the Academy Awards in the books, let's wrap up 2010 cinema. What will be your lasting opinions of the year in movies?
Josh Spiegel: There were a lot of great films this year, no matter how much I may grouse about this year's Best Picture winner. And, honestly, as has been pointed out here and elsewhere online, The King's Speech is not a bad movie; the hype surrounding it drove my opinion of the film down. But we had Black Swan, True Grit, The Social Network, Inception, Toy Story 3, and many more great films, big and small. I hope we get just as lucky in this calendar year, Oscars be damned.
Max Braden: There were decent dramas this year, but this year in particular my favorite movies were the comedies. Easy A tops my list and I got a lot of entertainment from She's Out of My League, The Other Guys, Scott Pilgrim, and I Love You Phillip Morris. Even True Grit was as funny as it was dramatic. The other standout for me was the creativity of Inception. Even if it was Byzantine in execution, it still demonstrated that not every action flick needs to follow the same old Hollywood formulas, and there's room for thinking outside the mainstream while still grabbing mainstream audiences.
Brett Beach: Having a newborn in 2010 led to seeing almost nil in the theaters (and catching up with scores of older movies, previously seen and unseen, both for my column and for pleasure), but there were a handful of moments worth shouting about.
1) Seeing Babies in the theater with my girlfriend and said newborn (then four months old) on Mother's Day. What could have been as boring as watching someone else's home movies was funny and moving. Although I guess the true test would be if someone who hates babies actually enjoys it.
2) The Michael Cera bi-fecta of Youth in Revolt and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Combined, those two films provided me with more entertainment and giddy moviegoing magic than just about anything else in sight.
3) For all of its praise, awards, and box office, I think the waters of time will need to wash over The Social Network before it becomes apparent what David Fincher accomplished. A lot of the criticism against it pegs it as a "made for TV movie" (ouch! but still, is that like a Lifetime movie or a SyFy movie or an HBO movie?) simply because Fincher isn't employing a "look ma, no hands" bag of flashy camera tricks in this one. (If you didn't know there was only one Armie Hammer, this may be especially true). From the opening scene, I was hooked. Thinking back to songs such as The Heart's Filthy Lesson, Love Plus One,and Closer (in Seven) Hurdy Gurdy Man (in Zodiac), and scores by Trent Reznor (TSN) and The Dust Brothers (Fight Club), I would argue he uses lyrical songs and instrumental songs as well as, say, Wes Anderson.
I can't provide an overall summation since I don't feel I have seen enough yet to do so, but as I stated in last week's MMQB, I could care less about 80% of the major studios' already pencilled in schedule for this year, so in retrospect, I think 2010 will look better and better.
David Mumpower: Overall, I consider 2010 to be an unusually good roster of movies. A lot of the releases were ones I enjoyed watching rather than slogged through for BOP. That hasn't always been the case over the past decade. 2010 largely avoided clunkers, meaning that better decisions were made in the planning phase by studios and sets were run better than normal. There was not that one title that absolutely blew me away, but the overriding depth of solid films overcomes that minor annoyance. We also followed the 2009 trend of tremendous animation titles. Truly, this is a golden age for family films.